Pres. Bolt (Hitsch) and his log shed; looking up canyon from their home; dining/living room where we stayed. The photo is taken from near our bedroom door.


AUGUST 12, 2009 con't. WEDNESDAY
Hitsch & Kathi Bolt and Charlotte were already loading their stuff into the trunk of their car when we got there at 4:50 so we gave them our two little carry-on bags and we hurried around back to water the plants. Hitsch came around back and helped us and then decided to pick off the new growth on the grapes that were there. Kathi had to come around and drag him away so we could get on the road. We left at 5:10 and, when we did, we drove up Duebendorferstrasse past Stettbach and then followed the bus route we generally take that runs along Greifensee. Where our bus route ends we kept on going towards Rapperswil on the end of Lake Zurich. A little ways past Rapperswil we started climbing into the mountains which gradually became very rugged. We went through Landquart and continued on to Klosters where the Bolts have their home which was our destination. It is the very last home at the end of the road, but there is a trail head parking lot a hundred yards further along and a bus stop turn around just before that. We arrived about 8:00 and took all our stuff into the home. We were taken to the basement living area which has a walkout door to a wonderful over view of the valley and river below. It also has a bedroom which we were given, a bathroom with shower, a kitchen and living room/dining room combined. It was as nice as a person could want and Diana just loved the wood ceiling. She’s hoping we’ll be able to put the same kind of ceiling in our family room when we get home.
Even though it was pretty late, Kathi put a simple meal together of ham, cheese, bread with cranberry punch or water to drink. She also pre-made some short bread cookie sticks and chocolate goodies for dessert. We didn’t stay up too long to look around because we were kind of tired and it was dark outside anyway. Diana helped clean up and after, we had a prayer together and then they left us to ourselves. We weren’t long in finding our beds because there was nothing else to do. The last thing Hitsch told us was that we wouldn’t start too early in the morning. Good!

AUGUST 13, 2009 THURSDAY

The first night was kind of rough because the bed was hard, the sheets short and it was a new location. We weren’t used to it being so quiet because we have the freeway noise right outside our window, so it was a little different. I was up early and took an hour and a half walk up the canyon and back. A big river runs down the very bottom of the canyon while the road runs along several hundred yards above it. The mountains reached high on both sides and the sides were very steep. I walked up the road until I decided to hike up into the trees. When I got up there, I discovered there was a gravel trail and, if I had gone a little further up the canyon, I could have taken it instead of getting my feet wet walking cross-country. I followed it back and down to the main road and walked on back. The scenery was great, the air cool and the walk exhilarating. One disappointment was that I didn’t see any wild animals. It seems there are very few around.

While I was taking my walk, Diana was showering and getting ready for the morning. She always has her little German/English dictionary with her so she can keep memorizing words when she has time. When I got back, breakfast was on the table and we ate. Each morning, breakfast was about the same and it’s probably typical of what the Swiss eat. Muesli (cereal), sweetened corn flakes, sliced cheese, thinly sliced salty smoked ham, Pero, ovaltine powder for milk, yogurt, bread, butter and jam. For the first breakfast we also had melon chunks.

Following breakfast we got ready to get to work. When we were invited to come, we had the impression he was working on a house they were building for their son. We were surprised when we discovered he was building a little shed for his snow blowing machine and other equipment he uses during the winter. The logs he was building it out of was some his son had acquired from somewhere. They were much bigger than would have been necessary, but they were free. Hitsch already had the framework started and we continued on from where he had left off. He had an old machine with a wagon hooked on the back that he drove down to another building and we loaded the logs he needed onto it and brought them back up. Our main job was to lift the logs into place while he measured and scribed lines, and then we would lift them off again. The first day he used all hand chisels and hammer to fit the logs together except he used a chain caw to cut the logs off to the length he needed them. Using hand tools took a lot of time. He had already ruined two logs before we got there trying to take too much at a time, so he was being very careful and taking only a little at a time now. It took a lot of lifting up, placing, scribing and lifting down again before each log was fitted to his liking. Diana was right in there doing her share of the lifting and carrying. She was on one end while I was on the other. Hitsch made many comments about how hard Diana was working and tried to get her to slow down, but she smiled at him and just kept on working. We also kept picking up the wood chips and sweeping up the sawdust. Little by little the building came together. Today we finished the one wall and got one of the roof logs into place. The top log of the wall had to be flattened on top so the roof boards would lay flat on it. This had to be done using the chain saw cutting the log the whole length. When we had the wall done, we quit for lunch.

