SEPTEMBER EVENTS

Again, I’m sorry that I haven’t written in awhile.  This time of year can be hectic.  We had a slow start to the moose season.  Mark Coy kicked off the hunting season on the first day by shooting his moose in the FishLake area.  Soon afterward, Chris Toby and Tony each shot their moose near East Fork.  Then Kevin andKelly each shot moose on the same day but from different areas (FL and EF).  Seth J shot the last of the four moose taken out of East Fork while Seth F, Jarred, and Brad shot their moose in the Fish Lake area.  Since most of the moose was shot near the of the season, we are just now happily butchering and processing the moose meat.  BTW, after Seth F shot his moose, Jackson proudly told all of us that he and his family had been praying that their dad would catch a moose, and he did!  J 

May and Pat went out on a crew but sadly did not get a moose. I think they both enjoyed it, the weather was lovely for fall and at least it was not rainy or super cold like it sometimes can get. Pat's take on the situation is that because of the slow start of summer, the moose were less prone to be in rut at the appropriate time, also there was an abundance of grizzlies up there and that doesn't help. All in all we are happy with the hunting since we got 9 out of our usual 12-13 moose which will keep the community through the winter and into next hunting season hopefully.

Today, the cranes were very noisily flying over.  They’ve been going over for days, but today they were especially in a hurry.  Maybe it’s because it was trying to snow in the Interior today?  The other night, our low temperature was 16°.  Now, at 10:30 pm, it is 36° and raining.  The high temperature today was 47°. 

We harvested the carrots last night.  Gri has an album posted somewhere on fb.  I’ll try to find the link.  If you are a friend of a friend, you should be able to see Griselda’s album of much of our harvest time. 

https://www.facebook.com/griselda.h.buongiorne/media_set?set=a.10201082068725621.1073741870.1585591801&type=1

Because Sapa is trying to close down this month, a big group from our farm and some from Eagle’s Ridge are going down to Sapa for a long weekend to help them winterize the place. I belive Siser. Rose Dunnin will be joining our community as soon as a cabin is made available for her.

Hannah, Chloe, and Clayton left earlier this month to visit Andy and Sarah Jane.  Bonnie left on Sunday to bring the children home in time for school.  Then, we put off school for another week because of all our getting ready for winter projects.  Lynn and Steve recently went over to visit Andy and Sarah Jane.  They were impressed with how well the Trotters are doing. 

Hannah Davis has been having difficulty with her pregnancy and contractions again.  She’s nearly 29 weeks.  We’re praying for a few more weeks of pregnancy. 

Lizzie Jepsen who is studying Journalism wrote a paper for the SunStar UAF campus paper.  Here is a link to her article: 

http://www.uafsunstar.com/archives/24154

Ohhhhhhhh….. BIG NEWS:  On Thursday, the show with an episode or two of our logger guys is airing on Thursday.  I have a link for that as well:  Well, actually, I don’t.  Upon rereading the email I was sent, it says that the guys’ episode will air on the Weather Channel at 9 PM.  It is titled “Heavy Metal Monsters”.  Here’s the quote from the guy who sent the guys the info in case I have misrepresented the information.

            Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know the show is going out on Thursday at 9.00pm on the Weather Channel,

            its followed by another episode.  The broadcaster has gone with the title ‘Heavy Metal Monsters’ so you know what to look

            for in the listings.

Mike Zoebel, the husband of Cami Zoebel the Paramedic from the Tok EMS service who has trained most of our local paramedics, died in an airplane and hunting related crash near the beginning of September.  Cami is one of the EMT teachers who has helped us out with so many of the refresher courses and with getting us an ambulance stationed out here.  http://www.adn.com/2013/09/06/3061334/pilot-dies-in-crash-west-of-glennallen.html and http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130906/bad-weather-keeps-ambulance-retrieving-anchorage-pilots-remains

Al Lorenzen has been faithfully putting a gravel mix in the many potholes on our roads around the farm.  You have to watch your step because he is piling them higher than the road itself probably thinking that they’ll even out and get pounded into the ground soon enough. 

