Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
HI FROM THE LAND....

Hi – I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve written. On Monday, I ran Tom and Jeni and family to the airport since they are going to the Ava youth camp (they are doing some other traveling while down there too). So, I turned around that night and came home in the wee hours of the morning. It took me a day or so to recover from that.
We did get all our square bales and put up in good time. Tony says we put up 4,727 square bales and 167 round bales. I know we’ve put up way more round bales than that number because that was a number he gave me early last week, and I’ve seen them hauling tons more round bales this week.
The weather has been beautiful this week – mostly sunshine all the time. We’ve had some strong winds for the past couple of days. There have been strong wind warnings on my weather bug for days so I don’t think we’re the only ones getting this wind – Fbks & Delta too, maybe Tok? Our nights are beginning to take on a cool tinge, letting us know that fall time is around the corner. L
Bill Casey, who is in charge of our garden, says we are done weeding in the garden. Now it is time to start harvesting. We’ve started, just this week, to eat fresh squash and cabbage. We’ve been eating lettuce for a long time. Of course, we’ve been eating our green house goods for a very long time, and they are so good that we rarely share (we consume them all).
I heard that we have finally named that dark colt – her name is Palin after, you’ve guessed it – Sarah Palin, our soon ex-governor, if not already ex-governor.
Brad with a crew of misfits (Rich, Seth, Joey, and Tommy) has been putting up a house on the Clearwater River. I’m calling them misfits because none of them except maybe Tommy are Brad’s regular crew, but, hey, they’re getting the work done.
Oh… how could I forget – Bonnie and Jim Mason are here visiting for a couple of weeks. Another oh… - Canda Stiner is arriving today and will be here for a few weeks.
Sarah Grado’s (can’t remember her married name) two children are here visiting Jo and her family. Last night, Serena with her two boys came out. It was quite cute to see all those cousins playing together.
Tommy’s dad and nephew went home this week.
Merlin went to Skagway this week to meet up with his sisters.
We went to Lisa Lake one night to swim and fish. Here are a few pictures: click on the title of this post to get to the link of pics..
Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
THE LAND SEEN THROUGH KOFFI'S EYES.
KOFFI FROM TOGO W.AFRICA,CAME TO VISIT OUR FARMING COMMUNITY FOR 15 JAM PACKED DAYS OF AN ALASKAN ADVENTURE!!
GO KOFFI !!!
WE MISS YOU AND WANT YOU TO COME BACK SOON....
GO KOFFI !!!
WE MISS YOU AND WANT YOU TO COME BACK SOON....
HI YO SILVER!!
MAY TOOK THIS CLIP OF THESE TWO FEARLESS RIDERS ON THEIR STEEDS...SETH JEPSEN AND BETHANY CHARTIER. BETHY HAS COME TO FINISH HIGH SCHOOL WITH US...SHE IS IN ANNIE'S CLASS IN 10TH.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
23 YEARS...ANNIVERSARY!


Today, hubby and self have been married 23 years...amazing huh?he was so sweet to take me out to dinner at the big city of Tok...I had seafood and he had his usual turkey Tom...not very inspiring...I also had a glass of very tolerable Merlot...since I was not driving ...then we strolled around the visitors center and gift shop. He bought me some Alaskan fudge (cranberry..mmmm...) and some very nice Alaska jade earrings...I found two funny looking sea otters cuddling and got that plus some Alaska dark roast called "Dead Man's Reach"...which I know he likes....so there's my anniversary report. The girls were nice enough to stay home and watch Rob...and tomorrow we go in to the big city for medicals and shopping. Rob might get his first pair of glasses EVER...and I will renew my prescription before I have to purchase a LARGE PRINT BIBLE@!!...so now that u r totally bored with the report...u can stop reading this..)))))))
talk to u all later...hope u had a great week end...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
MORNIN'...
Goodmorning – it looks a little gray outside at 56° this morning. Fortunately, most of the acrid smoke has cleared out and gone somewhere else.
We finished putting most of our square hay bales this week. If the weather is good, we have a little more hay to be picked up and brought to the barn. Someone said we’d gotten nearly 4,000 bales of hay – and it’s all beautiful. We do still have to round bale the Timothy hay. The only reason I know about for round baling the Timothy hay is because so many of our guys are totally allergic to it.
Anyway, I need to get moving since soon I need to be in Delta to photograph Autumn Abbott’s wedding.
Tomorrow morning, Bro John Jeffreys will be here for service. He will then spend the night before returning home the next day.
Have a great Saturday.
We finished putting most of our square hay bales this week. If the weather is good, we have a little more hay to be picked up and brought to the barn. Someone said we’d gotten nearly 4,000 bales of hay – and it’s all beautiful. We do still have to round bale the Timothy hay. The only reason I know about for round baling the Timothy hay is because so many of our guys are totally allergic to it.
Anyway, I need to get moving since soon I need to be in Delta to photograph Autumn Abbott’s wedding.
Tomorrow morning, Bro John Jeffreys will be here for service. He will then spend the night before returning home the next day.
Have a great Saturday.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
haying....and gardening at the same time



