It is December already!!

Hello, it has been a while since I posted, I have been very busy. It is already December, wow, hard to believe. In a week and a half I will be flying Kivalina - Kotzebue -Anchorage -Seattle - Chicago - Milwaukee. 27 hrs but it will be so worth it. I am looking forward to many of the comforts I have not had in 4.5 months. T.V. will be high on my list, but fresh fruit and produce is at the top of the list. Can not wait for a big green salad or a granny smith apple. MMMMMM! A lot has happened since my last post. We had one of the worst storms in a decade the beginning og November, the surf was very high and caused a lot of concern for flooding. Since we are located on a narrow strip of land surrounded by water, I can see the concern. We had quite a few people evacuate to the school the first night of the storm, the second day of the storm there was a general evacuation into the village. Teachers organized the rooms/security and monitored the phone/c.b & vhf radio. The winds were 75 mph plus and the seas were ~15 ft waves. The beach disappeared and the waves broke over the north end of the seawall. We survived with just a small amount of flooding. The temperatures then dropped for the next three weeks, daytime highs were around -15 to -20 wind chills dipped into the -40 range. The daylight has also disappeared. we had 18 hrs of daylight when I arrived in August -we are down to just over two hours of daylight now. The sun pokes over the southern horizon and creeps along the horizon for a brief period of time before leaving. Last weekend (De. 3-4) we had another blizzard, winds were around 45 mph we also received snow but it is hard to tell how much because it all blew into drifts. Some are in the 4 to 5 foot high range but most are not that high. Well, that is about it for excitement in Kivalina, Alaska. Take care

Over the 3 month mark!

Hello, It has been a while since I have posted, sorry about that. School keeps me very busy, and when I am off work, it seems like I am still working. My days go really fast, seems like it is time for the weekend already, but then it is Monday morning just that fast and time to start the week again. It has been cold here the last two weeks, snow on the ground as well, today it warmed up to about 35 snow is mostly gone, ground (gravel) softened up and is making a mess on the floors. Next week has some pretty cold days and accumulating snow, the melt was only a tease. May not see those "warm" temperatures for quite some time. I did purchase some cheap entertainment for my house, a CB radio, I get to listen to anything from family arguments, gossip, sales at the native store, to one of the village kids being called over the CB for supper. I entertain easily. I have also been doing a daily news, weather, traffic and sports on Facebook, in case you do not read or follow it, it started as a joke but it seems I have a daily following of my reports and the sarcasm that is embedded in it. It is fun. I have been watching movies, doing some reading and on the internet, that has been what I have been up to during my time

away from work. Just wanted to post that I am alive and well, take care, I will post more again, sooner though between posts.

Day 40

Hello,
Well, It has been 40 days since I have departed Wisconsin, it seems like I have been gone much longer than that. My days go pretty fast when I am teaching and doing school work, it is the down time when things tend to get a little slow. I have been going for walks, the beach is a nice walk, some days the sand is really soft and you have to look for a harder surface to walk other times the sand seems pretty well packed. we have had some good wind storms, blowing hard enough that the lagoon on the eastern side of the village was emptied, other than the water from the river still flowing, the rest was mud. No, we are not buried in snow yet, it is getting a little colder at night though. Soon we will see the white snowflakes, if you want me to send you some let me know. I posted a bunch of pictures on Sunday, they were just random shots, there is not a lot of things to take pictures of, and I am somewhat blocked in by the water. If I wanted to walk the 8 miles to the northern part of the island I could, but it would still be the same scenery. When winter approaches, ice and snow will be good objects to take pictures of, for a few days till that novelty wears off, the Northern Lights will be on my list of "to do" things, there is a website that informs of the best days to see them. Cloud permitting. I am looking forward to staying up and enjoying a brisk -40 so I can take photos. The first time will be fun, the rest of the times it will be crazy. Teaching is going pretty good, it is still a lot of work, especially since I have to teach subjects that I have not taught before and have to create all the lesson plans that go with it. I was spoiled at Bullen, teaching the same stuff every year. I am not complaining though, I get to teach some of my favorite topics in social studies/history, yea! I also have the honor of teaching sex education to the males in November. Awkward. I am doing well, slowly getting my food supplies stocked up for the winter. Never know when supplies/services will be interrupted by the weather. Brenda is doing a great job of sending stuff. Thanks dear. Well that is about if for this edition, I have rambled on for a while now. Take care.

1 month later...

Hello, it is hard to believe I have been gone a month already. On 8 August Brenda and I headed towards Anchorage. So much has been going on, school keeps me very busy, there is always something that needs done. The staff that I work with are great people. We all get along and have fun when we have a few free moments. The village has been very receptive to our arrival, they brought a caribou over to Scott's house last Saturday night, they gutted it. We spent Saturday night skinning, cutting and vacuum sealing then freezing the various pieces. We did cook the brisket on Sunday, slow cooked in the oven for almost 7 hours, it was very good. We have been experiencing quite a wind storm for the last two days. The wind has been blowing steady at 30+ mph with gusts around 45 mph. When the temperature is only 45 degrees, the wind gets a bit chilly. Not as cold as what is coming, but it has a little bite to it.

