North Idaho Report

We had a visit from our ward Elders yesterday...A couple of very nice young men, both fairly new to this ward. One was Elder Hunter from Parker, Colorado. His parents are Beryl and Veronica Hunter...and I was just wondering if Tina and Bill know them? This young man said he had been away at Utah State University for a year before his mission, and he couldn' t remember Taylor. ... By the way, we are enjoying reading his letters. Thanks for sharing. The Wises

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Aunt Carol!

I'm so glad you enjoyed our concert. And to the rest of you, you can tell how short and unattractive the rest of the men in our group are if I am the "tall, good looking one."

Just back from a freezing/raining/windy scout camp week with Lincoln. I think I'll sleep for a week to recover.

David

Carol's letter 06-18-2009

Dear Family,

Hopefully by the next letter I will have learned how to 'blog'. (who came up with that term, anyway?....it certainly isn't a very 'inviting' word to get people to communicate? It's downright depressing! Who, in the world wants to Blog! Why didn't they come up with something like ...Soar!....or Create!....or Share..... or just plain ole'.......Talk?... Maybe it's just a sign of the times....everyone is running around saying and thinking... The sky is falling....the sky is falling. The word ..."Blog".... just kind of fits, doesn't it? Oh well, enough of that. This old world is still a wonderful place and we are so very blest to be here when the gospel is here to keep us lifted 'Up'.... and confirms to us that there is indeed a God and He indeed loves us all, and is there for each one of us as we seek His help in all that we do.

We (Richard) Goldsberry's are excited to have our missionary Elder John Arthur Goldsberry coming home in two weeks after serving faithfully and honorably these last two years! Rick & Diane can be so very proud of him. I will be going to Livermore for his homecoming, and am so very excited! From there, I will be flying to Redlands to spend some time with my Sister. That will be especially exciting because Jason's tour (Spamalot) will be in Los Angeles for a couple of months, and will be spending his nights at Colleens, so I will have some good time with him, too!

Greg and I have surely enjoyed having Clark home this last year. He has done so well in his college classes and is very much enjoying going to a student ward. He has made many new friends and still communicates with many of his missionary companions. Clark is looking forward to being out of school for a few weeks and will be taking a trip to Calif as well.

Greg is 'gearing up' for his big back packing / fishing trip in July. He's been hiking the "Y" mountain (plus some other pretty challenging ones) ....so hopes he'll be ready for the 'biggie' one in the Wyoming 'Winds'.

Joy is recovering from some major surgery (a few weeks ago). We are all so happy for the 'success' of it. Mark took some time off and she says he has been a great 'nurse'. She's getting anxious to get back to work now.

Kent, thank you for your patience and adding this bit of news. Hope it will work out o.k. I appreciate your 'handling ' our letter this year. May this be a wonderful summer for you all....with happy times and surprises. By the way...you all missed out SO much, at Dave's great combined (Wasatch Singers / Utah Valley Symphony Orchestra) Concert in April! It was absolutely MARVELOUS!! It was all in " Latin" ....and was so well done that it didn't matter that you didn't understand the words....you FELT them! What an experience!! My friend, Gerry said .....now, point out which one is your nephew, David...I told her.."He's the tall, good looking one, almost in the middle on the back row! It didn't take her long to find him! There were hundreds of musicians standing (or sitting) on that stage!

love you all!.........Carol

Kent and Louise Update

Hello again to all!

We are keeping busy as usual. Much of our time is being spent in Star Valley working on the Call Family Project going on there. Even though it's a lot of work we are enjoying the experience. It's a great opportunity to strengthen family ties in Louise's family. And it's kind of nice for us to get out of the city and breath fresh air. On the other hand it's nice to come home and be here too. I'm including a few more pictures of the project.

Louise and her brother, Ben, putting PVC together in new water line trench.

Louise on the little ol' Ferguson, loving every minute of it!

Louise's brother Dee has the concrete company and it delivering the concrete for the posts on the new chain link fence.

More chain link fence work!

The new building so far; the foundation in, the plumbing in all backfilled and compacted, blue- board in place, reinforcing steel in place.

The finished kitchen cupboards

Louise and Kent wallpapering in a bedroom.

Louise wallpapering in the closet of the same bedroom.

You can tell everyone is having a great time.

