Hello everyone  --

We pray all of you are doing well.  Things go well here in Alaska.  We have already had a frost, actually two of them.  Some plants around town have been nipped and many have not.  On our  walk today we saw some squash plants that really looked horrible.  Many of the flowers are still okay.  While many of you are suffering from a heat wave we are having cool nights and pleasant days.  The days have been in the mid 60's.
The coolest morning was Sunday.  The man who taught our Sunday School class said his children wanted the furnace turned on.  He refused.  It was the principal of the thing.  This is too early.  He might start the furnace in mid September but not yet.  We have not used the furnace for our apartment yet.  So far it has not got below 70 in here.  I have no scruples, however, about when to start the furnace.

We went to the botanical garden at the University of Alaska Fairbanks last week.  Luckily it was before the frost.

This is a ice cream strawberry mum.

This is Larry by a big cabbage.It was about 15 inches across.  The biggest cabbage on record is 115 pounds.  It was from somewhere in Alaska but not Fairbanks.  ( In case you are wondering, I am the one with less green.)

Our van had been feeling it was on the outside looking in.  But no more.  It now has an electrical cord hanging below the grill like 99% of the other vehicles we see here.  It feels better but our pocketbook is feeling worse!  Three things get electrical heaters - the water, the oil, and the oil pan.

Friday we were going to a barber shop choir concert.  On the way in Elva and I were talking about whether or not we would see anyone we knew.  In fact we were wondering if we would ever see any one we know from the lower 48.  But, lo and behold, Ellen (former student) also came to the concert.  We had a nice talk.

Besides that, Sunday we visited a couple from Wisconsin.  They are James' next door neighbors and are volunteering with the army corp of engineers at North Pole, about 12 miles from Fairbanks.  So we saw more people we know.  Their volunteer work here is to be helpers at a dike or dam on the Chena River Dam.  Once every 20 or 30 years the Chena River has a devastating flood that destroys much of Fairbanks.  So the army corp of engineers built a 9 mile dike to keep the flood waters from reaching Fairbanks.  That is good.  Our apartment is about 150 feet from the river.

This is the Chena river flowing into the open gates of the dam.  Here it is about 50 feet wide, about the same as by our apartment.

                                                                     

This shows the dike.  You can judge its height by comparing with the pick up ahead of us.  It is perhaps 30 feet high.

If there is enough water in a flood the water behind the dam ends up flowing into the Tanana River at the other end of the dike.

Our apartment is beginning to feel like home.  Though since we left North English no place has quite seemed like home.  If I were to "go back home" I don't know where I would go.  Perhaps Cheraw, Colorado, where I grew up.  Perhaps North English where I have lived longer than any other place.  And our children grew up there.  Perhaps Wayland where we were just before coming to Alaska.

One day we went to Creamer's Field to see the sandhill cranes.  This is one gathering point for them before they head south to roughly the Rio Grande valley of Texas.  They are relatively tame here.  There are walking paths near where the cranes (and some geese and ducks and other water fowl) eat and they allow a person to get withing 50 feet or so from them.  Then they walk away and don't fly away.

Mature cranes, both male and female, have red on their heads.

We attended First Presbyterian Church last Sunday.  It felt good.  The people were friendly.  One elderly lady (91 years old) gave us each a hug.  The singing was more our style.  The sermon was good.  It is within walking distance.  That is, when the weather is nice.  It is about 3/4 mile away more or less downtown.

Elva's maiden name is Stryker.  When we travel we are in the habit of looking in phone books to see if we can see any Evers, Strykers, Planks (my mother's maiden name), or Shriders (Elva's mother's maiden name).  In the Fairbanks phone book we found none of these names.  However, Elva just read in today's paper that there is another Stryker in Fairbanks  --  the canine unit for the Fairbanks police dept. has one dog  -- and guess what, his name is Stryker!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Some people have asked if it is okay that they tell other people about this blog.  That is fine with me.  Anyone may read it if they wish.

God's blessing to each of you.

Larry and Elva

Things we have not seen.

No, we have not seen a totem pole.  We saw an electric pole with one painted on but that does not count.

