Jordan, Israel &Egypt

Haigler House Sphynx in Cairo, Egypt

Typical scene from a Greco-Roman Temple

The Garden Tomb

The sea of Galilee from Mt. Carmel

Hi everyone,

We just returned from a wonderful trip to the Holy Lands. It was so inspiring to actually see and walk in the same places that the Savior walked and performed many miracles. We were especially touched at the Garden Tomb to think about the Atonement and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As our guide so appropriately put it, the best thing about the tomb is that it is EMPTY! We all repeated the resounding AMEN!

Egypt was awesome with all it's amazing old Greco-Roman Egyptian Temples. Many date back to 3000BC. The Pyramids are even bigger and more amazing than they seem in pictures. We loved everything but it is good to be home and back to our house building project at Haigler Creek. The dreams are becoming reality and that is very exciting. Enjoy the pictures!

Love to all, Jana & Dale

Oct. General Conference Weekend 2009

The back of the house with Dale meditating. This is the garden entrance to our new home

Success! Julie finally caught a crawdad.

What a surprise to be awakened at 1:30 in the morning with a knocking on the window outside and a light shining through the window at Haigler. I awoke and wondered who was there. It was a little scary but it was the Smiths just arriving. What a fun time we have all had watching conference and enjoying a turkey dinner that Bob and Peggy cooked for us on Sunday. The talks were awesome and inspiring. The weather was wonderful and we were thankful that it didn't rain and get our house under construction wet again. The woodens, Peggy & Bob with Kevin and April and their families, the Smiths, Cord and Gayla and kids, Art & Jacque and Ashley and friend were all here with Dale and I.

Between conference sessions the Smiths and dale and I went walking up the creek to explore and they also had the grand tour of our house in its framed in stage. It has been a lovely weekend.

The beginning of our House at haigler Creek

Hi everyone,

Here are a few pictures of our new house, at least the foundation. We are pretty excited to see a little action after waiting for four months to get the much longed for building permit. Finally!! While we waited we kept ourselves busy building a fence and planting a garden. The animals have pretty much been kept out except for a few problems with the racoons getting into the corn. They go right up the posts and over the fence. Well, that problem is now solved with the electric wire we ran across the top. It seems to be working and we have now harvested afew ears of delicious corn. The squash is prolific and the carrots are ready now. Cucumbers are awesome and the tomatoes will be ready in a few weeks. It is really fun to harvest the fruits of our labors. We'll keep you posted on the progress of our house if we can find the lost camera cord!

The chain saw

Here is a little video clip that was supposed to be a still picture, but it provides the real sounds of the Dale's daily activities. The cedars around the lodge look great now thanks to Dale and his chain saw.

Work at Haigler Creek

Well, the work is moving forward and this week we are one step closer to building our retreat in the mountains. We don't have the septic tank in yet but they layout is done, the plans are in and we are awaiting the ok and permit to be issued. Also this week, a surveyor came out to put in a "benchmark" to make sure we build 16.6 feet above the creek and he determined that our property was at that level. That was great news because at first he said we needed to build up 6 feet. After a few more calculations and Dale's talking to him he said it was ok at ground level. We are planning to be up 3 feet anyway. We are now awaiting the plans to be reviewed by the county and the permits to be issued.

We are working really hard to clear all of the old dead wood and trees and each we burn for three or so days without stopping. Wow, it is looking nice and we are so pleased that it is so pretty up there. It is very rewarding even if our backs are sore and my fingers are stiff and swollen. We'll heal.

Enjoy the pictures.

Dale and Jana

QUICK UPDATE

Hi all,

It's been a while and there have been many changes in my life. July 19, 2009 was the biggest as that was my wedding day to Oscar Dale Porter. We were married in the Mesa Temple. We honeymooned to China and have been going ever since. We spent 6 weeks in Provo, then another 6 weeks in the mountains at Haigler Creek and then 4 weeks on a road trip that took us to Plano Texas, then Augusta Georgia, on to DC, then Philadelphia, then Chicago, and lastly home via Utah. All of this to vist a few of our 17 children and 54 (with 2 on the way) grand children. Wow!! It was delightful, educational, fun and we were really able to get to know one another. Altogether we put an additional 7000 miles on the car, but it was wonderful to see many parts of the US that I had not seen before.

Our plans had been to be snowbirds and spend the winters in Mesa, but it seems we keep going to the cold places and sending time in the mountains. Last week-end was back to Chicago for a blessing and baptism of Rebecca and Adam Driggs. Fortunately for us their cold spell of subzero weather warmed up to the 30's and it wasn't quite so bad.

Our plans for the next few months are to work on building a cabin at Haigler Creek, a quick trip to Texas for Sarah's baptism, a road rip to Calif. for children visits, and then on April 7th we are off to England to work in the Preston Temple for 6 months.

Life is great!! Retirement is fun and family is marvelous. We do enjoy it all. I am posting a few of the wedding pictures and one of the falls we discovered at Haigler Creek this past fall. That huge piece of driftwood looks great in our front yard but it was not easy Dale to carry it up the canyon and out of the cliffs to the truck!

Love to all out there.

Jana Porter