Greetings from the cold snowy north! I'm your scribe, Ted, making the annual attempt to hit the highlights of the Soldan Family for 1994. As usual, Alice (the organized one) made an outline of the events, and I (the creative one) get to put it down on paper. Actually, I'm typing this on my second-newest toy; an NCR 3150 color notebook computer, and printing it on my newest toy, an Okidata OL400e laser printer.

When Alice presented me with this year's outline, I realized what our friends meant when they talked about the joys of carting a teenager around. This year Steve (age 15) was involved in Boy Scouts as a Councilor-in-Training at summer camp, an active member of the Order of the Arrow, an active member of his troop, a week-long stay on Mackinac Island as the governor's honor guard, and a trip to Purdue University for NOAC, the National Order of the Arrow Conference. Other scout activities included numerous campouts, including several to prepare him for a trip to the National Scout Camp Philmont in northern New Mexico next summer. In addition to scouting, Steve has kept up with figure skating, tap dancing and dance partnering (dancing with a female partner), fencing, Tai Chi, and the Society of Creative Anachronism. He has taught himself to play the flute, accordion, recorder, and concertina, while continuing to play trumpet in the high school band. In addition, Steve and I ran the spotlights at last year's Nutcracker performance at the Calumet Theater. As a result, this fall when the Calumet Players needed someone to run the spots for their production of The Music Man, they chose Steve; a fairly responsible job for a 14 year-old.

Alice's first contribution to our family this year came during a snowy January day. We had to drive the pickup to town that day because the roads were so bad. Years ago, when Steve was smaller, the three of us could just squeeze into the cab of our little red Chevy S10. It was real crowded in the truck on the way home that winter's day, when from out of nowhere came the exclamation from Alice,"I hate this truck". Within a day or two, on a lunch hour, we were shopping for a van, and we bought the first one we looked at. It is a teal Dodge Caravan. I'd tell you that it was a nice vehicle to drive, except I don't know. I can rarely pry it out of Alice's grip long enough to drive it anywhere. We have taken the van on numerous trips with anything from Scouts to dogs jamming almost every square inch of space. On some scout outings, we've had to tow our trailer along so we'd have room for the boys and all their gear. We sold our lovely little red truck. I hated to see it go, but have to admit that we are in far better shape with the van. I wonder how it will go over the first time I haul a load of gravel in the van?

Alice's second contribution was with recycling. Now most of our household waste has a place in her scheme of reusing. All our cans, glass, and plastic go in their respective containers for recycling. All kitchen scraps are now dumped into her new composting drum. This thing looks like a 200 gallon fuel oil tank. It eats leaves, garbage, hay, and most other organic material, and produces (in theory) rich black compost. We are still fine-tuning the system, but are very happy that less and less of our household wastes are becoming a "problem" in some landfill, but a resource with value.

Alice's work has changed somewhat this year too. She now co-teaches the introductory biology class with Dr. John Adler. This year John gave most of the lectures and Alice coordinated the laboratory exercises. She also used the 10 minutes before lecture to show biology-oriented video and slide shows, and to play innovative audiotapes. Reports are that students are coming early just to experience the multi-media production, and without realizing it, they are being put in a biological frame of mind prior to the hour long lecture.

A large portion of my free time is spent working with Panzer, our 100 lb. German Shepherd dog. I'm a member of the Superiorland Shutzhund Club, which meets twice each week in Champion Michigan, about 70 miles from here. All the training paid off for me when we took Panzer to Minneapolis in early summer for his first trial. He received his Companion B title, which is the first of 4 possible titles for him in the sport of Schutzhund. He is next entitled to compete for his Schutzhund I title, followed by Shutzhund II & III. Although he certainly didn't win the "best of B", I was proud of his performance at our first trial.

The work we did on the pond last Fall came together this year. We watched the new pond fill slowly all winter, and then all at once this spring. It looks more beautiful then I ever imagined. There was one place on the dam of the new pond where more dirt needed to be hauled, so I used my dozer and dump truck every chance I had this summer, and moved about 20 loads of dirt. Then Ron Saari returned with the big dozer to smooth everything out. In addition to fixing the dam, he also landscaped a 100' area for our new greenhouse. The greenhouse just came in mid-December, so it won't get put up this year. It is 16' x 96', and is a hoop shaped plastic covered one. We plan to put a small pond (plastic lined) inside the greenhouse to absorb heat and cold, and to look pretty. Hopefully we'll get ripe tomatoes next year!

This November, I took a professional trip to Las Vegas to the Comdex convention. I left two days early and spent time camping in Zion National Park in southern Utah. I've never seen such a beautiful place. Huge vertical sandstone cliffs are everywhere, and the colors are spectacular. The park service has done a huge job making trails through the park. I hiked the Watchman trail, the West Rim Trail, and up to the Angel's Landing. The last mentioned is a mountain who's sides have fallen away, leaving a 1500 vertical foot staircase. In many places, there are literally thousand foot cliffs on either side of your feet. The park service has installed chains to take hikers past the most dangerous parts. The view from the top is worth enduring all the vertigo, however. Rather than looking up at the mountains like the people have to that drive along the canyon floor, you "look them in the eye" at the top of Angel's Landing.

With 1994 mostly behind us, we're eagerly anticipating the challenges ahead for 1995. I'd like to see us take a nice family trip out west this Spring, and do some sailing this summer. I'm looking forward to some nice walks next to the ponds, some nice swims in the ponds, and to getting the greenhouse functioning. By this time next year, Steve will be driving, which should make for some interesting experiences. We wish you all the best for 1995!