IS IT COLD YET?

Wow, I didn’t realize that the temperature was dropping last night as I was running around doing errands.  It’s -40 degrees and dropping, this morning. I was supposed to take the girls into Delta, but Pat said NO!

Many of you have asked about Jason Underhill who fell from a manhaul about 20ft. while working in the Kenai.  I do know that he was able to get on a flight home to Anchorage where he saw a spine specialist.  I haven’t heard much other than he did crack three ribs and fracture those two vertebras (one lower; one upper).  He is in extreme pain and has a hard time staying in one position for long. 

Jarred and Jennifer had all the kids down last night for a game night.  They came home late and happy.

Carolyn had the sixth and seventh graders busy all afternoon yesterday making decorations for our Thanksgiving meal next week.  They were having a jolly time with that! (and eating way more candy than their mom’s would probably like  J  which is soooo much fun)

Andy, Sarah Jane, and Rachel have braved the cold temperatures to do the Thanksgiving shopping run.  I don’t envy them! Everybody is looking forward to our yearly Thanksgiving feast...wish Loui Chavez would come and make us his signature Mexican "asado"...I think he just had carpal tunnel surgery on one of his hands.

My BIL Ben Mehaffey did pretty good at his show last weekend.  He has been able to rent a little credit card machine from the bank by the month for these shows.  That has been most helpful as many people like to pay with their credit cards.  Brad and Ben have been tossing around this idea about people having an app on their ipads that allows customers to pay you when they scan their card over your ipad.  I guess it is a real and useful and secure app????  The loggers just might need to invest in an ipad for their business dealings. 

I have since gotten better details on the hunters’ breakfast biggest rack derby – Mikey Koehler was the actual winner.  Mikey is 12 or 13 yrs old.  What a cool thing.  And, it’s like the third or fourth moose that he has shot in his short lifetime!

Our 2012 calendars are hot on the griddle and will be coming out pretty soon. Our resident photographer Sarah Jepsen always does a swell job and they are so nice to send out to family and friends. If you want one get in touch with her via phone, email  (jepsensarah@gmail.com) or her website (http://www.bysarahj.com/). I think that the calendars should be $12 each. 

Saturday chores and cooking are calling.  You all have a great and safe weekend. 

The Land Nov. 2011

Good morning.  We were promised terrible weather by the forecast people due to the storm blowing in from Siberia.  It has been a little bad, but nothing like was predicted.  Fairbanks folks have been having steady -30* for several days now while we been not quite reaching -20*.  Maybe the weather is heading our way? 

Tuesday afternoon, we received a message that Jason Underhill, while in Karluck, AK working, fell 20 feet from a man lift.  It was discovered that he fractured a lower and upper vertebra.  After a lot of severe pain and some other symptoms that I’ll leave out and after he had been released from the hospital, someone re-looked at his x-rays and observed extremely bruised kidneys and several cracked ribs.  After the first diagnosis, the hospital had released Jason.  Alex and Jason went to friend’s place in Kodiak to rest.  Now, the hospital wants Jason back but he’s in too fragile a condition to move.  Lura can’t make it out there due to 50 mph winds; Alex is taking care of his dad on his own. 

Instead of church on Sunday and again last night (Wednesday), we butchered and packaged several cows and pigs. 

Hunters’ breakfast at the Trotzkes was a huge hit, AGAIN.  Kevin won the prize for giving the best moose call.  We had him demonstrate at supper for us. Koehler's did win the biggest horn derby.  Seth made a slide show that if he ever you tubes, I’ll pass along a link.  I think my favorite part of the slide show is at the end, there is a movie clip of Kevin right after he shot his first moose.  Talk about excited!  Tommy wrote a story that is really cute.  Maybe I can get a digital copy for you all. 

