So, as I was cruising into Casper, WY from the airport today ( in my mini-van ) I was reminded how much casper is like Nome, at least the weather anyway. Yesterday they had a day long blizzard and today it is clear with lots of snow on the ground that is now being blown around polishing everything.
I was thinking the other day about when we had a little accident with one of our single otters. I was on my way from Kotzebue to Nome in a navajo when I got a message that one of our otters was overdue from picking up a group of hunters on the American river. I was asked to go check on it. I knew the approximate area where they would be so I descended down to get under some weather and then headed for where I thought they could be. I tuned a radio to 121.5 so as to pick up and Emergency Locatro transmitter, if there had been an accident and it was going off. Sure enought within about 10 miles I started hearing one ( not good) When I was about 2 miles away from te site I could see a flash from a beacon on the airplane, neaning there was still power to it. I soon had the aircraft in sight. It looked like it had hit a bank of the river on take-off and ripped the engine off to ne side and the landing gear was crumpled. It looked pretty bad. I went right over it down low then circled overhead trying to see any people. Later I learned that the pilot had heard me coming from a good distance and could tell it was a navajo and that it was headed straight for him. I stayed in a circle above the wreck while climbing higher to talk to the office. When I could I reported that it didnt look good and I couldnt see anyone. they were already getting Eric Pentilla and his Evergreen helicopter ready with Mike Owens to come help. I continued to circle overhead. I wanted the people in the airplane to know we were still there and I wanted to be able to relay info to the office once the helicopter arrived.
It took quite a while for the helicopter to get there, maybe 1 hr 15 min or so, They got there near dark and reported everyone was alive allthough the pilot had some injuries. It turned out that the hunters were giving the international signal to me of injured people at the site by laying down on the ground with arms and legs out. The only problem was they had their camo gear on and I couldne see them.! Well I relayed the message and headed to Nome because I was getting very low on fuel. The helicopter brought them all in and the pilot and 1 passenger were hospitalized, well for a while anyway, the pilot wouldn't stay and even with possible internal damage and a big cut on his head from the curled prop hitting him, he went home.
The aircraft was retrieved after freeze up.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Day 19
A few photos from a scout trip to the little Sahara. It was beautiful weather ! Not a bad self portrait there!! And there is nothing like a scout breakfast!
I am excited about some camping with grandsons this summer!!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Day 18, sort of
So, It is late, and I am finally down my to - do list to where the Blog Post is! I haven't thought of anything profound today, I was studying PC-12 stuff, and while it is pretty cool, you might not find it interesting. But I did start thinking of an old story that all my children are already familiar with but I don't know if it is written down anywhere.
Don is a friend of our from Nome. He is now in his later 60's. He has had some serious health problems in his life. Don owns a little cabin, that I am sure someone is squatting on now, on the Grand Central river. We have all been there, what a beautiful location!
Well, one time Don was driving himself to his cabin and stopped at the Grand Central bridge to see how many fish were swimming around in view. Now, for those of you who haven't been there the Grand Central is a VERY cold, clear river, and at the bridge it is plenty deep enough to jump off of the bridge into its chilling waters. Remember, the challenge is to see if you can actually speak something intelligent whilst swimming to the shore! You are usually so overcome by the cold that it is hard to get real words out!
Ok, sorry, I degress, back to Don. This day he proceeded to the center of the bridge to gaze over the railing and imagine how he is going to catch those beautiful fish down there. He gets there and starts looking, now Don gets really excited about fishing, and I can just see him looking intently at the water and not really being aware of much else. And the next thing he knew, his false teeth were out of his mouth and falllllllllling........splash! You can imagine how you would feel! Well Don doesn't really fly off the handle quicklly and I believed him when he told me that when those teeth went in , he just stood there staring and all he said was " Schucks". He stood there gazing into the water for sometime, and was able to locate the teeth through the clear water, but didn't know what to do about it.
It wasn't too long until a state truck came by and the young driver got out to check out the fish situation also. He started a conversation with Don and Don explained about the sunken teeth. This good man decided to help. He stripped out of his clothes and dove into the river!! I think it would be a pretty good trick to do that and actually get the teeth, but he did! I am not sure how many tries it took him, but maybe he did it in the first one! Hows that for serving someone? I used to know which DOT worker it was , but I have forgotten.
