And the weeks pass by...

Wow! Where does the time go? Even my kids comment on how fast time flies in the winter when we are busy with our noses in the books and then thankfully summer goes by much slower! We have had a winter without a lot of snow and recently with all the snow the rest of the United States has been getting, Alaska has been warm and lacking in snow. The other day we had a whopping 43 degrees at our place...felt like a heatwave! The kids said they didn't need to wear hats and gloves outside...it was too warm! Alaskan kids for sure!

Ethan has continued with snaring rabbits and has managed to catch a couple more. I fixed rabbit stew for dinner and most of the kids thought it was okay. It was a little rubbery, but not bad for wild game.

Last week Steve gathered the four oldest kids and taught a small engine class. They took apart a Honda single cylinder engine, found the problem, and put it all back together. It was a pressure sprayer that hadn't worked for over 5 years...when they got finished with it and pull started the engine, it roared to life! Needless to say they were all amazed! So now Ethan and Tyler think they can fix anything if they just take it apart! Today they pushed their old snowmachine in the shop to see if they could take it apart and get it running. I think they just loved getting covered from head to toe in grease! They got it all put back together, and it started, but is still running rough. Guess they gotta figure out something else!

Ann Marie and Kailee are working on a quilting project for school. Each Friday they spend the afternoon with my mom, each making their own quilt. Ann Marie is making a twin size quilt for her bed. It is bright and beautiful, made out of batiks! Kailee is making a lap quilt with browns and blue greens. My mom got a couple inexpensive sewing machines for the girls to use, sewing boxes with supplies, and they picked out fabric. Their sewing ability has improved greatly and they are loving the project! Thanks Grandma! (I'll post pictures when they are finished.)

Well, the next two weeks should be even busier than usual...Tyler, Kailee, Alyssum, and Adams all have swim lessons everyday. They are so excited to get to go swimming everyday! It will wear them out, that's for sure!

Alaskan wilderness

The kids have been exploring the woods around our property and beyond recently. They discovered a lot of snowshoe hare tracks in the woods. Apparently the rabbit population increased dramatically this summer as the woods are teaming with wild rabbits. The kids found they could just walk through the woods and scare rabbits out of their holes as they walked. Alyssum started putting out lettuce and carrots down by the garden as the rabbits were eating stuff out of the compost. We watched with amusement one day as a rabbit and squirrel chased each other away from their new found treasure in the compost. The rabbit finally won as he chased the squirrel away and up a tree. The squirrel didn't give up too quickly, he noisely voiced his complaint from a few branches up! We laughed at their antics!!

So Ethan decided he needed to try his hand at snaring a few wild rabbits. Grandma and Grandpa let us borrow some snowshoes to make tramping through the woods a lot easier. And cousin Jason loaned Ethan some snares for rabbit hunting. Earlier in the week Ethan and Kailee snowshoed out beyond our property to a wooded area with lots of rabbit tracks and trails. And hopefully to a less populated area so he wouldn't snare someone's pet! They set four snares which took them several hours to set up.

Late Wednesdsay afternoon Ethan and Kailee returned to the snares to see if they had caught anything. They took headlamps since it was getting late and could be dark when they returned. About 5:30 they came bursting in the door of the house with a wild story..."We checked our first snare and were walking to the second one when 15 feet in front of us a large cat jumped out of the bushes. It was a couple feet tall, had a short stubb tail, and looked like a large cat. I turned to shine my headlamp on the animal and saw red eyes looking back at me. We turned slowly and walked out to the road to return home! It was scary mom!! We think it was a lynx. What do you think?" We are fairly certain it was a lynx, although rarely seen they are around and their main food source are snowshoe hares. The tracks in the snow are the right size for a lynx. It was scary for them, but how exciting to see!

Now today, Steve, Ethan, Tyler, and Kailee tromped back out into the woods to check on the traps. Out of the four they set, two traps had rabbits! Frozen solid since it was so cold out, they just looked like stuffed rabbits! And not a lynx in sight...just the tracks in the snow! Now Ethan has some work to do... Guess we will be having rabbit stew one of these days! Ethan is hoping to get enough rabbit pelts to make something...we'll see what he thinks after he cleans the first two! What a great learning experience for all the kids!!

Kailee is NINE!

Kailee had a fun birthday with her friend Emerald, cousins Katelyn and Bethany, and sister Alyssum and family. We celebrated her birthday at my mom and dad's house with everyone. She wanted Legos for her birthday so I made a Lego cake. She was pleased!

Hard to believe it's been almost nine years ago since we got that phone call telling us we had a referal of a baby girl...all the info we got info was her name and birthdate. I am so thankful for the journey God has taken us on to bring our family together.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

from our wintery Alaska home to yours!
Steven and Stacey
Tyler 11, Ann Marie 17, Ethan 14
Alyssum 7, Adams 7, Kailee 8
and the family dog, Ginger

School time...

