Tom is outside shoveling snow off the porch and steps. There's a lot of it. An awful lot. With the winds and blowing snow the past couple of days, I feel like I am part of one of those movies about folks lost in the Antarctic. There is a bit of light just ccoming over the horizon now at 10:34 am! Surprisingly the long dark days have not bothered us yet. I know we have a few more weeks of very short daylight - but I don't think it is going to be a problem - except getting up in the morning. Usually we wake up when the light comes in the window - but the light doesn't really come in the window here - till about 11 am. So at say 8 or 9 am it is pitch dark and we feel like it is the middle of the night.

Tom is caring for a total of seven dogs - counting Roxie. Libby, a black lab is staying in the house with us. Steve has three dogs and Tom walks and feed them. And then there are Kim's Great Danes. The male has been relegated to the top of the steps. Seems he was allowed to get down the steps last week and decided not to go back up. He was untethered and it took two poeple about two hours to get him back in the house. The second time he was actually tethered but just refused to go up the steps. One of the guys ended up with a bloody nose. Steve fixed the leash so that he could tether the dog inside the house before he opened the door and now the dog is limited to running - or rather loping around on the small porch. This dog does HUGE poops and pees so the porch is quite a mess. I hope Tom will shove it all over the side before Kim returns.

It is sort of like the Twilight Zone here - only three families are here in the teacher housing. We of course came back early - but the other two families have not left - they have four kids each and well airplane fare would be ridiculous for a family of six.

On Chrismas Day we had supper at the Superintendent's house. They are such great folks. She is from New Zealand and he of course has been in Alaska for years. I took deviled eggs and Diet Cokes. Steve also joined us since his family was traveling. Afterwards we went to the Community Center to see the Eskimo Dancing which lasted until 1 am. We left around 11 - I would like to have stayed all night but Tom was the transportation and he was ready to go. The dancing was really nice - started out with the little ones and then all the school kids, then the adults. I got some photos and a bit of video.

Saw a couple of great films this weekend. One was Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419294/) . I really like Tommy Lee Jone's movies and this one was special - there were so many touching scenes and I believe I could watch the whole thing again. The other film was Good Morning Night (Italy) about some terrorists kidnapping and killing a politician. It is told from the female kidnappers viewpoint - sooo good.

Well, Tom is back from feeding and walking dogs, shoveling snow, getting the mail, clearing the snow from the connex door, and some more stuff that he does outside. He will have to rest for a while now.

I'll post a few photos today. Chena Hot Springs was all we hoped for. I loved Rock Lake - the springs actually and all the snow boulders around it. It was so quiet and peaceful and we felt like we had the place to ourselves.


Enjoyed especially talking to the Alaskan folks - they had such wild stories - who knows what to believe. The whole place was like a winter wonderland. The thermostat pictured is listing at -10 degrees. It was as low as -19 this morning on the way back into Fairbanks.



You can barely see Liz in the dog sled. She and Tom took a dog sled ride and said it was special - very quiet and very cold. The dogs were going nuts - all wanting to be tethered to the sled. Must have been a hundred of them all barking and wanting to go on the ride.

We are back in Anchorage now where they had 12 inches of snow yesterday and we are finishing up our shopping on snowy and icey roads in amongst all the Christmas shoppers. I just want to get back quiet little Chevak. We called Steve to check on Roxy and he told us that she had some apetite problems but after a couple of days she got hungry and started eating again. He has the Alaska Channel on for her during the day at our house and says she seems to like it. Tom and I both miss her so much - we've grown so attached to her this last year.

The statue of the dog is Balto - there's a book about him and this was a memorial. Wow, was it cold!

