Dreaming of the spring

Alas, it's all in vain, but I want spring.  Most of the time, actually.  It's been a rough week.  Two snow days last week.  A late start.  I got to be acting site administrator for a day - a day that only 40% of the students showed up due to what probably should have been the third snow day.  Oh well.  Here's what I do to keep my mind off the endless winter wonderland.

Plants
My Alaskan answer to gardening.  Hydroponics up and humming.  At the moment lettuce (Romaine and red leaf), basil, green beans, and pumpkins.  Yeah, pumpkins.  They'll never work, but I saved the seeds from Thanksgiving, and what the heck, why not.

So little looking right now...

I also started flowers in the window.  As the days get longer I'm hoping for better results that last semester's attempts.  They blossomed, but half-heartedly, and the poor sunflower it bent and bent until it finally couldn't any longer.

An Alaskan Sunflower.  So nakleng.

Flowers, peas, and spider plants.  Oh and some avocado pits back there.

Food and Bread
Same old, but it's always a delight to have the smell of fresh bread wafting about.  Pretty much perfected a whole wheat sandwich loaf.  Bagels, also pretty legit.  Ciabatta and pizza - close to perfection.  Working on some others.

Muffalettas on ciabatta - a delight

Bread and bagels

Oh, and getting close to working my way through some of my faithful bulk items.  Ben and Sara - in case you were wondering -that 25 lb bag of black beans?  It's gone.  I ate them all.  Well, there was help along the way, but it's quite an accomplishment.  And almost done with the soy beans - both the end of the bag you so kindly donated and my own 25 lb bag.  The dried corn and pinto beans, however - not even close.

The last of the 25lbs of black beans

Dancing
Actually, watching dancing.  Our dance festival was a few weekends ago.  It's always a good time to see people outside the context of school.

A break in between songs

Tununak dancing

Photographing the Increasing Piles of Snow
I keep taking pictures thinking Wow, that's a lot of snow and then it falls again.  So here's a collection of pictures.  I'll try and caption them with dates.  
 

The BIA

What's left of the stairs - Feb 28

 

The snowmobile shed - Feb 28

  Daylight
It's getting to be perfect.  Of course this only lasts a week or two as we gain about forty-five minutes of sunlight a week.  But to wake up to sunlight streaming in through the windows is welcome sight.