I want to begin my journal by saying Happy Birthday to my best friend and brother, Troy Sanders, who is also Mona's older brother. He has reached the threshold of turning 70. Big number for a big guy. For those of you not aware, over the 39 years Mona and I have been married, our two families have lived together 8 times.
Either us in their home or them in our home. You become pretty close during such conditions and as a result we raised our kids together during their formative years. I should say Mona and Leslie raised our kids as both Troy, who was a truck driver and helped in the building of the coal terminal in Seward, plus myself, were often gone and relied on our wives to handle the kids and they did a great job. Now we have great-grandchildren. Shoot for the stars, Troy and go for the nineties, I probably won't be to far behind you.
Here in Moose Pass we've been having some extremely loud rain and wind storms, but the snow they told us was coming has stayed at the tops of the foothills. Our basement flooded again, which happens in major rain storms, which can make it tough for John Alex, who lives in the basement and the water is 4-5 inches deep. But within days it drain back out, he just has to be careful with handling the electronics. Chris, John Alex and Liam have been busy getting the outside work finished before the snow arrives. Last night we had sheets of tin blowing around, quite noisy. Tin is to be used as roof for our new barn. Two of our buses have become the outside walls and we have steel supports to be used for roof support- former guardrails from the highway. Chris is quite the horse trader for our needed supplies. We still have about a cord of wood that has to be cut up and split, been letting it dry out and we're looking for a new chain saw, a nice Stihl saw on sale. But we found out no one on the peninsula is selling one and have to go to Anchorage, which we dislike doing. But it seems we have to. Chris has been putting in a lot of time working on our van, seems to be the season for all the different pulleys to break down, one by one.
We've learned that next spring the highway crews will be widening our section of the Seward Highway, we're waiting to see how much of our land we might be losing. They had me worried when their people were taking measurement up to the side of our house. I'm hoping we don't lose the creak out front, it's quite pretty.
Chris, I , John Alex and Liam built a storage area built out of old tires to store a lot of plastic totes filled with "stuff". Temporary roof flew away last night in the storm, but it will be finished. We had about 40 tries we were keeping to make a kid's playground thingee , but decided to use it for walls to keep the snow out. Have you ever seen a tree bent over sideways from the wind, well I'm seeing it right now through my office window. I've seen some mighty wind storms since coming to Alaska 42 years ago and sometimes you think its a hurricane, but officially, Alaska doesn't get hurricanes. But being off the Pacific, we have seen a couple typhoons. Seward almost got carried away in the typhoon of 1986. Flooded the town as the ocean came in for a visit and cut the town off from the north. Got a new section of highway for it and salmon in some of the strangest places.
Boom Update: Strangest thing, I thought I had sent Book Three in the Apache Snow Trilogy to the publisher, by Ava, my editor handed it to me recently and told me in her kind words that it needed work. So I'm attacking that project now. I have two upcoming books that I'll be writing, have made most of my notes. I'm sure I told you about one and this will be called, "Let The Music Play On", which is set in 2053 and America is smack in the middle of its second Great Depression. I have a Joshua character, who will be used like Joshua of the Old Testament was used...by God. The other book came to me after receiving several nights of repeated dreams. I get a lot of my books that way, as I've said before. This one is entitled "Siege at Ramstein", very loosely based on the "The Long Watch", a short story written one of my favorite authors, Robert Heinlein, who is deceased. But I will give him credit for the idea. I highly recommend Heinlein's socalled "Juvenile Novels", 7 or 8 books he wrote intended for older kids. But adults from all generations have enjoyed these books. Personally, I feel he did his best writing during his middle ages, because later on as he grew old he began adding a lot of adult material into his novels and I feel he lost what he had earlier gained with all the sex, immorality and other things. His "Glory Road", which I feel is his best full length sci fi novel would make a fantastic movie, but no one chose it. Still, three of his books were made into movies. "Starship Troopers" is one of his and "Earth to the Moon", forgot what the third one was. The movie "Starship Troopers" is a bit more adult then the book... the original book. It was later rewrote by someone to be closer to the movie. The movie "Earth to the Moon" is a kick and has a Woody the Woodpecker cartoon in it to demonstrate to the construction leaders how the project could be done. You should look it up, I have a VHS copy of the film. Not sure if they have it on DVD. Anyhow, I highly recommend Robert Heinlein, he was a former naval officer who was trained at West Point and became a scientist before he became a writer. His books are filled with his various projects. I believe his wife is still alive.
