Hibernation

So you know what the problem is? Too damn many social networking sites. By the time I get done posting pictures and "status updates" on Facebook, not to mention Twitter now, there's really nothing left to come here and write a blog update on without being redundant. Seriously, is this form of blogging becoming obsolete? It might be, at least for me...

But! In the interest of trying to not go, oh, a full month between posts, here's an update. Because really, there has been news.

First off, we spent last weekend in Anchorage! Well, a long weekend, that made up our abbreviated Spring Break. We headed in on Wednesday evening, by snowmachine because the weather (of course) wouldn't let our chartered plane fly out to get us. Once we got to Bethel, sore and soaking wet, we discovered that the jet from Anchorage was actually going to come in for the first time in two days! Buoyed by the news we might actually make it out, we trucked over to the nearest diner to have some supper and kill the few hours 'til the plane was to arrive. Then, the scariness began. We were traveling some friends/coworkers and their baby, same flights, same hotel, everything. After we ate (and only a couple minutes after Sara, Ike and I had started to walk back to the terminal while our friends got ready), our friend had a seizure and collapsed, while her husband frantically called for an ambulance. It's astonishingly lucky that this happened while we were in Bethel, where there's actual medical care available, as if it ha happened in the village they would have had to rely on help to fly out, which in the weather would have been nearly impossible. So...while Sara, Isaac and I got word of this, let the airline know that their bags needed to come off the plane, etc., and flew to Anchorage on our regularly scheduled flight, our friends were taken to the hospital, and then on to Anchorage a few hours behind us on a medivac flight. Unreal.

So, our weekend in Anchorage was a combination of relaxing, sobering, productive, and adventurous. We helped our friends as much as we could, did some shopping, ate some good food, drank some good beer, and generally did what bush teachers do when they head into the big city. We even got memberships at Sam's Club, filled a cart, and braved the "bush order" process. Our boxes are supposedly on the way, but I'll let you know how that goes :-P

As for other big news...it's LKSD Shuffle season. Contract time. Our version of the hot stove league. The time of year when gossip is afoot about who's leaving, who's changing sites, who's moving up in the world and who's giving up and going home to the lower 48 to lick their wounds. Well, as you may have known, Sara's position has been eliminated for next year. Nothing to do with anything, other than the fact that the district had apparently used the wrong funding for the program, and has to alter the way the job gets done. Not a huge deal, since all the teachers in those positions are pretty much guaranteed jobs either at their sites or elsewhere in the district if they so desire, but it has made "shuffle season" a little extra shuffly this year.

As for what Sara plans on doing, we had (or so we thought) a few options. One of the potential jobs was as a teacher coach, basically teaching teachers how to fill in the blanks left by the fact that the ELD positions were going bye-bye. Then there was the option of simply taking a regular teaching job, either here in Nunap or elsewhere in the district. This is pretty much where we thought we were headed, with a sweet, sweet spot in Oscarville with one of our good friends at a great, small school only a stone's throw from Bethel. Until....Sara heard about an opening for a jig at the District Office in Bethel, and was encouraged to apply. For various reasons, we assumed this was sort of a pie in the sky, not really plausible, "hey, I'm gonna do this just to practice my interviewing skills" kind of job application.

Turns out....she got the job. We're moving to Bethel.

I can't even wrap my brain around what this means, both in terms of challenges and advantages. The Cliffs Notes version from our "very serious discussion" about whether we wanted to take the job and move "into town"? Here we go.

Cons: Moving sucks (but we were going to have to do that no matter what), we'll have to buy a car, we have to find (and pay for, at Bethel prices) our own housing, Sara stepping into the unknown re: working at the D.O. and we'll have to live at a more "real world" pace...no more laid back lifestyle of the village, where most days the big decision is whether or not to hit up the Post Office and the store on the way home from work. It's amazing how stress free life can be where there is simply nothing to do.

Pros: Access to stores and restaurants, easier travel (it basically removes a step), stuff to do, hosting friends from the villages, work/volunteer opportunities for me, easier for people to come visit from the lower 48, access to a vet (not to mention our own, human, medical care), and a downright cool, quirky community.

Yeah, the decision was scary (as are it's implications), but it wasn't all that tough to make. Bethel ho!

Happy Trails

You know, it's amazing how much of a difference a little less drifting can make.

I took advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend to take a ride into Bethel on Saturday to pick up some groceries and a new mattress for Isaac (he's gotten too good at climbing to be just in the co-sleeper at night). The plan worked out well, as a few of our neighbors flew in early to visit the craft fair, and the husband of one of the fliers wanted to ride along, as he had never been into Bethel by snowmachine, so I didn't have to ride alone.

Last year, the trail was so rough from the light snow and windy weather that the 26.3 miles from my front door to the AC store was anywhere from a 2 to 3 hour ride, most trips. The best we did all last year was to run a pace that would have gotten us there in around an hour in the early spring when the weather was warm and the trail was flat and slick, but unfortunately the warm weather and our...aggressive pace...caused my co-traveler's machine to give out (to the tune of a couple new pistons and cylinders :-/ )

This year so far, knock on wood, the trail is much better. I don't know if it was the early freeze or how much snow we've had so far, but the trail was better Saturday than it was at any point last year. We made it in only an hour and fifteen minutes, which is pretty darn fast considering it was Jim's first time on the trail. Even heading back pulling a mattress and boxspring on the school sled, we got back in less than an hour and a half. That is, minus a tail light (from sled impact) and a chain clip pulled apart like a paper clip (from the weight of the sled), of course.

