Koyuk sits at the mouth of a river. And, I didn’t know this, but its a very tricky area to navigate, in a boat. Going out to sea is not all that hard, but coming in is another matter. The bay is deceptive, as it looks like a wide open expanse of water, but in reality, its extremely shallow in some places, just a thin layer of water over mud flats. To get in to the village of Koyuk–especially at low tide–you have to know where the ‘channel’ is that threads a deeper route to the village. Impossible to see from the vantage point of standing on a boat, you either have to know the way by heart, or rely on the buoys that the ‘city’ of Koyuk puts at strategic bends in the underwater channel.

Unfortunately, the buoys are not out yet, and no one on our boat was sure of the way home.

Last time my boating companions went boating, they got stuck on a sand bar and had to be rescued and return at a higher tide to get their boat.

Not wanting a repeat of that event, Kim and Brian were very carefully trying to navigate the waters, looking for the channel that would lead us home. Grace was helping, taking a long pole from in the boat, stabbing down through the water, looking for the bottom. Well, unfortunately, she kept finding it. The water was not even over my head, at most of the places we were motoring through.

For awhile we thought we had found the channel, and it was getting deeper–but either we were deceiving ourselves or we lost it again, because then we were in shallow water again.

I will not try to describe the zig-zagging that ensued. It took us hours. Kim was on the phone, calling her step-father back in Koyuk, asking him to please take his phone and some binoculars and go up to the airport (highest vantage point) and direct us in. He did, and took a friend and the friend’s binoculars, and soon we had what Kim was grumpily calling under her breath “old men” directing us from above. Still though, we struggled. Back and forth. Unable to help (without a pole or useful aid to direct) I sat in the bottom of the boat and tried to keep my eyes open.

More than once, someone commented that the other boat (who had borrowed our fishing net) would be along soon and Tom (their captain) was a great hand at finding the channel–we could follow him!

But there was no telling when his boat would be along. Our VHF radio battery was dead from being left on after the last trip, so it was just a cell phone at our disposal. So we kept trying to solve the problem.

I eventually did get involved because the water got so shallow that not only could we see the sandy/muddy bottom, but I could see the patterns in the sand that the waves had made. I was asked to move to the prow to try to distribute the weight so we’d glide more evenly in the water.

I think Kim was the first to hop out of the boat. The water came up to her knees. AJ was enthusiastically next over the side, and then me. I shucked boots and socks, rolled my jeans up to above my knees and went over. The water was to my mid-calf, but I sank in the mud until my pants touched the water. The water was cold. Kim, AJ, and I pushed while Brian steered and Grace used the pole to move us along. But still, we kept getting stopped by the mud. Soon no one was in the boat–we were all helping to push and heave the boat over the mudflats.

I started laughing and just could not seem to stop. It was so ridiculous. Here we were, water on every side for at least a half-mile, pushing a boat! I had flashbacks to pushing the plane on the runway and a weird feeling of insanity. I never realized that such a huge body of water could be so ridiculously shallow. I think I could have turned and walked to shore without getting my bellybutton wet, if I had wanted to, the tide was that low. Unfortunately, that would not have helped me be any closer to home.

At about that time, Tom’s boat approached. They passed us, and then looped back, to the edge of the channel they seemed to have found so effortlessly, that was about 300 meters east of where our boat had stopped moving. They waved to us and beckoned, so we carried what we could and left what we couldn’t carry, and walked over to the other boat. We climbed in, he backed up and the end of our adventure was finished wet and in new company.

Crazy day, eh? I thought it was just amazing and wonderful. I feel like I’ve met a new side of Koyuk and myself, that I did not know. Who knew that I could gut fish, eat raw fish parts, push boats and use a ulu? I can hardly wait for my next trip ‘in the country’.

its 4 am, and I’m beat.

cheers friends, hope you had a nice Friday,

Emily

After our lovely bonfire, we packed up, burned our trash, and hung out for awhile on the beach. A passing boat stopped in at the shore and it was friends and neighbors from Elim, the next village over! That was fun, because a little girl in the boat had been my student for 1/2 of the year before, and she came to our sleep-over during spring break. I was able to give her a hug and say hello to her mom, before they continued on their way. I think its a neat part of the life out here, that people are so friendly and value the time to say hello to one another, out in the country.

Ah, being ‘out in the country’. When we were on that beach, out of the boat, it was so perfectly beautiful and quiet, I can hardly describe it. Everywhere the eye looked, was untamed country. All three nearby villages were out of sight, so no where was a man-made structure or light. Wilderness and wild country, everywhere. So quiet, so peaceful, so beautiful. I fell a little more in love with Alaska every moment I stood there. Honestly, even now, back in my apartment, I still feel that thrill.  I really don’t know if I can ever live in a city again!