Chena Hot Springs is like a huge winter wonderland. The van drove an hour northeast of of Fairbanks and it got more and more beautiful as we got closer. All of the trees are caked with snow and ice. We went to see the ice museum last nigtht. I'll try to post a photo - Amazing what they can do with a block of ice and hundreds of tools. Tom and Elizabeth have gone on a two hour snow trail - I passed on that one. It's cold here. The springs are fabulous - so hot, steam coming up - you could hardly see your hand at 11pm last night. The water is dark and hot and steamy. Then around the springs there are snow covered boulders and trees. The trees appear to be ice sculptures at first - but then you realize they are trees. Not too many people here yesterday but it is picking up today. By tomorrow we should have the first charter bus of the Japanese. One is schedule to arrive every day for the next week. It seems this is a popular destination for them, seven hours flight from Tokyo. The attendant told us that 95% of their winter business is Japanese tourists. Well, here's the news! They called our room last night at 12:22 and said the Nothern Lights were out. At 12:26 we left the room - fully dressed and wrapped for the cold. You've never seen three people dress so fast and furiously. We could see them immediately, even with the lights from the buildings around us. It was a huge strip of clean - like a wide rainbow - the colors actually changed - from clear light at first to an emerald green, and then some red color. We couldn't believe the size of the lights. I thought it would be a streak far off - but the area was huge - it felt like a third of the sky was lighted. And it was also very cold! Tonight we take the SnowCat to the top of the mountain - hoping for clear skies and lights.

(posted a couple of days later than it was written) We are sitting in a diner at the Bethel airport. I hope to get this posted in my blog later tonight. We’ve already been here once today – right when we arrived and now we are back. The plane to Anchorage doesn’t leave until almost 4pm. When we got up this morning – we were both feeling a little bad about leaving Roxy. Although everyone else was leaving their dogs also, we still felt like we were the only ones in the world leaving ours. Tom took her over to Steve’s house – where there are four other dogs staying. Steve will be quite busy. He is going to bring Roxy back over to our house every morning while he goes to work and then pick her up again in the evening. We left the lamp on, the tv, fixed her special blanket, and cleared the window area so she can jump up and bark at the strangers. She loves that part of being a dog.

About 9:30, Leo called and said the plane would be arriving in 20 minutes. So we had to pile everything together and meet him along with about six other teachers to get into a truck that seats five people. Abby sat in Jenny’s lap, and Jonathan hopped in the open area of the truck bed. Then we took off, the radio was on and the pilot said he would be there in seven minutes and couldn’t wait on anyone. We just kept driving toward that airport over snowbanks – sort of like a roller coaster. We hit the new airport road and took off in a flash – getting there just as the plane landed. We all hopped out with baggage and waited while they unloaded the plane of dozens of boxes. Then he changed the seats from flat shelves into actual seats. Waiting that few minutes would not have been so bad but it was 0 degrees and the wind chill made it –20 – that’s 20 below zero. I was absolutely freezing – my toes hardened like rock candy and my fingers were stinging, I couldn’t move I was so cold – it seemed like it took forever to get that plane formatted for passengers. All the folks around me were still and quite too – we could not believe the weather out there. Finally we got on the plane. I pulled my gloves off and stuck my hands down my shirt around my chest to unfreeze my fingers. They were stinging like crazy and I was afraid that I was going to have frost bite. Tom said to keep wiggling my toes – well I couldn’t even feel my toes. Of course my snow boots were in the baggage and I had worn my everyday boots. It is now about four hours later and my feet are finally back to normal. It was so scary out there – like we were in the twilight zone, everything was blue it was so cold and of course it was dark still.

In the diner here I have ordered French fries and Tom got a hamburger. Both were delicious. We can see the planes taking off and landing here by the window. Lots of them and all small. Theres’s one called Arctic Air – a strange looking boxy plane. I’d take a photo but of course my batteries are out! Our Alaska Airlines plane I believe seats 40 people.

Wish we had more cash – we have not dealt with cash for so long and just had about $15.00 since someone had paid us back some cash. We tipped the van driver, bought our shared hamburger and French fries and drinks, and there’s not much left!

Here’s hoping the Silverado starts when we get to Anchorage tonight.