Unfortunately, it's been snowing and crazy windy for the past few days, so the trail could be wrecked by now. I guess I'll find out next time I go riding :-P

Five. Five-dolla. Five-dolla foot longs.*

*(Unless you're in Bethel. Then they are nine-dolla foot longs)

Well! What's new here, you ask?

Not too much. Can not believe we're coming up on December and the end of the semester already! Maybe it's because I've been at home with Isaac and not teaching, but this year is just flying by. We'll see how next semester goes once I'm...knock on wood...back to working part time (or maybe even full time? Rumors are afoot...)

I got to make a surprise trip into Bethel last weekend. It's actually kind of funny, because on Sunday morning while we were watching the Packer game, Sara made a joking suggestion that I snowmachine into Bethel to get Subway. You see, Subway is the only national-type chain within a good 450 miles, and sometimes the lure of the TV advertising does its job. I, of course, replied to her suggestion in the negative, stating that with the trail conditions as they were, it would be 4 hours until I returned with her sandwich, by which time she would have surely eaten something else. We considered the matter tabled.

Well, little did I imagine that later that day, we would receive a call about our Principal being stuck in Bethel due to weather and planes not flying, and asking if I'd be interested to ride in and help pick him and his bags up. Of course, having yet to get out and "stretch my legs" farther than to Kasigluk so far this winter, I jumped at the chance. The trail had actually improved a little bit due to a few inches of light, fluffy snow that fell over the weekend (and without wind to drift it about), and we made it in at a decent pace...about an hour and 15 minutes.

So we picked Garry up, made it back before 9 (which was a plesant surprise, considering we didn't leave 'til after 5), and Sara ended up getting her Subway after all.

Catching up...

See? I told you I’d be back…

So what’s been going on here? Well, a whole bunch and nothing at all, if that makes any sense. A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to be able to chaperone a Cross Country trip to the village of Toksook Bay out on Nelson Island. I’d never been there, and had heard that it was a pretty cool place, so I really wanted to go. It was the first X-C meet of the season, and Nunap only had three runners that had gotten enough practices in to be eligible to travel, so Coach Carey didn’t necessarily need a male chaperone, but since the school had gotten a charter airplane instead of paying seat fare, my tagging along to help didn’t add to the cost of the trip :)

The races there are a part of a community-wide Berry Festival, so there were all kinds of things going on, and people visiting from all over. We went to see the traditional dancing for a little while, but for the most part the kids wanted to do what the kids always want to do when we travel…go to the store, hang out with friends from other villages, and stay up as late as possible. As it turned out, I had brought along Guitar Hero for the DS (always prepared…and I was never even a Boy Scout!), which proved quite the popular little activity with the students. At least until the battery ran out. So the rest of the nights were spent playing, reading, talking, and trying to sleep while the fiddle dance raged…if a fiddle dance can be said to rage…until 2am.

The races themselves were fun to watch. Toksook is right on the ocean, but there are some pretty substantial hills, cliffs, and rock formations, all of which the running courses took advantage of. The weather was not the best for a race, it was windy, cold, and spitting rain, but all three races went off without a hitch and the Nunap runners pushed hard and did well. As I said, it was a small group, but there wasn’t a whiner among them…which, to be honest, was a nice change of pace from most chaperoning trips I’ve done.

After staying another night, we flew back early Sunday afternoon. Our flight out on Friday had been interesting, flying low and on an indirect route around the hills because of low cloud cover, but on the way back it was clearer and we were able to fly as high as I’ve ever been in a bush plane – over 3000 feet. It made for some good views, and I was able to get my camera out and take a couple of pics as we were about to land back in Nunap.

So, while it was nice to take a little trip for a couple days, it was even nicer to get home. After all, I’m used to having a lot of baby-time these days, so I missed the little guy. I have to say, staying home during the school day has been working out pretty well. Yeah, I’m going a little crazy, and yeah, there have been some frustrating days (did I mention he has a couple of teeth already?), but on the whole it’s been a lot of fun. I try to get as much stuff done as I can during the day, both around the house and with my side projects. I’m starting a Radio Club at the school, as some of my students last year really took an interest in writing/recording/producing music, and I’m hoping to help them point some of those skills in the direction of their writing phases, expose them to some music that isn’t Tupac and 50 Cent (though, yeah, that stuff has it’s place…it’s just really all that some of them listen to), and I’m hoping to eventually get them to produce a few podcasts, in radio show format, to get them out there for everyone to hear. I’ll let you know once there’s a link…

But back to Isaac. It’s amazing how much he’s changing, getting new skills, discovering new things. I was a little worried the other day that he was getting sick, because he was sort of grabbing at the side of his head, until I realized that nope, he has just discovered his ear and was playing with it. He’s really taken quite a liking to Loki, trying to follow him around, and keeping a close eye on him whenever he’s romping around playing, or even just sleeping in the living room. I can’t wait until he’s old enough for them to play around together. I think they’re going to have a lot of fun.

Otherwise, not too much else going on. Missed the Packer game Monday night because our satellite had only been partially working for a few weeks (no ESPN, or half of our other channels), and I tried messing with the cables in a fit of desperation. The result? No TV at all, and of course the store didn’t have the hardware I need to fix pieces that had rotted from just laying on the tundra for who knows how many years. I managed to hook up a different cable Tuesday evening (the one from Carey’s house, because she doesn’t’ get TV and was nice enough to allow me to steal hers), which required a bit of monkeying around and belly crawling under her house in the muck, but at least for the moment, we have a 90% functioning TV connection. At least enough that I’ll be able to watch football this weekend…and really, isn’t that the main function of television, anyway?

Back...barely.

If there was ever a perfect visual representation of how we all felt when we finally made it home Tuesday night, this is it.