No, we have not seen a moose, but there is one road we plan to go on where people say we should see some.

No, we have not seen and igloo.  Not yet at least and we have not seen any in any of the information about Alaska.

No, we have not seen northern lights.  But one person said they saw some good ones one year on Labor Day, so that is not so far away.  Another person, who came from South Carolina four years ago, said the northern lights are one of the wonderful things about living here.

No, we have not taken a ride on the public bus system.  We did get the information about all the routes.  Most routes that go near here stop about two blocks away.  It is free for senior citizens.

We have not yet done those things or many others.  And we will not be doing things as fast as we have so far.  So I will not be sending daily blogs after this one.  I will send one when we have good information to send.  I will try to do it mid week so that you will know when to look.

Thanks, if any of you have responses to the blogs please send them.

Larry and Elva

We attended church again today.  Last Sunday we went to a large nondenominational church, perhaps 400 attending.  This week to a small denominational church, perhaps 60.  Last week was to large for us, and too impersonal.  The man next to me talked to me and explained a few things as they happened.  No one else seemed to care whether we were there or not.  They could not have known if we were regulars there or not.

This week, even though it was small, the people seemed not to care.  The people who talked with us the most were other visitors.  The pastor and his wife talked with us for a while.  They had a pot luck meal at noon but no one invited us.  They asked if we were members of their denomination and we said no.  They seemed to have little interest after that.  HINT, NEVER ask visitors at church if they belong to your denomination.  HINT, ALWAYS make sure the lay members interact with visitors.  At Eicher I, as pastor, sometimes had a hard time getting to the visitors because so many people were talking with them.  That was good.

The weather has been very nice.  But we are getting close to September.  Here are the predicted highs for today through next Sunday.  72, 61, 55, 52, 54, 52, 61, 59 and the coolest over night is 36.  This reminds me, it is time to get the van to the shop to get it winterized.  We are loosing about 8 minutes of sun time per day now.

The high schools have had their first football game.  They have cross country but the season is short.  School starts here this Wednesday.  It also starts the same day for Marcia's children in Iowa City and for Paula's children in Pettisville, Ohio.  James' children don't start until after Labor Day, its a state law and gives no exemptions.

Have a good week !

Larry and Elva

We had a busy day Saturday, 8/17/13.

Ever eager Elva Evers washed windows.

This shows that it is the second story.

We pick wild cranberries.  They are small, three or four side by side would be about an inch.

We saw the Alaska pipeline, this is a couple miles across to the opposite hill.

This shows how big and high the pipeline is at this point.  It is mostly underground.

The exposed portion of pipe here is about 300 yds long.

This is an Alaska pig.

The purpose of pigs.

Alaska pigs are different from Iowa pigs.

This is a retired pig.

Have you Iowa farmers retired any of your pigs?

I hope  you can read these.  They give good explanations.

The things on top of the upright are heat exchangers.  They are to keep the holders from melting the permafrost.  The oil in the pipe at this point is about 100 degrees F.

We walked on peat moss.  This is my shoe with no pressure.  I also had a picture when I put my weight down and my shoe sunk in to the top of the shoe.  It was a good picture but my skills don't allow me to put it into the blog.  It was very strange and difficult walking on the peat.  The nearest description would walking on a bed.

We also went to the farmers' market but took no pictures there.  We bought one pound of small tomatoes.  They were small enough that the pound was six tomatoes.  Guess how much they cost  --  $5.00.  Not like Iowa most years where most gardeners are trying to give tomatoes away!

Enjoy church tomorrow.

Larry and Elva

The main new thing we did today was to go to the Creamer's Field Migratory Water Fowl Refuge.  With a name that long it should be a very good place to go.  And it was good.  It started as a dairy over 100 years ago.  At that time it was the only dairy around.  They had (and still have) an Iowa style barn that would hold 50 milking cows.  With the winters so cold the cows stayed in the barn all winter.  For that many cows for such a long winter they needed a lot of hay so the floor of the hay loft was lowered to just a few feet above the cows' heads.  More buildings were added and more cows to fill them.  When WWII came and the building of the Alaska Highway the dairy had a contract to supply the army base with milk.  The dairy had over 200 cows until faster transportation from areas south where having a dairy was less costly finally made Creamer's Dairy economically unfeasible.  The man who owned the dairy loved birds.  The dairy with the grain crops and cow manure made the fields supporting the dairy the migratory water fowl's favorite stopping point.  By this time many people of Fairbanks enjoyed stopping along the road and watching the birds.  So the owner of the dairy sold it to the city of Fairbanks and to the Alaska Fish and Game Department.  Now the people of Fairbanks feel the Refuge is "theirs."

