Snow and Snowmachines on the Slough

Friday morning a freezing rain coated our boardwalks.

After the rain, and many people's falls later, the snow came.

We got about a half-inch of snow--enough to cover the dust.

The trees caught some of the flakes.

Our neighbor's dogs, while I headed on my little walk to the slough.

I've been hearing a few more snowmachines in the past couple days.

Some people who live on the other side of the river have to cross some water still.

The laundromat is on this side. I don't believe any of the
houses on that side have water or sewer.

I'm guessing she was getting caught up on laundry
because she made lots of trips back and forth.

The slough was busy. Many planes were also flying overhead
(they haven't flown due to weather for a couple days). That means
we also haven't gotten mail since the middle of last week.

He was trying to find a way to the dump to get rid of some trash.

Chunks of ice and water near the shore.

I watched them work on setting up their net for a little while.

They use ice picks to make holes and feed the net into.

Sometimes you have to make work fun, right?

Lots of birds were also out enjoying the "warm" weather.

     After the open gym at our school, it was nice to go for an impromptu walk and see all this activity with my camera handy. After a while though, I needed to go inside because I started getting chilly. My camera lens fogged up instantly and I noticed my fingers were bright red after I stepped inside my warm house. We have Christmas lights on, candles burning, and Christmas music playing today so it's nice and cozy. I'm hoping for more snow soon since I've got nowhere to go and I'm hoping to buy a snowmachine. Let it snow!

Cherish the good times-- Cupcakes and Smiles.

As this was my third Halloween in Alakanuk, I was looking forward to dressing up and seeing others' costumes and smiles. Many adults even dress up and join in on the fun at the school or while bringing their kids out trick-or-treating. I was going to be a ninja turtle, but I received a couple fine cowgirl accessories and decided to wear my new cowgirl hat and some chaps to school on Wednesday.

Mom mailed me cupcake supplies, napkins, and stuff to decorate them.

We had a cupcake decorating contest during our Halloween party.

I received a box that made it to my house after being in the mail for quite some time on that Monday. Tuesday night I made some funfetti cupcakes and the following day at lunch I made some orange frosting for them. (I actually used almost half powdered milk and powdered sugar which made it a little less sweet and delicious!) The students earned "pirate tokens" as an incentive to join the party. When it came time, I had them line up outside our classroom. We accepted the tokens and gave them a glow bracelet as they entered. The students had fun playing around for a bit before we turned the main lights back up and they got to decorate the cupcakes.

Some of the kids just loaded on the goods.

Others carefully designed and snacked while they decorated.

This one has some mini-chocolate chips for hair.

This one reminded me of one I'd see in a fancy cupcake shop.

It was costume day during our Red Ribbon Spirit Week, so I was a cowgirl.

The winners got to eat their cupcakes. :) All of them won.

A couple of my happy trick-or-treaters.

Lots of painted faces and masks with warm coats to block the 18 mph winds.

On Halloween, we had a high of 26 degrees.

It was fun seeing everyone's wigs and costumes that night.

One of my old male students with a female kaspaq and mask.

One of our students was absent with an ear infection, but Mr. Skeleton helped him out.

Many of these wonderful ladies have worked here at the school for years!

Sammy Jo was expressing her anguish that the plane for volleyball travel was on weather-hold.