Could it be Spring?

Saturday, April 14:  The sun rose around 7:10am.

 Saturday was a beautiful day.  Nice warm temperatures up to 28 degrees.  Around 8:20pm I decided to enjoy the warm temperatures (the temperature peak is between 5-6pm).  I left my parka, snowpants, and thick gloves at home.  I was warm enough in a sweater, my fleece jacket, jeans, glove liners, and a hat. I left the house and headed across the tundra toward North Beach.

The snow on the tundra is melting and revealing the ice-covered ponds we have been walking over for the past 6 months.

One reason for this walk across the tundra was to enjoy the shortcut before the ponds melted.  I was also doing a nature walk for one of my Alaska studies courses I'm taking.  I went off the packed down snow-machine and honda paths and enjoyed the uncertainty of walking on the frozen snow of the tundra.

Walking on the tundra is always exciting.  Here I was walking on top of the snow and suddenly one foot breaks through the ice past my knee.

As the sun continues to stay out longer and is becoming more intense, the snow melts slightly and each morning frost grows.  The ice crystals are amazing.

 At last I reached the snow drifts and ice that make up North Beach in the winter.  It's not as far down to the beach as it is in the summer and the usually flat beach is covered with small mounds and hills that the wind and ice have created.  Now that we are passed the equinox, the sun sets in the north-west so North Beach gets some direct sunlight in the evenings.  

A ground-level picture of the ice crystals growing on the snow at North Beach.

  

Another ground level picture of the crystals.

The cliffs of North Beach covered in snow.

 The beach was deserted.  The only sounds were the echoes of kids playing in the village.  I could here what they were saying and could even recognize some of the voices.  It was warm enough (28 degrees) to stop walking and just stand listening.  I could here the ice shifting, kids playing, and the sound of wind being pushed away by the wings of the ravens flying around the dump.  It took me a while to place that sound.  When the raven flew over my head I realized what I was hearing was each wing moving the air.  

The island on the mid-left is where Tim, Katie, Nathan, and I  camped on March 30.  The land on the right is St. Michael Island (where the village is)

Snow Machine tracks heading North out over the Norton Sound.

I enjoyed a nice peaceful hour long walk before returning home at 9:30pm--an hour or so before the sun set.  Sunday was another beautiful day and Katie and I went out with two kids to have a barbecue.  

On Sunday afternoon Katie, Mikey, Justin and I drove out to the beach around the Tank Farm for a barbecue.  

The only wood on the island is drift wood and the wood that we found was frozen completely.  We brought cardboard and lighter-fluid and were able to make a small fire.  We roasted marshmallows.

After a great weekend we had another week of school.  With 19 days left of school we enrolled another student into my class.  We now have 18 enrolled and we had a record attendance week.  With 17 students coming to school (one is in Anchorage for his sister's wedding) all week.  The temperature remained between 22 and 29 degrees.  Every morning the ground and puddles were frozen and by 4pm they were melted again from the warmth of the sunlight.  The snow disappeared from the roads first.  Then it left the area in front of the schools, the store, and the post office.  Then the tundra began to show more grass and ice covered ponds.  We began hearing people talk about cranes flying overhead and seagulls coming (I haven't seen them yet).  We also got the news that bear tracks were seen around St. Michael Island.  Our grizzly's awake.  In a month or two the bear will begin coming around town or to the dump.  Friday arrives and it snows!  Everyone let out an exasperated sigh.  On Saturday we had a school day to make up for the day we missed to the "Snowicane" in November.  I had a chance to work in my classroom on projects I haven't been able to do.  The new snow melted off the already clear areas.  

Today, Sunday April 22:  I went running outside!  I ran/walked a mile.  I'm starting all over.  The temperature peaked at 36 degrees around 6:30pm.  Accuweather.com predicts 46 degrees on Tuesday.  We'll see.  I can't imagine what warm weather will be like.  Sure I have the pictures from last summer/fall but I have lived in this winter wonderland since October (6 months).  After coming from an area in Oregon where an inch of snow closed school and we were lucky to have it stay for a few days, having snow for 6 months now makes it seem normal, like it will always be there.  

16 days of school left in Head Start!

Village Current Events

1. The City and the Austin's (a family here is St. Michael) are not selling gasoline anymore...it is low or gone.
2. Stove Oil is running low or gone.
3. The sun is rising at 7:30am (dawn is an hour)
4. The sun is setting at 10:00pm (dusk remains for a hour)
5. The temperature has been above freezing for three days.
6. The snow is melting and the roads are gooey, muddy, messes.

These are the big events here is St. Michael at the moment.  The first one is important because there are people with crab pots five miles out on the ocean.  They need their snowmachines to go check their pots.  One man was talking about this earlier and said that the ice out there is five feet thick.  

Stove Oil is used in the village houses for cooking.  Heat is electric.

