Anchorage home makeover

Hello family and friends. After three long days of painting the living room walls and ceiling we are finished and quite happy with the results. We posted a before and after. Thought you all might like to see!

Before:







After








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Garden St.

Reno to Alaska

Hello! from our final destination: Anchorage. After 10 days of travel from Reno to Alaska we have arrived at our new house. We have actually been here for about 3 days now. We got in late on Friday after a frenzied dash to be done with driving. The trip was fun but we were excited to be out of the car. The last two days of driving took us past some of the biggest most spectacular mountains i have seen along side flowing glacial valleys. This weekend we have been busy painting the living room so that it is not so dark and drab. Until we have finished painting we have not moved anything in.

Going through the border.


Kate and I with the glaciers behind.





Kate talking to her mom after sleeping in the car on our last day on the road.


"camping" in the living room while we continue painting.


Kate working on the ceiling.





This is the front of the house from the street. It is a 2 bedroom 1 bath with a fairly large kitchen, a garage, and a yard for a future dog.


View of backyard with our new outdoor wood burning stove in the foreground. (fun garage sale purchase)


Back of house.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Anchorage

Reno to Alaska

Great News! We are out of British Columbia and into the Yukon! I've always wanted to see the Yukon since it sounded so mysterious and far far away, full of wild people and big mountains. The scenery is fantastic with snow covered mountains and tree filled valleys made all the more easy to enjoy by having good roads with few bumps. It was slow going in northern BC with roads that had many potholes and only mildly better then gravel covering them. But we are having an amazing time. We are stopping tonight in the capital of the Yukon which is called Whitehorse. The trip is taking a few days longer then expected but who knew the world was so big (especially British Columbia!) tomorrow we should be in Alaska and if all goes well, Anchorage the day after. As you have probably guessed internet is scarce in some parts and getting a regular blog put up is tough. Hope you are enjoying reading. Taking pics along the way here are a few.





The signpost forest in Watson, YT









The praying mantis in Chetwynd, BC. International chainsaw carving championship is in Chetwynd, pretty crazy stuff.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Whitehorse, Yukon

Reno to Alaska: Day 7

Howdy, from Fort Nelson! We are sitting down to an egg sandwich before getting on the road to Laird hot springs about 4 hours to the north and west. We are having a great time and seeing lots. We will have a chance to post more and show some pictures when we reach the hot springs but right now we are on a mission to t get there. Cheers!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Fort Nelson

Reno to Alaska: Day 4ish

Good evening from Williams Lake in southern Canada. Apparently Canada is a big place and it takes a long time to drive through. It takes an even longer time to get through when you encounter "drivers block" (this coming from Kate) and only drive about 100 miles a day supplemented by a 2 hour nap. Oh well. We are having a great time seeing what there is to see and meeting people along the way. Today we saw the worlds largest cross country skies in 100 Mile City and rested by the lake in Williams Lake. We hope to put on many more miles (kilometers is what they call them here). I'm not sure where we will be tomorrow but it will be north of here and a little closer to Anchorage, hopefully Dawson Creek. Thanks for reading!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Williams Lake

Reno to Alaska Day 4

Kaitlin here, Hello from Canada!!! We made it!
After crossing the boarder we drove for four hours in and out of thick forested canyons, alongside a beautiful river and below clear blue skies. We were oohing and ahhing over the scenery and loved everything that we saw. We made it to Cache Creek on highway uno and stayed at a nice campsite. As for you Nevadans reading this blog, yes Canada does have sagebrush, and lots of it :) Cache Creek is a high desert and not like the green and dense forested areas an hour away. We are having a great adventure and enjoying our walkie talkie talks (when they work that is!). We miss you family and are thinking about you lots. Our trek today is north (of course) and will be stopping at the 100 mile post and onward. Love you all and sending you big hugs and kisses from Canada.

This message is approved by Mark Williams



Cache creek campsite



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cache Creek

Reno to Alaska: Day 2

Hello from...Seattle, not Canada. We started having fun around the city of Seattle yesterday Afternoon seeing places Kaitlin knew from living hear and we got a little carried away. I have to say taking a break in Seattle was very nice since driving in city traffic with a wandering uhaul trailer is stressful and takes a great deal of care to not hit anything or anyone. So... Today we should be crossing the boarder. No rush. We have had a great time walking the district of Ballard, eating amazing Mexican, watching the sunset over the Olympics, and rescuing our scones this morning from the clutches of the birds. What a fun place!! Onward!












This house looks like the movie "Up"








This is a quilt shop called Drygoods Design.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Ballard, Seattle.

