Sunday, April 19, 2009

Here are the two dogs we watched over for a week while the owners went to Anchorage (looking for a new job)!?  Susan and I are happy to stay in Emmonak for another year maybe. Our moving expenses would look better if we stayed another year.  Our family is not so sure.
In our world icicles are the attraction of spring, unlike the daffodils of Oklahoma and Arkansas. The sun melts by day and the cold sculpts the artwork, when it begins to freeze again. I watched a movie in which the characters were stabbing each other with these pointed daggers. I know; it was only a movie.
The frozen Yukon is not flat, but has high and low places. The low places are what concerned me as Susan and I walked over it. The lower places were probably two to three feet lower than the highs.
The trees still sport some frost even at 1 pm but was all off by 4 pm.  This is the island we always wanted to walk over to see. We crossed about half a mile. The wind was out of the north and cold, not surprising but the sun felt warmer than it has lately!
Here is a shot back toward one of the stores in Emmonak.
Susan and I walked across the frozen Yukon to the island across from Emmonak village. We heard the ice was 4 feet thick, but still did not feel completely safe. We have been informed of too many deaths from thin ice. 
These outboard motors are all that is showing of the boats that were left on the shore of the river. My dad always put our outboard motor inside the farm shed to keep the metal from cracking because of low temperatures.  Maybe, these Alaska motors are made from metal that will take the sub-zero temperatures. I do know they cost thousands of dollars.



Saturday, April 11, 2009

April and still 3 degrees but it warms up and melts in the afternoons!  It is Spring but not that you would know it here yet.  We are pretty much use to it though.  On days when it gets in the 40's it is hot to us - we want to break out the sandals and shorts!
Large overhang - hope I'm not the one under this when it falls off!!
Susan flying from Anchorage to Bethel right by Mt. Redoubt on the way home to Emmonak. She had a meeting in Fairbanks so had to fly on three different planes to get there.  Smelled sulpher on the way into Anchorage and the pilot said "I got a little concerned there".  That was kinda scary.
Sharkey has gotten use to the snow and cold unless it is blizzard conditions - then he says "get my coat please" and he does not take long outside to get his business done and run back inside.
This was Sunday, April 5th - Mt. Redoubt had a huge explosion on Saturday am - made us think Susan would not get back from Fairbanks.  It could keep erupting for months.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Puppy says,"Now where, the frig!"


This over hang must way a ton. I hope it does not fall on anyone. It is in a place where no one else walks.
It is light, now, until ten thirty p.m., we are waiting for spring. Our principal said the we have spring, summer, and fall in the month of July.
We are doing state testing today. The test had sixty-five questions and was not timed. It is hard to get a quarter of the kids to work for ten minutes at a time. Some of the slow readers went from nine thirty till two o'clock with 30 minutes off for lunch. I don't know of any of the kids that are on ADD drugs. We just teach them when we can get them settled down. The reading test had a big 5 paragraph essay question. Tomorrow is the writing, what will they have to do, write a short story?