I'm excited to see the sun come back.  It is so warm when it is shining.  It comes in the windows of my classroom all day.  Sometimes it got so warm that we would open the windows (even below zero) just for a little bit for some relief.  Today there was a funeral at the church and everything closes down.  We released our students early from Head Start and from the big school.  I was so warm leaving work that I didn't even put on my parka.  I walked outside and was amazed at how warm it was.  Even with the wind blowing I didn't get cold.  I took advantage of the beautiful weather by going for a walk.  I hung up my parka, put away my snowpants, put on my fleece jacket and went for a walk.  I took my mitten liners with me but never wore them.  I walked for 30 minutes through the mud puddles covering the bare roads out over the tundra covered in soggy snow.  I saw tundra moss and plants sticking out where the snow was melted.  Through out my walk I kept thinking that the weather felt exactly like a day at the Oregon Coast.  A day when the wind was blowing so your ears and cheeks got cold but sunny so you wanted to be out walking.  

The big difference?  

Here it is 34 degrees and at the coast the weather would be in the upper 60's or 70's.  

What's the same?

I was wearing what I would wear on a walk on the windy beach with the exception of my snow boots.  Jeans, T-Shirt, Sweater, socks.  No hat, no gloves, no face-mask.  I believe that spring is about to arrive.

On Saturday the temperature rose from 0 to 30 degrees.

On Sunday the temperature rose from 28 degrees to 37 degrees.

Today the temperature rose from 33 degrees to 36 degrees.

Soon I will put away the snow boot and wear my rubber boots.  It will be a while before I put those away. 

Camping Trip: March 30

After a week of wonderfully warm weather reaching almost 30 degrees we decided to join two of our friends for a camping trip out on a small nearby island on Friday night.  Nathan had to work Open Gym until 9:20pm so we decided to meet up at our house at 9:45pm and head out here.  I headed over to Jill's for our weekly LOST night after laying out our camping equipment.

At 9:45 Nathan and I packed our mummy bags, mini pillows, an extra blanket, water bottles, wool socks, sweatshirts, books and camera into his backpacking pack and my backpack.  Then we added on our extra clothing layers.  By the time we were ready to go I was wearing three pairs of pants, three shirts, hat, face-mask, glove liners, parka, gloves, and -100 rated boots.

We (Katie, Tim, Nathan, and I ) left the house at about 10:20pm.  The temperature outside was 14 degrees with very little wind and the sun had just set.  We walked a little over 1/4 mile across the tundra, past the big school, and down to North Beach.  Then we walked to the island.  I think this is my favorite part of winter here--besides the beautiful snow and the complete silence early in the morning--being able to walk on the ocean to an island.  We didn't need any flashlights when we were walking because the sunset light was still bright on the northwestern horizon.  We got to the island and then climbed up the side of the rock, at points slipping on the ice under the snow.  We got to the top, which is covered with small willows and snow.

We set up our tents, and then played Hearts.  At 11:40pm there was a little light left on the horizon and around midnight we headed to bed.  Nathan and I added our additional layers when we took off our boots and parkas and then climbed into our mummy bags.  We soon discovered that the patch of snow and willows where we set up the tent was not completely flat.  Our heads were sloped down slightly.  By the time we got settled the wind began to pick up and the wall of our tent began blowing against me. That meant that my legs began getting cold inside my sleeping bag.  I kept my hat and my face-mask on (an interesting experience) and my breath was freezing on the outside of my mask.

Even though it was late I wasn't tired.  Around 1:37am Nathan and I still weren't falling asleep.  And soon after I check the time Nathan called it quits.  I agreed and we reluctantly climbed out of our sleeping bags (what little warmth we thought we felt) put on our parkas and our boots.  Nathan's leather hiking boots were frozen in stiff creases which made it difficult for him to get his feet in them.  We crawled out of our tent into the bright light of the half moon.  We packed up the tent and our gear then took of toward the village.

To get off the island I just sat down on the edge of the top of the rock where we camped and slid down the slope.  Then we maneuvered past the piled up sheets of ice formed during storms when the ice broke up and refroze.  We walked toward the lights of town and when those disappeared behind the coast of St. Michael Island we followed the coast cliff until we found a snow machine path up the bank onto the tundra.  Then we followed the lights to the big school and then the road home.  We arrived home (nice and warm by now after all the walking, and sinking, through the snow) at 3am.  We checked the temperature and it was 4 degrees when we got home.  We fell into bed and slept until the sun came shining through the window (9:00am).

It was a fun experience and we plan to go out again before the snow is gone and go on multiple trips in the fall.

Sunrise at 8am on Friday.

Sunset at 11:00pm on Friday.

Setting up camp on the top of the small island.  

Here's what we didn't experience...Katie and Tim were cold also.  When morning arrived they woke up early.  Around 8:30am Katie finally called out to us, "Nathan, Megan are you ready to get up and go?"  No answer.  They called again.  Tim looked out of the tent and said, "You're not going to believe this.  They're gone."  We had a good laugh when they told us their side of the story.