Peas and Radishes and Potatoes, Oh My!

We have some plants!  Our peas, radishes, potatoes and even a few onions came up and I spent time weeding around each little plant today.  Speaking of weeding, it was always such a drudgery in Kansas with the hard soil.  I hated it.  Here, the soil is so loose and soft that just pulling a hoe across the surface pretty much dislodges all the weeds.  I might even say that I like it.  After we planted everything, it was warm and sunny and didn't rain for about a week.  I was itching to water it, but refrained.  Then came several days of rain.  After the rain came more sunny weather and I went back to check out the progress.  What I saw was a green carpet across our freshly tilled dirt.  That wasn't a happy sight.  My thoughts were as follows: "That's how fast weeds cover the entire garden after just one (very long) rain.  Wow.  I'm doomed.  This garden will take up all my time!"  Then I went over it with a hoe and breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Easy peasy.  

Ryan built a "trellis" of sorts above the sugar snap peas (string and stakes) so they can begin climbing.  We have string and stakes to mark out 6 sections of radishes - we will plant a section each week or so.  The first section has begun coming up, with the two small leaves showing.  As I went along the rows, hoeing and weeding, I noticed a few potato leaves popping up and the straight green stems of the onions showing themselves.  

We then cut some rhubarb down and Ryan took it to the kitchen to be chopped.  He and Maryanne (a wonderful lady helping in the kitchen) chopped it to 85 cups!  They use rhubarb here quite a bit: rhubarb pie, rhubarb crisp, rhubarb sauce for french toast and such, etc.  The kids had fun playing with the huge leaves!

Eagles

I've been watching eagles lately.  They’re all over here, especially bald eagles.  Their nests are at the very tops of these huge trees and they call to each other all the time.  We've watched them grab food and take it away, fight with each other and with other birds, and soar.  The soaring is the most interesting thing to me.  It’s so majestic.  And it struck me the other day: this is exactly what God has created them to do.  Their bodies are uniquely designed to soar.  The boys borrowed a Zoobooks magazine from the Juneau Public Library about eagles and there was an in-depth description about how wings work with air pressure and everything.  The experiment in the magazine showed how you can blow across the top of a piece of paper that you are holding on one side and the paper will just lift up.  It was one more science thing that I can’t quite wrap my mind around, yet it amazes me.

So I watch the eagles soaring and two more things strike me:

• Sometimes they just seem to soar for the sake of soaring.  Wings outstretched, letting the wind guide them like they enjoy it!  I understand that I’m no eagle expert and that they’re probably hunting some of that time or scouting out a landing place or some such thing.  But don’t you think they sometimes do it for fun?  If I was a bird, I sure would!  God has designed their wings to carry them to great heights and great lengths. 
•  They trust.  They trust the air pressure to do what it is supposed to do and keep them up.  They don’t think about trusting, they just do.  It’s their instinct.  It’s never failed them before. 

God has created eagles with the bodies and instincts to do what they need to do.  He has done the same for us, only more so because we are made in His image.  We are created for a purpose and God has uniquely designed us to fulfill that purpose.  And we need to be who He made us to be with full abandonment, being filled with the joy that comes only from a relationship with Him and trusting in the One who has never failed us.  Are you letting go in trust?  Are you enjoying being who God has made you to be?

“…but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles….”  Isaiah 40:31

Pop's Garden

For those of you who are interested in gardening, I will blog a bit on how the garden grows.  Although my name isn’t Mary, I am sometimes quite contrary J.  (insert chuckle here).  The garden is named “Pop’s Garden”, so maybe a man named Pop started it.  I’m not sure.  Our plot measures approximately 47 ft by 47 ft.  I think anyway. I measured one side for a gardening project (more on that a little farther down) and it was 47 ft. It looks square-ish.  The soil here is quite sandy and drains well.  It is also a temperate rainforest, so the ground is quite moist.  There are many horses that traverse all over camp and they leave their mark well, so we have a lot of manure to work with.  I don’t have a lot of experience with compost aside from reading about it and purchasing bagged compost for our garden last year, so I was going on assumption when I went around and scooped up horse poop to mix into the soil.  We put about 4 wheelbarrows full in, flung it around the garden, and tilled the entire plot.  There was also a pile of dirt that had very rich soil (perhaps an old compost pile?), so we got the backhoe in and gathered a few scoops of that to till in as well.