The dairyman owned about 200 acres but the state has added more land and now the whole place is about 2000 acres.  Part of it is a boreal forest.  That simply means it is a northlands forest.  We showed up for a nature walk in the forest.  And we were the only ones who showed up for the nature walk.  So the two of us had a two-hour guided tour of a boreal forest.  A few of the things we learned:
--There are three conifer and three deciduous trees native to the area.  Conifer are larch, white spruce, and black spruce.  Deciduous are aspen, birch, and poplar.  The poplar are actually cottonwood.  There are no hardwood trees.
--Controlled burns are actually good for the entire ecosystem.
--Some of the plants are calla lilies, wild iris, wild roses, cranberries, blueberries, various grasses, and the trees mentioned above.
--The only amphibian here is a frog that actually freezes during the winter and then comes back to life in the spring.
--There are squirrels here that do not hibernate but slow down during the winter to conserve energy.
--We saw more mosquitoes at Creamers Field in two hours than all the rest of the time we have been here.
--Frost heaves do not affect only the roads.  A wooden walkway was "heaved" a couple feet in some places.  In the seasonal freezing and thawing deep cracks sometimes form in the ground.  These fill with water.  These then freeze widening the crack.  As the crack widens the ground next to it has to go somewhere and pushes upward, forming a heave.

Even though visiting Creamer's Field is free they do ask for a donation.  The state owns it but a non-profit is in charge of the nature center and some of the historical displays.

It still amazes me that people, animals, and plants find a way to thrive in these harsh conditions.  People naturally strive  to fill the earth and subdue it.

Sorry, we are not good at remembering our camera.  We will try to do better.

God's blessing to all.

Larry and Elva

Today we went to the Visitor and Cultural Center.  It is very informative.  Mostly we went to watch a video titled, "40 Below in Fairbanks."  The gist of it is that to do well in the winter one must make the most of it.  They do have plenty of  activities: mushing, ice sculptors, hockey, curling, normal activities for a college, snow machining (what we call snowmobile they call snow machine), skiing, native culture olympics, etc.  Our friend Ellen said that in the winter if one does not really work at resisting it, sleeping in is natural.  Those visitors who think they are early risers will find that they are not.  The video today did not say that exactly but said that most people have a strong urge to eat as days become very short.  That does not sound good.  Another interesting thing here is that there are small coffee shops all over the place.  Ellen said that is so that in the cold weather people can drive up to them and get their fix without having to get out of the car.

The Cultural Center has a good historical display also.  One thing Alaska is trying to do better than the lower 48 is to treat the Native Americans equitably.  Interestingly, as we were making our rounds through the Center the lights flickered a few times and then went out.  No one panicked.  An attendant said that in a moment the lights would be back on.  I asked him to define a moment and he said two or three minutes.  It was a little longer than that but soon the light were back on and everyone resumed their way around the exhibits.

We had rain today.  The natives were thrilled.  It did not seem like much to me.  One person said there has been no rain this summer.  Usually they have a rainy month during the summer.  The rain should help put out the wild fires.  We probably received a quarter inch or so of rain.

I've started looking at places to volunteer.  One is an adult learning center.  It is about 1/3 mile away, just across the road from the Cultural Center.  It would be within easy walking distance, even in cold weather.  At least that is what I hope.  I really don't know what walking in minus 60 degrees will be like.  The other is a Christian based tutoring center.  It is about 1/4 mile from the apartment.  The two public high schools are a couple miles or more and not so good for walking.

