May 11: Update in Pictures

Spring:  The snow is melting....slowly.  Staci and Kobe are riding their new bikes (without training wheels).  Bikes are a big deal with the kids here.  

The first week of May our butterflies emerged from their chrysalises.  We actually got to watch as two of them emerged.  It was really cool.  Even our most active kids spend at least 10 minutes watching the butterflies.

Hanging art from the ceiling.  We made fish that we hung up and we made kites.  Having art hanging from the ceiling made the classroom look like an early childhood classroom.  I am definitely going to remember this in the beginning of the year next year.  

May 6- My sister, Michelle's birthday.  The "super moon" rising around midnight.   The colors of the sunset were still showing in the west (bright enough that I didn't need a flash for this picture).

Christine, Regina, Lennie, and Leandra watching the butterflies in their nursery.  

We had five Painted Lady butterflies emerge from their chrysalises for the kids to watch. 

On May 10, we were able to spend the afternoon with Jill and her Kindergarteners at the big school.  

The kids each got a backpack from BSSD filled with school supplies, books, and cards.

They were patient and waited until after we got back to Head Start before they opened their backpacks to see their new things. (I had shown them what they had before I gave them their bags.)

Friday morning after it snowed all night.  You can see the clean new snow covering the dirty, gray, old snow.  

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.

March Comes to a Close

Wow.  It's been 20 days since my last post.  My last post was the night I finally arrived in Unalakleet after another experience with Alaska Air Travel.

Working Weekend
Of the 14 early childhood teachers in the district 11 of us were able to come to Unalakleet for a working weekend.  This was the first time we had been together as a group since August when we went to Nome for training.  Of the 11 teachers, one lived in Unalakleet, one arrived the night before, I was the only teacher flying seat fare.  The other 8 teachers were on a charter.  There plane was supposed to arrive at 8:30pm on Thursday night.
Well, 8:30 passed and 9:00 came.  The Era building was empty and locked up for the night and there were no lights on out on the runway.  We were going to have pizza for dinner when they arrived at 8:30 so the three of us who were waiting, Julie, Heather, and I were getting kind of hungry.  Finally around 9:30 when Julie and I headed to the district office to make some phone calls to try to track down the plane, we saw the runway lights go on in the distance.  We got right back in the truck and drove back to the airport in time to watch the plane land and taxi toward us.  Unlike in St. Michael (where the runway is 2.5 miles outside of town) the airport in Unalakleet is right next to the village.  We drove out to the plane, loaded bags and teachers into the cab and the back of the pickup truck and headed to the five-plex where the district dormitory it.  While the newly arrived teachers took their bags inside the rest of us got to watch the most amazing display of Northern Lights that I have seen yet.  Julie said she has never seen Lights like that in Unalakleet since she has been there.  They were vivid green and stretched across the sky.  While we watched they began to dance and even began to look like the wavy picture we always see of the Northern Lights.  The best part came when the dancing Lights reached a point where pink showed through along with the green.  We loaded up in the truck again and I sat on the tailgate with four other teachers to continue watching the Lights on the way to the district office and to dinner.  We finished eating around 10:30 and by then the Lights were gone.  We didn't see them again while we were there but there were a few who tried--meaning they went outside every 10 minutes to check the sky...late into the night.

Sunrise over Unalakleet: 9:30am 

Snowdrifts around the Five-Plex.  See the window almost buried in the snow?  That's where Ellen and I stayed in August on the way to St. Michael.  The bottom of the window is about a foot above the ground, usually.

The other side of the snow drift.

Iditarod
The famous sled-dog race began the week before I went to Unalakleet.  Guess what...Unalakleet is one of the checkpoints on the Iditarod!  The first mushers would arrive in Unalakleet around midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning....wait...I left Unalakleet on Saturday at 4:30pm.  Yep I missed it.  I was able to go see where the dog teams would come into Unalakleet and see the bags and bags of supplies that were waiting for the mushers when they arrived.  While I didn't get a chance to watch the sleds come in...this year...Donna, the ECE teacher in Shishmaref, stayed an extra night in Unalakleet just to see the mushers come in.  She took some great pictures on Sunday night.  (I should mention now that while we were in Unalakleet the temperature remained between 25 below and 15 below zero.)  She let me share her pictures on Facebook and I am going to share a few of them here.  Next year I hope to take my own pictures.

Here are the bags of supplies that were flown in for the dog teams.  Each one is labeled with a musher's name and number.

These are bales of hay.  When the dogs come in the musher will spread out the hay on the snow for the dogs so they can sleep and stay warm.

