Pictures

This was the view from our front window on Blitz Day morning.
Wednesday, April 23rd

Yes, we had a snowy Blitz Day on Wednesday. But all the work got done and by afternoon the snow had let up. Work week is over and now we have a small and quiet village......until Saturday when the first May youth weekend happens. The youth weekends are from Saturday until Monday every weekend in May. The high school church groups from the three Washington synods attend these gathering hosted by staff from Trinity Lutheran College.

I wanted to post a couple pictures. First the one above and also one I took on Wednesday evening while on a walk. Here it is.

What a pretty view!

It's been raining today for the first time. The hummingbirds are slurping up all the nectar in the various birdfeeders in the village. Bicycles are seen on the road again and the kids are all muddy. And there have been bear sightings! So I guess spring is here.

Gail

Before and After

This is Spring Work Week at Holden. We have 40 some volunteers here this week to get the village ready for summer. They have been hard at work cleaning lodges, making repairs, and finishing projects that need to be done before summer. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is BLITZ DAY. It is the day that completely "changes" Holden from winter to summer. The Dining Hall, Village Center, Snack Bar, Pool Hall and Bowling Alley all get a good cleaning in anticipation of opening for the summer. The biggest change for the long term staff is the changeover of the Dining Hall. During the winter, half of the Dining Hall is turned into a living/game room. It's where we hang out during the long winter, knit, read, play pool or pingpong, or just visit with each other. By tomorrow afternoon all that will be gone and will once again be changed into one huge dining room ready to feed hundreds of people. Tomorrow night we have our "transition dinner." It is, of course, a dress up dinner. "Dress up" at Holden means going to the costume shop and picking out something weird to wear!
We still have about 4 feet of snow on the ground and it snows a little every day. Yesterday it got quite cold again and I brought out the long underwear that I had put away a week and a half ago. We are operating the whole village on 53 watts of electricity. (Last year at this time we had 150.) So our Utilities folks are scrambling to keep things going for the workers. We have had to turn off the large coffee urns and go to small pots, put away our commercial toaster and have a regular small one obtained at a thrift store somewhere. Lights in the dining hall are hardly ever turned on--thank goodness for daylight savings time! At times there is no hot water for showers so it's either a lukewarm one or none at all. But it's par for the course here in the winter and we are used to it. As soon as it warms up more and the snow starts melting for real, we will have a good amount of power again.
By the end of this week we will be ready for the infiltration of the high school students of the three Washington synods as they have their gatherings here every weekend in May. It actually helps get us psychologically prepared for the multitudes of people who come during the summer.

Tree Removal

In case you are wondering, I did get arrangements made to have the fallen tree in my yard in Texas removed. Supposedly it will get done tomorrow. Through a friend of a friend I had hired a man to take care of my yard this summer. Last Saturday when he went over to clean up the yard for the summer, he took some of the branches off the fallen part of the tree. Then this week he found a tree service to remove the rest of it and grind the stump. This was such a wonderful gift to me and I don't even know him. There really are wonderfully helpful people in the world.

Gail

Vespers

We have vespers every day at Holden. Every couple of weeks we have a children's vespers. Last night I gave the children's vespers. It was a lot of fun. We pretended to go on a trip on a space ship and the kids really got into it. As we were deciding what we needed to live on a space ship, we called upon people in the village to go with us to help. We had helpers from all different areas such as utilities, food service, air quality control, mechanics, housekeepers, a laundress, people to make repairs, a garbologist, a medic, a pastor, and a captain. As we called on these people by name, we (by "we" I mean the children and I) had them stand. Eventually everyone in the room was standing. We were taking them all along to help run the ship.

Then I told them that we were all on a ship right now along with 6 billion other people and that I had brought a model of the ship we are on. I had them open the box it was in. They were really excited to find an Earthball in the box. The Earthball is a replica of the way the Earth looks from outer space. It is really beautiful. Then we talked about creation (they told me most of the story) and about how God created us to take care of the Earth. They (the children and adults) gave suggestions about how they can help care for creation The adults actually got into the scenario as much as the kids did. I had some helpers read quotes by some of the astronauts of how they felt when they saw the Earth from thousands of miles away. Then I read part of Psalm 108 and we closed with a prayer asking God for guidance in learning how to care for the Earth.
The kids and adults all liked the service. I thought it went really well. I wanted to share it with everyone.

For the past 35 years I have been into such things as recycling, not buying paper items such as plates and napkins or anything thing that is disposable. (Okay, I do buy toilet paper). I have a compost pile and compost all my yard and food waste. But over the last two years I have really gotten a lot more knowledgeable about what is going on in the environment and really want to do something more than just personally. I have gotten a membership in an organization out of Seattle called Earth Ministry. If you are interested in learning more about them, their website is www.earthministry.org. I hope sometime while I am still in the Northwest I can go to one of their events.

Gail

If a Tree Falls in Texas . . . . .

and I didn't hear it, did it make a sound? And a better question is: Will it be removed without my being there to take charge? And how much is it going to cost me?
The bad storms in the DFW area last Wednesday night caused the rather large tree in my front yard to crack in half and land in the yard. It is a challenge to find out what is going on to make sure it gets cleaned up when I am almost 4000 miles away and don't have easy access to a telephone. I am relying on email to find out what is going on with that.
On a brighter note, we are having a beautiful weekend here at Holden. The sun is out and it is warm enough to go outside without all the winter gear on. I went for a walk this morning down the road and heard the robins chirping like crazy. They obviously are enjoying the springlike weather too. The snow is melting faster now and there is a lot of "post holing" happening. It really helps that the walkways are getting cleared so we don't have to worry about that too much in the village. However hiking is a real "post holing"* experience which I successfully stay away from.

Gail
*For you southerners--"post holing" is when you are walking on top of the snow and suddenly your foot sinks into the snow up to your shin... or knee.... or thigh. It is sometimes a challenge to pull yourself out only to sink again with the next step. It happens when the snow starts to melt and softens up.

April (Snow) Showers

Yes, it is snowing again this morning. Since our 10 1/2 snowfall on Easter Sunday, it has snowed a little almost every day. It was so beautiful this morning with big huge flakes coming down. The sun has been trying to peek through, but there are still some flurries out there.

Here is a picture of the path I mentioned on Monday. The Mavericks said this was better exercise that weight lifting. I believe it!

Gail

My first, second, third, etc. attempt

Okay, I've been tempted to create a blog for a couple of months now. Since my friend, Wanda, just created one of her own, I decided "if she can do it, I can do it." However, with my minimal internet skills, it has taken me all of six attempts and 2 1/2 hours to get this far. It actually took me about 30 minutes just to come up with a name and url (whatever that is) for my blog. Hopefully, some of you will look at it occasionally so this isn't all in vain.

I hope to keep you all up to date with my comings and goings in the next few months. My last two years at Holden have been an adventure. There is so much to tell about my time here, but many of you have heard so much about it up until now that I am going to start with the present.

We still have about 5 feet of snow on the ground, but it is beginning to melt fast now. It has still been freezing most nights, but gets up in the 50's during the day. The mavericks have dug down to our sidewalks now so it's like walking through a canyon. The snow is almost shoulder level on me, and over the heads of the children. However the snow on the road is almost melted and has turned to mud, a real sign of spring!! Oh yeah, the robins are also in residence, another sign of spring!

As I said I hope you will keep checking back on my blog. I haven't been doing too well with letter writing lately and this way I can keep in touch with everyone at once. Besides, it's fun!!!

Gail