Don asked around town to find out this guys favorite beer and then bought him a case!!
So, always wear clean underwear because you never know when you might have to take off your clothes and get someones teeth!
Don is a friend of our from Nome. He is now in his later 60's. He has had some serious health problems in his life. Don owns a little cabin, that I am sure someone is squatting on now, on the Grand Central river. We have all been there, what a beautiful location!
Well, one time Don was driving himself to his cabin and stopped at the Grand Central bridge to see how many fish were swimming around in view. Now, for those of you who haven't been there the Grand Central is a VERY cold, clear river, and at the bridge it is plenty deep enough to jump off of the bridge into its chilling waters. Remember, the challenge is to see if you can actually speak something intelligent whilst swimming to the shore! You are usually so overcome by the cold that it is hard to get real words out!
Ok, sorry, I degress, back to Don. This day he proceeded to the center of the bridge to gaze over the railing and imagine how he is going to catch those beautiful fish down there. He gets there and starts looking, now Don gets really excited about fishing, and I can just see him looking intently at the water and not really being aware of much else. And the next thing he knew, his false teeth were out of his mouth and falllllllllling........splash! You can imagine how you would feel! Well Don doesn't really fly off the handle quicklly and I believed him when he told me that when those teeth went in , he just stood there staring and all he said was " Schucks". He stood there gazing into the water for sometime, and was able to locate the teeth through the clear water, but didn't know what to do about it.
It wasn't too long until a state truck came by and the young driver got out to check out the fish situation also. He started a conversation with Don and Don explained about the sunken teeth. This good man decided to help. He stripped out of his clothes and dove into the river!! I think it would be a pretty good trick to do that and actually get the teeth, but he did! I am not sure how many tries it took him, but maybe he did it in the first one! Hows that for serving someone? I used to know which DOT worker it was , but I have forgotten.
Don asked around town to find out this guys favorite beer and then bought him a case!!
So, always wear clean underwear because you never know when you might have to take off your clothes and get someones teeth!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Day 17
Ahhh, Another satisfied customer!! After a Larapin dinner of Peanut-Chicken vegetables and rice with Bok Choy, Dad somehow found room for a piece of No sugar added Apple Pie!! Imagine that! He has been doing really good recovering from his surgery, the physical therapist claims he is her star patient! He has been walking a lot and doing really good on his eating.I was glad to hear that my Son - In Laws did such a good job of treating their Valentines today - Way to go guys, well, except Luke, he was a bit of an over - achiever, he gave sushi, flowers, and a couple gift cards. Like dad told him: he may have to stand before the husband committee for such behavior. Husbands have a range of generosity that must be observed or it reflects poorly on the rest of the group! I haven't heard a report from my favorite daughter in law yet on how Jake did but I am confident that it will be positive.
A couple thoughts on prayers: Sometimes we think that praying should be like going through a drive Inn. We give our order to the microphone hidden somewhere on that plastic sign, then we pull up and are handed exactly what we wanted and we go on our merry way.
The way I see it is there are some things requireed for prayers to be efective
We must approach God in the name of Jesus Christ. This way we come as disciples of Jesus, only asking for things that Jesus would approve of. We don't ask selfishly, or for trivial things. If you haven't been receiving answers like you thought you should start by thinking about what you are asking for. A few things that I think would be on the approved list - Humility, a greater capacity to love, the ability to forgive, courage, opportunities to serve, the strength to serve, blessings on those ( and it could be you also) who are having a rough time, and the list could go on, but you catch my drift.
When we approach God in prayer, we need to also be forgiving of others. Mark 11:25 mentions that when we pray we should forgive, to insure that we can be forgiven, but I cant help but think that communication in prayer will happen much easier if we don't have ill feelings toward others obscuring our hearts.
A couple verses earlier in Mark bring up another requirement for getting answers to our prayers. We have to believe that we will get an answer!! It is possible to overlook an otherwise obvious answer to a prayer simply because we don't really believe that we will get one!
If you believe there is a rabbit in a picture then you will look until you see it.