Joe Brandes, brother to Olivia Brandes who spent her senior year here, is here for school.  He is a junior in high school and will be staying with the Williams family.  He is totally enjoying our life style so far....

Kathy Casey has gone on a quick trip to visit her parents. 

Carolyn has been gone for a few weeks to spend time with her Fairbanks family.  

As far as my family is concerned. I spent a few days with Bethany and the girls. Too short a time, but sweet. The girls are getting so big and talkative, so cute! They hung around me and grabbed my hands and pulled me to play with their new kitchen toy set, "GammaGi, come play"...oooo...how can one resist them? Pat is still on fire duty in Montana and has been away from his family for far too long, he is due to return in a few more days and then in Nov. will join us in our Thanksgiving celebrations here in Dry Creek. Hopefully they can stay for a bit. We shall see.

Robin enjoyed his time with the nieces and was a good traveler.

My sis Karenza Hanson is flying to Buenos Aires together with her friend Gracia from Spain.They are on a scouting trip to look out for job openings and living possibilities in the near future. Ani in the meantime, will be staying and minding the antique/gift store in Jefferson all by herself, a great adventure I'm sure. Ani has got her driving license and so is able to drive to an from from work. She is settling in very well with the Tesis and I am sure she is in good hands. She misses us and we do her. May and I are planning a short visit for Christmas since my other sister Alejandra and her family will all be together either in Springfield or in Texas. Lord willing. May hasn't seen her cousins since her trip to Spain in 2009 so it will be good for her.

May has been working super hard in the garden all summer long and now has closed it down for the winter. Only our potatoe harvest is still pending. We hope to get it up before the snow flies. Although we have had a light snowfall today already...

School will be starting at the end of the month for all of us. I will be teaching Rob in the morning and have 1 Spanish highschool class plus my budding translation commitments, to keep me busy during the winter months.

Hope you all are well and enjoying life with a song in your heart. Bless you all in the days ahead.

SEPTEMBER START

Today was the day to take Liz Jepsen to UAF and get her set up on campus.  Lizzie spent the summer with Chris and Bekah and Ella  (her bro, SIL and niece) while working on cleaning jobs for various people and for Delta Lodging.  Sarah & Rih picked Liz up from Delta, met up with Aunt Phanta, and we took Liz to school.  Aunt Phanta helped flush out Lizzie’s dorm room with a small frig and some other items.  Lizzie’s roommate is a girl from Kalispell who knows of our Jepsen cousins through the 4-H program there.  I gave Lizzie a list of numbers of my Fairbanks friends with instructions to start calling numbers if she ever needs help or gets too lonely. 

A bittersweet moment, remember when Pat and I did the same for PatLou...

Today, the first day of hunting season, we woke up to snow on the Mtn tops after having cool and rainy weather for a few days.  Sure, the snow is beautiful, but it is also a foreshadowing of winter that is right around the corner.  In the last few days, we’ve had lows of 25° and highs of 50°.  Hopefully, we have some warmer days for the hunters and for our end of the season crop gathering. 

We had two hunting crews head out yesterday in order to be ready to hunt first thing this morning.  The Williams men and Benj V went to East Fork; Tommy, Kerri, Kevin, and Mark went to Fish Lake.  Chris and Bekah are out somewhere either in Lupo’s fields or in the 30-30 area.  Ella had to stay with her other aunt and grandparents since we were busy with Liz. 

Also starting college this week is Olivia and Jessy.  Olivia spent some of the summer with us but has now returned to Fairbanks to begin school.  Jessy will remain at home and do online classes.  And, of course, Ally is dividing her time between Fairbanks and home with her classes and internship at the hospital in Fairbanks. 

Seth, Ammy, May, and Sis Janet traveled to Patridge Creek, Canada, on Thursday.  All but Sis Janet will return on Tuesday.  Ammy wanted to see her brother who was visiting Patridge for the summer. May went because she was invited by the Buerges, the family that lives there.