Some of you have been wondering how food prices compare.  90% ground beef is $ 4.99 on sale and $6.99 not on sale.  On sale peaches were $1.68/lb.  The cheapest skim milk per gallon is $3.39, not a lot different than IC and Washington.  Grapes were $1.68/lb. on sale.  Fresh salmon was $10.34/lb.  I'm not sure but that may be the regular price.

Unleaded gas is cheaper on the east side of town, where we are.  It is $3.89 at Safeway and it goes up to $4.13 in other parts of town and certain brands of gas.

Some of you have asked about our apartment.  Here is the bedroom.  The bed is a queen.  At first there was a king bed and there was almost no room other than for the bed.

The closet is at the other end of the bedroom.  It could have doors but the clothes hang better if the dressers are out a few inches into the doorway.  The door to the left of the picture goes on the doorway at the right of the picture.  Yes, that is my reflection in the bathroom mirror.

This is Elva in the kitchen.  We have some real togetherness when she washes the dishes and I dry them.

This is the dining room.  The hall seen through the door goes to the left to the bedroom and to the right to the bathroom.

The washer and dryer are just outside our inside exit.

This is the living room.  Yes we still have a few things to put away.  It is brighter than it may appear in this picture.  The light from the window makes the rest of the room appear darker than it really was.

This is our outside entrance.  There is an apartment above us and one below us.

This shows part of downtown in the distance and some cars at a small park across the road where parents often bring their children.  Next to the park is the Chena River.

Downtown Fairbanks is three to four times as big as downtown Fort Dodge.  But the population is only about 25% more (that is 24,000 for FD and 30,000 for Fairbanks.)  The reason is that Fairbanks is the hub for all of northern Alaska.  That is an area several times larger than all of Iowa.  The population of the immediate area around Fairbanks is about 100,000.  The area serviced by Fairbanks extends hundreds of miles east, west, and north.

God's blessings to you and yours.

Larry and Elva

We continue to work on the apartment.  Someday we will be caught up on cleaning and putting away.  So far, that day has not come.  We also do some fixing.  And buying groceries.  And ordering the daily paper.  And going for walks.  And eating, sleeping, and all the daily routine that needs to be done no matter where one is.

Some weeds here are just like weeds in Iowa.  I have seen lambs quarter.  Not far from here I saw dandelions.  It is dry here this summer, so not as pretty as sometimes.  Some trees are losing leaves because of the dry weather.

Some of the migratory water fowl are starting to head south.  There will be a program about the sandhill cranes at a wildlife viewing area the next several days.

For those who have been asking about pictures of the apartment, probably one or two days.  The cleaning and putting away is almost done.  It is a lot of work but less than when we moved out of the parsonage.  Then we also had to deal with the stuff going to our children and to crowded closet.

God's blessing to all

Larry and Elva

Ellen

Elva and I had a pleasant afternoon today.  Ellen Axmear, who was my math student at English Valleys, gave us a tour of Fairbanks.  She is a speech pathologist in the public elementary schools here.  It is gratifying seeing former students doing well.  She has been here nine years and knows the area quite well.  She could show us where things are and recommend things we should do while here.  For a while we lived about 1/2 mile from her family close to North English, just before she was born.  She has a brother that was in James' class.  We were able to catch up on her family.  It was nice talking with someone we know.  Since we were unable, from Iowa, to see the apartments we were considering she was our scout.  She gave us some good information.

Yesterday we went walking  and found a walking/biking trail just past our apartment.  The trail leads SW to downtown.  Going that way downtown is about a third of a mile away. The trail also goes N but we don't know where it goes.  Sometime we'll check it out.

As we look N of the apartment we can see a JoAnn Fabric store sign.  There are several good fabric stores in the city.  No I haven't checked them out yet.  Safeway grocery store is probably 2 1/2 blocks away.  Today we walked to a Fred Meyer store, about 4-5 blocks away.  From what we hear it is an upscale Walmart.

Some of you have asked about sunrise and sunset times here in Fairbanks.  I have made a little chart showing Fairbanks, Wayland Ia, and Mexico City (just for comparison since it is far south.)  Be sure to remember that one's location relative to time zone boundaries makes a difference in times but not in length of sunup time.  The coming and going of daylight savings time also makes a change.  I would guess by looking at September 21 that Mexico City has DLS time.  In the table "r" is sun rise and "s" is sun set.