I have some concerns about the success of this blog! As you can see, to this point we have only heard from very few of us. I, personally, think it is a great way to communicate! If you give it a try you'll find it's easy and really not too unfriendly. I hope it takes! We'll give it one more shot when letter time comes again.

We love you all, and hope all is well with you!

Beverly's letter

May 31, 2009

We have enjoyed reading the Goldsberry blog and seeing the pictures and learning about the happenings in the family..but we have been a little hesitant to try this new (for us) blog technology. But today our granddaughter, Brianna, came over and helped me to get started. I hope, now that she has gone home, I can remember how to do it.. I will give it a try.Roy and I are doing well. We made it through the whole Winter without getting any of the sicknesses that were going on all around us...not even a cold.. It was amazing to us because it wasn't because we weren't exposed to them. We were around family and friends who had flu, sore throats and colds....and we escaped!!! I haven't dared brag about it until now....and that's because Summer is here!! Hurrah!....and yesterday we planted the last seed in the vegetable garden...and the last flower in the flower bed. Now we want to just sit back; put our feet up and watch things GROW. The only problem with that is the weeds grow much faster than the good stuff!! Oh, well, its worth it!!During the Winter months Roy was busy building and creating a beautiful buffetfor our dining room. He finished it for Valentine's day. He actually started with an antique buffet he bought in Brigham City some years ago. He then built a top for it, adding shelves, mirrors, doors and hand-carved trim. He does outstanding work!Our Wise Family Reunion was held in April this year. (It is usually in July.) But we all wanted to be together when our grandson, Teagen, returned from his mission in South Africa. And that was in April....so the family came. What a wonderful experience to welcome home a worthy, young missionary. And how we enjoyed all being in Sacrament Meeting and hearing him speak!!! I'll have to admit I felt very proud (righteous pride) as I listened to him talk on the subject of “Here am I..send me. Teagen is a very good example to all of us.May is a big birthday month in our family. I always remember with tender memories my Mother on the 14th, And we also have eight others to celebrate. On Thursday evening we attended a dinner and party for three-year-old Erik. He was pretty excited about the cake and presents. He is growing up so fast. Today he said that grandpa is a king and grandma is a queen. Sounds pretty good to me!Well, I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying their life's journey.

Love, Bev and Roy

P.S. I'm enclosing a picture of my Grandmother Goldsberry's peony. This is one of my prize possessions. I remember many of these flowers in her yard in Paradise, Utah.

This is Brianna jumping on a trampoline

Change

Hey Family--

Long time no hear! We have been a little blog-resistant, but are willing to give this a shot in order to stay in touch with everybody.

We are going through some changes at our house.

First, and foremost, I have left my employer of 10 years. It is a long, ugly drawn-out story. But the uptake is that I worked for a publicly held company and we went through a hostile takeover by our largest shareholder...an older gentleman who has more money than sense. And he is trying to prove to his old enemies that he still "has it." So he swept in, turned the direction of the company, and installed all his old buddies into upper management. So in the past 6 months, the former management team has all basically run for the exits.

This means I get to do what I have always talked about doing, but never did....namely, start my own business. It isn't the best economy in the world to do this in, but I think we will be fine anyway. There just may not be any new Mercedes or BMWs in our immediate future (not that they would have been there anyway!). I have started an Internet publishing company and run it out of our basement. I release my first product this week. It will be sold by a couple of companies initially but we hope to grow. I have two other products in development that I hope to finish by the end of the summer. We'll see how this all goes.

As a result, Mary Lou has gone back to work....not something we planned, exactly, for right now either. But we always DID plan that she would go back to work when I was ready quit working for someone else and start working for myself. And since my hand has been forced in that regards, Mary Lou has gamely returned to work. She is a therapist at a facility that specializes in eating disorders. She worked with several of the founders of the business years and years ago and they have been encouraging her to join them for a long time. So she jumped in. She is getting a new perspective on this strange and life-threatening behavioral disorder. And she is quickly gaining the reputation of being the resident butt-kicker. If you get Mary Lou for your therapist, you better want to get better.

This also means that I am the stay-at-home Dad around here. The kids are squirming under my new "iron-fisted" rule. But we are all adjusting. And I get to pick out and prepare the meals, chauffer the kids, etc. It has been a pretty wild ride. And now that school is out, it should only get more interesting.

