The Day After Thanksgiving

On Friday, Nathan and I went on a walk to North Beach with Jill.  We needed to get out into fresh air, even though it was six below zero.  Fortunately the wind was not blowing.  The sun was out and it was beautiful.

Looking down the beach (we are standing on the ocean).

Nathan walking across the ocean back to the beach with Whale island in the background.

The ocean. 

Looking down into a crevice.  The crystals are about 1/2 inch long maybe a little more.

Nathan standing on a chunk of ice that was pushed up on the beach during the snowicane.

Our shadows: me, Jill and Nathan.

Footprints:  The footprints were left behind when someone walked on the snow and compressed it.  Later, the uncompressed snow blew away leaving white "shadows" on the dark ground.

When we returned from the beach, we noticed that our hair was covered in frost from our breath.  

My favorite part of winter so far is the sunlight.  Since the sun remains in the south over the horizon while it is up, it feels like sunrise/sunset the whole day.  The colors are really warm.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 was spent with the teachers of St. Michael.  We gathered at Jodi and Bonnie's house and shared a potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner.

Jill and Lily.  Lily's parents, Megan and Elias are in the background.

Julie, Carrie, Jessie, Amy (from Stebbins)

Nathan and me at dinner

St. Michael teachers

Pam, Julie and Lily

And it gets colder....

This week has been cold.  The temperature remained between 0- 10 degrees all week except for Tuesday.  On Tuesday the temperature reached 20 so we were able to take the kids outside to play.  Friday's high temperature was 4 degrees.  This cold seeps through the walls and make me glad that we have been keeping our house thermostat set at 70-75 degrees (and thankful that the school pays for our utilities).
This was a hard week.  Flora was home taking care of her sick granddaughters on Monday and by Friday was home taking care of her granddaughters, her daughter, her sons and her husband.  She is still well but is extremely tired.  Cecelia was gone on Thursday taking care of her daughter, Mary T. was gone with her daughter on Wednesday, and Mary L. was gone all week doing site visits in Elim and Nome.  Even being this short staffed I made it through the week.  Even though it was hard and stressful at times, I feel like my classroom management skill have increased a lot because I wasn't depending on Flora when the kids got loud.
Next week is Thanksgiving...wow the year is going so fast!  We have 18 school days until Christmas break!

This is Mary, our site supervisor with Kawerak Head Start, wearing her guspuk.  Her great-uncle (grandpa's brother) is the face on Alaska Airlines planes.

 I can't say enough about how beautiful it is here.  The snow is so clean and and air is so clear.  Everything is brilliant when the sun is shining.  The sunset was beautiful on Friday night.  It set at 4:40pm in the southeast over the mountains not far from where it rose.  We have only had snow on the ground since mid-October and I already have so many pictures of it.  It's just so beautiful.
When it is this cold, the snow doesn't give way under your foot steps.  It seems to freeze, too.  Now it is 2 degrees and falling to a forecasted low of -14.

The wind blows the snow in ways that make it look just like sand at the beach.  

After the snowicane came a snow storm that brought us 5-8 inches of snow.  These are our back steps.  

Sunrise on Friday.  The sun is now rising over the mountains in the south.  It is 10:30am.

St. Michael Bay is completely frozen now.  The snow that fell began to cover the ice and now it is all white.  I haven't seen any waves since the snowicane.  

11:00 am on Friday as the sun comes over the mountains.  It was beautiful!

Birthday and a Snowicane

November 8, 2011:  Nathan's 27th birthday and Megan's 25th birthday.
We closed Head Start at 12 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and sent them home due to an intense storm making its way through the Bering Strait.  This storm was rated by the National Weather Service as the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.  With the extra four hours at home, I began preparations for the storm-- filling up containers of water, turning up the thermostat s around the house, etc--and for our birthday celebration.  We  invited over many of the teacher for pizza and games.  As the day wore on and the wind grew stronger, several of the teacher let me know they would not be able to come due to the storm.  We had four of our friends come over for pizza that evening.

Just like Lisa, I prepared my toppings ahead of time and arranged them neatly on the counter.  I made the dough ahead of time also and let it rise for two hours in our back room (which stays at 85 degrees from the boiler).

The first pizza was Pepperoni (with chilies, with olives, and with chilies and olives).

The second pizza was the Barbecue Chicken Pizza.

As the night wore on the wind continued to intensify.  The wind was blowing so hard that the house vibrated.  Nathan stayed up long into the night and said that the storm seemed to peak around 1am.  The house was shaking and creaking.  The next day school was cancelled.  The storm seemed to have calmed so Nathan and I went for a walk that afternoon to look at the flooding on the St. Michael Bay beach (this is the beach closest to our house).

St. Michael Bay Beach.  The water looks really rough in this picture, but it was more like a Slushie.  The water would freeze then break up in the wind, then freeze, etc.  The ice was pushed into the bank.

This picture gives you an idea of how big the beach was before the water rose.    The hills that line the beach are about 15 feet high.

Looking west down St. Michael Bay beach.  In the foreground is the roof of a fish-drying rack/shack.
Past that are some post-top sticking up in the ice...this was the large dock that goes into the bay.  You can see the barge on the far right side of the picture.  Behind that are three buildings surrounded by ice.  I think these are fishing shacks not houses that flooded.

This picture shows how close the water came to the houses at this part of St. Michael.  They just had a few feet to spare.  This is a good picture of the ice on the bay. 

This was taken tonight,  Nov. 12, around 5pm at the snow that accumulated that day.  It snowed all day.  There are two snow machines in front of the house that are covered in snow now.

Looking toward the mountain range that the snow is blocking.  If you look closely above the shrubs, you can see a small  part of the water that is still moving) it looks dark.  The rest of the water is frozen and under a few inches of snow.  We had about 3 inches accumulate on our porch.  It is very windy in St. Michael, so when it snows the wind will blow it into drifts.  There is a drift behind our house that is three feet deep.  