Pat has been rather busy with piano work all over Alaska, it seems. He gets home from one trip and then goes out on another. The last one was his Copper River, Glennallen one where he stops at SAPA and tunes their pianos and then moves on to the rest of the community at large. When home he is still wood processing firewood for the community at home and it was his week for FIREWATCH, which means stoking all the big boilers (4) to keep the public buildings going. Both schools, tack shop, blacksmithing and mechanic shops, etc. This is a job that is meant for younger men, but he still does it as do others in his age group...keeps them in shape. Pat tries to go out on his ski trail for a few miles everyday...

The AGSD has provided Rob with some awesome school equipment. Bsides his treadmill from last year now he has a nice pair of red  REDFEATHER SNOWSHOES, a new Mac running SnowLeopard  with cutting edge technology (I love you Mr. Jobs,. RIP !)…and some awesome software for MATH, READING AND TYPING. Some of it is online so I have to stay home some of the time to do that and then go to school for the rest. He continues to get therapists come to Dry Creek a few times a year. Speech Path, OT, PT, and his beloved Sped teacher Paula….(she's the one with the 75 dogs Rob visited this summer).

I continue to take the younger generation out on the snowshoeing trails. Ages range from 6 to 14 (Rob). I do try and go out on my own with Annie on a longer trail which gives me an adequate workout then return and do some of my new found love for Yoga….can't do all the moves but am trying…does make a difference.

Since I teach high school Spanish using the Rosetta Stone software, Rob joins my class for 45' every day. He has his own laptop and his own Rosetta Stone, kindly procured by the AGSD Correspondence REACH Academy (Resources for Educating Alaska's Children at Home). He likes it and actually does very well on it, speaking Spanish into the microphone! haha...next thing I'll take him to Spain for TOTAL IMMERSION, huh?

My sis. Karenza Hanson spent 3 weeks in BA, Argentina. Looking into my stepmum's situation as well as visiting friends and family.

 my sister Marina, Karenza and cuz Cecilia

So nothing new on the home front. We are slowly being enveloped into a world of winter wonderland. Our cabins are warm and cozy, we have food on the table, kids and friends who love and complete us and we are never alone. What's not to like?

God is good.

Have a great day! and rest of the week. KEEP WARM!

Rob got invited to a youth gathering at one of the homes. He enjoys that!

WINTER NOOS UPDATE

Hello All,

Yesterday, by the time I got my emails completed, the temperature had risen to 3*; throughout the day, it came up even higher, but by nightfall, we were seeing -12* on the thermometer.  That is what the current temperature is still this morning.  I know many of you have heard about the severe weather which Alaska has predicted.  We have felt nothing here out of the ordinary, but I read in the news that up by the coast where Nome is situated (Norton Sound area) there was some extreme wind and flooding.  Places were being evacuated, debris was being washed into the streets, etc.

The moon has been simply beautiful all night and still is this morning.

On Tuesday, Kylin, Andrew, and Landin Casey arrived at noon time and stayed to visit the Casey parents for the day.  Joey arrived after supper for a few hours.  Crazy boy.  He’d worked that day and had school the next day.  I guess he was just missing home!

Meat cutting work night was great.  Uh huh!  Kevin, Tommy, and Kim worked all afternoon in the root cellar breaking the cows into workable pieces.  Then in the evening we all got together to clean the bones and package the meat.  We were done with everything including clean up by 7:30 pm.

Hunters’ breakfast is being held at Trotzke’s home this Saturday at 9 am.  A prize will go to the shooter of the largest set of antlers – so far, the speculation is that the prize will go to the Koehlers for shooting a 54”.  There also will be a prize for the person who can give the best moose call.  Now that would be a fun contest to watch/hear. Rob went with his big sis. and had a good time.

Steve, Rus, and Garth went to town the other day and brought home a new car for the farm vehicle situation.  I’m not big on car names, but I think they said it was a town and country Chrysler?  It has to be winterized before we can use it. 

Come Thursday Rob and I will be attending an adventure day in Tok with the Wildlife Refuge, for correspondence students. Should be fun, hope it is not too cold though, cause we're going to be outside mainly. Will post photos soon.

