Good Morning, Negtimiut

I flew out here to Negtimiut (Nightmute, home of the NightHawks) on a crisp clear Monday afternoon. Thus far things here are going ok. Staff and students both are quite friendly, and the people I've met in the community have been very nice as well.

The village/site is neat looking with big hills or small mountains next to it. (I'm not sure what the distinction is) It's pretty close to Toksook Bay, with somewhat similar topography.

Tuesday we had a really nice afternoon...sunny, no wind, and 10-15 degrees. So I decided to get out for a hike on top of the mounthills nearby. It was a nice hike, though the climb was a little tougher than I expected. There was more elevation than it looked like...







Up at the top is one place some people could theorize was the location of the Apollo Moon landing...

All I found up there were some piles of muskox scat. This weekend if the weather is good for it I'll go a ways further and see if I can find some ptarmigan to cook up.

There's plenty of daylight after school now that we're in daylight savings time. Twilight lasts well past 9:00 and we're gaining nearly 5 minutes of sun per day. Of course the downside to this is that students are beginning the yearly trend towards less and less sleep. With daily activities in the school lasting til 10 or later, I am having that trend cast upon me as well.

Being sluggish of brain after a truncated night's sleep, I guess I'll wrap the post up with a GO BADGERS and leave it at that.

Kuinnerarmiut Elitnaurviat, etc.

Things here in Seahawk territory are winding down, and I'll be flying back to Bethel Monday night, weather permitting. (those are two dirty filthy words, yes they are) There isn't really much to tell of the things I've done here in Quinhagak. (Gwin-a-hawk, for those of you non LKSDers) The classes have had the usual ups and downs. I already told the story of Strep 2010. Never did get out fishing here which admittedly was a big letdown.
But today I did get to use a truck and took a little cruise. See, they actually have gravel roads here in Quinhagak. I took a drive out to this dead-end road that leads to, I'm told, some good summertime fishing. I snapped some photos, so I'll share a few that turned out. You'll probably need to click to enlarge them in order to make out much...









Stay tuned and take care out there.

Not Your Typical HMO

So back last Monday I had a pretty busy day. I rode the SkiDoo from Bethel to Napaskiak and Oscarville and back to Bethel, proctoring tests that had just arrived. Then I hauled gear out to the airport and flew out here to Quinhagak (home of the Seahawks). It's a friendly school atmosphere. Nice students and staff. The site administrator is from Ladysmith and is a big Brewers fan, so we're getting along well. It's a beautiful site out here.

Over the weekend the Seahawks hosted a basketball tournament. Three of the teams were from schools where I've taught, so it was nice to get to say hi and cheer for my former students. The fourth was a school I'll be at in a couple months, and I got to meet several of their students as well. It was, however, alot of people to share living quarters (the school) with. Wouldn't ya know, Sunday I was not feeling so wonderful after living in the germ pod. Great, I thought, another cold...that's three now.

Monday was worse and Tuesday was the same. By Tuesday I was figuring it was above and beyond any cold I'd had, and was going to have to relent and seek medical advice. The two options were: go to the village clinic, or fly to Bethel and go to the clinic there. The village seemed like the faster way to get treated for what I was pretty sure (correctly) was a bad case of the strep.

Getting treated at the village clinic was an experience all on its own. It's in a building that is also the washeteria and what-not. There are only a couple of people on staff to deal with a village of about 800 people, so they are pretty busy. When situations and emergencies arise, you get rescheduled, which happened to me a couple of times. Yesterday I squeaked in to get tested quick, but they couldn't treat me, so I had another appointment for this afternoon. That got bumped back to later because of an emergency. When I went in, the emergency was still on. If my ears don't decieve, the emergency was a bad case of the stomach flu, or something to that effect. But...haha...they found time to stick me in the backside with some antibiotics so I should be good to go now. They were very friendly and treated me well.

Being sick and quarantined in the upstairs of a school for a few days is about as much fun as being restrained and forced to watch a marathon of Paris Hilton's My New BFF. Or a loop of the yankees' champagne celebration.

Better times await. It feels good to say that I'm really looking forward to teaching tomorrow.

Hopefully I get some more good days and clear skies so I can click the digital shutter and show you how cool looking this place is.

