Monday, December 7, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
How to get the old man to work around the house! Who was guilty? you decide!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
This old house
come winter. I bought the heaters I wanted for my home....which reminds me of the
old home and the wood stove....
A wood stove is almost a living being. It alternates between belching heat and smoke.
One never knows when it will do either. We had a tall living room wood stove in the
cabin on the hill. My brothers regularly fed it whole large logs to keep us warm. First
they had to cut it down from our woods, and bring it into the yard with a work horse,
that hated to be worked. She didn't mind pulling six or eight kids on sleds while one
of us rode her through the deep meadows. She just didn't care for pulling logs. She
would come on like the poor poor horsey with a broken leg! Till my brother begged
and cajoled her into being hooked to the logging "rig."
Those eleven and twelve year old boys sawed down the tree of Dad's choice
with an old Mc Collogh chain saw......I think that was how it was spelled....my memory
is as old as I...any way, can you imagine turning eleven and twelve year olds lose
to fell a tree with a gas powered saw in the middle of a hundred acre woods....NO
cell phones either!
Sometimes the bears watched them as they worked! The only
thing between them and the bear was a belching, bellowing chain saw that probably
wouldn't cut butter unless a lot of pressure was involved! Once the tree was fell, the
"bumped the knots"/ limbed the tree, and hooked it onto a cable, that was in
turn hooked to the tack on the old work horse who was
expected to be docile and drag that log into the wood lot beside the house. She would
do that, in her own fashion. It took a lot of work to get just a little work out of that
horse.
Once they got the wood brought to the wood lot, they sawed into stove lengths,
chopped it and piled it, then carted a load into the house to keep us fed and warm.
Mom had a wood fed, cook stove which was hooked to a water tank so we
had warm water to do dishes and take a bath in the middle of the kitchen in
her wash tub. The whole idea of modesty was not applicable in this day and age.
The whole idea of fresh bath water was a foreign concept. There were six of
us then, and the wash tub was filled for Dad, then Mom.....each in accordance
with their age. I was last, behind the brother who sang, "I peed in the bath tub!"
While he danced around in a flour sack towel! That water was "well used"
before I ever got my turn....and I doubt that brother was lying a bit with his
little song!
The way to the toilet was, out the kitchen door follow the path, walk due East to
the little building that stood on the hill. You wouldn't need to see it, One
could smell it FIRST! You could also hear it buzz. Even with lime the flys loved it.
No one wanted to tarry on the pot. The only reason there was two holes was cause
no one wanted to go alone after dark! We had cougars.
One night we came home late to hear a bawling. We looked for a calf at first..
Then we discovered two bear cubs high in a tree in the mountain behind our house.
We had a cousin with us,whom we had to nearly tie to the truck to keep him off the
hill. He wanted to go grab a cub! We had to convince him the Mama was near by!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
This is neat.....from Libby News paper....
It’s 5:30 in the morning and Annette Fosgate is boiling hundreds of eggs in her small kitchen.
She heaves the oversized pot of breakfast onto a motor scooter, and cradles it between her knees as she rides toward the squatter’s village along the beach. As makeshift shacks come into view – homes made from woven grass, palm fronds, bamboo and pieces of tin – dozens of grubby, barefoot children race toward her.
“Ate Annette! Ate Annette!” they cry, savoring the smiles and hugs she generously doles out.
The children’s normal diet rarely diverges from rice and, occasionally, fish. The daily treats that Fosgate provides – boiled eggs, bananas, sweet potatoes and soup – are beyond their means, though it costs the Libby native only $10 to feed the nearly 100 children.
Before they head off to school, Fosgate introduces a Bible lesson. She helps them memorize scriptures through song and learn basic stories of the Bible.
Fosgate has found her calling at the squatter’s village in Panglao, Philippines on an island less than 10 miles long and five miles wide. She spent a year developing Simple Faith Ministries – a one-woman undertaking that served children breakfast, Bible studies, arts and crafts and other lessons. The work was exhausting, and the missionary grew beyond what one person could handle.
She will return to Panglao next month after spending the summer in Libby, but this time, two other local residents – Dave and Beth Iliff – will follow, tripling the missionary’s staff.