I would refer you to the list I started about what would be good things to pray for. If you have doubts that God answers your prayers, then pray for something from the list, surely you could believe that you will get an answer to one of those things, so really believe it and look for your answer, through the scriptures, through your spouse, through a speaker at church, or a friend. Personally , my answers come in quiet meditative times (often while on a mountain:) )when I am pondering things, especially words from the Book of Mormon.
Congratulations to Jake on his promotion to Driver!!!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Day 16
This is a few hours late, so I will do this twice today. I went to an adult session of our stake conference last night, really good. One of the speakers was from England and gave excellent talk on the need for us to forgive ourselves after we have repented and then to move on. One of the illustrations he used was that we were designed with both our feet and our heads pointed in the same direction! We weren't made to be constantly looking back at what we've done wrong, but rather to look forward to what we are going to do.
I heard that Bob Dylan and Barbara Striesand are both preforming tonight at the Grammies. I would like to hear those two, but not sure I want to bad enough to watch all the show, maybe I can find out what time they perform....
I heard that Bob Dylan and Barbara Striesand are both preforming tonight at the Grammies. I would like to hear those two, but not sure I want to bad enough to watch all the show, maybe I can find out what time they perform....
Friday, February 11, 2011
Day 15
The answer is...................Alyssa. The birthday girl!!! I am really glad the Jensens were able to go to the McCarneys house to celebrate birthdays!
February 11th 1986 in Nome Alaska was a foggy drizzly day, with the temperature hanging around the mid 30's. But there was something in the works that would brighten everything up! Yep a beautiful 8lb 13oz girl that we knew had a middle name of Sue, but the Alyssa part didn't come along until about 10 days later! ( the hospital really wanted to get that birth certificate done). We were living in a duplex on 3rd ave. in Nome with a good view of the ocean from the living room. Her older siblings were happy to have her home, especially Becca, who wanted to take care of her. Even as a young child Alyssa was soft spoken and gave serious thought to things before voicing her opinion.
Alyssas first trip to the dentist was interesting, she was about three and Deena had primed her for the experience well in advance. She went when some of her siblings were getting their check-ups, and when it came her turn, all the pre-visit coaching went out the window. She would not open her mouth. Finally the dentist coaxed her into opening up, he got his fingers in there and..... she bit him! So much for that try.
A couple weeks later, the day for another try is approaching, we have been coaching, but it is obvious that more needs to be done. so Deena sweetens the pot: " if you are good for the dentist and do what he says you can choose a Barbie from the surprise box that we have for birthdays. " Alyssa careful considers this prize and responds: " 2 Barbies". ( Lynn, I am sure you have experienced her negotiating skills by now) OK, Deena agrees and off to the dentist it is, and......same results, only I think it was a different finger that got bit this time.
Yes Alyssa had a Tom Boy-ish period in her life that I am sure we make sound like it was longer than it actually was. I always remember the comment by Jake " Alyssa, you're about as close to a brother as I am ever going to get".
Once while on vacation in Arizona, Alyssa witnessed Deena withdrawing about $150.00 from an ATM, she quirried her mom about how much that cost to use that machine, and when Deena responded " about a dollar" Alyssa's eyes got big and she said : " I have a dollar!" I guess I would of been excited too if I could get $150.00 for $ 1.oo.
Of course I should mention the time when she took the snowmachine out for a ride after dark, and she didn't return when expected. I was just going out the door to look for her when she came home, big tears and all telling us she had tipped it over. It was really no big deal , I got it righted and it started right up. She has always been good with equipment, a good driver and also a good shooter!
It was fun to be able to see many of her Cross Country meets and watch her mature in High School. A couple important memories that I have had with her in her adult years have been: After dropping her off for the first time at ISU, I was driving away from the parking lot and I could see that little face way up there in that big Dormitory! Made me get all chocked up. Our Teton hike together, something we all need to do more of, was great, we had to move off the trail to let a cow moose through, and one evening we sat on a big flat rock and quietly watched a gorgeous sunset. Also that was a memorable trip because I met this tall guy that lived upstairs from Alyssa that let me have his bedroom for a night, I think he was trying to make a good impression,............ he did.
