Sunday, January 06, 2013

It’s hard to believe but yesterday marked our fifth week here in Manley. Wow! We spent the day driving to Fairbanks, running errands, and driving home. We made good time on the drive and arrived back home about 8:30 pm.

Today we worshipped the Lord with other believers at Manley Baptist Fellowship. We had 21 people for the morning service. Roger did the song service, prayer requests, and announcements, while I played the piano and did another story segment of Sunday School Charlie. Another man, Darryl,   brought the message from God’s Word. It was a good morning, and I was reminded of how much we’re going to miss these folks when we head back to Wisconsin.

The weather here is about -3 degrees and clear skies. We’d love to get another snowfall, but so far, nothing is predicted. We went to the washateria early this morning before Sunday School to take showers. Since we spent the day in Fairbanks yesterday, we missed our “shower” day. J There was a sign on the door stating that the washateria will be closed all week long due to the “retro fitting” for their machines-whatever that means! All I know is that it means a week without laundry facilities and showers! L

A few things we learned this week:

-Our children bring us such joy and special memories. The boys enjoy playing with legos and this week they had a little competition to see who could build the best “outhouse” with legos! J

- Apparently Alaska is having a shortage of fresh vegetables as every store we went into in Fairbanks had no strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries! I was very sad!

-Out of all the NFL football teams, the Green Bay Packers seem to be the best represented here in the North. We’ve seen Packer mailboxes, Packer car stickers, Packer apparel, etc. I have no idea why it’s that way, but it’s an observation. (I haven’t noticed any NFL representation in Manley that was an observation from our trips to Fairbanks.)

- It was nice to take an unexpected trip into Fairbanks, but it was so nice to come back to our nice, quiet cabin up on the hill. I like the pace of life here, and although it takes a bit to get used to the “un-business”, we enjoy it.

-I do miss running and the exercise I get on a regular basis at our home in Wisconsin, so I do look forward to returning to that! Chandler asked me the other day, “Mom, are you going to get fat if you don’t start running again?” Obviously, we need to work on tact!! J

-Apparently, we are loved from Berlin, WI. My mom went to the post office on Saturday to mail us a letter and a package. The post master there asked what in the world was in Manley, Alaska! She said she had more packages and letters going there than to practically anywhere else lately! J It did provide a good opportunity for my mom to tell about our trip and what was in Manley, Alaska. Between the Scherzers family, Longsine family, Mayo family, Lenny and Julie Nowakowski, and my family, the post office in Berlin is swamped! J Thank-you!

-When we were in Fairbanks yesterday, I had to keep reminding the boys to flush the toilet. They’ve become very used to not flushing and so that could prove “interesting” when we return to Wisconsin! J

 

Friday, January 4, 2013

Greetings from Alaska! Today was a busy day with lots of visitors and people at our home. I invited the girls from church to come at 11am to make jewelry, eat lunch and play some games. However, when no one was at our house by 12pm, I figured that no one was coming. So I started off to check our mail, and I was at the bottom of the hill when five girls started walking up our hill! We had a good time visiting and making jewelry.

While the girls were at our house, two other people came by to drop off some wood for the cabin and to talk to Roger. Then the girls left about 2pm.,and I quickly laid the boys down for a nap. Damaris came up the hill to deliver a message about 3pm, and our other company arrived for dinner about 3:30pm. Our dinner company has young children as well so the kids spent some time out on the sledding hill before supper. We had such a good visit with this family and enjoyed getting to know them better.

While they were at our house, the school teacher stopped by as well. We weren't able to have dinner with them on Thursday, but we had no idea why they didn't show up!He came by to apologize for not making it to our house for supper. Their truck broke down in Fairbanks, and without us having a phone, they were unable to contact us to tell us that they wouldn't make it! We enjoyed pizza on Thursday night, although the kids were sooo disappointed!
So, you know they say..."the third time's the charm". We are planning on trying to have the teacher and family over next week. Hopefully, it will work out!