The kids are doing great. Today is the last day of school and the two older girls are skipping the day. It is so wierd the way they do this in Utah. The last couple weeks are just watching videos and playing games. They don't even take roll. The girls' teachers told their classes if they show up today they have to help clean the classrooms. So with that kind of encouragement, my girls are sleeping in for the day. The younger two had to go and pick up their grades.

More change....Lincoln is officially done with grade school and is heading off to Junior High next year. I hope they are ready for this. Holly is going to be a senior next year. She's driving (both exciting and terrifying to her parents), dating (ditto) and starts her first "real" job on Monday. She drives a dainty 3/4 ton pickup, the dream vehicle for any high school girl. Sierra starts teaching her art classes, again, to the neighborhood kids this summer. She is saving her money to buy a pottery kickwheel. We are planning on having a wheel and a kiln by the end of the summer, probably. She also has a regular babysitting gig of watching a family with the three most-difficult kids in the ward. But the parents pay well. And Sierra can handle them....well, as much as anybody can handle them. Mackenzie is going to find herself, for the first time ever, the only Wise kid at her school starting this fall. That should be interesting. It will be fun to watch her transition from the youngest kid in carpool to being the oldest one.

Of course, we have plenty of projects around here. I am ordering some lumber today from Home Depot to start some shelves in my garage. I just can't take the clutter anymore. There are a couple of rooms that are the last to recover from our great remodel project. The garage is one of those hold-outs. We are hoping to make some progress in that area this summer. We are also just finishing getting our vegetable garden in. We should finish up tonight. And we are re-landscaping a little part of our back yard. Oh...and lots of sprinkler work as is the trend in the spring. It's not like we are building a museum in our backyard...but we are busy anyway.

We hope you are all enjoying the end of spring! The hot summer is coming.

David, Mary Lou, and the kids

Kent Goldsberry 04-28-2009

Hi, again, Everyone!
Louise and I had a great week last week. Work commenced in earnest on the Call family farm just north of Afton, Wyo. We traveled there on Sunday afternoon and returned Thursday evening so that we could fulfill our temple assignments Friday and Saturday. Her brother, Don, is in charge of the barn building project the family is embarking upon so he naturally was there (No small sacrifice for him, he lives in Salt Lake). Also others of her family from Star Valley assisted and one sister traveled from Richland, ,Washington; another and her husband from Rexburg. Anyway, things will be ongoing through most of the summer. This trip much got done. The house was thoroughly cleaned out, much stuff sacked and sent to DI. The house will eventually be a museum so many items were also packaged and stored in the barn so that work can take place in the house. The house (which is where Louise was raised) is going to be rewired, new plumbing, with lots of repair, painting, wallpapering, etc. before moving museum items back in. Anyway, the barn had to be cleaned, pressure scrubbed, etc. before we could move items to store in it. We also sealed it to prevent little varmints (of which there are MANY) from getting in. To the south of the house, where the new barn is going to be built, we moved a shed with all of its contents, removed a lot of barbed wire fencing, and the gas house. We moved irrigation pipe which was stacked against the east fence back of the house and placed it out of sight behind the barn. A huge skunk was in one of them but he could not raise his tail inside the pipe so we blocked both ends, hauled it further away and took care of him. We also moved a mower and raker which was against the east fence. We moved two large water troughs which were just on the other side of the east fence to a field on the north side of the house. The property is leased to folks who have cattle and we wanted to get the cattle's gathering place farther away. We also moved the old "outhouse" to a less noticeable location. All during the four days we had a large bonfire going into which we threw everything (except steel and tires) that would burn and was not good enough for anything else. Several mattresses, old chairs, couches, miscellaneous partly rotted wood from here and there throughout the farm, old newspapers, clothes. Interestingly, you get a fire hot enough and it will burn about anything! Louise and her sister, Jill, walked US 89 in front of the farm and picked up litter; got four huge plastic bags full! All the stuff that could not be burned was hauled to the dump on Saturday, so we have been told.
This week we are not going up but Don and his bother, Ben, are and they will begin to excavate trench and place 3-inch water line from the two springs in the canyon to the house, approx. 3300 feet of line. They have to cross under two north-south canals that will be running water before too long. We're going back next week and they may start the foundation of the barn, 50' x 100' at that time. I don't believe there will be too many dull moments.

And so goes the story of what the K Goldsberrys have been up to, and will be for some time to come.

Blowout at 70 mph by Evanston, Wyo.

Louise, Lenna and Annie starting on the kitchen cleaning.

