some new house pics

It's been a busy week since I last posted.

Nick came the other day and installed a rain gutter on my house, the rain gutter feeds into my water tank in the bathroom. The next morning it rained and my tank was full of beautiful rain water. I am blessed to work with so many wonderful people, people who genuinely care and who just do random acts of kindness.

Last week was filled with the monotony of inservice and a work day. All staff was invited over to Josh and Melissa's on Thursday night for an all staff potluck, we had some tasty berry akutaq (eskimo ice cream) and numerous kinds of salmon.

School started on Friday (the 18th) and we only went until noon. The weekend was way too short and I didn't get nearly enough done. I think the new teachers are feeling overwhelmed, they spent all day saturday and all day sunday in the school.

My computer was acting goofy and the district tech. person sent it in to apple...i'm hoping it will be back before long. All of our SpEd. scheduling is done..WHOHOO!! this was a HUGE headache last year. I'm very excited about this year and the way things are balanced out it shouldn't be nearly as stressful.

It is amazing to come back as a second year teacher. We (Kat and I) see the village in a whole new light. The village is viewed as home and it is so beautiuful, last year we missed the natural beauty of the fall. We have seen the importance of stopping and taking time to enjoy things, and though school is important it's not our life.

This past weekend Travis hooked up the first radio to ever be broadcast from Tunt. Yesterday we were listening to what I call Travis FM. He is very excited and it's fun to be able to turn on the radio and hear something.

On saturday someone called and asked if I wanted a salmon--I said sure. Needless to say I know nothing about cutting or cooking fish. Nick came over and showed me how to gut the fish and cut it up, we'll see if I can figure it out next time. :)

The new thing in Tunt...is the game Nick brought back with him. It's called "settlers of Catan" or "seafarers of Catan" we have played at least one game every day (minus one) since we've been back.

Well I'm just rambling now, Enjoy the pictures.

Bethel to Tunt--Airports

Here are some pictures from the flight we had returning to the village after inservice in Bethel. They show some of the Bethel airports, one in the plane,some pictures of the tundra, and some as we were flying into land in Tunt. Sorry the pictures aren't so good.

The start of the school year is quickly approaching. 1st and 2nd year teachers went to Bethel for inservice this past week. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my former peers at Northwestern is now teaching Special Ed. in a village in our school district..nice to visit with her for a bit. Inservice was monotonous but a great chance to chat with fellow teachers.

We saw our new special ed. director (my boss in the district office) for a bit yesterday. He seems like a great guy and from the little bit we saw, he really knows his stuff. Yesterday morning Span Alaska (one of the places we can order groceries from) gave away four door prizes. Kat recieved one and I recieved one...Tunt was well represented :)

It was nice to shop a bit in Bethel and get some produce that we didn't have, nectarines were on sale for $1 a pound and they looked nice. :) We also received 5% off from our total order at one of the stores in Bethel. The stores are prepared for teachers and have boxes on hand and will box up all your food so it is easier to haul to the village.

It has been a bit rainy around here and cool (the cool weather is a relief after the HOT weather we had in the lower 48 :) Nick, Kat, Travis and I all flew to Bethel on Tuesday afternoon, the weather was bad in Bethel so we landed in Napaskiak (another village...a stone throw from bethel) for awhile until the weather was clear enough. Yesterday when inservice was over, many of the planes weren't flying. The bigger planes started flying around noon, and the 207's started flying a couple hours later.

We loaded our plane for the village at the expected time, but sat on the runway for awhile, the ceiling was too low, and 15 planes were waiting to land and four more were waiting to depart before us. The flight from Bethel was a nice flight we were on a bit bigger plane (Cessna 208 caravan) so we had more room and the flight only took 20 min. :) I took some arial photos and will try to share those later.

will write more later. :)

Back in Tunt

As most of you know, I am back in the village. It is so good to be back, and to see all the teachers. Rocky is thrilled to be home and has adjusted well to our new house. :) No messes and he is sleeping all night.

I am almost settled into the house, have cleaned everything and filled my water tank, and now have nearly everything put away.

The weather has been beautiful, today it is overcast and drizzly and about 50 degrees. The last few days have found mornings that are foggy and drizzly and afternoons filled with sunshine. The sun is starting to set earlier and is dusky by about 11:30. It's nice having longer hours of daylight again. Salmon berries are thick this year, many people have been picking, and the blueberry season is just starting. Someone I know recently sold a 5 gal. pail of salmon berries for $300.

Today all second year teachers will fly into Bethel and we will have two days of inservice in Bethel next week we have two days of video inservice here in Tunt. and two work days before school starts.


Airfare to and from Tunt to Bethel has jumped a bit and is $50 one way or $90 round trip, about the same as it was last year when we arrived in the village.

Will write more later. :)

The new house

Here are some pictures of our new house (we've lived here since November) Some of you have asked to see not just the outside but also the inside...pictures are of the kitchen, living room, bathroom and my bedroom, they should give an idea of what the house looks like. :)

Sunrises

We have a beautiful view out of our windows of the sunrises and the sunset.

Adventures :)

This morning I woke up feeling wonderful, more rested than I felt all of last week. I think Saturday school really threw off our schedule.

I had a bad case of crabbies for a few days last week....needless to say, I shared them with friends. Everyone seems to be good natured on this beautiful sunny Sunday though. Last night Kat and I had people over for games, it was very refreshing. We had people over for snacks and played taboo and chit chatted.