Thanks for your prayers for the people of the Bering Strait and Western Alaska.

A Big Storm's a-Brewing

We were going to let this go unheralded so as to not give undue concern to our friends/family back home, but since it appears this is getting national news attention...there is a hurricane force storm moving north through the Bering Sea expected to smash our area tonight and tomorrow. The entire sea is expected to rise 10 feet during the storm as  a large amount of Pacific Ocean water moves into the much smaller Bering Sea & Norton Sound. Waves are predicted at 35 feet (that's a 3 story house). WE WILL BE OK! St. Michael is on a sheltered harbor on a north facing coast so we will not get direct hits of water, and most of the community is more than 10 feet above sea level in addition to many buildings, including ours, being an additional 8 feet above ground. However, many other commmunities, including Stebbins on the other side of the hill from us are right on the water with no protection from the sea. So while Nathan and I appreciate everyone's Facebook birthday wishes, we would much more appreciate your prayers for the people of the Bering Sea villages who are facing a potential level of devastation that has only come through the region twice in the last century ('74 and '13). We anticipate losing power during the storm, and depending on damage it could last multiple days. DO NOT PANIC if we don't regain contact with any of you over that time. We have confidence in God's protection, and the preparedness of this community.

Today we were given 45 minutes notice that we were sending students home early.  Flora had to call every parent and tell them to come get their kids.  School has also been canceled for tomorrow.  Right now the wind is blowing so hard that it whistles down the road and the snow has blown away from areas on the ground leaving dirt showing.  

...COASTAL FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM WEDNESDAY TO 6 AM AKST THURSDAY...

A COASTAL FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM WEDNESDAY TO 6 AM AKST THURSDAY.

* LOCATION...ALONG THE EASTERN NORTON SOUND COAST FROM POINT ROMANOF TO CAPE DARBY.

* IMPACTS...MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING AND SEVERE BEACH EROSION IS EXPECTED ALL ALONG THE COAST. SEA LEVELS RISING 8 TO 10 FEET ABOVE NORMAL COMBINED WITH HIGH WAVES WILL PUSH WATER ONSHORE AND FLOOD LOW LYING AREAS NEAR THE COAST. COASTLINE BORDERED BY SEA ICE MAY HAVE THE ICE PUSHED ONSHORE. THIS MAY CAUSE SEVERE DAMAGE. SOUTHEAST WINDS OF 50 TO 70 MPH ARE EXPECTED AS WELL.

* TIMING...WINDS AND SEAS WILL INCREASE LATE TUESDAY NIGHT. MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING AND SEVERE BEACH EROSION ARE EXPECTED FROM EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY MORNING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A COASTAL FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT RISING SEA WATER THAT CAUSES FLOODING IS EXPECTED. THIS WILL BE ONE OF THE MOST SEVERE STORMS ON RECORD. COASTAL RESIDENTS IN THE WARNED AREA NEED TO BEGIN TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS NOW TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY...AND BE ON THE ALERT FOR RISING WATER LEVELS. DO NOT DELAY IN TAKING NEEDED PRECAUTIONS FOR THIS UNUSUALLY SEVERE AND LIFE THREATENING STORM.

...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 PM AKST WEDNESDAY...

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 PM AKST WEDNESDAY.

* SNOW...2 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW AT LOWER ELEVATIONS. 5 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW ON THE NULATO HILLS.

* WIND...SOUTHEAST WINDS 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 55 MPH.

* VISIBILITY...VISIBILITY WILL BE POOR AT TIMES. NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WILL BE POSSIBLE.

* TIMING...THE HEAVIEST SNOW AND STRONGEST WINDS WILL OCCUR TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.

* IMPACTS...VISIBILITY WILL BE VERY POOR AND SNOW WILL ACCUMULATE INTO DRIFTS. TRAVEL AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES WILL BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT WINTER WEATHER HAZARDS ARE EXPECTED. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITY VERY HAZARDOUS.

Here is a picture of our storm from space:

The First Snow Storm of the Season

Thursday, November 3:  The storm arrived early in the morning with winds that whistled down our stove vent.  The wind howled around the corners of the house and made the walls rattle.  In the streetlight I could see the snow...blowing completely sideways.  The winds reached a speed of 33 mph with gusts over 40.  The snow continued to fall and blow away all day.  Now there are areas on the ground that the wind has blown clear.  The wind blew the snow away revealing ice and frozen gravel or dirt.  This snow blew into drifts, piling up around stairways, doorways, and walls of houses.  In places where only a few inches of snow accumulated during the last two week, the wind has blown ten inches of snow.  Footprints made in the drifts are erased in an hour or two.  Windchill is a factor that must be taken seriously now.  Today the temperature didn't fall below 24 degrees; however the windchill brought the temperature to 0 degrees.  In the next few days the low temperature (with windchill) will fall to -17 degrees.  With this in mind, I wore my parka tonight when I joined my mentor, Morgan, and Sara and Katie (two teachers) for dinner this evening.  I didn't wear my fleece or my down coat.  My parka kept the wind away and kept me warm.

Before the storm arrived I was taking walks after school to the post office and the beach, just to enjoy the brisk weather.  Here are a few of the pictures I took of the new winter sights around St. Michael.

North Beach:  These rock have a good, thick layer of ice on them from the tide coming in and out.  

North Beach:  The sun stays about that high during the day.  It does a low arch in the south.  

That is NOT dry, cracked ground you would see in the desert.  That is ice on the ocean off of North Beach.  It is amazing to think that water that moves as constantly as the ocean could freeze enough for people to drive on.  Not yet of course.