Ohhh Yes!

Tree

The Village

 I thought I'd share some pictures of the village as it appears from my house.  The houses are all basically the same but many are bright and colorful.  A couple years ago, many of the houses were repainted.  The most used color was nicknamed "Smurf blue".  I got the name from a friend who said they painted her house that color.

The whole lake is no deeper than chest so its really not that deep.

 This shot was taken looking towards the left from the other picture.  If you look carefully you will see two windmills.  They help keep the cost of electricity from rising.  Its already quite expensive.

The blue building above the basketball courts/hockey rink, right next to the light is the catholic church built in the 1980's.  The one before it became one of the stores in town and it recently closed down due to a death.

This picture shows some of the house colors.

In this picture which has moved left, you get a great view of the hockey rink with the two basketball courts.  I need to get a picture of the courts themselves.

The brown building behind the court, across the lake, is the combination post office and court.  Each occupies half the building.  Several years ago some enterprising young people tried to start a coffee stop in the court building.  One of those places where you stop for a cup of coffee and then move on but it didn't do well and went out of business.
I think it was fine during summer when people were out and about but once it got cold, I think people refused to stop by as much.

To the right you see the peace pole which stands in front of the school.  You are looking at the front of the school building and seeing part of the parking lot.  The only vehicles which park there are 4 wheelers or snow machines.

If it gets too full, the secretaries make announcements over the PA to please move your vehicle because no one can get through.  Its fun watching vehicles roll up and see the students hop off before it heads up.

The part of the building right behind the peace pole is the cafeteria.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing the village I work in most of the year.  Have a nice day.

Eskimo Baseball

 Eskimo baseball is a rather unique version of baseball.  Its known by several names but this is the one I learned it by.  I still don't know all the rules so I'll try to share what I know.

One team is lined up to bat while the other team is off on the field.  The field is actually just the area between the lineup and the safe line at the end. If this were a basketball court, one end would have the batters while the other end is the safe line.

 

There is a pitcher who pitches one of two ways.  The first is what we are used to.  He or she stands in the middle of the field and pitches the ball to the batter who tries to hit it.  

The other way is to stand next to the batter, throw the ball straight up and as it comes down, the batter swings hoping to hit it.  In this game the pitcher chose the second method.

So once the ball is hit, the batter either runs for the other line all the while hoping no one tags him out or he waits till someone else hits a better ball and runs for it.

 When the ball is hit, the team in the field scrambles to get the ball so they can throw it at the runner or run up to him and tag him.  The ball has to touch the person before they are out.  It follows the standard three outs and you change sides. 

 We played in an area surrounded by channels of water so often the ball went quite a distance and landed in the middle of marshy water.  I'd get a call to retrieve it because none of the kids wore their boots.

 The day was actually pretty nice although still a bit chilly due to an earlier rain fall.  By the end of the day, it has warmed up to quite warm.

I included a picture of the area looking out towards the end of the new airport (the old one is behind us.)  The lake you see is the same one found in front of my house.

It is beautiful out there and I love spring the best when its warm and beautiful.  Have a great day, be back tomorrow with more.  Next week, I'll have pictures of Fairbanks.

Late At Night.

 This is a picture of the lake in front of my house.  It was taken around 10:00 at night without any artificial lights.  It doesn't get dark till around midnight or so and the sun rises around 5 or so in the morning.

By mid June, it will be light for an even longer span.  The lake itself is maybe waist to chest high on a normal adult.  I know this because one of the teachers put on a pair of chest high waders and walked across the lake.  It was fun watching him.  He is really tall so it was about hip level.

 Again you see the edge of the lake by teacher housing.  Out here, housing is often an issue so many districts provide housing for its employees.  Most of the buildings are duplexes with a two bedroom and a three bedroom apartment.

The exception is the first building facing the lake which is a quad with four one bedroom apartments while the other is the last one facing the lake with two one and a half bedrooms.

The area between the end of the lake and teacher housing is kind of marshy so you need your mud boots on when walking in that area.  The dogs love wandering through there.

 In this picture which was taken from just in front of the back steps of the school, you see the new airport in the distance.  Its those two little bumps which are two huge maintenance buildings.

To the extreme left is a hockey rink that has never been used for hockey.  The carpentry class built two wooden platforms for basketball.  Kids and adults spend hours playing out there when the weather finally gets warm.

I've seen them shovel melting snow off the platforms so they can get out and play sooner.

This shot allows you to see more of the rink and a bit of the village off in the distance.  All roads are dirt with gravel.