Thomas and Jeni and the girls went to Anchorage on the weekend to pick up John and Kathryn who will be returning to the farm after their summer in Hoonah.  Kath posted some pics on fb; I’ll see if the link is seeable to you all.  I’m not sure all of you all can see this, but if you can, here it is:  https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.nerbonne/media_set?set=a.10201926392064781.1073741830.1333723526&type=1

Joey should be home on Monday, probably to hunt!

John Basalyga traveled to Haines and Hoonah to minister leaving Julie behind with Rus and Millie.  Because of that, we’ve seen a little more of Jenee and the boys. 

Jon is building an addition onto Marilyn’s house since at 85 yrs of age going upstairs each night is becoming less feasible.  Marilyn’s home is the one built by the Ortegas which we used for high school until the new school was built.

Robin Buongiorne turns 16 yrs this month sometime. An early b'day party is planned since he will actually be in the car travelling back form his visit to Palmer on the 9th. which is his b'day date.

Drew Gorman enjoyed his visit so much this summer that he came out again for a few days to visit this week. 

Judy and Steve have written to say that they are extremely busy keeping track of two year old Owen while taking care of Hannah who is still on bed rest.  Hannah is at 27 weeks, and they’d like her to be able to stay pregnant for another 10 weeks.  The placenta is trying to attach itself to a wrong place so we need to pray that it attaches properly. 

Craig has received his first installment of dry logs from the sawmill; enough to put up the first story of his home.  I passed him the other day as he was ferrying logs to his house with the forklift.  His big smile said a lot! 

Tom Schirack passed away this 

week.  Marj’s mailing address is:  739 U S Hwy 129 S., Abbeville, Ga31001.  Her email addresses are: tom.schirack@ima.cc ortomschirack@Windstream.net  Becky’s is:  becky.fant@ima.cc  You’ll have to contact them for any other information.

Due to the polarity switch in the sun (don't ask...look it u!) aurora has been amazingly active all this week...taken by a local ...

DRY CREEK END OF AUGUST NEWS...

Good morning. 

This morning, the temperature is 46° and sometime after 6 am, it has started dumping rain. The time of year with cool mornings with even more cool nights with the days barely reaching 72° has arrived!  I know.. it’s inevitable, but I still wish we could’ve had warm days for just a couple more weeks. Maybe, those of us loving warmth would never be satisfied and so our summer was long enough?   We’ve had cool rainy days since the last time I wrote.   Yesterday we had some afternoon sunshine.  Maybe because of the cloud cover, we did not get the predicted frost.   We are thankful for that since we are still frantically putting up our winter supply of vegetables.  

The mornings are cool, and the days hardly reach 70°, sunshine or not.  We had heavy frosts on Saturday and Sunday nights.  Fortunately, we’d gotten everything we needed from the garden before it frosted.  We can always use more things, but we had put up our winter supply of vegetables.  And, of course, there are some things that aren’t badly affected by the frost that we’re still working on – kale, beets, carrots, potatoes. 

May has called garden nights each night this week for the peas, beets, raspberries, greens, and more.  The canning girls made a mega batch of “Karin’s cabbage” and a pile of pickled beets to can.  Karin’s cabbage is a recipe that we learned from Karin Stoeber, our German friend.  It’s similar to kraut but not.  The shredded cabbage is blanched before adding vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper.  It is soooooooooo good.  May has been doing an awesome job with the garden! Never been better even though Alaska has been rather drier than usual. She gets up early in the am and has her irrigation system set up to synchronize with the generator so when it comes on the water starts as well. Ingenious! Now we are down to cabbage, carrots, Kale and other hardier things. Folks from Delta have been coming to glean from the garden since we cannot process everything and it’s better than letting it go to waste! 