So, I have enough writing to last me through o the first of 2020. My book sales could do better, but I'm only one author among a million in Amazon's book listings. I'm hoping when my daughter Elizabeth, our oldest child and now a grandmother, takes her bead work into the fairs and various shows, she'll take some of my books with her. I don't travel too well now, but I have local shows. But, as I always say, my first priority is for my work to reach the lost and be used to lead people to the Lord. That is why I write Christian fiction. True, right now not a big money maker, but that's not my priority.
Here are some Headlines: "City of San Francisco, a Pro-Abortion Town, Cuts Ties with 22-State Governments Over Their PRo-Life Stances".... "Romney Considering Run For President in 2020".... "34th Race Horse Dies at Santa Anita Race Track Since December 2018, Still No Answer Found".... "Measles Making Deadly Comeback Across Africa. Since Jan 2018, Uganda Has Had 3,440 Measle Cases With 9 Leading To Death".... "India and Pakistan Trade Fire in Kashmir, Killing 9.".... " 41 Subway Stations Damaged in Protests in Chile, with 308 People Arrested".... "German Grandmother Fined $300 ( German Marks) For Painting Over Nazi Swastikas on German Jewish Graves".... "Myanmar Fishermen Scoop Up $20 Million in Meth From Ocean".... "Powerful Tornado Hits Dallas, Texas and LEaves 100,000 Without Power".... " Former President Jimmy Carter Hospitalized After 2nd Fall".... " Turkey and Russia Begin Joint Patrols in North Syria".... " Taliban Terrorists Storm Afghan Police Check Point and Kill 15 Police Officers".... " 55 Elephants Die in Zimbabwe Drought".... "North Ireland Legalizes Gay Marriage and Abortion" .... "Bolivia Rallies Turn Violent Over Suspected 'Fraud' Election".... "Santiago, Chile Reports 15-People Killed in 5-Days of Rioting".... "South Pole Ozone Hole Shrinks to Smallest Since First Discovered, Mostly Believed to be Due to 'Freakish' Antarctic Weather".... "39 Bodies Found in Container Truck in London. First Thought to be Chinese Bodies Are Now Believed to be Vietnamese. Driver Charged with 39 Counts of Manslaughter and Believed to be Tied into Slavery Market".... "Washington D.C. Synagogue Damaged With Anti Semitic Vandalism".... "Billionaire George Soros Spent More Than $70 Million Against Republican Politicians, Pro-Life Groups Since Trump Took Office and to Benefit Democrats. He Recently Donated $625,000 to Help a Virginia Democrat".... "Report: New Poll Says Majority of Americans Want the First Amendment to be Rewritten".... ""Vaping Deaths in the US Reach 34-People, While Illnesses Reach 1,600 People".... "Anti Semitic Belgian Carnival Continues to Rouse Jewish Anger".... " Bangladesh, Where Women are Treated as Lower Class, Just saw a major Shift when a Female Teenager Refused Pressure From Her Classmates and Not Press Charges Against Male Teacher. Her Classmates Then Killed Her. All 16 Classmates Were Then Found Guilty for Murder and All Sentenced to Death".... "Chile Extends State of Emergency Due to Violent Protests Throughout Country".... ""Hong Kong Protesters Now in Open Support For Catalonia Independence".... "Former President Carter Released from Hospital With Broken Hip".... " "Russian Soldier Kills 8 Colleagues in Siberian Training Camp".... "So Far 4-People Arrested for the London 39-Bodies Case".... ""Riots Now Breaking Out on Baghdad"..... "Hong Kong Police Hire 1,000 Retired Police to Help With Riots".... "Mass Evacuations Ordered as California Wildfires Rage On." That's it on the headlines. Oh , I had a whole lot more but I thinned it out.
Wind still kicking up, keeping the small dogs inside. At least the rain stopped. Good day to stay inside and watch movies. Mona and I watched the newest version of "Stage Coach". Original was done with John Wayne, considered his first A Movie and he was billed second. This one had the wild selection of country singers known as the Outlaws. Chris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, the list is long. Enjoyable, but changed the original story slightly to make room for all the country stars. I recommend it, if you don't miss John Wayne too much. Willie Nelson plays Doc Holiday, who wasn't in the original story and he carries two ivory handled .45s, when most people know that Doc favored a single shoulder holster. But that's Hollywood.
