skip to main |
skip to sidebar
...will post pictures later...
Ethan returned from the villages without weather delay. He loved his time out there and from what I've heard he did a great job of leading during the VBS. One of the big highlights for him though was actually flying the plane. On the return to Homer he got be co-pilot and help fly the airplane...nothing could satisfy that boy more than flying a small plane! When he gets pictures a disc of pictures from their time in the villages, I will have him post more of his adventure.
Alaska is baking!! We have had some amazingly "HOT" temps, well maybe not hot for the rest of the world, but hot for Alaska! We are loving the heat even though it means hours and hours of watering the garden. If we can manage to keep it watered we will have a wonderful garden as the heat is making all our vegetables grow like crazy! We are already enjoying broccoli, yellow squash, tomatoes, radishes, and lots of herbs.
We have a new member in the critter department of the Veldstra household. Steve and I have been tossing around the idea of raising a few rabbits, but hadn't done anything about it. A couple days ago my mom called to tell me that dad had caught a baby bunny...were we still interested in raising rabbits? Well, since he caught it...sure why not!? Since this little bunny was wild it really didn't have much interest in being loved by a family of 8...but didn't take more than about 24 hours for the bunny to tolerate a little petting. We originally thought the rabbit was a domestic rabbit let loose, but we are now fairly certain it is a wild rabbit(snowshoe hare). It has the right coloring for a wild rabbit and large hind legs and feet which have amazing jumping ability! Anyways bunny has a name...Camo, and is figuring out that being loved by many hands is not too bad!
Ethan, Helen and Dan Buckwalter, and Weston flying out to the villages of Alaska.
Last week Ethan flew to Perryville, Alaska to help with Vacation Bible School. The two previous weeks he had spent several days a week preparing for the VBS by memorizing skits, coloring posters, learning songs and motions, and getting familiar with the program.
Ethan was asked by Helen Buckwalter of Northern Harvest to help out with the village VBS this year. A friend of Ethan's and Helen's grandson Weston is also helping out. Buckwalters have been village missionaries for 30 years, circuit-flying preacher all year and VBS in the summer to many villages on the Alaska Peninsula.
They are making two stops this summer for a 5-day VBS program in the village of Perryville and then Port Heiden. They flew out several days late from Homer because of bad weather, but hit the ground running with VBS the day after they arrived. I talked to Ethan today as they were packing up their supplies and getting ready to fly to Port Heiden for their second 5-day program. He said the first week was great...they had a lot of fun...and the weather was nice to be able to be able to play games and have a picnic outside with the kids. When Ethan returns this weekend(weather permitting) I will get him to write and post some pictures of his adventures!
Ethan was also very excited about flying in a small plane out to the villages! He has been talking for the past year of someday being a pilot for missionaries, so this adventure was perfect timing. He was thrilled to see first hand what it means to be an Alaskan bush pilot...hurry up to get ready, then wait on good weather...fly around tall cloud pillars...fly under rain clouds...observe beautiful landscape below...and bring the gospel to the village kids! On their return to Homer Ethan gets to fly "co-pilot", I'm sure he will have many stories to tell!
The plane Ethan is in taking off from the Homer runway (you can see the plane against the hillside).
Ethan and Tyler tore down their old "cabin" and built a new and improved "cabin" in a new location. Their old cabin had started out as a fort of logs, then was changed to a fort with plywood walls, then a metal roof, and then another floor, and so on...but it was too short for Ethan and he was having a hard time getting around in it...so they decided it was time to start over. Only this time they were going to have a plan... So these are pictures of their new "cabin"!
...complete with bird house, basket of flowers, and a cooler...
Ethan and Tyler have a new four-wheeler, well at least new to them. Grandpa is trading them the four-wheeler for work, so they are having to work it off this summer. They are putting it to good use by making lots of rough trails around the property...
Kailee, Alyssum, and Adams have caught on to the creativity and are putting scrap lumber to good use. 
They built this "airplane" out of straightened nails and pieces of leftover wood. They were really hoping to get it off the ground!
They also built this little fort... Amazing what fun some scrap lumber, bent nails, pieces of rope, and a small set of tools can be! 
We have had quite the busy couple of weeks as we enjoy our short summer in Alaska! Sometime ago our friends, the Millers, asked us if we had ever been clam digging, and they were shocked when we replied, "No!" Actually I had been clam digging as a child, but never since then, so our kids nor Steve had ever had the privilege.
Wednesday was clamming day as the tide was very low. We drove to Ninilchik and drove out to the beach along with half the population of the Kenai Peninsula. Well, that might be overdueing it a little bit, but not by much. I have never seen a beach in Alaska so dotted w
ith people!
We were outfitted in boots with rain pants that were duck taped around the bottom or hip waders and plastic gloves duck taped around the wrist...all to keep out the cold water and sand. We looked like quite the sight, along with everyone else on the beach, decked out in our clamming gear!
Buckets and clam shovels in hand we sauntered down to the beach ready to do business. Alaska's gray sandy beaches appear smooth and untouched most of the time until there is a good clamming tide. We searched for small indents in the sand to let us know that a
razor clam was waiting just below the surface. The shovels and sand started flying to catch that speedy fast razor clam before he could dig his way deeper. The Millers have done this a time or two, but for the Veldstra family it was a whole new experience. It took a few tries of coming up empty handed to get the hang of it, but then we figured it out and soon had clams in our buckets.
It was a fun and successful day of clam digging. By far the fun part was digging...the difficult and time consuming part was cleaning! We left the house at 9:30 to go clamming and were finished cleaning clams by 4:30 in the afternoon...wow, what a day! We will certainly enjoy every bite of clam chowder this winter!
Our sweet toy poodle Ginger! Several years ago when Ginger came to our home she attached herself to Ethan...Ethan is still her favorite, but we all enjoy our sweet dog! I just loved this picture of her in the window enjoying the heat of the summer sun.
to do some climbing on their own just above our campsite. They played many games of hide and seek in the bushes and on the hillside.