To be perfectly honest, I'd rather not re-live the craptastic rest of the trip, but in the interest of give the Paul Harvey-esque “rest of the story”, I’ll go ahead and give you a run down of what happened.

So when I left off, we were hanging out for another 8 hour layover in the Anchorage airport. Which, whatever, there’s internet and Starbucks, and although we were all tired and cranky and in desperate need of showers, we were able to pass the time relatively comfortably. We got the dog checked back in and through TSA (for the 3rd time in 24 hours…most inspected. Dog. Evar.), and made our way through security and to the gate. There were, of course, a whole bunch of people we knew waiting for the same flight as us, so we had a good time catching up and chit-chatting at the gate. When it came time for us to pre-board, we were really relieved to be getting on the plane, because we knew it was packed full of all the people that were scheduled for that flight, plus all of us on the morning plane that circled and came back. JUST as we were handing the gate agent our ticket, we heard the worst sound possible…our names being called over the P.A., asking us to come to the desk.

Let me just preface this by saying I have ALWAYS had nothing but good luck with all of the Alaska Airlines staff people I’ve had contact with…compared to other airlines I’ve flown, they seem to try to go out of their way to be helpful, from the flight attendants to the desk agents to the people who answer the customer service phone lines, I’ve always been really impressed with the level of service we’ve gotten. That’s why I’ll chalk up the attitude of the person at the desk to stress, likely from a long few days of dealing with stranded Alaskans and tourists due to the volcano situation…but this one specific b!%@# was just plain rude. And it’s not just that she was rude, but I have the distinct feeling she was either trying to pull one over on us, or just plain lying. And if you know me at all, you probably know how I react if I feel like someone’s trying to screw me over.

So we get out of line and rush over to the desk, and of course, Sara’s already worried, stressed, and starting to cry…because really, there’s no positive reason that you can be called to the desk at that point. Well, Miss Desk Lady informs us in an accusatory manner that we had “told the airline that our dog’s kennel was a ‘400’ size when it’s actually a ‘500’”, and because there’s 7 dogs on the flight and not enough room, we need to purchase a new kennel from the airline (at their inflated price, of course), or not be allowed to get on the plane. Yeah, you can imagine the reaction that caused. FIRST of all, when we first flew with this kennel 2 years ago, we HAD ALASKA AIRLINES MEASURE IT to tell us what size it was and what we needed to pay to transport it. SECOND of all, when we’ve booked or flights since, we’ve told them it was an extra large kennel. Is there even a size larger that we could book it as? And what’s with this “400” and “500” business? When I asked her these questions, she wouldn’t (or couldn’t) tell me.

Well, upon first hearing the situation, and Miss Desk Lady’s attitude, Sara got really upset, which set Isaac off crying (not that it took much at this point), and I just about lost it…enough to be willing to fight a little bit not to get bowled over, anyway. I’m not sure if she was expecting us just to say ok, we’ll pay for a smaller kennel, and then pay to have our regular kennel shipped, or if she thought we’d just choose to spend ANOTHER 12 hours in the Anchorage airport, but I wasn’t about to do either until I was sure it was absolutely necessary. Long story short, there was another guy there that had two dogs in large kennels, and he took pity on us (or just wanted to quiet the couple with the crying baby) and offered to combine his two dogs into one kennel. This shut Desk Lady up, and she said that could work, but continued to be snotty with us, telling us that thanks to this guy “stepping up”, we could go ahead and get on the plane. Funny thing is, after all that, when we all got to Bethel the guy’s two dogs were in separate kennels, so no rearrangement or new kennels were even needed in the first place.

Aaaanywho, we made it to Bethel in one piece, got all our stuff (which was a relief, as I thought for certain the general mess in ANC, plus with the Bethel flights messed up that day, would have made for some lost bags), and over to JP for the charter home. JP was grumpy as usual, but he’s good and likes dogs, and with the cost of seat fares these days the charter’s not really that much more expensive. Plus, he stayed open for us (as well as another couple we know that had chartered to Quinhagak), which he didn’t really NEED to do. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone by phone to let them know we were on our way, which was a little stressful (to one of us, anyways), but we took off and got home and got a ride from the (new and improved!) airstrip just fine, making it home around 10pm…making for a total travel time of about 37 hours, personal records for both of us.

As for the rest of the week, there’s been a lot of unpacking, cleaning, organizing, etc. We returned to a few surprises at home, including a new floor in our living room (linoleum? I liked our carpet…), and one new window and our bedroom window completely boarded up. Sounds like some classy Nunap youth(s) were going around throwing rocks through windows in teacher housing over the summer. So after cleaning broken glass out of our bed as well as Isaac’s, washing sheets, as well as cleaning up after the folks who were doing “repairs” around the house (picking nails out of the carpet…I even found another two today :-/), we finally got to bed. Hey, at least the boarded up window means it’s dark in our bedroom, right?

School’s a whole ‘nother issue. I’ll probably post on that situation once it’s resolved. Basically, I have no idea yet if I’ll be working at all this semester, and the semester starts Monday. So yeah, to be continued…

Pistons, Pitchers, & Pike

Well, spring is almost here, and I'm less than a week away from heading into Anchorage for the big event, so what this blog needs is one last good adventure story from this winter. Right?

So on Friday afternoon, Maria asked if I'd like to go fishing. "Of course," I said, not realizing (though I should have) that she didn't actually mean fishing around here, seeing as the pike haven't made their way this far upriver yet. She meant down on the Kuskokwim, as I soon learned. Either way, I was definately up for doing it, considering the snow and ice are fast melting, and that my remaining snowmachine days this year are numbered, and I'd pretty much take any excuse to get out and ride and do something fun before weather forces the machine into hiding for the summer.