                    Fairbanks           Wayland            Mexico City

June 1          r 3:32                  r 5:36                r 6:58
                   s 12:04                 s 8:32               s 8:11

June 21       r 2:57                    r 5:34               r 6:59
                  s 12:47                  s 8:43               s 8:17

Aug 13       r 5:30                    r 6:14               r 7:17
                  s 10:21                  s 8:09               s 8:06

Sept 21      r 7:30                    r 6:53               r 7:21
                  s 7:58                   s 7:07               s 7:34

Oct 31       r 9:34                    r 7:36               r 6:37
                 s 5:35                    s 6:04               s 6:04

Dec 21       r 10:58                 r 7:31                r 7:06
                  s 2:39                   s 4:45               s 6:03

Obviously I don't just know this information.  It was available on a web site.  You can probably find such a chart and find information for places that interest you.  It is different going to bed a 10 pm and it is still light out and then waking around 5:30 - 6 am and it is already light.  Of course we know that will change before long.

The tilt that God gave the earth yields many interesting results.

God's blessings to all of you.

Larry and Elva

Perspective   ---


It is all a matter of perspective.  For all my life a car with a license plate from Alaska would make me sit up and take notice.  Now nearly all the plates are Alaska and plates from the lower 48 make me sit up and take notice.

It is all a matter of perspective.  Yesterday at church the man next to me asked how we thought we would do in January with the cold and dark.  I am not sure, I have not experienced it yet.  Then he said that he enjoyed January.  Summer with the long daylight provides the opportunity to do so many other things that reading and even Bible study and prayer sometimes take a back seat.

It may be a matter of perspective about many things.  Some make no difference in the long run.  Some are vitally important.  God has the best perspective on all things.  I hope to seek God's perspective in all things that really matter.

From the far north.

Larry and Elva

We are in

We are in our apartment.  But almost nothing is in place.  The van gave a sigh of relief when it was finally unloaded.  It had carried all that stuff for over 3800 miles.  It was a heavy load.  In some places it was a dirty trip.  In some places it was a rough road.  The van will feel even better after a good bath.

But, now, here we are.  We, actually, gave a sigh of relief along with the van.  We are just across the Chena River from downtown.  The visitors' center is about 1/4 mile away.  The Safeway is probably less than 1/2 mile away.  A washer and dryer is just outside our door.  We have not seen one mosquito in Fairbanks.  As we carried boxes into the apartment we had the door open about an hour and I don't think even one single bug of any kind came in.  The apartment is nice sized.

If it were not about 11:00 p.m. we would have some pictures of the apartment for you.

Thanks for your concern and prayers.

We arrived!

It feels good to have arrived at our destination.  One problem   ---   we cannot get into our apartment yet.  The manager did not understand when we were planning to arrive, so our apartment will be available in a few days.  She does, however, have a sister who has a bed and breakfast and we are staying there for free.  But we don't get the breakfast with our free stay.  We saw our apartment but it is not ready yet.

We arrived in Fairbanks in time to attend a Bible study with a small Mennonite group.  Small in this case means that we were first timers at the gathering and there was another couple that was new this time and we four were about half of the group.  The group meets twice per month.

We went to a farmers' market this afternoon.  There were perhaps fifty vendors. We did not see any of the huge cabbages but there were very big radishes and kohlrabies.

Until this afternoon the sky here was overcast with smoke from forest fires.  We saw some smoke yesterday but then only saw smoke rising from individual fires.  Today the smoke filled the sky and we could not discern where the smoke was coming from, it was just here.

This picture shows burned trees on the hillside.

This is the Alaska Pipeline east of Fairbanks about 70 miles where it is beside the Alaska Highway.

This shows smoke at ground level from forest fires.  The near hill on the left was perhaps a tenth of a mile away and the distant hill was about a half mile.  There were places when the smoke was thick enough that it was somewhat hard to see to drive, but not dangerous.  The dry weather here has given rise to several wild fires around Fairbanks.  One woman who is often at the church meeting was not there today because she works as a forest fire fighter.

