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. 
    

Well, what should I expect...I do live in Alaska.

It's cold here.  Really, really cold.  And has been since a week before Christmas.  Currently, twenty-six below zero.  But only a light wind, so that's nice.  The consequences of the weather can be quite frightening.  I'll start at the less so, and see where it takes us.

• Upon returning after Christmas break, we in the BIA discovered that the pipes were quite frozen.  Not all pipes, but the drain pipes.  Interesting side note - when the drains are plugged, but not the supply lines, interesting fundamental lessons are learned.  For example, waste pools at the lowest point.  In this case - two teachers at the other side of the BIA - in their bathroom.  Quite disturbing to see human waste returning through the drain in a bathtub to nearly fill the basin.  No fear, the bucket brigade was put to work and overflow was kept to a minimum.  And after only a week, the plumbing was working again fine. 
• School is difficult to have when the weather/wind/snow is so fierce.  Since returning we have had a handful of late starts (I think last count was four) and one day cancelled completely.  We nearly had school cancelled yesterday as all water lines at the school were frozen.  They did thaw, however, and school went as planned - kind of.
• Why kind of?  Well, the thing is, we are running a high school at the moment with only 2/3 of our class.  The remaining third - they've been stuck out of the village...since Saturday.  They left for basketball tournaments (both the boys team and the girls) last Friday, and here I sit, the following Friday, and they still aren't back.  So it's been a slow, quiet week.
• The BIA suffered its latest injury yesterday.  A pipe burst in the vacant apartment down the hall.  This came immediately following a warning from our maintenance guy about keeping my apartment at a warm enough temperature (so much for saving the world(okay, in his defense, he probably had a point - there was a layer of ice in my shower and the water line was frozen...so...).
• The final point is the most serious.  Living in rural Alaska one becomes familiar with how dangerous life out here really is.  In the past week, two people have died traveling over the tundra.  Both became lost or disoriented and ended up freezing to death before search and rescue could find them.  There are stories in Yup'ik lore that say that when the weather is bad, and refuses to let up, that the weather is hunting.  It only lets up after getting its fill.  I am not a spiritual or superstitious person.  But chills run down my spine as I write this.

And with that I end this post on a brighter note.  The weather is supposed to turn beginning tomorrow.  We are expecting a fifty(!) degree change in temperature over the next thirty-six hours.  Maybe the next post will be of me sledding or climbing the hills.  I am feeling all cooped up and to be able to spend some time outside without worrying about frostbite would be amazing.  Check back soon.    

Apparently I just lived through a snowicane

The night before:



Not sure what to make of the major network news stations.  I mean, the Washington Post says that, "A storm of historic intensity continues to pound the west coast of Alaska today. Twice the size of Texas, the storm is as deep as a category 3 hurricane."  A hurricane?!  Really?  Did I just live through a hurricane?

I'm going to say nope.  But it was kind of crazy.  The weather itself was nothing out of the ordinary.  The winds were high.  The precipitation didn't fall (literally - it just traveled horizontally across the world).  But these things are typical of Alaska storms.  What was freaky was the potential storm surge.  The flooding.  Normally these storms happen in the dead of winter when the coast is protected by a mile or more of sea ice.  High waves stay safely out to sea.  The wind can't push the tide exceptionally high.  Last night, however, without our safety ice, people were worried.

News of the storm was buzzing throughout the village the days preceding it.  Reports and rumors mixed and anxiety slowly began to build.  The storm was supposed to hit around 1:00 in the afternoon.  School was going to go as late as possible.  It turned out that 2:45 was that time.  We dismissed early, sending students home with their parents.  Almost immediately following dismissal, the school was reopened for families who wished to evacuate their homes.  A storm surge of 10-15 feet would threaten to breach the sea wall, essentially flooding all of Downtown, including teacher housing where all of the teachers live.

Part of Downtown lost power around dinner time.  At about 10:30 we received a phone call from our principal urging us to spend the night at the school as the water was continuing to rise.  After sending three teachers to get a look at the ocean we made the decision to move up to school for the night.  So all of us teachers from the BIA moved into a classroom for the night.  Waking up a few short hours later a tired group of teachers began teaching a tired bunch of students.  The weather is supposed to pick up again tonight.  I'm hoping it doesn't.  I need some sleep.