Wow! Since Sunday afternoon, we have put up 2,245 bales of beautiful, unrained upon, green hay. It is gorgeous. We were on quite a roll yesterday since we put up more than half of that hay just yesterday. I will put some pictures on facebook when I have a chance.
The smoke from forest fires was soooo bad yesterday that it was hard to see the mountains and to know if we had clouds over head or just lots of smoke. During the night, I was awakened by the smoke coming in my open bedroom window.
Later on during the night, around 3:30 am, it started raining. Raining isn’t quite the right word though. It sounded like hail but when I dove out of bed to look outside, it was just quarter sized droplets coming down fast and furiously. It sounded so terrible. Seth woke up too, and we were peering outside together trying to take it all. It rained like that off and on till around 10 am. At least is it seems to have cleared the smoke up a little bit.
Sometime yesterday a mink (or maybe a family of mink) got into our turkey barn and carried away all 17 baby turkeys. The only thing that evidences their lives in the barn is a very small amount of blood and feathers. Theory is that the mink killed them and hid them for later eating. May, our fearless warrior, went right out to the barn and shot a mink or the mink, we don’t know how many killers there were.
Tommy has his father and a nephew, Gavin, here for a few weeks. Gavin sure helped us out quite a bit yesterday with the haying. He was mostly my runner. He rode on my truck – I was pulling over loads of hay for unloading. He would hitch and unhitch my wagons and watch my loads as I drove. We had a lot of fun.
Kathy Casey’s sister, Trudy, with her family has come to visit for a few days. I guess they are driving a motor home up and have done some Alaskan sight seeing. Trudy is my age and went with us on our first Fish Lake retreat in ’83. Trudy and I were “buddies” for that retreat.
While some hayed others gardened....
Time for lunch and laundry. Talk to you all later
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
LYV'S B'DAY PARTY,





Here are a few of Lyvy's b'day party. She is Annie's class chum...they covered their faces in some kind of face goop...more beautiful or something to that effect. Annie is the one in red pants..
Anyhoo, Carolyn (Lyv's mom) had a todo at the Tab with a piñanta and all...great fun¡ You can see May in foreground.

Monday, July 13, 2009
sunday and today.....


Hi everyone. We canceled church this morning to have a work morning in the garden. Our garden became overrun with weeds due to the excess rain a few weeks ago and due to the weed spray not working as we thought it should.
We’ve had excellent weather for the last couple of days – we’ve been able to mow most of our hay. Today we should be putting up our first bales into the barn.
Wenda arrived home yesterday, bringing Bethany Chartier with her. Bethany will remain for the rest of the summer and for the school year. Hope Stacey can bear this – Kenny is in Iraq, her sons are in the Navy, and Bethany is here. Annie is going to be happy to have another chum in class...
Ok, gotta run – I can’t be late for the garden when they made it ½ later than the usual church hour. (Well, I easily could be late, but I’m trying not to be.)
later...
We had a profitable day today. We worked 2 hours in the garden getting most of the carrots weeded and thinned. We also got some of the lettuce and spinach and peas weeded. I took pictures of the laborers on Thursday night when the sky was interesting and of today when it was warm and pleasant out.
Later on today, Tony and the boys and Wendy started baling the hay. Tonight we unloaded 600 or 700 square bales. If the weather holds for a couple of days, we should do really well.
Rob has spent lots of time in the pool outside, this pool turned out to be quite durable so far...and he enjoys it. the creek water however, is soooo icy cold, I always have to warm it down a bit...but today is a super hot day...
OK today...
Well, I’m supposed to be out mowing this morning, but the weather isn’t conducive to that. For a couple of days, we had highs around 83° and 85° and possibly higher. Last night at 11 pm, a thunder and lightening storm blew in. The lightening started a few fires around the state, and the storm gave us some rain.
The rain is nice because it settled the dust a little bit, but it is not so nice since we just started cutting our hay. The boys with Tony have been cutting hay like crazy. Tony has been working madly to fix the broken down tetter since we sorta need that to get the hay done.
Oh yes, Haines farm is very happy because they cut and put up all their hay without one dot of rain!
Wenda’s niece wrote a book about her time in Romania and Russia called We Wait You. It’s an interesting book and written from a godly perspective. I googled it and found it at Amazon. Or you can get it directly from her publisher at www.WinePressBooks.com or by calling 1.877.421.7323. Taryn, Wenda’s niece, has a blog at http://tarynhutchison.authorweblog.com/ Anyone that checks out Taryn’s blog or book will not be disappointed. I think Taryn was over in Eastern Europe with YWAM.
I have to say that the pics have been taken with May's brand new Canon SX110 IS...what a nice little camera! not so little, anyway I am considering one myself now....hard to go wrong with Canon...she wanted it to get prepared for her trip to Ireland in NOvember, so now is using it during the 30 day return period....
Have a nice Monday,
Here are some summer pics....the irrigation system in the garden is going non stop it is so hot...