Pat's back from Copper River and now off to Fairbanks again.

We opened the ski/snowshoe trail, so now will be going to the end of the trail...if the weather holds and it doesn't get too cold too fast...lol

Have a great day!!!! 

Hi all,

Last night our temperature plummeted to -22*, but this morning it has warmed up to -9*.  The moon is two nights away from being full, so I’m expecting more cool weather.

Jon came home from his remote work place.  I talked to him briefly and found out that he was working as a paramedic/EMT at a copper mine somewhere near Lake Illiamma.  There is a lot of controversy about this particular mine, Pebble mine, since it is near the Bristol Bay and the mines’ waters could be spilling out into the ocean and hurting the nearby salmon spawning area. In the meantime, they still need paramedics, so Jon was there for awhile.  But… I found out from Jon that this Illiamma Lake is the 8^thlargest lake in North America.  I’ve never heard of it; now, I have.

The loggers have been erecting a shed for their waste chips.  They received a contract to supply the Delta school with semi loads of chips for their heating system.  

Seth Fouse is still working in Fbks.  He came home for the weekend.  Adrielle, Seth’s sister, who has spent any of her off time here since last March, moved into Delta and is living with Joel and Joanna Wiggins.  

Tonight (instead of church) we are cutting up some beef that Tommy and Kevin butchered a couple of weekends ago. 

This past Sunday Prins and Linda came to service here.  They just came; they didn’t preach.  Then, for the day, we had Mark Coy and Kelsey with her boyfriend, Brandon.  The preachers were Wenda, Andy, and Margaret – I won’t sum up their words since I better get going this morning.  I felt like all three of them were speaking of keeping ourselves clean so we can be useful vessels for the Lord.  (Or maybe that is my summary of a couple of weeks ago??? L )

Ben has a Christmas show in Fairbanks this weekend.  Also, concerning his back injury, he has been going to therapy about once every ten days.  The therapist said that he needs to strengthen his right side so all his exercises are geared for that.  He has been cleared to do more and more bending and lifting.  He just can’t pick up super heavy things from low places still.

Patrick B is traveling in the GlenAllen area for his many piano tuning jobs.  He will be gone for nearly a week.

I think the hunter’s breakfast at Trotzke’s home is this weekend.  The guys are all pretty excited because it’s a time for good food and swapping their never ending hunting stories.

I’m going to send out a pic that I snapped on my computer.  The other morning I was up early working and Pat Lou came on skype and wanted to chat.  I told him that my hair wasn’t combed, etc.  He didn’t care about what I looked like, he just wanted to show me his babies.  Of course, I couldn’t resist that.  The babies just melted my heart!  They are cooing already, and they looked adorable.  Pat says that he and Beth go to bed around 7 pm since they spend a lot of each night feeding and changing diapers!

Have been taking small groups of the younger students with me on the snow shoe trails. We need more snow for most of the trails since the rocks are still noticeable. Kids had a good time and I always enjoy it.

i have been trying to get into Yoga. Not in the spiritual sense, but more for balance, coordination and stamina. Pat Lou has been doing it for over a year at the fire camps. Many of the firefighters were suffering from lower back pains and other ailments which come from a wilderness fireman;s life. They brought in a certified yoga instructor and Pat says it has made a world of difference. He cam into the school one day and showed us some of the moves.

I figured it couldn;t hurt so ordered a beginners DVD. It is hard¡ but am slowly learning the sequences. Amazing how one can actually do the exercises, I need allot of practice but feel better already.

I better get ready for school.  You all have a great day! I really better get….. 

WINTER ALREADY???

Goodmorning,

♫♫

Winter is for sure here – slightly below temperatures each morning this week.  This morning it is -2 degrees.

  

Later today, Nelsen Grier will be bringing George Harris out for a visit.  George will overnight with the Millirons and preach at tomorrow’s service. 

