Last weeks of summer

A beautiful quilt Alta finished: Sis Dille, Juanita, Wanda, Bernice, and
Rachelle helped tie it.

Aug. and Sept. have flown by. I've been canning 2-3 days each week and have done lots of beans, tomatoes, and peaches, plus applesauce. Dad says there is only 1 more box of quart bottles and 1 more of pints then all the empty bottles will be filled. We've had quite a few peaches given to us, besides the ones I picked at Hovenweep, and then Dad picked some out at Dick Watkins' this past week. Most of those we sent back with the Waunekas to Ganado. Their son Corey is living with us this school year and going to college.

Last week we traveled down to Ganado for a Gilbert Kinlichee's funeral. He is the grandfather to the Burnette family. He was killed in a roll over, Tues 8. It was a very sad thing for their whole family. We went to the last "gathering" Friday night. Typically, Navajos meet four nights in a row, prior to the funeral, and have a chance to share their feelings, and memories about the deceased, and get comfort and support from one another. At that time the extended family and friends, bring food, and contribute money to help pay for the expenses.

We spent about 2 hours there, and counseled with the parents and grandkids. This was the first family we taught in Ganado, so we know them very well. We stayed overnight with Corey's Aunt Wanda. We did a major picking of our garden the day before and fixed 22 sacks of produce for the members there, as well as prepared food for the Kinlichee family.

Sat. morning the missionaries called and asked us to meet at the church at 9 AM before the funeral at the Presbyterian church. Unbeknownst to us the branch had made us a quilt after we left, using photos taken at our farewell party. It is such a wonderful gift, and brought back s many memories. It was really a special occasion for us. There are 30 blocks each with photos of our wonderful friends in Ganado.



Monday the Waunekas brought Corey up, and we had a cookout that evening with Rob's family, and the Camps (Baptist minister across the street), and some other neighbors. It was a nice evening, and then the Wauneka's drove home afterwards.

Rob has been busy for about 3-4 weeks getting the Memorial Golf tournament organized to raise money for a bench w/ photo and dates of Brian, Eric, and Kim. He had a lot of discouraging moments during the process but stuck with it and the results were great. They ended up with 15 teams and raised enough to pay for the bench, which I think will be on Hole #7. I'm really proud of him, for initiating the idea, and for Kathryn and Ethan for supporting him. I know the three families appreciated it as well.

Last week was peach pie delivery week, I think I made about 6 or 7 that we took to other people, They were so yummy. We also went to Beppy Gibbon's funeral last Thursday. Dr. Gibbons also has cancer, and he has given himself 3 more months to live. I think he may be right. He was really a good doctor to our family, and delivered all except the first and last babies I think.

Autumn and Theron are on their Wyoming adventure through the park and into Cody. Theron took first again in his category at the Lodaja madman's competition. They left from there on their family vacation.

Rachelle Chung is coached by Debbie Bayles

Our big tour de force last weekend was getting this big wheat order delivered and distributed. There was 4.7 tons of wheat delivered at 5 PM Friday, plus 11 five gal buckets of honey and 14 cases of olive oil. By 6:00 3/4ths of it had been picked up. It was a miracle as Corey's mom and myself and Sister Chung were supposed to be to the quilting workshop by 6:15. Whew.....Thanks heavens for those tender mercies of the Lord. It was a blessing. It was really a fun time with the Blanding quilters, and they were so helpful and friendly to my Ganado friends. They want to come back and do it again.

Friday night the guys went to the ball game. We could hear the noise of the game at the Sr. Center where we were working, but we think we had the most fun. The Waunekas and Sis. Chung stayed two nights.

It's a good thing they brought their truck, as we sent the little blue table back with them for his sister's hogan, plus 3 pallets from the wheat truck, and about 6 boxes of produce. They helped us pick beans, tomatoes, grapes, onions, squash, etc.

Tomorrow I'll can more peaches, and then need to go to the nursing home to play the piano, then AR at night. I'm going to use our new quilt as a metaphor. Alta told me the first time they set the blocks together they were all crooked and not aligned, so she and Wanda took it all apart, and they restitched it after squaring up the blocks. I think that correlates with repentance in the addiction process, so I hope they'll appreciate the analogy.