Susan took this picture. It warmed up some and most of the snow melted from the trees. One day it was -8 with the wind chill it was -20. Hey, cold is cold -8 -20 just means you will freeze faster if you fall down or something.
This is a nice kid that is in both Susan's class and my class. Kids just can't keep off the net!! I will be glad when basketball starts here. Teachers have to do volunteer duty, just one hour shifts.
I think I might have put this on before, like maybe last time. They call it cabin fever. (just kidding)
Susan and I are so excited to be coming home in three weeks. It will be good to see everyone. We can't believe the time has passed so quickly. We decorated for the Christmas season!
I am going to work hard with the kids so the time passes quickly. We have an after school program 2 or 3 afternoons a week for another hour and a half. That really gets Susan and I tired be the end of the week. We do have fun with the kids though. We get to work with some kids we don't have during the day.

Here is a flocked tree. The snow looks like little thorns. From 50 feet away the trees look like they are blooming.

Talking about a winter wonder land. We have it!! Now, I know what fake flocked trees are supposed to look like.
It is like large crystals. The snow has crystal like projections.
Road to the Bering Sea You can see the clouds that seem to hang over the sea about 14 miles away. It is about 4 pm and -9 degrees. My fingers get cold quickly even with gloves. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving Break.

We had a parent night for the after school program. The program paid for $700 worth of Subway sandwiches to be flown in from Bethel, Alaska. Grant Airlines brought the sandwiches in free. That was really nice for the kids. Yes, we had mostly kids show for the night. The teacher's had to do an hour and a half tutoring session, then do the parent night without any pay. Susan and I were really tired after 12 hours of teaching work.

The snow just sits on the bushes where it lands. The sunlight does not melt it and we have not had strong winds to blow it off (an 0 degrees, that is good news!!).

Not much going on here. The temperature is staying around 0 degrees at night. Susan and I do after school program about three afternoons a week and/or sometimes a double session on Saturday. We get warn out by Saturday evening. The kids are great and love getting the snacks the after school program provides. They are required to work on the educational program the program supplies for at least 45 minutes of the hour and a half long session. At the very least this may help the student to develop the ability to stay focused for longer periods of time. We are doing popcorn reading in my classes. I have been doing research on reading development and trying different approaches. We need to work on comprehension if we are going to see any improvement in the Alaska State test. Here are some pictures I tried to get of a beautiful sunset. I even ran out in the snow to get around some brush that is close to the school buildings. The snow was a foot deep. It is not packed, but held up by high grass. The snow does not melt much because of the temp. When it does frees water drips through cracks above our back door and freezes solid during the night. It is very hard to open, if fact, I don't think Susan can bust it open. Also, the key hole gets water in it and won't let me get the key into it without hot water which only freezes back again. I am going to get the stuff a person can spray into car key holes when I go home for Christmas. We have a front door, course I spent an hour shoveling the steps and walk to the back door last Saturday. I am spend a lot of time on the school's computers. It is definitely more of a hobby.

Now the pickup berg is on the right. We traveled about 45 minutes by snow machine to get to the spot where one can forget all the political speeches and media bias. Who cares if the stock market crashes, who cares if rich men become poor, who cares if poor men become rich; it is hard to worry about all of that out here so close to nowhere so far from everywhere. I am just glad Susan is here with me and my family is safe at home in the other world.
You see, it is a lot lighter in this shot. The sun sets very fast around this part of the world. Francine said someone caught (shot) a polar bear near here in 1970.
We went from 15 to 40 mph on the way out here. Susan and I tested the worth of our winter clothes and found out what we might need later on in the really cold Alaska night. Hooper Bay, where Susan got in the Bering Sea, is far from here. Today, my older students were telling me that the ice is only about 6 to 8 inches deep. They said it will get 4 feet deep. I told them I want to go white fish fishing with them this winter and they said "Good". My students can say a lot in a few words. Maybe, that is better, well, I know it is better that what we have been hearing on TV.

