Puppy Love

My new puppy!!!! His name is Ootagoo and he is part poodle, part terrier. His favorite place to lay is behind my head on my neck.

Snowstorms, ducks and other stuff

A lot has happened since my last post. Here are a few pictures of some things that left an impression!!! Below......one day I looked out my classroom window and this is what I saw. Yes, that is the fence for the playground. There are also 5 trucks and a plethora of 4-wheelers...can you see them?? We couldn't either. That day, most of the kids and all of the teachers ended up being at school until 10pm-ish. SO, we fed the kids breakfast, lunch and dinner that day and put in a little bit of unpaid overtime. Oh the joys of being paid on a salary.
After I finally got home, I was faced with this surprise of not knowing if my 4-wheeler would stay in the lean-to. This picture was obviously take the morning after the storm but look at how high my 4-wheeler is parked compared to Dale's which is buried.
Soon after the storm, we had a POD meeting in Stebbins. Basically, all the teachers get together to get new ideas, help those in need and this time we had a guest speaker, Jan Christianson, who talked about having a balanced math program in every classroom. The picture below is how Dan, my principal, got himself and 4 other teachers to Stebbins. We all went over on 4-wheelers and a few got to take the surbaban which actually made it all the way with a washed out road and HUGE snowpiles everywhere....that was the last week in April.
Last weekend, Dale wanted to go camping and look for duck eggs. We didn't end up going camping, and despite the hope in the picture below, we didn't find any duck eggs.
DO YOU SEE THE EGGS IN THIS PICTURE??? If you are like me, you didn't see them either. We changed from looking from duck eggs to finding Sniper eggs. We drove around on the tundra until we scared one and it flew away from it's nest. Then we would go look around in the area the bird flew from. Dale always found the nest before me because I couldn't manage to see them.

However, when you pull back the grass, this is what you would find. Every Sniper, lays 4 eggs. They are soptted brown and green. We ended up finding 24 eggs. We took back the bucket of eggs to his grandma's house and gave the eggs to Dale's little sister to eat. They are not really big so Dale thought the kids would like them.Last week we went for a drive to see how much the ice was broken up and saw Mark, another teacher, and his boys out looking for something on the ice. We are not sure what they were looking for , but they left without finding anything. The ice had broke up pretty good, there were just a few big pieces left hanging on shore.

This was another one the ice bergs. I was walking around it looking for beach glass. I took a picture of Dale standing behind it then he decided he needed to do the same. Monday I went back down there and the ocean had risen enough that you could only see the top part of this berg so I would have been standing in about 4 feet of water.

Dale is still working cleaning up at school and one day I followed him. I was sitting in the office working on a Tupperware order and one of the other janitors came in really excited about how Dale's 'honda' was parked. I went back out and saw Dale's 'honda' had been pushed down this little mote around the school and hit the support beam that the school sits on. It took 4 of us to get it out of the hole. Funny enough, I drove my own 'honda' up to the school and he wanted me to park right next to him. I declined and parked parrall to the mote. The push actually pushed in the front bar on the 4-wheeler.
All is well and I am looking forward to seeing my family this summer!! No other plans except to hang with a few friends!!!

Winter Wonderland

This is what Doppler Radar said........... (light snow)
This is what Doppler Radar meant........... (snow storms so bad you can't see 5 ft in front of you unless there is a break in the wind)
The long thing you see is the fence around the playground....who needs a fence? I need a slide. The black dot you see on the right of the fence is the school suburban.....who could drive that thing in this weather?


The aftermath????? Lots of snow, over 9 ft high banks and a lot of people STUCK!!!!!

You know the old saying.... "If March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb." Here's hoping!!

Dale's MOOOOOOOOOse

Dale went hunting for a moose in September and was successful. He and his hunting buddy had to fit themselves, a 4-wheeler and this HUGE moose in a 18ft Lund boat. He says he didn't have room for the 50 inch spread rack. After going to MN for Christmas and seeing what people do with the antlers, he has decided to go in search of this particular rack when he goes hunting this month again for moose and bring it home to display on my wall......gee, I'm so excited!!! No really, I am!

Alaskan Wonders

There are so many wonderful things about living here in Alaska.  Here are a few of the plants I found and then discovered my camera took some pretty nice pictures. 

8 months of silence

I know, I know, I needed to blog again. I didn't have internet at my house last school year so when I was done with paperwork at school, I didn't feel like sitting in my hole (classroom with no windows) to blog. SO, here is the last 8 months!!

Dale's parents dancing at the New Year's Eve dance at the hall in Stebbins.