Removing fence posts

Even old folks operated the equipment

Louise cleaning up in front of farm along US 89

The Call farm extends back to the east into the mouth of the canyon.

The equipment we used belongs to family living in Star Valley.

Moving the gas house

From the porch of the house looking across US89. The people living there keep a little sprinkle of water running all winter long and it builds a pyramid.

Our fire got much larger than this many times.

Storing items in the barn

Louise and the dirty, messy job of cleaning the basement floor

Greetings from Murray, Utah

I hope I'm doing this right. I've never had a blog. I'm on Facebook, and can barely do that. I think it's a great idea to have a family blog, it's a good way to journal and keep in touch at the same time.

I won't be writing much in case I'm not doing it right. We had a great Spring break, got to go to Nassau, it was the first time for all of us. We all had a blast, and the kids want to go back some day. We went on Jetblue, I still love it, I get to work from home, and do it around the kids schedule, and it's only part-time, so it's just perfect, I'm so grateful for all the travel opportunities we've had.

My dad came to visit, since Guatemala's Spring Break was right after ours, so it worked out really good. He got to see the kids and to catch up and see pictures and spend time together. Speaking of pictures, I'll attempt to post a family one, and see if it works.

We got together for Brian and Nic's birthday, it was fun to see everybody and chat and visit.

Brian had been a little under the weather, and I finally talked him into going to the doctor (he hadn't been to one since he got out of the military almost 20 years ago) and turns out he had 2 ear infections, and some other bacteria, so they gave him 3 different types of antibiotics. He's feeling great now.

The kids are counting down the days till school is out (and so am I, but for a totally different reason, ha ha)

Well, I guess I'll end this and hope I did it right.

Love,

Brian, Cristy & Kids and Beagle

Spring in Salt Lake

Last Saturday we had the kids out on the swing set and spent enough time outside that I started to worry about getting some sunscreen on--the next day, Sunday, by 9 AM we were facing sideways snow and had a couple inches of accumulation by noon. Since then we've had sun, we've had clouds, and of course... we've had wind. Tonight (Thursday) I took Christian and Larkin out to fly a kite. The wind was almost more than the kite could handle. Christian promptly decided it was too cold, and as soon as I handed the kite string to Larkin she let it go... leading to a comical scene where a grown man chases a kite across a busy street, and just as he gets to it the kite flies a few more feet... and a few more feet... needless to say, after retrieving the kite I tied it directly on to Larkin's wrist. This worked significantly better. At the park we found a pinwheel, and Christian and Larkin lost all interest in the kite and decided that the pinwheel was their new toy of choice. Spring in Utah...where you can enjoy all four seasons in the same week!

--Matt

Update on the Feil Family

Dear Family,

I think this blog is such an awesome idea! What a fun, easy way to keep in contact! Here's a quick update on the latest happenings in the Feil family:-)

Josh spent his first three transfers in Ukraine in the beautiful city L'viv, and was recently sent to serve in Luts'k on his fourth transfer. Luts'k has seen some really hard times, has many scars and the weather tends to be even more harsh there than it is in Siberia! He definitely has his work cut out for him! He is doing extremely well with the Ukrainian language, he is able to understand Russian quite well... especially if it's not spoken super fast, and can communicate with those who speak Sergic (a variable mix of Ukrainian and Russian) most of the time. The work is hard... but he's hard at work!

Sam is looking forward to the completion of his LAST AP classes and tests... but says that it feels weird to know that he is swimming his final season for El Diamante! He is excited about graduation and life after high school, as he will be attending BYU in the fall and is happy that his cousin Britta is going there, too! He is going to New York with the AP English department for spring break, and has admitted that he won't miss going to early morning seminary! He is thrilled that religion classes at the Y don't start at 6 AM!

Nate had fun participating on the JV Water polo team this year and is currently involved with the JV Swim team... and is really doing a great job! His times are really improving and he is in incredible shape! He has also served as the Freshman Vice-President, and has enjoyed a challenging class schedule. He is hoping to go to go to EFY (we didn't match, but check everyday for possible openings!) this summer and is going to go to Spain with the Spanish department (dad is going, too!) the week after school gets out!

Rachael is growing up soooooo fast! I can't believe that she is almost done with her 7th grade year! She has had fun being on the yearbook staff, and is so creative and capable! She loves being in Young Women's and is a very social girl!

