Slop Happy

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Here's 3rd Ave. The only road in town that doesn't have a puddle....at least until you get to the Boys and Girls Club. Sometime during the first couple weeks of March, after the 11th blizzard in three weeks I prayed "Lord, please hurry up and send Spring. I promise I won't complain about the mess!".




Here is the lake by the Boys and Girls club.




It stretches all the way across the road.




And it is deep.




As you can see from the piles of snow we have just barely started melting. It is going to get so much worse before it gets better.....




...but I'm NOT complaining.




The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful....




...and I shan't complain.


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Getting Wood For Ahna

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Yesterday we went to visit Uyaana's ahna. Ahna is the Inupiaq word for grandmother. Ahna lives year round out at camp on a slough on the Noatak River. She lives out there alone but has lots of visitors to check on her and bring her things that she needs. Yesterday we went out there to visit and get her some wood for her wood stove.




Ahna's cabin is surrounded by huge snow drifts.




Uyaana had a great time climbing all over this one.




Uyaana likes to follow to go get wood because he loveds to play in the trees.




Problem is this year we have had so much snow that he kept sinking in up to his hips.




He asked to try the snowshoes that we brought.




I thought for sure that he was going to fall over and not be able to get up.




I wasn't looking forward to postholing over to him to help him up when he fell.




He wobbled a couple times when he crossed the backs of the snowshoes together, but he never did fall.




He took to it like a natural.




He had a great time following the rabbit tracks all over.




He did so well that I told him I would get him his own snowshoes for next winter.




Here is the shelter that Uyaana boult for the animals. He said "See mom, just like Survivorman". He thought maybe a wolf might take a nap in it. If you look carefully you can see uyaana inside of it.




In the end we brought home two loads of wood for ahna.





The weather was warm (about 18F degrees) and we had a great time playing out in the trees.

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Fog is good...

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...because this fog is like a sure sign of spring. It blots out the sun, cancels flights and ruins hunting plans.




It's also something that I I don't like to complain about because it's almost like insulting spring, and Lord knows we have waited so long for spring. So as for the fog, I say bring it on!



The weather is slowly warming up. Around it sometimes seems like one day it's winter and then WHAMMO the next day we are above freezing and there are puddles all over. That's kinda true, it does warm up a bit over time, but the line between snowpack on the road and lakes in the street is crossed within a couple days. I was taking photos of waterlogged roads in Kotzebue I think on April 21st last year.




And the days keep getting longer. now go to bed in the light and wake up in the light. It's great, but it does make getting the boy to bed a bit harder. I will tell him it's time for bed and he will say "But MOM....it's STILL light out". And I say "Uyaana...it's gonna be light out from now until the middle of August but that doesn't mean you get to stay awake that whole time!"

FYI- I am working on the Nusher Banquet photos and hope to have them up this evening.

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Open Water

The Noatak River is open all the way to town. Here is a picture of the mouth of the river. People are already boating up to hunt ducks and geese and gather seagull eggs.





Every year spring feels like a miracle to me. When it is January it sometimes feel like it will take forever for it to warm up and melt the snow and ice. I think the opening of the river was earlier this year than last year. I would have to go back an look through my old pictures to be sure.





Noah and I decided to go up on the hill and have a picnic. I still wasn't feeling well but I was tired of being cooped up in the house.





It was pretty windy. About 15-20mph from the south. At least there were no mosquitoes.





Kaija was having fun chasing all the little birdies...





...but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't catch any.





On the way home we saw a flock of swans (or are they geese?) flying over town.

Puddlesucker

This is water.



This is what happens when snow starts to melt. Hallelujah!!



This beauty I call the Puddlesucker.



These guys ride around all day sucking up puddles before they take over and drown us all. Actually this is the honeybucket sucker doing double duty. You know your an Alaskan if you know that a honeybucket has nothing to do with bees.