Back in our boat, we went back to the point, to haul in our net. At first sight, it looked just as we had left it and Grace said, disappointedly, “we didn’t get any! I’d wanted 50 herring or so…”

But as we drew closer, we saw that we did have fish! A lot of fish! and I learned why this kind of net is effective. The big fish get tangled in it, while the little fish swim through. Pretty simple! AJ scrambled on the rocks and untied the line and we hauled in the net, trying to keep the fish from flopping out of the boat.

One of the many things packed in our boat was a tarp and we laid that down before hauling in the net–which was very wise, since fish lose a lot of scales as they struggle and scramble for their lives.

I thought we might get to work on them in the boat–at least taking them out of the net, but Grace said to wait and we motored around the point and struck out for another beach, at “Six Mile”. Before we made it halfway though, another boat appeared and came toward us. It was Kim’s sister’s boat, and she, her husband and friends we aboard. Both boats slowed and approached one another for a mid-sea meeting. AJ’s brother scrambled onto our boat as the parents talked, and then both of the boys went to the bigger boat. Brian offered the other boat use of our net, so Grace and Kim quickly began pulling fish from the net, so the other group could use it. I tried to help in this endeavor. Fish are slippery! And untangling their gills from the net is not easy–no wonder why its so effective! Thankfully, I didn’t drop any over the side, and I got to hear Kim and Grace exclaim over their catch. We had herring, whitefish and trout.

The other group relieved us of the net, with thanks, and we headed toward the beach with our tarp-full of fish. By now I felt like an old hand at the whole anchoring, hopping out into the water process, so I tried to be useful and help haul the catch up onto the beach.

There, they quickly showed me how practiced they were, working as a team. Kim and AJ went and got logs, while Grace pulled out her empty buckets, ulu, and a plywood board. The board rested on top of the logs, as her workspace, and she got to work cutting fish, getting them ready to put away. What a quick hand she is, with the fish! I know that she has decades of experience, but still I marveled at how easy she made it look to descale, decapitate, de-trail and gut the fish. Her hands were so quick and sure, it was fun to watch.

Beside her, Kim was sorting male and female herring for her mom, while Brian and AJ tried to cut down on Grace’s work by taking the scales off fish for her. The female herring were the ones Grace wanted, and when she had them done, she put them in a big bucket with layers of salt between layers of fish. Later, she told me, she’ll de-salt them and pickle them. Yum!!! I love pickled herring. Thus motivated, I watched her motions even more closely.

After Kim was done with the sorting, she began gutting, decapitating, de-tailing, scaling and filleting the white fish. These she told me, would be dried for storage, instead of salted. But what she was really after, was the stomach. Inside the mass of guts she removed from the whitefish, she found a small, bulb-looking organ and sliced off both ends. Then she carefully cut it down one side, opened it and cleaned it out and rinsed it. What was left looking like a little, organ-y pancake, which she happily devoured. “My favorite!” she told me, and offered me a piece.

I hesitated, I admit it. Even after the herring eggs, black muktuk and seal oil aqutuk. But…. every thing at least once… so I held out my hand and popped the raw whitefish stomach into my mouth.

It wasn’t bad. Salty and chewy and not bad. I think I made a face though, because both she and Grace laughed.

After a good while of watching, and when Brian said he was taking a break, I asked if I could ‘try’ and help. Grace immediately agreed and so I had my first lesson in the eskimo fish-gutting style! Ulu and all! I have to say, it was a blast! I got to slice off the scales, rinse it in the ocean, cut off the head behind the fin, chop off the tail and rip out the guts! I admit, it was a little gross, but it made me feel useful and capable, so I delighted in it. Plus, I started having visions of trying to do this for myself one day. Of ‘putting away’ fish so that I could later pickle them. How awesome would that be! I really can envision it–I do loved pickled herring–and I thank Grace and Kim for not laughing at my ambition, when I shared it. “My mom can be your instructor!” Kim volunteered and Grace smiled.

fish ready to be hung to dry

fish ready to be salted

Between the five of us (well, Grace probably counts for about three people–she’s so fast and efficient!) we filled the 20 gallon bucket of fish, prepared the others for being dried, and cleaned up our tools. The fish guts we left on the beach to get washed away, but the eggs that stuck to our hands from the female herring had to get scrubbed off. I was still finding them on my hands a few hours later–herring eggs are super sticky!

