Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas

We had a great Chirstmas this year. On Christmas Eve Kevin's parents came to our house. After a traditional dinner of soup and bread, we were treated to a program that Amanda and Rebecca had been working really hard on all week. There were handwritten programs for everyone, and there were a lot of songs and each of the girls gave a talk about the importance of Christmas. It was really neat! The girls wouldn't want to admit it, but Katrina really stole some of the show. After each of the songs we would all clap and Katrina would do this sort of flying curtsie. Both arms went out at her sides and she lifted one leg to the side and bent forward. It reminded me of an ice skater. It was so funny and so cute. The girls sang "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" and Rebecca stood in front of us and sang and Amanda hid behind the couch and sang the echo. Rebecca sang, "join in any reindeer games," and Amanda echoed, "Like Monopoly," and then from way behind the couch we hear a soft double echo, "Like Monopoly," from Katrina. She double echoed every line and it was hilarious!

We had a great time opening gifts and then after Mom and Dad went home it took FOREVER to get the girls to bed! Amanda and Rebecca drank a lot of water to try to have to get up to go to the bathroom and catch Santa, but instead ended up getting up three or four times in the first hour and having to change pajamas because of not quite making it to the bathroom in time. And, even then, Santa slipped in while they weren't looking.

In the morning the girls were EXTREMELY patient and waited for us to get up before they got into too much of their stockings. We had a great morning. The Sister missionaries came over for breakfast and we all watched Ratatouille. (They are allowed to watch one G-rated movie on Christmas Day.) Then we went up to Kevin's parent's house for the rest of Christmas Day. We had a summer BBQ picnic for Christmas Dinner with hamburgers, potato salad and beans. We played games, did puzzles, and watched some TV.

The girls spent a lot of time playing with their new toys and things, but my favorite will be watching them putting on their program. It's wonderful to enjoy Christmas with children.


See the Christmas Eve pics HERE

See the Christmas Morning pics HERE

Friday, December 21, 2007

Memorable Fortune

We went to dinner last night with friends at Panda Express. After dinner, we all got the obligitory fortune cookie. The fortunes we received were the standard "joy", "happiness", & "wealth" fortunes except for Kevin's. As he opened his, he told of a fortune he received in a cookie a few years ago that read, "The wearing of the Green will bring you the Luck of the Irish" (True story.) An odd fortune to come from a Chinese fortune cookie for sure, but definately a memorable one. His fortune tonight had a different spin, too, and it will certainly be as memorable. He was told to "Ask Mom"!

Well... they say Mom knows everything. Maybe Mom is the secret to good fortune. I certainly wouldn't argue against that.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Sneaking up on Santa

Amanda has got it all figured out. She says that on Christmas Eve she is going to drink a LOT of water and then she will have to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. She says that when she gets up, if there are no presents under the tree that she is going to sleep on the couch until Santa gets there. If there are presents under the tree, then she will just wait for next year and try again!

UPDATE: Dec. 25, 2007
We're not going to let them do this again next year.... See the 2nd paragraph of our December 25th post.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

A Small, Quiet Miracle

Tonight was our ward's Christmas Party. Our Activity Committee Chairperson, Cory Molloy (who is also a good friend of ours) was working hard to get everything ready. While we were there helping to get everything set up, she was starting to panic because she was not getting the help she was expecting and the party was starting with a few decorations still to be put up and not nearly enough food. Twelve people had signed up to bring side dishes, but with a Cultural Hall full of people, only four had been brought! After the opening prayer, the kids rushed the food table and began piling food on their plates! Several of us stood by to monitor and make sure that they only took a little bit and left food for others behind them.

Cory Molloy, Sister Orquiz (a sister missionary) and I were standing at the end of the table. With less than half the ward already gone through the line, we knew there was no way that food was going to last. Cory said she wanted to go into another room and cry. We told her not to worry, that it would be okay. And it was.

As we stood there and watched, spoonful after spoonful came out of the dishes, but nothing seemed to change. I thought to myself, "The food doesn't seem to be going down." Sister Orquiz said, "We are watching the Feeding of the 5000." I said, "I was thinking the same thing!" We stood there with tears in our eyes as we watched the entire ward go through the line, and though the last person was scraping the last little grains of rice and noodles from the bottoms of dishes, everyone got food! We thankfully witnessed a small, quiet miracle. In this season of giving, we truly received!