Okay it is now 8pm in the evening. This will not get posted till Saturday morning, but I’ll go ahead and finish. We took a van up to the Alaska airlines building in Bethel. Tom and I promptly took of walking to the nearest diner. He had a hamburger and I had fries and a coke. We took the computer and played with it while we watched the planes land. Oops, I think I already said that. We caught out plane to Anchorage around 4:45. This was the rowdiest bunch of plane folks I have ever seen. There were oodles of oil field workers and they were drinking and talking and laughing. I’ve never been on such a lively airplane ride. When we landed Tom and I just waited till everyone got off since we had so many carry on bags to take out. It was funny to see that the last five people on the plane, all waiting for the other folks to get out of the way, were teachers from Chevak! I guess living in Chevak teaches one to have patience. We are in the Millenium Hotel – its wonderful. Tom’s truck was buried in ice and snow - but it started beautifully. We went out to eat at a nearby diner and it took us a half an hour to order because we couldn’t decide what to choose on that wonderful menu. Tom called Steve to see how Roxy was doing. Steve told Tom she was doing just great but had been searching for us. I thought for a minute Tom might get tearful but he made it through the call. He loves that dog. They are best buddies. This whole state is frozen. We saw only frozen rivers, white ground, and snow covered peaks all the way from Bethel. I go for my eye appointment in the morning and then we shop. It will be a long day. I’m going to bed now. I miss my little house in Chevak and I feel like I have deserted everyone there to come to the big city.

It just occurred to me - I probably won't get to a computer. So, this is probably my last post until the week after Christmas - maybe the 27th. I hope everyone has a wonderful Merry Christmas. Hope Santa is good to all and that all families are able to get together as you like. We may even see Santa and his sleigh since we will be near North Pole, Alaksa!

Winds are strong and snow drifts everywhere. Remember those desert movies where the sand would be blowing all along the desert floor -all beautiful and even. Well that is how the snow looks this morning - and drifts are piling all over. It is actually really pretty - but the wind is strong. About half the faculty is supposed to fly out today and another bunch tomorrow. So everyone wants to be first at the airport to be in line in case there are too many people for the plane. We have paid for our tickets out - but that doesnt mean much - we may be told to wait for another flight. I just hope the plane makes it to Bethel. Roxy is staying here. Steve, our tech person will let her stay at his house in the evening and bring her over to our house every morning before he goes to work - he is a workaholic. He'll come back and let her out at lunch. I'm thinking we should leave the tv on low so that she will at least see and hear folks. Our school web page is up - not finished - but the shell is there. Steve made it with Dreamweaver and Flash. It is http://www.chevak.org
Check it out.

Friday morning we fly out on one of the bush planes - I just hope we make it to Bethel. Liz meets us in Anchorage on Saturday night and then we will head to Chena Hot Springs on Monday. The few days we are in Anchorage will be spent shopping, packing, and going to doctors and for sure - getting our hair cut. The kids had the Christmas program last night. It was good - the Eskimo dancing was wonderful. As for the Christmas carols - well they need a piano player here and a music teacher.

That's us on the lake in the photo. We were trying to get a Christmas photo of us and Roxy - but no can do. Roxy was not about to sit still with a ribbon around her neck - so we'll try something else for Christmas. We need to face the sun anyway. It was pretty cold that day - as cold as I think I've ever been. Couldn't take those gloves off but for a second or two.

You can see a sampling of the huge dogs -and these are teacher's pets. That is one of the single women here riling up the white dog - and that huge dog is not even a year old. Her dog Jet is behind her. Tom walks her twice every day. Roxy loves these big dogs - they just run all over her.

Here we are going to school at 8:15 am and it is pitch dark. It lightens up around 10:30 am.

We had a real snowstorm yesterday - 45 mph winds in the afternoon and evening. The house was shaking again like once before. Before, back in October, I paced the floor wondering if we were going to have to be evacuated. But this time, it was old hat. We even opened the window a fraction of an inch so we could hear the wind roar as we got to sleep.