February 11th 1986 in Nome Alaska was a foggy drizzly day, with the temperature hanging around the mid 30's. But there was something in the works that would brighten everything up! Yep a beautiful 8lb 13oz girl that we knew had a middle name of Sue, but the Alyssa part didn't come along until about 10 days later! ( the hospital really wanted to get that birth certificate done). We were living in a duplex on 3rd ave. in Nome with a good view of the ocean from the living room. Her older siblings were happy to have her home, especially Becca, who wanted to take care of her. Even as a young child Alyssa was soft spoken and gave serious thought to things before voicing her opinion.
Alyssas first trip to the dentist was interesting, she was about three and Deena had primed her for the experience well in advance. She went when some of her siblings were getting their check-ups, and when it came her turn, all the pre-visit coaching went out the window. She would not open her mouth. Finally the dentist coaxed her into opening up, he got his fingers in there and..... she bit him! So much for that try.
A couple weeks later, the day for another try is approaching, we have been coaching, but it is obvious that more needs to be done. so Deena sweetens the pot: " if you are good for the dentist and do what he says you can choose a Barbie from the surprise box that we have for birthdays. " Alyssa careful considers this prize and responds: " 2 Barbies". ( Lynn, I am sure you have experienced her negotiating skills by now) OK, Deena agrees and off to the dentist it is, and......same results, only I think it was a different finger that got bit this time.
Yes Alyssa had a Tom Boy-ish period in her life that I am sure we make sound like it was longer than it actually was. I always remember the comment by Jake " Alyssa, you're about as close to a brother as I am ever going to get".
Once while on vacation in Arizona, Alyssa witnessed Deena withdrawing about $150.00 from an ATM, she quirried her mom about how much that cost to use that machine, and when Deena responded " about a dollar" Alyssa's eyes got big and she said : " I have a dollar!" I guess I would of been excited too if I could get $150.00 for $ 1.oo.
Of course I should mention the time when she took the snowmachine out for a ride after dark, and she didn't return when expected. I was just going out the door to look for her when she came home, big tears and all telling us she had tipped it over. It was really no big deal , I got it righted and it started right up. She has always been good with equipment, a good driver and also a good shooter!
It was fun to be able to see many of her Cross Country meets and watch her mature in High School. A couple important memories that I have had with her in her adult years have been: After dropping her off for the first time at ISU, I was driving away from the parking lot and I could see that little face way up there in that big Dormitory! Made me get all chocked up. Our Teton hike together, something we all need to do more of, was great, we had to move off the trail to let a cow moose through, and one evening we sat on a big flat rock and quietly watched a gorgeous sunset. Also that was a memorable trip because I met this tall guy that lived upstairs from Alyssa that let me have his bedroom for a night, I think he was trying to make a good impression,............ he did.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Day 14
Today will be a test day. I will tell a story about one of my daughters and you will need to identify which one it is!
I was wathching my daughter play basketball, she was young and energetic! I was on the bleachers wathching as the opposing team had the ball and started driving towards their side of the court. The boy with the ball was going pretty fast and dribbling well. My daughter was guarding him closely when she committed a foul and the boy went tumbling out of bounds and ended up in a heap over by the drinking fountain.
I think that in the NBA nowadays it would of been called a flagrant foul.
She casually walked back on the court with her hands on her sides as if nothing had happened. All the spectators had seen it and there were a few comments going around, so I stood up like the proud father that I am and proclaimed " That's my Girl!" I was followed immediately by a large man in front of me stating " that was MY boy!". A good time was had by all!
I was wathching my daughter play basketball, she was young and energetic! I was on the bleachers wathching as the opposing team had the ball and started driving towards their side of the court. The boy with the ball was going pretty fast and dribbling well. My daughter was guarding him closely when she committed a foul and the boy went tumbling out of bounds and ended up in a heap over by the drinking fountain.
I think that in the NBA nowadays it would of been called a flagrant foul.
She casually walked back on the court with her hands on her sides as if nothing had happened. All the spectators had seen it and there were a few comments going around, so I stood up like the proud father that I am and proclaimed " That's my Girl!" I was followed immediately by a large man in front of me stating " that was MY boy!". A good time was had by all!
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