Sad news from Cherry

Yesterday after school there was an accident that claimed a life of our neighbor. Caitlin Calgaro (16) was killed. Caitlin and her family are our neighbors (they bought Arnold Santi's house). In the car with her was Pete Ramfjord's step daughter. She is currently in ICU with broken ribs, bleeding in the brain, and an in medical induced coma. Will let you know more updates about Briana as we get them.

Heather

fishing

I really need to go back and read some posts I see. These pics here are from saturday. There was a fishing tourny saturday morning sponsered by the arizona roofing contractors association. A company that we buy most of our material from (RSG) paid for two guys plus their rep to go. On friday the rep called and said that he will not make it so they asked if I wanted to take his place. It was paid for already so I figured a day of fishing plus lunch for free, I'm in. I took his place and won first place with the biggest large mouth bass. It was not big but nobody was getting much out there. I got five bass total but they just weigh the biggest one. I won two hundred bucks plus a gift card to cabelos for fifty bucks. Not bad since I did not know there was even a prize.
Frans

Here's a few glimpses of what is new at our house

Had a bridal shower for Sarah (Jason Lindula's fiancee) at our house:Here's a look at what the cabinets are shaping up to look like;

hopefully there will be doors some day.
We seem to have a contest with Momma goats and their babies for the closest resembalance. Super cute:

Bella and Tulip

Chubs and Lucky (she needs to be brushed, but wouldn't let me that day)

Flicka with her baby boy "Rocky"

Precious with her baby boy "Ivory"

One of our highlanders

We should have cattle calving in May, with this one appearing to be due soon!

Just taking care of the chickens. It's fun to have different ones to add color, character, etc. If you ever feel you are having a bad hair day....

Curios Georg(I)e is pregnant again and should be due soon.

Flowers are coming up and it's time to get into the flower bed and get them cleaned up :)

Our new "TOM Turkey"

He's a bit agressive and so huge!!!

Our barnyard was missing some sounds, so got us a couple roosters to add another melody. I love these ones with their beautiful coloring.

That's us in a nutshell. Got some new pheasants but with the rain, haven't really wanted to haul my camera out yet. Hopefully this weekend!

A peek in an Alaska life

The White House Project

Some pictures from the weekend and not in any specific order:Ann Bancroft - arctic explorer. She has amazing stories to tell...

Becky Lourey - former senator and ran for governor

It was fun to see Mom's bringing their young girls as well...

Marie C. Wilson - founder and president of The White House Project. She also started bring your daughter to work day....

Eveleth City Councilor Liz Kuoppala :)

There were over 100 women and girls who came for the weekend despite blizzard like weather. A funny story: Ann Bancroft was notified of the weather and was told it would be understandable if she couldn't come. Ann's response: "my reputation is on the line here". It would be difficult to explain why you could ski or dogsled across both poles, but couldn't make it to Tower due to bad weather.

Here's Jen....

The steering committee with Winona LaDuke...

Winona LaDuke....

What a great weekend, very motivational. I was talking to a 15 year old girl who after one session over the weekend, decided to run for class president. She wants everyone's concerns to be heard and have all the students in her class be able to say what they want. Her motivation? Her coach!!!

Visitors

We had some new visitors at our house while I was at work yesterday. Duke went nuts ... and the moose didn't care. Apparently Duke thought that if he barked real loud and headed toward the moose ... the moose would be intimidated and leave. Nope. I hope he doesn't end up learning the hard way. Wish I had been home to see Tia jump up onto the deck. :) They bedded down behind the snowmachines and trailers in the trees. Cars came and went ... and they stayed. Don't know where they're at this morning ... hopefully not on the driveway! School bus comes in 20 minutes.



This second picture here has mom with 2 calves. 2 are sort of hidden in the trees.

Thanks Elizabeth!

Elizabeth,
Thank you so much for calling me and asking if I would be interested in attending Go-Run!

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with Liz and Heather and 100+ other women and listen to so many people talking about making positive changes in our society. From elected officials to campaign managers to people who started their own organizations they all very neatly stated what got them going and how they were able to do it. We heard the struggles they had to face and how they overcame each one. I was amazed with Ann Bancroft and will be watching for her next trip in a few years! Someone that I have admired for quite sometime is former Senator Becky Lourey. Ever since Liz told me about her adopting children with disabilities, I knew that I would like to meet her some day. I was fortunate to be able to do so this past weekend. The amount of people I was able to talk to, learn from and be inspired by was amazing.

Thanks again for the amazing weekend!
~jen~

Happy Birthday Charlie

Happy 40th! May your day be filled with apple pies, good luck, and at least some relaxation!

This morning Machelle and I went to McDonalds for breakfast before heading to work. While there we placed an order. It took a little while, but then one of the workers handed me a box and said they were all ready. This morning I handed Charlie his gift. At least a few times a week he is wanting me to pick him up a couple of apple pies from there, so today he received 40 of them! Everyone in the resteraunt was laughing when I was walking out.

