Past week...

Hi all.  Sorry it’s been so long again!  Earlier this week, we awoke to -1°, but then a warm wind blew in warming temps to an average of 25°.  It stayed that way for several days, but yesterday it dipped to -3°.  Midday today it is 18°.

(Wow, just a found a “their” typo in my last email – sorry guys.  That is shameful!) 

Tommy called yesterday afternoon (to talk to Kevin).  He said that he and Penny were near Wyoming (if I listened correctly).  They had a nice ferry ride from Haines to Seattle. Tommy G (our cattle man) is traveling down to Wyoming with his sis. Penny, they are gonna help relocate their dad into a care facility I think.

I heard that Andrew Cummings was going to drive to Anchorage to pick up his wife and baby this weekend, but Andrew’s broke down.  Thus, the new plan hasn’t happened yet.  Hannah Hudgin and Monica Stillie have done the bulk of babysitting.  They are quite worn out and have other obligations that need tending to.  If anyone in Delta knows of someone who’d like to help out, I’m sure they could use the help. 

Erica Mehaffey Farrin is flying into Fairbanks this week.  She was only coming for a month’s visit.  Now that Robert is going over to Afghanistan for 9 months to work on helicopters, Erica will be staying longer, some here with her dad and some with her mom in Fairbanks. 

Last week, Jim Mason had us go around the room at our family supper and everyone told about their areas of business.  I wrote a few notes and I’ll attempt to retell very little of what they said.  J  Brad said that the loggers have a few cabin kits to put together and a lot of pellet orders to fill.  Merlin talked about his house building project, but I couldn’t hear him talking, and I’m sure he wouldn’t repeat it for me.  Tony talked about the horses saying that all is going well and that the one poor injured horse seems to be getting better.  Ben said that Pat Lou has been helping him out in the forge – they’re making some cow feeder things.  Jarred said his roofing project on base (which my Seth has been working on) is going well and according to plan. Seth Fouse said he has a few jobs relating to painting and dry walling.  Jon was home for the weekend.  He reported that he had to move again and that he’s been working in the ER some.  He’s been doing lots and lots of studying.  Peter said he’s been doing the same things as Jon but he’s been studying a lot on anatomy and physiology for his ACLS class – advanced cardiac life support.

Last Sunday Mark Coy, Derek Haukas, and Nathaniel Jeffreys came out to visit us.  I needed Mark’s help with a project that I’m working on.  DIS, the place Chris works for, asked me to make some calendars for them.  I needed Mark’s “guy” input to identify the machines they wanted me to use on their calendar.  Plus we scoured his harddrive for pictures to use. 

   

Chris Jepsen and Rebekah have announced their official engagement and they have a ring to show for it.

Time for Sunday supper – Hannah Mason, Jeni Nerbonne, Anne VanderHart, and Amanda Nerbonne are making us Brunswick chicken and the works for dinner.  

It's been lightly snowing for a while now. Starting to sweep off the porch from time to time.J 

Have a great week. 

END OF FALL EVENTS....

Folks,

I am trying to re do some of the posts that got deleted due to a Google thingie.

Here are some of them. Don't think I can redo all of them....I am including some of our various harvests, taters, carrots, haying and baling, mowing, etc.

 ANNIE IS A SENIOR!

SENIORS CLASS 2011

So now we are well into our 6th. week of

school. All is going well as far as I know.

We’ve had nice weather for the last week.

Actually in the early part of last week, it was

staying around 10° and 15°. Later on, it

warmed up. Tonight at 8:30 pm, it is 42°.

Last night we sure had some wicked winds

that disappeared by 7 am. I thought we

wouldn’t have anything loose still lying

around after last night.

There has been a smattering of snow off

and on but now it looks as if its gonna finally

stick. Rob has been wearing his snopants

and packs for a week now...funny kid! I

think he wants winter to come.

KATH AND BRADE ARE OLD HANDS AT

THIS...GO GIRLS!!

The high school kids got out of school every

day last week by 10 am. Then on Thursday

and Friday, they had all day off. But, when

they got out of school (girls included), they

were helping Tony stack collect and stack

straw bales and to wrap the hay bales.

They finished most of everything on

Saturday. Today there were a few more

bales to stack and put away, but not much.

It’s a nice feeling to get that done!

YOURS TRULY AND THE HUB

PAT'S BEEN     HELPING WITH MOWING

Carolyn has gone to Fbks to help Melani

and Andrew Cummings with their children.

