Chukar Partridge

About three weeks ago I was out pruning the roses in our yard. I pruned the ones to the right of the entryway and then went down to prune the roses that we have on the left. As I was about finished, I moved close to the house and a Chukar Partridge flew up in the air about two feet in front of me and landed on our neighbor’s roof. I had not seen her before and we had not seen her around the house previously. I glanced at where she had flown from and saw a nest on the ground with eggs in it. I was surprised and so I went to the Internet to read about the nesting habits of Chukar Partridges.

Over the next two weeks we watched our little mother and the eggs. Most of the time she was there sitting on the eggs. Occasionally we would find the nest uncovered and the eggs lying there. We counted 12 and then 13 eggs. Then one day I discovered one of the eggs out in the flowerbed next to the post box. It was broken and there were some feathers around it. I immediately went to the nest and the mother Chukar was still there.

Then last week the mother seemed to disappear. The nest was uncovered. We continued to look for her, but never did discover her back on the nest. I told my good friend Bill Hammond about it and he said that he wanted to see if he could incubate the eggs. I said that we needed to font that the Wild Life Division to make sure that it was right with them. This did on Monday and they did not object.

Now the eggs are in a nice, warm, blue environment and we will see if anything hatches. The mother has not returned.

We really enjoy our Chukar Partridges. Last Year we had about 60 running around in the yard behind our house.

Trip to Palmyra

We had never been to Palmyra as a couple. We decided to go this fall and see the leaves. We arranged to have someone take our shift at the temple and left on Tuesday the 19th and flew into Rochester, New York. We rented a car and drove to Palmyra and stayed at the Palmyra Inn.

The next morning we drove to the Peter Whitmer Farm where we saw our friends Nancy and Steve Lenker. They are the directors at the Palmyra visitors center. This is the picture of the Whitmer Farm. This is where the church was organized on April 6, 1830. President Kimball was here and spoke in general conference by satellite to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the organization of the church. We were given the tour by a sister missionary.

The next picture is of the visitors center and chapel located a short distance away on the same property. The weather was nice and, as you will notice, I did not even wear a coat. The other picture is of the trees in the parking lot.


















We then went to the Joseph Smith Farm. Originally it consisted of 120 acres. There was a couple that were the guides that took us around the buildings. We first saw the old cabin where the family stayed before they built the house. There was a well and when I asked the sister guide how deep the well was, she said she didn't know. I looked and the sacred grove was quite close to the cabin. There was a path that led from the cabin to the grove. between the grove and the cabin was a small stream. I presumed that the source of water for the well was the water from the stream that had formed an aquifer.

Here are a few pictures from the farm.
The well The log cabin and The cabin's kitchen











We found the Smith Home most interesting.