Hannah just turned 7, but is already anticipating her "Eight is Great" birthday next year! She loves school, ballet and tap, writing to her brother on his mission, reading books, and playing with many friends. She makes us all happy every day!

Stan is kept very busy with his work, church calling, and attending all of the kids' activities! He is looking forward to summer and the prospect of several 'mini' backpacking trips with family and friends! He is also excited about going to Spain, as he has never been there before.

Jill is working hard at just trying to keep up with everybody and their schedules! Some weeks I do a way better job than others. I can't believe that Sam is ready to graduate from H.S. and am shocked to realize that I will only have three kids at home come fall! (I also won't have a driver for 8 months... Yikes!!!) It's amazing to me how fast kids grow up, and how quickly life changes. It's been quite the ride so far...

Kent 03-18-09

Dear Family,

I am excited about this new idea of communicating through a family blog! This makes the process easier, we can easily include pictures, we can share events or anything else at any time, everyone receives it almost immediately, it eliminates "snail mail", we can include other links we would like to share, i.e. missionary posts, blogs you may already have, etc. I hope everyone will join with us and make this a great site for tying our families closer together. I, too, would encourage the posting of a picture or two of your families. I'm afraid I'd flunk if I had to identify many of you. And that's a sad commentary!


Reminiscing time!
1977 or 1978 Goldsberry Reunion held in McCall, Idaho. I remember this time almost like it was yesterday!

This is all of our family (except for Marty's family) taken in 2006. Marty had another commitment and could not be there. (Jill and her family upper left; Matt and his family lower left, they did not have Larkin nor Lincoln at this time; Louise and I, with Jana standing by me, before she married Jon; Bill and Tina and their family in front of him; Rob and Mary and two of their three children, upper right.)

This picture taken in 2006 at the same time as the one above. Marty not being there, we inserted a picture of him. (Standing: Jana, Rob, Jill. Sitting: Matt, Tina, Louise, Kent)


I am a novice at this. Hopefully I can learn and do better as we go along. I look forward with anticipation to hearing from each of you.

Love, Kent

Thanks for the invite

Hey Mom & Dad,

Thanks for the invite on the Goldsberry Family Blog. Jon and I will try to post things on the blog when we have time.

Louise's family project

Hi Everyone,

I'm excited about this way of communicating. Thanks to Matt and Lia for setting us up. I attended a family history conference a couple weeks ago and really got excited about what can happen to keep a family in touch through a blog. I hope you will all participate. If computer illiterate people like Kent and I can do it, we know anyone can. We are happy to have Matt and Lia to help us and answer questions.

Like I mentioned in my last letter, the big project in our lives right now is helping my mother build a museum in the old home in Star Valley and we as a family are building a large barn like building nearby for museum use along with a large area to hold family reunions, parties, receptions or any other event for large groups. The large building will include an apartment to stay in when we go to Star Valley. Kent and I are presently helping mother go through the many things she has saved over the years and doing write-ups about them. My brothers will be starting in April to replace the wiring and plumbing and putting in a new water system from the mountain spring that goes with our Star Valley home. We are looking forward to working together as family. It has been good so far for us to get together to discuss plans and enjoy each others company. Needless to say, my mother is the thrilled about the interest, company and the whole project.

Snow, Snow, Snow......We went to the Star Valley home in February. The snow was over the fence tops in many places as we entered the valley. Knowing we were coming, my brother Dee, who lives in Star Valley, had removed the snow from the driveway of the home with his front end loader and we shoveled the step to the door. My sister, Annie, who also lives there, brought a great big heater to use inside. We made the trip with my brother Don and mother to measure for wallpaper and to obtain a building permit for the large building. Kent meticulously measured each room and we purchased the wallpaper right away. Because the city planner knew Dee, he signed off the building permit without asking for too many details which leaves us pretty much free to build the building the way we would like and he also waived the $100 fee. He said because it was a barn on farm land he would inspect it when it was done. Good luck for us!!!!

Some of my sisters and mother looking over possible choices for wallpaper for the Star Valley home. Every room needs to be redone including the ceiling. We want to make the house fresh and new before we add the museum items. We are gathering manikins and other displays ideas. We have decided on paint colors for the kitchen and some of the other rooms trying to keep it as close to the original as possible.

Five of my seven brothers considering plans for the large barn-like building to be built next to the home. They really haven't got together very much since they have grown up. They are all interested in the project and are willing to give their time and talents to make it happen. So Awesome!!!!!