I am trying to remember what else we did on the beach, but I think that was mostly it. There was a short conference about what to do next. Brian thought out loud about heading back across the bay to look for that beluga again, but Grace pointed out that it was an hour across the bay. It was already 9:30, although still very light.

I wanted to go home, to take care of the dog and just to crash–I was beginning to get tired. AJ wanted to go too and Kim pointed out that they still had tomorrow to go out again.

That settled, we began the trip home.

We did make one detour, for AJ to hunt another seal. It took him a second round of shooting after his first clip emptied on his .22, but he got it, and speared it, and got it into the boat with minimal help from anyone else. His shy grin was pretty cute–he was so proud of himself! The rest of the boat ride he sat by it, holding its fin and smiling to himself. His mom cuts seal, so he was taking it home to her.

It might sound like the whirlwind adventure was about over, but no, not quite!

You see, there is another part of this saga…. so … stay tuned!

After our picnic on our knees, we got back to work. Brian motored us further along the cape, past Finger Point (which really does look like a hand giving a “thumb’s up” to the wide ocean). We were looking for beluga and seal, mostly. We saw more herring than anything else, but didn’t want to cast the net yet.

Finally, we were drifting a ways from shore and Brian said he saw white! We motored that way and looked, but for a long time, saw nothing. Then both Grace and I saw a whale in the water! To me it looked gray, but Grace said it sure looked like a beluga.

All five of us had our eyes peeled, and for a long time we sat there, motor quiet, the waves slapping at the sides of the boat, but nothing…. nothing….

We motored down the coast, then back up. I don’t know where that wiley beluga went, but it lives another day. We could not find it. Brian told us that beluga’s can hold their breath for 30 minutes, and they have no dorsal fin, so when they do surface, they are harder to spot. Perhaps the combination of those two factors is how ol’ Moby escaped us.

Done at Cape Denby, we headed out across the bay, aiming for the far shore.

There were more ducks to see, more minke whales–one really big one! and a lot more seals.

Another marvel–ice! Out toward the middle of the bay, we began seeing white chunks on the surface of the water and as we drew closer, we found that they were large chunks of ice–leftovers from the breakup. Some pieces were s bigger than the boat, but most of the chunks were fairly small and bobbed about, melting slowly. Ice makes funny shapes as it melts! One really reminded me of R2-D2 for some reason…

Amongst these pieces of ice, were more seals, some of them on top of the ice, enjoying both the sun and the cool air, I imagine. It was at these seals that AJ and Brian began to shoot. AJ’s .22 makes a little pop when he fires it, and the shells are about as long as my fingertip. Brian’s .306 has bullets with a diameter the size of a dime and you have to cover your ears when he fires it. He says it’s kick feels like getting punched in the shoulder.

Between the two of them, the hunters got the ringed seal that was on a small ice flow and we got over to it and harpooned it before it could slide into the water and sink. I was surprised when Brian didn’t pull it into the boat right away, instead, he pulled it alongside our boat and directed Kim–at the helm–toward a larger ice floe.

Seeing my confusion, she explained. “My mom likes to cut them on the ice.”

On the ice?? 

That is right, on the ice. On the bobbing, melting, haphazardly drifting icebergs in the middle of the bay. Imagine a tiny person walking on melting ice-cubes in a punch bowl at a summer party. Something like that~

A large iceberg, of course, although not the biggest one in sight. Kim maneuvered the boat into a little dent in the ice berg, and both Brian and Grace climbed overboard onto the iceberg. They reminded one another and told me, to be very careful on the ice berg because the melting process sometimes makes a thin shelf, over the water, that looks deceptively sturdy but that will crack and break if stepped on. You have to stand on the solid pieces of iceberg or you’re going to “get wet and have a very bad day” (re: we’d have to go home).

!!!!!!!

AJ also climbed onto the ice to set the anchor, and then Kim did too. I was the only one still in the boat! Grace and Brian got right to work on the seal. First they cut off and discarded the flippers (too small to keep on this one) and then Brian gutted and Grace skinned the animal. It was… really bloody. Blood is very red, did you know? In the water it looked quite vivid. (I was nervous because I thought the hot blood might melt our little iceberg!)

Grace was cutting for the blubber, but this seal was also not very fat, and so she did not get as much as she liked. She kept the skin though, folding it like material and putting it in a bucket. Brian had finished gutting it, and besides feeding some unwanted pieces to the gulls (greedy goobers), he did a fancy braid-like thing with the intestines, to save them for later. I was informed that the intestines are quite delicious! They also saved the liver and maybe some other organs? I’m not sure.