I fell for the second time since I arrived - back into a snow bank that was about two feet deep. I could hardly get back up - tooooo funny! Roxy was jumping all over me and I was trying to hold the camera up so it wouldn't get snowed. The snow is so soft and light and just beautiful.

In honor of our first "expected" whiteout, I have changed my blog background to white. Actually it might load faster that way Snow is everywhere - we have some 2-3 foot drifts in places. Tom and I just got back from walking Roxy - and she loved it. I suppose it is like a child first experiencing snow and ice - but of course a dog is not a child.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at the Superintendent's house. There were maybe ten people there - all new people to Chevak.

I watched a wonderful movie with Tom last night - Pelle the Conqueror. Today we are going to watch Winged Migration and then this dog training video with some monks training their dogs. We really need to pay attention to that second one.

We started planning our summer today - it is a little overwhelming since there are so many places to see. I believe we will stick to the larger state area this summer and then plan on seeing the inside passage on the way home summer of 08. I'm looking forward to seeing all the totem poles and such down there.

The photo above is one of Tom's sunrise photos. Sunrise around 10:30 am. We have enjoyed seeing the landscape change daily with this snow. We are able to drive across the lake now on snowmobiles and four-wheelers and some of the teachers enjoy cross country skiing on the lake.
We are getting two days off this week. Tom and I are going over to the Supt's house for Thanksgiving dinner along with a couple of other people. I'll be taking potatoes and rice. So we have a three day week this week, a three day week next week, then two staff development days, and pretty soon it is going to be Christmas break. I really don't feel like I have been here four months. The photo here shows Tom and Roxy out walking behind our house. It is around 4:30 and you may be able to see all the activity - folks are walking the baby, visiting at the doors, kids are going out to play and others are out walking the dogs.You have to do everything pretty quickly after school because in just a short while it is going to be pitch dark!They came and gave us more fuel for the heaters today. They bring it over on the four wheelers pulling a trailer. The last photo is of Tom with his trusty Honda four-wheeler and his beloved Roxy. Roxy absolutely loves the cold weather. She loves the rain, the snow, the ice - I believe she must be descended from huskies! Happy Thanksgiving!

Celebrating Children's Book Week with the kids this week. We are tallying their favorite books, taking a photo of the class and then I am making a book mark for them to keep. Kinda fun! The Head Start Class is coming in tomorrow for the first time and I can't wait! they are so little. I have to pick out a couple of really simple stories and figure out a cute action -ooh I can use a finger play. That should be fun.
The snow is beginning to pile - it is several inches deep in some spots and will only get deeper. It is actually quite beautiful. Children are all over the lake ice skating - that won't last long - until the snow takes over the ice.
We got four gallons of fresh milk today from a by-pass order from Linfords. We're going to freeze it - everybody tells us it is no problem. I never knew one could freeze milk.
Four kids from senior English are doing an Independent Study in the library and I am the - I forgot the word - anyway I am supposed to keep them on track. I hope it goes well. We may try it with some other kids. The problem is that there is only one class - so you have those who are going on to college and those who are planning on hunting and fishing for a living in the same class. Difficult at times - so we are trying this for awhile.
Can't wait till morning - cereal and cold milk!!!!!

Here's me going to work at 8:15am in total darkness. Big volleyball tournament this weekend - lots of kids flying in from various villages. They bring their sleeping bags and such and camp out in the classrooms at school. I'm just glad they don't camp out in the library! Tom and I trekked up a higer ground place here yesterday to get photos of the sunrise. We left too early and by the time the sun starting showing , well, we were entirely too cold to stay but the camera battery also gave out. So we planned to go this morning a bit later - but today you can't see the sun for the clouds today. Lots of kids are ice skating out on the lake. It is pretty thick now - I think I heard someone say it needed to be three inches thick to be safe. They are zooming around on the snow machines already - man those things are loud. Saw two really good movies, Forbidden Games (1954), about the effect or war and death on children, and Umberto - an Italian film about an old man whose pension is so little - and he has trouble living with dignity. Both movies were just wonderful.