HAVING FUN IN THE SUN....
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
THE MAYONNAISE JAR
AND THIS FROM MY SIS. MARINA IN BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA...ENJOY...IT'S PRETTY GOOD!!
How true is this, what a nice way to measure our lives.
The Mayonnaise Jar
When things in your life seem, almost too much to handle,
When 24 Hours in a day is not enough,
Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class
And had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly,
He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar
and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students, if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured
them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively
filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided,
'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things - family,
children, health, Friends, and Favorite passions –
Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, Your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car.
The sand is everything else --The small stuff.
'If you put the sand into the jar first,' He continued,
'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,
You will never have room for the things that are important to you..
So...
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal..
'Take care of the golf balls first --
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled.
'I'm glad you asked'.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'
Please share this with other "Golf Balls"
How true is this, what a nice way to measure our lives.
The Mayonnaise Jar
When things in your life seem, almost too much to handle,
When 24 Hours in a day is not enough,
Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class
And had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly,
He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar
and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students, if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured
them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open Areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively
filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided,
'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things - family,
children, health, Friends, and Favorite passions –
Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, Your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car.
The sand is everything else --The small stuff.
'If you put the sand into the jar first,' He continued,
'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,
You will never have room for the things that are important to you..
So...
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal..
'Take care of the golf balls first --
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled.
'I'm glad you asked'.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'
Please share this with other "Golf Balls"
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
4th july picnic etc.



How’s it going? Now that the 4th of July picnic is behind me, maybe I can catch up on some other things. On the 4th of July, the smoke rolled in and has been with us ever since. It’s strange because when I look outside, it appears to be overcast and cold, but when I step out, it is actually muggy and hot due to the smoke coverage.
Here are some pics. I took lots of video and will have to pare it down for the blog tho.
U can see May with her plumed hat on her steed in one of them. She was busy working doing diff. chores for folks who are away and even spent time in the kitchen helping the cooks, so I don't know how much fun and games she did...such a hard worker....
We had a huge and fun 4th of July picnic. I think we ended up having 72 folks over from Whitestone, 52 folks from Delta and Fairbanks, and approximately 85 of our own folks. I can’t even begin to tell you all that went on because it was a hugely busy day. And, the weather was God-given; it was simply gorgeous (except for the smoke). We had our regular parade, but this year Whitestone brought a clown (Johnny Porter) and a four wheeler float run by David Brooks. We had horse rides, games for the little kids, a soft ball revolving game, volley ball, and swimming.
Here is one where u can get the idea of the many folks that came..

The Mitchells and Chavezes brought watermelon so that we ate it alllll day long; Patrick contributed corn. Whitestone brought some salads and lettuce. Rich and Thomas grilled; Jeni held down the kitchen; I coordinated the games and ended up having about 20 kids in my age group. I even looked up treasure hunt ideas on the Internet and was able to get something going that was pleasing to all; Rich and Dwayne coordinated the softball;

Tony and Chris Toby and Jo led the horse rides; Wendy, Chris, Jannis, Sarah Jane, Seth, May, and many more helped with odd jobs and dishes and setting up. Whitestone sent out a crew early to help us set up and serve the food. Everyone pitched in, and everyone had fun (I think).
On the 1st of July, the logging crew went on a fishing trip to Valdez. They brought home approximately 310 pounds of halibut, cod, and stone fish.
Sarah Horender and her two girls are here for a couple of weeks.
Seth Fouse, Garth, and Jarred are still working on their job down in Northway. I heard that they are doing well and are actually ahead of schedule.
Garth and Kim took a bunch of kids to the Quartz Lake to swim on Sunday afternoon and evening. They were going to go to the gravel pits but a man had drowned in their the day before and they were still looking for his body. The body has since been found.
Tony and boys have started cutting our hay. Whitestone has started cutting and now is baling their hay.
Mitchells have gone home. Wenda is soon to come home. She will be bringing Bethany with her for the rest of the summer and for the upcoming school year. JoAn Mourat is in Texas visiting her family. Andy and Sarah Jane are home from their two week visit to see Andy’s mom.
Lura and James and Michelle are out visiting the Coxes and Miss Jannis for a few days.
We missed nothaving PatLu with us but he is busy working the tourist trade with his boss who operates a riding and trail operation in the south of Alaska. He will be coming home at the end of July for a few days, pick up some more trail horses and then off hunting on the Alaska range till the end of fall season...boohoo...we miss him tons, especially his lil' bro Rob...who ask after him all the time.
Hey have a nice day. Hope your day isn’t as smokey as ours!
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