I apologize for the ramblings of this posting. We are in Fairbanks, I'm sitting at McDonald's while I post this! I'm trying to make a list, Roger's making phone calls, I'm trying to catch up the blog, and we are both trying to keep an eye on our children while they are on the playland. We left this morning at 6:30am, and just arrived in Fairbanks at about 10am. We have a busy day running errands and finding a DOOR KNOB! I'll have to post tomorrow what we learned this week and our plans for next week. Thank-you all for you prayers, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Sarah

Thursday, January 3, 2013

A busy day for the Robertson family…hauling water, making phone calls, dropping off letters at the post office, cutting/hauling wood, having supper with friends, and the list goes on! J

The weather was mild again today with the temperature about 28 degrees up on the hill where we are located. Farther down the hill, by the post office, the temperature was 22 degrees, so we had a little of variable temperatures.

We started off the day with Garett and I working on school, and Roger and the other boys hauling water. After that we were going to head to Art and Damaris’s house to use the phone, but the door knob fell off the door! That provides some interesting moments, as we can shut the door from the inside, but have no way of opening it from the outside! J So, Roger rigged up a way to close the door from the outside using a piece of yarn and sticking the broken door knob back on the door (at least it gives the appearance of working!).

We headed to Damaris’s house to use the phone. I made a few phone calls, and paid a few bills that needed to be caught up on and talked to my mama for a few minutes. Roger and the boys helped move some things around outside that Art and Damaris are working on. We walked down to the church building, so I could get some paper plates for tomorrow when the girls are coming over. A stop by the post office to drop off letters for tomorrow’s mail plane and a short visit with my favorite postmaster lady wrapped up those errands. We then headed out to the airport to see about cutting some wood. It was now about 1pm. and some of the boys were getting tired. The man that Roger has been working with the last few days was out there cutting wood, so Roger and Chandler stayed to help him while I headed home with the other boys.

I experienced several miracles on the way home and upon coming home. One, I managed to back the truck up the hill and into the driveway without getting into a snow bank or getting the truck stuck. Praise the Lord! J Secondly, I managed to get us into the house! Remember, Roger had rigged the door to stay shut; however, I failed to ask him how to get back in the house! After yanking on the yarn and trying to stick my finger in the broken part to jiggle the door open, I finally found some type of wrench thing that goes to the chainsaw. I used it to stick in the broken part of the door and by pushing and pulling on the string, the door popped open! Praise Jesus! J Thirdly, when we got inside the house, the fire in the stove was completely out. I am not the world’s greatest fire starting, but I can keep it going once it’s started. However, the times that I have tried to start a fire from scratch, I’ve managed to practically smoke us out of the house! Wyatt asked me if I knew what I was doing! J Well, I’m happy to report that after using about one-half of a paper and most of the kindling, I got the fire going! Garett was blowing on the fire and saying, “Oh, help Jesus!” (He gets that from his mother who learned it from her father! J) I’m thankful that the house warmed up, and that we were not smoked out of our home!

We are busy making homemade pizza now, using up the last of the moose sausage and the shredded cheese. We are looking forward to sharing our meal with the school teacher and family.

Since the door knob is broken, it looks like we will be taken an unexpected trip into Fairbanks in the near future. We are hoping to leave early on Saturday morning and get back Saturday evening. It will be a quick trip, and Roger could go by himself; but I don’t want to miss the chance to do a little shopping! J  I’m looking forward to picking up a few fresh veggies and fruit for our last few weeks here in Manley.

Hope you had a wonderful day, and that some of you were able to see God at work in your lives as I saw Him work in mine today.

Sarah

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Today we were greeted with more of seasonal type temperatures. The thermometer hovered at about 10 degrees. The cooler temperatures made it much easier for Roger to work outside at cutting and hauling wood.

The day was spent with schooling, making bread (actually rolls, and they weren’t bad! ), playing outside, writing letters and gathering the mail. We received two packages today!  A friend from college, Kelly Herring, answered my plea for baby wipes and sent up a box…thank-you!  Also, we received a package from the Mayo family with various food items. Yay for something new to cook! 