See all of the pictures HERE.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Daily Rider & Ice

It was 28 degrees according to the Time & Temperature clock when I left Kerman this morning. Luckily it was clear and relatively dry. About 6 miles east of town, the temperature had dropped a few degrees and I began to get into some fog. The fog thickened up to about 500 feet visibility and the bike & I were getting wetter & wetter in the fog. I needed to wipe my face shield off every minute or so.

Then came the inevitable results of combining a foggy mist with mid 20s temperatures and a 40-50 mph wind; my faceshield would not wipe off. (A quick look at a NOAA windchill chart later in the day showed the effective temperature to be about 4 degrees.) Some quick and vigorous scraping poked a hole in the ice on my shield big enough to see through. The heated grips on the bike (Wow, do I love the heated grips!) had the palms of my gloves very toasty so rubbing the ice with the palm of the glove got a bit more ice removed. I would imagine that the sight of motorcyclist riding through the fog with one hand covering his face & eyes was a bit strange (and possible memorable) to the drivers going the other way. The way I figure it though, I already couldn't see because of the fog & ice; covering my eyes with my hand wasn't going to make things much worse. (Really, though, this whole scene only lasted 5-10 seconds.) After I got a hole made in the ice, I was able to keep it clear, even though the rest of my visor continued to ice up.

A few more miles up the road and the front of my jacket was white with ice, particularly on my arms, as were my knee caps and the toes of my boots. I had horizontal icicles hanging from the top of my windshield, my handguards, and on the lower crashbars. Thankfully, the fog was not resting on the ground and/or freezing there. Ice & motorcycles do not play well together.

By the time I reached the Fresno City limits, the fog had lifted and it was clear & dry again. Within a few miles, the ice was gone, but it was still cold.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

The Jaws of Life

We went up to Mom and Dad's for Sunday dinner and as we passed the Auberry Volunteer Fire Station, we saw that they were all VERY busy today! The Auberry fire fighters and a few from some other nearby stations were practicing with the Jaws of Life and the Spreaders. They had several old cars that had been donated and they were in various stages of being cut apart. There were a few CPR dummies in the cars and the firefighters were practicing cutting the doors and the tops of the cars off to get them out.

We only mention this because Kevin's dad, David, is one of those fire fighters. He has been on the Auberry Volunteer Fire Department for nearly five years now.

It was interesting to watch the fire fighters and to see what those machines are capable of. It is always comforting to know that when someone comes to cut you out of a car, they know what they are doing!

See all of the pictures HERE.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Daily Rider in the Rain

More rain today. I don't mind riding in it. I kind of enjoy it, and I think it makes me a better rider. The roads get very slick when they're wet with the first few rains, so I don't man-handle the bike as much. I'm much more conscious of my throttle & braking, particularly how smooth (or not) it is. If it's smooth, there are no problems, but a jerky thorttle or a quick jab at the brakes gets things unsettled very quickly. I read that somewhere, but experience has made it sink in.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

64,000 Miles

I rolled 64,000 miles on the BMW R100GS on the way home tonight. I'm aiming at 100,000.

It was pouring rain for most of my 28 mile trip to work. I managed to get there dry & comfy without any leaks. It rained most of the way home too, but by this time my boots were soaked. It's supposed to rain for the next few days. We'll see how that goes.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Today we got our Christmas tree up. I normally would put it up the weekend of Thanksgiving, but it came really early this year, and I don't have my usual Christmas spirit this year. I decided that we were going to tone down Christmas this year.

We usually decorate three trees - the big one with everyone's ornaments, the middle-sized one with all my nativity ornaments, and the small one with all the girl's ornaments on it (all the ones they made in school, etc.). This year we took the small 3' tree to Gma Willie's and set it up there. It fits perfectly in her small apartment. I made ornaments for her tree that were pictures of everyone in the family. She really loved it!

Today we put up the middle-sized tree and put on just the nativity ornaments. It was nice, as the girls haven't always seen all the ornaments since they usually stop helping when the big tree its done, and so it was like they were hanging up all new ornaments. I usually buy them each a new ornament for Christmas, but this year I am in the middle of making them each a little ornament book that mentions all the important things they did this year. They will be nice when they are finished. Right now though, I have to finish sending out our Christmas cards.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we are thankful that we still have our home! On Monday, I was getting dinner ready and I had a few pots boiling on the top of the stove. I turned on the oven and it started making a really scary popping noise and suddenly there was that awful, icky electrical burning smell. I called Kevin over to see what was happening and there were a few more little crackles and then POP!! and there was a flash and the whole stove went dead. Kevin told me and the girls to get out of the house. We were having friends over for dinner, so we called them and we all decided to meet for dinner at Burger King.

