Behind

*Sigh* Presently I am behind in many, many things.

I'm behind in writing thank you notes for recent gifts received.

I'm behind in letter writing. I have one old fashioned letter I've been wanting to write to a dear woman my mom's age who went to live with her son out of state recently. I haven't seen her in years and I missed her this summer. Now I'm sad she's gone. I must write her a long letter.

I'm behind in writing emails. I have at least 3 emails I owe to friends/family. Big emails. Important how-are-you-doing catch-up and reply email letters.

I'm behind in calling friends I haven't called since I moved back home.

I'm behind in housework, that's for sure!

I'm behind in organizing and recording business receipts.

I'm behind in posting photos to this blog.

I'm behind in posting several draft posts to this blog.

I'm behind in writing posts for the Unceasing blog on prayer.

I'm behind on journalling in the mornings. I'm totally off routine in that department and I miss it tons. Not only is it too cold to sit on the porch in the mornings now, I'm just plain out of sync since getting back in September.

I am a week behind in my Bible study which means I need to be doing two "days" per day this week. Monday I did two days. Tuesday I did none. So far today I've done none. So that means....

I'm behind at being behind.

HAPPENINGS OF NOTE

AN AFTERNOON OF INSPIRATION
I recently spent an afternoon in one of my favorite art districts, downtown Flagstaff. I stopped off there on my way to a women's retreat last month. I visited my favorite galleries and shops, walked the quaint old streets, enjoyed the eclectic-ness of the architecture, merchandise, and people. I soaked up the rich textures and creativity around me. I took several photos, but I am not able to post them now. Poor planning; I'm in the valley and forgot to bring with me my camera from which to extract them.


WOMEN'S RETREAT
I went to a wonderful Women's Retreat about two weeks ago. It was held at Lost Canyon, a Young Life camp in Williams, AZ. I became a Christian through Young Life and it holds a special place in my heart. The camp is beautiful and definitely not rustic. Boy, camp was NOT like this when I was in high school! The speaker was Diane Andrews, a pastor's wife, women's ministries leader, and retreat organizer/speaker. It was VERY good. She spoke about four women of the Bible: The Samaritan Woman, The Hemorrhaging Woman, and Mary and Martha. All the messages were good. They were simple and direct; I took away one important thing from each one. Diane used a lot of visual aids, videos, and music to complement her messages. The most impacting message for me was on the Hemorrhaging Woman...about how she has been known to us - and probably in her community - simply as the Hemorrhaging Woman. In her culture, she was unclean and untouchable, an outcast...for 12 years. Imagine her loneliness. Imagine her sense of self worth. Twelve years. Not only did Jesus heal her physically, He gave her a new "name"; He called her Daughter. What healing that must have brought to her soul. Diane brought a powerful visual aid project to accompany this message. It was a really good weekend. It was great to get away, see friends, share in a small group of open, honest women, and be met by God over the lessons.


DEER FARM
Every time I travel I-40 to Williams, I see the Deer Farm and wish I could stop. When I drove past it on my way to the retreat I decidedly declared to myself, "I'm going to the Deer Farm on Sunday afternoon." And I did. It was a lot of fun. I was disappointed in the aesthetics of the place; it was, well, OK, I'll just say it. It was downright ugly. No grass. Nothing but dirt, rocks, fencing, and enclosures. The center area was open and that's where all the deer were. Despite the ugliness of the place, the deer were awesome. As soon as I entered the gate, they saw me coming with my cup of food and started making their way toward me. Soon I was crowded around by small Fallow Deer. I loved it. I'll write more later when I can post photos.


THE VALLEY
I went directly from the women's retreat to the valley for a few days. I was busy helping my brother with my Mom's estate. He has all the responsibility but no time. Time I have. I'm going down to help get whatever done that I can. While there I ended up going to two of my 12 year old niece's volleyball games. It was fun watching her play well and seeing her team win. I also was pleased to fix my brother's family dinner one night. They are so gracious and giving when I come down and stay with them. They always feed me, let me do laundry, and make me feel welcome and at home. I was glad to give a little back by fixing them my chicken chili which they all seem to like so much. I also got a good start on what help I can be regarding Mom's stuff.

While I was there, I was really busy. when I got home I realized I could have been even busier had I remembered some things I had really wanted to do but thought I wouldn't be able to get to town for. One was a free Ravi Zacharias speaking engagement. Ravi Z. is a Christian apologist, one who intellectually "defends" the Bible and Christianity. He is a wonderful speaker and teacher. I would have loved to hear and see him. The other event was a reception for the release of the book, Bo's Cafe, written by three church friends/pastors, John Lynch, Bill Thrall, and Bruce McNicol of Leadership Catalyst/True Faced. The book was pre-read by Wm. Paul Young, the author of The Shack. As I understand it, he liked it so much he not only endorsed it with these words on the front cover, "Bo's Cafe is a treasure for all of us who harbor a longing to be authentic," he also wanted to publish it at Windblown Media. I would have loved to attend this reception, to encourage the trio of authors as well as get to meet Paul Young. (I'm not sure if he goes by William, Bill, or Paul, but I've heard him referred to recently as Paul, so that's what I'm going with.)

SNOW
We got our first snow around the 27th-28th of October, while I was gone. I missed seeing it come down but seeing it on the sides of the highway on the way back up brought a smile to both my face and heart. Though I hate driving in it, I really do love snow.

A DAY OF MAD CLEANING
I got home Thursday night. The house was still rather cluttered because, no, we still haven't gotten all the boxes unpacked and removed. But we were expecting friends up for the weekend and that's the best motivation for cleaning the house. I got a ton done on Friday, mostly moving boxes from the middle of the living room downstairs to every nook and cranny of our loft upstairs. I even UNPACKED a couple boxes AND put the contents away! Woohoo! It felt so good to have at least a semblance of my house back. I must have gone up and down the stairs about 40 times. I was whupped, but felt good in all ways.


FRIENDS UP FOR THE WEEKEND
Some good friends came up Friday night. I was pleased to have the dining room table cleared out from under all the photography stuff (and more) that had commandeered it for so long. It felt good to put candles on the table and sit down for a meal. We had a really nice weekend with our friends. It was beautiful outside but we never really even went out. We spent all our time engaged in wonderful conversations about dreams, the Bible, churches, ministry and ministry dreams, country dreams, Alaska dreams. We are beginning to dream together about something on our land in Alaska. We enjoyed sitting in the dark watching the fire and continuing our conversations. Saturday night we watched a movie. Sunday they came with us to the church we've been steadily visiting and we went to Mexican food afterwards. Mexican food after church: they just go together. (And yes, we ran into people we know in the restaurant. I do like that about a small town; you can count on running into friends and acquaintances around town on Sundays after church.)


