Labor Day Weekend

So I had a friend come out for Labor Day weekend and he is much better at taking pictures than I am, plus I downloaded all of the pictures from his camera before he left this afternoon so I thought I would upload them.  As I said in my last post we had a carwash out at Dahl Creek which is where Nova Gold is renting out the camp and we washed their vehicles on Friday.  On Saturday it was kind of rainy and dripping and I did chores and worked on my course work for my Alaska Transition to Teaching program and then came Sunday and Monday; the days when I had fun!  On Sunday my co-workers and I went out on 4 wheelers to Bornite (which is about 15 miles from Kobuk and at the end of the road).  We had a beautiful afternoon (the morning was pretty sketchy so we didn't leave until after lunch) and I really will try to get those pictures posted this week (they are still on my camera, which I never did find my card reader for, but I did find my cable so I can at least download the photos).  On our way back, we got to an easement trail that the others wanted to take, but I had to get back to Kobuk because I had a friend coming in from Fairbanks and I needed to meet his plane.  So earlier the 5 us of (the entire teaching staff at Kobuk school) had been out on 3 Hondas.  Katie and I were sharing one and Rob had one by himself.  I took the one that Katie and I were sharing and came back.  Rob was all concerned "be careful, be very careful."  I reassured him again and again that I would.  Katie said she was getting text messages (we were only about 4 miles from town) and to text her when I arrived back (I did and she shared it with Rob who was apparently worrying). 

 Unfortunately, the Era flight came in early yesterday.  This meant, that unbeknownst to me my friend had arrived before I got back.  When I got back to town I looked at the airport and didn't see any agents waiting to meet the plane so I figured it was all good.  I stopped in the school to go to the bathroom and listen for an announcement of the plane's arrival.  I had just decided to go to my classroom (which is a portable; see pictures below) and look up the number for Era in Kotzebue to learning the planes routing and stuff when I stepped outside and one of the kids told me that a man named Chris had been looking for me.  I asked the kid if he had come on a plane (silly question.  If a stranger in Kobuk is looking for me and the kid has the right name clearly it is the friend that I am supposed to be meeting).  I ended up tracking him through town.  Basically, I just kept asking people of they had seen a stranger and where he went.  The first kid said he'd gone down the street in front of the school.  The next ones said he went to the store.  I asked which store and they told me.  I went to that store where the adults said, "oh he was just here" and one of the kids told me he was down on the beach taking pictures, which is where I found him.  Not exactly an inconspicuous trip (although in a village the size of Kobuk, I think that's kind of hard to have, especially when you're visiting the middle school/ high school teacher - we saw 75% of my students around town last night).  So Chris is a lot better at taking pictures and took pictures of all the important things that people want to see like my house and school and the beautiful fall foliage so here are those pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Transportation Kobuk style.  Chris left his stuff at the airport (which was mostly all for me anyway) and we went back with the Honda to pick it up.

My stores in my kitchen.  In addition I get fresh vegetables every two weeks from Full Circle Farms (a new box arrived today!)

Hopefully, you can tell this is my living room.  I shipped up my 32 inch HDTV, now I just have to get the satellite and Internet set up at home and I'll be all set.

I think I posted a picture of this before, but I wasn't in it.  This is one of the two stores in Kobuk, O'Brown's.

I think this speaks for itself.  It is hunting time - I hope someone gives me some meat.

We had a gorgeous double rainbow yesterday!

This is the lake just on the back side of town (with the river side being the "front".

The lake again

The Honda's.  this is outside my building, but that's not my door.  My house is split into two and you can hear the other person sneeze!

My door (on the right side of the house from the angle of the last picture).  My house is about 100 yards from the Runway, but it is actually further from the runway than a good portion of the houses in Kobuk!

Me going up the steps to my portable.

Inside my classroom.  I teach so many different classes that I have one board set aside simply for keeping up with all the assignments.

I'm sorry, I can't find a way to change the orientation of the picture after I uploaded it and it is not all that easy to upload pictures out here so you'll have to either turn your screen or your head.  Whichever is easier. 

One of the classroom procedures.  We provide the kids with pencils and I hate the sound of the electric pencil sharpener during class.  Thus, why I have them simply exchange the pencils.

We had a little problem with my oven last night. I had made pizza dough in my breadmaker to have it ready for dinner and when we went to heat the oven last night to get the pizza ready it started arcing and smoke started pouring out of the oven!  We ended up cooking it in the school (which is where this picture was taken).  Today when I looked at it the heating coil was burned through and there was a 1-2 cm gap, which is why it was arcing!  Good thing the school is only about 50 feet (or less) from my house.

The cellphone tower and corresponding satellite dish, which are directly in front of my house.

The clinic.  The school will be building a greenhouse out on the clinic gravel pad shortly (hopefully we'll begin constructing that this week).

Another picture where you have to rotate your head.  Note that the high watermark is over my head (rather significantly actually)

This picture was taken this morning from the runway (I tend to walk the runway.  Sometimes along and sometimes with one of my colleagues).

Isn't it gorgeous?

Me in front of the main building of the school.

On the Honda!

Berry picking

It's really cranberry time now, but there were still some good blueberries left.

A small sand dune.  There is a big desert (see previous post) on the way out here from Kotzebue.

Dahl creek perhaps?  This is right by the Dahl creek camp.  Matter of fact there is a pump in here and a hose carrying water up to the camp from here.