Kevin pulled the stove out and there was a scorch mark on the wall. There was a sheet metal box on the back of the stove that was covering the electrical wires, and there was a 1/4" hole burned clear through it. The electricity had arced so hot that it had gone through thick sheet metal! Kevin tried to take the face plate off the outlet, but the screws were welded to the plate and it is not going anywhere. He also checked up in the attic to make sure that none of the flash that we saw had started any fires we couldn't see yet. Thankfully there seemed to be no sign of any fire.

A few years ago we had a Family Home Evening on fire safety and we talked about how to get out and where we would meet, etc.. Well, this kind of freaked Rebecca out (she was five at the time), and so we went over to the fire house, which is only a block away, and they gave us a tour and answered all of Rebecca's questions. Ever since then she always prays that our house will not catch on fire. We appreciate those simple, faithful prayers!

On Tuesday a service tech came out and checked the stove. He said that the wiring had been installed improperly and that one of the wire connections was really loose. (I was amazed that this hadn't happened any sooner!) The electrical cable has to be replaced and the terminal box that all the wires connect in has to be replaced as well, as all the plastic parts were melted. Since the cord is a four-prong instead of a three-prong, it is a special factory order and we have to wait until after Thanksgiving to get the range fixed. Hmmmmm.

Thankfully I was only in charge of making some pies, and Kevin's mom is cooking the turkey. I had to go over to a neighbor's house on Tuesday to boil some spaghetti noodles, and yesterday I went to another friend's house to bake the pies. Thankfully the microwave is still great so we can have leftovers for the next few days until they get this fixed. Hopefully Monday. So even though our stove is cold and dead at the moment, we are thankful there was no other damage and that we and our home are safe.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 09, 2007

The Life of a Survey Monument

Here's a Flash animation of the life of a survey monument by the Bureau of Land Management.

http://www.blm.gov/ca//flash/fb/survey.html

Sunday, November 04, 2007

More Geocaching & Getting lost.

We got up, had a continental breakfast in the hotel lobby, checked out and then headed out to do some more Geocaching on the way home. At one point we got really turned around and couldn't figure out where we were in relation to the 101 freeway. We had thought we were on the east side of the 101, but we were somehow on the west side of the 205. The three maps & the GPSr were not helping. The AAA map we had was of the city of San Francisco and didn't show the part of town we were in, and the Thomas Mapbook didn't have enough detail. We were driving semi-aimlessly, when Kevin said, "Geocache 'GC10JFA' just came on the GPS screen." I was able to look up the cache and see that it was right in front of the City College of San Francisco. From that, we were able to figure out where we were, and in the bargain, find another cache! Geocaching is so great!

We finally got back where we wanted to go, drove out to Treasure Island and spent some time exploring the old naval base. We left the city and headed to Pleasanton for lunch and some more geocaching. Then it was time to head home. It was great to see the girls and have them run out to give us hugs as we drove up and to hear of all the adventures they had this weekend.

See the pics here.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Aimlessly Wandering

We got back to the hotel at well after midnight, and the next morning we were delivered breakfast in bed. Pretty neat. We wish we could have stayed longer to enjoy the hotel more, as it had a "living room", with a couch and a fireplace. Next time we need to spend the night in San Francisco we want to stay there again!

We checked out of the hotel and then drove around downtown for a while doing some Geocaching. We really figured that without the kids it would be a lot faster and that we would get a whole ton of caching done, but we haven't done a lot of big city caching before, and we were frustrated because each cache took at least twenty minutes a piece, trying to find a parking place, sometimes driving around the block four or five times in order to find one. After a while we were in Chinatown and we looked up and saw Coit Tower and decided to go there. We enjoyed all the murals and the views! There were some great scenes in the murals, including two surveyors. As a fun side note, while we were at the top of the Coit Tower on the west coast, we got a call from Weston and Laura, and at the same time they were at the top of the Statue of Liberty on the east coast. We traded picture messages on our phones and wondered what the odds were of that happening. Pretty cool!

We stopped at another cache at Alamo Park. This is where you see the view all the time of the six "painted ladies" houses when you see pictures of San Francisco. For example in the Cingular ads and at the beginning of the show "Full House". While we were there we saw a movie being made, so we went over to investigate. It was a Bollywood movie with a cast and crew almost entirely from India. We watched for awhile and then went on to Golden Gate Park. On the way we stopped for a late lunch at Tony's Cable Car Restaurant. That was a fun little place.