Hope you all have a great week. May the Lord answer your prayers. BILL
Here in Moose Pass we've been having some extremely loud rain and wind storms, but the snow they told us was coming has stayed at the tops of the foothills. Our basement flooded again, which happens in major rain storms, which can make it tough for John Alex, who lives in the basement and the water is 4-5 inches deep. But within days it drain back out, he just has to be careful with handling the electronics. Chris, John Alex and Liam have been busy getting the outside work finished before the snow arrives. Last night we had sheets of tin blowing around, quite noisy. Tin is to be used as roof for our new barn. Two of our buses have become the outside walls and we have steel supports to be used for roof support- former guardrails from the highway. Chris is quite the horse trader for our needed supplies. We still have about a cord of wood that has to be cut up and split, been letting it dry out and we're looking for a new chain saw, a nice Stihl saw on sale. But we found out no one on the peninsula is selling one and have to go to Anchorage, which we dislike doing. But it seems we have to. Chris has been putting in a lot of time working on our van, seems to be the season for all the different pulleys to break down, one by one.
We've learned that next spring the highway crews will be widening our section of the Seward Highway, we're waiting to see how much of our land we might be losing. They had me worried when their people were taking measurement up to the side of our house. I'm hoping we don't lose the creak out front, it's quite pretty.
Chris, I , John Alex and Liam built a storage area built out of old tires to store a lot of plastic totes filled with "stuff". Temporary roof flew away last night in the storm, but it will be finished. We had about 40 tries we were keeping to make a kid's playground thingee , but decided to use it for walls to keep the snow out. Have you ever seen a tree bent over sideways from the wind, well I'm seeing it right now through my office window. I've seen some mighty wind storms since coming to Alaska 42 years ago and sometimes you think its a hurricane, but officially, Alaska doesn't get hurricanes. But being off the Pacific, we have seen a couple typhoons. Seward almost got carried away in the typhoon of 1986. Flooded the town as the ocean came in for a visit and cut the town off from the north. Got a new section of highway for it and salmon in some of the strangest places.
Boom Update: Strangest thing, I thought I had sent Book Three in the Apache Snow Trilogy to the publisher, by Ava, my editor handed it to me recently and told me in her kind words that it needed work. So I'm attacking that project now. I have two upcoming books that I'll be writing, have made most of my notes. I'm sure I told you about one and this will be called, "Let The Music Play On", which is set in 2053 and America is smack in the middle of its second Great Depression. I have a Joshua character, who will be used like Joshua of the Old Testament was used...by God. The other book came to me after receiving several nights of repeated dreams. I get a lot of my books that way, as I've said before. This one is entitled "Siege at Ramstein", very loosely based on the "The Long Watch", a short story written one of my favorite authors, Robert Heinlein, who is deceased. But I will give him credit for the idea. I highly recommend Heinlein's socalled "Juvenile Novels", 7 or 8 books he wrote intended for older kids. But adults from all generations have enjoyed these books. Personally, I feel he did his best writing during his middle ages, because later on as he grew old he began adding a lot of adult material into his novels and I feel he lost what he had earlier gained with all the sex, immorality and other things. His "Glory Road", which I feel is his best full length sci fi novel would make a fantastic movie, but no one chose it. Still, three of his books were made into movies. "Starship Troopers" is one of his and "Earth to the Moon", forgot what the third one was. The movie "Starship Troopers" is a bit more adult then the book... the original book. It was later rewrote by someone to be closer to the movie. The movie "Earth to the Moon" is a kick and has a Woody the Woodpecker cartoon in it to demonstrate to the construction leaders how the project could be done. You should look it up, I have a VHS copy of the film. Not sure if they have it on DVD. Anyhow, I highly recommend Robert Heinlein, he was a former naval officer who was trained at West Point and became a scientist before he became a writer. His books are filled with his various projects. I believe his wife is still alive.