Last night while the ladies put up the celery, the men went out and did some jobs that need to be finished up around the farm.  I’m not sure what they were since I forgot to ask.  Jarred has been working on the new bathrooms for the tab and also some of the guys have been working on a heating water line from the generator to the boiler and to the auto shop (using generator power to help heat the tab and the auto shop).  Those might’ve been included in the jobs.  We’ve suddenly realized that summer isn’t going to last for forever and since the hunting fever has hit… well, we have to get some winterizing done. 

Pat has been fixing the big boiler that heats the Tab...he’s such a good maintenance man! Also has fixed May’s new stove pipe and new stove. May is pretty pleased with the setup she has now. lowly her little cabin in the woods is getting cozier.

As you see the fire was pretty close to WH Farms. I suppose the fire at Whitestone is winding down with all this rain.  From the pictures on fb, I see that they are still feeding them.  PatLou was out on that fire which for some reason they called the Mississipi Fire. It was started by the Military base at Greely when they were doing fire practice...duh! They deny this of course, but the whole thing grew into a monster and threatened to burn Whitestone down...yikes. Pat’s crew is a Hotshot crew so they don’t stay long, he is now in Montana fighting fires for 30 days. Beth is alone with the girls so Gri and Rob are gonna visit for a few days. Wenda will drive them to Palmer while she visits her relatives.

This is a local photo showing what the Whitestone fire looked like from the other side of the river...

Whitestone fed the firefighters for the duration and cashed in big with over 1,000 meals, course leave it to WH to pull that off!  There was a regular fire camp right in their backyard. Pity Pat was so busy he was not able to stop by the farm to say hi. This photo was taken by a local photographer in Delta and shows what the Whitestone fire looked like from the other side of the Tanana....pretty scary!

Caribou season is now; moose season is right around the corner. Tommy and his girls have been out and done some early hunting.

All the Williams family except Wendy shot a caribou the other day (that means Lindsey too!).  A couple of days later, the Geyer family went out, and Sam shot a caribou.  The guys are getting pretty wound up about moose season – setting up camps, clearing trails after last falls great wind storm, packing packs, etc.  The first crews will go out on Saturday so that they can begin their hunting first thing on the morning of September 1.

We have had a bunch of people visiting this summer/fall so far...too many to enumerate.Lots of comings and goings. People coming back and then leaving for their jobs, etc. Joe Casey is one who appears and disappears periodically when he gets off work with SHELL on the ships...he seems to enjoy it…it's nice to see his face from time to time.

Libby Geyer is still here and getting ready for nursing school in the fall with UAF. 

Lizzie J comes and goes and getting ready for UAF and her Journalism courses in the fall. 

Ali Squires left for her final stage in her Emergency, RN degree at UAF.  Ali is an amazing person and she is to be admired for her will and determination in getting this degree against all odds. Pray for her when you think of it!

Erica has been visiting for a bit and it was great having her and little Caleb. He is a cutie pie.

Dillon Arsenault is here for a couple of months.  He came up to work with Jarred some and spend time at the farm.  We’re enjoying his company.

John Cheever came back for a few days visit – from Saturday through Tuesday.  

Sis Janet Meyers is back as well – Monday through Thursday morning when she will go to Partridge Creek, Canada, with Seth, Amaris, and May.  The kids are going to Partridge since Amaris’ brother is spending the summer there. The left early am today Thursday as I am writing this.  Don’t envy them the long car ride into Canada on bad roads!! May was invited by Clair Buerge some time ago when they came to visit the farm in the summer. Sis. Janet added herself on to the trip at the last minute.

I heard that Craig Mason’s house logs are in the kiln which means soon, he can put the walls on the house he is building.  It has been a foundation for a couple of years now.

Ann and Micah are in Fairbanks for their second week of intense therapy for Micah.  Al’s doctor checkup last week said he is doing very well. 

John and Julie Basalyga have been dividing their time between here and Whitestone.  John has preached the past two Sundays.  I missed the first Sunday service, but this last Sunday he preached on faith and how faith really means trust and obedience to God. 

We are preparing for school although we won’t start until the end of September. Kathry N and John Clark are due back in a few weeks.  Gri and May will be visiting Ani and the group in Jefferson for December break. Other people are going places but not sure who or where.