These precious children were sleighing while we were watching the sun rise yesterday. They are in the Head Start program so must be 4 years old.

Ooh, is it chilly! Elizabeth sent me some of her wool scarves and I'm going to have to wrap my face on the way to school tomorrow. The photo above is of Tom in our so-called front yard walking Roxy. That is his Eskimo parka he is wearing - I want one just like it! The sun was so bright today it was like we were three feet from the sun! But now it is really cold. I'm going to take a photo of us walking to school tomorrow morning in the dark.

Here is Tom on Halloween night and the other photo is of Jeff, the fishing teacher, or rather the teacher who fishes. Those skins he is wearing are real. He also is a taxidermist.


The children are all out on the iced over lake skating around even after there was a fatal accident in a nearby village. The lake is not solid frozen yet - it still breaks through. I have a 100% view of the lake through the library window and there must have been a hundred children out there this afternoon. There are no law enforcement people in the village - it is all up to the parents.

Did I tell you that is is pitch dark when I go to school in the mornings and I have to take a flashlight with me to see my way?

Got my Career and College table set up - college catalogs, scholarship information, Petersen's college directories. It looks good, but I still have more work to do on it. Tom and I are going to start shifting books tomorrow. All of the books have arrived and the shelves need a lot of rearranging.

I had fun explaining to the kids today about briar patches. We read Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl and they loved it!

I really like this new blog. I found a book at school today (one of the $59,000 order) on making a blog on Google so maybe I can personalize this a bit since I now have some directions. Most people just jump in there and make the blog and figure out everything on their own– but I need directions and lots of them. The photo shows the thing they rigged up to keep the school warm those three days the heat was off.

We finished two days of staff development – it is hard sitting for two days but the class was great – on cooperative grouping (Kagan). I wanted to relate a partial story I overheard yesterday and you will see how different and dangerous things are here. A lawyer arrived to do some business here at Chevak this past weekend. Unfortunately the person who was to meet him at the new airport did not show up. By the time he realized he wasn’t going to be picked up – everybody else had cleared out. There’re only a few people on each plane and 4-wheelers are usually there to meet them and then zoom off. There’s no body on duty out there and certainly no phone. Well the lawyer looked at the road – which swings out away from Chevak and then back into the village (it is a new road just for that new airport). He then looked at the village … and took a shortcut straight into town. He walked about half way and then came to where the lake started – except he did not know it was water because it was covered with ice and snow. He continued to walk out on the lake (which he thought was ground) and then the ice broke and he fell in. The problem was he didn’t know the shortest way out or even if it was a lake or a river or a puddle. He didn’t know which direction to go…He did make it alive to the main office but I heard he was pretty frozen. I still have to get the full story – don’t know if someone spotted him out there in the lake or he just walked in two foot of icy water till he got to shore. He would have had to climb back up on the ice at some point. Poor guy – I can really imagine that happening to me! I just thought – he wasn’t a “poor guy”, he was lucky the lake is only two feet deep, and he was lucky the village bordered the lake. What if the lake had been deeper and the village was not in sight.

Well, I have tired of waiting and troubleshooting and then failing and then starting all over with uploading my iWeb. I'm pretty mad but don't know who to be mad at. iWeb is simply not going to upload on the wireless network I am using, not at home, not at school - and I have no idea why. Apple is of no help. So, Google is now my blog spot of choice. I'll be able to go in right online and type and add my entries. I don't know how much space I will have yet - but I'm sure I'll find out soon. I'll try not to post too many photo - or maybe I can make them small.

I'm going to to copy the information from the last three blogs that I have not been able to upload (and I have spent hours trying to problem solve this).