I has so much fun driving the snow machine. It is a lot like driving a motor cycle. They have caterpillar tracks on the back and skis on the front. Raymond said he went slow for us and usually travels at 5o mph. I kept thinking what I would look like with the tip of my noise black with frost bite going only 15 to 30 mph. They lent me some goggles that were definitely necessary!! It was good to get out of Emmonak and out of the school and house.
I told Raymond I would be very happy to help him collect wood on Saturday. Susan and I do have to teach the after school program till noon and I do not know if he can wait for me to go. They find the wood along the shore and either tie the logs behind the snow machines or take plastic-like sleds that require that the wood be cut up some for the trip to Emmonak. I hope I get to go and will wear more clothes next time. Although, Susan and I never got cold at all. The handle bars of the snow machines are heated somehow and get very warm on your hands.

After traveling 14 miles by snow machine through the snow covered tundra dotted with frozen lakes we arrived at the Bering Sea once again. The forms in the back between the sky and the sea are small ice bergs. I was surprised at how many there were. I just checked the temp and right now it is 5 degrees. It could not have been much more that 10 degrees on our way out.
This picture shows the mounds of ice that build up when the sea is trying to freeze over. How can there be such beautiful places? Why can I see them? It seems that God does love us to let us share in this enormous testament of the universe only he could create.
I was trying to get the larger ice berg at the left of the picture. It looked as large as my poor lonesome Ford truck waiting for me in Arkansas.
Here is Susan and our friend who took us on another once-in-a-lifetime adventure. This is Francine, and also her husband Raymond was there to guide us on the many snowmobile trails to the Bering Sea. Susan could not get in the sea, so she licked a piece of ice. Yep! Salty!
Here is Susan, Francine, a teacher we work with, and one of our students. They look so small. I am a loss for words to describe the vast emptiness we found and which greedily swallowed us for a while. It puts a speck of dust in perspective. We were the dust and God's creation was the rest.

Fox and Snow

I don't know if this is the fox by the river, but here he is up by my house. I was getting ready to take a picture of the snow and the fox jumped up on the walk. He showed no fear even after the flash went off.
This is a picture of the first measurable snow plus an interesting light. Our house is on the left. This is the same walk the fox chose to use.

Kids on the ice. A teacher told me she walked out on the ice, also.
Looks like a snow river, now.
There is a lot to look at in the picture. Looks like snow in a day or two.
The big white blotches are big flakes that fell on the lens. this is the young man who teaches next to my room. He is from Fayetteville , Arkansas. His parents both graduated from Oklahoma State just like Susan and I. We might meet him and his wife at Tim's Pizza in Fayetteville if Susan and I stay a day or so after Sarah's wedding.

It was snowing and I tried to get a shot of the snow coming down against the gym. You can see the larger flakes. The students said when it is real cold the snow sometimes comes down like tiny ice balls. This is from the window in my room at school.
Here is Susan in her pretty red coat my sister gave her. I am trying to load some English software on one of the computers in my room while I am doing this. Behind Susan is the frozen Yukon River.
Here is the kid walking through the water on top of the ice on the river. It was in the twenties with no wind. A very nice day to walk around for Susan and I. Hope you like the movie.

The kids were taking advantage of the new snow for some fun on a sunny day. Never mind that they were sledding out on the river ice. If they get caught on the ice before it is judged safe they will be put in jail. The blue edge is ice covered with water. They were walking through the water and out on the ice. Their tracks can be seen far out onto the ice. Susan and I knew them and told them the ice was not safe. They just told us kids did this last year. I said "Well, where are those kids."