Brenda has been mailing me stuff, especially food items that I can stock up on for the winter. I am slowly getting a stockpile of goodies, along with some online shopping for this and that stuff. I have spent my down time watching movies and reading, as well as taking walks along the ocean, as long as the weather cooperates. Well that is it for now, nothing too exciting. More later.

Hello! Sorry I have not posted much recently. I have been putting in MANY hours everyday and there just is not enough hours in the day. It is Saturday, just a few minutes after 12 noon. I am multitasking at the moment, writing lesson plans, writing this blog as well as grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is not the same as we are used to. There is a store here, they have a decent selection of items. The problem is the prices are pretty high. Any fresh fruit or vegetables are hit and miss. Milk, well it is sold in the boxes that do not need refrigerated. It is the same milk we had on the ship when we ran out of fresh milk. If you refrigerate it, it is okay. A gallon of fresh milk is 13.00/gallon in Kotzebue. (that is 80 miles south of here). We do our grocery shopping online. Fred Meyer.com is where I am trying to shop right now, they have a good selection, prices are very good, you can even order milk, eggs and they arrive in good shape, and still cold. They ship it via plane, at the airport the boxes marked perishable are put into cold storage until they are loaded on a plane. There are other stores that ship into the bush as well, you can buy just about anything and have it shipped here. No alcohol though, we are a dry village.
School is going well, the kids are eager to learn (most of them) and they have a million questions for me, some even relate to the topic we are learning about. We use the Smartboard and show many places on it, they love to see other places. We are also doing a program called Rachel's Challenge. (all my KUSD friends need to check this out) It is a program about kindness based on the short life of Rachel Scott, a 17 year old student who was shot and killed during the Columbine High School shootings. She was a person who went out of her way and talked to and help students, maybe just saying a kind word or even hello to the student. We watched a presentation in Kotzebue for in-service and a speaker from the foundation was there. Not a dry eye in the place. Great program for kids. There is also a facebook site for it. Check it out. Well, I really need to finish shopping and lesson planning. Have a great day!

School starts tomorrow, I have been working in my classroom all weekend. I think I am ready for students. I will be teaching U.S. History, U.S. Government, Social Studies, 3 gym classes and I will be the girls basketball coach. I will fly to all the villages for the games, that is awesome, plus, I did not know until after I volunteered that our girls team was state runner-up last year. Plenty of talent on the team.

I returned to Kivalina last Thursday, we have been working in the school getting ready for all the kids to come back in. I measured me walk from the house to the school in number of steps, it is 64 steps from my door to the school steps. I did post some pictures on Saturday and Friday of more scenery, if you missed them scroll down on my FB profile and you will see them. Need to do a couple more things then go watch a movie and eat.

In Service in Kotzebue, Ak

We flew back down from Kivalina to Kotzebue Monday morning for in-service. Most of the teachers were given a sleeping bag and a blow up air mattress. About 200 teachers camping in the school, it is a combined K-12 school, each has their own wing. Not the Hilton but it could be worse. School supplies meals 3x a day, pretty good stuff. Pretty standard stuff, although there was a presentation on Rachel's Challenge. She was a 17 yo girl killed during the Columbine high school killings. She promoted kindness to everyone. She somehow knew she going to die at a young age but wanted to touch the hearts and souls of millions. tears were flowing freely. She now has an organization named after her promoting kindness and all the other values she stood for, Very powerful. Had lunch, looked at school data, ate supper with Katie and Emma at school. They are great and will be so fun to work with this upcoming year. My other co-workers also are awesome people, everyone has a great sense of humor. It will not be an boring year, that is for sure. We do have our work cut out for us though with the kids. We will be till Thursday afternoon then fly back, more updates later.

Kivalina at last!

I am here! It was a LONG day of sitting around the airport (a room that is 15 x 40) waiting to fly out. There was rain and for in Kivalina, so we were grounded in Kotzebue for a while. There is no TSA to deal with at the airport. There is a local lady who sells bake goods in the airport waiting lounge. 20.00 for a loaf of banana nut bread. I passed on it. Several people were having food delivered to the airport while they were waiting for their flights. Once the weather cleared, we loaded up into a Cessna Caravan 10 passanger plane. (it is one of the larger ones) the cargo/bags are carried in a pod under the plane. Any weight over 50# is .90/lb, it can add up quickly. I was 30# over, plus I had some frozen food to bring to Kivalina. The store selection of food in Kivalina is hit and miss. We were flying to Noatak, Ak first, we had 4 people to drop of there, it was about a 25 minute flight. The landing strip is a gravel strip. As soon as the plane is on the ground, pick-up trucks and quads pull up to the plane and the have the cargo/baggage off in minutes. Very efficent operation. We sent less than 10 minutes on the ground and headed off to Kivalina, it was about 20 minutes in the air. The scenery below was awesome. mostly flatland, with streams/rivers and tundra. Some trees but everything was so green. It was a bit foggy coming into Kivalina, but