Finally, the parts they wanted were in the buckets in the boat, and the rest was left for the savage, scavenging gulls. And we departed.

In case you wondered, I did get out of the boat, onto the iceberg. Long enough for a picture, anyway:

Before we left the ice-flow area, Brian wanted to try firing his gun more. With our ears covered, we watched him make adjustments and shoot rounds.

I bring this up because he targeted a duck that was on another ice flow, not thinking that he would hit it (he’d been struggling with not aiming high enough). But he did! The bullet pretty much tore the duck apart. We passed it and he grabbed it, but there was not much left and its carcass was left behind.

Kim was upset about this, which I thought was interesting and very telling about her, and the Inupiaq culture. She kept calling what Brian had done to this bird “murder” and she referenced “the poor murdered bird”. Brian even teased about going back to get it, just so she would feel better.

I was struck by the contrast between how she saw the bird and seal. Both were shot by humans in the same afternoon-but one, being used for its useful parts, was to her a natural part of the life cycle and food chain–the other, being killed for nothing more than target practice, was murder~!

I really like my friend! and her attitude about wild animals!

AJ was at the helm, driving, and he was pretty excited about that. His auntie, his uncle-to-be and his grandmother sat up front with me and occasionally kibitzed on his driving, but mostly let him steer between ice bergs and send us across the bay. Many times throughout the day, this kind of scaffolded responsibility was given to AJ (who is 11 or 12, I believe). I really liked what I saw of this–how his family is helping him grow in duties and abilities. Its easy to see how the knowledge is passed on to the next generation–through showing, trying and doing!

We motored across the bay to Isaac’s point, to set the herring net.

This was done by going very close to the rocks at the bottom of a big cliff, and Grace and AJ climbed onto the rocks. They tied one end of the rope to the rocks, while we slowly let out the net and anchored the other end, stretching the net out. Then we circled back to pick up Grace and AJ and motor toward the beach. Grace told me that she’d know the net was full when it sank, or moved.

Honestly, I was confused about the function of the net. When I think of netting fish, I think of what I have seen in movies, where a trawler has a big net in the ocean that closes in on all sides of the fish, scooping them up, but letting out water like a sieve. This flat, wall-like net seemed rather silly to me. But I kept my mouth shut, preferring to ‘wait and see’.

We found a nice piece of the beach to anchor, and went ashore for a picnic and bonfire.

Isaac’s point has almost no bugs. But it has the biggest sand-spiders I have ever seen. Brrrrr. I don’t know which I would prefer to have, honestly. But thankfully, the spiders seemed to avoid us and scrambled away when uncovered by the drift wood pieces I helped scavenge to build our bonfire.

The bonfire was lovely, and the fare an interesting mix of mainstream american foods and inupiaq.

I had my first black muktuk (whale blubber) from a bowhead whale. I must say, I much prefer this to the white muktuk that I had before. This was chewable, and had its own taste.

I also had my first aqutak with seal oil (a berry dessert) instead of crisco. The seal oil is a little… thicker and oilier than crisco, but it was still yummy.

I also got to have another fabulous salmon-spread, a hotdog with american cheese, and chocolate, from the trio of smore’s ingredients available. I’ve never eaten a roasted hot-dog before (that I can recall anyway) so that was a lot of fun. And it was fun to try new eskimo foods. I was flattered when Kim and her mom told me they were impressed that I would try and enjoy their native foods. Brian told me that if I dated an eskimo man, he could say “yeah, my girlfriend’s a gussuk, but she’s eskimo on the inside!”  (‘gussuk’ is a slightly derogatory name for a white person, I believe). Since I have a history of being a very picky eater, its a matter of pride that I’m now able and willing to try new foods–and I certainly got a chance to do a lot of that on this trip!

okay, more later, gotta go!

love,

Em

I’ll try to do it justice.

Yesterday Kim, a dear friend, asked if I wanted to go boating with her today and I readily agreed. I’ve been hoping to be invited on a boating trip since before summer began and I leapt at the chance to go, even though I knew it would mean leaving the dog I’m dog-sitting in her kennel for a really long time. (Not to worry, I compensated with extra walks and attention).

I asked Kim what I should bring and she said I didn’t need anything, except my snow gear.

I was perplexed, since the ice went out a few weeks ago and its summer time, but she said it gets cold on the boat, and to bring it down to the water, and meet them at 11.