In the meantime, stay healthy out there.

Napaskerville Checkout

So it's been awhile. I haven't been mauled by any more bears as of late, nor lost any more personal belongings to the gnashing teeth of my studded snow-go track. Relatively smooth sailing, although my daily triangle commute from Bethel to Napaskiak to Oscarville to Bethel was starting to wear me down a bit. Speaking of the commute, here's a couple peeks of what my morning commute might look like:

My river commute would start at the Lomack building, which would be just off the left edge of the above photo. Then you can see the ice road heading down the center. Then it's about a 10 minute (or less) ride down thissa way...

You can see just a little overflow at the edge on this particular morning. Crossing overflow is not the time to back off the throttle, unless cold and wet is your thing.

Back to what I was saying though...of course, at this time of year, wearing down=getting a cold, which I realized was destined weeks ago. So, although I've enjoyed being able to commute from home, I look forward to moving on, feeling better, and not putting in quite as many hours.

One pretty cool thing happened this past Thursday. I was in Napaskiak, working after school with some students on this project, a rack for their new dumb bells in the weight room.

My students were working away, about to put in another weld when I noticed some people approaching, so I told them to hold off and let these people pass so they wouldn't be flashed by the arc light. Seconds later this man approaches and greets me with a handshake saying "Hi my name is Sean Parnell." It's kind of an odd feeling when your state governor comes up and greets you unexpectedly. We chatted a bit about the project and our program. Nice guy. He was out visiting sites that are perspectives for getting new schools built. I wonder if having the governor encounter a welding class being taught outdoors in February helped Napaskiak's chances....couldn't hurt I suppose.

Monday, weather permitting, I'll be flying out to Quinhagak for a few weeks. I'm looking forward to working with the friendly folks I've met who work at that site. As well, I'm looking forward to being near the mountains again, and being able to hopefully feel the pull of a fish on a line again. The world famous Kanektok River flows nearby and I'd like to get some more fish for the freezer.

That's about it for now. Pitchers report for spring training in 7 days. GO BREWERS!!

Do Not Taunt The Bears

Just kidding. This is what happens when you have a bag of stuff bungee corded to the back of a snowmachine and it gets sucked over the side into the track. Sad looking stuff.

The next day I found my pair of gloves and spare belt on my morning commute to Napaskiak. The rest of the things must have blown away in the wind. Ah well, not a big deal. Time to get a new backpack though.

I'm liking the daily commute over this spell. I get up and buzz down to Napaskiak, then I head across river to Oscarville (home of the Hornets) for an after school class, then back to Bethel where a little dog is happy to see me.

Ode to Winter Break

So usually I'm relaying the Alaska experiences for the friends in the Lower 48, and it's mostly old hat for my friends in Alaska to read. The tables have turned, and fellow LKSDers and whoever else, this one is for you. You, and the loved ones I didn't get a chance to visit on this trip.

I got into Wisconsin on the 20th with no troubles other than missing 2 buses (by a minute each, dang it!) and having a cold. A bit delayed, it was so nice to see Mom and Dad waiting to pick me up at the bus stop. Also, it felt really good to bust my pickup out of the storage shed and drive it on down the open highway. When you teach drivers ed, and only get to drive Bethel's 15 miles, then putting on miles feels pretty relaxing and nice just to watch the windshield change. I did manage to get a few miles behind me over this break.

First I had to go hand-to-hand combat with that cold. I pretty much had it's tail whipped by the time Christmas came around, and good thing too. There was plenty of energy needed for the 2 days of family fun with all the kids. I couldn't believe how much my niece and nephews had grown and changed from last time I spent time with them. They are really starting to take on their own very unique personalities. Even the youngest, who is 1, has got an interesting way about him. Another really neat thing was seeing some of my cousins I haven't seen in quite a while. And aunts and uncles. Grandma. The whole family is doing great.

Other than that, random highlights of this journey, in no particular order:

-Going to three Badger hoops games with Dad. Wisconsin tradition never ends, and neither does Bucky taking care of business on the home court. The thrashing of Ohio State was particularly sweet.