Roger was gone for most of the day helping a man get more wood from the airport pile. This man and Roger loaded one trailer for the man’s house and another trailer load for our house. So, with the wood we cut from the burned area as well as the wood from the airport pile, I think we’ll have plenty until we leave.

We are having the teacher and family for dinner tomorrow night, Lord willing. They weren’t able to come last week, so we are trying again for tomorrow night. We are looking forward to getting to know them better.

We will probably wrap up today with a trip to the washateria. It would be nice to get at least one load of laundry done, and Roger needs to shower as he was working hard moving, cutting, and hauling wood!

Prayer Requests:

-We have a busy remainder of this week with having people to dinner on Thursday and Friday. I’m also having the girls over again on Friday morning. Pray that these will be good opportunities to know these people better and that we’ll have some good times of fellowship.

-Continue to pray for wisdom and direction for our family. We’ve learned a lot on this trip, but are asking the Lord to continue to give us clear direction.

-The trappers and mushers could still use more snow to effectively use their snow machines and dog sleds. Please pray that God would allow more snow to fall in the Manley area

As always, we appreciate your prayers. Sarah

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy, Happy New Year! Greeting from warm and balmy Alaska! The temperature here was 28 degrees for most of the day…unbelievable!

The boys greeted the New Year by sleeping in until 9am.! The late sunrise really helps in instances like that!  After breakfast, we went outside. First we went sledding, and then we moved wood. Roger has been cutting up the wood that we brought back from the burned area, but the wood still needed to be moved and stacked next to the house. The boys ended up with dirty faces, and filthy jackets from the charred wood, but the job was completed.

We walked down to Art and Damaris’ home about 12:30pm. Art is trying to move a plane, but there were some conflicts at the airport this morning; so we weren’t able to help with that project. Damaris fed the boys a snack and we had tea and visited for a bit. We walked in the door to our house at about 2pm. Roger and Garett headed down to the new runway at the airport, to help a man cut and load some wood. The wood pile from the runway clearing is huge, so they were able to load the trailer in about an hour!

We headed to the hot springs at 4pm. for our weekly baths. The water seemed warmer tonight, but I’m guessing it’s because the outside temperature is so much warmer. Anyways, everyone is bathed and clean for at least a day. (I hope!)

Tomorrow is Wednesday…which is a mail day! 

Musings from the heart

It’s easy to write about day to day events or about events and happenings here in Manley, but it is often a challenge to write about what is really on my heart. Some of that is due to the nature of privacy factors protecting people here or wanting to keep things on the cheery news side factor. However, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I’ve decided to write a little more serious note about some of my thoughts.

Several people here have asked us recently, “So, do you miss home yet?” About six weeks ago, I would have casually replied, “Oh, home is where the heart is!”  I still agree with that statement to a certain extent, but I would also say that home is what you make it to be. I’m extremely thankful (beyond what words can say) for our little cabin here. Many people put work into making it live able and cheery inside. It’s a haven and provides warmth and security. However, home to me also means a place that houses not only my family, but also my memories. I imagine pictures on the walls, or decorations that in my mind’s eye are welcoming and decorative. So, do I miss home? Not necessarily, but yes, I miss the things that I call ours…our bed, our picture albums, our memories on the walls and our friends and family. I miss being able to pick up the phone and call someone I love just to say hi or to tell something funny that the boys have done. I do love the fact that we have a lot less clutter here and with the cabin being less than 500 square feet it doesn’t take long to tidy things up.