Great Pictures of TUNUNAK!
Washington Post article
Diane Sawyer and the NEWS!

Seal Hunting! (Videos)

Okay...so seal hunting happened months ago.  But now that I'm back in Alaska the urge to blog has returned.  The following two videos are phenomenal in their ability to show absolutely nothing about seal hunting. 

Pretty though.

So this is terrifying...

You'd think that state testing happening all this week would be bad enough, but nope, how about a "Special Weather Statement" from the National Weather Service.  I keep getting reminded that I live in Alaska.  This is one of those times.  Here is the warning:

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK

230 PM AKDT TUE APR 5 2011

AKZ155-161-062100-

...DANGEROUS ICE CONDITIONS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG THE ALASKA WEST COAST...

...POTENTIAL FOR COASTAL FLOODING ALONG THE SOUTHWEST COAST...

A VERY STRONG LOW MOVING ACROSS THE BERING SEA THIS WEEK WILL RESULT IN DANGEROUS SEA ICE CONDITIONS ALONG THE WESTERN ALASKA COAST.

IN BRISTOL BAY STRONG ONSHORE WINDS STARTING WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUING INTO FRIDAY MORNING WILL CAUSE ICE TO PUSH ONTO BEACHES FROM DILLINGHAM TO TOGIAK. BEACH EROSION CAN ALSO BE EXPECTED FROM NAKNEK TO TOGIAK BAY.

FROM CAPE NEWENHAM TO TOKSOOK BAY ICE SHOVES ARE LIKELY THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY.

MORE INFORMATION ON EXPECTED ICE CONDITIONS FOR AREAS NORTH OF THE KUSKOKWIM DELTA ALONG WITH DETAILED GRAPHICS ARE AVAILABLE AT HTTP://PAFC.ARH.NOAA.GOV/ICEGRAPHICS.PHP.

IN ADDITION TO DANGEROUS ICE CONDITIONS THERE IS ALSO POTENTIAL FOR MINOR COASTAL FLOODING ALONG THE SOUTHWEST ALASKA COAST THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. A LONG FETCH OF WESTERLY STORM TO HURRICANE FORCE WINDS WILL BUILD SEAS UP TO AROUND 35 FEET OVER THE SOUTHERN BERING SEA BY THURSDAY MORNING. STRONG WINDS WILL THEN MOVE THESE VERY HIGH WAVES TOWARD THE SOUTHWEST ALASKA COAST THURSDAY AFTERNOON INTO FRIDAY. THE PRESENCE OF SEA ICE DOES HELP TO DAMPEN THESE WAVES. HOWEVER...THERE IS STILL A THREAT FOR STORM SURGE DURING HIGH TIDES TO PRODUCE MINOR COASTAL FLOODING.

THIS SITUATION CONTINUES TO BE MONITORED CLOSELY.

THE NEXT STATEMENT IS SCHEDULED AT 1 PM WEDNESDAY.

January in Alaska

With a week left (and a snow day tomorrow) it seems like the perfect time for a recap.  Might as well start with the present.
Temperature: -11 degrees Fahrenheit
Wind:  70mph
Windchill: -50
Fun factor:  7

So we won't be having school tomorrow.  But we did get some nice footage of the fun.  I don't know if you can relate to 70mph wind, but it's something that everyone should experience.  Standing still is impossible.  We rode the ice for about one hundred yards and only stopped because the road turned and our boots don't glide over snow as well.  The video really says a lot more than I possibly can.



I also was given the wonderful opportunity to bring our junior high robotics team to Anchorage.  See, the thing is, right before break we won our district competition granting us free passage to the state competition.  A mixed blessing.  The other coach, Derek, and I spent four days on the road.  This was quite an experience.

Approximately half of our team had never been to Anchorage.  They'd never been on a jet.  Never been to a city.  Never been in hotel.  Never been in a real high school (my definition of a real high school).  Needless to say it was awesome.  I can't even begin to tell you the wonders of chaperoning junior high students in the big city.  Another thing you should experience.  Escalators, Walmart, swimming pools, buffets, helium balloons, full size gyms giving my team vertigo, traffic (not my definition - it was actually a stoplight), massage chairs, free refills, seatbelts, a Zamboni, 3-D movies...the list could go on, but all of these things brings back such memories.