-Heading north to my old home area, having some good outdoor fun with old friends. Even though we struck out on the ice fishing, it was really refreshing to spend some crisp cold time on the ice on a couple of beautiful northern Wisconsin afternoons.

-Heading north to see the wrestlers I used to coach compete in a tournament. That was big. They are looking like a good team, and also a good TEAM. The guys were all focused and competitive. So much that the first day I spent my time around the upper ring of the gym and stayed away from the action instead of distracting a focused group. The next day I spent some time chatting with the guys. I was so happy to hear of the successes the young men were having in life and on the mat, as well as their future aspirations. I'm really proud to have been able to work with this group of young men. Saying goodbye, probably for the last time to many of them, there were handshakes and some hugs, and ol' Coach Rendall was getting a bit of a lump in the throat. Yup I'll admit it. Of course...couldn't let THEM know that.

-Lots of tasty meals, both home prepared and at restaurants that somehow manage to surpass Bethel fare, believe it or not. Of course, after all the indulgence, some personal attention is in order so as not to take on the Mike Sherman physique.

-Visiting with lots of old friends from various walks of life. Everybody seems to be happy and healthy.

-And, of course, general rest and relaxation, and waking up on my own free will and accord.

Vacations rock. But they also end fast. One more day here, and Friday the journey begins, Saturday will be the arrival, and from there, the NEW journey resumes. I'm looking forward to the 2nd semester, and have some goals in mind. It'll be good to get back to work, but...one more week would feel pretty nice too I suppose.

I hope all of your winter breaks and holidays were as good or better than mine. And for those of you around Bethel, it'll be good to see you soon.

Update From the Blog Slacker

I realize it's been awhile. In fact it's been so long that today's post comes from pretty much the same standpoint as the last post. Only the location, the in-between events, and the lights on the horizon are different.

See, last post came on a day of preparation for departure from Kasigluk-Akula. Today I am on the eve of departure from Atmautluak (home of the Falcons). I guess it bears repeating that time does fly.

I came out here right after Kasigluk and got classes going. After the first week, I had to head to Bethel for an inservice. I stayed around for the week, off contract. I needed some time to get re-energized, and I had hopes to get out and harvest a caribou. The first was a success, the latter was a bust. I had no luck finding anyone to go with. There's still plenty of season left though.

I also got to put a few fun miles on the new machine which I'm liking. It's not the sportiest by any means, but it's been airborn a couple times now. I thought about riding it out here, but am sure glad I decided not to. All the snow is gone, thanks to a warm rainy weekend a couple weeks back. It's pretty interesting watching people in the village continuing to ride their snowmachines around.

And of course, there was thanksgiving dinner, where I joined the old crew over at the Tundra Oasis for an outstanding meal. Lee made a heck of a bird, including a homemade bratwurst stuffing that was unreal.

Back at Atmautluak, classes resumed after Thanksgiving weekend. We've been at it ever since, and even with some small and dwindling class sizes we made some headway. My welding class refurbished a bike rack for the school so that the kids won't need to dump their bikes on the boardwalk or else in the mud anymore.

We've had some beautiful weather as of late...clear, crisp, and lots of frost on everything. Gorgeous, really. I didn't take any pictures, because I just knew there was no doing it justice. As soon as you put a boarder around these sunrises they cease to be. I felt pretty lucky, also, to have clear nights the last couple nights, since it coincided with the Geminids meteor shower. Sunday night I went out and saw plenty of meteors. Last night I was out and only saw 5, but it was nice just to be out, all bundled up, hiking across the river and laying on the bank to gaze at the billions of stars.

Obscure candy available at Store here: Chick-O-Stick. Once in a while you find the darnedest things at village stores. I had forgotten all about the crunchy peanut butter coconut goodness of Chick-O-Stick. I don't think I've seen one in 20 years. Still taste darn good, by the way.

Tomorrow I head to Bethel, and on Saturday I begin the journey to Wisconsin. I decided to treat myself to a nice hotel in Anchorage for Saturday night. I'm looking forward to getting some good chow, soaking in a tub big enough to drown a calf in, and sleeping in a comfy king size bed. Even more, looking forward to the next day, arriving in Wisconsin. I can't wait to see family and friends.

Oh, and speaking of family... Happy Birthday Mom!!