Rob is finished with his reading therapy and his riding lessons. He has done very well with both and his instructors are happy. School is right around the corner for him as well although he never really stops since he does most of his math/phonics online with his mum. 

Good friends and caseworkers from the TCC came to the farm to visit and catch up with us and Rob. Amber and Amanda. They loved the fresh farm food and took Kathy’s Heart Healthy Bread back with them! Thanks for catching up with us!

Soon it will be tater harvest! yaaaiiiii. Before that HUNTING. May is going up to EFork with Pat, Rich J and Seth J. She’s happy! Rob wants to go but he will have to wait until he can prove he can do it!...

More on the farming side, Tony and his boys, are busy trying to bring in the hay and other larger crops. The slow start has put everybody behind and hay is scarce. Farmers in Delta are not going to have enough to feed their cattle so they may have to buy from Canada this winter. 

Pat, Rob and Gri have been going out cranberry picking. Amazing this year! Like a rug of red berries. Already have 10 gallons in only 2 pickins...CRANBERRY JUICE HERE WE COME! May has picked blueberries on her treks in the hills.

Gri has been invited to a women’s retreat at the end of September for 2 days in a wilderness lodge B&B...lovely place, good food, fellowship and a hot tub, plus a motivational speaker. Some friends she met when she took the Apple Workshop at the Tok School earlier this summer. Should be fun. Not sure who else is going with her, besides the women’s group from Tok.

Check out their awesome website. Long time Tok residents and Christian friends, Jon and Jill Rusiniak, owners and operators of 

http://www.logcabinwildernesslodge.com/

I better get.  More news later.  Have a great remainder of your week.

 BLESS YOU ALL!  Gri (& Sarah J)

AUGUST NOOS CONTINIUM...

Hi, I have so much news that I’m sure that I won’t remember it all.  That’s just a disclaimer so people won’t get their feelings hurt if I forget something about them.  J  (If some of you get a J randomly in my emails, it’s supposed to be a smiley face)

These last few weeks have been pretty busy with work nights to gather in our vegetables.  The women have been busy freezing and canning the food.  In the meantime, we’ve been eating lots of fresh vegetables from the garden.   The garden veggies are slowing down due to everything nearly going to seed because of our previous hot weather or because we’ve picked it all. 

https://www.facebook.com/griselda.h.buongiorne/media_set?set=a.10201082068725621.1073741870.1585591801&type=3

John Cheever is up visiting the area for a few weeks.  He visited our farm for a few days last week, and I think he’s coming back for a few days later on.  He gave short and sweet devotions one morning while here.  This was our week for guest devotions.  Sara's cousin, Dick, gave a devotion on Wednesday.  Then Miss Janet Myers who came to visit for a few days before the wedding, gave a devotion.  We have been blessed. 

Our weather has turned from beautiful and hot to cool and rainy.  We’re not complaining.  The smoke from Whitestone’s fire was becoming unbearable; not to mention that Whitestone was sorta close to being burned up.  Whitestone has been blessed (esp since they didn’t burn up) by this fire by being able to make some unexpected income from the firefighters.  Because Whitestone is so remote (on a peninsula), the firefighters needed to use Whitestone’s various modes of transportation; plus Whitestone has been housing and feeding some or all of the firefighters.  Such busyness to cope with and all in the week of Nelson’s wedding. 

Here are some links I found in regards to the fire near Whitestone.  I’m sure the rain we’ve received has helped, but I heard that it would have to rain for 7 to 8 steady days for the fire to be put completely out this fall season. 

http://www.twitpic.com/d8wc2h/full andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh67J4TNPKE  

The firefighters did a controlled back burn to help control the fire.  The pictures I saw from that were pretty impressive. 

Nelson Grier and Amy Hudgin were married on Saturday night at 5 pm. It was a sweet and quick wedding with some eerie lighting in the sky from all the smoke.