For lunch Charlotte made a macaroni/ham casserole with applesauce on the side. It was pretty good and we also had some more of the homemade goodies Kathi brought with her. Hitsch always takes a couple hour nap everyday as a result of the stroke and heart attack he had a couple of years ago. So while he did that, Charlotte, Diana and I went to town to look around. We caught the bus up the road and rode it into Klosters. At the train station we saw a gondola on the other side of the train tracks and decided to go over and see how much it would cost to ride it to the top of Gotschnagrat, the mountain overlooking Klosters. With our COOP card it was 28sfr. each so we bought tickets and went to the top. It was a steep climb and each time the gondola went past a tower it would sway, giving us a bit of a thrill. At the top we walked around and could look all over the town and valley below. We could also look into the valley on the other side. What a view. In one direction there was a large glacier and, if one continued on over the top of it, he would be in Austria. There were several herds of cows on the mountain meadows and one dairy/cheese factory. They make cheese right on the mountain during the summer. We goofed around up on top for awhile and then descended to walk around town a bit.

Hitsch Jr., who lives with his family in Hitsch Sr. & Kathi home, is a world famous sculptor and has several marble statues around town that Klosters bought from him. We took photos of one of them by the train station that was missing it’s head. Why he sculpted it like that we don’t know and forgot to ask him. It seems all of his statues, at least the ones we’ve seen, are nude males. He was working on a marble bust next to the river in an open air studio by the bahnhof and next to the river. He helped us in the morning on the shed, but in the afternoon came down and was working on his own project. We stopped by to say hello and then continued on our way. He studied for four years in Switzerland and another four in Italy, but has been on his own for many years now.

We forgot about the time and, as a result, missed our bus back home. So we visited other souvenir shops until it was time for our next bus. We got back home, but discovered Hitsch was off riding bikes with his sister and Kathi had taken off in the car. Soon everyone was back and we got to work again except for Diana, who had more important things to do. We worked right up until about 8:30, lifting up, lifting down, scribing and chiseling. Finally, Hitsch called it quits.

While Hitsch and I were working on the shed, Diana was busy making dinner. When we left Zurich, she brought the makings for one dinner because, first of all she’s thoughtful, secondly, she always wants to do her share and not be a burden to someone. She made the Mexican chile over rice dish with crackers that really hit the spot. She made so much of it that I didn’t think there was a chance that it would come close to all be eaten. It’s amazing what work will do for the appetite and, when the food was that good, it all disappeared. Everyone raved how good it was. She also got a chance to sit on the patio for a bit and watch the farmer harvest his hay all the while memorizing words out of her little dictionary.

Diana, Kathi and Charlotte cleaned up after dinner and then we all took a little walk in the twilight/dark and enjoyed the evening, crickets chirping, the view and the cool mountain air.

During the day there were a few other observations that need to be mentioned. Elder Doyle, our friend in Geneva, called to say hello and talk for a bit. He knew we were taking a “work mini vacation” and just wanted to know how we were doing. Now that was a surprise. The next thing is that Diana and Charlotte noticed the clover along side of the road and Diana told her about four leaf clovers and they decided to look for one. Charlotte actually found one and gave it to Diana. The next thing is that the shed is built right on the edge of the pavement on the exact property line. Everybody that comes by knows Hitsch and has to stop and talk to him. Work would go a lot quicker if he didn’t have to stop and talk. When he stopped to talk, Diana and I would keep busy sweeping or something. The next thing is the farmer cutting and rolling the meadow grass on the steep hillside around Hitsch’s house. He has a walk behind mower to cut the grass. They hand rake it into rows and then comes a machine that picks it up and rolls it into a big roll. Another machine comes along and picks up the roll of grass and wraps it in plastic. We’ve seen the rolls of plastic in the fields and knew that they were filled with hay/grass, but hadn’t ever seen it done.


AUGUST 14, 2009 FRIDAY

This morning I was up and out the door to take another early morning walk. Hitsch told me I should go up the road and take the first right which would take me to the river and over the bridge to a hiking trail which followed along the river up canyon. Once on the trail I should walk past the first bridge and cross back over on the second bridge which would take me up to the main trail and back to Klosters. I decided to take his advice not knowing it would take me two hours to make the circuit. It was a great hike and I saw beautiful scenery, a deer and two fawns (first and only ones I saw on this trip) and a whole bunch of cows. Right at the narrowest part of the trail, river on one side and mountain/trees on the other, here came the cows down the trail towards me. Over a hundred of them single file, each with a bell on it’s neck, they came down the trail. I was able to get off a little and let them pass, but time was also passing and I needed to get on my way. After the majority of them were by, I continued on and when I met another cow, we each eyed the other as we passed. No major mishaps occurred. When I finally came to the second bridge, I had to walk a muddy path through a meadow to a dairy/stable/restaurant all in the same building. My brother, Eric, always is interested in eating at places that have “ambiance” and this one had plenty of it. I’m not sure I would have wanted to eat there, but it would have been interesting. Since I was long overdue, I jogged most of the way back and when I got there, they were all waiting breakfast on me. Diana and Charlotte had Hitsch Jr’s two boys waiting on the road for me to show up. I told them all it was Hitsch’s fault I was late.