BACK IN THE VALLEY
I'm back down in the valley for a couple days to see what I can get done to help my brother. Poor guy only has one day off a week in which to run his own business and try to be the executor of Mom's estate, which it turns out is a lot of work. I hope to accomplish some organizing, some phone calls, and getting necessary info to various people.

I hope to get back to blogging more regularly. I miss it.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Almost Done

I have 60 pages left to read in The Time Traveler's Wife and I must say that I simply can't recommend it. It's only because of the coarse and graphic sexual language that is sprinkled occasionally throughout. It's unfortunate to me that the author writes so bluntly and graphically, and with a hardened sort of voice at these various points. It disrupts the flow of the story for me with a roughness I don't appreciate. I suppose it SORT OF resembles the roughness of her writing, but for me it taints the characters and taints the sweetness of their love for each other with an indelicate ugliness. That's coming from my frame of reference. I really like the overall story though. Lots. But I just can't whole-heartedly recommend you go out and read it. You have to know that some of the language and snippets of the story, contrary to my first post which I've just updated with a parenthetical retraction/correction, deserve an X rating. It's sad, that the way of things these days is to write a perfectly good story but sprinkle in vulgarities here and there, perhaps thinking it will make it better or more appealing. To the contrary, it often ruins an otherwise wonderful work of art. Sad.

P.S. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, the movie was better, leaving out the vulgarities that pop up in the book. Check the rating before you rent it with the kids.

And Then....This Morning

We were thrilled with yesterday's elk visit. And then...this morning. Lately we've been leaving the bedroom window open about an inch but last night had it closed because it was pretty chilly in the bedroom. This morning I heard a bull elk bugling pretty loudly. When I remembered the window was closed, I sprang out of bed to open it a crack, wondering could it be possible that a bull had come to the water trough. That eerie bugle sounded again. I went out the bedroom door and into the rest of the house where I saw through the windows....YES! A BULL ELK! Right on our property! Just out the windows! Oh my gosh; it was so cool. So amazing. Such a privilege and a gift!

Alas...no pictures, though. It happened too fast. He and some ladies were on their way back up into the woods, from whence they came last night. I think he tried to drink from the trough but his huge rack of antlers prohibited him. When I first went into the hall, I heard a clatter out the window. Then when I finally saw him through another window, he was walking in the direction of the woods away from the trough.

So now... at 3:50 pm I stand typing on my laptop on the kitchen counter, doing sentry duty looking for them to come back tonight. They have fresh water waiting for them. Our windows are freshly cleaned inside and out. My camera sits five feet away from me with a freshly charged battery in it. And I even strategically placed a bucket full of water that the bull would be able to drink from, free of obstructions for his antlers.

I am certain they will not come today.

Merely because I am so prepared, so expectant, so waiting and watching.

That water in the trough WAS pretty nasty. I don't know how they could drink from it. But I cleaned it all out and transferred the cleaner water from another rain catching trough into the one they, I hope, are learning to drink from regularly. I'm hoping that Mr. Bull has not deemed this pit stop unfit because the water was so rank or because he couldn't drink from it.

We shall see.

Watching and waiting...

I've Waited 11 Years

13 if you count the two years we owned the property but hadn't moved up here yet.

This past summer I wrote about how after 11 years since moving to our five acres I FINALLY saw some elk on our land (See July's Elk Tonight). REALLY on our land (not just running across the road), and I REALLY saw them (for a nice long while). Another thing I have longed for, hoped for and waited for, is to see - from inside the house - elk close by outside.

Today as I was dashing to the kitchen sink just before leaving for town, I looked out the garden window above the sink and saw a young elk. RIGHT THERE about 30 feet from the house! I whisper-yelled to my husband "Come here! Quietly, and right now!!" Intuitive man that he is, he asked "Do I need my camera?" "YES!" I quietly hollered.

We could see them out three of our windows and we went to each one and back again as the elk moved about the yard. We both took pictures. Some of mine came out hazy because of the 4pm sunlight and also the window I was shooting through. But I kind of like the "Doris Day" glow it adds to them. It seems to express some of the wonder and drama the event held for us.

I love this hazy bright shot of the yearling taken from the back door.

She was standing near an old bathtub we have used as a flower box. Unfortunately, nothing is alive in it right now. We may someday line the outside of it with vertical logs to cover up its bathtubbiness.

This is SO close to the house. It was so exciting.

I also love this one with three elk in it, the sunlight on the young one in front, and the way the window pane makes the photo look vignetted.




They came to drink from our horse trough. We have no horses; just the trough. It was our primary source of grey water for the first few years up here - but that's another story for another time. Today, boy were we glad it had water left in it from the summer rains.


Walking over to the water, taking her turn.




Da baby!




The trough is located right under our dining room window. When one girl came up from her drink, I took these. Note the antique carpenter's level in the foreground. It's what we use as our window brace. (Rebar, hollow piping, antique carpenter's level...it all works.) She's even licking her lips. Mmmmm, that months old water with dirt and floaties in it tastes good!

She couldn't see us, though we were right inside about 2 feet from her. The windows reflect, so for the most part all she saw was the forest reflected in the window. But she must have been able to sense us or perhaps see vague motion through the window beyond the reflection. She raised her head to get a better look.

And then ...

...she looked right at me, curious about this half sight, half sense she had.

She began to move away from the trough and the window. As she did, the baby - who had been drinking from the end of the trough almost entirely out of my view - began to follow.

I was able to get this great view of her precious face.

The mama and baby moved off. Soon the other two did as well.
A parting shot.

This was so cool! What an awesome gift to have these gals come so close. We are now determined to keep water in the trough and when in town I ran over to Wal-Mart and bought a salt lick. We want to keep them coming!!!

Van Camping

For all of you who are curious what it's like for us as we "Van Camp", in a few words, it's:

TIGHT. SMALL. CRAMPED. CROWDED. STUFFED.

JAMMED. CLUTTERED. MESSY.

(The box of Sugar Pops --excuse me, my age is showing..."Corn" Pops-- is empty and makes a rather nice floor mat. (Seriously, it feels better under my boots than the constant "carpet" of gravel and sandy dirt.)

KITCHEN. LIVING ROOM. BEDROOM. TRANSPORTATION.

Plus: We have everything we need.
Minus: But where the heck is it?