“I saw these other possibilities for reaching people, and I just couldn’t fulfill it all – I’m just one person,” Fosgate said. “So when they (the Iliffs) came and said, ‘We’d like to fill it,’ it was an answer to a prayer.”
Fosgate first spotted the natural beauty of Panglao Island over four years ago while she was on vacation visiting friends. In her month-long stay she became acquainted with the children through people who lived in the squatter’s village and through a small church that performed limited outreach.
“I saw the poverty, I met the kids in the squatters area and I just fell in love with them,” Fosgate said. “I couldn’t get them out of my mind.”
Fosgate eventually took the plunge and moved to Panglao. With a motor scooter, a one-bedroom apartment that she shared with a translator, and donations from Libby and Troy residents, she formed her ministry.
More and more children attended the breakfast feedings and after-school program as trust built between Fosgate and the children.
“Just being there every day and being faithful to show up, they started realizing that ‘Ate Annette’ wasn’t going away,” Fosgate said, explaining that “Ate” is a term of endearment for a respected older person.
Fosgate worked alongside the residents, helping with chores like sweeping floors and cleaning roofs.
“They saw that I wasn’t afraid of hard work,” Fosgate said, “that I wasn’t above them to do what they do. They found out I wash clothes like they do – by hand. That helped a lot in gaining respect.”
Dave and Beth Iliff moved to Korea for the year to teach, and were tuned in to Fosgate’s missionary work through her monthly letters. They arranged to help Fosgate over their three-week Christmas vacation.
“We just jumped in and stayed busy with her,” Beth said. “You could tell the relationship she built with those kids was real. Every place she’d go on the island, these kids would be following her around like the pied piper.”
Up to 100 kids of various ages mill about the open hut like ants in an anthill. The borrowed structure resembles a grass picnic shelter about 8 feet by 16 feet in size. Children hang from the sides, lay on the floor, sit on each others’ laps, and run in and out.
They adore Fosgate, tugging at her skirts, demanding her attention while she directs traffic during the after-school program. Dave and Beth play with the kids and help the older ones with homework. The others play games or color. None of the kids have crayons, games or toys at home.
Fosgate hopes that someday the ministry will raise enough money to buy land and build a structure big enough to accommodate the children. Currently, all the materials for meals and activities must be packed in and packed out on her scooter.
Fosgate recalled how rewarding it felt to listen to a 4-year-old girl, who doesn’t speak English, recite a Bible verse. Fosgate admits, though, that the work can also be discouraging. The children live in poverty and don’t get attention at home.
“They just want to be recognized. They just want to be looked at. They want a hug. They want a tussle on the head,” Fosgate said.
“That gets overwhelming sometimes when you see that need, that pressing need for love and they’re not getting it anywhere. But that’s the reason I’m down there – to show them that love, and to show them God’s love, too.
After spending nearly three weeks sharing Fosgate’s apartment and her missionary work, the Iliffs thought they may want to come back.
“On the porch of Annette’s bungalow one afternoon,” Dave recalled, “I just said (to Beth), ‘You know, honey, I could live here.’”
The two made a pact not to tell Fosgate their idea or to discuss it further for a month. They wanted to be sure that their decision was not based solely on emotion.
When they return to Panglao in September, they will both fill a much-needed niche.
Beth, who was a preschool teacher at Kootenai Valley Christian School for four years, plans to start a preschool program, focusing on building relationships with small children and their mothers.
Dave aspires to open up a small shop and teach teenage boys and young men a valuable trade.
“There’s a million motor scooters down there and all the fishing boats have a little Honda engine in them,” Dave said. “Just while we were there, our motor scooters broke down and you couldn’t find a reliable mechanic. There’s a need there.”
The island’s young men have little to do for work, Fosgate said, except fish, but that only yields about $2-$3 per day.
Fosgate attributes God and the people of Libby and Troy for helping the mission get through the year financially. She didn’t have enough promised support to guarantee that she would make it each month, but she kept the mindset that she would feed and teach lessons to the children until the money ran out – and it never did.
