Up & Away

Yesterday marked the day when the students of Kokhanok released their hot-air balloons. None caught fire and everybody's fingers came out ok. Curiously .. this was also the first time I saw every single one of my students working and for the whole period. I truly had to pinch myself to believe what was occuring.

Pedro Bay

This past weekend I had the great joy of visiting the community of Pedro Bay - by community I mean a gathering of 80 or so souls. Picture the Swiss Miss setting and you have the town. Sunday morning I woke up to fog rising and rainbows aganist waterfalls, My host and I hiked about, watched "Akeelah & the Bee" at the community Movie Night, were served the finest Apple Crisp ever (sorry mom) and canoed the still waters of Pedro.

Fall Colors

New England has nothing to compare to this:

Entertainment

Granted, when you live in the bush there isn't a whole lot one does for entertainment. Which means that this weekend when a friend flew in to visit, I'm practically drawing straws to find things to do. I was lucky enough on Saturday to head out on a borrowed Honda and get into the tundra. In less than two weeks, you can see the difference between the two pictures. It's very startling as the change occurs even on a daily basis - for instance, the Sitka Spruce trees on Thursday were green with a hint of yellow. Today, they are a fierce golden yellow. Winter's coming.

The other thing about Honda riding - and I'm convinced that I'm missing a box (hint-hint Dad) - is you need to be dressed warmly and when you don't have gloves it can be a pain. Add in bugs flying in your face, snot sliding across your cheeks and eyes sore from the cold pounding wind, it's a horrible experience*. We didn't see any bears, although there were tracks. We did see swans, geese and yes ... the town's horses.

Curiously, someone thought it would be a perfectly sound idea to have a chair out there on the ridge to have something comfortable to sit on while awaiting a caribou to come within range.

* heavy, heavy sarcasm

The Great Ms. Julie "How do you spell that?" Garton

Today was a sad day here in Kokhanok. A few nights ago our Math & Science teacher recieved a phone call informing her of an urgent family emergency. Ms. Julie has left the building. She is bound to be back at her former job at Yellowstone National Park in no time. She will be missed along with her occasional Jersey quips, her abundant amount of bear spray and for being the only person I have ever allowed to call me "Davey".

Dancing with the Devil

Across Lake Iliamna from fair Kokhanok is the bustling community of Newhalen. I went there along with most of the staff on invitation by the Pebble Mine Project. For those of you who don't know, just north of Newhalen sits the largest gold, copper and molydrum deposit in North America. The Pebble Mine Project is eager to open it up. As you can imagine, there is fierce opposition to the project by natives, sportsfishermen, commercial fishermen and the like. Not only are they proposing an open pit mine but a road to a harbor across from Homer. From there, the ore will be shipped to Communist China for processing.

The invite was an all expense paid trip over to Newhalen, lunch, a powerpoint (led curiously by their enviromental manager who worked for Exxon during ... you guessed it, the Valdez incident) and a helicopter trip to the mine site.

The tour and from talking to the people involved with the project makes this job now seem as though I am witnessing the cusp of a great change that will happen.

Obviously one picture is of me and fellow passenger, a core drill site and the actual site.

Making Nice Faces

There is some talent here. Before we took this picture, I believe I said "Let's smile nice" and naturally neither one of us did.

$11.60

$8.00 for the Ice cream, $3.60 for the pop. Loving the fact that Alaska has no sales tax, priceless...these things and more at the only store in Kokhanok.

One more hike

So my trip to Pedro Bay didn't go as planned. That is to say, it never got off the ground. I did however manage to do some work in the classroom, go fishing, change a tire on a bike (using a Swiss Army Knife) and go hiking. The colors from Friday to Sunday have changed already - the locals have been saying for some time that this is going to be "a long and dreary winter". I'm hoping that they're pulling my leg another two inches. The trails never had people in mind when they were made. You can almost hear them saying "Switchbacks? Why use those!"

Trip to Lake Gibraltor (Sept 2)

The entire staff went up to Lake Gibraltor for a day of picnicing, fishing, hiking and general relaxing with a company of "no-see-ums", and mosquitos. Once again I took the oppurtunity to go hiking. Along the way, we were came across a local family's dog who joined us for the rest of the day. A few of the pictures of me hiking were taken by Julie to give you some idea of scale.There are moments when it just seems endless. One picture is of a sockeye salmon in the lake. The day ended with elk being roasted and Willy determined to throw me in the lake.

Where Bears Go (September 1st)

September 1st was a pain in the classroom. Everyone seemed to going bonkers and when the bell rang, no one stayed longer than it took to back their bags and get out. Seeing that it was a 70* day, I went out with Julie & Kimmy on one of the trails behind the house, we bushwacked up a hill, wandered up along a ridge and found another trail leading us back to Kokhanok.

The first thing we found was a bear footprint. Julie, being the Yellowstone Bear Interpertative Specialist for the last five years, went silly and was mad we hadn't brought plaster of paris.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Good Fart Joke

Thirty seconds before this picture was taken; these kids were dull face and sullen. Que one good fart joke and a sound effect and this is your result.