The plan was to meet Christina and Erin in Bethel A.S.A.P., head down to the mouth of the Johnson past Napakiak, fish, and get home before dark. It was a good plan.

We got dressed and our stuff together, gassed up, and headed out. It's been pretty warm the last few days, and the trail was as smooth as I've seen it. And smooth, of course, equals fast. So we're making good time, and just a little past 2/3 of the way into town, when all of a sudden I see Maria fall off behind me. Her machine just died. Started to sound weird, then just lost power. So we check it out, and right away it looks bad, but we though maybe she'd just overheated. We let it sit for a while, and it got better, but still wouldn't stay running. Long story short, a guy that happened by did an impromptu test of the cylindars, and yeah, looks like she dropped a piston. Which sucks. So we knew we had to get her machine either back to Nunap or into Bethel for repairs, and so it didn't get stolen or stripped if left it on the trail overnight. We tried hauling it with my machine, but pulling it, with both of us, was really straining my engine and the though of having both machines broken down on the trail was scary enough for me to convince Maria to hop on with me and head into Bethel and figure out a solution from there.

When we got to Bethel we met up with Christina, as well as some folks we didn't know were going to be there. Not to mention, certain refreshments we weren't expecting, as well. So after, ahem, refreshing ourselves, Maria and a small crew headed out to wrangle her machine into town, while the rest of us continued to...refresh. At this point, we knew we weren't going to be doing any fishing Friday night, and after comtemplating heading back to Nunap, I decided to head down with Christina, Erin, and Maria to Oscarville and crash there. We still didn't know how Maria was going to get her machine fixed, or exactly how she'd be getting back to Nunap, but we did still want to try to get some fishing in. So, after a slight gas issue in the parking lot of the Bethel post office, and a visit with Bethel's finest out on patrol, we made it down to Oscarville around 2am and caught some sleep.

On Saturday morning, Maria got a hold of the repair shop (where she had just had her machine tuned up a week before!), and got them set to pick up and work on her machine, as well as getting a hold of our Principal, who with her husband was going to be headed to Napaskiak and back to Nunap in the afternoon. We made tentative plans to meet up with them and ride back together in the early evening, so we knew we had a few hours to head out fishing. We got our stuff together and headed out down the river about 10 miles, past Napakiak to where the Johnson comes into the Kuskokwim. There were probably half a dozen spots where people were fishing, with dozens of families out at each spot, but eventually we found who we were looking for and settled in to try to catch some pike.

One of the reasons I was really excited to get out ice fishing for the first time this spring, was to try out my new hand auger that I'd gotten back a little while ago. So I un-strap it from the back of my machine, screw it together and start drilling. And drilling. And resting. And drilling some more. Well, I don't know how deep was in the spot where I was drilling, but it was at least 44 inches, because that's the length (I measured) from the tip of the blades to the handle, at which point I couldn't turn it any more. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself! But luckily, the people we met up with had some extra holes cut, so we just hopped on into those. It was a nice day on the river, and the fish were biting at a steady pace. Not an overwhelming bite, but enough to keep it interesting. I got five in the hour and a half or two hours we were out there, including a couple pretty good sized fish (nose to tail about the same length as my pole, so about 24"), and everyone else was catching at roughly the same rate.

After a couple hours, as I said, it was time to head back to meet up with our Principal and her husband to head back to Nunap. Maria rode in the sled they'd brought stuff down in, and proceeded to get drenched as there was a lot of water on the trail. But it was another smooth, fast ride, spooking up flocks of ptarmigan every few miles. Had I been thinking, I'd have brought my shotgun along too. But all in all, I was really glad that despite the drama and the "quick trip" becoming an overnight adventure, it was really great to hang out with Christina and Erin, to get all "refreshed" with Lee and some other coworkers, and definitely worth it to get out and do some fishing. Because hey, I leave for Anchorage on Friday! Not only is this likely my last snowmachine outing of the season, it's my last spontaneous trip before fatherhood strikes!

So yeah. Good times :-P

Following the North Trail to the Yukon

We had a three day weekend for Easter, so I decided to ride along with some folks that were headed up to the treeline by the Yukon river. I had never been before, and it was something I've been wanting to do for a while, though every time the opportunity arrives I seem to come up with an excuse not to go. It's a ways, about a 2.5-3 hour ride each way, and I'm always a little over-concerned about whether or not my snowmachine is up to it. Not to mention, it can be a bit of a gas hog, and it's not like there are any other villages (not to mention gas stations) along the way. This time, however, I just said "why not" and decided to give it a try.

So we got started and headed out around 8:30 Friday morning, and I have to say it was a beautiful ride. After about the halfway point you start to see scattered trees, and all of a sudden you come over a small ridge and see trees everywhere. Which I know doesn't sound like all that big of a deal to you Wisconsinites/Minnesotans out there, but here on the flat, treeless tundra, it's like seeing an oasis :-) Even the trail conditions, which last time I rode to Bethel were horrendous, have really improved due to a bunch of powdery snow over the last couple weeks. The ride was a little bumpy, but nothing compared to the concrete-hard drifts a month or so ago.

The big difference in snow, really, was after we got up there. Down here where there is much wind and no trees, all the snow that doesn't pack down and drift just blows away. Well....now I think I know where it goes. As you can sort of see in the top picture, the snow in the trees was deep. Very deep. Like, when I got off my machine to walk into the trees, I immediately sank into my waist and didn't touch the ground. Which made cutting trees (and more notably dragging them out to the river) quite difficult.