“People just kept coming through and I never had to miss a Saturday feeding because of lack of money. I never had to miss an after-school program because I didn’t have enough money for copies,” Fosgate said. “I would say 95 percent of my support last year came from Libby and Troy people.”
Raising money for the mission
• A rummage sale at Kootenai Valley Church, Aug. 7-8, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Donations can be dropped off at Kootenai Valley Church in Libby or at 512 E. Spokane St. in Troy.
• A car wash will be held Aug. 8 at the Pizza Hut parking lot in Libby.
• Tickets for a quilt raffle can be purchased at the Venture Inn.
• The Venture Inn is accepting donations of children’s games, books, art and school supplies and travel hygiene products.
• Cash donations can be made to Simple Faith Ministries at P.O. Box 811, Libby, MT 59923. Donations are made through the Kootenai Valley Church and are tax-deductible.
For questions, call Beth Iliff at 291-7868 or e-mail SimpleFaithMinistries@hotmail.com
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Just noodling.....
One of my passions is herbs. I love to learn about herbs. I love to tell people what I have learned. I've met the nicest people by saying......"I use cinnamon to control my Diabetes. It don't hurt your liver!" Then we start a discourse....
This is a good day to count my Blessings.....I have a Gary in my life....a wonderful friend, mate and gentle person. Gosh! How he would hate to see I had written that.....But he has been my children's Dad all their lives...It only takes a half an hour or so to become a father...but it is a lifetimes commitment to be a Dad....
I can spoil My Mom any time I want...She has done us all the pleasure of living to be
86....So I can drive her wherever she need to go... I can spoil her in any way I see fit.
I can take her on rides and we can enjoy fire works into the wee hours of an Independence day morning...I can laugh with her all I want and feel her loving touch.
I have four beautiful healthy Grown children.One beautiful and very pregnant Daughter in law, whom I love.... and four wonderful healthy grand sons....(son says
they are NOT beautiful.....Beautiful is for girls!) He don't know what I am writing either! We have a Bill in our lives....He is Jen's fella' and loved like a son...
I have beloved friends I would not change for anything or any one....Some who are on line and some I know better than I know some of the people in this town where I grew to be an adult...And some I've never seen in person. I love them still, as though they lived next door. A few have come to my home...Not to look at my mess; and it is a mess....But to be friends who's adult children I have grown to love too....I am truly blessed...I've even made friends in my home town on the computer! How Blessed is that!!!
OK! Now to the most recent blessings. My Gary has had some lung surgery many years ago. They told me he could not possibly live ten years....28 years ago to be exact. He is still here!
He has grown to the point of needing 02...he has bottles! The other day a lady on my
>free cycle group gave him a concentrator....HEAVEN....They are so costly.. We could not afford one. Now he has one of his OWN..He can have it on all night long without worry his bottle will go empty!!!
Last winter the storage room roof developed a leak...Because Gary is a man..and he didn't think about my size, he put loads of stuff in my way. I couldn't get in there. I mean physically I didn't fit into the room he left me to squeeze in there..People with lung problems usually look like they are at the point of starvation. We resemble Jack Sprat and his wife! we had no idea the room was harboring mold, then we began to smell it in our little house!!! I knew we were in trouble.... Even my old dog was having asthma attacks. Gary could barely breathe! I could taste smell and felt it in my lungs. I got on my treadmill, a lady down the street GAVE me....I began to walk to clear my lungs. Gary couldn't do this....
One Morning Chris, who is my eldest son called and told me he was gonna come fix my roof, and clean out that room...Now the roof is half way done! He has cleared the old wall board out of that room! We put on a solid door to keep the mold captured in there till they can finish the work!
I joined Gleaners....Wonderful thing to do....Because of Gleaners I am saved about a hundred dollars or more in fruit and vegetables every month. I can actually afford Gasoline for my car. There is a tree hanging over our roof, and the heater in the living room has to be replaced before winter. Because of our belonging to gleaners I can get the heater this MONTH....the tree will have to wait a bit longer.... It is 1500 dollars, to remove it, as a dangerous tree...I have no doubt it will come..
From some where. It will come...It's not in my hands!
So now I am done "noodling" and counting blessings.....For now...I will probably send you more and more....cause God is good!
Hugs
Laurel