This weekend found us in a flurry of basketball events, we had two visiting teams fly in during blizzard like conditions on Friday. The teams played three games on Friday night and three games yesterday. The Jr. high games were a lot of fun to watch and they did awesome, they are very intense players. Our high school girls also did great....I never have been so enthused with basketball games, in fact when I was in high school I really dislike high school girls basketball. Last night the teams were all stranded here, due to bad weather.

Our sewer was thawed out and pumped out last Wednesday. We discovered yesterday that our pipe leading to our sewer tank is frozen solid (all pipes and tanks are above ground)...so we are still using the bathroom and showering, and washing dishes at the school. It is second nature to us now. :)

My highlight of yesterday was either hi-ya ing our back school door or chocolating Joann. The back door was caught by the wind and is broken so we aren't supposed to use it. However, we needed water (before we knew our sewer was frozen) and so we hauled water and need to use the back door....Kat and I couldn't get it shut so we had to jump and kick (hi-ya) we got the door shut and got a case of the giggles in the process...all bystanders wondered what in the world we were doing. Now chocolating Joann....we were making a brownie pizza to share with staff who game over for games, and we were going to drizzle chocolate over the top but the first batch didn't quite melt the way it was supposed to. I walked over and plopped the chocolate on Joann's head, it was amusing and we got Joann and other students to smile and laugh.

Last night around seven we had a knock on our door....a little girl had a very bloody nose, another kid punched her and she was crying and bleeding, Kat and I cleaned her up and shared a cookie with her, she left 20 min. later with a smile on her face.
This morning around 9:30 one of the highschool girls called to share a prayer request with me. It is just amazing to see the situations we find ourselves in and the situations all around us. We never know what to expect and we really are blessed to have what we have.

Please keep our kids in your thoughts and prayers...there are so many hurting kids.

Tundra life

Well,
We had our Saturday school yesterday, it turned out to be a pretty good. Out high school girls basketball team had games here this weekend. Two visiting teams flew in on Friday afternoon and they played three games friday afternoon/evening and three games yesterday.

The weather is still chilly but MUCH warmer. Today is pretty nice with the temperature being about -18 and a windchill of about -25. Last Sunday was crazy, all the pipes in the school froze so our site administrator and maintanance man spent all day working on the frozen pipes. There were three houses in teacher housing that had no water. Kat and I were very blessed that we had water and had plenty to share with some of the other staff.
On thursday our house was a little chilly the furnace wasn't working properly, I guess there was some leak, the site administrator came and checked things out, and they got the heat working. When Mark (our maintanance man) came to look at the furnace he discovered a leak with our hot water heater and turned off the hot water--no big deal, we can live with out hot water for awhile. On Friday night our principal, called and said our sewer system was frozen....so we cannot use our water. It is great that we live so close to the school so we can just dart over there to use the bathroom and shower.

Last night, we came home exhausted...it was a long week (six days of teaching is too much :) ) We had a messy house, and we started playing baseball with balls of tin foil, and paper. Kat decided to start flinging things, using a spoon as a slingshot, she picked up a little ziplock bag of flour and was going to fling but decided not to. I dared her to fling it, and to make a long story short, we had a flour fight that entertained us through a power outage and for about an hour. :)

This week will be our first week back in the regular routine since before Christmas, and as Kat says "it won't be as long, we only have to work 5 days". Days are getting noticably longer, this morning, I saw a sunrise around 10, and it is still bright daylight right now at 4:00.

I will update again later this week, and add some more pictures. Have a great week. :)

Saturday School

Well..you know you are in the Alaska bush when.....you have Saturday school...you know you are in the bush when Saturday school is cancelled.

Last week Monday (our first day back after Christmas/Slaviq break) school was cancelled, due to the Volcano planes were delayed/cancelled from making flights in and out of Anchorage. Our teachers were stuck...then they got to Bethel and were stuck because of snowy weather. So 8 of our 10 certified staff were not here for school last monday, and the principal said we would have saturday school. This morning Kat and I were getting ready to leave for school when the phone rang. Our principal was calling to say that Saturday school was cancelled due to the cold and we will make up the day next saturday. So to make a long story short...you know you are in the Alaskan bush when Saturday school is cancelled.

Kat and I thought about flying out to Bethel for the day, to do some shopping and some other business however not all planes are flying due to cold weather, and we didn't want to get stuck. The Kuskokwim 300 (300 mile dog sled race) is also scheduled to begin today in Bethel, and it would have been exciting to see that.

Not much else is new here, it has been very cold. When I checked the weather earlier this morning it was -20 degrees F. and -56 with the windchill. It should warm up a little bit next week. It was good to be back in the routine of school, and the kids were all ready to be back, even if they weren't all ready to learn.

Will write more later, have a wonderful day :)

Feast/throwing party

These pictures were taken at a fest this feast was to commemorate Josh and Melissa's wedding. Throwing party's can be done for weddings, new baby's or birthdays.

The first picture shows part of the counter that was laiden with food. The counter was full, there was food on the table and many many pots of food on the floor. some of the foods served included: ham, swan, fish strips, salmon, moose, caribou, lasagna, spaghetti, wedding cake, jello, bars, flat bread. Next is a picture of the people waiting outside to get in to eat. The line is very long--the entire community was invited. Inside the house, one long table is set up and people sit down at the table as soon as a person is done eating they move and another person sits down. It took about 2 hours for everyone to eat at this feast.

Kids entertain themselves while waiting for the throwing party to start.

A throwing party is traditionally just women and children, this was called a gussack throwing party and men were also included.