So, feeling a little silly, but very happy and eager, I trucked down to the beach this morning wearing my rubber boots, covered in sun screen, carrying my snow gear and a bag with some snacks and water. I was afraid I was late, but in fact, when I got there, only Kim’s mom, Grace had arrived before me. She was standing in her waders out in the water, casting her fishing line out and reeling it back in. I wondered for a bit why she was casting with the boat right in front of her, until she told me that she was in fact trying to snag the boat! It had drifted a bit on its anchor and was too deep for her to get to. I thought it was an ingenious way to get the boat back, especially since it worked! (For me, it would not have worked)

Kim came down on her four-wheeler, with her fiance and nephew, and their load of stuff. We loaded up the boat, including coolers, buckets, rifles, winter gear, gas containers and water bottles. I barely looked at all we brought, but eagerly hopped in, found myself a seat and put on a life jacket.

(Father, please note, I wore a life jacket the entire time–except at the very end and you’ll see why. I was the only one to wear a life vest the entire trip–I did not even see the other vests. As a teacher and a paranoid, I felt I had to represent, so …

Riding in the boat was an immediate thrill. First of all, one leaves all the mosquitoes behind!!! The wind whips past your face, the air is fresh and smells of salt, the sun was bright but not too warm–it was wonderful! I was practically laughing in delight!

A note on the boat: its a metal fishing boat, with four benches, a raised seat behind a windshield for the driver who actually has a steering wheel and sits in front of the large motor. Its a fast boat! There was five of us and a lot of gear and we were quite comfortable! A small portion of the early part of the trip was getting all the gear cleared out of the way and stowed. I accepted and was later very thankful to have a cushion to sit on too~

We rode for a long time and gradually, I put on extra layers of clothes. It was quite cold as the air sped past us, but one could hardly mind. We were out on the open water! There were lots of ducks to see, seals popping their heads out of the water, swans flying past, herring jumping and splashing just on the surface–it was really neat! There was so much wildlife to see! We saw a few seals swimming alone, but then we saw a group of five heads popping up and then dipping under the water again, their agile bodies gliding out of sight and I found out that a group of seals is a ‘pod’.

We went across the bay for a long, long time. When we passed “Six-Mile Point” someone commented that we were about half-way. At that time, I was about half-frozen, so I added another jacket and put on my gloves, which helped a lot.

Our destination was Cape Denby, the high hill across the bay where the flat tundra sharply climbs up to some tree-covered hills before dropping to the ocean. There, on the rocks by the water, we pulled up. Curious, I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything of interest. There was some scraggly looking seaweed, but that was it.

“Why did we stop?” I asked.

“To get herring eggs.” I was told.

Ah, it turns out that the seaweed stuff was our target. Herring are fish and they leave their eggs on a kelp that grows right at the water line. The eggs stick to the kelp in thick masses of yellow bead-looking stuff and the combination of the two is edible and extremely tasty. Grace and Kim were a little critical of the quality of the eggs, saying that the accumulation on the eggs wasn’t ‘thick’ enough, but for me, I could barely see the kelp and thought it was quite a lot of eggs.

Brian manned the boat and he let us off on the rocks to pick the kelp and eggs. One eats herring eggs right off the rock, naturally salted by the ocean brine. I grabbed what looked like a choice piece (not much of a judge!) and tried it. Tasty. The texture is not quite crunchy, not chewy either, although the kelp is a little squeaky. Not a bad snack and I’ve definitely tasted yuckier stuff!

I was more nervous about trying to get around on the kelp-covered rocks than I was about trying the eggs, but the other three were quite sure-footed. Kim soon had a trash-bag full of herring eggs & kelp. AJ climbed high up into the rocks and picked some greens for his grandmother (a green plant called ‘elephant ears’) and Grace picked and ‘tsk’ed over the herring eggs.

We all made it safely, and dryly, back into the boat and delighted over our haul. Pushing off from the rocks, we moved further into the bay and motored around the cape.

AJ saw a seal and I was witness to my first seal hunt!

Seals are playful and seemingly curious creatures–but not too bright. Even after two or three shots, it still surfaced and looked at us, interestedly. AJ was up on the prow, sighting along his .22, trying to get a good shot. He wounded it, and it became a chase! The seal would go under, and Brian would motor after it, trying to predict where it would surface while AJ waited, finger reader on the trigger and the rest of us stood sentry, trying to help the others scan in every direction for where the seal would pop up for breath.

AJ finally shot it, and put down his rifle to grab the harpoon. This is a long handle with a rope attached to a hook. The rope threads a few loops on the handle and is attached to a buoy. AJ stabbed at the seal, missed, and by the time we circled back, it had sunk. Grace pointed out that if it was too skinny to float (not enough blubber) then it wasn’t a good one anyway. I think AJ was disappointed, though.

