Spring is here

Hi everybody,

Sorry for the long time between updates. The weather is getting better and therefore it is getting harder and harder to stay inside. We had a couple of days in the 80's already (26C).

Hannalize is just about done with her EMT class and has been getting some good experience on the ambulance. She is looking forward to finishing up. She has also been very busy with work which never seems to slow down. Joel has been busy with work too and what seems like an endless stream of meetings.

As always, the dogs are keeping us very busy. Nika is growing very fast and now weighs 43 lbs (20kg). As we write this, Roxy is trying to eat one of her stuffed animals, which now has a big hole in the back of it's head. Fortunately, Nika has grown enough that is harder for her to escape from the yard. The 2 dogs get along very well and stay busy with each other. This is a big relief, since we no longer have to entertain Roxy 24/7.

Hannalize has done a very good job of getting our garden into shape. She has planted beautiful flowers and some tomatoes. The rest of our vegetables will go into the ground next weekend. With the nice weather, we have had a lot of fun working together outside. Due to the size of our yard, it will still be a while before we have everything the way we want it. In the mean time we are having fun!

With the weather getting better and the days getting longer, we are spending more time with friends over the weekends. Saturday night we enjoyed dinner with friends overlooking the river.

Attached are a few photos we took lately.

'Til next time...

Joel and Hannalize

Beautiful Spring Days

Hello everyone,

It is getting to be a beautiful spring in North Idaho. Today was 75F (24C). The sunshine was beautiful. Hannalize had Good Friday off, and it was also a beautiful day, so she spent the whole day working outside. The previous owners didn't do the best job of maintaining their landscaping, so it is turning into a big job to get it straightened out.

Work is going good for both of us. Joel was in Corvallis, OR this week for a conference. He got to visit with several friends from South Africa, and also many other friends and associates. Hannalize is busy with her EMT class and doing very well. She has been on duty for two shifts but hasn't had any calls yet. Joel's friday night ambulance shift has also been quite slow the last few weeks. Today, we had a class from the local helicopter ambulance on landing zone safety. Hannalize won a very nice hat in the door prize drawing.

The dogs are doing very well. Nika is growing like a weed. She has taught Roxy how to dig under the fence, so it has been a project to try to keep the yard "secure". Tonight, as we sat in the hot tub, Roxy got very wet as she attempted to get her floating toy whale out of the tub.

Hannalize has began to experiment with glass painting that looks like stained glass. The picture above is the upstairs bathroom window. I think it turned out terrific..!!! She is enjoying it.

Tomorrow, we are having easter dinner with our small group from church.

Congratulations to Anneke and Willis on their engagement. We are very happy for you, and we are looking forward to the wedding.

That's about it for now...

- Joel & Hannalize

Foto's

Hallo almal!

Joel is nie hier nie en ek vat die kans om 'n slag die blog in Afrikaans te skryf. Hier by ons is die lente definitief in die lug. Ek was hierdie week onder in Portland en daar blom die daffodille al en is die bome vol bloeisels. Hier in Idaho sal ons nog bietjie moet wag vir die daffodille en bloeisels, maar ons is oppad...

Ek laai 'n paar foto's wat ek vanmiddag van die honde geneem het. Nika is al yslik groot en sy en Roxy speel te heerlik - tot my en Joel se verligting, want voorheen moes ons vir Roxy "entertain". Die 2 honde hou van kattekwaad, het in een dag 2X my bolle uitgegrawe! Het my gedwing om 'n ander plan te maak...

Nie te veel ander nuus nie...

Groete
Hannalize

New addition to family...

Hi everybody,

This is a blog to show the new addition to our family! We picked Nika up this afternoon... She is the cutest little puppy and looks just like Roxy did at that age. We were 3rd in line for her and things worked out that we could have her. Roxy is very excited about the new pup and just wants to play. Both dogs' tails were wagging like crazy when they met each other.

The snow in St Maries melted quite a lot over the last week or so, but since this afternoon it is snowing again. It is a wet snow and hopefully won't be too thick in the morning...

Joel is going down to Eugene, Oregon this week for a logging conference. He got his Idaho engineering license last week after he passed his math course a while back. Hannalize will be starting the EMT course this week that will last until May 19.

Well, not too much other news. Just wanted to share Nika with everybody.

Joel & Hannalize

Even more snow...

Hi Everybody,

We are not feeling overly creative tonight in writing... It has been a long couple of weeks and we can't seem to get enough time to relax. There are so many things to do...

We have a few photos that we want to share of the snow we received on Friday night and most of Saturday. The snow is the deepest that it has been this year. Last week we had a very cold spell, with temperetures going as low as -14F (-25C)! We only had one pipe that froze and we were lucky enough that it didn't brake.