November 4, 2006 Tom the Terror
Halloween was wild. We had hundreds of kids come to the door - some came two and three times. There were many with two sacks - one for a little brother or sister, or cousin, or friend - well you get the picture. The high schoolers came as well - all in costume. Tom was decked out as a zombie, I guess. We had haunting ghost sounds on the Cd player going out the window and he had a knife and a bone and he took out his lower front teeth. Pretty spooky. Some of the children really got scared but as soon as I started putting candy in their sacks, the fear diminished quickly. Tom had purchased over $100 worth of candy in Anchorage and we used just about all of it - I was just throwin’ that candy at ‘em. Lots of gleeful smiles the next morning.

We had Eskimo Dancing night on Halloween Eve. Pretty nice - lots of folks there.What I really like is all the young folks dancing with their parents, even the teenage boys. It is a real issue here - preserving the traditional language and culture - and here these cool teenage boys are Eskimo Dancing and loving every minute of it. You can see mothers and sons together on the stage. They served Eskimo Ice cream again - I think I have described that earlier.This time - everyone knew us and all the kids came up to talk. They want to know if Tom and I sleep together in the same bed, how much I weigh and what size I wear. It’s a hoot. And all the females, young and old, and many of the men, wear their most beautiful cuspiks ( I have not spelled that correctly), a traditional dress - sometimes short and worn over pants and sometimes long worn over pants.I have one that was made for me as a new teacher. I took my camera this time. Remember they are not doing this for the teachers or tourists - it is their way of life, a traditional celebration. They do it for themselves only. We were just guests.

Have I mentioned that we have no trees here, not one, not one solitary tree.

Got my library web page up - it isn’t finished but you can check it out at http://vak.gcisa.net/~libary/

The heat was out for about four days before the repairman could fly in from Anchorage. Our custodians rigged up this interesting thing to keep the building at a reasonable temp (55-60) while we waited. We just put on coats and went about our business.

Friday, October 27, 2006 Halloween

We’re gearing up for a big Halloween here. The elementary school is having a Halloween party Sunday afternoon, the kids trick or treat from 4 -6 on Tuesday and then the entire community has a Halloween Costume Party at the community center from 7-9 pm with dancing. I can hardly wait. Tom and I are both dressing up and decorating for trick or treaters. He is going to be stationed in front of the picture window staged like a Zombie. I’ll be a witch and answer the door. I have a tape with eerie sounds and I’ll be carrying a skeleton. Should be fun.

It is much colder, snow is staying on the ground, lots of icy patches. I have to be really careful in my steps. The lake has begun to freeze and the kids are throwing things out on it so it looks a bit like the moon surface. Several have fallen through the ice playing out there.

We went to the wrestling tournament tonight - the whole village was there. Chevak was winning everything. Their boys flew in on a chartered plane from Nome, and then our girl’s volleyball team flew back to Nome on the same plane to compete in a tournament there.

Hope this entry uploads okay. The internet connection drops a lot and causes me much stress.

Tuesday October 24, 2006 They're Yummy

We’re still here. I got the books in - the $59,000 worth of books. I’ve been shelving and shifting shelves and unpacking boxes for at least two weeks now. Great books - I’m so glad to have them! A lot has been going on at school too - well, Halloween mainly. I’ve been celebrating all month - and it is still seven days away.

Tom got his Arctic parka and it is really warm. He sat out on the porch today pretending he was an Eskimo. While he and Roxy were sunning, the two Great Danes and our neighbor Kim dropped by. Roxy was nuts enough with those two dogs but then another dog dropped by and he is hyperactive. All three of those huge dogs started barking and play fighting with each other. Me, Tom and Roxy moved further and further into the corner of the porch. My head could fit inside that Great Dane’s mouth. Our porch is around 3 feet by 10 feet and there were four adults and four dogs - three of them super huge. Lot of fun...

A little girl came up to show me her book the other day. She opened it up to a beautiful illustration of Beluga whales swimming in the ocean. My first thought was how beautiful they were and then I thought of the gorgeous Beluga whales in the Atlanta Aquarium. ‘Bout that time the little girl said, They’re yummy! Specially the baby ones!” She was rubbing her tummy at the same time. I nearly fell over with horror and laughter at the same time. I’m not in Georgia anymore!