This is the slough (river) where the dog teams will enter Unalakleet and head to the checkpoint. 

Off in the distance there is the freighter that was in the water in August.  Now it is leaning sideways frozen into place.

Aliy Zirkle was the first musher into Unalakleet so she received some gold.   The mushers' first priority is to take care of their dogs.

The mushers spread the hay for the dogs, unharness them, feed them, then they talk to the reporters and the people who are watching.  

Spring Break
We passed the equinox which means we now have 12 hours of daylight, plus we had Daylight Savings Time begin.  While the sun is up for 12 hours we still have about an hour of light before sunrise and a hour of light after sunset.  So, it was getting light around 9am and getting dark around 11pm.  This lead to staying up until 3am (our latest time) and sleeping until 11am...for the whole week.  Nathan and I decided to just camp on the couches for the week.  We pushed our two full-sized couched together in the middle of the room so they made a boat shape and worked, did homework, watched movies, played video games all from our comfy camping spot in the middle of the room.  A wonderfully lazy week.  During this week we were able to enjoy another wonderful display of Northern Lights.  The reason for these colorful displays was the annual Spring Solar Flares--bad for satellite internet, great for Northern Lights.  (Temperatures ranged 10 below to 10 above)

The snow around my back door.   The wind blows so much through the playground that is sculpts the snow.

The snow blew into a big drift on the right side of our stairs.

Here is the snowdrift that I walk through to go to Bible Study.  The first time I walked through the drift I wasn't wearing my snow-pants.  

The icicles that formed on our roof.  The roof is metal so the snow will melt a little, form a layer of ice, and then slowly slide off the roof.

My new pizza creation!  Apple Crisp Pizza.  

Back to School
Monday started off a great week.  The kids were well behaved and attentive which I wasn't expecting after a week off from school and longer daylight hours.  We had 14 out of 17 students which was a pretty average number.  Tuesday arrived with 8 kids...9 of them were sick.  We had reached the flu/strep season.  We finished the week with 10 kids.  (Temperatures ranged from 15 below to 15 above and we received 8 new inches of snow)
This Week (Yay!  I'm caught up!)
We still have a few kids fighting various colds, flus, etc, but we are averaging about 14 kids again.  There are 7 weeks left of school for Head Start.  We are working on ordering gowns for graduation and next week I will begin my month of post-tests.  I will be re-tesing all the 3 and 4 year olds (now some 5 year olds) using the ESP and PPVT like in September to see how much they have grown.  I have the month of April to complete both tests of each child individually.  The ESP takes about 45 minutes each and the PPVT takes about 10 minutes each.  I am still working on my classes for recertification in Alaska and am enjoying them both.
This morning the sun was rising at 8am.  What a beautiful sunrise!

Alaska Travel....get used to it

This week my Wednesday evening routine was shaken up by an upcoming trip.  I would be leaving for Unalakleet for an ECE (early childhood education) working weekend at 3:30 on Thursday afternoon.  I have kids until 4pm so this trip means that I will be leaving from school.  I packed my clothes and gathered other things that I would pack the next morning.  Overall, by the time Thursday morning came around and I walked to school (carrying my travel bags) I felt very “in control”. 

I know that some of you caught on to the foreshadowing of that comment.

I had email Carolyn when I received my travel itinerary asking how mid-day travel works when I am teaching.  She told me just to stay at the school as long as I could and be picked up from there.  That’s what I did.  3:00 rolls around and I am finishing up the Head Start Newsletter for the 3s class and the 4s class.  3:25 comes and I am thinking how I haven’t received any calls from the big school about who was coming to get me.  3:30, 3:40, 3:50. 

4:00 I call the big school.  Liz answers the phone.  “Are you calling about your plane?” 

“Yes.”

“It will be here at 4:15.  Elias is going to pick you up at Head Start.  Tim tried to call you earlier.  Here he is.”

 Tim: “I called your house and Nathan said you left already.”  (I think: Yeah to go to work.)

“Nope, I’m still here.”

“Okay well Elias is going to get you.”

“Thanks.” (Now I am a little worried.)  I have time before Elias is going to come so I walk over to the house to put away some school things (next week is spring break!).  Nathan says, “You’re still here!  Tim called and asked where you wanted to be picked up.  I said you were already gone.”

“When did he call?

“3:30.”  (Now I am annoyed…but not going to panic).

I head back to Head Start and see that Elias is there.  I grab my bags and head out to the truck.  We pick up Albert and head to the airport where we wait, and wait, and wait.  This is nothing new.  Go with the flow. 

