It has been a buy week.  I can't seem to remember anything of import from Monday, but Tuesday thru Friday I started learning about drilling water wells.  I started working for Arnie and Arliss drilling a well for Loren and Carmen.  We set up the drilling rig on Tuesday.  The rig sits on a WWII era truck and weighs about a ga-zillion pounds.  There are some pictures in the Matanuska Area album.  The first day we drilled down about 11 feet.  The work was hard for this desk jockey but very satisfying.  On Wednesday we got down to about 15' and the cast iron well casing hit a rock and deflected sideways.  We could not drill past it so we had to pull the casing up about 5'.  It was quite a task but we got it done.  On Thursday we drilled some more and then drove the casing pipe back down into the hole.  It hit the rock again and deflected again.  We had to extract the pipe and start over.  We (actually Arliss) cut and welded the pipe and an extraction cap multiple times, as it kept breaking loose, We finally got the pipe out by lunch time on Friday.  We started packing up the rig to move it to a new location.  The derrick on the rig is about 40' feet tall and had to be lowered to move the rig (we didn't want a roll-over like the Hicks Creek crane last week).  Arnie came by to get the rig set up.  The called me out of the warm cabin where we were having lunch to help him.  It turns out the derrick is raised with the massive winches but lowered using hydraulics.  The only problem id the hydraulics heed help to start the process.  Mr. Universe himself, me, was told to pull on a 3/8" steel cable to start lowering the derrick.  I pulled one way then another and nothing happened.  I finally climbed up on the front bumper and leaned back at at least a 45 degree angle, pulling on the cable for all I was worth, and then some.  The derrick finally moved a bit but tipped back.  I then gave another Herculean pull and this mega-ton steel derrick started falling right at me.  I managed to scramble off the bumper before I killed myself and the wonderful hydraulics brought the massive derrick down gently and in control.  Thank God!  The rig was backed up three feet and we set it up again.  The casings were re-welded and by the end of the day/week we had a hole about 6' deep and 3' of casing in the ground.  Hallelujah!

Thursday night I had some trouble getting up the S. Keith's Rd. hill to the highway for a small group Bible study.  I had talked to Arnie about tires earlier, so I asked him on Friday to get me 2 studded snow tires.  At lunch he told me he got the tires but didn't do what I wanted.  I had heard several people discuss the need for 4 snow tires up here and as usual my will was crossed and I now had 4 studded snow tires.  I thank God for this now.  Friday night I thought about parking my car partly down the hill and walking to Danny's house but didn't.  I should have.  I got up about 8:00 Saturday morning and got out early to get my tires mounted.  Oh look, it snowed about three inched last night.  I cleaned off my car and made it up about 1/3 of the hill.  I backed up and made it a little higher before I stopped.  I then back up down the hill and around the corner.  The car started slipping and by the time the ABS stopped the car it was at the edge of a 20' drop off.  Garry was out plowing and motioned for me to stay put!  He checked out the situation and then plowed the road some more so I would have a place to go.  He then decided it would be better to pull me down the hill instead of up it.  Oops, no chain in his truck.  He then had to plow back to his cabin and get a chain.  When he was all set the truck ran out of gas.  That's OK, he had 5 gallons in the cab, only the wrong spout was on the can and it wouldn't stay on.  We ended up using electrical tape to tape the spout onto a cracked funnel and fill the tank.  He got in his truck and I in my car and he started to pull the rear end back towards the middle of the road.  It worked fine, the front end only looked like it was going over the edge for a short time as I backed the car to follow the truck, while Garry was making sure he didn't drive off the opposite side into an 15' drop off.  When we were settled I got a running start on the newly plowed area and made it up half way before I got stuck.  Garry to the rescue again, he hooked the chain up again and made sure I got up to the highway.  Thank God!  One on the many amazing things about this whole adventure was that I felt the most inappropriate peace throughout the whole process.  I should have been terrified of loosing my last asset and my only transportation, but I was not.  I was able to enjoy the beauty of the awesome surroundings and not worry about getting the car out.  The car belongs to God, he has entrusted it to me and I have taken care of it as best I can.  He was in control of this mess and I trusted Him to get me and His car out of it.  AND HE DID!  I got my tires installed and the 'Cat'illac has had no trouble getting up and down that hill with it's new set of claws.  I also have an offer for a set of tire chains that I will probably take advantage of soon.

One other blessing occurred today at church.  I had been invited by my cousin's to spend Thanksgiving in Las Vegas.  I was also invited to come to Cheyenne to spend it with my brother.  With my lack of a permanent job the thought of holiday travel seemed pretty absurd.  I had decided to stay here for Thanksgiving and trust that there would be an opportunity to share it with a family up here.  One of the announcements was for a community Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving at the church.  God had already seen my need and provided for it.