Breakfast was about the same as the first and then we were back at it. Diana on one end of the log, me on the other, lifting up, Hitsch scribing, and lifting down. Hitsch decided he’d use the chain saw today and work a little faster rather than just use the chisels. It went a little quicker, but for Diana and I, it meant lifting up and down a little quicker without so much rest in between. Charlotte had to leave for home at 10:00 to go and tend Barbara Weidmann’s baby girl infant, Maleah so we waved goodbye to her. By noon we had the 2nd and 3rd logs fitted in for the roof structure and then we took a break for lunch. Kathi had prepared little toasted sandwiches for us that were really good. Some had tomatoes and a strip of bacon with cheese melted over them and others had pears with a strip of bacon cheese melted over them. Diana thought they were more like pizza. They both were really good. We took a fifteen minute nap break today rather than Hitsch’s normal two hours because he wanted to get finished with the building before we had to go home tomorrow.

It didn’t take too long to get the 4th and last roof log into place and then we had to cut the ends on the road side off so they wouldn’t encroach on the road space. Hitsch tried twice and made wrong cuts, so he had me take the saw to do it. He didn’t want to make another mistake. Fortunately I was able to cut them how he wanted them and that was a load off my mind. I had purposely not given him advice or done any of the technical work because I didn’t want to be blamed or responsible for anything that went wrong. Diana, on the other hand, wasn’t bashful about advising, instructing, or doing the work herself. Hitsch got a kick out of working with Diana and was amazed at how hard she worked. Hitsch and Diana carried some boards from the side of the house to use as decking on top of the logs while I went down the road to the shop to cut off a couple of dowel plugs to use to scab on a piece of log on one that was too short. Hitsch had to go to town to get some nails etc. and when he came back we went down the road again to the building where we originally got the logs and got some more boards for the roof. Working with old timber is a challenge because some spots are weak and some boards are twisted or warped. Somehow we made it all work, but didn’t quite finish the complete roof. Some was left for the next day.

Supper tonight was prepared by Kathi and it was a specialty dish from the county of Graubunden which is where we were. It was a macaroni, ham and potato casserole that was pretty dry for my taste, but nevertheless it was good. Diana loved the potatoes in the macaroni with the ham pieces. They had grated cheese and something like a soy sauce, Maggi, to put on it that moistened it up a little. For dessert she had prepared pears smothered in carmel pudding. Now that was good. Soon after we were in bed and it felt really good to be there. We didn’t notice the hard bed so much this time.

AUGUST 15, 2009 SATURDAY

Last night Hitsch apologized for how much he’d been working us. He said when he was in Zurich and invited us, he anticipated his son helping more than he has and that maybe we would work a few hours in the morning and the rest of the day goof off. Kathi has been unable to help him and he can’t lift the logs alone, so he’s had to use us while he has us because he said he can’t do it alone. We told him not to worry about it because we expected to work and would have had a guilty conscience if we weren’t. We’re not on a mission to have a vacation and goof off, except on P-days.

This morning we started at 8:00 because today was the last day and he wanted to finish getting the roof deck on. We did most of that and then went down the road to the other building and straightened things around and stacked the boards we moved and hadn’t used. By 11:00 we were packed and ready to go. Hitsch Jr. was on the roof putting on the last board when we left. Next comes the tar paper and then the wood shingles and then it’ll be finished except for a little wood siding on the one side.

We took the scenic ride through Klosters and into the city of Chur. The Bolts had an appointment there to do something and, while they were doing that, we walked around town a little. We walked up the street into the old town and window shopped a little, taking photos of this and that, and then we discovered the “Churer Fest”, Chur celebration, was going on. There were many food booths selling all kinds of local cuisine, one acting group doing a fire dance, juggling etc., carnival booths like at our state fair that take your money and give you junk in return if you win, a mechanical bull riding booth and other rides such as bumper cars etc. We had an hour and a half to wait for the Bolts, so we took our time and finally, right at the last, we went into a small shopping mall to look around. Diana found some cute kids’ jackets for a little less than $5.00 each and she would have liked to buy one for Maleah, the new baby girl of the Weidmanns, but she didn’t. We went into COOP bought some fruit and drinks for us all to eat on the rest of the way home and then met the Bolts who were just finished with their business, and then we left for home. On the way back they pointed out mountain ranges, ski resorts (which there are many) and other interesting things. We left the main road because they feared heavy weekend traffic and didn’t want to get stuck in a traffic jam. Instead we took a road that went above Wallensee (Lake Wallen) and had a beautiful drive with a view over the whole lake. Soon we arrived in Rapperswil which means we were out of the mountainous region and, as Hitsch said, “now all we have are hills.” We arrived back in Zurich at 4:30 and coming from up in the cool mountains to hot Zurich City will take a little while to get used to. Since coming home, we’ve been writing our journal now that we have a computer again, catching up the last few days. We took a break and went over to the Moeller-Russos to water their plants and then came home to finish and then write our report for the mission correlation meeting in the morning.

We checked our mailbox and found three letters in it, two from our ward at home with bishopric newsletters in them (January, February and July), and one from Roxsan describing an object lesson on Christ’s love for us. We appreciate any communication from home.