When we got to Golden Gate Park, it was such a gorgeous day. We really enjoyed walking around as we looked for other caches. We went by the Conservatory of Flowers, the de Young Museum and the Rose Garden. As we walked by the Rose Garden we were surprised to see the same Bollywood movie being filmed there as well. We watched for a while, talked to some of the crew and took a few more photos. What a coincidence that in a city as large as San Francisco we just happened to be in the same two places at the same time. We spoke with one man who turned out to be one of the film's producers. He asked if we'd ever seen an Indian movie.

"Well... yeah.... late at night, while flipping thru the channels", Kevin said.

"Really", he asked. "Which ones?"

"Uhh... I have no idea what they were.... but the girls were pretty."

He smiled and said, "Yes, they were".

We left the Park and Kevin noticed that we were about to cross Haight Street. A quick right turn and we were in the Haight Ashbury District - the area that made the 60's the 60's. Saturday night was obviously the best time to be there.

By this time it was getting late, so we drove out of downtown and headed down to our second hotel, near the San Francisco Airport. We had to get a second hotel, as by the time we had decided to stay for the second night, the hotel that we were going to be staying in was booked up. This one was nice too - not as nice as the Carriage Inn - but good enough for us. We went out and watched the airplanes take off and land and then went and had a nice meal (read: expensive) at a neighborhood Italian restaurant. We went back to the hotel fat & happy.

See all the day's pics here.

San Francisco - Nightwish!

On Friday afternoon we left our girls with some friends and we drove to San Francisco for a concert and some time together. It was the first time we've had together since Amanda was born. For those of you who may be counting, that's more than ten years. We LOVE our girls, but we had such a great time by ourselves this weekend! We left home later than we'd hoped and by the time we got to San Francisco it was dark. We did get to see all the lights as we drove into the City though. It was great.

We got to our hotel, and they had upgraded us to the 3 star hotel next door. We don't know why and it doesn't really matter. It was a really nice room at the Carriage Inn Hotel. We didn't have time to enjoy it right then, as we changed quickly and headed over to Slim's, a club where we were going to go see a band called Nightwish. The band is a symphonic/metal band from Finland and they are doing a six week American leg of their 2007 tour. Nightwish is: Anette Olzon (Vocals), Tuomas Holopainen (Keyboards), Emppu Vuorinen (Guitar), Marco Tapani Hietala (Bass & Vocals), Jukka Nevalainen (Drums).

The concert was AWESOME! The opening act was a band called Paradise Lost, and they were pretty good. We have to admit though, that we were so looking forward to hearing Nightwish that we really weren't paying that much attention. At about 10:30pm, Nightwish came out and they opened with "Bye, Bye Beautiful". It was amazing to see them live! Annette is great! The band was really tight and they were a LOT of fun! They sang a few songs off their last album "Once", but the majority of what they played was off of their new album "Dark Passion Play". The band played around with the audience, with each other, and it was obvious that they were having a lot of fun. It was easy to see that Anette fits in really well with the band. (Anette is a new singer to the band, replacing Tarja Turunen after ten years.) After they had been on stage for a little over an hour they said that the song that they were about to sing was usually the last in the set, but that they were having such a great time that they were going to sing some more. They sang another two or three songs, ending with "I Wish I Had An Angel". They also sang some of our other favorites: "Sleeping Sun", "Amaranth", "Sahara", "7 Days to the Wolves", and "The Islander". They played for an hour & a half, but it seemed like it was waaaay tooo short. We could have listened to them all night.

Nightwish is going to be in Las Vegas in May.

Guess where we are going to be.

See all the concert pics here.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Logic : kid style

Amanda and Rebecca were watching the DVD of the movie "Surf's Up!" which is about a bunch of surfing penguins. One penguin says to another, "It's so cold, I can feel it in my nuggets."

Rebecca asks Amanda, "Why did he say nuggets?"

Amanda says, "Because that's what chickens become."

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

62,000 Miles

I rolled 62,000 miles on the BMW R100GS on the way home tonight. I'm aiming at 100,000.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Essay Contest

Amanda participated in the Kerman Library's Essay Contest (open to 5th and 6th graders) and Amanda won first place for the 5th grade! She won a $25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble and will have her picture in the Kerman News. Pretty neat! We are really proud of her. In honor of Columbus Day, the essay was to be about discovering a new country.