-We have rods to hang our clothes, and Rusty's guiding gear....lots of guiding gear.

-We have a TV/DVD Player...hanging from the ceiling. (Requires minding our shins in the night.)

-We have a refrigerator in the back which we can plug in at a camp spot or run off an invertor while driving.

-We have so much extra stuff which doesn't have a permanent accessible home in the van that we are constantly shifting it all around day and night from on and off the bed so we can sleep or drive.

-It's relatively dark in there, even in Alaska. No side windows.

-The dashboard is my husband's bookcase. (I can't see over it all so when he's working and I have the van, first I have to take everything off the dash and stack it on the passenger seat. Then I have to put it all back when I pick him up because there's nowhere else to put it.)

-The door frame is his fly case.

-My armrest is the hat rack.

-The ceiling holds his fishing poles. Thanks to more broom sticks, shower rods, and bungies.

-His "dresser" is a series of duffle bags suspended from the ceiling via various shower rods and broom sticks. My dresser is a carry-on bag on the floor between the bed and the side door.

-His "nightstand" is two narrow plastic storage tubs bungied to the wall. Works great.

-Don't even ask where the bathroom is.

-Each morning we have to take down the shotgun from it's slings attached to the ceiling and place it on the bed where it won't move. Each night before bed, we place it up there, out of our way.

-Our kitchen cupboard is the big gaping hole between the front seats. Try as I may to keep it organized, it always seems to be a big jumbled pile of stuff. (How's that bread lookin' down there on the bottom, honey? Hey, look! There's those apples we bought in Canada 10 days ago. I wondered where they went.)

It can be frustrating (usually getting moreso as time goes on) but it's also kind of nice. We can go anywhere and always have a place to sleep. We can be spontaneous and stay overnight if we want. It's kind of freeing. Of course, it would be nice to have a luxurious, expensive motor home...but alas. Maybe someday...an inexpensive one. (Come to think of it, even the tiniest ones are expensive.)

But for now, we're doin' fine.

Festival #2

First off, here's a photo of our booth. Every single day of both festivals I forgot to bring my camera. So these are photos from last year's Fall Festival, but you get the idea.



And here's one of The Fisherman standing next to one of his popular bear photos. The one below it is rather popular, too. We call it Autumn Reflections.

Festival #2 was a wild life festival. We waffled back and forth on whether or not to actually show up. The organizer was very nice and said she understood totally if we chose not to come. There was only going to be two other actual vendors there besides us. Verrrry small festival indeed. We hemmed and hawed, asking each other repeatedly, "So what do you think? Should we do it or not?" We finally decided, though it would probably be a lot of work for a little money, we should go ahead and give it a try. In the morning, the winds were picking up, which took the wind out of our sails. We decided to cancel. Then, my always-thinking and ever spontaneous husband came up with a set-up idea that would be virtually wind proof. We were on again at the last minute. We showed up later than intended and were encouraged by the weather and the feel of the place so we went ahead and did a fairly full set-up. It was a fun festival. Very small, but fun. We made a couple hundred bucks, too, so it was a good day.

Since it was a wildlife festival, most of the booths were informational and/or educational. Fish and Game had a booth that included bear hides, bear skulls, a big horn ram skull with HUGE curling horns, as well as several table-top enclosures each containing one of Arizona's native rattlesnakes. Mmm, boy. Actually, they were very interesting. During set up, one of the guys raised his voice a bit and said, "Uh oh! We're missing two snakes." Funny guy, that one.

There was also a live Red Tailed Hawk and a live Bald Eagle. Very cool. they stood on their handlers' arms or on an astro-turf covered perch while the handlers gave info and answered questions about them. (Average wingspan of an adult bald eagle: 6.5 feet.)

The wolf that was here in August was back. He has actually GROWN in the last two months. He looked a lot beefier to me, much more filled out. This time he was enclosed within a fence and the director/handler sat inside with him. I was sure glad I went in August where the wolf was leashed and walking around the whole day. I got a good share of petting him this time, though, during set up and take down times when he was being walked. We are looking forward to visiting the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in New Mexico sometime in the next few months.

THEN, there was this indoor avian show. They gave a talk - in the acoustic nightmare that was the metal garage in which it was held - and brought out three different birds. One was a black and white crow that did a cute demonstration of flying back and forth from the handler to volunteers (aged 5 to 75). The crow landed on each volunteer's arm and then took from their other hand a pop can in his beak which he flew back to a little recycling bin across the room. Another bird was a huge owl from Africa. When the handler came out from behind the screen with it on his arm, the crowd erupted into the oooooh's and aaaaaah's of surprise and awe. It was very impressive.

But the best, most thrilling part for me was the flight of the Auger's Buzzard. We learned that only Americans mistake "buzzards" for "vultures." Actually a buzzard, in the rest of the world, is a hawk. We're the only ones that think the term means a vulture-like creature. You can see a photo of this hawk at the Avian Ambassadors website. They had handlers set up at diagonal corners of the audience. I had the perfect seat. I was sitting in the last row, two seats in from the center aisle. The hawk flew from my front left to the back right.... right behind me and to my right about 8 feet. Before beginning the flying demonstration, the speaker explained to us that birds conserve energy by flying low in a swooping arc. He said essentially, if you're in it's direct path, you might get scared as you see it flying low toward you, but don't worry. And don't make any sudden movements like raising your arms or freaking out. I love birds but I get an involuntary skin crawl and body shudder when they fly real close to me. I was imagining what it would be like to have this thing fly a foot or even 18" over my head! Well, it's a good thing I didn't have to find out because this hawk swooped down from the man's arm and flew literally inches from people's heads! Inches! It was amazing. The family sitting in the end seats just three seats away from me had this beautiful, BIG, grey and white hawk with a 3 and a 1/2 foot wing span flying right into their faces just a couple inches above their heads as it made it's slight ascent toward the other handler's outstretched forearm. WOW! I wish I could have gotten a picture. But not only did I not have my camera with me, I was also so awestruck that I wouldn't even have been able to shoot. I noticed some friends sitting toward the front on the left hand aisle and the bird flew right over them each time. When it was over I talked to them and the wife said the hawk actually caught a little bit of her hair while flying past!!

I probably would have had Fearful Nature Encounter #3 and had to write some pathetic, humiliating account of it here. (To read about Encounters 1 and 2, see September 7th's post entitled Leaves Are Turning Yellow. The account of our Bear Mountain hike is under the sub-heading of Sept 5th.) As it was, I was so thankful for the beautiful, amazing things I saw so close up. I love the gentle flare and curves of the very outside wing tips.