It is because of Nelson’s wedding that we’ve had all this extra road traffic through the farm.  Eric and Fara Bell and daughter, Natasha, arrived yesterday and left this morning for Whitehorse.  It was great to see them.  Hannah Hudgin and some of her boys brought Ellen Hudgin (from Arizona) out for a tour and lunch. 

John and Julie are up in the area for a few weeks visiting Rus and Millie and the Basalygas that live at Whitestone.  John preached on Sunday (but I cooked so I don’t know what he said), and he will preach again next Sunday. 

As far as I know, Bro Andy should’ve had his last radiation treatment today; his last chemo round was finished last week.  Now, it’s sit back and wait for surgery that’s scheduled for the end of September.  Bro Andy said he’s not suffering any horrible side or after effects from his chemo and radiation. 

Hannah Davis is to week 25 in her pregnancy; they are hoping to reach at least week 37.  Other than a couple of tiny glitches, Hannah is doing okay right now.

Allyson will start her nursing school training this week in Fairbanks.  Orientation is tomorrow. She will be leaving for the winter and coming back every 3-4 days off and on. Jon will stay with the kids, God speed to Ali, she has worked so hard to get to this goal!

 Ann and Micah will be gone for two weeks for Micah to get some intensive therapy done in Fairbanks.  (they might be home on weekends?) 

Did I mention that Erica and Caleb are visiting for a week or so.  Caleb and Ella visited togetheryesterday.  Since both are only children, they weren’t sure how to play together. 

Joey showed up unexpectantly a couple of times throughout the last week.  It’s always good to see his face!

Rob has been having a good time riding with Stardust Stables in Delta, He is actually learning how to control his horse with voice and knee commands. Here is a link to his riding adventures...

https://www.facebook.com/griselda.h.buongiorne/media_set?set=a.10201119641384914.1073741874.1585591801&type=1

Ani is doing as well as can be expected for a major change. She is working a variety of small jobs and learning all sorts of new things. She got her drivers license so that is a good thing...course a mother worries about such things, but it is a good skill to have. My sis Karenza Hanson is to leave for Buenos Aires for a a month to scout the land over there and see what the possibilities are for a near future move. Ani will tend to things while she is gone. New challenges.

With the help from family, friends and neighbors, Karenza and the Tesis have done an incredible job on the trailer Ani shares with her aunt. Here is a link.

https://www.facebook.com/griselda.h.buongiorne/media_set?set=a.10201196498906304.1073741877.1585591801&type=3

The present temperature at 9 pm is 58°; yesterday’s high was 59°. 

Hunting is around the corner.

Have a good rest of the week!!

AUGUST ALREADY?...noooooooo

It can't be August already! Where has the summer gone to? boohoo...well, it seems that Sarah Jepsen knows more about what is going on around here even when she is gone...so I'm just pasting her news...I've been gone too and just come back from a 4 day stint in Tok taking an Apple tech. class/workshop...so I really don't know what's been going. Have a great weekend!  gri b