Kevin and Tommy will be butchering some cows today.  Yeah! More meat to cut! 

Steve S with other guys (Craig, Jim, and ????) changed the batteries to the tabernacle’s heating system yesterday.  The poor ladies working in the kitchen were without heat for the majority of the morning.  It was for a good cause.  See, we turn our big farm generator off every night at 8 pm, and it doesn’t go on until 7 am.  All the buildings and homes need to have their own battery bank to take care of any electrical needs during that “off” time.  The tab’s batteries were bad so the heating system would soon quit each night when the generator was turned off. Hopefully the new battery bank (6 or 8 big golfcart things I think), will do us for another 20 years...NOT! haha...

We also need to replace one of the minivans due to the demise or early retirement of our Dodge MV. As well as 3 new washing machines. So some expenses coming up which the PDF will come in handy for. I also hear that the big gennie is showing its age and a newer one is somewhere in our sights....hummmm

Jon Squires is out working remotely as an EMT or paramedic.  Somewhere on an island in the middle of frozen Alaska where there is a gold mine. He has been gone for two weeks and will be gone for another week.  Last week, Patrick went to Valdez for a week to tune pianos in that area. He still has his Glenallen trip to do.

May has recently moved into the little house behind our home, the house that used to belong to Peter and Stacey (before that it was Rachael B’s, before that it was Paul and Liz’s and before that it was the clothing bank)....haha...now you have the history of the place. P&S really used it for a while after they were married and set it up very nicely. Quite small and compact but May is happy with it and has fixed it up all nice and cozy. We miss her at home, but she probably does not miss us much! ☹

Rob has his own room now and his train set has made permanent residence on the rug...I  think he is pleased with the new arrangement.

Tomorrow Sunday dinner, I hear we are going to have Sarah's  old fashioned dinner of roast and potatoes.  Then…..  the strawberries given to us by the Haines farm to make strawberry shortcake!  Should be good. 

I have gone out with some of the young kids snowshoeing but the snow is not deep enough...am waiting for some more and then we will venture out on our old trails again.

My sister Karenza is in BA, looking out for arrangement for our aged stepmum Chi. Always an intense time, praying for a suitable arrangement for all concerned. Hard to be able to do anything when one is so far.

Have a great weekend.  Love, 

Five (5) lessons about the way we treat people

Five (5) lessons about the way we treat people                                                                                                      1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz.

I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read

the last one:


"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke.

I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall,

Dark-haired and in her 50's, but how would I know her name?



I handed in my paper, leaving the last question

Blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if

The last question would count toward our quiz grade.



"Absolutely, " said the professor. "In your careers,

You will meet many people.  All are significant. They

Deserve your attention and care, even if all you do

Is smile and say "hello."



I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her

Name was Dorothy.



2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain



One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American

Woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway

Trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had

Broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally

Unheard of in those conflict-filled 19 60's. The man

Took her to safety, helped her get assistance and

Put her into a taxicab.



She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his

Address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a

Knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a

Giant console colour TV was delivered to his home. A

Special note was attached.



It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway

The other night. The rain drenched not only my

Clothes, but also my spirits.  Then you came along.

Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying

Husband's' bedside just before he passed away... God

Bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving

Others."



Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole.



3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those

Who serve.



In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,

A 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and

Sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in

Front of him.



"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress..



The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and

Studied the coins in it.



"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.



By now more people were waiting for a table and the

Waitress was growing impatient.



"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.



The little boy again counted his coins.



"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.



The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on

The table and walked away The boy finished the ice

Cream, paid the cashier and left..  When the waitress

Came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the

Table.  There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,

Were two nickels and five pennies..



You see,  he couldn't  have the sundae, because he had

To have enough left to leave her a tip.



4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.



In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a

Roadway..  Then he hid himself and watched to see if

Anyone would remove the huge rock.  Some of the

King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by

And simply walked around it.  Many loudly blamed the

King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did

Anything about getting the stone out of the way.