Back out at our booth, there was one woman who came to the booth while The Fisherman was away. I could tell she was another festival participant by her hurried only-have-a-second manner. She only stayed about 30 seconds but was so full of energy and enthusiasm, exclaiming how awesome the photos were and that she'd be back. I noticed then that she had on a radio station jacket. After lunch she came back to meet The Fisherman. She was doing a live remote and wondered if he would like to do a a brief on-air interview. A couple minutes later, The Fisherman was on the radio. She talked up his photos, gave out his website address, and asked him a couple questions about his work, how close he gets to the bears, etc. I didn't hear it, of course, but the whole thing was pretty exciting. Later, as we were forced to start taking down 30 minutes early due to increasing winds, a dad and sons came by saying they'd heard him on the radio and wanted to come see. Cool!

All in all, we had a lot of fun at this small kid-oriented festival. We're glad we did it but are uncertain about doing it again next year. If we don't participate, we'll probably attend it because it's so fun to see the creatures.

Blogging on the Porch

The sun is beginning to set and the evening chill is setting in. The 64 degrees of earlier has given way to a seemingly much chillier 60. The sky seemed to turn a switch and suddenly it grew grey and still. The last beams of bright sunlight shine on a distant hill to the east. I can see it's top through the trees. Elk are bugling in the woods around the meadow just a couple hundred yards away from me. Nuthatches are clicking and clacking their ways up and down the pine trees. A silent bunny hops from underneath one juniper to another. A chipmunk scampers onto the porch. When I look at him, he darts off as if his very life depends on it. Grey Breasted Jays land clumsily on the feeders that are too small for them. Gravel clatters from beyond my view under the porch as birds scratch out the bird seed flung out of the feeder by the jays seeking only the sunflower seeds.

As I pause and just take in the stillness of the trees and air, I feel myself receiving the restfulness of it all.

The elk. Two bunnies hopping. Birds scratching. Wind in the tree tops. A moment of complete silence. Then they begin again.

All but the elk seem to be quieting down. It seems they are taking the cues of the greying light and are thinking about heading in for the night.

I will do the same.

Jehovah Rapha

I'm doing a Beth Moore Bible study this year. I've never done one before but have heard she is a gifted teacher. Her studies are combination workbook and video studies.

This study is called "A Woman's Heart - God's Dwelling Place" and studies the Old Testament tabernacle. People have told me this is a fascinating and inspiring study (be it by Beth Moore or not) but, frankly, I wasn't all that interested in studying the tabernacle. I did so in a Bible class in college for my Religion major, and I was simply not into it at all. But, since this particular Beth Moore study has come so highly recommended by friends who did it last year at our old church, I was eager to accept the invitation to join in.

We do homework in the workbook and today I came across some great stuff. Just have to share it. I don't think I'm breaking any copyright laws by quoting a few passages.

In Exodus 15, God has just miraculously brought the Israelites through the Red Sea on dry ground and subsequently drowned all of their enemies, Pharoah's armies who pursued them. The Israelites were being led by God through the wilderness by way of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. After the Red Sea, He led them three days to a place with water that was not drinkable. The Bible says the waters were bitter, therefore the place was named Marah, which means "bitterness."

God commanded Moses to take a nearby tree and throw it into the waters. When he did, the waters became sweet and Israel's thirst was met.

The passage concludes with verse 26 in which God states that if Israel will follow Him closely He will "put none of these diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer."

Beth Moore notes the same oddity I felt when reading that. She notes how curious it is that God chose this time to introduce Himself as Healer, Jehovah Rapha. It seems kind of out of place. Bad water turned good, then suddenly God is talking about diseases and being their healer. Why not after the Israelites had come down with some sickness and He miraculously healed them all? No, He chose to introduce Himself as Healer within a circumstance whose focal point was the turning of bitterness to sweetness.

Beth writes:
"He introduced Himself as Jehovah-Rapha by demonstrating His power over the most common disease from which His children would suffer - bitterness."

She continues:
"Bitterness is a spiritual cancer, a rapidly growing malignancy that can consume your life. After it consumes the soul, it begins to eat away at the body. It is so contagious that we can pass it on to our children, who are often oblivious to the source.

...No amount of distractions or busywork - not even church work - can treat this spiritual disease.

...Bitterness cannot be ignored but must be healed at the very core, and only Christ can heal bitterness. No one can do it for you, and no one can tell you exactly what is required for your healing. Others can direct you to Jesus, but you must show up for your appointments."

It was at this point that my thoughts turned to the question, "Am I bitter, Lord?" Evidence would indicate that yes, there are areas where things have been left unresolved, hidden, and stashed away, areas where bitterness has crept in. Then I asked myself, "What are my favorite distractions? What tends to satisfy me on the surface and keep me from seeing the things that need changing?"

Beth continued:
"In order to heal, you may need to start by forgiving.

Yet you may fear, as I did,
'If I forgive
that will make it all right
and it's not alright.'

Let God whisper into your ear what He whispered to me,
'No, My child; forgiving will
make you all right.' "

Good stuff.

Just when I thought I'd had plenty to work with for the time being, she gently reminded me that:

"Healing is a cooperative effort."

and

"Often, believers let their Healer extract a portion of their spiritual malignancies, then force him to cease because of their lack of cooperation."

and then, the personalization:

"Will you allow Him to finish the good work He began in you?
Are you ready to trust your life to your Healer?
Peace awaits you on the other side of your Marah [bitterness].
Let Him take you there."

Like I said, I just had to share this with you. Good stuff. Worthy of self examination, of much meditation and prayer.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I went and saw the movie, The Time Traveler's Wife, last month. I liked it so I bought the book and am now almost half way through it. It's about Henry, a man who is mysteriously and genetically prone to time travel. He has no control over when he time travels or to when he goes, but he often re-visits places and times familiar to him. Because clothes and possessions do not transport through time he always arrives at his travel destination unclothed. As you can imagine, unlike other such stories, time travel is not all that fun for Henry. He spends much of his time trying to acquire clothes, money, and food as well as fighting off people who find these activities objectionable.

Through his travels he meets Clare. She is a little girl when they meet but over the years of her growing life they become sweet friends. As she gets older, they fall unofficially in love. Eventually they meet in the present where the love story unfolds.

Both the book and movie are very interesting in that you are dealing simultaneously with the past, present, and future. Any one scene or chapter can be about Clare's past but Henry's future, or Henry's future but Clare's present, or perhaps both their presents.