Here is Amanda's winning essay, just as she wrote it:

My name is Crusty and my huge, brown ship's name is Cowabunga. My crew has five people, Skippy, Jack, Megamouth, Spot, and Fluffy. We were carrying fresh food, pure water, shimmery silk, shinny gold, dried seeds, lots of books, and energy drinks with us.
We had been voyaging for three long, hard years. We had been through five violent storms, and three vicious battles. In the storms we almost sank! In the battles we almost had to jump off our own vessle!
We finally spotted beutifful land! We couldn't resist, so instead of going in our rickety lifeboats we jumped overboard and swam instead. I named the land Dipperfish, because if you look at it from above, in a helicopter, it looks like a fish in a dipper. There was lots of fat blueberry buses, pokey cactus and tall cocanut trees. There was lots of juicy apples and oranges. There was also lots of big seagulls, little deer, and gray, fluffy koalas. We had lots of success. We pitched our canvas made tents and ate a big lunch. Then we went exploring to find out more about the island.
As we were exploring we heard movement in the bushes, we drew our shining swords. Then, we saw that they were just Dipperfishens. Before they could do anything else we gave them bright gold and shimmery silk. Then they gave us a bright yellow corn and scrumptious meat. We became great amigos. We would be nice to them, and they would help us nourish our land.
I made a government so that when I came back to this land it would still be in order. I made the cheif president. I made his son the governer. I made his other son the judge. The government was in order.
Now since I had made a good government I decided to leave. I told the Dipperfishens, and they were very somber. I told them I would be back with more food to plant. So we got ready to leave. Since we had swam to shore we had to send Jack to climb the heavy anchor and come back to shore in a rickety lifeboat. When we were finished packing we said our good-byes and left.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

2008 President

Kevin was elected 2008 President of the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the California Land Surveyor's Association. He is currently acting as Treasurer for the Chapter, and has been maintaining the Chapter website for five years.

The Chapter covers the 14,400 square miles of Fresno, Kings, Madera, & Tulare counties. There are 140 Licensed Land Surveyors in the four Counties.

Monday, October 01, 2007

The Water Watcher

Here is an article about Kevin's aunt who lives in Los Gatos Canyon, San Benito County, west of Coalinga, California. She's been watching a weather gauge for the NOAA for more than 50 years.

-------------------------

The Water Watcher
By Julie Sevrens Lyons
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/26/2007 01:37:10 AM PDT

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6723864
http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/2007/08/24/rain-recorder/

Clorene Akers doesn't remember exactly when she was picked, or why. But there the strangers were, half a century ago, snooping around her remote ranch in San Benito County, asking if they could install a rainfall gauge to help chronicle the nation's weather. Oh, and if she wouldn't mind checking it every day it rained.

The year was 1952. The pay? A little more than $3 a month. And Akers, 38 and pregnant at the time with her fourth child, wondered how she would ever manage to scale - in inclement weather with a growing belly - the protective fence around the crude equipment. But she said yes, launching what would become a 55-year career as one of the National Weather Service's "cooperative weather observers."

The pay these days? $7.60 a month, after her last raise. In 1984.

"I've enjoyed doing it," Akers said between sips of sun tea in the great room of her century-old ranch on a recent balmy day. "Everybody's anxious to know what the weather is."

That includes the National Weather Service. And it's no stretch to say that if not for the 93-year-old great-grandmother - who still tills her own garden and does her own laundry, all while keeping tabs on the rain gauge - weather officials would not have an accurate idea of how wet or dry it is in Akers' part of the state.

She is one of about 3,000 weather observers across the country, from Gibson Dam, Mont., to quite possibly your neighbor's back yard. And while it might seem that the only folks who care about the precipitation 66 miles southeast of Hollister are the few who actually live there, meteorologists and policy-makers rely on Akers' work to determine rainfall patterns in the rugged hills near Coalinga. For half a century, her data has been influencing flood forecasts and drought reports, guiding dam operators on how much water to store, even helping track climate change. "Her little piece of the world plays a whole big role," stressed Bob Benjamin, the observation program leader for the National Weather Service in Monterey.

When she started, Akers would trudge outside at 8 a.m. on cold and wet wintry days and use a special stick to take her measurements. She would jot the numbers down and then empty out the gauge. But during the heaviest downpours, she would have to repeat the process several times a day to keep the gauge from overflowing. Vacations were impossible in the winter and spring months.

