Friday, August 11, 2006

At a gas station in Palmer...




These cars are just about as high as my waste

Vetch

To vetch or not to vetch, that is the question...

Vetch is purple flowering weed, it takes over and is extremely invasive. I love seeing it around town, its beautiful and bushes up really well.



It creeps really well but strangles out other plants.

This fence surrounds one of our local elementary schools and is the only place I've seen where the vetch looks so neat creeping.



Fence or no fence, I've been thinking about putting it in my front yard against the house, nothing else grows well in the front. If I do it and don't like it, I could just rip it out... But would it all come out? Every where you look they say you can't kill this stuff and is almost impossible to get out. But the front yard is so hard packed, the grass doesn't even grow there well. And there is already vetch on the property and around the neighborhood so it's not like I'd be introducing it in. I guess I'll have to think another summer on this one and leave my front beds bare. I did however want to share the photo's.

The funny part is if I mention this to anyone who even remotely likes to garden they think I'm crazy. But its not like planting dandy-lions right? ha, ok maybe it is.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Prudhoe...

Marty has just gone from working 12 hour days to 16 hour days. He has no time for anything and things are pretty crazy up on the slope right now. It's also amazing how much is incorrectly being reported on the news.

Lots a buzz, some rumors, some not. There was a rumor that all of the people who where sent home because they weren't "non-essential people" are being paid. I really hope the rumor is true, I haven't been able to stop thinking about that since they sent entire companies home. So those employees are sitting home with or with out pay and have no clue when they will be allowed to return to their careers. BP has said it could be weeks or even months before they get flow started again with a possibility of *maybe* being able to start flow on 1 side of the field, somewhere in the future. I can't imagine BP paying people (from sub-contracted companies) regular salaries for "months" to sit at home and wait. It would be great if you could remember these people and the entire situation in your prayers. It may sound silly but a recent Anchorage Daily News report from August 7th said...
"Eighty-nine percent of Alaskas income is from oil revenue, and central to that cash flow is Prudhoe Bay, the nation’s largest oil field. The expected loss of 400,000 barrels per day at today’s oil prices means $6.4 million lost daily in royalties and taxes"
Shutting down oil production in Prudhoe is gonna cause some big bad ripples and what's worse is they can't even say when it will be fully up and running again (that fact alone is just so mind blowing).

I hate all this uncertainty.

This is definitely a time I am holding to my faith and trusting God.

The good news is that Marty's company is being utilized even more than normal and isn't to blame for any of this. He's getting lots of overtime and has become the "single point of contact" for several different crews from different companies ontop of his normal responsibilities. In essence I guess he's become a temporary foreman for all of these crews. He's doing a good job and working his heart out.

Marty will also be coming home for his dads birthday party on the 19th (*Yay!*). I am going to enjoy every minute of it, especially since my time with him will probably be very limited for a while.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own
Matthew 6:33-34