Then a peasant came along carrying a load of

Vegetables.  Upon approaching the boulder, the

peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the

stone to the side of the road.  After much pushing

and straining, he finally succeeded. After the

peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed

a purse lying in the road where the boulder had

been.. The purse contained many gold coins and a note

from the King indicating that the gold was for the

person who removed the boulder from the roadway.  The

peasant learned what many of us never understand!



Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve

our condition.



5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts..



Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a

hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who

was suffering from a rare & serious disease.  Her only

chance of recovery appeared to be a blood

transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had

miraculously survived the same disease and had

developed the antibodies needed to combat the

illness.  The doctor explained the situation to her

little brother, and asked the little boy if he would

be willing to give his blood to his sister....



I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a

deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save

her."  As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed

next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing

the colour returning to her cheek. Then his face

grew pale and his smile faded.



He looked up at the doctor and asked with a

trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".



Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the

doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his

sister all of his blood in order to save her.



Now you have 2 choices.



1 Delete this, or

2. Forward it other people.

I hope that you will choose No. 2 and remember.



Most importantly..... "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been

hurt, and dance like you do when nobody's watching."



NOW more than ever - Please...     Pass It On...

SNOW FER SURE...

Good morning All weekend, it tried to snow but the snow just spat at us from the sky, only sticking for a little while to the trees and grass before melting.  It just made things wet and messy and depressingly gray.  This morning, at 30 degrees, we do have a small everywhere layer of snow.  Just maybe it is here for good. I heard that the inside walls of the tack shed is now done.  Now, we need a crew to efficiently put up the tin on the outside of the tack shed. Jarred, Jennifer, and Seth arrived home on Saturday night.  It was a busy week shingling a steep roof for a customer.  Kimberli and the kids went into Fairbanks on the weekend to spend time with Seth. All the sick people seemed to be recovering in time for school this week – Kerri, Nic, Rachel T, Robin, and more. Ann is taking Micah into a three day therapy session this week.  Garth has been busy trying to find some suitable washing machines to replace some of our tired ones that are in our well house.  The search is not going well so far.  Merlin has been working on our Hobart ovens in the tabernacle.  That work isn’t going so well either.  Ben’s doctor said he’s doing really well for what the trauma he went through but now he has to start doing daily exercises to strengthen his core and muscles around his injured part of his back. Peter Casey was out last night to visit for a few hours.  Apparently he was working at Ft. Greely so he was able to skip out here to see his folks and us.  On Sunday Liz Baltrum Werhonig and her baby, Paul, came out to visit us for the day.  Liz went through Delta on her way here and picked up Esther Grapengetter (married to Dan Grapengetter) and brought Esther and her two youngest children (5 yrs and 2 yrs maybe) out with her.  I think the kids enjoyed the great outdoors and doing something different. Just a note aside, Nancy Baltrum, delivered a great many of the babies on the farm, including my 4. Anyway, it is now the second day into our school week.  The hay/straw operation is at a stand still till things dry out, if they ever do.  Tony says we have like two days of solid work to do out in the fields.  So… the high school kids are attending school this week so far.  You all have a good week,

MORE FALL NOOS FROM THE LAND

Hello All,

It is 27* this morning with partly cloudy skies.  Hopefully, the sun will come out and warm the day? 

Yesterday the combine and the hay wrapper broke down.  They both need major amounts of welding done on them to fix them.  Tony has gone to Delta to borrow a different wrapper.  The combine… well, I don’t know what can be done about that.  I did hear that we have A LOT of hay. On Monday, Tony and the kids were only done with 1/5 of the hay crop.  I don’t know where we are now.  The juniors and seniors have been getting out of school to help out, and they stay out till nearly 9 pm.  Depending on the weather, the kids go to school either half day or not at all.  They never seem to mind missing school....haha

Some of the younger highschool kids have been out of school due to a cold and flu bug that they’ve been catching.