The band that provided music at the New Year's Eve fiddling.....they are all Eskimo.
In February, I started selling Tupperware. I came home one day and Dale had carted all the Tupperware boxes and a moose leg into my house....see the moose leg in the kitchen? I laughed and took this picture....only in rural Alaska!!
One of the other teachers...Lacecy....is from Arizona so all of this is a big shock to her. I thought I would help her get acquainted with life out here......She was a little nervous and thought she would mess it up, but she did just fine.
The snowfall was quite huge this year. This is Bob's store in Stebbins. Under this snow bank are a couple of trailers and 4-wheelers. The snow hills in Stebbins was much higher than in St. Michael. You can kind of see the half buried snowmobile in the middle of the bank.
In March, Dale and I and many others traveled by snowmobile to Kotlik to celebrate their Potlatch. Here you see some of the other Stebbins dancers, including Roseann Dan (seated), who passed away June 2nd, 2008. She will be missed not only for her smile but for her knowledge of traditional ways in the Yupik culture. She is known state wide.
In the spring, Dale and I went for a ride and came upon some curious fox. There were actually 4 of them but this guy was the only one brave enough to let us get close.
As the snow melted, my reading class went on field trips, here was the cover picture of the class in the sled that the shop class was making.
We also had the opportunity to have the Mazola (MT) Childrens Theatre with us. We did a rendition of the Little Mermaid. most of the children had fun with it. This is actually the play that was done in Stebbins but the same play was in St. Michael as well.
Awwwww.....a beautiful 2 am sunset in April!!!!
Followed by the running of the reindeer at 2 am. We had the joy of having to wait for the herd to cross the road too.


OOPS, sideways, sorry.......Dale moved the baby reindeer out of the middle of the road so no one, includiing him, would run it over.
My mom and my nephews.......how cute are they?
Mom and I went to Pickford Michigan, on our way, we found a Big Boy restaurant. We of course had to stop for a picture.....Me and the Big Boy.
Mom and I are excellent self-portrait takers....I believe we were in from of Lake Superior somewhere in Michigan..
In Sault Ste Marie (Soo Saint Marie) we were so close to Canada. The city across the water is actually Canada. We couldn't go because we didn't have our birth certificates or passports. The locals, commonly refer to this place as "The Soo."
We of course got to see Brock and Lori. Look how talk he is at 8 months, with 8 teeth. My mom was trying to see how he would react to the grass.
Yes, he is actually standing behind that tote. He was trying to walk when I was there.
The rest of this summer I went to a wedding, and will be spending time in Duluth. Hopefully there will be more pictures to add later. This school year, I should have internet at my house so updates should happen more frequently than last.

Ulapa - That's how I spell the Yupik word that means COLD!!

Dale and I.......boy aren't we cute???? He is getting less and less scared to get his picture taken, soon you may see his whole body instead of just his face. Give him time, he will warm up to the camera.
I have been trying to grow my first garden. Yes, in Alaska and of course not outside. I thought it would be fun to grow some fresh vegetables so I had Dale make me a couple of flower boxes to grow them in. In the back, are tomato plants, in the brown pot are green peppers and the flower to the right is my Christmas cactus which still hasn't bloomed. When I successfully grow vegetables indoors, in the winter, in Alaska, I will be sure to post some pictures.


It has been EXTREMELY COLD here......this is Dale, do you recognize him? We are pretty much having to bundle up now. The region has had consistent -30 degree temperatures but, I don't feel too bad, Barrow, Alaska was -67 this morning at 8am BUUUURRRRRRRRR!!! We have also had some pretty strong winds with gusts up to 60 mph. That was scary. But, again, I don't feel too bad, Gambell and Savoonga, Alaska have that kind of wind and stronger all the time. I only had to deal with for a couple of weeks. As you all know, we must weigh EVERYTHING before we get on our little puddle jumpers to get back to the village from Anchorage or Nome. Well, Lori had to account for her little guy, Brock, as well. so, she just put him on the luggage scale and found out his weight!! He is still less than 10 pounds I think.

"Dashing through the snow, in a one horsed open .........helicopter????" That's right, Santa comes to St. Michael via helicopter. I think the strong winds and frigid temperatures may be too much for the reindeer......wait, we have reindeer here. Santa's reindeer must be whimpy!
Operation Santa made it's way to St. Michael this year, bringing presents to all the kids who were good and attended school that day! Operation Santa is sponsored by the National Guard....Go guard. Not only are they protecting our freedom but they are also spreading Christmas cheer to the remote village of the U.S. too!!Some lucky kids got to be interviewed by teh KNOM staff. KNOM is the radio station in Nome that we can listen to in the village.



All the kids had to wait to see Santa.....notice the first graders had their letters ready to give to him.And of course, we had our annual Christmas program. The first graders were all reindeer singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." The back-drop to the program was the door decorations all the teachers had on their classroom doors. Mine is the plain greed present in the middle.
I hope this post finds everyone healthy and happy this holiday season. I will not be traveling home for Christmas but will be spending it with Dale and his family. I hope God blesses your family and keeps you safe.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
-Jodi

JUST FOR KARI'S KICKS!!!!

Do you even remember what they were??







Wait .....who am I....."Call me back when you settle down!"

Seal Hooks and Smiles!!!!

I had forgotten the beauty of a sunset over Stebbins. Dale and I went out to pick blackberries and I made him stop half way to take this picture. It looked much more beautiful than the picture shows. I made my first loaf of homemade bread that was yeast free as the store has no yeast....thank goodness for Bobbi Jo and Pete, they are saving the day and sending me some.




