Here is a report of the Fifth week of camp. July 2011. Hello friends, Time for a review of this past week of camp. This allows a number of things to happen. It shows you(the reader) what is going on in someone else's life.(ours in Alaska) This enables you to learn about us, laugh and cry with us, and pray and lift up any needs. It also allows me(the writer)to take a few minutes to step back, and reflect. To see things perhaps I missed, or just recall how Great our God is! Right before we started the week, Rebecca and I made the trip down to the Kako creek for the night. We enjoyed just being away from all of it for a little bit. The constant life of camp, with the phone ringing, people coming and going, cooking, projects, etc. The weather was a little dark and cool, but we picked up some grayling to eat for dinner before getting some rest for the night. In the morning I got some more grayling for breakfast. I got to say that things taste pretty good when you are camping! We enjoyed some great food. Wrapping the fish in foil and roasting them over the fire.....mmmm. Things just taste better out there! I was thinking about heading back to camp, because it was so dreary out there. But Rebecca did not want to head back yet, so we hiked downstream a ways, and caught some more fish, enough to have dinner that evening for everyone back at camp. And then the sun came out! And it turned into a beautiful day and we enjoyed the blessing of being out there. On Monday, we had a good number signed up to come to our last Teen camp. Due to weather, we could not pick up a number of them. And then because of the holiday, a fair number of them did not make it. So we had a small camp, with just 6 cabins. The campers were good though, and we had a really good week. Tuesday was the only day that it was not raining a bunch though. So our outside time was limited. Tuesday we were able to have everyone Rappel and rock climb. Then on Wednesday after Bible time, the guys headed down to the lake. They got about a mile before the truck got stuck in the mud. They radioed base, and I came down with lumber, jacks and tools. They got out and finished their trip to the lake where they had lunch, rafting, shooting and paintball. The rain caught them before they could finish getting back though, especially as the truck broke down about a mile from camp. I got the power turned on early so they could shower and warm up. Thursday was a pretty good day. I started feeling a lot better and able to eat more. (The last two weeks have been pretty rough for me) After breakfast Rebecca and I had a really good Bible time with the campers, covering what God's love is like, and how that applies to relationships and marriage. I could eat lunch and dinner. It was too rainy/nasty outside for rappelling or other events, so Kyle started the first ever Kako mud slinging war. Some great pictures were had for the taking, with the crazy hair/mud do's going on. I started working on the slideshow and picture CD's to send home with the campers after that, and was able to start early enough I did not have to stay up really late. On Friday we were able to put a work team that came in, to work painting and stuff. I fixed the kitchen sink drain and 3 broken toilets in the girl's bathroom. My quad broke, so I am getting ready to go pull the engine. We have two broken quads. I pulled parts off the first one to fix the second one. Now the engine went out on the second one, so now I am going to pull more parts off the first one, (Which died a few weeks ago) and try to get a good quad out of the two. As an update to that last statement, after digging into the quad a little, I found the problem with a gasket that got blown apart. I took the identical part of the other quad and got the machine up and running again! At the same time, Jonathan Penz and I got Gary's Honda Rancher back together, and rebuilt. After that we kept going, and started to rebuild another quad that has been sitting for a while, and was ready to be rebuilt. After getting a long ways, we came up short because of a missing valve for the head. So we had to put that on hold, and got the part ordered. It should not be long before we can get that machine running. The big Foreman 400 is needing rebuilt too, and once we get the other machine good, we plan to rebuild that engine. Saturday. At 1:30am I gave Gary's Rancher it's first big test, and did my first aviation gas fuel run to the Yukon River in the mud and rain. (For those that are not familiar, we drive 6 miles down the road to the Yukon River to our 10,000 gallon storage tanks, which are filled up once a year by a barge that comes up the river. We then pump the avaiation grade gas, or diesel into a tank on a trailer behind the quad, and then drive it back to Kako. (55 or 100 gallons at a time) Round trip taking around 1 to 1.5 hours. I got some rest, and then got back up to get waffles going for everyone in the morning. Then I did 3 more fuel runs before day end. Got a haircut and a much needed shower. Did you know? We only have a few short more weeks in Alaska. Exactly 4 more weeks. Thank you for praying for us as we have come thus far in these challenging weeks, and a few more to come. This next week we are back to Elementary week! A fun age bracket, and we are expecting a lot of them. We are hoping for some nice weather though. This last week, it was raining every day except Tuesday. To see Rebecca's recent newsletter, Click Here Back to John Erickson