Jarred, Jennifer, and Seth J have gone to Fairbanks this week to put a roof on for a client.  Apparently it is a steep, scary roof.  Jarred says they should be home by Friday or Saturday night.  Oh,and Seth has been spending the nights at Joey Casey’s apartment since Joey is now going to school and working up in Fairbanks, with his paramedic and fire thingie.

Hannah Davis did write and say that baby Owen is doing great and at 11 weeks, he weighed in at 11 pounds. 

Ben had a booth at a show last week, and he did very well.  He rented a credit card machine which aided in sales.  He has been okayed by his doctor to cut down on wearing his chest brace which was for his fractured vertebra.   He still can’t lift heavy objects or do things that require twisting. 

Jon Squires, our new Paramedic, has been off the farm working somewhere remotely, but Michael (his son and my student) has no idea where that could be. :)  J  Ally has gone in today to pick Jon up and to help him with some paper work. 

Pat Lou came home last week for a couple of days before flying off to the UK to see his new little family.  Bethany and  posted some sweet pics of Pat with the babies.  Maybe I’ll grab one off fb to show you all. 

Jepsens and The Basalygas were gone for the same amount of time, Rus and Millie met with their son, John, in Montana, attended the MT convention, then went to Upsala for a short visit with their grandchildren and great grandchildren there. Sarah and the girls went to CA to help out the aged parents and visit family.

  

Brad Cox - one of the loggers - left today for another meeting in Ketchikan with the timber task force for the governor.  The weather going in and out of Ketchikan is extremely sketchy making it difficult to keep the traveling days at a minimum.  Brad says if it turns into too much of a hassle and they can’t change where the meetings are located, he may have to drop out of the meetings.

The new tack shed is slowly coming along.  The doors and windows are in; insulation has been blown into the roof; unfaced bats of insulation were put into the walls; the inside walls have been put in.  this weekend, the guys hope to put the metal siding on the building. 

Have a great day! 

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Good morning.  It is 22* this morning.  I can’t tell if it’s going to be cloudy or not – it looks like there are some light clouds.

Tony was able to borrow a different bale wrapper.  The kids were pretty excited because it does 30 wraps per minute whereas the other one did like 3 wpm.  They will get done that much sooner hopefully.  The kids all say that they might be about 50% done with the hay. 

I gave out bad information yesterday.  I was told that all the inside walls of the tack shed were up – the studs are up; there are no finished walls yet.  L  There is still much work to be done on the tack shed – inside walls, outside tin, electric, water heat hooked up (the sawmill will heat the tack shed from their surplus over there with all their sawdust burners and other things)

Judy and Steve went farm shopping today.  Jarred, Seth, and Jennifer are still in Fbks roofing.  Seth Fouse is up there too doing his sheetrock job. 

  

Melissa Lupo texted me last night to say that while her folks are over in Hawaii on their vacation that her father was taken to the hospital for chest pains.  After many tests the drs said it was pain from extreme stress and to try to alleviate his stress.  Hopefully, they are right and there is no physical problem involved.  Keep them in your prayers today. 

Rob will probably get his tonsils out within the next month or so. We will have to go into Fbks for that and stay a while I guess.

May got her own place and is pretty excited about it. The cabin is an empty one but pretty much set up so she will be moving in shortly. I told her she was extremely fortunate to have a roof of her own at 21...I was still living in dorms in my mid 30's...! haha.

Will post photos soon.

I need to get.  Have a great day!!!!!

FALL NOOS

Hi all,

The Jepsen/Nerbonne travelers from CA (Sarah, Kath and Liz) came home to shockingly cool weather of 35* which is plummeting to 28* or so at nights.  Happy to say that it seems that maybe we are having an Indian summer.  Last night, the wind blew all night allowing Tony to bale hay with the tractor long into the night (because his cool, awesome tractor has headlights and a cab).

