Where No Man Hath Gone.....

We had dinner the other night with Phil and Beth Claussen, and their son Jonathan.  Remember him from my blog in August of 2008?  Click on that link to see what he wants to do with his life!  Anyhow, he spent 2 months last year traipsing across the mountains of northern Papua New Guinea.  Took 20 Power Bars with him for food.  That's it.  And a bunch of small pocket knives to use for trading.  He traded for food, for a dug-out canoe and I suppose that is how he collected these different types of spears...... a man spear, an alligator spear, pig spear, bird spear and who knows what else.  And yes, you can assume that a 'man spear' is for killing humans.  Yes indeedy.  Below is a closer look at the heads of the spears:

Notice that awful-looking barbed head.  I think that one was for pigs.  Wicked!!!!  The long, thin flat one is the man spear, to slide between the ribs.  Oh my.  A couple of those have troughs dug out on the tips, which carry poison in them.  The target dies a slower death, waiting for the poison to do its job.  All very fascinating!

But the stories he has to tell of his trek!  I wish you all could hear him talk!  Absolutely amazing!  He is a linguist, so since he was doing this trip(just for fun), he decided to do what is called a 'rapid survey'.  At each tribe he came upon (about 60 in all), he used this survey to record the language.  He spoke  pigeon-Tok Pisin (or something like that), a creole language that is the language that is most widely spoken through-out the more civilized Papua New Guinea.  There was often one member of the tribe that spoke it also, so that they could trade with other tribes.  That made it a bit easier to communicate in those tribes.  However, he visited about 30 tribes that had never seen a white man, and had nobody who could communicate in tongue with him, but he was successful in all!  He gave all of his information to some New Tribe missionaries that he ran into on his way out.  What a wealth of knowledge for them to be able to determine which tribes have unknown and unrecorded languages!  But his experiences are amazing....  can't hardly begin to tell, and we only heard a small fraction of them!  The different greeting for each tribe that he had to follow........ kissing on lips, touching the inner thigh, and even the grasping of the testicles!  Yikes!  Learning to hunt with the different spears.....how to run with the spears, how to use them, how to dislodge them from the prey.  How to eat each and every part of the kill........ brains, private parts (the alligator had the biggest and most-difficult-to-eat  private organ)...... the incredible alligator hunts from their long, skinny canoes (not wide enough to fit more than one foot in; one stands on it and paddles with a long paddle, all the while balancing)...... learning how to eating big, taut, plump, juicy grubs so that the PSI doesn't force them to fly out of the mouth with a terrible force....... going hungry for days while looking for the next tribe....... constantly cold........often sick......intestinal parasites that he drank iodine for to kill........ crashing his dug-out canoe on a 500 mile trip down the huge Sepik River, getting caught under a log jam, but managing to get himself out from under it, get his canoe out from under it and get down river to reach it, and finally get to shore, exhausted and I am pretty sure at this point he was wondering if he would make it to the end of his travels alive.  He started out at 150# and ended up at 120#.  Apparently looked pretty emaciated, but he said his body had adjusted and he was doing okay.  The protein in the grubs made him feel the strongest, so he learned to desire those nasty buggers!  One tribal chief thought he was Jesus because a photo of a blue-eyed Jesus had been traded from tribe to tribe until it had reached their tribe!  Usually he was first greeted by the tribal chief and the elders as he entered each tribe, but at one he entered at a point where some women were out working the gardens.  When they saw him, one woman shrieked something and the others all started shouting with her.  They proceeded to slap him with banana leaves in a celebratory manner.  He had no idea what was happening, until later he learned that the woman thought he was her son returning from the dead because he was so pale!!! 

Long enough.  Best stop here.  But if any of you close by Monroe want to laugh and be amazed, have Jonathan over for dinner some time!  He is here for a bit.  He plans to go out with Pioneer Missions, working with some of these isolated tribes, learning and recording the full language, as soon as he gets enough financial support.  If anyone can do it, it is a Claussen!!!  His brother Andrew will maybe then follow him and plant a church!  Amazing young men!

Daylight Savings

Uncle Cecil's Family

In mid February Darrell and I flew back to Missouri to visit his Uncle Cecil and cousin Pat and family.  We had met up with Uncle Cecil and his wife Bunzie about 4 years ago when we were back there for a conference for Darrell's work.  At that time Pat was away on a cruise with her husband, John, so we did not meet them.  Uncle Cecil has lived with them for 7 years.  Darrell was just a wee lad when he last saw cousin Pat, so this may as well have been his first time to get to know her!  It was a wonderful time of getting acquainted with Darrell's extended family!  A real plus is that Pat has  family pictures of days long ago, so I was able to scan them in with my new portable scanner and dump on my computer for future usage!  Really exciting for me!

 This is Uncle Cecil (left) and Kenny (Darrell's father) as young boys.  Likely the only picture taken or at least that survived the family's roaming about the country!  I sure think that grandson Owen looks an awful lot like his great grandpa!

Uncle Cecil flew B24 bombers (part of the 449th BG), as well as the Scorpion Jet during WWII, 36 missions in all.  He was able to share a few stories with us, including the need to bail out of his plane over Southern Italy after bombing Regensburg, Germany.

 I thought that this was the original bomber for the crew that Uncle Cecil flew most of his missions with.  However, the original plane, The Wise Virgin, was the one that was crashed on Feb 22, 1944 near Bari, Italy on its return from the Regensburg bombing.  Engines #3 and #4 failed.  The Wise Virgin II was its replacement.  The entire crew survived the bail-out though the pilot, Cecil Kinerd, broke his left leg and was sent back to the States.  The replacement pilot, Richard Dacey (third from left, back row) is standing next to Uncle Cecil (middle back row).