That is all for this week! Enjoy the pictures!

Love
Joel & Hannalize

PS Gelukkig was ek in Florida toe St Maries die erg koue weer gehad het, anders het ek net dalk my ou tassies gepak en teruggekeer na sonnige Suid-Afrika!!!

Soos julle kan sien op die foto's is daar geen sneeu op Joel se bakkie se bonnet nie. Sy bakkie word "ingeplug" en dit hou die water in die enjin warm... Sodoende kry jy die diesel enjin ten minste gestart in die koue weer.

More snow...

Hi everybody,

It is definitely still winter here in St Maries. It has been snowing a lot lately. Our snow started on Friday afternoon and it snowed 4 in. (11cm) by early Saturday morning. Saturday was a gorgeous sunny day, but the snow returned during the night with 2 more in. (5cm) last night and 2 more in. (5cm) today before it started raining. This coming week it is forecasted to be very cold.

Hannalize returned from a trip to Wisconsin on Friday and will be leaving for Florida on Tuesday (with warmer weather...) The upcoming trip will be a busy one, as it is the biggest trade show for outdoor recreation in the world. Joel has been busy with work and ambulance stuff. He will be doing his practical exams on Saturday and then must go and do the written exam after that. He is enjoying the ambulance very much! Joel finished his Calculus the day after Xmas and is now waiting on the results - he is very glad to be done!!!

We are enjoying life in St Maries and are more and more glad we made the move! We have made some really good (and nice) friends and have been able to get involved in the community. It seems like there is always new things to do, but not enough time to do everything.

With the weather as it is, we decided to buy a treadmill to stay in shape... Joel also has a nice weightlifting bench and between these two we should be able to do something about ourselves..!!

The picture with all the Xmas lights was taken at a house on the outskirts of St Maries. While we were there, there was a huge buck walking through the light displays! Our Xmas lights were not near as impesssive, but they were still fun!

We are including a few photos of the fresh snow, including one of us being brave and sitting in the hot tub. Joel was complaing that the snow is cold to walk on barefoot!

Until a next time.

Love,
Joel & Hannalize

Winter Time...

Hi everyone,

It sure is winter here! Since we last wrote, we have had lots of snow and ice. It was below freezing for 2 weeks straight. The snow was about 11 in. (27.5cm). This last week we had warmer weather and the snow is settling. We got the deck cleared off and now have snow of about hip heigth all along the side of the deck. Our days are nice and sunny and we are enjoying every moment of it. We really do not miss the Oregon rain and clouds. As can be seen in one of the pictures, we had quite large icicles on the side of the house.

Yesterday, to celebrate our 2nd anniversary, we drove out to the woods and cut down a Xmas tree. It was a lot of fun looking for the one that we want. Since the trees in the wild have not been manicured like the ones at a Xmas tree farm, it is not as thick. We decided on a Grand Fir. All our Xmas lights are up on the house, although we still need to put some outside lights up, but haven't had the chance yet.

As I am writing this, Roxy is sleeping on Joel's lap and is snoring loudly!!! Definitely an only child and enjoying every moment of it!

Joel got to go on his first ambulance call last Friday morning at 3am. He enjoyed it a lot and had to take the patients blood pressure and assist him with oxygen. Joel is looking forward to being done with the EMT class in mid January.

Hannalize is going down to Portland this week for meetings and the company Xmas party. Joel and Roxy will keep each other company...

We are posting some photos that we took while out to find the Xmas tree.

Love,
Joel and Hannalize

Thanksgiving

Hi everybody!

It's been a snowy Thanksgiving weekend here in Northern Idaho. Our snowfall started at 4 pm on Thursday and it feels as if it is snowing ever since. We have about 5 in. (12.5cm) on the ground by the house and heavy snow is forecast for tonight. The tempereature will drop to 0F (-18C) on Tuesday. Fortunately we have lots of firewood and the house is well insulated. We are enjoying the snow and Roxy is too!

Thanksgiving dinner was very good. We enjoyed a ham instead of a turkey this year. The ham came from our pig that we bought at the County Fair. We have been busy finding new ways to use leftover ham in the last few days...

We had to make a trip to the Emergency Room this afternoon for Joel. Joel took on a Gerber camp axe, but came in second... It was a pretty bad cut and he needed stiches. We are now praying that the end of his finger will reatach itself again. He will see the surgeon on Tuesday morning for a follow-up to see how the finger is doing. According to Joel it sounds a lot worse than it is... The bone was missed, so it is only a flesh wound.