Here is the friend I was talking to you about. Susan and I were walking about 5 pm along the river. There he was near where I saw him before. On the camera his form is really small. I was pleasantly surprised to see the actual shot was much better. I hope he is not shot by the native Alaskans!!!!
He wanted us to see both sides! Susan's cold is much better. I was glad she could make the walk this evening. In folk lore foxes are egotists, but our fiery, friendly, fox, friend makes not boasts.
See. She is waving again. Across the way is an island in the Yukon River. We are going over there, maybe in December, to see how big the Yukon is on the other side. I'll take pics.
My sister and mother sent me these pants. They have orange in the plaid with an OSU symbol. Thanks a lot for the thoughtful boxes. I think I would like warm pullovers for Christmas, not sweaters. I will put a picture of one on here so you can see, if you needed a list. I wore these to both stores and the people looked at me like "Oh, Brother."
This picture is of small remnant of the river that is not frozen. The wind was very brisk this evening and we walked quickly about one half mile back to our school. For that matter all too soon we may not get much light. The veterans said we will have about 4 hours of gloomy light per day and that will be while we are at work. Someone is taking care of me because I have 20 feet of windows (it seems) in my room so I will see the meager light. Susan has big windows in her class room, too. I am not afraid, because my students put out a bright inner light that will keep all of us warm and happy. I called my nephew, Ryan who lives in Florida, using Skype at school. My students all wanted to see him and his family. They were so friendly to Ryan asking many questions. My students are truly good people.

October 18

Today, Susan sent me to take pictures of the developing ice on the Yukon River. You can see the ice forming along the river's edge. In the fore ground is some driftwood cut and piled for someone to use in their sweat house. The native Alaskans do not bath they sweat to clean their bodies.
It is cold today. The wind is blowing from I don't know where, certainly not the Sahara. You can see the ice start to pile up. A lot of the boats have been lifted out of the river and put up to be replaced with snow machines. That is what Alaskans call snow mobiles. Many are excited for winter. Safe routes are marked on the river and people go much faster than boats. Sometimes the river breaks through and leaves a couple of feet of water on the top of the ice. I have been told the snow machines just keep going, but the ride can become wet as well as cold.
Here is a fishery boat. The engines are as long as I am tall. Notice it takes three axles. One of my friends went out with a native to get fire wood. He said they would crash into the ice, back up and crash into it again when they go in ice that was thick. He said he has never been so cold.
The river piles up the ice on top of firmer ice making what looks like drifts. It will take a few feet of snow to make travel smooth over this river.
This is about three inches thick. This is a close up of the drifts of ice on the river. They are 2 to 3 feet tall in places. I walk from our house down through the dusty town along the icy river by to beautiful town dump which leads to the cold airport. From the airport I walk across a mile stretch of destroyed road which comes out at the health clinic. I think it might be about a two and one half mile walk. Last night on this walk I saw a pretty big red fox near the junk yard by the river. When I was behind the dump I turned around for some reason and another red fox was following me with ten feet. I talked to him about my dogs at home. He or she stopped to listen until I finished my story. I turned to leave and then turned back and the fox had vanished. Of course, I had no camera. I had my camera tonight in case I saw them again. No fox.

Gulls at the trash dump.

Bering Sea

The wind was blowing about 40 mph and the sand was blowing in our eyes.
Can you believe Susan got into the water. I sure did not. It seemed about 40 degrees.
This dog belongs to the math teacher in the picture with me. I think the dog felt sorry for Susan and wanted to help her get warm.
The Bering Sea was blowing in so hard the water was brown with a muddy sand.
This is a shot from the plane as we took off for Emmonak.

The is one of the streets in Emmonak. They have a silty gray mud when wet. It hardens on your shoes and comes off later in your house.
This is a nice shot of our house. The red tank is for fuel oil. The trees and grass are strategically placed for beauty and to let you know what season it is. See, we don't have snakes so we can have nice long native grass. We had our first light snow fall on Oct 1st. These boards are really slick with just frost. I am glad Susan and I have spikes that fit onto our shoes.
GHOST FOUR WHEEL RIDERS!!!! GETTNG CLOSE TO HALLOWEN!!!!! Look at the strange clouds in this shot.
A shot of the part of the High School. It is very old and needs replaced. Heard we are fifth one the list of new improvements. The elementary wing is a lot newer.
I still can't get over this blue glacier ice, really wierd. But not as wierd as ghost riders