I rode up with Carey and Maria, who wanted to bring back a load of wood for steaming, and with Matthew (the school's Site Tech, Community Advocate, and general jack of all trades/glue that holds the school together) and one of his sons. Matthew had brought a chainsaw, so he went about cutting down dead trees, which then had to be de-limbed and de-nubbed, tied to the back of our machines, and drug down to the river where we had left the freight sleds and our stuff. It's quite an operation, and a lot of work dealing with the waist-deep snow while cutting, axing, dragging, and towing. Not that I did much of the work, seeing as I was mostly along for the ride and just to get to the Yukon and see trees...but still. I helped a little, with what I could.

One thing that we could not have done any better with was the weather. The forecast had made me a little nervous, calling for the wind to pick up and snow to move in, but it stayed perfectly clear for us, warmed up to about 10 or 15 degrees, and what wind did pick up was at our back the whole ride home. So, we got back home around 8pm or so, a little sore, but having avoided and of the misfortunes or misadventures that seem to usually plague my snowmachine/airplaine/boat travels around the tundra. Carey attributed our luck to the "evil eye" stone she brought along to ward off evil spirits. Normally, I wouldn't put much stock in such things, but after the poor luck we've had in the past, to go on this lengthy of a trip without anything going wrong....well, I'm certainly not going to question it.

Stick-venture!

Well, our trip to Anchorage went really well...relaxing, productive, and fun. But since I last posted, we had a bit of a time getting home. So by popular request, let's continue the theme of stick figure representations of our trip, shall we?

Here we are at Era Aviation in Bethel, finding out that our checked bag and box of perishable groceries had not come with us from Anchorage, but had instead been sent to Kodiak.

Here we are at the airport in Nunap, with me, Trent, and the pilot pushing the plane back onto the runway after getting pulled down towards the tundra by a snowdrift.

Here I am racing to turn off the washing machine after realizing the draining wash water was draining onto the bathroom floor due to some pipes freezing/plugging/who knows what.

Weekend.

Ever see the movie Memento? Let's work backwards through the weekend that was:

Sunday

How about we just not talk about the Packer game. It's just. too. soon.

Saturday

What the heck is up with this weather?? By the end of last week they were predicting a major storm for the weekend, with a blizzard "watch" in effect until Sunday. Well, the system showed up, but instead of 25 degrees and snow, it was 35 degrees and rain. The wind was crazy...on the left is a picture of our weather gauge from sometime Saturday afternoon (bottom two readings are sustained wind and highest gust). And our wind speed reading is typically about 10-15 mph low, depending on the direction the wind is coming from (darn buildings), so who knows how high the gusts were actually getting. Either way, it was crappy out...mostly because we went from having really nice, deep, powdery snow cover to having a few piles of crappy snow and foot-deep puddles of water everywhere. Good times.

Friday

Now here's a funny story.

Remember, oh, last fall or so when we had a bit of an adventure with taking the boat for a ride over to a neighboring village? If not, it's ok. Just a bit of an adventure...one of those things that are a little frustrating, even scary at the time, but you have a sense even while it's happening that it'll make a pretty good story later on. Assuming you get through it.

Ok, I'm being way over-dramatic, I'll admit it. But it's still a good story.

So our friend Sara was planning on hitching a ride over to Akiuk from Napaskiak in order to retrieve the snowmachine she had left there in the spring, and was looking for some of us to ride back with her (the trail pirates are back....shiver me timbers!) Of course I said I'd go, I've been looking for an excuse to head in to Bethel and try out our sled and the new rig we hooked up to it. The original plan was to make the trip on Saturday, during the day, but Friday afternoon we all saw the weather forecast, and worried about getting caught by bad weather, decided to head out right away after school. We knew we'd probably be headed back after dark, but better the dark than in a "blizzard", was my thinking.

Well, everything started off well, except for getting a little later start than we expected. Which was troublesome, considering Christina was planning on meeting us in Bethel at AC at 5:00, and we didn't leave the gas station and get on the trail 'til about 4:45. But that didn't concern me *too* much...she knows we're poky, and probably wouldn't too worry too much if we're an hour or so late. So Carey, Maria, Sara R. and I headed out into the dusk, and were making pretty good time when our first little snafu happened...somehow, the bolt holding her hitch on came loose and the sled came off. I was riding behind her, with Maria behind me, so all three of us stopped and tried to figure out a way of hooking the sled back on without the bolt. In the meantime, Carey hadn't realized the rest of us had stopped behind her, and had kept going, so Maria went on ahead to catch her, and I stood by being very little help as Sara got her sled reconnected using some rope she had with her and the snap clip I still (luckily) had connected to the tow rope of my sled. By the time we were done and good to go, Maria and Carey got back to us and we all headed on, having lost a little time and one bolt, but with no real harm done.

Next comes the embarrassing part for me. So as I believe I mentioned before, our new tow bar for the sled was made to break down into pieces to allow us to bring it up here, in a box, from Wisconsin. Well, when I put it together last weekend, I did so on the living room floor, considering it was mighty cold outside, and I wanted to do as little of the work outside as possible. The problem, however, is that I failed to notice that I had put the bolts on the rear portion on upside down, that is to say, with the nuts on top when I put the thing together on the sled. In my defense, I had every intention on fixing them Saturday morning before we left (per the original plan), but in the rush to leave Friday afternoon, I kinda forgot. That is, until we stopped to fix Sara's sled and I noticed I had already lost one bolt, and the nuts on a few of the others had rattled darn near off as well. So I tightened them the best I could with my fingers, which I then crossed as we headed off to Bethel. By the time I got to AC I had lost two more bolts. Everything was still holding together, but only by a thread.