from Sara,

Hello all,We had a good trip to Haines today. It seemed that once we left home, the day turned gray for our trip; no matter, though, since we were in the van driving. Although it might’ve been prettier if we’d had sunlight. Now that we’re here, I’ll only have internet when I’m in the tabernacle so responses to you all might be spotty, if at all. J 
I heard that tomorrow, the people here are butchering chickens so I’m sure we will participate in that. I also heard that Mike and Clara Buerge are here visiting right now so we will get to see them and their children. (remember they came to the farm for a couple of weeks this winter around convention time?)
You know, in my last email I said we’d only put up 96 bales of hay? Well, I misheard. It was 996 bales of hay. The next day was 600 bales. We baled for a couple more days without incident; now the square bales are done. We still have some round baling to do. I heard that we are baling Eagle Ridge’s hay and keeping their hay. That will be helpful to us since we might not get a second cutting of hay this year due to the late spring.
Also, the medicine that Hannah Davis was taking was never injurious to the baby, as I somehow thought; it was bothersome to Hannah by making her nauseous and unable to sleep. Since Hannah is barely past the 22 week mark, we still need to pray that her body continues not going into labor. Judy has written to say that they are really suffering in the sunshine and with watching Owen so much (NOT!).
Wenda is now home from her Anchorage trip. Her flower garden really went out of control while she was gone – trees started sprouting, flowers were dying, etc. Bonnie and Jim are back home. And, Gri is home from her Mac convention and is full of new and great ideas. The Geyer girls are home from their successful fishing trip.
We heard that the Hoonah fishing drew have gotten 73,000 lbs of fish this season. That sounds like an incredible amount to me!
It seems that my cousin David is very sick with cellulites. He thought he’d gotten food poisoning, but it seems that wasn’t the case. David was moved to a regular room from ICU just today! That’s six days after he first went to the hospital.
Some of our younger guys helped Whitestone fill their soccer teams in Delta this week since they needed help with their tournament teams – Seth J, Seth F, Kevin, Jarred, and ????
Seth, Ammy, and May have gone to Tangle Lakes with some friends from Whitestone for some camping and fishing. Kathy Casey is visiting her grandsons for the weekend. 
We were having 80+° weather this week. None of us are complaining. It has been a stellar August so far. Because all the vegetables are ripening (almost too fast), we will have a busy couple of weeks before hunting to put away our winter supply of vegetables. 
You all have a great Sunday. Talk to you later.

News from Haines and The Land, Alaska

This from Sarah Jepsen who is visiting Haines with family and friends:
<<

We’ve had beautiful, hot weather here in Haines.  I’m fairly sure the high temperature has been in the high 70’s.  Today it is gray and sprinkling.  I’m hoping that clears up since we’re supposed to go into the town of Hainestoday to walk around and see things. 

Our first day here, we did help some with the chickens.  They slaughtered and processed 400 chickens.  Rich was the one who carried the chickens to their death.  Chris and Rich’s father ferried the chickens from the slaughter site to the kitchen.  The rest of us did varied jobs to help with the process. 

The Buerges (Mike and Clara) were here upon our arrival.  It was nice to see them.  The kiddos remembered us and were esp pleased to play with Ella.  Clara cut the oldest girl’s hair so she looks quite grown up.  They had to leave on Monday even though they had planned on staying longer since work called Mike home. 

Chris and Rebekah have gone out twice with Jack to do some fishing.  They’ve enjoyed that a lot.  Of course, I had to babysit Ella while they were gone which was quite the hardship.  Rich actually helped with that some since yesterday, me, Uncle Roger, and my cousin Dick went on a raft ride down the nearby rivers.  It was a calm (no white water) ride, but beautiful and fun esp since I’d never done such a thing before. 

Pauline’s brother and sister in law, Roger and Alma, are here for part of our visit.  We’ve been having a good time with them. 

Jack sent some shrimp and halibut home to my mother in law so we feasted on that one night.  Then last night we went over to Dianne and Walt Atkinsons and feasted on crab and more shrimp over there.  Although, it certainly isn’t all about the food, the food  has been stellar. 

I’ve heard that at home, they have been busily putting up broccoli, peas, cabbage, tomatoes, and much more. 

Cook inlet ner Homer...

 Cody and Bradie made a visit down to Hoonah to visit Kathryn.  They had quite the trial getting there.  I don’t know all the details but I heard that they were routed to Sitka since  Juneau’s weather was so bad.  They had to ferry from Sitka to Juneau then fly to Hoonah. 

I guess there is a huge fire by Tok near Moon Lake.  It’s not harming anything yet.  http://www.inciweb.org/incident/3459/

taken by Delta resident photographer Sebastian Saarlos

I’m typing at the tabernacle.  I better get back to the house and see what’s going on over there.  Have a great Thursday everyone!

>>

For recent photos of the garden harvest at The Land, click on this link:

https://www.facebook.com/griselda.h.buongiorne/media_set?set=a.10201082068725621.1073741870.1585591801&type=3