We kept motoring, and… wonder of wonders… I heard it, before I saw it, a whale! The first sign of it was that I could hear the noise of the air coming out of its blowhole as it surfaced and exhaled. Awesome! Like a heavy, wet, sigh~! At first we thought it was an orca–so cool!–but then Kim and Brian decided it was a minke (based on its dorsal fin). Minke whales, I was told, have good meat, but they weren’t what we wanted today. Brian was really hoping for a beluga.

Whales are a lot of fun. Like seals, they disappear under the surface and you have to scan the area around where you last saw it, waiting for it to resurface. Whales make a bigger disturbance and a cooler sound, so they are a lot of fun to see.

The whale drifted off, and we went toward shore, on a pebbly-beach. There we found a spring of cold clear freshwater and refilled water bottles, and I got to try some delicious natural water. I was struck that they knew about the spring, as its not visible from the bay. Not for the first time, I marveled at the wealth of knowledge that has been passed down through generations of the Inupiaq people. Landscape features like the spring, knowledge about animals & their habits, understanding seasonal changes in the environment & how to survive therein, plants–names and uses– its just amazing, the cultural capital that these people have.

Anyway, the water was delicious.

Floating off shore, we feasted on a little picnic in the boat of snacks and treats we’d brought along. I shared out the rice-chips and was gifted with part of a cheese-ball in return (made of cream cheese, smoked fish, peppers and onions–yum!).

This seems like a good place to conclude for now~ tune in for 2nd installment later!

Here in Koyuk the sun beats me up and puts me to bed. Its light all the time, and lately, sunny and blindingly bright. The weather has been alternating between snowy and sunny, so it must be spring! Its still a little cold, but not so as you’d notice, with the sunshine. Today its “feels like 24″ and with the sun, the Friday… it was the perfect day to take the kids out sledding! (They call it sliding, which is much more accurate, seeing as how the ‘sleds’ I borrowed from the first-grade teacher were flat blue pieces of plastic.)

I got ready by putting snow pants on, and sunscreen! What a strange combination, but I felt it was necessary. I’ve been watching the progression of my students’ winter tans with great interest. Here’s an example of one of my students–you can see his hat-line from playing outside so much–isn’t it cute?

Sunscreen has such a strong association with summer for me, it felt very strange to be crossing the snow drifts smelling it. But I was excited to take my students out. I went and picked them up from lunch gym, glad (seeing their excitement and energy level) that I wasn’t going to ask them to be sitting still the last hour of the day.

So, we got all geared up: some of them have new snow gear that is awesome:

This was his first day with the Carhart suit–he was so proud and it was so perfect for sledding!

mohawk hat and camoflauge suit, very stylin’

some other great pictures:

Finally we made it outside and I have to say, there is nothing that takes my breath away as much watching their fearlessness flying down the hill.

really, trying to impose rules on them, when they are so much more adept than I am at sledding, is a little silly. So I try to stick to just the ones that will keep me sane: 1) face forward, 2) walk up the outside of the hill, 3) stop for traffic, 4) bail out if you’re going to hit something.

It was a lovely afternoon:

here’s the view from where we were–pretty nice afternoon, eh?

There are several positions that the kids favored, for the sleds:

on their knees

on their stomach

or as what became most popular toward the end:

in tandem or groups. I think they liked this because they get a lot of speed this way.

We were surely having a lot of fun ~!

What a great way to end the week. I loved it, and so did they. Thankfully my mentor was along and helped me stop our sledders for passing snow machine and four-wheeler traffic. It was my mentor’s last visit this week too. All these signs of the year ending~crazy! Hard to believe that in a few short weeks I’ll be sending these kids off to summer and 1st grade. Whenever I think of that, the time between now and summer seems all too short. I’ve been their teacher for two years–my first class! How can I say goodbye?

Okay, enough maudlin musing, back to lesson planning and the weekend,

cheers,

Emily

I bet it would surprise you to hear that school is ever cancelled here on account of winter weather, but this past week it happened not just once, but twice! In fact, I hear that there were school cancellations across the district as the winds howled, the snow swirled and the temperatures hovered right around freezing (this is the most dangerous, because the snow is so wet and heavy).

In Koyuk we had early-release days on Wednesday and Thursday because of the dangerously high winds and copious amounts of snow pouring down on us. Surely we weren’t going to send our young students out in those conditions to find their way home after school! Since the winds and conditions were getting worse (at lunch time one dad told me he had almost lost his way to school!) our principal released school and had parents come and pick up kids.