There was the El Niño year of 1982-83, the wettest season yet, when Akers' ranch was deluged with 43.90 inches. Then there was 1969-70, her driest year, when just 6.90 inches of rain fell. In the year that ended July 1, the area got just 9.67 inches.

The drought isn't the only reason Akers' job has become much easier. She still marvels at the day the weather service installed a new rain gauge in her back yard, one that basically measures the rainfall itself and prints the data on a spool of paper. Now instead of measuring and emptying, Akers is charged with monitoring the paper to make sure it doesn't get stuck, and then mailing it in at the beginning of every month.

When Akers sends in the official tallies (courtesy of envelopes and stamps provided by the weather service), she'll usually send along a nice little note. And, Benjamin says, she's the only one of the 24 observers in the San Francisco/Monterey Bay region - and probably of the thousands nationwide - who doesn't have a phone. And she never fails to send a Christmas card.

But it's Akers' length of service, unrivaled in the extended Bay Area, that's been most remarkable. Surely, when those weather service workers first came across Akers' sprawling, 2,400-acre ranch - christening it Station 04-3928-04 or "Hernandez 7SE" - they wouldn't have expected her to take diligent records for so long. Locally, hundreds of weather forecasters have come and gone since she started.

"At some point, they usually hand it off to their children or take a little retirement," said George Cline, observation program leader for the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "It's wonderful that she's still going."

Despite all the toil and trouble, Akers says she only really considered quitting once. That was three years ago, when an infection left her permanently blind in her left eye.

"I suggested they find someone else," she said, recalling that the weather service would have none of it.

"You're the best reader we have," she was told. "It would be wrong to take it away from you."

Akers isn't too sure, but she's kept at it. And she's proud of what she's done, even if, she concedes, it isn't the highest-paid calling.

"But," she says, "it gives me a little spending money."

She's also earned some fame in the ranching community south of the Pinnacles National Monument.

"I have lots of people run into me and ask, `How much rain have you had?' " she said. "That's quite a subject to talk about."

Most city dwellers see rain as a nuisance, snarling commutes and keeping bored children indoors. But in Akers' area, it's the lifeblood, a crucial factor for every farmer.

With irrigation difficult in the steep terrain around her property, Akers relies on a small spring in the back hills for her water supply.

One year, after her husband died 14 years ago, the land was especially dusty, the cattle particularly thirsty, and Akers realized she was in a conundrum. Unable to haul in enough water for her Herefords, she had to ask her children to help her sell them.

An abundance of rain, however, also creates problems, stirring up the river that carves through her property. When that happens, her long driveway floods, leaving her stuck on the ranch for days at a time. Even in lesser storms, she said, it's foolish to venture the more than 30 miles into Coalinga, where Akers and her daughter stock up on perishables and fill up the tank to the pickup.

Living off the land all these years, she said, "We've always respected the weather."

Akers was joined on the ranch two years ago by her daughter Nancy, 66. Nancy does some of the hard work and heavy lifting on the sprawling property, and tends to the ranch itself. And someday she might have to take over watching the rain gauge, too. But Akers still cleans her house, and grows cucumbers, corn, beans and apples in her backyard garden.

As she talks about her life, how she used to can her own meats for the winter, how her children used to ride an old, portable bathtub as a sled when it snowed, how the frost ruined her apples this year, the conversation often, if not always, makes its way back to the weather.

Telling its daily story has been part of her routine for the past 55 years, and Akers is thankful for that.

"It isn't everybody," she said, "who has the privilege of doing this."

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Contact Julie Sevrens Lyons at jlyons@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5989.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Fearless Hummingbirds

Mom & Dad in Auberry have been feeding the Hummingbirds for a while. They've become used to people changing the water in the feeders; fearless may be a better word. Kevin went to change on of the feeders and the birds were all over it before he got it hung up. They were busy eating, but were continually watching Kevin too. In the picture, you can see one bird looking Kevin right in the eye. Lora took this pic through the kitchen window.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

volcanos, explosions, and lava

My fifth grade class made volcanos in school. My teacher, Mr. Karagozion, divided us into six groups We started by getting our supplies: cardboard, newspaper, a water bottle, paper mache, brown or black paint, paintbrushes, vinegar, baking soda, scotch tape, and red food coloring. In five days we had finished it and erupted it.

The first day we took the water bottle [cut the top off] and taped it to the cardboard. We also crumpled up the newspaper and taped it to the water bottle the size and shape we wanted it. The second day we did paper mache. The third day we painted it. The fourth day we added plants and animals. The fifth day we poured the baking soda in the cut water bottle, then we added a few drops of red food coloring to a cup of vinegar and poured it into the vent. There was a big fizzle! It was cool and fun and it stunk!