So Carey and Maria had headed on to Napaskiak with Sara, and I had broken off to Bethel, partially because of my precarious sled situation, and partially because at this point, we were a full 2 hours late meeting Christina and her roommate Erin, and someone needed to let her know we weren't stranded or hijacked somewhere. Here would be a good place to point out that when I arrived at AC, I parked by two snowmachines. This will become vital information in a minute.

But in the meantime, I chatted with Christina and started my shopping (including some extra tools to allow me to shore up my sled before heading back.) Carey and Maria showed up, having gotten Sara to Napaskiak, and were doing their shopping when Christina and Erin (who had been at AC for, oh, three hours at this point), decided it was time for them to head back to Oscarville. Or so they thought. I got a sick feeling in my stomach as soon as I saw Christina walking back down the aisle toward us, which only got deeper when she said something along the lines of "well, now I can top your guys' story for tonight"....her snowmachine, which I had parked next to only an hour or so before, was no longer there. Stolen.

So! Our new plan: Erin has her snowmachine there, but they both have groceries, and no way of hauling them back, so we'd all head the 6 miles down the Kusko to Oscarville, drop her off, and head back. Which is precisely what we did after everyone was finished shopping (and I made my...ahem...sled adjustments). The only problem on the way down was that I was riding 3rd in a line of 4, and the two machines ahead of me kind of...well...took off on the clear, wide, flat Kuskokwim, while I and my sled, better attached but not 100%, and feeling like a parachute behind me with the added weight of everyone's groceries, couldn't go much over 25 or 30 mph. But, Christina was on Maria's machine behind me, and thankfully passed me up and lead me to Oscarville after I had missed the turn off the river trail.

So we warmed up for a few minutes at Christina and Erin's, I called my lovely wife, as it was now about 10pm, 6 hours after we'd left and around the benchmark time we'd earlier set at which point she was "allowed" to start worrying. Luckily, she had been sewing some cool stuff (how domestic! Seriously, she should post about it...you all need to bug her to post on her blog, mmkay?) and hadn't really gotten *too* worried just yet.

A few minutes after 10, we headed out from Oscarville, thinking we had about a 15 minute ride back to Bethel, and then a roughly hour long ride back to Nunap (depending on how quickly the sled would allow me to go). However, none of us being familiar with this particular area, there were "issues" finding not only the trail, but the right direction to head. I'll leave it at that :-) Suffice it to say, after a little bit of wandering around the middle of the Kusko in the dark, and one frightening run-in with an overflow (yeah, I had never seen one in person before...damn...) later, we got on the trail, in the right direction, and back into Bethel to fuel up for the ride home.

At this point it was 11:20. We found the H-marker after a little detour, and we set out, breaking trail as the storm was starting to kick up and it was windy and drifting, despite clear sky above, all the way back. Despite the bumps and the worry about the sled, the last 20 miles were really quite a nice ride...the moon was out, the wind was mostly at our backs, and due to how late it was, there weren't any other machines out on the trail. We rolled into Nunap right at 1am, a little cold, a little stressed, but really happy to be home with our machines, or groceries, and ourselves intact.

**********

Happy ending postscript: So Christina's stolen snowgo? Well, she reported it to the Bethel police, of course, right away, and they took down all the information, etc. And guess who got a phone call from Bethel's finest around 2am? Yup, they found her machine, out of gas, about...oh...a couple hundred yards from where she had parked it. Nobody can figure out what happened, if the thieves took it joyriding, and then just happened to run out of gas at the video store next door, if it was all someone's idea of a joke, if someone was just drunk, or what. But hey, whatever the scenario, the machine is back with its rightful owner, and Christina will be able to ride over and visit Nunap this weekend! Hooray!!

Edited to add: If you're interested (and, unlike me, you live somewhere where you can access Myspace), here's Christina's blog entry about her super-fantastic snowmachine theft adventure!

KWN N.Y.O. Pictures (& November Rain?)

Sorry about the G'n'R reference...I just read the latest weather forecast for the week. Sad, sad. We're stuck in this upper-20s to mid-30s pattern, which has meant lots of snow (good), but no ice being made on the river (bad). Hence, our lovely snowmachine is left sitting, waiting for a chance to get off the boardwalk and out and about across the river.

Been a while since I posted, hasn't it? Been kinda busy, but then again, that's a good thing. I was able to accompany the school's NYO team to Quinhagak this past weekend, and it was loads of fun. In fact, why don't I just post a few of the pics I took and tell a little of the story that way?

Loading up the boat to head over to the airport. One of the older guys that works at the school said that this is only the second or third time in his life, that he can remember, that the river's still open in November. Someone call Al Gore.


At the airport...our buses have arrived!


For some reason, I'm almost always on the wrong side of the plane to be able to take a picture of the village coming in or out...that, or the weather's too bad to see anything. Friday was beautiful flying weather, so I was able to snap a shot from a little ways away. Hopefully, sometime, I'll be able to get a better, closer shot.


The airport in Quinhagak is a couple miles out of the village proper, but unlike Nunap, they have actual roads! So some nice folks from the school came and picked us up...and Carey and I "got" to ride in the back of the truck. A little chilly, but a nice view of the mountains!


One of the best things about being able to travel to Quinhagak was seeing our friends, Eric and Sherry, and their little one. Sara wanted to come along and see a whole bunch of students, teachers, and parents she knows from when she taught here for a couple years, but unfortunately, there ended up not being any room on the charters for her to tag along. Here, Eric is teaching his boy an essential NYO skill...the High Kick!