The book is written "by" both Clare and Henry. Each section begins with the date and year as well as both Clare and Henry's ages at the time. This is the clue to whether Henry is time traveling in the section or not. It also lets you know who is speaking by declaring "CLARE:" or "HENRY:" before the narrative. Everything is written in present tense, which at first I found kind of annoying. But then I realized that it could be written no other way. To speak in past tense as most books do would confuse the already confusing sense of time. I now appreciate the literary brilliance, per se, of such an awkward, daring, but necessary writing decision.

The book is somewhat raw in places, a bit raunchy in language and subject when it comes to some sexual references. The movie, as I remember, doesn't seem to include this element of crudity. I seem to remember it as a mostly sweet story, though it is not without it's share of life's pain and tragedy. Not worthy of a G rating, but I wouldn't say R either. The book is more like a PG17, if there were such a thing, but only in some places and not as a whole. [update 10/21/09: I think the raunchy parts might deserve an X rating, but otherwise the rest of the book would be PG13.)

Anyway, since I'm enjoying reading this book and enjoyed the movie, I thought I'd write a little bit about it for you.

Alaska - Last Days of the Trip

Let's see, where did I leave off??? I made it through Monday, Sept. 7th. That's right about where I lost all track of days and dates. But I did manage to make some cryptic notes on my handmade calendar within my journal.


Tuesday, September 8th, however is rather lost. I think we must have spent it doing mundane things around town.


Wait...let's back up and I'll include some photos of things mentioned earlier.

Beautiful Fall Colors



The Fisherman cutting down trees at Jerry's.




Note the difference in weather. Same day, just a couple hours later. The saying in Alaska goes, "If you're not happy with the weather in Alaska, just wait a minute; it'll change." These trees are on two different sides of their yard. I have a photo of The Fisherman in this second tree with nothing but clouds behind it. This blue skied photo was taken literally minutes later.


Here's the top of Bear Mountain overlooking Skilak Lake ...



Some turning fireweed leaves along the Bear Mountain trail.





Surprises For Me At The Cabin

Wednesday, Sept 9th we took our Alaska truck to Homer. We needed to drive all the gas ...excuuuuuse me, deisel.......out of it before filling it with fresh deisel for the winter. Yes, I've learned from friends that it's NOT "gas", it's "deisel fuel". Anyway, on the way to Homer, The Fisherman took me for a drive into a neighborhood with large parcels overlooking Kachemak Bay, green rolling hills covered also with red fireweed stalks. The hot pink flowers were all gone but the red stalks seemed just about as spectacular. In Homer we went to the Time Bandit store again. They said it was moored in the Deep Water Marina. The gal told us she thought they were on board and that if we hollered out they MIGHT let us aboard. We were excited and hopeful. But when we got there, we saw that ships were parked two deep next to the dock and unfortunately, the Time Bandit was on the outside. There was no sign of anyone in the parts we could see. But we did manage to get a few photos of it. We also enjoyed walking the dock looking at the big ships, some of them rusted and patched hulks that looked like they'd been there for years.

Afterwards, we headed to Pioneer Rd. for the art galleries. Mmm, mmm, mmm. I had fun. Saw some gorgeous scarves made out of super soft Italian yarn and one scarf that was "partially felted" loosely laid out silk yarns. Also saw the art of a Downs Syndrome young man. I bought the book about him.

On the way back we took a detour 8 miles off the highway looking for a Russian community with a highly recommended cafe we wanted to try. When we finally reached the community, we got some stares from the kids on bikes and ladies wearing their traditional Russian Orthodox garments. We got to the cafe and found it closed up tight. That must be why we looked so out of place; the cafe may have closed for the season days or weeks before. Not sure. On the way out on this long isolated road we stopped at the side of the road for a moment. Turns out we were right in front of a small side road. It was so much in the country at that spot that it didn't matter that we were blocking the road. But... as fortune would have it, I soon glanced out my window and saw an ATV ridden by a man and a child, and a team of seven sled dogs pulling them! We moved out of their way and they carried on across the road to a path almost hidden by tall grasses running parallel to our road. It was so fun seeing them. Summer training, I guess.

Thursday, Sept 10th we headed the opposite direction to Seward. Still had gas to burn out of the truck and wanted to have some fun, too. We walked the black shale beach of Lowell Point and were joined by a playful stray dog. This muttly looking dog was so cute and smart. He got himself a five foot branch for us to play fetch with him! He would trot up ahead of us about 15 feet, drop the branch, and wait for us to catch up. Of course, he was wearing his most expectant, playful, happy dog face as he stared alternately at us and the branch. This was no long twig. It was a beefy branch! Try throwing a five foot branch for a dog to catch! He was pretty smart, though, and knew how to stay out of the way as we tried to gently heave it. But as we walked somewhat apart from each other (The Fisherman and me) we'd have to warn each other that the dog was approaching from behind and about to whack the front person in the back of the leg with the branch. Turns out he belongs to the owner of the store down the road and is often found roaming around on his own. Hmmm.

Next we went to a favorite "snaggin' hole" of The Fisherman's. While he fished with the others lining the rocky shore, I wandered around in the other direction. This snaggin' hole is right in town so wandering around by myself was not dangerous as it would be in other spots. While we were walking the beach earlier we were looking at these giant drift wood trees washed up on shore. Roots and all. They are so cool. Many people haul them home and place them root side up in their yards. Some of them are short and stumpy but others are fully trees. We admired them and planned to someday haul some off ourselves for our own cabin yard. Well, when I was wandering around the snaggin' hole, I found a miniature version. "Hey, Honey! Look what I found!" We took it with us.

It actually does have sort of a "bottom" on which it can stand, which will be better once we take a saw to it.

Friday, Sept 11th was spent unloading most of the van, re-organizing, leaving some stuff in the cabin and loading some stuff from the cabin into the van. We took off toward dinner time. Stopped at Gwin's Lodge to visit and say good-bye to friends for the season. No telling what next year will bring. The lodge is up for sale by the family of the owner who died last winter. It may be the last time we hang out there. We just don't know. Fly Bob will continue to work there over the winter and we'll just all wait and see what happens. We also stopped at Jerry and Kim's to drop off some salmon and pick up some bear meat. Jerry gave us a pair of female caribou antlers. Love them! Drove to Anchorage and camped.