I'm told the city plans to redo the roads so they are smoother.  Last fall they redid the parking lot in front of the Post Office but it rained so instead of ending up with a nice flat surface, it was bumpy, jagged and it dangerous.

I'll see what it looks like when I get back from my summer holidays.

Keep an eye out for more pictures of the area over the next few days.  Later in the week, I'll be up in Fairbanks where I'll take some additional pictures to share the world from there.  I think you'll love some of the countryside because it is so different from here.

Have a good day.  See you tomorrow.

An Afternoon Stroll.

   Since its spring, I've been going out for nice long walks around the village.  Usually part of the walk involves the springy, uneven tundra with its wholes and wet patches.

I need to take my camera out so I can snap more pictures of the beauty to share.  The river is slowly melting but its not quite thawed enough for the boats.

I took this picture while standing on ice located at the side of the river.  The shore that has melted is a oily dark mud which tries to wrestle off your boots with every step.

I started this walk over by the store that over looks the gas station (think a shack with two pumps).  There is a path that curves down to the river and then back up.  I strayed from the path to walk along the shore line.  If you look carefully, you'll see ice chunks below the surface.

 This picture is looking back at the curve in the river.  Those small bumps you see in the distance are actually boats.  When it gets cold enough, they pull the boats up onto the higher ground next to the river.  They leave them there till spring.

The river bank is marshy right now due to the melting snow and the deeper ground not having fully melted yet.  Its not too bad with knee high boots if you stay on the grass.  You don't sink as far.

 This was taken near the end of the old airport.  The old airport was in service when I first came out but within two months, the new airport had been opened. 

Now its used as a street by people heading out to the tundra or practicing cross country. The objects in the distance are boats.  The flat lands allow us to see things a bit further.

If you look carefully, you'll see faint wheel tracks in the tundra from where 4 wheelers (ATV's) drive across the tundra as they head out.

This picture shows the wheel tracks better.  In this one, we are heading back home after taking a nice one hour walk.  There are tons of small lakes around the area.  One of the states claims to be the land of 10,000 lakes.  They have never seen this land from an airplane.

I'll be flying out later in the week, so I'll try to get some pictures to share so you can see what I'm talking about.

Tomorrow, I'll share more pictures of the area around my house but later today  I'll take another walk and  I'll snap pictures of the town, clinic, and the area out by the end of the lake to share. 

I hope you are enjoying seeing what I see and enjoy everyday.  There is this old pickup truck abandoned by one of the small lakes I need to get a picture of to share.   Let me know what you think.  Thank you for reading this.  Enjoy.

Graduation

 Here it is people, a few graduation pictures from Friday night and a couple pictures from the 8th grade promotion held this past Saturday. 

This arch and lights were used the week before for prom.  The arch provided a backdrop for prom pictures while the lights lit the pathway into the cafeteria. 

It is customary to reuse as many of the prom decorations as possible due to the high cost of shipping them up here.  Shipping is about as much as the kits.

In the picture to the left, you see the chairs where the graduates sit after they file in.  Friday night, we had 21 graduates, 3 who took 5 years to finish and 18 who finished in the customary 4.  The people seated behind are the parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, and other relatives who attend.

One tradition is for seniors to take time to give their parents a rose at graduation to thank them for all the support they got during their years of schooling.

 This is a quick picture of the graduating class of 2017.  The two young ladies in purple should have graduated the year before but one had to take time out to have a baby while the other made some not so good choices as a freshman. 

The two young ladies with the yellow bands are the two who graduated top of the class and received scholarships to the state college system.

Both are extremely hardworking young ladies who managed to do well both in academics and in sports.

 This picture shows one of the 8th graders walking in from the locker room area.  He's following the same path the seniors took the night before. 

I've worked with many of his older siblings over the past 11 years.  The middle school students walked quite a bit faster than the seniors the night before.

I didn't take a picture of students after they passed through the arch because their family members and friends stood on the other side of the barrier to take pictures as they paused before heading for the row of chairs from the night before.

These are the students who were promoted to 8th grade.  There is a good chance that many of them will not finish school in four years. 

The reasons are many but its a fact of life out here we are trying to change.  Several students applied to Mt. Edgecombe which is a boarding school for Alaskan Students.

It offers so much more than we can due to the limited staff we have.  Some of the girls chose to wear their prom dresses because this is one of the few chances to wear it while others chose to wear the traditional Quspuk.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few pictures of graduation and promotion from a rural school in Alaska.