A wonderful end to an amazing year

  Since moving here, John and I have been striving to find ways to make this community really feel like home.  Browsing Facebook, I found that the valley residents are very giving and compassionate.  We've had the pleasure of  experiencing this generosity first hand.
  First, there was Chad, who brought us a pigtail to use with our generator so we could get power.  Steve came over to help us put the snowplow on the Goblin, and then there was Kevin, who, with a friend, hand shoveled our driveway because he'd promised to plow it and his plow wasn't available.  To top that off, he fixed the shift cable on the Goblin so we could plow ourselves.
  In search of a way to spread the news of these wonderful men, and to allow others to do the same, on October 17th, I created a group called Good Deeds in the Mat-Su Valley. The group currently has 886 members and is still growing!

A link to the group

  As Christmas approached, we began to see parents asking for help for food, clothing, and gifts for their children.  The response was astronomical.  I know that I co-ordinated the gathering of donations for one family.  From the back of Trooper, I unloaded 4 large bags of presents, 1 large bag and 4 big boxes of food.  That was just one of the many families helped at Christmas.

The Good Deeds Elfs helped so many people this year.  I challenge anyone to find a more generous group of people anywhere.

 Then on December 20, a member of our group noticed a homeless man digging through the trash.

Tis the season! While out finishing up our christmas shopping I happen to notice an elderly man walking across the parking lot carrying a small clear trash bag. As I get closer to him, and watch as he walks from lot to lot, i realize that the contents of the bag are items that people are throwing out. I continue to watch i notice that others are being very rude and disrespectful to him. I walk over and ask if he needs help with anything. He tells me that he is homeless and has 2 children that he is trying to find needed items for he and them for christmas... With a VERY heavy Heart i ask him to Stay and wait for me to return... Instead of buying myself ANYTHING i return to him w one toy a piece, 3 beanies, a large warm blanket and a hot meal. With tears running down his face he thanks me and then asks my name so that he may one day return the kindness.... I hug him and say, There is no thanks needed and just call me a blessing. Later on i see this same Man sharing his ONLY meal with a homeless teen.... THIS IS WHAT ITS ABOUT FOLKS .

  
The members of our group got all fired up about this post, and voila, the Wasilla Homeless-Committee was born.  We currently have 47 members in the group and are trying to set up a meeting for the second Saturday of January.


Christmas Eve finds us busy at the Menard Center peeling potatoes for the Friendship Dinner to be held on Christmas Day.  6 hours of peeling, rolling eating utensils in napkins, pouring salad dressing, and making butterballs.  What a rewarding time!

  Christmas Day, started off with worship services before the guests started arriving.  Boy, did they arrive!  4,000 people fed turkey, ham, yams, mashed potatoes/gravy, veggies, salad & desserts galore!  

  Entertainment was provided throughout the day, including a Celtic band, tuba band, and an acoustic group, just to mention a few.

  Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance with gift bags for all the children. The bags were generously filled with books, gloves, games, and of course, candy.

The guests just kept coming.  It was estimated we served over 4,000 from 11:00 until 3:00.

  Best of all, about 10:30, it started snowing big fluffy flakes.

  On the funny side, we'd purchased the pups snow booties to keep their feet warm.  Sassy had a very interesting reaction to them. She absolutely hated them, sat down and refused to walk.  The look on her face was priceless.

  Only one fail since my last post.  On the day after Christmas, we decided we needed to plow all the snow that had accumulated.  One drive done, one pass made on the second drive and BANG, the winch rope breaks and the plow slams into the road.

  I call John who comes down with a chain which we hook onto the plow.  As he lifts, I bring the chain around the Goblin and hook it to the hitch.  We were able to get him back into the garage, but in looking at the cable, we can see that the rope is wrapped back onto itself and we don't have enough length to grab onto to pull it loose.

  We ordered a new one from Amazon, then yesterday John got a brilliant idea.  He had a good length of paracord, which we doubled and tied to the 6 inches of wench cable available.  He wrapped the other end of the paracord around a long screwdriver to serve as a handle and with just a couple of tugs, it broke free. We removed the rope from the plow side and cut the frayed end off the wench side,  We then wrapped the rope back around the thimble, secured it with heavy duty zip ties, then wrapped with duct tape.  Voila, it worked and I was able to finish the plowing.

  We look fondly back on 2014 and expectantly forward to 2015.  Hope all of you have a wonderful, prosperous, and safe 2015.