Saturday, Sept 12th
Did errands in Anchorage nearly all day. While driving into the Home Depot parking lot we saw about 40 Canada geese on a grassy peninsula surrounded on three sides by bustling Anchorage traffic. Beautiful and ugly. Serene and obnoxious. Nature and technology. Peaceful amid chaotic. Left Anchorage around 3pm. Got to Glen Allen, smelled burning oil and saw smoke. Yikes. We were leaking oil. The Fisherman tightened the oil filter as tight as he could and replaced the lost oil. We proceeded cautiously and camped a couple hours later 50 miles west of Tok.

Sunday, Sept 13th.

Took us ALL day to get to Tok! There were just too many pictures to be taken. We stopped at a lake that had 17 swans in it! It was so beautiful.

We stayed there over an hour. Lots of other cars stopped. We met another photographer who is from Virginia. This year he said he put his jeep and motor home on a ferry and came up the inside passage. Great photo ops! That's on our list now for someday. In Tok we found a mechanic who put the van up on the rack for us where we discovered that the gasket from the old oil filter was stuck to the mounting. The new oil filter, freshly installed the day before in Anchorage, could not seat properly and leaked. After getting the bothersome straggler removed, we drove on with much more confidence. We crossed the border into Canada around 6:30pm. Camped around 10:30pm.

Monday, Sept 14th.
Awoke to condensation inside the van again. It has happened often, but this morning it was frozen. 32 degrees inside. No wonder my head was cold during the night! I learned in Ski School when I was in High School that we lose 90% of our body heat from our heads. The instructors told us, "If your feet are cold, put a hat on." I keep a scrap of soft and thick flannel by my pillow when van camping in the far north. It really helps to put it over my head. That way I don't have to worry about suffocating underneath covers pulled all the way over my head.

Saw two deer roadside, a buck and a doe. Odd...the buck was still in velvet. I thought they'd be shed by now.

We were all off schedule for driving because of our late start and because we took so long getting beyond Tok the second day. We find we're driving through some of the most beautiful parts after dark. Dang.

Tuesday, Sept 15 and forward.
We drove...and drove...and drove. Passed some beautiful, beautiful territory but were very tired. Stopped for photos as they presented themselves. Buffalo, Stone Sheep, windows of blue in cloud laden skies, autumn colors, birch and spruce.

The Fisherman decided to drive through the night. This really confused me on what day it was and where we were. Without stopping at night to camp, I found I got pretty lost as to where we were. Pretty soon we found ourselves in Ft. Nelson. We stopped for gas and lunch groceries. On the way out of town, we saw a B&B that had a special stack of firewood. What was special to us about it is the fact that The Fisherman has toyed with the idea of making our "real" cabin home in Alaska out of stacked logs. The walls would be about 2-3 feet thick, stuffed, chinked and sealed over. The inside and outside walls would be the round ends of the logs, like this:

This design would be creative, different, super insulated, and inexpensive, too. (We have PLENTY of wood on our property!) We're excited at the possibily of having such a unique home. I guess it's not literally "unique" because it's been done before. (I had a college english professor who's pet peeve was people using adjectives in front of the word unique. "Something cannot be 'really unique'", she'd say. "It's either unique or it isn't.") Back to the story... We pulled into the B&B property and were quickly greeted by the owner who asked if he could help us. We told him we were just admiring his uniform stack of wood and our thoughts of building our home that way. He was very interested, said he just read a book about alternative homes, and saw one he really liked built by some guy in Arizona. Arizona? We're from Arizona! No kidding, really? We had a nice long chat with Peter. He was very friendly. He had some antlers around this beautifully stacked wall of wood, moose, caribou, deer. On a whim, The Fisherman asked him if he might be willing to sell us the moose antlers. He said, "Aw, you can just take them. They were given to me so you can just have them." WOW! We were exstatic! Those things cost about $500 at the antler store in Sterling. (Yes, there's actually an antler store. But it's not that unusual; there's one at home too.)

So, we managed to squeeze these giant moose antlers (connected) into the van. It was funny because the van was already stuffed - I mean PACKED - with other treasures we'd accumulated along the drive. Jerry's caribou antlers, some birch branches to make easels out of, and one giant beaver gnawed birch log that was just too cool to not have. I've created a monster, as the saying goes. For the first 20 years of our marriage, I was the one always bringing home twigs and rocks (still do). Now, The Fisherman is into it. Only in a man-sized fashion. He carried a 5 foot log 7 inches in diameter about a half mile from the river where we found it back to the van. Yes, we were stuffed with treasures. Some of them we will haul right back up to Alaska next summer for our cabin. We just acquired them while going the wrong direction. On that same hike (part of why it took so long to get to Tok) we saw tons of blueberries. We had fun picking and eating them.



Thursday, September 17th
Mom's birthday. And I missed it. I was so lost in what the date was, and even what day it was, that I completely missed her birthday. I suppose this can be looked on as a good thing. Birthdays of loved ones passed on are among the hardest things to go through, especially the first one. And I was completely oblivious. It was about 11pm when we were driving, again bleary eyed and exhausted, almost home, when I heard the newscaster say the date. I was instantly sad and my eyes filled with tears. I was so sad to have not known it was Mom's birthday. I felt cheated somehow, not being able to spend the day in some sort of intentional celebratory remembering of her life. Her love. My love for her. Memories. I felt cheated. I cried.

Friday, Sept 18th, 1:00 a.m. HOME.

Touching Base 2

Well, Festival #1 is over with. We are very pleased with the weekend, especially in this economy. One of the nicest features of the weekend was the absence of 30 mile per hour winds...like we've had in years past. Oh, and no microbursts .... like last year...which tore down 15 tents, sending two of them sailing over the fence just one tent away from us. This weekend was beautiful with blue skies and somewhat blazing sun. Temps in the 80's. We had tons of fun visiting with people who came to our booth, both friends and strangers. So many people who came to the booth have been to Alaska. We met people who used to live there and our photos made them pine for "home". Alaska sure gets in your blood. We had some happenstance visits from long ago friends, and some visits from folks who knew we'd be there and came to see us. It was a lot of fun.

Festival #2, we have learned, is going to be pretty dismal. Very few vendors will be there but we're going to go ahead and do it. We'll see.

I'm still hoping that this week MIGHT afford me the chance to finish posting about Alaska. I have a backlog of chores, business and emails to attend to.

If you're so inclined, here's some things going on that you could pray for us for:
- our church search
- I need a job
- I have lots of adjusments on my plate right now
- the daunting task of going through boxes and finding a place for everything can be put off no longer

Later to you all! :-)

Touching Base

We pulled into Home Sweet House at 1:00 a.m. on, I believe it was, Friday morning. I lost all track of days and dates over the last two weeks of the trip. I'm eager to finish posting about the trip and get current. HowEVer, we set up for the festival in just two days! I fear I will not be able to get caught up for a couple weeks! Maybe next week, in the lull between two festivals. Maybe....