Amanda

Friday, September 14, 2007

My Letter to the Editor

'Each voter's voice'
09/14/07 The Fresno Bee

It is so frustrating to watch Democrats and Republicans bicker, their arguments with each other changing depending on what benefits them the most.

Right now Democrats are trying to block a ballot proposal that would allow individual election districts to award electoral votes to the winner of the district vote. Rest assured that if this initiative were to benefit them rather than possibly hinder them, they would be rattling their sabers on the other side of the fence.

This change to the electoral college system is a long time in coming. What is wrong with letting each voter's voice speak louder than it has in the past? In the 1992 presidential election, I was driving to the polls when it was announced over the radio who the winner was in California. I hadn't even voted yet! How is that making my vote count? How is that letting my voice be heard?

No wonder we have such low voter turnout. At least when I call "American Idol," my individual vote gets counted. It doesn't matter who is bringing this ballot initiative to the table, the important thing is that it is finally there.

Lora Nehring

Sunday, September 02, 2007

34 Finds and even more Family!

Today was a fun day! This morning we drove from Kerman down to Castaic for our neice and nephew's first birthday party. We left really early so we stopped part of the way down to watch the sun rise. That was neat!

We got to Castaic, and just as I said to the girls, "There's Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Renee's house," we saw Jeremy was pull out, so we exited the freeway and then followed them to Heritage Park for the party. There were a LOT of people there to celebrate Lily and Zachary's first birthday! Renee's mom and three of her sisters and several neices and nephews were there, and on Jeremy's side, including us, my mom, Kathryn came down from Alaska and my dad, Don, brought great-gma Willie down from Fresno.

It was HOT! It was so very, very hot! It was 100 degrees and very humid! As Jeremy said, when they planned the party it was the coolest summer on record, and who knew it would be so incredibly hot! Yikes! (At 7:00pm we took a photo of our car's thermometer - it was STILL 107 degrees!)

The theme of the party was the Backyardagains, and the kids played pin the necktie on one of the characters, and my mom had made some cupcakes with the characters on them. They looked great and when it was time for the twins to have their cake, they had a wonderful time getting frosting all over the place! It was great!

After the party we went back to Jer and Renee's and spent a few hours visiting. When it was obvious that Katrina needed a nap and wasn't going to even try with all that was going on, we left and went to do some geocaching on the way home.

Before today we had a record of 27 finds in one day, but thanks to the plethora of caches in the LA area, we were able to find a record-breaking 34 caches in one day! And that includes a record 0 no finds as well! There were some that were simple park and grabs. In fact the way we approached one cache made it so we didn't even have to get out of the car! Then there were also some really new and different ones. We even found one that was hidden in a camoflauged metal film reel canister. We have never seen that kind of hide before. We also found several benchmarks and made several travel bug trades. We cached until we were having to use a flashlight to find, and then it was time to head home. It was a really long, but a very fun day!

See the Party pics here.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Isn't technology great!

We bought a digital camera a year or so before Katrina was born and we took a lot of photos with it, because, well... you can! The year that we moved into our house and I was pregnant with Katrina, we took a LOT of photos. We downloaded them all onto our computer. We bought a CD writer and a memory stick so that we could back up all the photos. Katrina was born and we downloaded the photos and then when we tried to back up the photos, the computer crashed and burned and died a horrible death! All the photos from Katrina's birth... gone.

We were sick! We emailed everyone and asked them to send back emails that we had sent with photos in them, so we were able to get a few of the photos back, but only about a third of them.

Now, finally, technology has caught up with us! Kevin bought an external hard drive case and was able to make a newer computer believe that the old hard drive was basically a memory stick and was able to retrieve and copy all of the photos for most of 2005! It was such a wonderful relief to be able to see ALL the photos from the day of Katrina's birth, including the two videos that we took of her only minutes after she was born!

Technology is a wonderful thing!


Saturday, August 25, 2007

Grape Harvest

This morning Amanda and I left the house at 6:30am and started out to the Church Welfare Farm in Madera to pick some grapes. As we crossed Whitesbridge, I said to Amanda, referring to the pink and orange sky to the east, "look at the beautiful sunrise!" Just at that moment the sun poked above the mountains and quickly began to rise into the sky. It was the first time that Amanda had seen a sunrise as it happened, so she thought it was pretty cool.