 He married Helen directly before enlisting in the Army Air Corp.  They were very happy together, until her unfortunate passing in 1988.

 His two children Bruce and Patricia celebrating his 92nd birthday with him in 2011

This visit was to say good-bye to Uncle Cecil, as he was in his final days here on earth.  He passed into eternity 2 days after we left.  We had several days with him where he was lucid enough to relate more family stories and ask questions.

Darrell and I with John and Pat

 Darrell's cousin Bruce and his wife Becky.  We did not get to meet them, as they live in Florida, so this is a picture of a photo :-)  We did, however do some Face Time on iPads with Bruce!

Pat's oldest, Matthew, with his wife, Stephanie, and their two children Madeleine and Elijah.  We did spend some time with this entire family!  Darrell and Madeleine did some baking together, and Elijah seemed to take a real liking to Darrell, cozying right up to him! 

 Pat's youngest, Melissa, and her husband, Matthew Mustain, and their children Thomas and Amelia.  Though we did get to spend time with Melissa and the kids, Matthew was not around, so again, I took a picture of a photo.  Sweet Amelia was 4 months old when we were there, and 'jumping bean' Thomas, two.

The entire family was so hospitable, friendly, sweet and fun!  We totally enjoyed ourselves and wish we'd made the effort to get to know them way sooner than this!

We were wondering what John and Pat's children would be called in relation to us, and I came upon this chart, which answers all sorts of those type questions, on FaceBook last week.  For those of you who always wondered...........  here it is!!!!  Enjoy!

Emerson Grace

Our oh-so-cute granddaughter Emerson was born early Monday morning to Scott and Bethany

Two sets of proud grandparents visited the little sweet pea soon thereafter :-}

For other pictures follow this link to Bethany's blog...

Pupusa Cooking Class

For Christmas I bought Darrell a Groupon for two for any cooking class at Dish It Up!, a wonderful kitchen shop in Ballard.  He chose to go to the Pupusa class, and took me with him (he didn't really have any other choice in who he took that would have been the correct option!). 

The class was last night, and we really had fun, and the food was delicious!  It was 'hands on', so we all were able to participate in making  4 different kinds of pupusas as well as some sauces and condiments to put on them. 

The chef was Jason Vickers (right), a delightful and personable man, who loves his job!  He passes that enthusiasm on to his students, as well.  He chatted, answered all kinds of cooking questions and made the evening as great as it was!

Pupusas are made with masa (corn flour).  Different fillings can be used to 'stuff' them with, then they are either pan fried or deep fried.  We had 4 fillings: Salvadoran Pulled Pork Pupusas with Pickled Cabbage, Pupusas De Queso, Vegetable Pupusas and Apple Pupusas.

 They were absolutely wonderful, and I would do another class anytime!  Highly recommend them!

Time Out

The Northwest had what was their (hopefully) annual 'Big One' for the winter a couple of weeks ago.  We were without power for about a week which for us, being on a well, means no water as well as no power.  Which, incidentally, we need to run the pellet stove, too.  Above you see Darrell outside on the second day knocking the frozen snow off of bushes and roofs.  We had several outbuilding roofs collapse a few years ago, under the weight of the heavy wet, frozen snow, so since he wasn't on crutches this time, he took a proactive approach :-)   The only source of heat we had was our little propane stove in the kitchen, but with no electricity for the fan, the warmth stayed directly in front of the stove, then dissipated. The animals and I spent a greater portion of our days sitting right there.  In front of it.  With blankets and pillows.  Man, it was cold! 

Before it got too cold in the house to do much, I started up a new hobby of teaching myself to watercolor. Library books galore on the subject!  Much of it is just trial and error.

 This is my first finished watercolor!  From my head, no less!  I kind of like it :-) 

My view from the sun room window is of the bird feeders.  I must have had 50 birds each day at them!  I scattered scoopfuls of seed out on top of the snow for them! Woodpeckers, thrushes, chickadees, towhees, juncos, song birds........ so many friends came :-}  Sunny discovered her new favorite perch in the window once she caught a glimpse of all the feathered creatures!

It inspired this stab at a watercolor.

The window opposite the sun room in the kitchen sports a view of my garden.  Not much to see when it is buried, but I took a try at the fence, as well.  Well.  I added the cute little bunny.  They are hiding underground for the winter.  Of course I only painted some of the scenes in my pictures.  Too hard for me to do it all when I am just learning :-}  Amateurish, I know, but I am okay with my beginning tries!

Chocolate Kahlua Mousse

This mousse receipe has long been a favorite of ours.  It is one we have made since the 1970's, when the wife of my father once served it to us on a visit to see them. Someone has requested it, so I am putting it here, though I have no photo to share along with it. It is the perfect dessert to serve on Valentine's Day !

Chocolate Kahlua Mousse

6 oz. sweet chocolate, melted

2 Tbs Kahlua

3 Tbs orange juice

2 whole eggs

2 additional egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vania

1 cup cream, whipped

Melt chocolate with Kahlua and orange juice.  Mix all ingredients together (except cream) in blender or food processor for 1 minute.  Fold in whipped cream.  Pour into dessert bowls  or glasses.  Chill. Garnish with mint leaves, or a dap of whipped cream if desired.  Serves 6-8.