It is more than time for another Domm Musings.  So here it is.  Hope you enjoy it.
Last November Margaret and I completed our little summer home in New York and thought we should leave before the snows of winter began. The night we left we went to the temple with dear friends who were sealed as a family. What a joy!  We were going to head south to see family and friends on our return.  But as we prepared to leave my brother Ray offered us tickets to the BYU-Notre Dame football game in South Bend, Indiana.  Since it was the weekend we were traveling and only a short ways out of our way we took him up on them.  Although we were happy to be there it was not much fun.  Not only did we lose but it was the coldest football game ever played at Notre Dame.  It was a 9 degree wind chill factor.

Notre Dame Stadium, COLD,COLD, COLD!!!!

Bundled to the hilt and still freezing!!!

In front of stadium before game. 

With that behind us we warmed up first in Paducah, Kentucky with Margaret's cousins.  Then we went on to Lubbock, Texas to spend the week with Marti and Russ.  Marti was in charge for the third year of the Stake Nativity Display.  For one week the display over 700 collected nativities in their chapel.  It is a huge job. But hundreds of Lubbock residence came to enjoy the nativities, music and art on display.  We still don't know where Marti gets all the energy.  Most important we were able to attend the blessing of Kyle and Misty's baby Riley.  What a sweetheart.

One of many rooms on display in Lubbock!  

Kyle, Misty, and Riley Anderson

Our next stop was to Arizona to see Tina and Gilbert and family and Margaret's brother and sister. We loved seeing dear Aunt Charlotte. She is  97 and going strong, thanks to loving family.  Thanks Marion.   We shared many good time and memories with them all.  This poor New York guy still can't get used to all the peppers and hot Southwest foods.  But I'll keep trying. Somehow we stayed ahead of all the terrible weather that recently past by.  After three weeks on the road we finally got home to American Fork and crashed.

Nancy, Aunt Charlotte and Margaret

Once home it was time to get ready for the Holidays. We are grateful for Brian and Allison taking care of things while we were gone. They will also be staying when we leave for our mission.   It all culminated on December 21st when we all got together at our place for the traditional Christmas Party.  Each time we grow in numbers.  This year we counted 65 family and friends. We would hove loved to have had Phil, Diane and Hailey but Diane has been suffereing with a major back condition and will be having surgery in early February. Our prayers are with her.  Any more and we will have to rent a larger place or go to a chapel.  I see the day when even the Conference Center won't hold us all.  It was particularly gratifying to see so many family travel so far just to be with us.

Fun was had by all

What's Christmas without Santa

Most important The Nativity

Colton is new to this monster family and the party was almost too much for him.  We love you Colton!

The day after Christmas we headed out again. We went to California and spent time with Julie and saw the BYU bowl game.  Sorry, we must make teams lose.  We surely enjoyed our time with Julie and spent time in Half Moon Bay eating and buying crabs that just came in  off the boat. We  then went home and had our own feast!

Half Moon Bay on a beautiful day with Julie

San Francisco Giants Stadium for the Hunger Bowl

Right after Christmas we had a new addition to the family.  Brooke and Mike Hampton had a beautiful little girl, Allison, named  after Brook's favorite cousin.

Spencer Laulusa just came home from Mexico where he served a great mission.  Welcome home Spence.
We are looking forward to next week when all the Laulusa'a will be up here as Elaine and Colton Thornley will be married  on Jan 31st.  We love having the family grow.

Now for the news about our future.  We received our mission call.  We will be serving in the  New York Rochester mission.  We are very excited.   We love the people there and look forward to serving them.   We want to do this while we are young! Yeah sure!! As President Hinkeley used to say, "There is no greater service than in the service of our Lord."  So off we go. We start on March 17th for 18 months.  That is two summers and only one winter. Good!

Our address will be: George and Margaret Domm
                                PO Box 112
                                1007 Newell Rd
                                 Middlesex, NY 14507
All are welcome to come see us and this beautiful country.




Now for George's humor:

For awhile there I thought I was going blind.  I just couldn't see myself going to work anymore.

Did you hear about the little, poor church that needed painting.  The pastor bought as much paint as his meager budget would allow.  But it wasn't enough to do the whole job so he kept thinning the paint down to stretch it out. One night a terrible storm came and washed the paint off the building.  The next morning he heard a loud voice calling him from heaven saying, "Repaint.  Repaint and thin no more."

We can hardly believe that a whole six months has passed since we started our little building adventure in the Finger Lakes of New York.  It was only a year ago Margaret and I stood in an empty, overgrown field and laid out stakes into the ground dreaming of where we wanted our little home to be.  Those stakes survived the winter and were the markers we used to plan everything else.  Little by little things all got done.  And now our "late life dream" is a reality.

Our finished home on the hill!!!!

My garden has arrived, and I love it!

A view from the bottom of our hill. We love our deck.