Wish I could write more today but I've got to dash

Leaves are Turning Yellow

Birch leaves are turning yellow here in Alaska. The degree of yellow varies as you drive from one place to another, but one thing is for certain: autumn is coming. It is dark by 9:30 p.m. and evening temperatures are running about 50 degrees. I like sleeping when it's chilly.

Saturday, September 5th we couldn't decide what to do. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to go in two different directions. We wanted to go to Homer to visit more art galleries than we were able to last time and we wanted to go to Cooper Landing to climb Bear Mountain on a beautiful day. Plus The Fisherman needed to cut down some trees for our friend The Bear in return for all the work he did for us building the road earlier this summer. The Fisherman cracked a rib early in the summer after I left and couldn't do them for him. Then work got busy and here we are. We figured we could do art galleries in the rain but not Bear Mountain or trees.

We headed east to Cooper Landing. The Fisherman climbed and cut about 5 trees. The Bear cleaned up below moving limbs and logs with a "thumbed" excavator he borrowed for the weekend. We took a break for lunch. The Bear fixed us bear burgers. They were good. After some more work, we headed out for Bear Mountain (lots of bears in this story). I can't believe The Fisherman climbed 5 trees and then climbed Bear Mountain! It's a little mountain with a tiny narrow 8/10 of a mile trail that leads through tall grasses, fireweed, alders, birch and spruce up to a large rock and a beautiful view of Skilak (SKEE-lak) Lake. The lake sort of wraps around Bear Mountain and it's foothills. Off to the east are the Kenai Mountains - the same mountain range we see from our property. There's a glacier up there, and just on the other side are the Harding Ice Fields. It's really cool to be up there. The hike is pretty steep and I needed lots of rest stops. Legs screaming, heart pounding, lungs huffing. But I did much better than I expected. We took our time.

Though I've never learned officially why it's named Bear Mountain, you can easily imagine. And it earned it's name for us this time. We didn't see the bear but we heard him. And it was pretty scary. The brush is so tall and so close - the trail is only a single-wide and in some places you are moving through fireweed and brush four feet tall or more. It easily hides a bear from view, so it's kind of scary. We wanted to hike it with The Bear and Miss K for more reasons than just their nice company. We wanted more people to make more noise and also so we'd have more "heat" (guns) with us. Unfortunately, Miss K wasn't with us because she was working. We walked the trail with me sandwiched between The Fisherman and his Rugger 480 strapped to his waist and The Bear with his shotgun slung over his shoulder.

On the way back down, The Bear was in front and The Fisherman was behind. The Fisherman and I heard a loud branch snap. That means bear. It was about 20 feet off the trail to our right. I had been instructed to get behind the guys if we encountered a bear so, after I gasped, snapped my head in the direction of the sound, and all the blood drained from my face, I stepped off the path to get behind The Fisherman. Trouble was, I was stepping backward without looking at what I was stepping into. And I promptly fell flat on my butt and my back into the uneven terrain of 2 foot tall grass. Great, I'm thinking, A bear's out there and I'm flat on my back! How vulnerable is that?! It's exactly opposite of the position you're supposed to be in if a bear comes at you. Meanwhile, during my fall, I instinctively reached up to grab The Fisherman to ease my fall. I was so unstable I continued to hold onto his arm while getting myself oriented. Only problem was, and this is a pretty significant problem, at the exact moment I was falling and grabbing him he was going for his gun to protect us should the bear be advancing rather than retreating. He had his hand on his gun trying to pull it out and I was hanging onto this arm pulling it down. If that bear had appeared and charged, we'd a been in trouble because he couldn't get his gun out! Meanwhile, The Bear didn't hear the branch break, didn't hear us say "Bear!" (probably because I don't think either of us said it) and he merely thought I had fallen down.

I'm learning that I'm not all that great in critical threatening situations. I'm pretty good in some situations. For instance, I was unanmously crowned The Most in Command of Her Faculties during our roll-over accident 6 years ago. But when it comes to a sudden threat from a wild animal in the Alaska woods, I'm running 0 for 2. The first one happened when I was here in the early summer. I failed to blog about it out of sheer humiliation, I'm sure. I was in the woods near our campsite, preparing to address nature's call. As I approached my targeted spot, I heard noises coming from the thick woods about 25 yards away. As that is the time for moose with newly born calves, I immediately thought MOOSE! After freezing for a moment, I took off back toward the van, again, not watching where my feet were going. I fell down flat onto the ground and had another "Great". moment as a whole moose-stomping-my-back scene took place in my head - just like the whole bear-mauling-my-front scene ran through my head on Bear Mtn. Afterwards, I laughed so hard about it and The Fisherman and I agreed, "Well, we can't make fun of those women in movies that always fall down when running away from danger anymore. Now we know it's real." That noise I heard? Turns out it was just the heavy dripping of water laden leaves in the forest. Even more embarrassing.

Back on Bear Mountain, it all ended fine. The bear went away, we heard one more twig snap - smaller or farther away than the first one - I got off my butt, Jerry got up to speed (and advised us to shout "Bear!" next time) and we talked a lot more and more loudly on the way down. "Heeyy, bear!" is the common thing to yell, at least in the hiking entourages I've been among. I'd add the occasional, "Go 'way, bear!" At one point, after I'd hollered that, The Fisherman chimed in with a comical "C'mere bear!" and a "Here, bear!" Funny. It reminds me of how sometimes we'd talk to our dogs in that sing-songy dog talking voice everyone uses but instead of the sweet things usually said, we'd get a kick out of saying insulting things and watching their oblivious happy responses. We'd say things like, "You're so stooooo-pid!" or "Are you an UG-ly dog????" Saying "Here, bear!" was funny at the same time it gave me a creepy feeling, despite the obvious fact that they can't actually understand what you're saying and the point is just to say something so they'll know you're there and stay away.

So we survived Bear Mountain - in all ways applicable. We sure enjoyed the peaceful time on the rock. So nice.

We went back to The  Bear's house, got to visit with Miss K for awhile, took showers, and pretty soon it was 11:30 and we headed back to Soldotna so we could go to church in the morning. If we had not planned to go to church, we would have just camped at their house.