On Thursday I was pretty much out of things I wanted to eat, so another teacher and I decided to venture out in the snow to the store. I was a little nervous about it, but thankfully, there is a big front-end  loader (my students correct me every time I call it a bulldozer or a plow) that has been working hard to keep the roads pretty well plowed. (Do you call it plowed if the machine used isn’t a plow?)

Do you remember a long time ago when I posted a picture of me, modeling all my cold weather gear? At the time the goggles seemed pretty ridiculous to me, and they seemed rather useless–indeed, they have been at the bottom of the lowest of my several ‘winter gear’ drawers–right next to the balaclava (think hoodlum mask). Well, this week, I pulled them both out. When the snow is flying in your eyes, googles are the most wonderful invention on the earth. The orange tinting also makes the whole blizzard experience more enjoyable. Although next time I definitely want rose-colored ones.

Friday the weather cleared, and the front-end-loader did the same for the roads. It had time to work on the school’s “parking lot”. I don’t know what the driver was thinking, exactly, but he left a huge tempting mountain of snow right outside the kindergarten back window. The kids were eyeing it covetously all afternoon. It was the first time I didn’t have to urge the kids out the door–they left the room RUNNING:

so I chased them out, with my camera:

I could have, I suppose, TRIED to keep them off it…

cheers friends,

enjoy your weekend!

Emily

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you all have a nice hallmark holiday

I don’t have much time to write, I am trying to create an Alaska unit this week and I have to run home and make cookies for tomorrow too. I just wanted to share the craziness of our weather.

I have inserted a picture of our temperature graph (below). Everyday the kids and I graph our temperature. They are especially interested because if we have snow, and if the temperature is above -10, then we can ski on Fridays. This past week is represented on the graph by the last portion of the green line (Green for February). As you can see, we started out in the 30s-very warm! It was snowing like crazy last weekend and on Monday. Blowing, no-planes-landing kind of snowing. Then, wow, COLD SNAP!

By Friday it was -22 degrees (without windchill) and far too cold to go skiing. We were disappointed, but managed to console ourselves with computer games and other interesting things. But look at that! Its crazy! a 50 degree drop in one week. That is not including the windchill which sometimes put us at -40.

Brrrr.

there is one other aspect of this change in weather that is crazy. It messes up the school’s heating system. When it warms up and then drops so fast, the school…. gets cold too.

On… I think it was Tuesday… partway through the morning I felt a chill and realized that cold air was coming out of the ceiling vents! Uh oh! I called the office and our lovely secretary told me she was aware of the problem, that it was being fixed. It wasn’t just our classroom! In fact, by lunchtime, I walked down the hall and saw a teacher sitting at the front of her room, teaching, wearing her parka! Kids throughout the school were putting their coats and sweaters on, as were staff members.

My kids were a little extra energetic, being thrown off their routines by wearing their coats in the room:

(some of those boys are “being tough” and not wearing their sweaters or coats)

it wasn’t so cold that we could see our breath or anything, but it was definitely chilly!

still, work went on and we had fun. Nothing like a little change to break up the monotony of ordinary schooling.

okay, must run,

once again, Happy Valentine’s!

God bless,

Emily

so that when the one boy wants to snuggle up to you, you let him, even though the sick kid last Friday got you so ill you had to spend 20 hours in bed

so you can be stern with the boy who needs the strong discipline and use a strong voice with the girl who pushes boundaries, while knowing that the same voice or face will make the shy boy cry and the timid boy shut down

so you can be playful without being too silly, or you’ll lose the thread of the lesson and that routine for time henceforth

and you can laugh at the same joke the thousandth time, and know how & when to say “that’s enough now”

and you can be hugging the child who just hit you, because they finally said, “I’m sorry”

and rejoicing with the boy who’s taken a baby step though his classmates are taking monster ones

so can know which kid you can tickle, and which one will wet his pants

so you can call the irate parent

and hear them say “I appreciate the job you do,”

and manage to hold it together until you hang up because oh how you needed to hear those words

and wipe your tears

realizing, that though it was nice to hear, you better be doing this for the day-to-day joys and triumphs, or you’ll never make it to your 20th year

and still have 9 personalities.

hope your Monday was great.

I went into the office at lunch today and saw my kids out in the cafeteria–I laughed out loud and just had to run and get my camera–they reminded me of that famous NYC photograph: Lunch atop a Skyscraper

if you’re not familiar with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunchtime_atop_a_Skyscraper

Cheers! Happy MLK day,

Emily

How are you all doing? I hope, well. Its Saturday night and I’m at work, so that might tell you how earnest I am in my New Year’s Resolution of no-work-Sundays. I haven’t had one yet…. but I am trying. Of course, talking to you all is delaying working… but oh well.