Tony built our walkway from stone on our property. He is truly a
lover of beauty.  He also planted all my plants. Yeah

Lonnie Drake our inspired landscaper and member of the branch.
He is Kelly Stayner's cousin. 

 In a few more weeks we will leave it all to return again to our home in Utah. But we leave with a great feeling of accomplishment.  Our little house may not be large or fancy, but the view is great and our neighbors are precious.  Those neighbors are the little creatures we share our home with.  For Margaret they are the many little songbirds that come to dine on our back patio then fly back into the forest . She has posted at least eight feeders to draw them in and stocks each with lots of sunflower seeds. We are just beginning to discern the goldfinches from the black-caped chickadees and the tufted titmouse from the blue jays. 

My fine feathered friends. We have gone through 40 lbs of bird seed in the last month.  They love us.  Sometimes
there are 20 or more birds out at the same time.  

 For me life can't get any better than pulling into the driveway late at night while the headlights rest quietly on eight white tale deer grazing peacefully behind the house.  They slowly look up and one by one slip quietly into the woods. A day without seeing a deer or a hawk or an eagle or geese  is a day wasted.

Canada Geese taking a rest stop on a pond we drove by.  We see these kinds of scenes daily.  

However, we have other neighbors who we love dearly.  They are the Amish and Mennonites.  Over the past few years they have moved into New York State.  They buy up old, run down farms for cash then go to work on them.  In just a year or two they turn them into neat and productive farms.  They become the envy of all other farms.  As we leave for church each Sunday we share the roads with mothers and fathers in their one horse drawn, black buggies.  Behind them are their children riding their bikes.  All gather together in a simple chapel for services.  I often wonder what we could accomplish if we had such discipline in our lives?

Mennonite Church on a weekday

On Sunday

Mennonite School. There are many of these. 

On horse power waiting for family outside store. 

A typical Mennonite farm. Simple and very orderly and beautiful

We have so enjoyed the seasons so far.  You notice we are leaving before the big snow hits!  Fall has be gorgeous and we want to share a few photo of some of our wanderings.

The beginning of fall from our deck.  Later there were reds and
golds and we love each minute we gets to watch out the window. 

George doing his favorite thing.  I loved taking pictures .  

Very old Oak tree at the golf course. 

                                                                                 

Lake nearby.  

   

Our last evening walk along the shore of Canandaigua Lake.  Are we lucky or what!!!!!

The Penn Yan Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Our little church branch has become home to us.  We have 50 wonderful members who attend each Sunday in our little stage one building. the chapel also serves as classrooms and cultural hall.  It is compact, but we are so grateful for it.  We love these saints and will love coming back to this area soon.

We have been criticized by several people saying, "Why are you doing this so late in life?"  My answer is simply, "Because we can!"   Others say we are crazy to come from Utah and build here in New York state.  "Why, you are going from one winter to another and one hot summer to another."  To that I say, "I have a good winter coat and air conditioning.  Bring it on.  We love it all."

Margaret and I have just had our third anniversary.  Each year has been wonderfully filled with every possible adventure, task and blessing.  We thank God for bringing us together.  Our plans now are to return again next year to this little home in New York for 18 months, not as vacationers but as full time missionaries. This is such a marvelous and sacred place to be, and couple missionaries are needed so badly. We want to make the most of it.  And a mission here will be hard to beat.  Especially if we already have a home and friends here already.

 Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote,  "Many people die with their music still in them.  Why is this so?  Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.  Before they know it time runs out."  Or as Tagore put it,  "I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, While the song I came to sing remains unsung."
I know Margaret and I still have a song to sing.


George wants to leave you with his newest jokes:
 
For the record:
What happens when you grow marijuana on stake farms?
You get "high priests"

Why do Mormon women stop having children at 35?
Because 36 is too many.

Spiritual thought:
Let us all be careful as to how we use our time.
  As President Kimball has written, "Waste is unjustified, and especially the waste of time---limited as that commodity is in our days of probation. One must live, not only exist; he must do, not merely be; he must grow, not just vegetate."

We are excited to head for home and see so many loved ones.  We will see many of you on the way and be home by mid December.

Love
George and Margaret.

Life in New York

                                                           Our new summer home!!!!!
                                 "There is nothing more satisfying than building something yourself.
                                          Ya, I know, Margaret wants me to fix a few things first."
                                        Actually this is a neighbor's barn just down the street
                             Our address is: 1007 Newell Road, Middlesex, New York 14507
                                                         Yes, James Bond's "1007"

Well, it's been since April that we posted our last blog.  We hadn't meant to be so slow to re-post, but we have been pretty busy since arriving in New York in June.  As you know we came here to the Finger Lakes region of central New York state to build a small summer home on land left to me by my father.  Last winter we made all the preparations we thought we needed to do to take occupancy in early July.
However, as anyone who has ever built from scratch will tell you, "Plan on doubling your estimated move in date."  The lot is five beautiful, hilly acres located a mile away from Canandaigua Lake ("Beautiful Spot" in the Seneca Indian tongue) with an unbelievable view for miles.  But as we found out it is also in a Water Shed District. That meant weeks of delay while more permits, changes and tests were done to give us the go-ahead.  Those issues and about ten others meant we could not move in until  August 17.  Although it took more time that we anticipated we were happy to see it all come together while were were here.
The greatest pleasure was gathering  family and friends together on a Monday morning and watching the two huge trailer trucks pull each piece of the house up our hill and lay them perfectly on their pad.  We all cheered when the job was done.  Below are a few pictures of our progress.

