Sunday, January 22, 2012

January Changes

January began with a week of temperatures that dipped down to 40 below on a few mornings and remained around 30 below all week.  This was the week of our flooded hall and bathroom.  This was also the first week back to school.  The big school began on Tuesday, January 2 and soon realized that their pipes were frozen.  One bathroom was still functional, but the sewage system was frozen as well which meant bathroom use needed to be limited.  Therefore homey buckets were brought in.  These are not the Honey Buckets from back home that you see at work sites or fairs, etc.  These are five gallon buckets with a toilet seat on top.  By the end of the week the pipes were thawed at the big school.
At Head Start, Tuesday was a staff workday.  Flora, Cecelia and I worked to assemble new furniture that we had received over break.  We put things away and began to prepare the room for the next week.  Our pipes were also frozen.  Wednesday began with anticipation of seeing my students, but when I arrived I found out that the pipes were still frozen.  35 little bladders in a school with no bathrooms for 7 hours...not a good idea.  When Mary L. arrived we cancelled school for Wednesday and Flora had to call the parents to let them know.  Wednesday became another work day.
Thursday began with the anticipation of seeing my students.  I arrived and found the pipes still frozen.  Again another workday.  This day, however, we told parents that we would have school on Friday for everyone.  This gave us something to work toward.  By Thursday afternoon our pipes had thawed.
Friday began with anticipation of seeing my students.  When I arrived I was told the pipes had frozen again.  Friday became another workday.  By now Flora had worked on lesson plans and finished the rest of the year.  I had worked on our Lending Library bags that I had found and had decorated the library lab with book covers and new pocket charts on the walls where the kids can put their favorite books.
Saturday and Sunday began to warm up and Monday we had school again.  Both school were thawed and the city had cleared the block in the sewage line for the west part of the village.  Monday began with limited water use but by lunch all the plumbing was working again.  We had a nice normal week back to school.
This brings us to list past week.  We had school on Monday, a teacher in-service on Tuesday and Wednesday, and school on Thursday.  For the in-service, a few supervisors from the District Office in Unalakleet came with the presenter, and the teachers from Shaktoolik also came to spend a few days with us.  On Tuesday night, the Shaktoolik teachers set up a karaoke machine in the commons area and we sang karaoke for almost four hours after dinner.  This week the temperature ranged from 10 below to 10 above zero and was noticeably warmer.  We received two inches of new snow (blizzard snow).  This snow is characterized by having large individual flakes (some 1/8 inch diameter) and by being very dry snow that doesn't stick together on the ground.  This snow will stay on the ground until the wind start blowing.  Then it will get tossed back up into the air where it will swirl and create blizzard-conditions with limited visibility.
Last night around 9:30pm, Saturday, January 21, Nathan and I went over to Tim B.'s (assistant principal) house for a night of games and crab.  Katie had just gotten back from Elim with the boy basketball team (she is the coach) and had received a large box of crab.  We cooked up three of the crabs and then worked at getting the meat out of the long legs.  After we had eaten what we wanted to work to get, Katie, Sara, Nathan, Tim, and I played 9-hole Golf (a card game), Spoons (another card game that resulted in bruised knees and a broken chair), and Farkle (a dice game- like Dicey).  We ended the evening with a quick survey of the horizon looking for the Northern Lights (we didn't see any) at 2:30am.
Now it is Sunday morning and the wind is blowing hard sending the snow into the air and limiting visibility.  No one is outside.  All I can see of the big school is the street light that is out front.  The buildings that are closer to us look like they are surrounded by fog.  The temperature outside is 8 below, but the howling wind (43 mph) has brought that down to 40 below.

Here are some picture of what 20 below looks like:

Hoarfrost forms on everything.



Frosted tundra grasses still peeking above the snow.

Our two inches of snow didn't fall straight down...it came in sideways.

Snow accumulated on the side of the power-lines too. 

Looking toward the IRA (Tribal Building) and the AC Store.

Snow and frost accumulation on our porch.

Hoarfrost on the swing at our playground.

3 comments:

  1. Is there a temperature at which the school closes? In Montana it had to be 40 below. I'm thinking Alaskan's might be tougher, though and go rain or shine?

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    1. I have heard that the school will close at 60 below. You're right. Alaskans go to school rain or shine and will walk to school uphill both ways in the snow (the snow drifts can change quickly) :). Even though the school will be open during snow storms and wind storms, students who were unable to get to the school because of the weather or lack of transportation (honda/snow machine froze) are excused.

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