We had some ice this morning. For those of you in South Africa, the ice on the road was over a cm thick and the roads are then very slippery. There has been non-stop accidents today of people slipping off the road into ditches. With the ice on the roads, we couldn't even get to church and were stuck at the house the whole day - until we had to drive to the hospital!!!

Thats is all for this week.. We are attaching a few photos again. Enjoy!

Love
Joel and Hannalize

Hunting season is on..!!

Hello everyone,

Things are moving along here in North Idaho. Hannalize just got back from a week in Portland at her head office. She had lots of meetings and got to stay at a fancy hotel. It's sure nice to have her home, though. Joel has been busy with work and a few classes that he is taking. He's looking forward to next week's 4-day weekend for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Hannalize is trying to get her buck. Hunting season runs until December 1st and the animals are rutting right now, so hopefully tomorrow will be the big day. The picture above is from last weekend's hunting trip up in the snow. We saw 10 does, but Hannalize passed up on all of them since she is looking for the big one.

The weather is nice this weekend. We had some very cold and snowy weather the last few weeks, but it's nice right now. It has been quite cold at night and we have had a very nice fire burning most days and nights. One nice thing about Joel working in the timber industry is that we have no shortage of free firewood.

Today, we worked in the garden and built a nice flowerbed that will go on the side of the house. After we got done working in the garden, we drove into Coeur d'Alene and did some grocery shopping....with a lot of impulse shopping also. Tonight, we're just going to relax in front of the TV.

Enjoy the pictures and we'll post some of Hannalize's big buck soon...!!

- Joel & Hannalize

Empty House...

Hallo everybody!

It's been a while since we last visited and lots has happened. The house seems very quiet now after Hannalize's parents were here for a visit. They were here with us for just over 3 weeks and a busy 3 weeks it was. We showed them around St Maries and North Idaho, before we took a trip down to Oregon. We visited with Joel's parents at the cabin and made a trip to the Cowboy Dinner Tree for their world famous giant steaks. We were thankful that we went to the cabin, because unfortunately the cabin burned down the next weekend. Thankfully, no one was there and no one got hurt.

With the labour that was flown in from South Africa, we were able to get a number of projects done around the house. Several more rooms have been painted, new shelves have been put up and large amounts of leaves were raked.

Here in Idaho, hunting is in full swing. Both Joel and Hannalize's dad shot Whitetail Deer and Joel has shot many Grouse. After hanging for a few days, the deer were cut up and lots of biltong has been made and is hanging in the garage. the rest of the meat is in the freezer, either in the form of mince meat ("hamburger") or boerewors (sausages). The venison makes wonderful biltong and wors and we have been indulging in it. For the Americans reading this, biltong is a South African type of dried meat, similar to jerky, but also different....very, very good..!!!

As can be seen in the above photo, Hannalize's dad and Roxy both enjoyed watching the History Channel very, very much while they were here visiting. We're not sure if Roxy was as interested in the program content as much as she was interested in the cheez-its that were located next to the couch.

On Oct 30th, we woke up to a white St Maries. The first snowfall of the season, while light, was quite beautiful. We had a week of very cold weather, as cold as -13C/9F. Is has warmed up and has started raining, but more snow is expected by the end of the week. We have been burning a lot of firewood... Joel got his new weather station installed today and we can now measure temp, wind speed, rainfall, and barometric pressure from the warmth of our dining room.

Hannalize will be traveling back to Oregon next week for work. Joel has been busy with ambulance training and his math class that he must do to get his Idaho Engineering license. Not too much other news, but keep checking back and we will have some pictures of the first big snowfall soon...

Joel and Hannalize

Before and After.....Grasshopper Wing...

Hello everyone,

Well, we've been busy putting "our" touches on the house....There are plenty of projects for us to do, and we have been trying to prioritize them. We've painted the walk-in closet and put up nice wire shelves, Hannalize painted the laundry room and it looks far, far better. She has also been very busy taking down wallpaper in the kitchen and dining room. As can be imagined, several layers of wallpaper can cover up some interesting "repairs" to the walls...It's very interesting what some people consider an acceptable repair job. Overall, the house is in very good shape, there are just a number of cosmetic things that we want to change.

Last weekend, Hannalize totally repainted the sitting room. It was a boring white with some old, dirty very frilly and lacy curtains. Since that wasn't really our style, Hannalize decided to do some work....You'll find some before and after pictures above. The new color is called "Grasshopper Wing"...It really has brought out the character of the living room. It should go very well with the colors for the dining room and kitchen. They will be painted "Buttercup" with maroon accessories. The house should be a lot more lively from now on.

