joyces blog 1

This is Joyce's blog # 1

snowed in

We have been snowed in for about tree weeks now and it is BORING. We are not truly stuck here but the road out for about two Miles is not plowed, but we have these road angels that volunteer, Jim Kenobbie has the use of a grader and he grades the mile or so coming in and then Chuck goes i and our wit his big four wheel drive truck and our neighbor Debbie Kenobbie drives a high four wheel drive jeep and keeps the ruts open. We can get out in our SUV but we drag center sometimes. Arnie another neighbor has a humongous front loader and he came after the second or third snow and cleared our drive way very nice!!! We have cancelled church for two Sundays and are determined to get the snow off the parking lot for this Sunday. We have hired Steve Sudtell to clear it with his log loader as the snow has snowed and frozen and then snowed and frozen about  ten times and i very heavy to move at this stage. If we would have been wiser we would have had it plow each time it snowed and we would have had  clear parking lot.
Christmas is for celebrating Jesus Birthday and we are concentrating on that single event this year.
We have just finished thanksgiving and had a wonderful visit and dinner with our grandchildren Mike and Rebbecca who live in Concord. I have lived in the country fro so long I forgot that there are places where the road goes for many miles and it is all houses and businesses. So when I drove to a shopping center by a Fry's store I was sure I was lost and we called and Mike called op the map and directed us by phone to his home. We are blessed with such hospitality.

granfolks

we have had big snow and are getting cabin fever now it has been several days. The Roadhouse church has been canceled two Sundays in a row.

Roadhouse church

We have been having a busy time, since we have the permission of the owner Jim Wright to do what we want with the Motorcycle bar building we are moving in more church pews. We now have about 9 pews 12 feet long they are heavy and were stored in Chuck's barn. There were some volunteers, Glen,O"Callahan, Larry, Terry, and Bob loaded them on a neighbors trailer and moved them to the church. The moving was very difficult on the pews some had broken legs and were very dirty being in a barn for more than one year. Of course there is the three huge chairs I call them thrones fro the back and a couple of short ones about five feet in length. With all the help the job was competed but really had just begun the muscle guys were gone and now the repair guys had to go to go to work, cleaning and fixing gluing and putting screws in the legs and even sawing up some old legs to make some new legs for the center legs that were broken. Joyce and the neighbor lady Debbie worked all day Wednesday and then we went at it again on Thursday. putting up quilts that my daughter Robin had quilted and vacuuming and installing doors for draft control, wood for the wood stove and propane fro the propane heaters. It is going to snow this Sunday and will be COOOL n the building but we think we are ready now.

church Today 11/7/2010

Today we went to the Jokers Roadhouse Motorcycle bar where we have church. The lights are inoperative because the owner did not pay the bill and when I checked the generator it was nearly out of gasoline. So my first job was to return home and get a gasoline can. the other workers prepared the building for church, it is communion Sunday so my wife Joyce had prepared the elements and had them in the car with us. She had also prepared some bagel and made the coffee at home as the power is out at the building. The second  generator, which is for the lights and the big generator is for the rest of the building the bar and the toilets. We use a propane bottle with Mr Heater brand heater, it has two heads and puts out a lot of heat but we also have a wood fire in an old antique buffalo wood stove. The musician Paul W3st arrived and was getting set up while Terry was warming up the building. Our pastor arrived and the worship music started and I returned with extra gas. Church went very well and we all were blessed by a sermon by Pastor Jim Sheridan on the Pentecost and the arriving of the holy ghost.

Just two People

                                                           About us
What happens when you take a local boy who is a stock car driver and a local girl who grew up living on the back of a horse,  dreaming of the ranch where she would have one day to raise  kids and animals?  Meet jack and Joyce Gates.

As the Gates married and left their beloved Oregon they began to travel the country and abroad as jack serves in the military, Joyce began to raise her three children.  As she went about making a home for her family she went about it a little differently than some us. For Joyce home was an art project in the making. She worked on her art on canvas and on occasion her home, often she convinced Jack that moving a wall or two would add the "Right Look"
In 1971 as jack was retiring from military life Joyce found the Long awaited ranch of her childhood dreams. With God's divine intervention they were able to purchase "Penobscot Ranch" in the historic foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Before she knew it Joyce was helping birth calves and looking for lost horses. her wardrobe quickly became flannel jackets and mud boot. Thankfully Jack and Joyce took to ranch life like a duck to water.
Shortly after getting settled and getting her garden and barn in order, a teacher's friend of Joyce's ask if she could bring her small third graders out to see Joyce's "farm". Little did they realize it at the time, but born out of that phone call would start a twenty year journey that would allow thousands of children and adults to experience everything from egg gathering to two hour horse back rides. It was Penobscot Ranch that Joyce began to host women's retreats and see a little bit different vision God had in her future.
As journeys continue Jack and Joyce sold the Penobscot ranch and began a new chapter in their lives. As is their fashion they fell in love with 40 acres in Volcanoville, twelve miles above Georgetown. They could instantly see a home and all the potential that was there. The Gates have worked tirelessly over the last few years, on their new homestead, not quite knowing what God was preparing them for. After much prayer and even more listening to the answer Jack and Joyce are ready to begin a new chapter in their lives. With support from those who loved the work and fellowship of guests at Penobscot Ranch, Jack and Joyce's vision remains the same; Bringing Gods word to those with an ear to listen and open heart.

Dale Knowles memorial

Today 11/6/10 Joyce and I did a memorial service for a friend of the Georgetown Divide. Dale Knowles had delivered septic tanks to the Penobscot Ranch on two different occasions and was a people person, Very friendly going out of his way to help people and phoning some of his friends daily. He had moved to Yreka CA and lived there for many years after we knew him. Dale always wanted to be truck driver and he became on of the very best his friends attested to this fact and his mothre said "He learned from the best his father". His family and friends will certainly miss him on this earth, however he is with the Lord now where every thing is perfect and probably be driving a truck.
 We went there to help heal the hearts of Dale's family and friends, to be vendors of light impacting the world, carriers of the presence of God. Dale was a light for all of us. Always happy and always acknowledging all his acquaintances, a valued person who loved people. He was one that would stop and inquire about any stalled car along his path on the highway, he loved people and being among his friends and neighbors.