Melani’s blood pressure spiked so they

induced labor. The baby had some heart

troubles upon birth so Andrew and the baby

were medi vacced to Anchorage.
It has been confirmed that the baby is a Down Syndrome baby. I am expecting 
a phone call any time now...good thing I kept all my research on DS down through the

years and hopefully can be of some help,

although I never make the first move...bless

them Lord! Maybe I can direct them towards

the wonderful Cindy Ringoen, our

neurodevelopmentalist that still comes to

Alaska once a year. She worked with Rob

for 7 or 8 years and became a friend more

than a therapist.

THERE IS HOPE! The sky's the limit for

these kids and we should not label or put

them in a box, because when we do, then

we PUT GOD IN A BOX!

Al Lorenzen went into town last weekend for

cataract surgery. Since the cataract was

too thick for the Fbks doctors, Al was flown

to Anchorage for the surgery. He is home

now and recovering nicely. Al is Ann

Vanderharts dad and Micah's granpa. Micah

is one of my students for part of the day. He

has a mild case of CP and hemiplagia. Rob

and him share the same therapists through

the school district.

I am having a great beginning of school.

Have Clayton Mason, Micah VH and Rob

for Bible (doing some of the OT great

stories), then we split for academics and I

get the 3 boys again for Social Studies (BJ

excellent course on American History and

the beginning of our nation + the OREGON

TRAIL and westward expansion), the kids

love it being boys...all that americana. 


We also do Rob and Micah's PT and therapy

program together in the am, and Clay joins

in, what's not to like about jumping on

hoppy balls, balance beams, balance

boards, dangling from ladders, etc., etc.??

I kinda miss my Spanish class for the HS

and was rather hoping for a second year

with them but they all decided they had

other stuff they wanted to do, more. Annie is

in her senior year and taking more

advanced art and fashion design courses

online and by correspondence. I wish I cld

send her somewhere - the Lord knows. She

is so gifted musically as well.

Rob esp. loves being with his big brother

now that he is back for the winter. Pat took him out archery shooting and hopes to do more of the same 

Young people gave a good testimony and

took the Sun service with songs and

sharing. They shared about their trip to

Canada for the Headwaters Ranch Youth
camp. Thanks to the Nerbonne twins for

taking them. :)

Okay, everyone’s coming home; my peace

is dissolving. More another night

MAY HAS ENJOYED HER GARDEN EXPERIENCE

THIS SUMMER. SHE IS NOW LEARNING HOW TO MANAGE IT.

SOME PAST EVENTS....

We had a wild weekend. Some folks from Haines – Marta Venebles with

Walt and Diane Atkinson came up on Saturday to collect a cow from us.

They passed through a lot of snow in their travel here. They spent the day

with us – Rich and Walt fixed their trailer’s lights and we all toured the farm.

John Venebles who is going to school at UAF came down stopping by

Whitestone to pick up his cousin and her friend, Allison Wenger and Julie

Brown. The kids went out and worked with our kids but they came in

starving for lunch and supper. Bro George Harris arrived on Saturday and

stayed through Monday morning. George preached on Sunday morning

about the need for God’s elect to have a clean conscience. Kelsey was

home for the weekend.

Some of the young guys including Pat Lou have been waiting up at night to

surprise some kind of creature who has been getting into our chicken coop

and decimating our chickens. So far they see no signs of the beast, it is too

smart to show itself.

I am enjoying teaching American History social studies to the 3 boys in

grade 3, including Rob. I also teach Science and have Rob on a modified

grade 3 curriculum for the rest of his academics. We keep plugging away at

Math using a Bob Jones curriculum which seems to work for him.

Pat and Beth are busily making plans and wading through the complexities

of immigration issues.

Still trying fit in my daily bike hike but getting rather cold.

Have a great week.

TATER HARVEST...!!

ROB SHOWING US A BIG TATER...

 SOME OLDER MOOSINGS....

Good morning!!!

We’ve had beautiful

weather for the last

10 days. We are

almost done with

our garden harvest

and moose meat

cutting. Then we

can concentrate on                   my future daughter in law Beth....

getting ready for

school. Of course,

Tony and the boys

still have lots of hay

to cut and wrap,

and Ben has grain to finish putting up. The grain is so wet this year that Ben has  to take every load to town to be dried.

In my last emails I mentioned that Chris T Williams, Andy, Tommy, Megan,

and Chris Jepsen shot moose. Since then Tony, Brad, Craig, and Jarred

each shot a moose. Tony got his on the LAST day! All but three of the

moose came out of the Fish Lake area.

Adrielle Fouse is out visiting for the weekend. Nathan Milliron is still here

working with his brother. Marilyn’s sister and sister in law had a great visit,

but now they are on their way home. Jon should be home to visit this

weekend. School is pretty rough on him. Fortunately he has Peter Casey

and Angela Macias to study with nearly every night. (It sounds like the

teacher teaches one thing and then asks other things on the test?)

Pat has been busy ATR helping with the grain operation and also helping

his Dad winterize the cabin.