The recipe is as follows:
3 1/2 cups self rising flour
3 teaspoons sugar
1 12oz can of lemon lime soda

mix dry ingredients
add the soda
grease a 9x5 pan and put mixture in the pan
bake at 350 for 45 minutes
it will look like a biscuit and isn't supposed to brown well
it is a thicker bread but it tasted pretty good.






Dale had to inspect this yeast free loaf of bread to see if it compared to his grandma and mom's, and if it looked edible.







Dale is a pretty cleaver guy. He needed a hook to help him get his seal in the boat. So he found a snowmobile ski and converted it into this seal hook. It is basically a gigantic fish hook that will support the weight of a seal. Then Dale, Lenny and I decided to test it out. Unfortunately, the seal Lenny caught sunk so we didn't get to test it out. Dale almost caught a seal but it had good lungs and was a fast swimmer. We lost him somewhere up river.







This is my garage that Dale worked on his seal hook in. This is a pretty fancy garage huh!! I don't think the builder needed roller skates to build it though!!!!






Here, Lenny was waiting for his seal to come back up so he could harpoon it...........he never surfaced but doesn't this look like a typical "Eskimo" picture you would see in a book?












Dale and Lenny gave up on seal hunting and decided to eat lunch and then hint birds and site in Lenny's new gun. Yes, they were doing that from the top of a house on the banks of a river in the middle of no where.










Dale I took a ride.........here we are!!!!!!!










The new school is well under way. My classroom will be in this wing, right on the end on the right side. I know, you can't tell.








An areal view of where the new school will be. It actually will be on the old airstrip. it is on the right side of the picture about half way. There is a line of white things with a spot in the middle. This picture was before the started building.
Here is an areal view of St. Michael. It is a lot more spread out that Stebbins and takes a little longer to get from one end of town to the other. I used to live in a tiny house by the school, that you can't see and now I live on the upper left side of the picture. The beach in St. Michael is littered with old steam boats that washed ashore and were stranded there. It is kind of hard to drive down the beach and not run into some part of an old ship. Here is part that was washed ashore.














This is a cute little old house that overlooks the bay in St. Michael. You could also see Canal from here.....the river that makes us an island.











Dale tried to catch a swan one day.......he wanted swan soup. He touched it but didn't catch it. You can kind of see the swan on the right side of the picture.Dale's grandma got a leg of moose that the Katcheaks caught. Here Dale and her are cutting it up!And finally, the AWESOME moon we had a few nights back. This picture was taken out of my living room window at 12pm.

Berries, Berries, and Wildlife

Hey Julie...........Walk On welcomed me back to Alaska. Here is the sign I was telling you about!!!

Dale and I wasted no time in doing nothing. He took me out to pick berries for his grandma and as you can see, he ate some himself. Salmon berries are red when they are not ready and they turn a salmon color when they are.

We went up to a rock cliff to look out over the ocean and take a break from berry picking. We happened upon a couple of little red foxes playing hide and seek in the mess of rocks.

We saw the reindeer herd a few days back in Stebbins. The owner of the herd was wrestling them tagging them to be able to keep track of them. They also killed some of them to sell the meat. Here, a few days after the corralling, we saw them on St. Michael's side of the island enjoying the ocean water away from the bears. After a few minutes of watching them, they all took off running but we don't know why, there were no bears around.

Today, Dale and I went out for our last attempt at salmon berry picking and we found a male, female and baby ptarmigan. Dale decided to catch it so I took a picture. We were unsuccessful in our hunt for berries.

Total, we picked about 10 gallons of salmon berries. I kept 3 gallons and the rest went to Dale's grandma. Next week we get to start blueberry picking!!! Yeah blueberries.

Summer Fun in MN

Thanks to a long time family friend, I got to go in a ride in this plane around my hometown. It was the smallest plane I have been in even though I fly in the bush planes all the time but, it was cool to see the difference in Minnesota and Alaska terrain. The plane was a 2 person plane and I could have flown but, believe it or not, I was too short to reach the pedals for the rudder to help steer the plane.

The small town you see in the background is Hinckley, where I graduated from high school. It looks pretty small from the air but not as small as Stebbins.

My step-dad, my nephew and my brother-in-law and I went fishing. We didn't catch anything worth keeping.

How many adults do you think we can fit in that boat? It almost reminds me of all the people you can fit on a 4-wheeler back in Stebbins.

I took my sister to record her vows before the wedding.......we went to Minnehaha Falls!!! isn't it beautiful? It was quite the excursion with the video camera running out of battery, we became creative and went to Burger King to charge it. Then back out we went. My sister forgot her shirt she wanted to wear so she made me take mine off in the middle of the parking lot so she would be modest enough to show her vows in church...TOOO FUNNY!!!!!

This is my nephew and I right before the wedding.....aren't we cute??

My sister's now old roommate and I before the wedding.

All the bridesmaides and the bride all being silly

Candy and I....I was teaching my cousin how to use my camera so she could take pictures during the ceremony since I would not be able to. Candy is also one of my sisiter's old roommates.