So, I have enough writing to last me through o the first of 2020. My book sales could do better, but I'm only one author among a million in Amazon's book listings. I'm hoping when my daughter Elizabeth, our oldest child and now a grandmother, takes her bead work into the fairs and various shows, she'll take some of my books with her. I don't travel too well now, but I have local shows. But, as I always say, my first priority is for my work to reach the lost and be used to lead people to the Lord. That is why I write Christian fiction. True, right now not a big money maker, but that's not my priority.
Here are some Headlines: "City of San Francisco, a Pro-Abortion Town, Cuts Ties with 22-State Governments Over Their PRo-Life Stances".... "Romney Considering Run For President in 2020".... "34th Race Horse Dies at Santa Anita Race Track Since December 2018, Still No Answer Found".... "Measles Making Deadly Comeback Across Africa. Since Jan 2018, Uganda Has Had 3,440 Measle Cases With 9 Leading To Death".... "India and Pakistan Trade Fire in Kashmir, Killing 9.".... " 41 Subway Stations Damaged in Protests in Chile, with 308 People Arrested".... "German Grandmother Fined $300 ( German Marks) For Painting Over Nazi Swastikas on German Jewish Graves".... "Myanmar Fishermen Scoop Up $20 Million in Meth From Ocean".... "Powerful Tornado Hits Dallas, Texas and LEaves 100,000 Without Power".... " Former President Jimmy Carter Hospitalized After 2nd Fall".... " Turkey and Russia Begin Joint Patrols in North Syria".... " Taliban Terrorists Storm Afghan Police Check Point and Kill 15 Police Officers".... " 55 Elephants Die in Zimbabwe Drought".... "North Ireland Legalizes Gay Marriage and Abortion" .... "Bolivia Rallies Turn Violent Over Suspected 'Fraud' Election".... "Santiago, Chile Reports 15-People Killed in 5-Days of Rioting".... "South Pole Ozone Hole Shrinks to Smallest Since First Discovered, Mostly Believed to be Due to 'Freakish' Antarctic Weather".... "39 Bodies Found in Container Truck in London. First Thought to be Chinese Bodies Are Now Believed to be Vietnamese. Driver Charged with 39 Counts of Manslaughter and Believed to be Tied into Slavery Market".... "Washington D.C. Synagogue Damaged With Anti Semitic Vandalism".... "Billionaire George Soros Spent More Than $70 Million Against Republican Politicians, Pro-Life Groups Since Trump Took Office and to Benefit Democrats. He Recently Donated $625,000 to Help a Virginia Democrat".... "Report: New Poll Says Majority of Americans Want the First Amendment to be Rewritten".... ""Vaping Deaths in the US Reach 34-People, While Illnesses Reach 1,600 People".... "Anti Semitic Belgian Carnival Continues to Rouse Jewish Anger".... " Bangladesh, Where Women are Treated as Lower Class, Just saw a major Shift when a Female Teenager Refused Pressure From Her Classmates and Not Press Charges Against Male Teacher. Her Classmates Then Killed Her. All 16 Classmates Were Then Found Guilty for Murder and All Sentenced to Death".... "Chile Extends State of Emergency Due to Violent Protests Throughout Country".... ""Hong Kong Protesters Now in Open Support For Catalonia Independence".... "Former President Carter Released from Hospital With Broken Hip".... " "Russian Soldier Kills 8 Colleagues in Siberian Training Camp".... "So Far 4-People Arrested for the London 39-Bodies Case".... ""Riots Now Breaking Out on Baghdad"..... "Hong Kong Police Hire 1,000 Retired Police to Help With Riots".... "Mass Evacuations Ordered as California Wildfires Rage On." That's it on the headlines. Oh , I had a whole lot more but I thinned it out.
Wind still kicking up, keeping the small dogs inside. At least the rain stopped. Good day to stay inside and watch movies. Mona and I watched the newest version of "Stage Coach". Original was done with John Wayne, considered his first A Movie and he was billed second. This one had the wild selection of country singers known as the Outlaws. Chris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, the list is long. Enjoyable, but changed the original story slightly to make room for all the country stars. I recommend it, if you don't miss John Wayne too much. Willie Nelson plays Doc Holiday, who wasn't in the original story and he carries two ivory handled .45s, when most people know that Doc favored a single shoulder holster. But that's Hollywood.
Hope you all have a great week. May the Lord answer your prayers. BILL
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