Grass Baskets

These are the baskets that Patty and I have collected so far this year. The basket with the pencils and thread in it is the one I got from Jeannie for Secretary's Day, which is another story altogether. The bigger basket with the dog on it is Patty's. We've gotten some pretty good deals on them. The quality of work is very different from basket to basket. I bought mom one for Christmas. It was made by a woman in Stebbin and was very well done. The lady that made the one on the far left is going to teach me how to cut the grass and sew the baskets next fall.

Just some St. Michael Photos

This is the bush plane that we flew to Unalakleet in. It is a 4 seater and pretty scary! Thankfully we had Alyssa for our pilot and despite the nasty winds we had a safe flight. I won't say it was smooth but it was safe... and that is all that matters here in the bush!




These are some pretty good pics I shot from the plane. In the above photo the red roofs toward the center of the pic are the school buildings. The red roof on the far right is the AC, our grocery store. It's pretty neat to see it all from above and see all the trails that we use everyday. The photo below is the west end of the village. The road coming into town (the one on the top of the pic) is coming from the landing strip. I don't know how well you can see it but there are two houses both with red roofs across the street from each other... follow the road to the curve... don't turn but follow the barely visible trail to the second house and you've found 906 Yooper Heights Drive.

A Week In Anchorage....

Do you know what a week in Anchorage does to a girl??? It makes her very tired!



Patty and Mandy during our late night shopping trip to Walmart



Pam, Patty, Mandy, and Denise while shopping at Carr's... again, a late night adventure...



Morgan, Patty, Rebecca, and Jody cozy up with some natives.



Captain and I snuggle up with a nice big guy.

Our week in Anchorage was full of fun and adventure, of course that included some conferences... actually, lots of conferences. We had a lot of fantastic presenters and keynote speakers. We took in some great information that I am sure we'll be able to implement into our classrooms.
We were also able to really bond with the BSSD Sped gals. There are many in this group that I consider to be very good friends and I appreciate them all in their own little ways! 8) Love ya all! Like my buddy Sam would say... memories were made! Hey Keith... you'd like our Anchorage version of choir practice! (think about flying in to join us one of these days...lol)

It's Friday!!!!

This is the tundra north of our house. I stood out on the porch to take this photo. It was taken at 5:11 on Feb. 15th.

See what the warm weather brings us... not much snow left at all. It's about 30 today so it's a bit colder than it has been but still MUCH warmer than it had been.
Happy weekend to all... We're off to Anchorage!!!!

No water but still better than some...

The water situation has not changed at all but after yesterday, we realize it how much worse it could be. The Bering Strait School District consists of 15 schools covering an area of over 50,000 square miles. One of those schools is White Mountain, which is about 100 miles or so straight north of St. Michael. White Mountain lost their high school building in a fire early yesterday morning. Thankfully, no one was injured!

Our friend Pamela often stays in the school building while she is there doing testing. Pam was in White Mountain yesterday but was not staying at the school. Again, thank God for small (and big) favors! Finally, a message to Mike in WMO, I heard you had finished your file reviews... if you are feeling bad that you no longer have files to work on... come on over to SMK!!! Thinking of you all!

Here's a little side note... Across the canal from St. Michael we have the beautiful Sister mountains. Yesterday we were told that the Sister on the right was smoking. I did not realize until then that these are actually volcanic mountains. She has been pretty quiet today so all looks well. The mountains are about 5-10 miles from us. Yikes!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Have a great Valentine's Day to you all!



Saturday Patty and I had a video conference and had to spend all day at the school doing file reviews. It was a beautiful day! At 5:00 when we left the school, we decided to go for a ride! The sun was just starting to set and made for beautiful picture. When people up here see a picture of a sunset or sunrise, they ask if it is a good morning or goodbye. Makes me smile...

This one was taken on Stephen's volcano. The moon was real hazy and looked almost eerie. Patty, the weather expert, said we had something coming in by the looks of it. How true that was. We did get a real light snow but that was followed up by crazy winds.

We ended up in Stebbins. This is looking west over the sound. That is a lot of ice there folks. The canal has over 2 feet of ice on it right now.

Today it is about 39 degrees! We are actually above freezing for the first time since the end of September. The winds are still evil but at least it is a warm wind! Our house is still without water/sewer. However, with these warmer temps the lines could be thawed in no time! Still doing ok with that situation though... gotta love those honey buckets!