With the soil prepared, I planned the organization of the garden and which plants to plant.  I researched and discussed with gardeners here what grows well in southeast Alaska and when to begin planting some of these crops.  You see, with Kansas gardening in my mind, this feels incredibly late to begin a garden.  But we’re still getting nights in the 30’s, so frost is a bit of a danger.  I discovered that some things I’m most familiar with in Kansas do not grow well here.  Like corn, cucumbers, peppers, and sometimes tomatoes.  One man told me that some years tomatoes do really well and others they don’t have enough heat to even start blooming.  Plants that do well here are root crops (potatoes, carrots, radishes, etc.).  They have grown peas, lettuce, and beets here with great success as well.  The idea with the garden is to be able to use most of these veggies in the salad bar at meals. I took all of that into consideration and came up with a list of plants to do:

·         Peas (the sugar snap kind)

·         Radishes

·         Carrots

·         Beets

·         Spinach

·         Lettuce (both romaine and iceburg)

·         Potatoes (little “finger”  potatoes and russet type)

·         Onions

·         Green beans

·         Basil (this will probably be done in containers)

·         Rhubarb (already established) – it is somewhat intermingled with this little plant here called “Indian Rhubarb”, which looks a little like rhubarb, yet has the effect of poison ivy when touched.  Except with more of a burn reaction than a rash.  And it reacts with sunlight apparently, so touching it on a sunny day is bad news.

·         Asparagus had already been planted by the winter caretakers

So far, the peas, beets, spinach, lettuce (about 1/3 to half is in so that we can continue planting and not get it all at once), and potatoes are in.  I received carrot, radish, and green bean seeds from a Juneau-based gardening project that gives seeds in exchange for information and pictures as to how they grew and how many people were fed with the seeds.

The biggest challenge that I have had to wrap my mind around is that I really don’t need to water this garden.  Since statistically it rains 2 out of every 3 days here, most people have an issue of too much water rather than not enough.  Being from Kansas, it’s pretty much completely opposite of the way we care for our gardens!  The past two weeks or so have been warm and sunny, so I was getting really nervous about not having watered the garden at all.  But I woke up to rain this morning and it has rained all day (no downpour by any means here, it’s just a misty, sprinkling kind of rain), so I feel a lot better about it. Even with a little dry spell, the soil is still moist an inch or so down.  It just felt so weird to plant seeds and not water them right away.

I’ll try to update about the adventure of Alaskan gardening and try to not kill all the plants.  I guess we’ll see if anything comes up!

Here is that Indian Rhubarb poking up through the middle of the rhubarb patch!  Sneaky thing, it is.

What are we doing??

We have been up here in Alaska about two weeks now and some of you may be wondering, “What in the world are they even doing up there?”  Well, our job title here at Echo Ranch is Internal Facilities Coordinator.  Traditionally there has been a person in charge of housekeeping and a person in charge of hospitality.  This year, they are joining those two jobs into one, and we get to do it.  So, I am affectionately calling this job “house-itality”.  Because it’s the first year to join these roles, some things are still being figured out and we, still trying to get to know the nooks and crannies of the camp, are jumping in with hopes that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.  Essentially, the housekeeping role coordinates the cleaning of the facilities used by campers/retreaters.  During retreat season right now, the staff shares responsibility for meal preparation and cleaning bathhouses.  During camping season, we will be in charge of the work staff (half of the counselors each week are actually counselors and the other half are work staff, doing jobs around camp and helping with meal preparation and clean up.  They switch off each week.).  We will also do daily devotions with the work staff. The hospitality role sets up and cleans the housing for work teams, guests, volunteers, and speakers and makes sure they have everything they need.  In addition to this, we join the rest of the staff in helping clean up after meals.  I am also in charge of the garden, which will be a fun challenge!  I’m familiar with Kansas gardening, so it will be neat to experience Alaskan gardening.  We have a good plot and the goal is to have produce to use on the salad bar and with other meals.

So what does a typical day look like?  Well, during retreat season it depends on the day and which retreats are going on and whether or not we have a work team. Some days are really busy, others are fairly laid back.  It’s always kind of different, but I’ll give you the run-down of a couple days we've had recently:

6:30 – wake up, devotions, get ready

8:00- breakfast at the dining hall

8:30 – help clean up breakfast

9:00 – 12:00 – clean our two designated cabins from the retreat group, begin the laundry from the “extension” (the housekeeping building where all towels and sheets and many other things are stored), play with the kids.  While I do some of these things, Ryan is either helping or doing another task around the camp.  On this day, he drove the tractor around with something on the back that spread out the horse manure around the grounds.  The boys got to each take a ride with him.  I also use this time to do things around the apartment, depending on where the kids want to play and the weather.

