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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RAIN RAIN GO

Oh my word! It has been pouring rain since Friday night! Every now and then the clouds around the mountains clear out, but then they roll back in. The temperature, the other night, got down to 31*. Our squash is slightly touched, but otherwise we are okay.

This week, Tommy, Dwayne, and Jon with their boys (Jonnie, Michael, Austin) along with Kerri Geyer went to the Fish Wheel in Chitna, AK – the Sapa farm (Guermillo, mostly) told us when the salmon were running. These guys came home on Friday night with 152 sockeye salmon and 35 king salmon that they had cleaned and filleted. We rinsed and packaged the salmon (in the pouring rain). All the salmon together equaled 600 pounds. We are very grateful to Sapa for allowing us to come down, and we are thankful to the guys who went to get the salmon. Of course, it was a great experience for the Georgia guys!

As you probably saw from my pictures, we had three colts born since the wedding. The last one to be born, the dark colt was a very lazy baby and wouldn’t get up for days, but it now runs around happily. I still don’t know if that colt has a name.

I’m sure I have more news, but I need to get the breakfast going so we can be on time for church. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks

I AM IN CHARGE OF GAMES FOR THE UPCOMING 4TH. JULY CELEB. PILES OF KIDS COMING FROM WHITESTONE. CRAZY!

Have a nice week. I’m praying for sunshine at least on Thursday so I can mow and on Saturday for our 4th of July picnic.

Love,

KOFFI WENT HOME

Good morning folks! Hope everyone is well.

Koffi from Togo spent 15 jam packed days with us. He was enjoyed by all and he was really glad to get to do all he did. Fishing, hiking to the plateau, riding with the kids, doing chores, shooting, visiting with many, playing in the playground (yes! although he is 24... :)...)We prayed for him on the last day and he seemed to be touched by it all. Says he wants to bring his parents and sisters next time. We are already missing him, especially the kids...they did such a good job of taking him around.

We got some much needed rain over the weekend. Wendy, Miss Judy, and I have been frustrated because Tony fertilized the lawns and said we couldn't’t mow till it rained on the fertilizer. Now we have hay fields for lawns to mow! And, it hasn’t quite decided whether it really is going to stop raining or not so we may be further frustrated.

Last week, Steve Arsenault took our morning devotions so we had “church” nearly every morning. His wife did one morning so that was a normal morning for us. Steve preached on Wednesday night too. He talked so much last week that I’m having trouble remembering what his theme was since he must have had many.

The Mitchells are here for their yearly visit. They arrived on Saturday. Last night was wild on the playground with all the children getting reacquainted and figuring out how they fit into the new set up of friends. Jon Leo was in the mix too.

Seth Fouse, Jarred Milliron, and Garth Milliron are working in Northway, AK, on a big job that will take several weeks this summer. Seth twisted his ankle right before going last week so he’s working a little slow.

Garth bought ice cream and ice cream sandwhiches to sell over the summer. That has been a great hit – to have ice cream at our finger tips, sort of.

Yesterday was Tony and Wendy’s and Bill and Kathy Casey’s wedding anniversary.

May will be going in to Fairbanks to take her final driving test. She confided in me that she thinks she has decided that she does not enjoy driving but finds it something necessary...hope she passes. Pat and self have been taking her in various vehicles so that she can get more practice, which her instructor says she is sadly lacking...

Stacey and Peter got home from their honeymoon on Saturday. They went to Jamaica and are all tanned.

Penny Clark was out this weekend for a little while. It sure was nice to see her.

Various people have diff. relatives and kids w/o parents here visiting.



Have a nice week!



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NEW COLTS

AIN'T THEY CUTE!!!

AP&T AND TOK EMS BQ

Hi,

A pile of us went to a BQ hosted by the Alaska Power and Telephone Co. and the Tok EMS service. As soon as we arrived both Annie, May and Livy got put into the "victim" mode, covered in fake blood and stuck into crumpled up vehicles. It was all part of a life demo for rescue. The girls said that it was pretty scary since they were all crumpled up inside the vehicles (hope it never happens for real!!) and the EMS personnel had to cut them out with the Jaw of Life which are very powerful and noisy pneumatic cutters. Glass and metal was flying everywhere so the girls were protected by tarps. Still...they said it was rather unnerving and they were hoping that they wld not get nicked...