We are leaving for Anchorage Friday, only 3 more sleeps. We made a list last night of things that we need. Hand sanitizer and baby wipes are the number one items! Looking forward to getting together with our SPED buddies!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Tuesday...

Jeannie on the phone... as usual. Jeannie is our principal at SMK. Saturday, while Patty and I were working, she had us chicken noodle soup for lunch! As much grief as we give her, we do still love her!


Here's Petunia! Over at Jeannie's house this weekend... What was she doing??? Only those of us there really know!

Here's Patty! Once we got the 4-wheelers started again, we want to run them all the time. It is nice to be able to get out and on the tundra again!







This was taken about 6:30 Monday evening. We are getting more daylight each day. One of the lights in the distance is from our house.








Here's Martin! Martin plows the roads and the landing strip.











Today it is about 27 degrees ABOVE zero. I believe when I saw the temps in Pickford, it was about 20. That brought a smile to my face!

This week at SMK we have been giving the Terra Nova tests. I am testing all of the 7th graders. They are similar to the MEAP tests. I can honestly say, I miss the MEAPs. (At least they were on tape.) If I never have to read Science again, it will be a glorious event, sorry Greg! We should have them finished up tomorrow. I had one student that wasn't here on time this morning, so we sent someone to his house to pick him up. Imagine that one!

For the record... still no water at our house and we are still using the honey buckets. Uncle Jim reminded me that that was the way it used to be for many of them. (At least when I walk to and from school it isn't up hill both ways.) ha ha

Monday... February 6th

Alive and kicking in the bush...

Still no water... still no sewer... still surviving...

Not much else to say....

Until next time....

Saturday... in the park...

Ok so it isn't the 4th of July... it's the 4th of February... but we are having a heat wave! It's 10 degrees ABOVE zero! I got my Honda started and had a real shower to boot! There is running water to some of the teacher housing now. Jill, one of the fortunate water holders, called and invited us over to do laundry. I threw a load of clothes in and headed to the school to get some work done and shower. Just thought I'd do a post before returning to do another load of wash.

Only 13 days til we go to Anchorage and I'm pretty excited about that one! Get to spend time with some of our friends and catch up! (also get to do some shopping!!!!)

To my PHS friends... miss you all and think of you often

Love you m&d

It's Friday!!!!

Good morning from the land of snow, mountains, frozen tundra, and no water! We got great news yesterday - they got water restored to the high school building. That was pretty exciting. Patty and I decided to get up early this morning and hike over to the school so we could SHOWER!!! It's now 6:30 am and we are sitting here waiting to see if there is going to be water or not... We were just a bit deflated when we turned the showers on and nothing happened. Seriously hoping very soon Johnny, our maintance man, will be here and make everything better. ha ha Chances are not looking good. We also received unofficial word yesterday that all the houses which are on the vaccuum system will probably not get water restored until spring. (Patty and I are on that system.) I'm ok with that... just wish I knew when spring was... ha ha
Jeannie is now safe and secure in Anchorage and Patty is due to fly out this morning to Unalakleet. Her flight yesterday was cancelled because it was storming here last night. We had extreme winds and got about 2-3 inches of snow. Well going to check out that water situation now.
By the way, don't forget to be gratefully for all the little things we have. Sometimes we don't realize how important they are... until they are gone! (H2O)
Have a good weekend!

Day #7

It's Thursday and so far.. so good. We are tough, we are strong, we are YOOPERS!!! We are still surviving with no water. Our fearless leader, Jeannie, was supposed to leave Tuesday night to fly to Anchorage but was unable to leave because no small planes were able to fly into Anchorage due to the volcanic ash from St. Augustine volcano. She was able to fly out yesterday, however, she called me when they landed in Stebbins, 9 miles away. I had to take the suburban over because she had forgotten her camera and Lucy forgot her snowpants. They were having a short layover, as the plane had flat tire. Personally I think I may have walked back to St. Michael.... Seems to me she had two strikes... don't know if I'd be willing to see about that third. She did make it safe and sound.

These are some pictures I took on the road back from Stebbins. It really is beautiful country.


This picture shows the frozen Norton Sound. The Sound is to the North of our island.

The above picture is of Stephen Hill, which is an extinct volcano.


This picture is just of the snow covered tundra. You can see many of the winter trails used for hunting and getting to the canal.

This is another of the same.