We celebrated a kinda joint birthday for Pat and Beth as their birthdays

were one day apart in August and they were not here.

Annie, Beth and Kelly are spending some days down at the clinic in Tok to

re certify for their ETT ems stuff.

Rachel and Hannah Trotter have gone to visit their grandmother for 10

days. I talk to Rachel Trotter nearly every day on google chat.

I heard that Andrew Casey flew down to the states to drive up with Joey.

So, Joey and Andrew are driving to AK as we type/read this email. It would

probably be good if Joey could be home for the first day of school –

September 27th.

Bonnie’s mom needed some eye surgery so they’ve been back and forth to

Anchorage a lot lately.

School is around the corner and of course none of us feel prepared to

tackle it. Helps that I never quite am finsihed with Rob, but we have had a

rather lax attitude t'wds it this summer. Rob has had a busy schedulle and I

think has enjoyed his summer very much. Now he is busy following his big

brother around on different ventures....I will be teaching him in the morning

and then join two other third graders for Social Studies, Science and Bible.

Talk to you all later,

FRIDAY

Hi.  This afternoon a wind blew in.  It has been nearing the zero line on the thermometer each morning this week, but tonight it is a balmy 27°. 

Kevin had his 19^th birthday this week.  We weren’t able to do much on the day of his birthday so this afternoon Kathryn, Bethany, and a few others made a cake.  Thomas “babysat” a small party at the tab tonight.  I couldn’t because I had promised Chris and Rebekah that I’d help them do some prep work for a dinner their cooking for everyone tomorrow – everyone being all of her family and all of Chris’s (my) family.

Oh, I was given a more detailed report on the situation with Andrew and Melani Cummings and their family.  I will edit that and send it along to those who want to see it. 

We’ve enjoyed Penny Clark being here all week.  Tommy and Penny leave on Sunday.  They will spend Sunday night at the Haines farm probably with my in laws. 

Earlier this week we had a surprise visit from Marley and Monique Woolfolk from Hilltop, Canada.  They came back yesterday afternoon for a proper tour of the farm.  Sam, their son who lives at Whitestone, came and spent several hours of yesterday with us as well.  They spent the night with Thomas and Jeni, leaving at 5 am this morning to return home. 

Happy Birthday, Jason Tate.  I hope you read this! 

Have a great weekend!!!!

RANDOM NOTES......THIS WEEK SO FAR....

Hi.  It’s been so long since I’ve written that I don’t know where to start.  And, my house is so noisy that I can hardly think.  Every room has gotten something going on it – Seth’s working on the slide show from the Headwater’s Youth Camp (music playing), Kevin’s looking for more appropriate music (more music playing), Rich is wiping the hard drive on Chris’s computer, Chris is paying bills on his laptop, Lizzie is doing homework, and I’m trying unsuccessfully to draft a devotion for tomorrow morning.  Food is being chewed loudly….

Bonnie and Wendy and grandchildren (of Bonnie) have come home safely from Evan Gorman’s wedding in Florida.  They all are enviably brown!!!!!

It was discovered that Andrew and Melani Cumming’s baby who was born with heart and lung trouble is a Down’s Syndrome baby.  I think Melani is still inAnchorage with the baby while Andrew is back in Delta with the older kids.  I heard Andrew had the two boys while his sister was caring for the younger two girls. 

Jarred is the boss on a large building (roof?) construction job in Ft. Greely. Seth and Nathan have been going with him.  They’ve been leaving at 6:30 am and coming home at 8 pm. 

The loggers went to town last week for 1 and ½ days to put together two cabin kits in North Pole. 

  

VanderHarts went to Anchorage last weekend because Micah had some neurologist appointments on Saturday.   Micah told me that he saw lots of things one being a two story McDonalds!

Tommy Geyer and Penny Clark are driving down to Oklahoma to go see their dad.  I think they’ll be moving their dad to a different state.  Penny will be spending the winter with her father. 

Rob is enjoying his school year so far. We are doing Social studies with the BJ curriculum which continues from the Mayflower and now is into the establishing of the new nation with George Washington as the president. Much has happened! The boys in the class (Micah and Clayton) are enjoying learning about the French Revolution, the guillotine, and Bonaparte. They helped me make a model of the Bastille complete with drawbridge, lego soldiers, cannons, etc. a fun time in the making...lots of scotch tape!

In science Rob and I put together a short unit on spiders. He typed out a paragraph and together we made a life size tarantula on paper. Actually a RED KNEED MEXICAN TARANTULA. Very scary looking!

Nice outside, not too cold yet but thin covering of snow. Sun is still out and pretty soon we shall watch it disappear behind the surrounding mountains until January or February...booohooo...

More another night. Too tired to write any more.

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