And the competition.  It took a backseat to everything else, but our students did very respectably.  In the four judging categories (programming, teamwork, project presentation, and course score) our team took back a second place trophy in programming.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

A little last minute programming

Competition

Winning district competition

Anchorage - State Competition

Usually I don't like to do this, but...

It's been a while since I have created any outgoing information from Alaska.  I'm going to fall back on my standard excuse - I've been busy.  Which is true, mind you, but if I were you, I wouldn't let me get away with such a petty excuse.  So here it is, a condensed version of the past couple months.

Starting with the present day - it's Tuesday, November 23rd.  The fifteenth week of school(!).  Oh yeah, and it's been raining nonstop since last Friday.  My travel plans over the weekend were canceled as a result of the weather and the snow (what little there was) has melted.

Which brings me to the next event: the weather.  Had I written a week ago it would have been a very different story, for winter had come.  Temperatures were well below freezing.  Snow was beginning to pile up (we were receiving about a quarter inch a day - not much, but I'm not going to complain about that now), the river had frozen bringing with it the earliest ice fisherpeople, and I had been skating on the ponds around town.  Even the bay was beginning to fill with ice.  Of course, that's all gone now.

Before the snow had fallen, I did all the fishing I needed to do to get that bug out of my system.  In a previous post I told the triumphant story of my first real successful fishing trip.  The trip that followed was even greater.  I caught three, THREE!, beautiful salmon.  I finally got a taste (literally) of what fishing can be like, and I have to admit, it is fun.  It's nothing I will be devoting great amounts of time to, but it was enjoyable and fulfilling to be able to bring back food that will last well into the winter.  Robby partook in man's (not being sexist - it was literally us guys')  triumph over salmon and we spent the afternoon vacuum sealing our beautiful fillets.  Some of you may be lucky enough to try some if I can find a reasonable method to transport frozen salmon home.  Ideas in this area would be well received (and I can see to it that if your method proves successful there will be a salmon steak in it for you).

Ready for the freezer

Of course, I've also been busy with school.  Teaching is hard work.  It has it's rewards, but there are days where all I want is a, umm, nap, or something like that.  But I feel much better about this year than last.  Hopefully subsequent years continue to get easier.

I have (rather wisely) opted out of coaching basketball this year.  Okay, "opted" isn't the best word.  It implies I was asked (or assumed) to coach.  I was not.  0-14 is not a record that is sought after, even when the coaching competition is as slim as it is here in rural Alaska.  Instead I will be enjoying my afternoons off.  I might spend a day or two shooting hoops with the junior high, but the my teaching responsibilities  will stay in domains I am proficient (and interested) in.

I am, however, coaching robotics again this year (read: math + computers = my interests).  Our school's junior high participates in First Lego League - a pretty awesome set-up that combines Legos and robotic programming into a competitive team activity.  Teams build and program robots to complete a series of tasks and also create a project centered around a theme (this year: medicine).  We will be flying in to Bethel the week after Thanksgiving to compete against the other teams in out district.  Winning teams move on to Anchorage where winning teams move on to the national level.  It would be nice to get a chance at Anchorage.

Tomatoes that just might ripen

Last update - foods.  My hydroponic experiments have had mixed results.  Hydroponics is a bizarre world.  My plants live a most artificial life - sixteen hours of light created by a 400W bulb, nutrients mixed in water delivered three times daily, pH tested every few days, temperatures adjusted, humidity monitored, the electrical conductivity of the water checked...  And after all that I have tomatoes developing blossom end rot and pepper flowers that refuse to set fruit.  Leaves tend to yellow, wrinkle, and fall while others are deep green, grow voraciously, never slowing to blossom, then snap in half because plants that are only half an inch in diameter cannot reasonably grow to heights exceeding six feet.

Basil, thyme, lettuce, and cilantro

That's all very frustrating.  But on the other hand there have been the successes.  I have eaten dozens of salads from my living room.  I created the most delicious pizza with fresh basil.  Out of control (in a good way) extra basil was turned into a jelly jar full of pesto.  I've dried about a cup of cilantro.  I guess it's a worthy experiment.  I'm going to try another batch of peppers and tomatoes after Christmas.  Ask me again what I think of hydroponics in April.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

May 7th, Alaska.

Nine days of school left.  On the last day we have this planned: "Thursday morning we will have school clean up around the building if the snow is gone.  If not, we will stay in our classrooms cleaning and organizing."