Sukkot

No we're not celebrating Sukkot in December, I'm just way behind in my blogging :)

Sukkot  (The Feast of Tabernacles)

Lev 23:33  Then Yahwh spoke to Moses, saying, 

Lev 23:34  "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to Yahwh. 

Lev 23:35  On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. 

Lev 23:36  For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahwh. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahwh. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. 

Lev 23:37  'These are the feasts of Yahwh which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to Yahwh, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day—

Lev 23:38  besides the Sabbaths of  Yahwh, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to Yahwh. 

Lev 23:39  'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of  Yahwh for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 

Lev 23:40  And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahwh your God for seven days. 

Lev 23:41  You shall keep it as a feast to Yahwh for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 

Lev 23:42  You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 

Lev 23:43  that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I Yahwh your God.' " 

Lev 23:44  So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of Yahwh. 

Every year we talk about getting a wall tent with a little wood stove and camp outside for Sukkot, but we didn't do it again this year.  The boys had every intention of pitching our hunting tent and spending the week in it, but the first two days of Sukkot were very windy and rainy, not good weather to set up a tent in :(

So we made our Sukkah in the basement again.  We actually have a lot of fun building and dwelling in it.  I didn't get a picture of it after we were done, but we decorated it nice.  Paul and I brought down our mattress (no use being uncomfortable for a week) and the kids used pads and sleeping bags.

Caribou Hunting

Paul along with the kids from Caleb on up got to go Caribou hunting.  Quentin and Josh A. went out in the first plane load and set up camp while Paul brought out the next load of kids.  You are not allowed to hunt the day you fly so they spent the rest of the day scouting out the caribou.

They also spent some time scoping out the caribou and

taking pictures :)

Quentin

Joshua

Caleb

The next day the caribou were all too far away so all they could do was watch.  On the third day, after a good nights sleep, they split up into two groups.  Paul, Anna, Joshua and Caleb went one way and Quentin, Josh A. and Deborah went the other.  Paul's group was going to chase the caribou towards Quentin's group so Josh A. and Deborah could shoot their first caribou.  It worked great, Josh A. shot a caribou and then Deborah and Quentin collaborated to shoot another.  In fact it worked better than planned.  Paul's group came across a huge bull.  Their bull was so intent in watching Quentin's group that Anna was able to spend an inordinate amount of time sighting in on the huge bull.  Seconds before Paul exploded with Buck Fever Anna shot and killed the bull with one shot :)

Deborah

Caleb and Josh A.

Quentin and Deborah

 They had to pack the meat about a mile back to the plane.

Paul started flying meat and kids home.

A hunting trip a few years ago taught them to leave one tent and survival gear for the last trip out.  On that hunt a fog rolled in after the airplane made its first trip out and they sat there for three more days until the fog lifted.

The antlers on Anna's bull barely fit into the C-172.

Searching for Plane Wreck Survivors

A J3 Cub lost it's engine on the other side of the mountain behind Nondalton.  Pilots are taught to always stay with the airplane and the rescuers will come, but after two days the pilot and passenger gave up and decided to hike to Nondalton which they knew was only eleven rugged miles over the mountain.  They left a note for the rescuers (who did come) letting them know where they were heading.  It took the search helicopters another couple of days to find them even after they found the wreck and knew exactly where they were heading.  That's how rough the terrain back there is added to the fact they didn't know which route they were planning to take.

 There are trails that go from Nondalton over the mountain and about half way to the area where the plane crashed.  However, all the men of the village that know those trails well were either in Anchorage or had gone moose hunting up the lake.  Paul and Quentin had been back in that area hunting, but not near as far as the plane crash was.  After a couple of days of helicopters searching and the two men hadn't been found, the men who were up the lake moose hunting headed back so they could help search and Quentin and Josh A. decided to head up and behind the mountain on their 4-wheelers as far as they (and Paul) felt comfortable going.  Another fellow in town headed out walking in another direction in case they came around the mountain that way.
     Quentin and Josh went about a third of the way toward the plane before heading back.  They actually got to about the place where the helicopter finally found the men, but the helicopter had found the men about two hours before Josh A. and Quentin left Nondalton.  We didn't hear the news on the radio because the helicopter was so low and on the other side of the mountain.  Quentin and Josh A. left their 4-wheelers and climbed to the top of a ridge to check in with us on their hand-held radio.  We had heard of the rescue by that time and told them to come on back.  The man who had headed north around that side of the mountain also had a radio and heard the call and headed home as well.
     As Quentin and Josh A. turned to walk back down to their 4-wheelers, they were startled to see a mama bear and two cubs running towards them.  We are taught to never run when confronted with a brown bear, but these guys were already running towards them and their 4-wheelers were not very far away, so they took off running for them.  As they ran down the hill Josh A. hollered at Quentin to slow down because he looked like a moose heading down the hill.  He says he was afraid the bears would get excited about chasing a moose, I'm wondering if it didn't have more to do with the shirt Quentin was wearing that day :)  It's the shirt he and Dayton had just bought in Anchorage.

