Two local persons that have been so helpful and instrumental in making the MDS work successful are Andy and Kate. Andy is discussing a job with Wilbur and Steve. Kate is cleaning a King Salmon.

Today I am giving you a view of the beauty around Eagle.

All of the pictures have been taken in and around Eagle.

This is a view of the Yukon from the city of Eagle.

Here are some salmon that were caught in the fish wheel.

A fish wheel in the Yukon.

Our MDS experience is going well, most of the time. Today was a day of crisis. We all have those , I guess. This week there are 17 of us on the project.
The guys love to sing around the campfire

One side of the logs have to be gone over by a Log Wizzard one one side, to get rid of the bark.

Then a sander is used to smooth out the rough spots.

And finally a planer is used on the inside to smooth it up, ready to assemble the home.We have two different styles of log homes. This is dovetailed.

This is the three sided log house style.

Here is the interior of a two story home. The exterior picture is next.

Bill McCoy, the previous leader, is instructing Wilbur.

The MDS house in Eagle, Alaska.

We are very busy here in Eagle. We began the 7th log house today. The other six are framed in and only two , need steel on the roof. This is the third week of the project. We hope to complete 9 or 10 homes by September 10. Our plans are to be here until the 22nd. Pray of us as we meet and work with community, First Nations persons and our volunteers.

How do you describe the last week. We spent 5 days in Denali National Park. We camped at Teklanika camp ground inside the park boundary. We had to make the reservations in January, which by the way, were the only reservations that we made before or on this entire trip. We were pretty excited to see Mt. McKinley or Denali as it is also called. There are 20,320 feet of mountain!!!! We went deep into the park by shuttle bus three different days. The first was a bust, the next day , we saw the top and finally the last day, we had fantistic views of the whole front of the mountain.

It was very difficult to choose a few pictures to tell this story. Please comment or ask questions, if you want to know more about the park and the mountain.
This is a typical shot of scanning the mountain for wildlife. Wilbur has very good eyes to see any movement of the wildlife. We had two doctors from NYC ask him what does he eat that he can always spot the wildlife first and so well?

Carol gave Wilbur a stick of diamond willow sappling and in his spare time, he worked on peeling the bark and making a walking stick.

A large grizzly bear and a cub, the cub is laying on its back, playing.

A park shuttle bus. We could pick it up anywhere in the park and ride anywhere on our Tek pass.

A covey of Ptarmigin ran along the bank one day.

The clouds were very beautfil but it is hard to see that in this pic.

We picked a few wild blue berries along the trail.

We saw lots of caribou, but not a wolf. A big dissapointment to us.

Here you see Wilbur inside the pipeline model close to Fairbanks.We did not river raft but there is a lot of it on many rivers. We were camped on a bluff, overlooking the river and this was at 8 am. I am sure they had a cold ride. We are on our way to Eagle, to do some MDS work. I will try to blog, if possible. If not, I will fill you in when we get back to the internet. Hope you are enjoying our saga. We would love some comments and thoughts on your life and this blog. .........mel

We have spent a few days in Fairbanks at the Riverview RV Park. It is close to our friends, who live in North Pole. Yes, it is really named North Pole, and every thing has a Christmas theme: the street banners, and many businesses.

This picture is at the home of Carol and Bob Gorden. We have really enjoyed spending time with them. Yesterday, we worshiped with them in their church, here in North Pole. Then Carol had a wonderful home cooked meal with all the fixings.
Here is Felicia, their niece from California. She is spending the summer with them. She took me on a 4 wheeler ride and then turned me loose to take my own ride. Fun, fun, I was looking for the moose that she has been seeing, the last few days, but I did not find her, (the moose).

We went to Pioneer Park on Friday. As you can see, it has a Christmas/winter theme. We both had to take our pictures with some props. We got this really great package from home. It included lots of mail, some pictures, etc. But best of all a new bag, made by Theresa. I love it.

We went to the Georgeson Botanical Garden at 9 pm last night. It is the test garden of the University of Alaska. You can see how large the cabbage is, since I put my foot next to it.The garden was very beautiful and I will share a little tour.

We are preparing to go to Denali National Park on Monday. We are dry camping in the park at one of the 35 spaces for RV's. This is the only reservation that we had made ahead of this trip. We will be driving in 35 miles, and staying their until Saturday. It is a primitive camp ground, but since we can be selfcontained, we will take our own water, etc. We are really looking forward to these days being one with nature. We will outside of cell phone and internet range.

When we come out of the park, we will be heading to Eagle, Alaska to work with Mennonite Disaster Service for several weeks. This opportunity just came up for us, since we are in Alaska. We may not have any communication except by one hard line when we go to Eagle, where we will be doing some community work and helping with the building of 10 - 13 log homes for the natives. Their homes were destroyed in the spring breakup of the ice on the Yukon River. If you want to read more about this project, check it out at http://www.mds.mennonite.net/