One of the other things I miss is grocery shopping…I can hear some of you groaning already!  I actually enjoy grocery shopping, and I never really thought about how many options a grocery store offers until I haven’t been in one for several weeks.  I do miss having options. I’ve realized since coming up here that I’m not much of a planner as far as meals go. I make a variety of different menu items, but I just use what I have in my pantry to make things work. In Manley, we bought the basics of groceries on our last trip into Fairbanks. I realize now how much I depend on the staples of items I keep in my pantry. Items like tomato paste, spices and herbs, crackers, corn tortillas, pasta, etc. I’ve also realized how much our family enjoys fresh fruits and vegetables.  It was a welcome surprise to get a few items from Fairbanks when Art and Damaris went in for supplies. Living here has given me a better idea of what our family goes through a lot of….those Wisconsin genes must be coming through as we finished off all our sour cream, cream cheese, ice cream, yogurt, chunk cheese and most of the butter… and it will be three weeks before we taste those again.  But everyone I’ve talked to up here says that it takes several months to really get the hang of what you need, what you use, and how much to buy. And since we are only here for a relatively short time, it makes buying groceries and using up what we have that much more challenging “interesting”. I will tell you what we have a lot to eat of in the next three weeks: lots of rice, beans, and salmon, canned green beans, and oatmeal.  Recipes? 

One of the benefits of living here in Manley these past weeks is that I don’t worry about money.  We purchase everything in cash and besides taking a bath in the hot springs once a week and doing laundry, we just don’t spend a lot of money. (It helps that there are not many places to spend it .) Roger and I have not discussed money one time since being in Manley and that has been great- we’ll probably spend most of the four hour trip into Fairbanks discussing it!  Just kidding! 

One of the things I do worry about is…bears!  The weather has been unseasonable warm here the last few days (temperatures ranging from 15 degrees to 29 degrees). One of the men who has a trap line said that he saw a bear rub along his line the other day. He also mentioned that the bears are likely to be fine as long as they are not disturbed by loud noises and such (not very comforting with having FOUR LOUD children)  “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3

There are many, many other things I’ve been learning and thoughts I have, but the daylight hours are fading and I’m off to go outside to play with the kids. I again say “thank-you” for your continued prayers. May God bless you, Sarah

Monday, December 31, 2012

As I’m sure that you’re aware, today marks the last day of 2012. I hope that you take a moment to reflect on all that the Lord has done for you this year, as well as taking a few moments to set some goals for 2013. Roger and I spent some time this morning praying again for God’s direction for our future in 2013.

Well, today is not quite as warm as yesterday, but it’s still 15 degrees, which is great!  I am very thankful that New Year’s Day is on a Tuesday…want to know why?  Because it means that we don’t get an interruption in mail service! The mail plane came in this morning at about 10:12am, and we walked down to pick up our mail about 11:30am. We didn’t receive very much mail, but we did get a small package from Amazon.com. I bought some ribbon and I’m working on a project (pictures to come later).

Roger spent the morning helping some friends move some equipment. They had bought two propane tanks, one was a 1000 gallon tank and the other was a 1500 gallon tank, from here in town and needed help moving them about 16 miles outside of town. So Roger helped with moving vehicles and such, and then I drove out to pick him up about 2pm. It was a good opportunity for Roger to help out someone, so we are thankful for that blessing.

We are headed out to the Behr’s about 7pm. They are having some friends over for appetizers and fireworks, so the boys are excited about that!  We are looking forward to the new year!

Some of you have asked about our plans and when we are planning on leaving Manley. We are tentatively planning on leaving Manley, on Sunday, January 20, 2013. This is a week earlier than we originally planned, but we would like to take a detour on the way home to visit some friends in Yellowknife, NWT. Since Roger spent many of his growing up years there, he has many friends and acquaintances. On man and his wife, in particular, has been a special blessing to Roger. Since leaving Yellowknife, the man as well as his spouse has since trusted the Lord as their Saviour. We are looking forward to meeting up with them as well as spending a Sunday at Central Artic Baptist Church. We also are planning on stopping in Prince Albert, Saskatchawan to visit Dave Webster and his church there. Also, if we can manage it we plan to visit a few other friends in Canada. We are planning on being back in our home church on February 3, 2013. This is the Sunday that the installment of a new pastor will take place and we’d like to be there if we can get back in time. All that being said, it would probably be best if you didn’t plan on sending mail after January 10, 2013. We will leave our forwarding address here, but it will take a while for the mail to find us!  Thank you all for your prayers and support. We appreciate it more than words can express, and we are so thankful for each of you.

Sarah