They made it to the 4-wheelers and took off before the bears reached them... Yikes!

The State Fair and Anchorage

 The time came for Dayton and Abigail to head back down to the lower 48.  Their good friends Jonathan and Brianna were getting married and they didn't want to miss it.  (Abigail says it was a really cool wedding).
David, Benjamin, Sarah and I had to say good-by at the Airfield in Nondalton.  Paul got to spend another day with them before he took them to the airport in Anchorage and brought the rest of the kids back to Nondalton.

Below Sarah is giving Abigail a good-by hug.

 Caleb on up got to go out with them to Anchorage.  They got to go to the State Fair, went and saw a movie, toured around Anchorage and had a great time.

Quentin got to sit in the copilot seat for the flight in :)

The first thing they did was take my list to Costco :)  Yea, I love not having to shop.  We don't shop very often (like every 3 months) so there is actually a fourth cart behind Josh A.!

The kids went to their favorite high fashion outlet "Value Village" (for those not familiar, it's a thrift store).
For some reason they had lots of costumes for sale ??? :(

Caleb and Anna are having fun with the hats :)

They cheered on the woodsmen having a contest at the State Fair.

Anna and Deborah

Elijah Lorentzen is in the window with Caleb next to him.  Paul and the kids got to spend the afternoon in Anchorage with Amanda and Elijah and their friend Michael.  The red hair happened at the State Fair.  There were only traces left by the time they got home :)

Quentin, Joshua and Elijah

One of their favorite stops was the Chocolate Factory :)

Josh A.

Dayton and Quentin bought matching shirts :)

Birthdays

Sarah turned 5.  She is still adorable and it's fun watching her grow up (it seems to be happening so fast).

 We watched a movie for Sarah's birthday.  We had watched it before and the kids knew that the family in the movie made hats out of aluminum foil to protect themselves from the alien invasion. So, they all made hats so they'd be ready :)

 Abigail turned 19 and ,although she's married, she's still Daddy's little girl :)

 Josh A. turned 16.  So, we threw him a party and his Mom, Nana and Cheda Mary came down to celebrate with us.
He too, is growing up fast and becoming a fine young man.  He and Quentin are continuously coming up with good ideas to start businesses.

I'm a Grandma

Abigail and Dayton are going to have a baby!!!  Praise Yahwh!!!

So, yes, Paul and I are now Grandpa and Grandma to a tiny little baby growing inside Abigail.  How cool is that!!!  Sarah wants everyone to know that she is Aunt Sarah :) 

Playing on the Tazimina River

We took advantage of a gorgeous afternoon to take the boat up the Tazimina River to play.  We put Regina's inflatable kayaks in our boat and took them with us across the lake and up the river.

 Below is a view looking out of the mouth of the Tazimina River at about a third of our village.  The rest of the village stretches out to the left and right.

David

 Deep red salmon were everywhere waiting to deposit their eggs.

 We found a huge bear track on the sandbar we were playing on.

 It took two boat loads to get everyone up the river, so Dayton was the bear guard while Quentin went back for the next load.

 Anna

 Deborah

Dayton

 Abigail needed some convincing that the water was much warmer up the river than it is in the lake by our house.  So, her loving husband, Dayton, helped her out :)

 Paul and Quentin brought the rest of us up in the second load. 

 Joshua and Quentin

 Benjamin and David

Lavonne got to come along too.

Dayton doing a flip off a big stump that had pooled a deep hole in front of it.  

 Joshua

 Deborah

Abigail, Dayton and I got to paddle the kayaks down the river for the trip home.

 It's a pretty tame river except for the many sweepers that you have to stay very far away from.

 While we paddled downstream, Paul took everyone else upriver until they bottomed out.  It was an easy matter to get out and pull the boat off the rocks.

 The kayaks made it to the mouth first.  In the picture above we are waiting for the boaters to come give us a ride across the lake.  The wind had come up so the waves on the lake would have been more work that I wanted to tackle.

 Susan (me) back on shore again.

 The lake is very, very cold.  In the picture above Paul and the kids went together as a group to bolster their courage as they faced the cold water.

Sarah in the midst of a bunch of fireweed.  The fireweed is our season indicator.  Throughout the summer the blossoms go to seed and the leaves turn red from the bottom first and climb up to the top.  When the top is red, summer is over.