Fortunately all went well and everybody "survived" the ordeal, and were later whisked away in the ambulances.

There was food, prizes and demos, cake and ice cream for all...we sure pay the power people enough, but it must have cost them a packet nevertheless.

Pat decided to drive us in so that was nice since I was tired from having taken May into Delta the day before and not getting to bed early enough.

I will be posting some video and snaps soon..

Cloud cover but still fire hazard. Have not heard from PatLOU...

Oh! Before I forget, Koffi from W Africa has come for 15 days. He is a very enterprising and well educated young man with a number of degrees and languages. He wanted to visit Alaska and have an Alaskan experience, so I hope he will...

later...

sky outside our cabins

HI

Good morning! Yesterday morning with the high winds, the smoke rolled in from forest fires in the area. Today is not quite so bad; it is just a little hazy. Of course, it is gray out because it is trying to rain, but the clouds can’t seem to release their raindrops. (We need rain so the fertilizer can melt.)

Steve Arsenault has preached every morning at devotions so far and will preach the rest of the week, it seems, and will preach tonight. We had a young people get together with him and his family last night. We played lots of games and had a great time. Pictures are posted at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1975056&l=feb50e866d&id=674561568

Bill has been able to rectify most of his irrigation problems. He still has a small leak that’s causing a lack of pressure, but he hopes to fix that soon.

Tony was out bull dozing windrows till after 10 pm last night. I think the guys are done fertilizing the fields ATR.

A friend, Koffi, that Griselda and Robin made while in Arkansas this spring has come to visit for a few days. He is from West Africa a place called Togo, I think. Well educated young man, very enterprising, speaks French, besides English and some other languages. Has a double master in financing or something, very personable and hopes to get a real Alaskan experience!

Rob and self spent Monday in Delta, hoofing it from one end of the town to the other since we did not have a car. We walked from the Library to the Doctors office and then from there to the burger joint. Rob was quite tired out since it was a hot day! Then Chris J kindly picked us up on his way home from work...but it was a long day....

May needs some more practice driving before she takes her test. She doesn't get enough driving practice, so I am taking her out to Delta for a few more runs before she tries out for testing again at the end of June. Hope she passes.
It is costing her a packet! I cannot remember paying that much when I took my drivers ed. 'course that was over 25 yrs.ago...

Have a great Wednesday

Boring noos

Hi – I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve written – like since before the wedding.

The wedding day was really pretty, and the wedding itself was very nice. Everything seemed to go smoothly, and the wedding itself was beautiful. I’ll send some more pictures soon since I sure have plenty of them.

Since I’ve last written, we’ve planted the garden and done many other spring time things. At this link are some pictures of planting. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83845&id=674561568&l=996c31aa55
Our irrigation system is down so that is a problem. Bill Casey is trying to figure out how to fix that.

Judy, Wendy, and I with a pile of kids have started to mow the grounds in earnest. Everything was so brown for so long and now it is suddenly very green.

Steve Arsenault and his family are here for nearly a week. Steve preached yesterday.

Robin McCaffery is here for a couple of weeks to help Tom out with some truck driving jobs.

This weekend, Jarred and Jennifer took Stacey and Bethany Chartier and Wenda to Anchorage. Wenda will be visiting Stacey for a month.

Andy and Sarah Jane flew out this weekend to visit in the states.

Oh Pat and May have gone into Fbks for 2 days to finish off May's driving ed course. Hope she passes. I am now in Delta trying to get Rob's meds refilled. My nice Erica has been out here for a couple days and she gave May a very tight hairdo of little plats or braids, looks weird on her. Erica likes to practice on anybody who is willing since she is doing her beautician course at TVC in Fbk.s She is good at it and seems to be enjoying herself. Annie is kinda at a loss this summer since Kelsey (Erica's younger sis) has moved into Fbks to get a job as a landscaper and mower for the summer....she and Annie are quite tight.

OK no more for now, tty'all later


Have a nice week.

Colt born night of wedding

It was named CASEY...of course!!

LIVING WORD ACADEMY NEWS BREEZE

Probaby our last issue of our The Breeze, since Seth Jepsen and my niece Kelsey Mehaffey are graduating this year and we have no takers to catch this mantle of opportunity. Enjoy!!