Getting ready to break ground

The hill was carved out and the foundation blocks layed

Foundation filled with rock and cap poured with utilities imbeded

What skill these men have for moving the huge halves of the house
onto the foundation .  Laid  it down within 1/8"

                                                                                     

Margaret videoing the movement down our circular driveway
onto the pad.

They labeled them Part A and Part B
We had twins delivered

                                                                                 

Later they installed our propane tanks.

Our beautiful creation yet without its concrete skirting

The deck is on with its breathtaking views

                                                                 

A view looking up from the trees below.  

The living room and edge of the kitchen

                                                                         

Our bedroom.  The headboard is from 150 year old tin ceiling
tiles from the old Buffalo, New York train station.

                                                                               






We are now happily settled  and can call it a real home now.  Every morning we get up and look out the back windows and count the white tale deer grazing in the field.  Once in a while a red tailed hawk will pay us a visit.  And at night we listen for the howls of the coyotes  in the neighborhood.  There is never a dry week here.  We get more than our fair share of rain.  At least two or three thunder storms a week this year.  This has caused us to live in a mud hole at times as we still have not been able to replant our hill and erosion builds up fast.
We do lack for conveniences here.  They closed the only grocery store in town a few months ago.  It was called  "Margaret's Market".  But no dice.  Margaret will not reopen it even if it bares her name.  So, we drive about 16 miles up to Canandaigue to shop.  If we forget something it will have to wait till next time.
We love our little branch at Penn Yan about 20 miles south of us.  They have always been small in number, about 30 to 50 out to services, but just like any other ward or branch in the Church have a nice small building and a great spirit.  Our branch president has willingly served for 14 years.  And is still going strong.
Margaret and I, although not formal members of the branch, have been asked to teach the Temple Preparation class.  We have three members getting ready to go to the temple.  We hope to still be here when their time comes.
If we leave a half hour earlier than usual on Sunday to go to Church we can see all the Mennonite and Amish farming families leaving also for their church services.  There are dozens of small, black carriages on the edge of the roads with one horse pulling each.  Then either in front or behind are dozens of their children riding their bikes.  They are wonderful people.  They buy up old farms here for pennies on the dollar in cash and within a year or two they have made them neat and beautiful show places.  But they do stay pretty much to themselves.
We have met many wonderful neighbors since moving in.  Because we are so few and far between we watch out  for one another.  There are many more local gatherings that bring us together like the monthly roast beef diner sponsored by the local fire department or the late evening fire ring around the lake. We all bring long highway flairs and light them at dusk to circle the lake in a bright crimson glow.  So quiet and beautiful.
But most of all we have enjoyed the visits by so many family and friends.  Even though the cabin was not done for most of them we did enjoy the beauties of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, Niagara Fall and boat rides up and down the Erie Canal.  Elaine and Tina were here when the big move was on and we didn't get a picture.

Joe and family in the sacred grove

                                                                     

Jay and Norma Mansfied at Niagra Falls

                                                                             

Lane and Merilee Herrick on the canal
near Seneca Falls

Shout outs for these last few months.
Brindee and Koy graduated.
                                                     Tragen came home from his mission,

Raymond and Candy going to Idaho to see family, Chuck and Joanne going to Alabama to help children, Phil and family being chased by bison at Yellowstone, Elaine and Colton got engaged, and Gilbert released as bishop. If we missed someone it is because you haven't told us so we can share.

One sad event to note, dear Dorothy passed away in July after a long hospitalization and numerous surgeries. All our sympathy goes out to Paul and his family.

Dorothy Marie Domm Hickey
July 4, 1972-July 17 2013

Julie and Nicole

Sheena and Casey

Jonny in the middle with friends

Phil, George and Julie

Paul and Julie

Now that most of the work is done we can finally start to do some family history research and reading for which we came. Margaret has already assisted a sister in the branch find many of her ancestors who were Dutch and settled in Palmyra.  I bought new tires recently only to find out that my salesman was a "Domm" on his mother's side.  Surprises all over the place.  We love it here and know we did the right thing coming back.  We will be busy and happy for many years here.  Come see us when you can.  We'll be back in Utah early in December.

In closing here is an old Ozark saying, "Always be the kind of person your dog thinks you are."
Good by till next time.