I got some good advice today–”stop feeling sorry for yourself and be thankful for what you have”

I think this is a very good message and its appropos today, when yesterday there was a fire in Koyuk and one home was burnt up.

I was at school in the evening yesterday and I went into the office and heard an anxious voice on the VHF system: “Anyone have any fire extinguishers? Bring them to Blanche’s house!” Then about 30 seconds later “Fire extinguishers needed–fire at Blanche’s house!”

I was floored, and unsure of what to do–could I use school fire extinguishers? Where were they kept in the school? And which one was Blanche’s house? Figuring I could figure these things out, I ran back to my room to get my snow gear on (it was 9 degrees yesterday) and go outside–intending to follow the commotion. I saw my principal on my way out the door. He was coming in, coughing on smoke and smelling like the fourth of July. He pointed me in the right direction.

It turns out, the house on fire was very close to both the school and teacher housing. Our nearest neighbor, in fact. When I got there, it was mostly just a lot of billowing smoke. The flames–which I was later told had been climbing the outside of the door–were out. There was still a crowd up close to it, doing something, and a lot of spectators. I found another teacher and stood by her, careful to avoid the extinguished (ha) fire extinguishers lying about.

No one had been hurt–that was the important thing. There had been a flurry of fear and anxious searching until all of Blanche’s grandchildren were found but as they were accounted for and the lady herself hadn’t been home, no one was hurt. The propane stove and tank had been pulled out in time, so that was not a risk now either. A man was calling out for a nozzle to fit the hose he was using, and a few other guys broke the windows as I stood there (I don’t know why).

I am so thankful that I have neighbors and community that gather to help like this. I think the fire fighters were a mixture of the forest fire crew members we have in Koyuk, local volunteer fire fighters and kind neighbors. A few of the guy teachers were the ones who’d quickly gathered extinguishers from the school and the teacher housing. They were in the mix.

Actually, standing there, shivering and wishing to be useful, I noticed that the crowd was pretty segregated. Closer to the house and slightly upwind of it were most of the guys. Downwind and across a narrow path were the children and the women. (I am guessing based on clothes, physique and stance–it is winter time after all.) My back-brain found this an interesting phenomena and I wondered if all emergencies play out like this. I have to guess not. It probably depends on the situation and who has the skills necessary. I suppose I should more accurately label the groups as “helping–or ready to help” and “supporting/watching”. In a different situation–say, a loss of a loved one, I think the group labels would be the same, but gender representation might be different.

I walked away after a little while. I wasn’t doing anything to help and I felt guilty. I guess because of being brought up in a city where rubber-necking is severely frowned upon (although widely practiced).

When I eventually went home, there was a stranger’s big pot in my sink, full of water, and two big totes in my bathtub, also full of water. My neighbors had been trying to help put out the fire!

Today there is a small mountain of totes in the hallway, upside-down and stacked like a cheer leader’s pyramid, drying out. And a bunch of fire extinguishers in a line. Hopefully more will come, or these ones will get refilled. I guess fires are a big danger now, that its so cold and dry. My principal said (I think jokingly) that if the wind had changed we might be without housing now…

Other things from this week:

LOVE LOVE LOVE skiing with my kids. No matter how much they make me crazy, seeing ‘em ski makes me happy:

Got a great picture or two:

I love his expression! and his hat!

(I picked him up after snapping the picture… lol)

quick other updates? let’s see…

our roof leaked and broke our internet at home. The company said 15 business days—in bush-post terms, that is 6 weeks. Thankfully, school has internet.

I tickled a student last week and he wet his pants  (I prefer to think of them as two separate things, not related–and I feel REALLY bad about it!)

I babysat a baby this week, accidentally scared the wits out of her (who knew a stuffed monkey could be so frightening?) and she wouldn’t let me touch her for about 30 minutes–thankfully, I had a co baby-sitter. (who got peed on during the incident–bad luck with kids and urine in Jan. so far. And these things come in 3s…)

we got our “Letters of Intention” to sign and turn back in by Feb 14. These tell the district whether we plan to come back or not. They are not binding–they just help Human Resources figure out how much shifting is going to happen and what positions might be available. Personally I think this is a bad time to hand these out. Its dark, its cold, we just got done with the last break we’ll have for a long while, and … and… February fugue sometimes sets in early. I am going back and forth, not sure what to do. What do you think?

cheers, friends,

have a lovely Sabbath,

Emily