Getting ready and getting out

There is a wonderful photo essay book called Always Getting Ready. I found Bruce a copy for Christmas. It seems that the idea has become a theme for us.

 We had a big 'ole storm come just after Christmas. We moved the snowmobile closer to the house so Bruce could work on the hitch. He ended up having to dig it out twice.

 Great shot of the girls down on the river. Don't they look like they should get along all the time??

 We needed to dig the sled out from its home nestled against the supply building. It took some digging and shoving and pushing to get it out from its hole. Bruce came later to hitch it up and bring it around to our side.

 Lily and neighbor boys had fun digging snow caves in the drifts outside of the house. The snow is perfect for creating snowforts/igloos as the wind packs the ice crystals tightly. When you walk across, or fall down, it feels like concrete.

 Bruce beginning to attach the new hitch that Shorty from Bethel made.

 December 31, all dressed up and where does one go? It was beautiful out, fairly warm and we decided to take a ride to Kasigluk to see if their store was open.

 Bruce started us off with Lily on the back. The idea was to get the girls use to driving. We are heading out back of the village swinging off to the North. The pink building ahead is the clinic. They drove pilings in last year, and are beginning construction of the addition.

 Here is the switch over. Gwen hops on and takes over first. It is about nine miles to Kasigluk.

 Lily's job is to turn around and check on us old folks to make sure we are still being towed. We give her thumbs up and she does the same.

 Here, Lily took over and had the most fun driving over the tundra trails. Gwen headed out mostly over frozen lakes.

 We got to the village of Kasigluk, but the store was closed. They have a store that is about twice the size of Atmau's. It has a wall of freezers, fresh produce, and a variety of other goods, like clothing.

We went on to view one of the three wind turbines. 

 We left Kasigluk, then headed over to Nunapitchuk to see if their little restaurant happened to be opened thinking a meal out would be fun on New Year's Eve. No such luck!

 So, the New Year's Eve meal preparation began.  We made mini pizzas with all the trimmings we could think of.

 We'd gone to the Corporation Store here in Atmau and bought everyone's favorite junk food to last through the evening. We watched a movie while we waited for midnight.

Once Midnight hit, so did the fireworks. We had them coming out of the south side of the village, then the north, and some eventually to the west. It was a great treat!!

But, no meal is complete without Bruce's roasted marshmallows.....ala drill.

It's now time to get on with our Christmas celebration!

  I'm on my own this time, out looking for a Christmas tree/willow that will will be strong enough to hold up the lights this year. But, since we had an Arctic Hare out back last year nibbling on the willows, I had to make sure it was one that was out in the open.

 Perfect!

  Gwen getting Moosey!



Lily making chocolate mint candies. Eventually, we went into full on cookie production.

 We made cinnamon mixed with glue ornaments with the older students. I just happened to have some little red puff balls for a little Rudolf fun.

  This is when we went into cookie overdrive!

 We started a cookie marathon to take to many different people that helped us this year. We had a great time with the variety!

Family arrives!

 I was able to fly into Bethel the afternoon before my family came, which was a real treat. I could relax at our friend's home, have a glass of wine,  and wait for their arrival. It didn't take long as they offloaded quickly. What took long was the towering pile of luggage!

 Reunited!

Gosh the girls have grown!!

Gosh Bruce and I have grayed!

Part of the increasing load were the tools that Bruce brought with him. He had some projects set up ahead of time and became the "traveling handyman". The traveling part was the tough one.

Planes waiting to go out. They have their blankets removed from the engines (used to keep them warm). When we got into our chartered 207 the pilot needed to remove our plane's blanket. We sat inside while the engine choked and sputtered getting the prop to rotate.

Lily is tucked in tight with gear.


Gwen and I looked shell shocked....

Going in for the landing.

 Thank you to Joe P. for being available to pick us up. We loaded up most of the gear and took off. Mary, the local agent, came and picked up the rest dropping it off near our home. Beautiful day to arrive, just windy, which equals cold.

Home Sweet Home again
(for two plus months)!

Winter Solstice and Holiday Parties

Winter Solstice was Friday, December 21st this year. Our morning sunrise was at 10:58 AM, and sunset occurred at 4:34 PM. That gave us five hours and thirty-six minutes of daylight. By contrast, this summer we had from 5:13 AM to 12:28 AM giving the Summer Solstice 19 daylight hours and nine minutes.

We had quite a week as the temperature dropped. The community had the funeral for Oscar Nick. He was an elder in the community and had been quite ill for sometime. There had been a request to have the sirens for curfew silenced as it bothered him, and after he died, all balls (basketball practice) needed to stop bouncing. This is a common practice even when a death occurs in a neighboring village.

I went to Oscar's funeral, held at the Moravian Church. Singing, prayers, stories and an open casket were part of the ceremony. His burial was in the cemetery near the airstrip. The weather was scarey cold (30 below), wind blowing violently, so few made it out there. Most that did went by car.

 












 

But, in school that Friday, we had our holiday celebration. Here the first and second graders are mixing salt, flour and water to make dough for ornaments. These little boys and girls are very use to mixing dough to make asuliaq (fry bread) with their mothers and aunties (2 cups flour, 2 cups pancake mix, 1 TBL baking powder and water).

I brought pine cones from our huge Jack Pine in Oregon and had my reading group help the Kindergartners make ornaments from them.

The students would get two little ones at a time and were to have them drizzle glue over the cone and then shake glitter over the top.

One would think a straightforward activity......not so. We cleaned up glue and glitter for days.....

The third and fourth graders were busy making gingerbread cookies.






Then came our program!



The Kindergartners sang songs........

The audience loved it!

The first and second graders had written their notes to Santa, practiced, and then read them aloud.

Then the first and second graders acted out a snowman, or should I say, snow women story.

The sixth grade class was a big hit telling holiday jokes like:

Which reindeer has the cleanest antlers?
Comet.....

and many others that had the same groan reaction.

The sixth graders put in time on their own to learn to play Jingle Bells with bells. It sounded great! Most hit their notes on cue. Students were excused shortly afterwards and were not expected back for another three weeks! Yay, for vacation!