After we got settled in, it was time to start the events. Since there were only two teams there, I ended up helping to judge almost everything. This is the third meet that I've helped, so I'm starting to feel like I'm understanding all the rules enough that I won't be nervous about judging on my own, if need be, next time. Anyways, here is one of our students balancing for the One Arm Reach.


After all the events were over on Friday night, the Quinhagak team stuck around for a sleepover with the Nunap team at the school. Lots of hanging out and open gym time. They have a bunch of rollerblades at their school for some reason, so everyone had a good time playing rollerhockey and generally skating around and trying not to fall on their butts.

We were ahead of schedule when we finished up on Friday night (another nice thing about only having two teams there), but we still had more events to do on Saturday. Here is a very quick video of some kids practicing for one of my favorites, Eskimo Stick Pull (named so as to differentiate it from Indian Stick Pull, which is a completely different beast, and involves Crisco. Seriously.)


Another benefit of bringing a big team to a small meet...here's the high school team accepting the 1st place trophy!


It had been a long 24 hours, and without much sleep, as I can attest...here are the boys, (mostly) sleeping on the plane ride home. The pilot woke them up shortly after this pic was taken, however, with a few good rounds of "roller coaster" :-)

Oktoberfest, Tundra-style

On Saturday, the staff over at Akiuk invited us and the Akula staff over for their big Oktoberfest celebration. Lots of German music, videos, food, and of course, references to beer. Now, I normally do pretty well simply not thinking about the fact that I'm in a dry village with no access to a nice cold brew, but singing songs about beer, watching movies about beer, and toasting with (root) beer was just plain mean.

To the right here is our buddy Trent...apparently the decorations proved too realistic to resist :-)

But really, it was a lot of fun going to a celebration of German culture in the middle of the tundra. Most of the cultural activities up here (obviously and rightly so) are native activities, and it was fun showing off a little bit of European/western/whatever culture that didn't involve the NBA, 50-Cent, or whatever else people here see on cable. Sara and I even got to polka...briefly. And there's a video of a bunch of the teachers doing the chicken dance, which I may hold onto as blackmail material for a later date...muhaha!

More Pics

Sara and I took Loki for a swim this weekend. He seemed quite excited to get back in the water after a long winter...or that could have just been me projecting. Here are a couple shots of the action:

The De-frozen Tundra

Well, we're getting right down to it, aren't we? Hard to believe we've only got, what, a couple weeks left of the school year? And then a little packing, a little moving, and we're on our way back to the Minnesconsin (or is it Wisconsota?) region. Not too much of excitement to report from the last week or so, but I do have a couple pictures...so how's about we do it that way?

The snow is gone and the tundra is (mostly) thawed, so it seemed like last weekend was a good time to go for a walk...with guns. Peter was headed out hunting just south of the village and asked me if I wanted to tag along, which of course I did :-) This is a picture of lovely "southside" Nunapitchuk taken from I-don't-know-how-far-away on the tundra.

Here's Peter with a shotgun and his handy walking stick (seriously...it came in quite handy), looking out over the tundra for sights/sounds of avian life.

Me, I was just happy to get out and have the opportunity to sight in my 17hmr...haven't had it out since getting it up here, and the scope had been knocked way off. Boo. (I'm not particularly fond of this picture...I think it's the low angle. But it's me with a gun, so odds are yeah, I'm going to post it.)

Also of note...the river ice went out over the weekend! So I guess that marks the end of ice fishing, huh? Oh well, I guess it's about time to get out on the boat anyway.

Into the Homestretch

So what have we been up to since Trivia? Not much, not much.

Last week was my first week post-subbing, and really, it was quite boring. Nice, but boring. I got our snowmobile put away for the summer (sad!) and some calls made and stuff taken care of for the wedding, but other than that, didn't have too much going on.

Then, over the weekend, we had to fly into Bethel for another marriage prep session at the church. Even without riding in on snowmobile, travel was a little hairy. The airport here in Nunap is on the opposite side of the river, which at the moment is right at that sketchy stage where there is ice in most spots, but it's not very good ice, and you have to have a good idea where to go or else you're going to get wet. Thus, with noone willing (smartly) to take us by snowmobile or 4-wheeler, we had to walk to the airport to catch our plane. We got there, made it to Bethel, walked around and got some dinner, and had a lovely time Saturday night at the White House. Sunday we made it to mass and got our last conversation in with the Priest, and still had time to do a little shopping before heading back to the airport for the quick flight back to the village.

So after worrying about whether the ice on the river was going to be good enough for us to cross back and forth to the airport a couple times over the weekend, what have we been up to since? Well ice fishing, of course!!

Gotta love ice fishing in May :-)

April Fools

Yes, the apostrophe was left out on purpose. That's plural, not possessive.

So around here, people don't do much on Sunday. Store is closed, not much hunting or fishing or anything goes on. They go to church and that's about it. Religion is taken pretty seriously, which is understandable, considering the timeline.

Us kass'aq teachers aren't really bound by such restrictions. To us, it's the **weekend**, and we want to get out there and make use of the time off however we can. Sometimes, this means heading out for some hunting on our precious last day before the new week begins.

Sometimes this choice to disregard the fact that Sunday should be a day of rest....well, it comes back to bite us in the butt.

The original plan for the weekend had included a trip up to the treeline by the Yukon river to collect some wood for this week's school bonfire. I've never been, but supposedly it's a 3-or-so hour trip each way, and a pretty rough one at that. However, the weather didn't seem to want to cooperate, as the temps had (finally) gotten up to a couple degrees over the freezing mark, which made for some pretty thick fog and pretty slushy snow conditions. Not exactly the best riding weather.

