Haines

Dearest Family,

We made it OK from Whitehorse to Haines! We really enjoyed the drive, the fire weed was beautiful, as was the drive itself. By the time we reached Haines Junction the sun had come out, so we really enjoyed the breath-taking scenery of the mountains, lakes, forests and glaciers! We didn't see any wildlife other than a few hundred squirrels, but we were good with that, too! The cabin we are in is really small, but we are fine with it. We got all of our stuff moved into it yesterday afternoon, but still need to find places to put everything. It is really small, we put the queen bed they had into the bedroom, and I have six inches on my side to get into bed, and there is about a foot on Mom's side that we squeeze down to get to the bathroom. But hey, the bed is nice and comfortable. The "living" room has one chair about the size of one of our blue chairs in the living room, plus a folding chair like they have at the church. There is a table about 3' across in one corner with two wooden kitchen chairs. The kitchen is small, one set of drawers, two overhead cabinets, a really small fridge, a stove that the oven doesn't work on, and about enough counter space to set the toaster on over the knife & for drawer. They do have a different stove that I'm going to put in tomorrow that they have used in the church. It hasn't been used much, but is pretty old. Hey, it's a stove! There is a little space along one wall in the living room where we can put up a small computer table. I'll send you pictures when I get some taken. Mom doesn't want to take any until she has stuff put where she wants it.

We don't have any Internet over there, but the church is only about 50' away, so we can come over here and use the one in the Family History center any time we want. They gave us keys to everything, so we are good! There is also a small shed close to our cabin that is about 16' square, but it doesn't have too much junk in it, so I'm going to clean it out and put in a small bench that I can work on and put my tools on. I checked with the counselor in the branch presidency today and he said that should be OK. I do wish I had my pickup here, I think it would be very useful, but will make do with the van. I'm sure when we get to know people someone will have one that we can use for hauling trash and stuff. Looks like we will be responsible for keeping the building clean and mowing the lawns, but that will give me something to do part of the time.

We enjoyed church this morning, the branch is pretty small, we had a visiting family today, a sister and her five kids, and they comprised most of the primary they don't have. Also a young couple from Skagway that came here just for fun before they go back to the US. There were about thirty here including them, only Bro. Berry, Bro. Cox and myself priesthood wise. It was good to be able to bless the Sacrament today, the first time in a lot of years. Seemed kind of strange to bless both the bread and water, Bro. Cox passed it. He is 85 and in not very good health, but a very fine and humble spirit. He is a veteran of WWII, Korean, and Viet Nam wars. Everybody bore their testimonies, and it still left us 10 minutes short, but they closed the meeting anyway, and we had more time in Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. Mom taught Relief Society and they only had three sisters there. There were two of us for Priesthood, plus two younger boys that aren't members, so we just talked and got to know each other. There is definitely work to do here!

We do have an address! There is no mail delivery here, so our address is: P.0. box 622, Haynes, AK. 99827. We share the phone with the one in the church foyer, and that number is 907-766-2379. When we get our computer set up, we can use our Magic Jack again, and talk for free! Our physical address is 415 Mud Bay Drive. I guess if something had to be sent UPS it would be addressed to that but I'm sure it would cost a mint to send it because it has to come by boat. It is good to be back in the US. We were really worried that they might stop us at the border and make us unpack all our stuff, but they were really nice, and didn't. We had the van packed to the gills again, only this time with a car-top carrier that had all our bedding in it, plus the spare tire tied on top. We are going to go try to get a cell phone tomorrow, will let you know what the number is when we get it. The only carrier that works here is AT&T, so guess we'll go with that. At least it ought to have better service than we had in Whitehorse!

Haynes is a beautiful town, about 2500 people here, fishing is the main industry. The town is located right on the bay, the forest is all around us, like living in Island Park! There are two rivers that come in and the salmon are already running. We went over to the Chilkoot River last night, and there were lots of fishermen. One Native (they don't like to be called Indians or 1st Nation here--will have to get used to that) was using a net and brougt in one about 10 lbs while we were watching. Several others had them on fishing poles. We'll have to get to know some with equipment so we can try it! Of course the bears like it too! I guess after we left they came out. One of the kids at church said he was there last night and they counted 17 bears on their way home. Everything has to be shipped in, so stuff costs more than Whitehorse, except gas. Gas here is only $4.85 a gallon, but we won't be driving nearly as much, so that will save some. Bananas are $1.50/lb, milk is $5.69/gal. Other stuff is about the same amount more, but hey, we can get it! If we need large stuff we will go to Juneau on the ferry, but it costs $100 and takes 4 1/2 hours each way so we probably won't do that often. It would be faster and cheaper to go to Whitehorse because we can drive there, but if we buy anything we have to pay duty on it to bring it from Canada, so probably won't do that either. We'll go to town again tomorrow and see what we can find here. We'd like to get another chair that's nice to sit on. We also want to get some nice fluorescent lights for the cabin, as it's really dark wood so it's pretty gloomy in there.

Mom's a little worried about the bears. We haven't seen one yet, but there is a lot of bear scat on the lawn all around our cabin and yard. They lock the garbage in the shed because if they don't the bears get into it. They used to have a dumpster here, but had to get rid of it because the bears kept pushing it off and destroying it trying to get inside. They said not to put anything smelly into the garbage, and haul it often. They also said not to cook anything smelly in the cabin, like fish or sausage or bacon, or the bears would probably come visit us. And the doors on the cabin aren't substantial! In fact some idiot made the whole back wall of the living room a set of patio doors that go out onto a tiny porch about 3' by 4' with stairs going down. Dumb! Wonder if they'd mind if I enclosed it, took out the doors, and doubled the size of our living room?

Well, I guess I'd better get back over to the cabin or Mom will wonder where I got lost to! It was hard to leave Whitehorse, It was about like leaving home again! But we will make some great friends here, too, I'm sure. We definitely have lots to do to keep us busy! Be sure to let us know how you are all doing!

Love, Dad and Mom.