It's long and lengthy! A summary of four days!

Arrival in Manley…December 1

Update: Since it took about 15 minutes for the single picture to upload, I will upload a picture blog when we go out to Fairbanks!

Our little home sweet home!

After a three hour drive, (we made good time) we arrived in Manley Hot Springs on December 1, 2012. It was about 2:45 pm. and we met up with Damaris (the lady I’ve been e-mailing) at the town hall. The community was having a Christmas Craft Sale, so we were able to meet several other people in the community as well. We then went to our cabin, and had our first glimpse of our new home. Damaris and some of the other ladies in the church did a lot of work to get it ready for our arrival, so it was clean and tidy, but very chilly! Roger started a fire right away, as it was about 24 degrees. We started hauling in our stuff, and are still amazed that we managed to fit all that stuff in the truck!

The boys had a hard time grasping the fact that the potty was outside, so that was an adjustment. The wood stove warmed up quickly and within 10 minutes of being in the cabin, three of the four boys had burnt a hole in their coat! But we adjusted and the cabin warmed up, although when we went to bed the memory foam on our mattress was still a little frozen! But after several days of the fire going non-stop, the whole cabin is feeling warm and snug. It was cold the first few days we were here, Sunday was -25, but today, Monday, is only -10. I’m learning to take advantage of the daylight hours and spend time outside and plan school and meals around the daylight hours.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

It’s cold here this morning, about -25, but we are excited about worshipping with believers here in Manley Hot Springs. Roger kept the fires going through the night, so the cabin is starting to feel warmer. I made cookies today for the church dinner, but I could not find a cookie sheet anywhere! So, I ended up taking apart Sara Scherzer’s marker boards that she had made for the kids. She had covered some cookie sheets with contact paper so the boys could write on them on the trip up here. I took the contact paper off so that I could use them to bake the cookies…the Lord knew that those cookies sheets would come in handy! I also made a pasta dish for the church dinner, but since I couldn’t find the crockpot either, I put it in a saucepan with a lid.

We left for church about 9:30am. We put two of the boys in the toboggan sled along with the pasta dish and Bibles. Since the cabin is up a little hill, the sled made good time going downhill, which wasn’t a problem until…one of the other boys tugged on the sled spilling the pasta into the snow! UGG!! I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t have time to make anything else and the snow was clean, so I just picked the pasta up off the snow and put it back into the pot! The snow was clean, and since it’s just water, I figured it wouldn’t hurt. Sure enough, it tasted fine and I didn’t get any complaints. Brother Earl had called to say that he wasn’t feeling good and wouldn’t be able to make it. There were five children for Sunday School, four of them being ours. The Sunday attendance was down due to it being so cold…even plugged in vehicles can be hard to start and several families were sick. But we had good services with those that were there and the church dinner was compiled of all kinds of delicious food, like caribou steak, salmon dishes, ham, mashed potatoes, and several desserts…yummy!

After church, it was about 2pm. so there was still some daylight left. We went back home, and started up the truck. We took a tour of the town, and went out to the dump, collected 30 gallons of water from the well, peeked in on the washateria and checked out the Manley Hot springs. A lady was there cleaning the hot tubs, and taking care of the plants, so we were able to have a chance to talk to someone and made an appointment for our first experience at the Hot Springs. It cost five dollars a person to use the hot springs for an hour, but the kids are free. So it’s actually cheaper to use the hot springs for our family than to shower at the washateria. After our tour of Manley Hot Springs, we went down to the end of the road to see the Tanana River. It was well frozen, of course, but still beautiful. We came back home and spent the rest of the evening making supper, sipping tea, working on school work, and other such pursuits.

Monday, December 03, 2012

It’s not quite as cold here this morning, only about -10 degrees. The sun came up about 9:45, and we heard the mail plane come in about 9:50 Am., so the boys were delighted to see that. The mail plane comes in on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays between 9-10am, weather and light permitting.

After I got the bread started, and breakfast was over, we started in on school. We did a few subjects, and then took a break about 10:30 to go to the post office and take a walk around town. We met the postmaster, Dana, who already knew who we were and chatted for a few minutes. Then we went to Damaris and Art’s home, another couple in the church here. We talked for a bit, and the kids played with some toys. Then we headed back home to check on the bread and eat lunch. Before lunch, another neighbor stopped by and brought over a crockpot (yay!), and home-grown potatoes, carrots, squash, and zucchini as well as some salmon. We are looking forward to eating up those yummy items! We invited their family for supper sometime later in the week after her husband is done working on the runway project here in town, so probably later this week or next week.

I finished the bread, a complete flop, by the way! For some reason, the whole wheat bread didn’t rise as well as it should have. Oh well, we ate it anyways! Besides, I’ll just try again tomorrow! We had lentils and wild rice for lunch, and then laid the little two down for naps while Garett and Chandler headed back outside to play.

I’m heading into town to the school at 4pm. Some of the ladies in church are working on a hand bell piece for the Christmas program and the school is lending us the hand bells.

We do have several praises and a few prayers requests.

Praise: the people have been very friendly and open to having us here.

Praise: the weather has been a little warmer so we can spend more time outside

Praise: the cabin has electricity and stays warm

Prayer Request: It’s easier for Sarah to interact with the families here as the moms are stay-at –home moms, but pray that Roger will be able to find some ways to interact with the men in the church and the community.

Prayer Request: We need snow here for the dog musher teams and the trappers. I know that many of you are praying for us, and if you could add that to your list of things to pray for, it would be that many more people interceding for the enterprises of the families in this town.