We had already gone out on Wednesday night and worked with the rest of our ward to pick grapes. I did a lot of picking, but I also did a lot of picture taking! There were a lot of kids there with their parents, so I tried to get families together. They had baby sitting at the chapel (Kevin was helping there) and so there were several couples at the vineyard as well. Amanda always has a great time picking grapes and the ward did a whole row and started on another before the sun went down. There were a lot of people out there and it always goes so much faster when there are a lot of hands doing the work.

This morning we also picked up Amanda's friend Bailie and she came with us to pick grapes. We got there and the Kerman Ward rows had already been completed (a total of about 1000 trays!), so we started on Madera 3rd Ward's rows. Amanda, Bailie and I got six trays completed on our own before some more people from our ward came, including the sister missionaries, and we all worked together down the row. We got half way down the quarter mile row before it was time for us to go and take Bailie home. As we walked to the van we passed the Van Ness Ward rows and so we got to see a lot of old friends that we haven't seen for a while. It was fun!

At the Church Welfare Farm, all the labor is voluntary, and all the raisins go to help with humanitarian aid. For example, when Hurricane Katrina hit, the Church sent water and food, including raisins. As dirty and sweaty as you get, and all the spiders and weeds you have to contend with, it feels good to know that you are doing this work for the Lord and for the needs of His children throughout the world.

See all the Wednesday Night pics here.

See all the Saturday Morning pics here.

See Fresno Bee article, "Fruits of their labor" here.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

60,000 Miles

I rolled 60,000 miles on the BMW R100GS on the way home tonight. I'm aiming at 100,000.

Monday, August 13, 2007

First Day of School

This morning Amanda and Rebecca were off to school again! All week long the have been excitedly planning what they were going to wear and put in their backpacks.

Katrina was a little out of sorts this morning. I think she realized that something was changing, and I am not sure that she was all that happy about it. All the way to Sun Empire Elementary School, she sat in her car seat with a little frown on her face. Kevin asked her if she was okay and she gave a little nod, but her expression didn't change.

Rebecca was very excited to have Mrs. Nakagawa for her second grade teacher. Amanda had Mrs. Nakagawa for second grade and we all know what a great teacher she is. Rebecca hugged her teacher, found her desk and her cubby and after a few quick hugs to Mom and Dad and her sisters, she was off to the playground.

We drove home and then Kevin, Katrina and I walked over to Liberty Intermediate School with Amanda. She is in the accelerated learning class with Mr. Karagozian. There are many kids that she knows from Sun Empire in there with her, so I know she will be fine, but when we got there she started to shuffle timidly and then put her finger in her mouth, a sure sign that she was very nervous. We know she will be fine, but it may take a day or two.

Katrina is doing fine now. She is sitting at the table having cereal and watching Little Einsteins. She is happily patting the table to help rocket take off and is yelling, blast off! She will miss her sisters, but I think she is going to enjoy having the house and Mom to herself for a while!

See all the pics here.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's Soul 2 Soul Concert

Last night Kevin and I went to the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert at the Savemart Center in Fresno, CA. It was a REALLY good concert! We had a great time!

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill came out together first and sang a song together and then Faith Hill began her portion of the concert. She sang "This Kiss", "Wild One", "Mississippi Girl", "The Way You Love Me", and others, including an Elvis and ABBA song. There was a break and then Tim McGraw and Faith Hill both came out and sang two songs together and then it was Tim McGraw's turn. He is very charismatic and had the crowd on it's feet for most of the rest of the concert! He sang "The Cowboy in Me", "Real Good Man", "Indian Outlaw", "Something Like That", and a touching version of "If You're Reading This", and many others, including Lora's all-time favorite "Live Like You Were Dying". As he sang that song, the audience sang along with him louder than we did for any other song, and at the end, I thought I saw Tim wiping tears from his eyes. He said, "THAT is exactly why we do this every night! To hear that like that! It doesn't get any better than that! Thank you."

The concert began at 7:50pm with a warm up band, Lance Miller. At 8:20pm the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert began and it ended at 11:45pm. It was like seeing two concerts! We definitely got our money's worth! (technically speaking of course -- thanks for the tickets Mom!) We were up in the balcony in section 204, but it didn't really matter, as the stage was in the center of the arena with four arms that extended out to all the sides, so Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were often right below us.

Faith Hill mentioned at one point that they really like Fresno and that they would like to come back. We hope they do!

See all the pics here.