This weekend has been quite busy. Friday night, we were both worn out from a very busy work week, so we just relaxed by the house. Saturday, we went into Coeur D'Alene and had a full day of shopping. We went to Lowe's, Sears, Wal-Mart, and Costco. For our friends and family in South Africa, Lowe's is a giant DIY center, Sears is a department store with the best appliances and the ultimate tool section. Wal-Mart is a giant discount store that carries everything for very cheap, and Costco is a warehouse store like Makro. We came back home with a car that was stacked full to the roof. Poor Roxy barely had any space to lay down in the back.

Hannalize leaves early Monday morning (she must be out of the house by 4:15 AM) for a trip to Springfield, Missouri. She'll be back on Wednesday afternoon.

We're really looking forward to Hannalize's parents arriving on October 5th. They will be here until October 28th. We have a ton of stuff planned for their visit. We're going to make a quick trip over to Oregon and see our old house, visit Joel's parents, and go to the cabin. Hannalize's dad and Joel will be busy doing lots of hunting, and we will do lots of sightseeing. We can hardly wait.

We are both very glad that Genevieve is doing well and is back home. Our thoughts and prayers have been with her and her family since Thursday and we're very thankful for her speedy recovery.

Until next time, keep well and God Bless....

Joel & Hannalize

Paul Bunyon Days...!!!

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since our last post and we have to apologize. Things have been very busy getting settled into the new house. We're really enjoying it, and we never seem to run out of projects to do around the house.

First things first, this weekend has been Paul Bunyon Days here in St. Maries. For those of you who didn't grow up in America, Paul Bunyon is a story character who is a giant lumberjack who cleared huge swaths of land with his axe to make way for civilization. He also has a giant Blue Ox named Babe. Since St. Maries is a logging and lumber town, every labor day weekend, the town pays homage to the legendary Paul Bunyon. Remember, St. Maries is a town of 2,653 people, and during Paul Bunyon Days, there might be as many as 10,000 people here. There is four days of events and celebration. The highlight was a HUGE fireworks show on Sunday night. There was also the "Largest Topless Bar in Idaho". It was a large outside beer garden without a roof. Yesterday, there were various logging competitions in the city pool where people would roll on a log and try to roll the other one off, there were competitions where people were jousting in canoes and all kinds of fun things that guarantee everyone will end up in the water. Today was the competitions with the chainsaws, axe throwing, and pole climbing. There was also lots of music, dances, carnival rides and games, and a huge parade. We both rode on the back of one of the fire trucks and threw candy to all of the kids. Most kids had bags that were stuffed full of candy.....Every child's dream.

We've attached a few pictures of the house, including one that shows the view from the deck. It is quite smoky in this picture from the nearby forest fires, but it really is a beautiful view of the St. Joe River Valley. Hannalize is busy taking off lots of wallpaper and Joel is busy organizing everything in the shop (in America, a shop is a garage that is larger than normal and has workspace). We're also enjoying the hot tub that came with the house..that will be very nice this winter..!!

Joel's parents are up visiting right now. They came up to help us with some projects and enjoy Paul Bunyon Days. Roxy is enjoying all of the extra attention from grandma and grandpa....

It's only about 5 more weeks before Hannalize's parents get here. We are really looking forward to their visit. Her dad will get to go deer hunting with Joel. We'll show them around and give them the quick tour of the Pacific Northwest (and maybe a special surprise...)

Enjoy the pictures and we look forward to hearing from everyone.

- Joel & Hannalize

Hot Weather in Idaho

Hello everyone..!!!

This update is coming from a very hot St. Maries, Idaho. The temperature over the weekend has been up as high as 107 F...For all of you metric folks, that is almost 42 celsius....Fortunately, it's a very dry heat, so it's really not that uncomfortable. We have tried to spend as much time in cool spots as possible. Yesterday, we took a trip to Spokane and Coeur D'Alene, and by the time we got home, it was starting to cool off a bit. Today has just been plain hot. We went to the river this morning so Roxy could swim and stay cool. She is getting very good at jumping off the dock into the river to fetch a stick. The river here is very busy with boats. Everybody seems to have a boat. Many of the boats appear to be worth considerably more than the house that they belong to...but that is a whole other topic...

We are so excited to move to the new house in about a week and a half. The rental house is really starting to wear on us, and the time can't pass fast enough. Most of all, we want our stuff...We are both very tired of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, sitting in folding camp chairs, and really not having much in our kitchen...but what we really, really want is our washer and dryer. Going to the laundromat isn't too much fun, and our new washer and dryer work so much better and get our clothes much much cleaner.