...for our elementary class! Tyler is in 5th grade, Kailee is in 3rd, Alyssum is in 2nd, and Adams is in Kindergarten. There is never a dull moment around here, especially when it comes to hands on learning.

For Thanksgiving these four decided they wanted to put on a play for everyone...to entertain the guests! Steve and I challenged them to have a specific theme and write a script. Tyler really took the leadership role and organized everyone, although Kailee was in charge of writing the script. I heard comments later from the younger ones that they really like doing something with Tyler in charge because he does such a good job of getting it all organized and they have fun too!

So they performed a short play about the first Thanksgiving with Tyler and Kailee being Pilgrims and Adams and Alyssum were the Indians. They helped each other figure out the costumes with a few suggestions from mom when they were stumped. They even had tickets with tear-off stubs for those that were going to be watching! Such fun!

Science...Zoology II: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (by Apologia). We were learning about sea turtles, so we made an outline of a leatherback turtle to give us an idea of how big they really are! This one might be slightly bigger that it should be, but not too far off from what a leatherback turtle can grow to be...quite an amazing gentle creature.


Lego Education: Simple and Powered Machines. "Enables children to work as young scientists, engineers, and designers providing them with settings, tools and tasks that promote design technology, science and mathematics."

These Lego science activity boxes have been a great hands-on tool for learning how machines and tools work. Here Tyler and Kailee worked together to make a fishing rod that uses mechanisms-pulleys and levers, and investigated a pawl and ratchet.

Adams and Alyssum have their own Lego Education box that teaches Early Simple Machines. Here they had to design a bridge that was 8 inches long or longer, at least 4 inches above the water, safe, and could withstand a fair amount of weight. They both had fun with the bridge project and learned a lot in the process! We all look forward to Fridays when we can dig into our Lego Education boxes!

God's Majesty displayed...

We have had the most amazing sunrises(top three photos) and sunsets(last two photos) recently, that I just had to share some of Gods amazing glory in creation with all of you! Steve took these amazing photos from our yard, and we never seem to get tired of exclaiming or viewing God's handiwork on display for all to see!

Palawan

Last month Stacey had passed on my e-mail about my trip to the village in the Philippines. Trying to catch up after being gone, along with life being busy, I have not written like I should. We wanted to write and catch you up with what is happening with us.

We arrived in the dark so we were not able to see anything. I slept well that night, but woke up with the pouring rain at 5 am. The rain diminished about 5:30 and as the dawn was breaking I took a look out the window. In the early morning light I could see several cooking fires burning near the thatched roof homes of the neighbors of Dennis and Jeanie. On the right, through the coconut palm trees, I could see the airstrip and at the end of the airstrip, the ocean.

After breakfast we went out across the air strip where a couple of families were waiting to meet us. Introductions were made and we were shown around the staging area for the rubber seedlings. Hundreds of seedlings were being rooted in small plastic sack-pots, with hundreds more filled with soil awaiting more seedlings. We then hiked above the house to view goat pens and the goats. Along the slope there was terracing made with legume shrubs holding and improving the soil. The shrub's leaves and small stems are also good nutritious food for the goats.

We then went to view the medical clinic run by a local man that has been trained as a health care worker. He was collecting blood smears from a couple of people to test for malaria. A couple of meters away at the end of the airstrip is the hanger for Dennis' plane. We went back to the house and started a fire in the clay oven in order to make bread, cinnamon rolls and pie. Dennis and I hiked farther up the hill to the water tank to work on the plumbing.

After lunch we went to be introduced to the people that lived around Dennis and Jeanie's old house. Dennis, Jeanie and their kids lived in this larger house when they first lived in the village. We were on the way to look at the house and see what kind of work needed to be done to make it livable again. The house was pretty sound, the roof has kept it dry so there was only minimal termite damage.

I should back up and explain the reason we were looking at this house. Dennis is our pastor's father in law and visited Alaska this spring. He asked us to consider the opportunity to work with him developing agriculture. His desire is to use agriculture to establish a strong economic foundation for the island as well as meeting current needs the people are facing in terms of health and sustenance. His purpose in considering our family to join him is to free him up to pursue curriculum development and teaching.

The current cash crop of coconut is only pennies per kilo and is not near enough. The hardwood trees of the forest are all cut down and smuggled out of the country. The fish are no longer available because the coral reefs were damaged by the dynamiting that made fishing easy but temporary. Long term sustainable agriculture needs to be practiced and taught. The rubber trees will be a source of long term income for people. Proper slope terracing and mulching will save and feed the soil, giving a long term ability to feed their families.

Please pray for us as we are pursuing this opportunity. We are praying the Lord will show us His will in this, and what our part will be in making this happen. It was so good to be able to go to Balabac and see the work that needs to be done, to see the house and area.