Wes and Jan see the US Wanderings and Side Trips

Back and Forth..... Jul 28, 2008

When we retired and moved from Aurora, Colorado to Tribune, Kansas, we were located exactly in the middle of our two daughters. Suzy and her family live in Aurora, CO and Sunny and her husband live in McPherson, KS. It is very convenient for us to visit both of them and it is convenient for them to visit us here at the farm. However, the past few weeks have become a series of "back and forth" trips. I feel like I have been going from Suzy's house to Sunny's house with a short overnight stop at home in the middle :-)

We have been back to McPherson and Wichita for dentist appointments and Wes' final appointment with the surgeon. Which, incidentally, was a great appointment. He is fine and does not require any further treatment from the surgeon, nor any further treatment for the cancer. He only needs to see his gastroenterologist for continued treatment of his Crohn's. That is the best news we have had for a long time.

We then spent one night at our home in Tribune before traveling on to Colorado. Our Church has it's own welfare program to assist members in times of need, as well as a home food storage program for it's members. To operate these programs, there are canning and Bishop's storehouse centers around the country. Our assigned cannery is in Colorado Springs. Our ward has been encouraging our members to get their personal family home storage up to date and completed if possible. We arranged a trip to the cannery so that people could can the products they needed. About 20 of us drove to the cannery and dry packed food for our members. Dry packed is dry food products canned in #10 size cans. Depending on the product, the shelf life is from 10 - 30 years. This is an excellent way to have a good supply of food stored in your home. Also, by purchasing and canning these products in bulk, we can save money. Most of the foods canned were dry milk, wheat, sugar, flour, all kinds of beans, rice, spaghetti, macaroni, hot cocoa mix and oats. There are other canneries that also do wet pack canning, which is canning of foods like we would do at home in glass jars. The difference is that the product is canned in metal cans and has a longer shelf life than jars. You then have canned products like fruit and vegetables just like you would purchase at a grocery store. The canneries are for members' use primarily, but are also open to the public for humanitarian canning. The humanitarian canning is for other charitable groups such as Colorado Cares and other food banks that provide food to people in need. Even non-members could can if they wanted to make an appointment and go with a member. You need to have a group and plan to work a 4 hour shift. It is not financially feasible to operate the cannery for just a few cans etc. It needs to be for a substantial amount of product.

The food storage idea may seem foreign to some people, but growing up on a farm in a rural area, we have always done our own canning, butchering etc. And we always had a year's supply of food. It has been a way of life for us even before we joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It has been a great convenience to be able to go to the cannery and preserve our food instead of trying to do it all at home.

After the cannery, we traveled north to Aurora and visited with our daughter, Suzy and her husband, Mike. We have had our concession trailer for sale at a lot in Denver for a year and it has not sold, so Wes picked it up and we brought it home. We attended the Denver Temple Saturday morning, and had a great lunch afterwards. Our grandaughter, Zoe, returned from a bike trip so we visited with her and rested some more and then traveled back home arriving about 9pm.

This week is the Greeley County Fair, the highlight of the year here in our hometown. Many people return to Tribune at this time of year for visits and reunions. There is a lot of activity going on every day and night for a week. It is the culmination of a year's work for the 4-H members. There are lots of 4-H and Open Class entries and lots of judging going on. I am entering Open Class Photography, showing off a lot of the places we have visited in our travels.

We surely will have plenty of photos and information for the next posting. Check back and see what is going on in our lives.