Moose Tracks

We took a mile walk to the store on Saturday morning.  Still no snow, but plenty of ice.  It was 10 degrees, which is about 40 degrees warmer than it was this time last year.

 This was at 2:30pm, the sun was going back down just above the horizon.

Ice crystals on the ground

 We started to see moose tracks along the road.  We were walking to Native Store, which is a mile down the road, by the Yukon River.

On the road, the moose track and my hand.

Still cold enough to freeze the moisture on your face.

 Looking back down the road.

Some large puddles in the road turned into this thick frosty ice.

   

 Walking up a boardwalk to get into the store (the red building straight ahead.)  This store has groceries, but it has mostly hardware supplies.

More tracks on the road as we were leaving the store.

Looking out at the slough.

On our way back we saw a cow (female moose) in the road.  It then crossed through these bushes and was standing in front of this shed.  

A friend drove by on her 4-wheeler and gave us a ride past the moose.

Solid ice, where there was once marshland.

Walking back with the goods.  

Where Did the Snow Go?

We had weather in the upper 30's this week, so all the snow melted!

We couldn't play in the freezing rain, so these girls went sledding inside.

I hope the weather gets colder... we want to ride our snow machine.

The snow is now totally melted off the boardwalks.

It got above 40 degrees one day, so I had my students take their chairs out to the deck for a few minutes to get some fresh air while we worked.

The teacher housing earlier this week, when the snow was starting to melt.

On Friday night, Nathaniel and Clark held an elementary wrestling meet.  (Since elementary is an intramural sport, they don't travel, so they wrestled each other at home.)

Nathaniel reffed, Clark coached on the sideline, and I ran the score board.

Another teacher helped write down the scores.

The bleachers were completely full of students and parents.

Thanksgiving '13

We had a great Thanksgiving this year, missing our families a lot, but glad we were surrounded by friends.

We have had a very warm winter so far,  this picture was on Thanksgiving day only 18 degrees!  Normally it is below zero at this time.

School provided a community lunch at school on Wednesday.

That same afternoon we had a basketball tournament called "Little Dribblers" and pre-K through 3rd grade got to participate against each other.

Teachers getting their kids ready to play.

On Thanksgiving we had a big feast at school, all the teachers brought up dishes.

The kids loved playing in the gym.

I made my very first pie (by myself) ever.  It was just pumpkin, but I was nervous about messing it up.

I made one full size pumpkin pie, but I started running out of crust, so I made these mini pies in the muffin pan.

Turkey!!!

Eggs

Yum!

On "Black Friday" instead of shopping, haha, we took the snow machines out of storage.

On our snow machine ride around the village we watched this beautiful sunset a little after 4pm.

The slough, frozen over now with about 6 inches of ice on the surface.

Just warm enough that we didn't need goggles.

We did it!

On Saturday, we helped celebrate our little friend's 2nd birthday. 

Celebrating bush style, with velvet cake balls, cupcakes, and moose jerky.

The birthday girl with her mom and dad. (They are living in the trailer we lived in last year, God bless them). 

Eating her cupcake.

The camo princess.

Happy Birthday sweet little girl!