Reno to Alaska: Day 1

Greetings! Made it to Portland last night on the first leg of our journey. We left the Leck's home early yesterday morning. It was a sad goodbye but also an exciting new beginning. We picked up the loaded trailer and started north only stopping to get gas or take a quick break. We drove by Mt Shasta this afternoon which was covered in clouds. The jeep and trailer handled well enough after getting used to the weight and swaying back and forth. Slow and steady will have to do. We met and stayed with Mark and Jamie, Kate's second cousins, who live in Portland. They are great hosts and lots of fun. We needed to catch up on sleep and so made it a late morning with a walk to coffee to blog and across the street to REI to get working walkie-talkies. Today we will be crossing the Canadian boarder and stopping at a small town called Hope. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.


Mt. Shasta in the background

















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Portland

Day zero

Good evening family! I'm making a short blog to document Kate's and mine's trip to Alaska. Today was a full day of packing the Uhaul and cars. It was close but we fit everything but the bikes which will have to be shipped later. Tomorrow is the first day on the road. We will be going to Portland and staying with Kate's second cousin Mark. I dove the jeep and loaded trailer around the block to see how it goes and it seemed to drive fine. More to come but it's exciting to be heading out tomorrow. It's also sad to be l leaving Reno with Kate's family and all our friends. It was a great graduation weekend. Very fun to see everyone.


-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Reno

Hiking and Building a House

It has been a busy couple of days. There is a group of students here from Scranton Pennsylvania who are taking a winter semester class. The class is looking at how Christianity has impacted 3^rd world nations by touring around Uganda and seeing different places and talking with people. They are a fun group of about 18 people but the guesthouse is now packed and a little loud and crowded. The staff from the hospital have been avoiding the crowd so I have not been able to spend time with them in the evenings. But the students are also enjoyable to talk to and provide a good change of pace.

            Yesterday I went to the staff church service down at the hospital and enjoyed seeing an Anglican service with a great message on our calling from God. After a good nap and lunch several of us did I hike to see the border between Uganda and the Congo. It was about a 4 mile hike roundtrip but we had to hike to the top of a pretty tall hill. It was a great hike and I got to know some of the other med students from Uganda better. The trail was actually the main road/walkway for many of the people who live on the hillside and have farms. It was crazy to find all the people walking up and down this steep hillside who were carrying jugs of water or baskets of food. It was not a short or easy trip up and down this hillside. We found many different kinds of things being grown on the hillside as well as many mud and brick homes built up on small terraces. At the top we were greeted by a cooling breeze from the Congo and could see just across the border. The air was filled with a moist haze which limited our view but it was still spectacular. The surrounding hillsides were covered in thick jungle and we could here the sounds of birds all around. It was such a beautiful place and all I could do was thank God for the people I was with and the place he has allowed me to see. I’m certainly overwhelmed when I try and consider the variety of places and people God has made. If anything, this trip has shown me that God is a creator who delights in diversity: diversity of places and diversity of people. The other day I started singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” which goes: Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world. 
Red and yellow, black and white, 
All are precious in His sight. 
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

     

Beginning of hike: leaving the main road.

Houses on the hilside.

I enjoyed learning about the different plants on the way up.

Children coming out to greet us. on the way up. We saw many children this age carrying water jugs up the hillside.

Houses perched on hilltop.

Ugandan boy on edge of Congo. All the hills down below are in the congo.

Playing on a homemade scooter.

 Today the nurses, Jonathan my new roommate, and I joined the students and went to a Batwa community about 45 minutes from here. There are about 11 of these communities where the Batwa have been given land and the Batwa Development Program helps them with establishing a living, building houses and attending schools. There is a push to get the batwa to live in mud houses rather then grass ones. The mud houses improve the health of the family by keeping animals out and giving them a place to hang mosquito nets. It also helps to give the family and the batwa people a greater since of pride since they have a more established residence. The house is made from a lattice of reeds with mud filling in the walls. There are two layers of mud placed on the wall and a final layer of manure/sand which seals the house well. These layers are all done in phases and can take some time to complete. A well made and maintained mud house can last 60 years. It was a great experience to help build this house and something I’ll never forget.

Grass house. Not the best of living conditions.

The mud for the house was prepared in pits with water that was brought up from a stream nearby. There were two pits this size and we used them both completely.

The framework was a lattice work of bamboo like plants and timbers. The woman here is just doing some sweeping before we got busy.

Mud was stacked in-between the reeds. It was fun to do and of course we got very dirty.

Women demonstrating the throwing technique (very enjoyable) and then man showing how mud is stacked in the walls.

Me and my new roommate from Ontario Canada. His name is Jonathan and he has been traveling the world since June. He is very interesting to talk with and get to know.

Showing the phases of construction. on the right is a wall with 1 layer of dried mud and on the left is the finished product after 2 layers of mud and a coating of manure mixed with sand. This was the village chief's house.

Students who raised money for the house and family who will be living in it.

            Thank you for reading the blog it is fun to write and I’m glad to share this experience with you.