Dinuba California - Gleanings for the Hungry It was sad saying goodbye to all our family and friends in Chico... there is a rumour that we will be back to stay but we personally did not start that rumour!However, it is too cold to stay there now anyway... I had to wear shoes and sox for the first time since Haida Gwaii. We arrived Monday evening in Dinuba at the Youth With A Mission base called Gleanings for the Hungry.Gleanings is a huge dehydration processing...

Enjoyed another Smith Family Rebellion, where we all try to gather in one place, hug each other, eat a bunch of food, laugh out loud, and talk even louder. We were only 44 of a possible 68 who inhabit this area... so it was just a modest representation of who we are! Of course without many of the Giesbrechts it was a more impartial representation... but they were all involved in a large church wedding in West Valley. However, everyone there got to see Grandma...

It's a beautiful fall day, sunny, and warm. Tim and I enjoyed the morning together at the Farmer's Market in Chico with a great cup of Java. Eli is off with his Uncle Jim fixing something that may or may not have been broken in the first place, and the girls are serving at an 80th birthday party for a friend. Kathy and Wilbert are home from their Northern Saskatchewan adventure and they brought a trunk load of Tim Horton's coffee (praise God!) and Mom Smit...

Twenty years ago today, I turned 26, and my loving husband had one of those defining moments where something comparatively vague becomes cataclysmically clear. After wishing me a happy birthday he looked at me ever so seriously and stated in absolute shock, "I can't believe my wife is almost 30!" When he came to, we discussed the relativity of time (that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant!) that 29 is more accurately nearly 30, and that he wasn't gettin...

Buenos Dias. This is Eli. I'm doing okay - considering! My toe is broken which is real disappointing because I don't get to do much with my cousins but hobble around behind them, and my sisters and especially Dad are a pain teasing me. Harvesting was good - most days! I learned a bit of Spanish, a bunch about the machinery, and a lot about Mexican women (they can be bossy but they make good tacos). I worked 12 hour days for five weeks, and it's good to be finish...