The Last of Autumn

As the days have gotten shorter and colder, we have been out less and less.  We often wake up to very foggy mornings which hopefully burn off by noon.  It is very much like San Francisco.  Most of the homes have wood burning heaters, so the mornings and evenings smell as if we are in the mountains.  The smoke creates a white haze but because of the winds and ocean breezes, the haze does not turn into smog.  It blows out to sea leaving clear skies and beautiful views. 

This past month we have been working on the district registers which are huge and tiny but thick butts of cash books.  It has taxed our abilities to learn how to get good images, but so far, we have passed the Salt Lake audits.  There has been only one book that needed rework which had a focus problem.
Here is a picture of the district registers.

We were grateful that we were in a big enough room to be able to house all these huge books.  We do not return them to the archives until we know they have passed the audit, so by the time we receive the books, image the books, then wait for the audit results, it may be 3 weeks.  Meanwhile, we receive more books and keep imaging.  Several weeks ago we had a group of library staff from different parts of Tasmania come for a tour.  One lady who works in Launceston told us how much she appreciated the work we have done.  Evidently many people have researched the images we have taken.  "Good on us." 

As we have come to the end of this project, our supervisor said there was one more book to be imaged, one that the first camera operators, three and a half years ago, could not do because the archive couldn't find the book.  The book was found in conservation, and it was marked number 1 in it's series of volumes.  We found it interesting that the project had come full circle, the last book was the first book.  In the eight months that we have been doing this work, we have imaged almost 200,000 images of burial records, patient admission records, gaol (jail) records, birth, marriage, and death registers, immigration nominations, and mariner's examination papers.

This week we started on a new project, but it is much smaller and will probably only last about three months.

Australia celebrates Mother's Day on the same day as the USA.  Not so with Father's Day.  Marvin will have to wait until September (if we celebrate it Aussie style).  Our thoughtful son, Keith, ordered flowers for me and they were delivered on Friday while we were at work.  Our sweet neighbor, Jan Robins, kept them and enjoyed them throughout the day.  It was a delight for her as well.

Our mission car?  Thankfully no.  This has been the third burned out car which we have seen in the last 8 months.  We presume it is teenagers that steal the car, go joy riding, then burn the car so as to erase all DNA.  This is the second one we have seen on Abbotsfield Road which we walk down to the bus stop.

Months ago, when we took Danny Chin on a short tour of Tassie and came to Richmond, we bought a wooden pepper mill.  We have kept it sitting on the kitchen table with a bowl of fruit, but it looked a bit lonely.  So we asked the artist, Chris, if he would make us a salt grinder using the same Sassafras wood which is only found in Tassie.  Here is a picture of the artist when we went to pick up our salt grinder.  Now our kitchen table looks complete.

Transfers!!  We have enjoyed working with Elder McCleary, from South Jordan, Utah.  He has transferred back to the mainland.  We had eight missionaries transfer from Tasmania this time, many with whom we have gotten to know in the last eight months.  We hate to see them go but we know others need their strength and experience.  Pres. Maxwell sends only the best to Tassie!!!!

 Thank goodness for the USA.  You don't know how much we take for granted the blessings we have until you are in a foreign country and think that things will operate the same.  What a shock we went through.  We bought a house in Mesa, Arizona for our daughter.  When it finally was in the closing process, we were sent the mountain of forms which needed signing and notarizing, and we needed to get them done ASAP.  We talked to several different people about where to find a notary.  Everyone said that here in Australia, the Justice of the Peace can notarize documents.  OK, so where do we find a JP?  Someone said the main post office.  So,off to the post office we go.  Yes, there is a JP, but she says she can sign all documents except those that need identification.  She sends us to the court house and the lady there says the same thing.  We have to go to an attorney.  Ugh!!!$$$$$$$  We call all in town and no one can get us in that day.  So, we picked one and got an appointment the following day.  We think, there are only a few documents that need notarizing, this won't take long.  Au contrare!
We are ushered into a lovely conference room by the attorney's assistant.  He comes in and introduces an intern which as he goes through all the papers, instructs her about different ways the US does things.  Forget a speedy  meeting! After an hour, we finally get finished.  As the assistant starts to prepare the billing, the attorney, thankfully, tells her to rate this meeting in a bulk billing, because if it were priced on individual work, it would be too expensive.  Oh, that's nice.  Still, when we received the bill, it took us by surprise.  $400.  If it had been priced on individual work, it was almost $1,400.
Well, that's one example of why the people here are so poor!  On the bright side, the assistant and the receptionist were very interested in the work that we are doing and we were able to come back and bring them pedigree charts and the new My Family booklet to help them get started on doing their family history.
 Well, today is another holiday, the Queen's birthday, although it is not actually her birthday, this is the day Australia celebrates it.  I wonder if Canada celebrates it today or some other day.  As with all public holidays, everything is closed.  We are going to try to see if any of the museums are open.