Last Tuesday, we had a fantastic social evening with our weightlifting group. We all got together over at the boat park on the river and had a potluck dinner. We had smoked turkey and ham, and lots of salads, side dishes, and desserts. We also had two boats that were taken out for people to waterski and tubing. Hannalize did very well at both. She skiied all the way from the park back into town, which was about 2 miles or so. Roxy really enjoyed that evening as well, as she played with all of the children the whole night. We're really enjoying all of the friends that we are making here.

Things have been fairly quiet in the fire department this week. We had one gas leak and one chimney fire to respond to, but both were easily handled. Hannalize is getting fitted for her turnouts, so she will also be able to respond to calls now.

Last weekend, we were very busy. Saturday was the car show downtown, and there were about 100-120 old cars on display. The "Art in the Park" festival was also going on. We volunteered to work at the Booster Club food booth on Saturday afternoon, selling hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ sandwiches, chinese food, etc. to help raise money for the high school weight room. That was a lot of fun. On Sunday, we went back to the festival to enjoy the bands that were playing. We took Roxy along and she also enjoyed seeing all of the other dogs and people.

Until next time,

Joel & Hannalize

4th of July Weekend Update

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since we posted, but this post has some exciting news in it. It is the 4th of July weekend, and the weather has been beautiful. Today was quite warm, and tomorrow is forecast to be 95 degrees (35 celsius).

As you know, we have been searching for a house to buy. The St. Maries real estate market is not the best one to be a buyer in. There are quite a few houses for sale, but most of them are either very dumpy or very overpriced or very overpriced dumps. We did finally find a house, and there is quite a funny story to it. My parents were up visiting for a week, and my mom was out on her morning walk. As many of you know, she can talk to anyone, and she started talking to some guy who was outside washing his 5th wheel trailer. She mentioned that we were looking for a house. The next morning, Hannalize saw a guy drive by, then back up, and walk up to the door. He asked "Do you have a mother or mother-in-law from Eugene, Oregon?" She says yes, wondering what was going on. It turned out that the guy was the one my mom had talked to, and his son and daughter-in-law had made an offer that had been accepted on a piece of property outside of town and would be wanting to sell their house. We went over and saw their house, and decided that we liked it. We made an offer and negotiated a price and it will be closing on August 1st.

The house was built in 1922 and has been well-maintained and updated. It has 4 bedrooms (one as an office), 2 bathrooms, and is 2152 square feet. It has a brand new metal roof on the house and the shop. The kitchen was new last year. It has gorgeous hardwood floors on the first floor. The lot is quite large, about 14,000 square feet and has a pull-through driveway, RV parking, and a large yard with a new fence. Oh yes, almost forgot, there is a large hot tub built into the deck.

Yesterday, we went over to the State Park at Coeur D'Alene Lake and went for a nice 3 mile hike along a very neat trail up along some cliffs. After we hiked, we went down to the shore so Roxy could cool off. She loves the water and started splashing around. After gaining a bit of confidence, she swam for the first time. She would swim out to go get the stick that was thrown out. She was absolutely having the time of her life.

Tomorrow, we're going to head back to the lake and hike on a different trail and let Roxy go swimming again. We'll also barbecue some steaks and celebrate independence day by watching all of the illegal fireworks that get shot off over the indian reservation.

On June 17th, Roxy turned 1 year old. We bought her a nice party hat, which she wore for a little while, then promptly ate. It's hard to believe that the time has flown like this....

OK, I'll let Hannalize add her part now....

Hi Almal!

Die grootste nuus is definitief dat ons 'n huis gekry het! Dit was omtrent 'n gedoente... Hierdie huis was definitief die beste van al die huise wat ons gesien het, en glo my, ons het baie gesien. Ons sien uit daarna om in te trek. Die lewe hier in die woonstel is maar saai en met die dat daar nie 'n heining om die erf is nie kan arme Roxy ook nie eintlik buite speel nie. As sy uitgaan moet sy aan 'n tou wees...

Verder gaan dit goed hier. Die somer het uiteindlik opgedaag en ons geniet die warmer weer. Ons het vannaand in die bosse gaan hardloop net buite die dorp. Was op 'n pad waar hulle op die oomblik die bome saag en Roxy kon los rondhardloop. Ons het selfs twee "whitetail deer" gesien. Roxy het hulle nie gesien nie, maar wel geruik en was vreeslik opgewonde.

Ek gaan Woensdag tot Vrydag weer kantoor toe in Portland. Sal sommer vir Joel se pa in die hospitaal ook gaan kuier, hy kry Woensdag 'n operasie om sy pasaangeer te vervang met 'n nuwe een.

Ek gaan eers groet. Groete hier uit 'n lekker warm en sonnige St Maries.

Groete
Joel en Hannalize