December 15

Saturday: Two weeks in Manley

We have been learning again,  so I’ve posted those thoughts below.

     *Garett and Travis learned this week that water freezes quickly! They were helping Roger get water, and they accidently spilled a jug of water. By the time Roger had filled the next jug, their boots were frozen in the ice!

        * Roger learned not to place his boots near the water barrel. Since the kids have been filling water pitchers, the boots were a little on the damp side!

          *We did our little experiment of throwing hot water in the air, and it really does disappear into ice crystals! Amazing!

        * We are becoming accustomed to the cold, as we had ice cream for dessert at -44 degrees!  (Of course, since we store the ice cream outside, it took about ½ hour for the ice cream to thaw enough to even eat it!)

      *  While egg replacer works in many recipes, do not use it in a fudgy brownie recipe. I’m assuming that you must need real eggs in order to achieve the fudginess. My brownies were more like a chocolate brick that couldn’t even be softened by dipping it in hot chocolate!
 
        * At -40 degrees, the leather seats in the truck become very hard. Just about the time the seats are comfortable to sit on, we’re done with our errands!

We’ve now been in Manley for two weeks. Our weather here is bitterly cold today about -50 degrees down in Manley, and about -44 degrees where we live up on the hill. Either place, it’s very cold! We spent the day in our cabin, and it was an hourly job of putting wood on the fire to keep it warm. We finished decorating our little tree, painted, played with Legos, watched a dvd, and drank hot tea.  There is frost on all of the windows, the door hinges and the inside door knob!  But, we’ve stayed comfortably warm, as long as you have on your slippers…the floor is chilly!

Roger did venture out to empty the dirty honey bucket, empty the dirty water pails under the sink, and also to walk into town to find out about church tomorrow. Much to our disappointment, church is cancelled for tomorrow.  As some families come from a distance, it is just too hard on machinery or the dogs to go out in the cold. So, we will be worshipping at home tomorrow, and working on our Christmas program parts.

Since I had hoped to get to the washateria today to do laundry, take a shower, and update the blog, I’ll be figuring out how to wash little boys and wash my hair at home. Dry shampoo can only help so much! With the temperatures so low today, it would have been too hard on the truck to take it out. Roger would have to have the battery plugged in as well as the truck. And it’s just rough on any machinery to operate in these cold temperatures. So we stayed at home, and enjoyed the Alaskan weather from the inside. Garett wanted to go outside today, so he bundled up and went out for a little bit. That’s one little boy who loves the outdoors. We told him to stay in the yard for safety reasons; and after about 20 minutes, he came in covered in frost.

We appreciate your prayers. With the beautiful snowfall this week, I’m reminded of the verse in Isaiah 1:18. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” I love the thought that Jesus’ blood has made my sins white as snow. While far from perfect, knowing that I can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ encourages me on a daily basis.