So, the treeline trip scratched, Peter and I decided to take a quick trip out beyond the village to poke around for some ptarmigan. Not too adventurous, but it beats sitting around the house watching TV, etc. Little did we know what the fates had in store. First, Peter manages to dive his machine nose-first into a gully between drifts, getting hung up and monumentally stuck. After trying to dig for a while with hands and sticks, we decide to give pulling it out with mine a shot. Now, knowing the snow in front of his machine is going to be similar to the snow he's stuck in, I'm not feeling too good about where this is headed, and the prospect of having both machines stuck a few miles outside of Akula is making me a little nervous. As I pull in front of him, I feel my track getting sucked down, and after momentarily getting stuck I'm able to gun it out....and right over an 8 foot drop. Next thing I know, I'm flying through the air, off my sled, and I land on my back on the snow with my shotgun planted barrel first down to the trigger guard about 10 inches from my ear.

It's at this point I start wondering about the Sunday + April Fool's Day combination we're dealing with.

But, my machine is still free, and we've proven that pulling Peter's out isn't going to be an option, so after shaking the cobwebs from my head we get back to work digging. This is when we decide that larger sticks might be more useful, so Peter whips out his trusty Leatherman to use the sawblade....and promptly breaks the tool. So after digging for a while and trying to lift the back end out with no luck, we decide to head back home to grab more help, some shovels, etc. So after we get my machine all rigged up with out stuff and both jump on, and then finally decide with the help of GPS and a compass which way to head through the fog, we get on our way. On our way, of course, meaning needing to get out of the area of deepish, melting slush we've been digging through. I decide to try to move pretty quickly to avoid getting bogged down, which worked well, until the fog and lack of contrast between the air and the snow caused me to bang headfirst into a drift that turned out to be a pretty sweet jump...had we been prepared for it. Peter banged his face into my back, and we hit so hard that the GPS around my neck actually snapped off its strap and went spinning through the air in slow motion. Luckily, we didn't land on it.

So, after getting back and grabbing shovels and a couple people to help, we headed back and got the sled out...embarrassingly easily, in fact. I contend that we had loosened it up before we left. There was a little bit of an issue with getting separated on the way back, and having to double back and look for people, but at that point my machine was starting to not like the >32 degree weather, so I limped home before adding an overheated sled to my day's list of woes.

Moral of the story? Maybe there is something to this "no hunting on Sunday" rule. I'll definitely think twice next time, I know that.

Blatant Narcissism

Peter just sent me a couple pictures that he took during out hunting outing on Friday. I feel a little funny posting two shots in a row of my pudgy, sub-arctic self, but I figured maybe there was someone out there who would like to see them. Hi mom.

A-hunting we will go

One Friday afternoon, two Pointer ex-pats, a couple of snowmachines, a .22, a 12-gague, and 28 miles.

This is all we saw -------------->

But we saw a TON of them...so we know the birds are around there...somewhere.

At least it was a nice day for a ride :-)

Spring Fever

It must be the daylight...there've been a lot more in the way of outdoor-type activities going on the last week or two. The temps are definitely still mid-winterish, but with the sun staying up late now that daylight savings time came early (it's light well after 9pm already), there's plenty of time after school to get out and have some fun without having to wait for the weekends. Here are a few pics of our goings-on of late...

Meet Seeker, E.P.'s sometime-lead dog. She had no problem jumping up on the sled and posing for a picture when we headed out on Friday. Eric wanted to do a quick 6 mile run, so a couple of us went along to help...and to take pictures, apparently.

Yet another good reason to come along...Peter bought a new .22 and wanted to try it out.

Here's Eric mushing. Cool, huh? Supposedly there's a local race this week sometime that he's asked me to help out with and be on his "crew"...I'm excited. Did any of you down in the lower 48 follow the Iditarod at all? Some interesting stories this year. I was surprised to see how many mushers from Wisconsin were entered. Very cool.

As I mentioned the other day, we rode into Bethel this weekend. We had a marriage-prep appointment on Sunday and decided to head in Saturday afternoon and stay the night. Anyways, this is a shot of the gas "station" on the river when we stopped to gas up on the way out of the village. I took the picture because it was an unusual sight...two cars! Mind you, these are two of the maybe 5 cars in a who-knows-how-many mile radius, so it was kinda funny to see them both at the gas station. Or not, I dunno.


And here's a pic of the tundra landscape taken from the same spot as Sara's pic in my last post. Boring, perhaps...but I've got to show you Wisconsin people what the real "frozen tundra" looks like, right? Actually, this shot gives you a good idea of how little snow we actually have on the ground right now. It's just been too cold to snow much, and what we've gotten has all blown away in the wind. Makes for some bumpy and icy snowmobiling.

Kickin' it in Bethel

Coming at you live from the White House B&B in sunny Bethel, AK!

We rode in yesterday and stayed the night just for kicks. I'll have a nice photo-post coming this week, as I've managed to take a bunch of pictures the last couple days, but for now, here's a preview shot of Sara on the trail with our friend's machine. Notice the bare ground...yeah, despite (or rather, probably because of) the cold, we've had very little snow this winter, so riding around on the trail at the moment is mostly on bare ice, sometimes a little packed snow, and even some bare frozen tundra. Eat your heart out, Lambeau.

Don't get me wrong, it's still fun zooming across the tundra, but I wish we had more snow for the sake of the machines, not to mention a smoother ride...the bumps get a little tough to deal with after 20 miles or so.

All's well that ends....well....

Just a quick Friday post to link to the story of Sara's snowmobile adventure over the last 24 hours or so...

I'm just glad she made it back safely and in good spirits :-)