12:00 – lunch at the dining hall

12:30 – help clean up lunch

1:00 – 3:00 – Naptime for the kids (or so that is the goal).  It varies between Ryan and me, but usually I go up with them and have them lay down for a bit.  This is when I get some newsletter writing and other correspondence or cleaning done.  Because we’re up later than we were in Kansas, most days all the kids need a nap, even Asher, who hasn’t napped for a few years!  Ryan does other things around camp and yesterday he tilled the garden for me.

3:00 – Right now, we have a work team from Minnesota here and they work HARD!  One of my duties with hospitality is to bring them coffee and cookies in the afternoon.  We drive around on the golf cart to their work sites and deliver treats and sit and chat for a while as they take a break.  It’s wonderful to build relationships with these people who come from far away and help so much with the maintenance and running of Echo Ranch!  We couldn't do it without them!

4:00 – Other random jobs.  I may need to set up a room for a volunteer or clean something.  Sometimes I work in the garden and Ryan might help with other things.

6:00 – Supper.  Clean up after supper with rest of staff.

7:00 – Hang out as a family, have a staff meeting, have a campfire, etc.  It all depends.

9:00 – Get the kids ready for bed.  I know this is late, and they usually aren’t actually in bed and asleep until well after 10:00.  We’re still seeing how the schedule is fitting, but an early bedtime just hasn’t been possible here yet.  It’s worked out fine so far J.

Again, this schedule looks different each day.  It is way different when there are retreat groups here and will be even more different once camp starts.

The main focus here is ministry.  Yes, we have jobs to do, but we are first and foremost serving God and serving people.  As our director said, “Sometimes we’re the missionaries and sometimes we’re the mission field.”  We all need to be ministered to and encouraged and taken care of, so we need to be looking out for each other and taking opportunities to minister.  The schedule is flexible so that ministry can happen when it needs to happen.

The other question I have heard from several people is, “What do your kids do while you work?”  Good question.  We just gave them each a rifle and told them to keep the bears away :).  Okay, maybe not.  This job is actually great for having kids around.  They’re with one of us all the time.  The area is set up so that they have quite a bit of freedom to run, ride bikes, play on the playground, etc, and they know their way around pretty well now.  There are also several places to play indoors wherever we need to be.  And sometimes they even help!

Northern Lights

I saw the Northern Lights for the first time last night.  Ryan happened to check the forecast for it and it was going to be strong. He went out and waited.  It was still slightly twilight when they started.  The kids were still awake, so we got them out of bed and took them out to look.  It was magnificent.  This isn't my picture....I hadn't thought ahead to get the settings on my camera right.  


Doesn't that just remind you of God?  I can't even begin to describe the majesty. It's like He was taking a paintbrush to the sky before my very eyes.  It moves and sways as it shines brightly.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." -Psalm 19:1. Alaska is full of beauty.  I am blown away daily by the untouched beauty surrounding me.  I do my work beside gorgeous mountains and super tall trees and bald eagles soaring and whales spouting.  

But as I was reminded today in chapel, Jesus didn't die for beautiful scenery.  He died for souls. So while this is a beautiful place, it's not why we're here.

This past weekend, several members of the team went to a very small town near here called Hoonah. We didn't go with them, but we heard neat stories of their time there. They flew in a 10-seater plane and did a rally for Echo Ranch with the kids there.  Yes, it promoted Echo Ranch and got them thinking about summer camp, but it also allowed them to meet with the kids on their level and in their environment.  Several kids remembered people on the team from last summer.  Our director talked with a wrestling coach who told him two wrestlers that he had known personally committed suicide recently.  One shot himself in the stomach.

Suicide.  Depression.  Abuse.  Just some of the things the kids from southeast Alaska deal with on a regular basis.  Echo Ranch exists to share Jesus with these kids and families.  We are in process of making more connections with these villages, through both people living there and some social programs like suicide prevention and anti-bullying in the schools.  It's an avenue to build relationships through which the Gospel can be shared and lives can be transformed in Christ.

Will you pray?  Pray for us here this summer.  Much spiritual battle is done on our knees and nothing here can function without your prayers!  Pray for the villages, for hope and connections to be made. Kids come to Echo Ranch not just from Juneau, but also from Hoonah, Gustavus, Petersburg, Angoon, Haines, and Skagway. Pray for the kids, for God to work mightily in their hearts.  Pray for boldness in sharing the Gospel and opportunities.  One of the girls here who isn't on staff this year (but has been in the past) is helping on weekends with the horses.  She rode on the luggage trailer for the last retreat and was able to explain the Gospel to a mom who was also on the trailer.  Opportunities are everywhere.