Sunday, September 6th, we were bleary eyed and nearly comatose at 8am. Church started at 8:30...or so we thought. At 8:10 there was no one in the parking lot. (The church parking lot is The Fisherman's new camp spot till we leave.) The Fisherman re-checked the sign and it said that the church service is televised at 8:30a.m. but that the services are actually at 10 and 11. Good. We lounged around another hour or so and went in at 10. Turns out that was like a Sunday School teaching hour. Church was at 11. We were so tired we had a hard time staying awake. (I told The Fisherman I now know how we need to do strenuous hikes together. First I need to have him climb and cut down 5 trees and then we'll be more evenly matched for the hike.)

After church was an immediate nap. Woke up with a start at 2pm and headed to the grocery store and then to Jerry's again for more tree work. We had also intended to hike "The Canyon" - the Kenai River canyon we saw from Bear Mountain. But, The Fisherman was too shot and time was too short by then. They guys did trees, I cooked potatoes, onions, and peppers on the stove inside. Kim came home early and we had dinner around 8pm. Headed out at around 10:30; The Fisherman had a gig this morning.

Today - Monday, September 7th is The Fisherman's last gig. It's the last gig of the whole season. We've learned that any time there is a troublesome client, they give them to The Fisherman. Quite a compliment actually. He adjusts his guiding to their needs or desires and his clients always get fish. Today was one such trip, so hopefully he's having a good time out there.

Well, I've caught you up current. Think I'll go get something to eat. I have 3 and a half hours before I go pick him up. I'll either read my book, or perhaps go over to River City Books and look for a book Jerry recommended to us about the area. It's a book written by a local historically significant man named Peter Kalifornsky. There is such a mix of native and Russian influences in Alaska. I expected a man named Kalifornsky to be a Russian. He was, however, a native. He wrote the history of his people and also preserved in writing their language before the last known speaker of it died. His people are the Denina. I know I've spelled that wrong; there is an apostrophe and a whole 'nother silent syllable in there somewhere, but there's just no hope in me even trying. This Peter Kalifornsky has a road and a beach named after him here in the Soldotna/Kenai area. Kalifornsky Beach Road is one of the main roads connecting the two towns with much business on it. It's quite a mouthful so it has been nicknamed K-Beach Road. Much easier to say.

But I'm not headed to K-Beach Road right now. I'm going across the Sterling Highway - the main drag through Soldotna - over to the bookstore and some lunch.

I think we'll be leaving this area in a couple days. Maybe Homer tomorrow. We still haven't done any work on the cabin yet. I can't believe how fast the time is going.

From Coffee Grinders - Soldotna, Alaska

I'm at my favorite coffee shop/internet cafe in Soldotna. The Fisherman is out on a free trip, sort of a training trip. They have flown 4 clients to Delight Lake down south on the Kenai Peninsula. In the 9 passenger DeHaviland Otter there were a few seats open so The Fisherman got to go. Perhaps he'll get some gigs there next year. Delight Lake is right near Desire Lake, which I've heard is also called Bug Lake - at least by some. Gives you a good idea of what it's like to fish there. The Fisherman was told, "As long as you don't mind insects flying all around and bouncing off your face, you'll be fine."

Meantime, I've been tooling around town. I love Alaska, but frankly, Soldotna doesn't have much to offer. It's a functional town. It has everything you'd ever need along with a few gift shops. Other than that, there's not a lot to do if you're not into going to the river and throwing a line in. I prefer tourist towns. Towns with several gallery shops, a marina, and tourist shops. Seward has the Sea Life Center, a glacier and the marina. Homer has lots of galleries (more than any little tourist town I've seen), the marina, and some museums I've never been to. Soldotna has a little gallery/knitting shop where I spent some of this morning. Yes, I came away with some yarn. And a pattern. I'm going to try my hand at hats.

Monday, August 31st was spent flying. Had a 3 hour layover in Seattle. I love SeaTac airport. They have a really nice gallery shop called Fireweed and the food court has a HUGE glass window that looks out on the runways. It is concave in that it curves away from you following the architecture of the floorplan which curves outward and it's convex in that from floor to ceiling it is curved inward in the middle. It's very cool. It's about 250 feet long and 50 feet high, made up of glass panels with steel at the junctures which horizontal and vertical cables run through.

I also saw some beautiful things from the air. On the first flight I saw the outskirts of the Grand Canyon. On the northern flight I saw, turquoise lakes puddled at the bottom of surrounding mountain peaks, rippling waves making intersecting arcs on the surface of the water, and a very special sight of three little mountain lakes. They were right next to each other. In my little distorted picture, they looked like they were about an inch apart. The amazing thing was that one lake was turquoise blue, the next was a pale milky green and the last was ocean blue. Very peculiar and very beautiful.

Tuesday, Sept. 1st we spent at a wildlife park. It was fun seeing all the animals. We drove down to "home" in Soldotna. Home base has moved since I was last here. When school starts in the fall, all the guides get kicked out of the schools where they've been allowed to camp all summer. So there are a couple weeks when The Fisherman has to find another place to camp. We're at a church a couple miles up the highway from his work.

Wednesday, Sept. 2nd we did boring city stuff, like laundry, computer work for The Fisherman, and I got myself organized and assimilated into the van. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant here. Nothing like Sylvia's or Manuel's in Phoenix (just thinking about either of them gives me cravings!) but we found a couple items we like. We went to the Wednesday night service at the church. Very nice people and it was fun meeting fellow Christians from another place. I always enjoy the sense of family there is among Christians even when they're strangers.


Thursday, Sept. 3rd The Fisherman had to work a couple hours. Things are winding down pretty quickly in the fishing season. They flew across the inlet to take some motors off boats and haul them back in the plane which had some seats removed. They still have some boats over there and it looks like The Fisherman is scheduled with clients on the 7th but that will be his last gig. We grilled up some salmon for dinner and watched a movie. We've both been REALLY tired. I don't think we're drinking enough water, hard to do when there's not an easy bathroom around. But we manage.

We're going to try to make trips to both Homer and Seward before we hit the road for home. That will be fun. Like I mentioned above, I like those towns. The Fisherman does too. We often toy around with the idea that we COULD sell our property and buy something closer to either of those towns. But when we think of our view and all the work we've already done, we just can't seem to part with it. Who knows, maybe someday we will. But for now, we'll just keep plugging away at what we have. We'll be doing some work on the cabin while I'm here, too. It will be fun to make more progress on it. We're still doing interior boards. It's still a construction site. For now, there's stacks of boards, piles of insulation, ladders, and tools everywhere. Maybe we can clean it up a bit so that next May it will be a little more comfortable to hang out in.