I have not heard how the fires around here started.  I would suppose some were of natural causes and others were started by people.  People do mess up.  Sometimes we do our best and things don't work as we had hoped because we are far from perfect.  There is the law of unintended results.  As we work for certain good things sometimes other unforeseen bad consequences result.  As long as we are people on the earth before going to heaven this will be common.  God did not give us the ability to see into the future.  We cannot know all the results of our good efforts.  That is good.  God was wise when He did not allow us to see into the future.  We rejoice that the problems of the past are behind us.  We cope with current problems by God's grace and the love and help of our friends.  But how would we deal with knowing all the problems of tomorrow and next week and next month and next year? That would be too much.  We assume problems will probably happen, but are spared any details.  We can, however, know that things will eventually turn out well for all who trust God.

Thanks for your interest in our travels.  I will try to have daily blogs for a week or so and then have a blog weekly.

I pray God will bless each of you abundantly.  May God especially bless those of you who believe there is no God.  May God's love so overwhelm you that you have no choice but to realize that God is behind all the blessings you receive.

Good bye for now.

Larry (and Elva)

A Day of Bumps

Yes, bumps, as in I hope  the van holds up okay.  They say the problem is the frost in the ground.  Some of the ground we drove over today is like the ground loess hills in western Iowa.  Here, when the ground under pavement freezes and thaws it becomes somewhat soupy and is pushed out both sides of the road.  That then leaves a big dip in the road.  Some of these dips were about a yard deep and a couple car-lengths long.  Other times the subsoil pushes out only one side of the road and that side sinks.  Not all dips were a yard deep but most were 20 or so inches.  They were working to repair the roads but did not finish soon enough as far as we were concerned.  That was the last couple hundred miles in Canada.  When we crossed into Alaska the road was much better.

We are now in Delta Junction.  This is the official end of the Alaska Highway.  Some say it  continues to Fairbanks.

The story goes that two Alaska mosquitoes were in a tent about ready to attack the inhabitants.  One asked, "Shall we get our meal here or carry them outside first."  The other replied, "We better eat them here or the big mosquitoes will take them away from us!"  These in the picture were about 8 feet tall.

The mountains in Canada were very pretty today.  There was neat fog.  Snow on the top of some.  And there were beautiful blue lakes.

 Fog below us in the valley.

 There are more glaciers on the other side of these.  That would be the side toward the Pacific  Ocean.

  One lake was 92 miles long and usually about 2 miles wide.

God has  made all things beautiful.  We can enjoy these and still accept the dips and bumps in the road.  Life will have both the difficult and the beautiful.

Tomorrow we have about  1 hour and 30 minutes to travel to Fairbanks.

Today was the day of animals, and they were even live animals today.  Yesterday we saw some road kill but today they were up and walking around.  First we saw a caribou.  It was at the side of the road.  We were going slowly and it ran alongside the van, not more than ten feet away.  We read that reindeer are domesticated caribou.  We could not decide whether this one was Donner or Blitzen but it ran quite fast.

We also saw a family of goats or sheep.  We are not sure which or what variety they might have been.  They were right at the roadside and appeared to lick some minerals along the side of the road.

Next we saw a herd of buffalo.  We just saw one first walking along the side of the road.  Then we saw perhaps 30 or so mostly resting.

Lastly we saw a black bear.  It was about 15 feet from the road.  It raised up, saw us coming, and turned to run back into the trees.  It is much more exciting seeing live animals than road kill.  (Sorry, no picture of the bear.)

Today was also the day for road construction.  Some places they were patching sections 20 to 100 feet long.  Other places they were patching sections several miles long.  The problem was waiting for the pilot car.  A couple times we probably waited 15 minutes.  At least that did provide the opportunity to step out of the van and get into a position other than sitting upright in the seat.  Our van is so fully packed that we are unable to recline the seats or move them forward or backward.  So there we sit in one position until we stop.  We can reposition our feet a bit but that is about all.

We have been in the Canadian Rockies again today.  Most of the individual mountains are covered with trees.  There were some today that were bald.  They must be solid rock leaving the vegetation no place to grow.  The mountains are very pretty and very numerous.  There have been hundreds of miles of mountains so far.