The plane arrives and Albert and I walk over to it.  I hand up one of my bags and overhear Albert ask, “Is this direct to Nome?”  (Red Flag)

I turn to the pilot who took my bag, “This is going to Nome?”

He said, “Yeah, where are you trying to go?”

“Unalakleet.”

“That’s not us.”  I turn to look at the truck driving away. 

The pilot continued, “We did have a plane go to Unalakleet but your name wasn’t on it.”  (Great.  Thanks Era!)  “There’s a mail plane that should be in Stebbins soon, maybe Hilarry (our village “travel agent”) could call them and have them stop and get you.”  He proceeded to talk to Hilarry and Hilarry said he would call.  The pilot also said that he would call to see if there was a plane nearby that could get me.  Neither gave me a definite answer.  This resulted in the plane taxiing and flying to Nome, Hilarry taking his truck (yep he had a truck) back to St. Michael, and me standing against the door of the building (not even sure what’s inside it) waiting for a plane to come—but not even sure if one was coming. 

Fortunately, unlike the beginning of the year, my AT&T cell phone works in St. Michael.  So I call the big school (it 5:30)…no answer.  I call Nathan and tell him what’s going on and ask for Carolyn’s home number.  I call Carolyn…no answer.  So I took advantage of the beautiful evening—sun was shining, no wind was blowing—and called Michelle, my sister, for a nice chat.  After talking to her, I called Tim and told him where I was. 

Yes, I’m at the airport still.

No, Albert and I were not on the same plane.

Yes, Albert was going to Nome.

No, I need to get to Unalakleet.

Call Hilarry and see if he found me a plane.

Tim tells me he’ll come get me.  I shouldn’t be at the airport by myself.

Within two minutes I hear a wonderful sound from the direction of Stebbins—yes is it ten miles away…over flat frozen ground…with no noise—the sound of a small plane engine.  Sure enough a dot appeared above the horizon, and got closer and closer and closer.  Within five minutes the plane was landing.  At that moment Nathan called, “Tim just called and said there is a plane landing any minute now.”

“Yeah, it just landed.”

“He said get on it.”  (I was planning on it even if it wasn’t the intended plane.  I was going to be very convincing.)

So I got to ride on my smallest plane yet.  Two pilots and me…all the seats were full.  Single propeller…loved it!  My own personal taxi to Unalakleet. 

We flew over the ocean…completely frozen and covered with snow.  Unlike other trips I have been on this time the pilots didn’t stay right along the shore.  We were at least four miles out (it is hard to judge from a plane).  As we got closer to Unalakleet I saw the first body of water (liquid water) that I have seen since early November before the bay froze.  Just one little strip of water moving slowly between banks of ice at least four miles out on the ocean. 

After arriving three hours late I was still the first one here.  Everyone else was on a Charter that arrived at 8:30pm.  Dinner:  Pizza from Peace on Earth! 

Alaska Travel Lesson:

            Yes wearing all your winter gear for the plane ride can be bulky, cumbersome, and can make you hot and uncomfortable (especially in Anchorage), but when you are stuck outside waiting for a plane you don’t know is coming at 10 below for 40 minutes when the sun is beginning to set, you are very thankful that you put on those extra layers!

Fun in February

As March begins, third quarter ends, and Spring comes--in the form of longer days-- I am taking a few minutes to reflect of the month of February.  

We made phones with tin cans and string.  The kids had a great time playing with them, but we had to remind them to pull the string tight.  Staci is watching while Kyra and Matilda use the phone. 

Lennie and Logan are having fun talking in the phone.

The boys "win" the girls in the daily bathroom race.  
Front to back: Clarence, Logan, Chris, Zach, Paul, Lennie

Showing off how we walk in the halls.
Front to back: Nadine, Clarence, Chris, Logan, Zach, Paul, Lennie, Leandra, Tennille, Kyra,  Matilda, Staci, Christine and Teacher Cecelia.

Nadine was able to trace the marker lines left on the board to re-write the Daily Message.

Having fun in Gym.  The kids love having their pictures taken and a few of them thought it would be cool to run at the camera for a picture.  So we did it as a whole class.

A beautiful Friday morning...

....turned into a beautiful day!  Nathan and I took Katie's honda for a ride outside of St. Michael after I finished work.  

Looking across the frozen bay at St. Michael.  Look closely and you can see some of the buildings.  

Looking away from St. Michael across the frozen tundra.  What a beautiful day!