I thought spring had arrived. The snow was melting more each day. There were large spots of open ground and we did not need gloves for several days. The kids in teacher housing were out in tee shirts and shorts and tall rubber boots punching big holes in the snow to find little rivers below. People were sitting on porches taking in the sun. It was wonderful. But now the snow has come again – although after a cold night and a couple of inches of snow it is now melting again. Oh, spring!

We are now having daylight starting around 8am and going till 11pm at night. The days will get even longer. It seems like yesterday we couldn’t wake up because it was dark till late morning and now we are having trouble going to bed in broad daylight. In the photo it is 10:45pm.
Not much to say of importance – I am ready to get outta Dodge! I want to see some green grass and trees. We have very little of our pre-purchased food left. Tom had to pay $5.49 for a box of 18 eggs this week, and I think the pound of margarine was $2.49. We are so fortunate to be able to use the commissary in Anchorage. It is much cheaper to purchase our groceries in bulk and then mail them here at $11.00 for a 70 pound box than to purchase them on the economy here. We will be eating a lot of rice, cereal and tuna the next 21 days. In the photo one of the Cup'ik men has ptarmigan and seal meat drying outside his house. Once it is dried - they just eat it,


Summer is shaping up nicely. We fly into Anchorage and have doctor appointments that first several days. We will also buy a trailer – hopefully a short lightweight cheap one. However, things never work out for us like that, we are not deal makers. At least we will have time to look around for a couple of weeks. We still have our tent and that will be fun. Then our friends Terry and Dee get here. We are looking forward to camping with them at Denali and then traveling around the Kenai Peninsula. We will have a few days to ourselves before our friend Mary arrives from Georgia. The first part of her visit with us will be spent in the Pribilof Islands looking at birds and northern fur seals. Then we will do the Kenai Peninsula and drive up to Denali. The day Mary leaves, our son Charlie will arrive – in fact he may fly up on the plane that Mary flies back on. I’m hoping Charlie will stay with us for a whole month. He will travel North with us to Denali, Fairbanks and we may end up taking a tour to Prudoe Bay. Then back down to Glenallen and then McCarthy to see our good friend Carmen. On the 24th we catch the ferry at Homer and travel out to Unalaska and back. That will be seven days on the ferry. We will have most of the day at Dutch Harbor to look around but then come right back on the boat. Elizabeth is planning to come the day that we arrive back in Anchorage. If Charlie is not sick of us, I hope he will stay a few days more and fly back with her. Then we will commissary shop and pack and mail food back to Chevak for the fall. It is going to be a really busy summer. We will be dead tired and pretty much broke but we will have seen some of Alaska. The plan is to see the southeastern part of Alaska next summer on the way home. Hope everything works out.

Hardly anyone is left at school – last week on one day we had 24 staff members out. Twenty four. Met our new superintendent on Thursday – from Bismark North Dakota. We have around 15+ teachers leaving so the school will be a different place next year.