School started last Monday  A couple of days, the highschool students have attended school till noon, then they been released to go work with Tony.  Yesterday the juniors and seniors didn’t have to report at all, but went straight to work for Tony.  Tony’s trying to combine the grain and get all the hay baled and wrapped.  Usually Ben does the grain, but he isn’t this year due to the accident earlier this summer where he fractured part of his backbone. 

My Spanish class using Rosetta is going very well. Jesse Geyer, Cody Williams, Alexandra Buongiorne (as a post grad student) and Rob enjoy it and the program can be set to different levels. Very nice! We also use some of the traditional book work.

This year I have Rob most of the day. It seems to work better for his speed although he mentions that he misses being with the his former classmates. I will try to make a bible unit to include all 3 probably when we get to MOSES. Abeka has some great visual aids which I plan to use as well as NEST animated stories and activity books. We concentrate on Computer skills, typing, the 3 R's and did I mention READING, READING, READING! Going through all sorts of basic to not so basic books, he seems to be wanting to read, so that is what we do first thing in the morning. His computer work is mainly centered around, phonology activities, grammar usage, sequencing and short term memory skills. We will be quite busy. In the afternoons he joins the highschool students for Spanish I & II. He really enjoys going into the BIG school since it is age appropriate for him! He is now in the HS for Music class which is a nice change. Also trying to do some Science and repeating the BJ Heritage which we never did quite finish.

For  PD I am planning on continuing the snoshoeing with anybody who wants to join and Rob does his treadmill in the morning as well. It will be hard for him to park his bike since he has discovered a new freedom riding it without the training wheels.

I took Rob to visit his sped teacher's place. She keeps 75 sled dogs which were quite noisy and I think rather overwhelmed Rob. He did well though and enjoyed interacting with some of the dogs. Most of them are chained up since they are working dogs rather than pets. Of course this visit brought about the endless chat we have about wanting a dog - he even has the breed all picked out! A Boxer.

PatLou was able to spend a few days with us before leaving for the UK, Beth and the girls. They have posted some very nice photos of the girls and Pat himself, holding them FINALLY! Ella and Esther are getting so big! Amazing how fast they grow. Hopefully we will be able to see the little family together in the Spring sometime. God willing.

Big Pat has been very busy with piano work, going out more than a few times each week for the last few weeks. Everybody is wanting their piano tuned for the school year, etc. Today he is in Tok and sometime later int he month he will be doing his Valdez/Glenallen run.

Matt Dean from Tok has come back for school this year; he is living with the Williams.  Melissa Lupo will be taking a couple of classes from us too.

Jarred finished redoing the tab septic.  He was able to connect the lines for the tab bathrooms if we ever decide to finish building that.  Jarred smoothed that whole area out so that maybe we can plant it with grass seed rather than letting it turn into weeds and little random trees. 

Also, Judy came home from visiting Hannah and family and Lauren and family.  Little Owen is nearly 11 pounds and is home and is doing great.
 
Garth and Kim and Kelly also arrived home from their summer trip of visiting family and preaching around the countryside.  They were gone for 4 months!

I guess Jennifer’s mom returned to New York too since I’m not seeing her anymore.

Seth Fouse landed a job in Fairbanks and will be gone for a couple of months getting that done.  He comes home some weekends or Kimberli and the kids go in there some weekends.

Merlin’s brother, Keith, was here for a five day visit.  He was a breath of fresh air with his inquisitiveness and interest in everything.

Potato harvest was good and we put quite a few tons away for the winter as well as all the meat from the 15 moose our hunters got. PTL.!

Well I think I've run out of things to say.

Have a great rest of the week.

Talk to you all later

ROBS RECENT SLEEP LAB...

We took Rob into FMHospital for a sleep lab clinic, to determine how to treat his mild apnea.

Here is a link to the FB album. He was such a trooper to be able to sleep through all that¡ Needless to say his mother did not fare so well. Ha!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2243189850996.120414.1585591801&l=52e142c272&type=1