Wow! A surprise!

This page is dedicated to the wonderful man in my life.

Jim Foley, my husband

He rescued me from a life without hope of happiness,
and is fulfilling every dream I ever had.
He brought me here to his home state -- Alaska,
and is showing me the best of his world, this wonderful Northland.
Together we have embarked on a wonderful adventure that is made up of many adventures.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
John 5:24

Not only is he sharing the rest of his life with me...
he has brought me to the place where we will share eternal life together. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, and I am a Child of God. I have found Peace and a Joy I have never known.

Jim has a deep and abiding faith, and a special relationship with the Lord. He heeded the Lord's calling to work with a small mission here, and become part of the charter group that built it into a church. When the Lord called him to do more... to learn to teach, and preach (if need be) he got further schooling, and taught for many years. Not easy for someone who went no further in school than the sixth grade. But he has a great deal of faith and determination, and they saw him through. Today he is well read, knowledgeable, and very articulate.

In fact, he has begun a novel in which to use a lot of the knowledge he has gained here in Alaska, and we are both looking forward to seeing how it comes out! This will be another new adventure...

Jim has had many adventures here in Alaska, and has lived here for almost 30 years now. He has trapped for many years, hunted, fished, prospected for gold, and explored the bush. His interest in gold prospecting is how the Lord led us to meet one another.

Much has happened in both our lives in the last few years, and we have now been married for almost two of them. It hardly seems possible so much time has passed, we have had such busy lives, and they have been extremely happy. We now have a small home in the country, we have a family of our cat, Missy and a new pup named Blue; our daughter Nicole presented us with a beautiful granddaughter last November (Amber), who is an absolute joy, and we have overcome a great many problems.

Two weeks after our wedding, sitting along the river...

One of the first stories that Jim told me was about a saying of the old Mountain Men who first came to Alaska in search of gold... He said that the highest praise that one could pay to the other was to say, "He is a man to ride the river with..." and he told me that I was "His woman to ride the river with." I was very flattered by the compliment.

And speaking of 'riding the river,' it is one of Jim's favorite things to do... ride the river in his airboat. He was raised on the New England coast and in Florida, so he was never far from water. He is very happy when he can be on 'his' river, heading upriver, far from civilization... This photo is of two of his most favorite 'toys,' his airboat and his dredge. He loves to use both of them, and looks forward to each summer so he can get back to his airboat, and put his dredge in the water, so he can get some of one of his other favorite things, GOLD!!! He does research, he studies the area, and he works hard at dredging for gold. He also likes to hunt for caches, metal detect for coins, and nugget hunt. But, his outdoor activities do not end there. He has lived in Alaska for more than 25 years, and he loves it dearly for many reasons... he is a true Alaskan. To learn more about him and his outdoor activities, check out his section of our website:
Jim Foley's Alaska

Jim is a very unique person. He has found the secret that many men never even look for. He is a great outdoorsman who participates in a lot of male-only or male-dominated activities, yet he is a wonderful loving, caring, and thoughtful husband. In fact he is always that first!

Jim loves to travel by car, as I do, and we have had many wonderful trips here in Alaska, and one through much of Oregon and California last winter. We had a wonderful time. He loves driving and I love not having to, so we get along fine there! We love to drive the back roads and just see how and where other people are living their lives. We talk for hours as we travel, and love to eat out in great little restaurants along the way. We hope to travel all across the states next year.

Photo above left: Jim looking over the Smith River in California.

In one of our early adventures my first year here, Jim, our friend Jesse (Atencio) and I went moose hunting. Jim insisted I wear his 'snowmachine' suit, as it was cold, and we were riding about 40 miles upriver in the open airboat to Jim's hunting camp. Unfortunately, in his huge suit I looked either jimmarcie4.JPG (22562 bytes) like a gorilla or an astronaut, depending on whether you were viewing me from the front or the rear! We did not see a moose that day, but we all had a great time, except that when we discovered a clump of grizzly hair on a low branch (we were on a moose trail leading through thick forest), I think I turned a little green... It was then that I noticed that one of them traveled in front of me and one behind, so I was protected at all times.

Here's a link to the story of that trip called "Moose Hunting." I wasn't really hunting moose. At the time I had never even seen a moose! I was just along for the adventure. Since that time I have seen many moose, and although I eat moose and really like it, I could not kill one, and don't even want to be around when they are killed. I guess I am just an old softie. There is something majestic about them, though.

Jim and I both love animals, and he rescued a cat from the pound last year. Missy has bonded with both of us very well, and although Jim had never had a cat before he is very attached to her. I've had cats all my life, but Missy is like none I've had before. She "talks" to us a lot, and interacts a great deal. She is very much a part of our family and our lives. She has changed in the almost two years we've lived outside of Fairbanks, learning to be a country cat. This was the first time she went outdoors, and she would have some great experiences to share if she only could. She's a great mouser, and this spring has already begun clearing them out.

The snow left us late this year. It will be Memorial Day the end of this week, and snow has only been gone a week or so. The last two days it suddenly grew quite warm, 80 and 83 or so, and our trees all leafed out overnight last night. We are not having much night already. It is not full dark at midnight, and there's still a month 'till the longest day.

Jim is anxious to get out and do some prospecting, and that's what's planned for the coming holiday weekend, which we are really looking forward to. And next month we'll be attending the first-ever Alaska Gold Show, being held at Crow Creek Mine south of Anchorage. We are REALLY looking forward to that, because we hope to meet many of the prospectors we've been corresponding with for a couple of years now, and get in some nugget hunting, too!

We'll keep you posted...

Please send your comments and suggestions. we'd like to hear from you!