no problems. We were met by a few people with quads and trailers, our luggage went on and off we went to our homes. There were 4 of us on the last leg of the flight, 3 new teachers like me and 1 returning teacher. Our homes are at the south end of the penninsula, I am about 30 second walk from the school. I do have a flush toliet/running water and a shower,(thank God) but other than the school and the teachers, most people do not have either or any of the above services.

After unpacking and getting something to eat, the 3 new teachers went for a walk around the village. There are about 400 people here, and around 100 k-12 kids. The kids found out we were new teachers and we were swarmed. 32 million questions later we made it back to our homes. I looked at my watch and it was 11:30. Really weird having the sun still out at that time of day. It was setting and was gone around midnight. The villagers are very nice and receptive. Everyone came by and said hello, I have had people stopping all day today (Sunday) to welcome me to the village. I head back to Kotzebue tomorrow for 4 days of in-service training along with the rest of the teachers from the district. A majority of the teachers have to be flown in by bush plane, it is the only way to get around. We will be staying at the school, we get air mattresses and a sleeping bag, I prefer my own sleeping bag. I will have room to load up on some more food supplies, get supplies every time you can.

Kotzebue, Alaska

I flew out of Anchorage Thursday morning, stopped in Nome, Alaska then flew into Kotzebue, AK

It is interesting being on a plane (I was actually on a 737-400 Alaskan Airlines) due to you actually taxi on the main runway, spin around at the end then take-off. Not the normal procedure for flight in many places. The airport is a 30 x 20 room, which also includes the baggage claim. Gets a bit crowded. Spent the night at the school, along with all the other new teachers. Air mattresses and sleeping bag. We have been eating well, the school district has been taking very good care of us. Tomorrow we fly out to Kivalina, it is about 80 miles north, bush plane is the only way in. Gonna be an interesting flight.

Anchorage

We (Brenda and I) arrived in Anchorage very early Tuesday morning (12:30 a.m.) We headed to the hotel and enjoyed the comfort of the room. Tuesday after having breakfast we were out and about. it was almost 60 degrees out and light rain. That did not stop us at all. We walked all over downtown Anchorage. We needed to find some winter boots, which after visiting several stores we finally succeeded in finding a pair rated at -58 F. That should work. We enjoyed walking around all day. After we returned to the hotel, we hit the hot tub and relaxed the rest of the evening. It was very strange having the sun go down at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday we were out and about again in Anchorage, armed with the camera we took a trolley tour of the city and surrounding area. We saw 2 moose along the side of the road. They were in the brush, pictures did not show them very clearly. We had lunch at a place called Humpy's. we both had the halibut taco, it was very good along with a beavertail blondie beer. (Brenda had cherry wheat beer). Brenda heads back bright and early tomorrow, I fly out later in the morning for Kotzebue (via Nome). See you later.

Last days in the lower 48

I am down to 4 1/2 days left before I depart. I feel like I need to do something to get ready, but everything has been shipped (some of the boxes have arrived). My teacher certification has been done, all my paperwork filled out and mailed. The weather has been in the mid 40's. Not very warm by our heatwave standards. I did notice that sunrise is about 5:30 a.m. and sunset at around 12:30 a.m. 19 hrs of daylight, but it is quickly becoming less. I am looking forward to spending a couple of days in Anchorage before I head north. I will post Anchorage pictures next week. I do not know how long it will take to get internet set up once I arrive in Kivalina.

Getting ready for Kivalina, Alaska

All my boxes have been packed and mailed, parcel post - much cheaper, hope to see them at the other end. Two weeks to go and I will be on my way. I am excited to go, sad to leave my family and friends. I guess this means I will not make it to The Clubhouse anytime soon. I am looking forward to the adventure of living 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It wil bring a new meaning to the words bitter cold. It will take a couple weeks to get the internet established, once I get situated. Brenda is flying to Anchorage with me, we will spend a few days there before I head north and she returns home. I need to be at the school district office in Kotzebue by 8 a.m. on the 12th of August. I will fly to my village (Kivalina) the afternoon of the 13th. I will have just 1 day to settle in before we start teacher training on Monday, we fly back to Kotzebue for a few days of training. Going to be a busy week upon arrival. For now, I get to enjoy my last days at home and take care of the things around the house that need my attention, eat good and relax.