homeagain/cats/fires

thursday 7 Sept,
Yes, we are home again safely, thankyou Lord! so everything is back to NORMAL (I just said aloud to Bonnie) to which she answered 'huh!' which is woman speak for 'I don't think so'. Other words women use are FINE! used to end an argument when they feel they are right and you need to shut up. Never use "fine" to describe how a woman looks-this will cause you to have one of those arguments. But I digress.

A note on travelling with cats. First off when cats are loose in a car and you are driving it can be a fatal combination. Only 1 person should drive at a time. Even before we had left the homestead and the cats had been boarded they had the headlights and the emergency flashers turned on. Then they cried for 2 hours until they were out of meows and went to sleep. Second, when a hotel says 'pets allowed' that means if you stay in the room with them 24/7 but if you want to say go out to eat they must be put in some kind of box or container, so I had to go find a Wal Mart and purchase 2 containers for cats and put them inside which they did not appreciate! this was evident when we returned to said hotel and one of cats had thrown up. So much for travelling with cats. The trip home was similar but in reverse. The cats bawled from Boise to Twin Falls!

This almost wraps up this posting and this blog except to note the severe fire season we are having this summer in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington and Nevada. The smoke was very bad all the way from Boise back to Ashton in eastern Idaho. There are presently 17 fires in Idaho. The closest fire to us is 'Dune' which is about 25 miles west.It is 1688 acres and is 75% contained. The next closest is Snowshoe Fire, north west about 50 miles and is 9556 acres and is 40% contained. Keeping lots of manpower busy fighting the fires.

End-----of this blog.

Boise/pastorsTomandPaul/shopping

Sun 3 Sep,
We went to church at Friendship Celebration Church in Meridian to the early service at 8:15am. Pastor Tom Hausch gave the sermon 'How to invest your life' based on Matt 25:14-30. Wasting, spending or investing? the part that struck me was 'it's wrong to bury what God gave you, what matters is trying; make life count, risk, make impact-passivity does not please God'
They have a worship team, that is singers and a pianist and guitarist and vioninist to lead the hymns. They were all contempory style songs. The whole service was projected on to the wall and they had microphones for all the instruments and singers. They use a 24 channel Mackie mixer. It was very impressive. There were probably about 70 people at the service.

Afterwards we went to see Rev Paul Riedel and his wife Lydia in Nampa. He used to be pastor at Zion Ashton. We shared updates on our new mission church and how we happened to break away from Zion. They now go to a Mo Synod church in Nampa. They have had a big loss in members because of a pastor there who dipped into the church money and didn't repay. He apparently was a power freak and he ruined the whole church. It was interesting to talk with pastor Paul, a very wise man.

The rest of Sunday was spent shopping the malls for bargains it being a labor day weekend everyone was having sales with some huge mark downs. Bonnie got some nice clothes and material.
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airplanes&broncos

Thursdsay, Aug 31
I did get back to Nampa to the airport and the museum! hurray!! there were some rare aircraft there in the Warhawk Air Museum. Restored flyable WWII fighters.
P-40E Kittyhawk, registration NX94466
P-40N Warhawk, registration NL1195N powered by an Allison V-1710 1200hp supercharged, cruise 343 mph.
P-51C Mustang, manuf. North American Aviation, being restored, bare aluminum, no registration or markings
T-28 Trojan, manuf. North American Aviation powered by a Curtiss Wright R-820
....and lastly a Fokker DR-1 triplane replica, registration N9224C powered by a Warner 145hp, cruise 99mph.

Lots of other private light aircraft there incl. some homebuilts. A very nice experimental RV-4 landed while I was there. I was having lunch on the upper deck of the restaurant overlooking the airport and you could listen to the airport radio chatter on the loudspeaker. It was nice to visit an airport where the public were welcome.

I went by myself after dropping Bonnie off at the Idaho State Historical Society building where they have the Research Library. She wanted to do some more geneology research on her family.

Did not get to a winery...boo hoo!

Dick and a friend of his Jack Rice (originally from Ashton) went to the BSU game in the evening. Both of course were rooting for the Broncos......and they won 45 to 0! Poor Sacramento!
Visited with Jack's wife Deb who is a very interesting smart lady. They live in Bend but another place in Vancouver washington where there son and his wife live.

Kind of a fun day, any day is fun for me if I get to an airport!