Debbie, I am so sorry I missed your birthday! I hope it was everything you wished for and more! I was up north and couldn't get on the computer and things were hectic so couldn't even call you.

~jen~

Enjoying Alaska

Us up northers here aren't ready for the snow to go anytime soon. My green beans and zucchini might be, but the humanoids in the house are not. You can tell this is the first winter for most of the folks in this house. They screech for joy when the white stuff starts coming down. We had some more of it this past week and I thought I was going to visit the ditch for the first time this season ... made it home tho' without ditch diving. :) gets the caboose ride on the way in ... with all the sleds.

Today we went up the mountain to play. Was so much fun! 10 folks (Tia and up in age) plus 1 little baby, 5 snowmobiles, sleds and snowboard. Was a magnificent day!

Tia gets to ride up in the sled with the sleds. On the way back she hopped on the back of a snowmachine. This is NOT the way to ride. Mighty bumpy back there.
Wally's Taxi Service ... the only way up the mountain after a fun ride down.

Anna's getting warm!

Brock is getting good on the snowboard.

More laughs and screams than a ride at Disney Land!

We spent some time at the first spot and then moved on to a much better one. Nice snow that was deep. Steeper sledding and boarding hills, and more fun for daring snowmachine drivers.

Absolutely incredible!

Taking a rest ... we had hot chocolate at the first place ... I think we've found food again. :)

Always a Dr Pepper along for Jari.

Kevin & Jari cutting a corner. Kevin had a video camera along and got some good biffs on it. Camera just doesn't do this place justice. Impossible to catch these mountains. My kids' expectations of "sledding" have become quite high.

The clouds started rolling in. The light was getting horrible. Though bright enough to see, you couldn't differentiate one hill from another ... bad news when you're moving along quickly. Started snowing when we hit the parking lot and was still snowing when we got home. Nice wet stuff that should freeze nicely for the morning drives to Anchorage.

I think we can all see why our kids love it here and maybe we're not quite ready for winter to be over yet. Maybe we'll get one more day of this ... the mountain already has much less snow on it ... won't be long before more boulders are poking through the snow. 'Tis fun!

brainerd snow

what grandma and grandpa see out their door

across from their laundry their wing on the left

grandpa snow blowing

he didn't want to bring the snow blower all the way to their side so he's shoveling

steve with the plow on his truck

-posted by debbie for grandma!

Happy Birthday Frans

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, a great weekend (not too warm), and a very good 36th
year. It isn't as easy as Jenny thinks to post on this Kuoppala Blog. The words don't always
show up at the top. I tried sliding the blue bar up, kind of jerking the top but the magic
words didn't show up. Then when I went and relooked at some postings and came back to
the first page, there by magic were the special words. So here I am, can be the first to wish
you a Happy Birthday on the Kuoppala Blog. dk

Up nort a'ways

Kinda curious how all of you nort'ners, Alasakans, are thinkin'.

Most Minni-snowtans are ready for summer... "gittin sick of this stuff". But coming from the Grand Canyon state, land of everlasting sunshine... Do you guys want winter to last forever? Whats goin on in your heads? You've prolly already written a book about it on here, but I find I'm getting too lazy to look ;-)

You do seem to be out enjoying the "weather", thats why I ask :-)

Charlie

Snow and spring gardens

I loaded these pictures on backwards and am too lazy to turn them around, so this is weekend going backwards. We went to Seward and Whittier over the weekend. This would be an avalanche on the way home on Sunday. No. We didn't see it happen ... just plenty of avalanche chutes that were full.

If MN snow is getting you down right now ... just think. This could be you. There was so much snow in Whittier it was downright amazing. Not much to see there ... will have to go back in the summer and see it from a new perspective.

Stopped at the tunnel going into Whittier and walked around the car. Have you ever seen such a thing. All 4 rims had these interesting icicles on them.

Sunshine through clouds ... the drive from Seward to Whittier.

Whittier

Sunday morning dawned absolutely beautiful. So glad we were able to enjoy a sunny day.

Playing "follow the leader" ....

Quite a blustery day to be walking around town ... but walk we did!

Still smiling. On our way to eat out and visit the hardware store for some refined shopping!

The garden ... transplanted tomatoes and green peppers last night. Not sure the green peppers were ready to move to a bigger pot ... but they're finally growing and green. All the window sills in the living room and kitchen are now full of plants. Yikes! Amber is busy giving greenery away .. she has too many. :) Mine are looking ... so far, so good ...chives didn't come up and only have 2 dead ones that I pitched so far. Will be interesting to see what I have to plant them in next! Will I own my own dirt by then or not ... THAT is the question.

Time for a shower and to head for work. Have a great day!