We are stopped for the night (Thursday, 8/8/13) in Teslin, Yukon Territory.  Teslin is on highway 1 along the south border of Yukon.  Our path took us into and out of Yukon and British Columbia several times.  We hope to arrive in Fairbanks early afternoon Saturday.

Out of farm land   ---

Today we bid farming goodbye.  We did see one farm of perhaps 100 acres.  Otherwise we saw trees and trees and trees.  My estimate is that we saw several billion trees, maybe even more.  All the mountains are covered with trees.  The mountains here are not high enough to be above sea level.  Most of the trees are very narrow and tall, so many of them fit in one acre.

By all accounts, we are for sure on the Alaska Highway now.  Dawson Creek, Alberta, has a museum of the AH and its history.  The first ideas of a land connection between the lower 48 states and Alaska started over 100 years ago.  It took a war, WWII, to convince Canada and the US to cooperate building the highway.  It was feared that Japan was going to attack Alaska (and then all of North America) and a land route there was needed to transport supplies there to defend our northern territory.

There is still much logging and oil production.  God has provided a rich abundance of resources which human intelligence allows us to tap into.  We cannot create it.  As some poet said, only God can make a tree.  We can use the tree and the oil but we are dependent upon the world God created to supply not only our needs but many of our wants as well.

Our path became more northward today.  We are at Fort Nelson, British Columbia.  We still have about 1200 miles to go.  We praise God for safety.

God's blessing to you.

Please reply to this blog if you wish.

Bye  ---

Larry

Yes, we are now far north of Noble.  Actually more than 2000 miles north of Noble.  And we still have quite a ways to go.  Depending upon where one says the Alaska Highway starts, we may have been on it about half of today (Tuesday, August 6.)  Some say the Alaska Highway (AH) starts near Edmonton, Alberta.  Others say it starts in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  We are about half way between.

So far the highway does not look like what I have heard about the AH.  The last few hours have been a nice four lane road with a speed limit of 110!  That is 110 k/hr.  And that is about 70 mph.  We are currently in a town of perhaps a couple thousand people with about that many semi's, at least it seems so.  Logging trucks, oil field trucks, Dorito trucks, Safeway trucks, and many trucks that I could not identify.  If you look on a map we are at Valleyview, Alberta.

Travel has been good.  We left Iowa City Friday, and that has been our warmest day.  It was 78 Degrees by the van thermometer.  Today has been the second warmest day, it was 77.  Yesterday in Saskatoon there was oodles of rain, which would have been fine except that is where we had planned to walk along the river.  We were more patient than the rain and were finally able to walk for about an hour.

The second command of God to Adam and Eve was to fill the earth and subdue it.  It is interesting to see how people are doing just that.  (It seems that by nature we obey this command, too bad we do not also obey God's other commands.)  People naturally subdue the earth.  We automatically make use of it.  Nearly always in good ways.  Sometimes we must learn the hard way that misusing God's good creation is not for our own good.  Along the way there have been many lakes - some the size of a house and some the size of a small town and others the size of a city.  The farmers plant their crops as close to the lakes as possible, harvest hay closer to the lakes, and just allow the reeds to grow still closer to the lakes.  Cattle and horses graze on the land too steep or rocky to plant crops.  Where farming is not possible the trees are harvested.  In and among all of this oil is pumped from the ground.  God has given us a good earth with sufficient abundance for the billions of people.

This is a canola field.  Some fields seem to stretch for miles while others, in the midst of many little lakes, are about the size of a basketball court.

This is a flax field.  Out of the corner of our eye flax fields look like the sky or a lake.

Elva and I have a bit of a farm background and find the whole farming situation very interesting.  Many towns have huge equipment dealerships with big inventory.  It seems in the US most dealers only have a small inventory.  And yes, right next to each other are the dealers for all the colors.  We are now too far north for corn, except in gardens.  A farm wife managing a travel information center said the crops are a couple weeks late this year, there was snow the second week of May.

This is the end of day five after leaving Iowa City.

Thanks for your interest.

God is good.

Larry and Elva