Another Day in the Bush

We don't have a TV at our house, so a couple of nights a week we go over to Ben's house to watch something and just veg out for awhile. On Monday, I was over watching TV while Christina had a training session to attend. As I was laying on the couch watching The Big Bang Theory, we heard pounding at the door. Just as Ben opened the door to tell his students to come by another time, they snuck past him and came inside.

It's a regular occurrence to have kids show up at your door and ask "Can we visit?"

Of course, "visiting" usually entails rooting through your DVDs and other items of interest...

...and distracting you while one sneaks off to your bedroom...

Before you know it, they're all hanging out in your room!

...and rooting through your freezer for ice cream sandwiches!

Finally, Ben corrals them out into his cold room....

Only to discover that some of his DVDs are missing...

Notice that I haven't gotten up once to help...Nope, clearly the episode playing out in Ben's kitchen is more entertaining than the one on TV!

In other news, we purchased our flights home for the summer this week and also received our contracts for next year. While we're looking forward to some time off to relax with friends and family and the experience of new parenthood this summer, we're also excited to say that we'll be returning to Goodnews Bay for a second year in August. As challenging as this year has been, we've seen major improvements in our students and in the school climate and we want to be a part of the continued growth here next year. We're also excited for our upcoming Spring Break next week. On Friday, we'll be jumping on a plane and flying to Anchorage for some much needed R&R, shopping, and sightseeing. Stay tuned for our next post from Anchorage!

Scenes from Goodnews

The weather had us cooped up inside for a couple of weeks, but since the cold headed downstates (which we're sure you're all enjoying!), we decided to bust out of the house for a walk down to the bay. Enjoy these scenes from Goodnews. 

The trail to Platinum, six miles across the bay.

Home Sweet Home.

Gone Ice Fishin'

Got up at the crack of 9:30 for the sunrise.

There were lots of people out on the ice this morning. Ice fishing is a very popular activity and topic of conversation among the villagers- young and old, men and women, everyone drives down to this spot on the river to catch smelt, trout, and whitefish. 

Ben breaking a hole in the ice.

Ben with his catch.

Cleaning my catch after a cold ride back home.

RIP Trapping 101

In case you haven't heard the news yet, our blog is about to get a whole lot cuter. But don't worry- if you come to our blog for your dose of Alaskan bush adventures, I'm sure we'll still be able to accommodate your fix. In fact, I haven't blogged for a few weeks myself as I've been busy out on the trapline. Back in December, I caught a few muskrat and a mink in the ponds behind the school. Rather than selling them for a few dollars in a down market, I gave them to a local woman, Anna Beavers, who sews some of the best fur in the village.

Last week, I went to visit her and she showed me my mink that she had tanned herself and was preparing to use in a project for a customer. I've been selling fur with my dad for years that no doubt makes its way to other countries around the world, but it's pretty wild to think that some of the fur I caught will be used in traditional Yup'ik artwork.

Anna is a great storyteller with many rich tales to tell (having grown up downriver before there were very many permanent settlements in the region), and the more I go to see her, the more stories she shares with me. She's fond of telling stories of growing up with her parents, hunting and fishing and truly living a subsistence lifestyle. This time, she pulled out a tool that she sometimes uses to scrape tanned hides. This tool was made by her father over 50 years ago. The handle is the bone of a reindeer (which used to roam this area) attached to a sharpened blade by seal gut. Wire has been added to keep the blade and the handle secure, but the tool itself is still in working order after all these years. 

The past few weeks, I've had the privilege to teach a trapping class to some of the high schoolers. We intentionally kept the enrollment low, since I can only safely fit three students on my Honda out to check traps (Nevermind that my quad has a sticker that says "Absolutely no passengers allowed on this vehicle." When you're living in the bush, just throw away the manual. We've seen families of 7 or 8 all pile onto a Honda). In the past month, however, I lost a third of my high schoolers to transfers, including all but one of the students in trapping. So, we decided to drop trapping as an elective and enroll the one student who was left in a credit recovery course she needed anyways. So here's to Trapping 101- we had some good times, caught some fox together, and called it a day. Take a trip down memory lane with me, won't you? (No credits were awarded in the harming of these fox.)

We caught a fox on this student's last day in Goodnews.

One of the girls caught this fox. Unfortunately, the crows got to him before we could.

Most of the fox I've snared tangle themselves up so much that I often find them hanging suspended from a branch or limb like this one. The pelts, however, are remarkably unharmed. 

Skinning fox in the cold room of our house. Christina has nicknamed this room "the fox mortuary." We get blasted with a foxy stench every time we come home!

Halfway through the writing of this post, I went out to check my traps and picked up my 8th fox of the season. Now I know what I'll be spending my Friday night doing! 

The Frozen Tundra

We've had a few adventures this weekend here in Goodnews and thought the pictures might just help you feel like you're right along with us. That is if you've got some extra long underwear, a balaclava, seal hat, down gloves, snow pants and winter parka--- did we mention it is finally COLD here this weekend?

Simon heading out to check his traps

Andddd he's back, just a little frosty.

After checking the traps-- the Honda wouldn't start!

The condensation had frozen

After about 5 minutes of blow drying and the space heater it started right up!

The story that the picture with Simon and the hairdryer doesn't tell is that we only had one 6' extension cord in our house. Surely I don't need to tell you that it was hardly able to reach the front door. This sent Simon on a walk to the store to purchase a longer extension cord that would possibly reach off the porch. He returned with a 15' extension cord that we used along with the 6' one to reach the motor of the honda with the hairdryer (I know, I know-- you're not supposed to plug two extension cords like that together, but you gotta do what you gotta do here in the bush). Walking that mile to the school twice yesterday was completely out of the question.


We experienced some pretty strong winds Friday night into Saturday late afternoon, which caused the temps to drop so low. The ambient temperature on Saturday morning around 9am was -6 with the windchill somewhere around -35 to -40. That's take-your-breath-away cold! The ambient temperature for today is actually lower than yesterday somewhere around -8 this morning but without the wind it is bearable.

Thankfully after those few short minutes with the hairdryer we haven't had any other starting issues and the wind has died down bringing the real feel temp up quite a few degrees.

Nashville Take 2

I recently had a chance to get out of the village and even out of Alaska for a few short days. The trip wasn’t planned and certainly wasn’t on my list of reasons to leave Alaska. We got a phone call on Sunday afternoon that my Papa Hughes wasn’t doing well and then again later that evening to say that he had passed. Immediately, we began looking into flight info and car rentals trying to find the most economical way to travel down states at the last minute. (along with school details of writing sub plans and making copies for a week without me!)

What Goodnews looked like when I left

We decided that I would leave on Tuesday morning, which would have me arriving in Nashville, TN on Wednesday evening with a 2 hour drive the rest of the way to Granny & Papa’s house.

So, I left Goodnews on Tuesday morning on the first flight to Bethel even though my flight to Anchorage wasn’t until 9:12 PM; you never take chances on the weather when you need to get out. Always, always, always take the first possible plane you see out of the village. I arrived in Bethel somewhere around 12:30 PM and just sat around at the Bethel airport until time to board the flight. I met another new teacher from Lower Yukon who was also traveling home for a funeral. We spent some time talking in the airport about teaching in Alaska.

Dinner in Bethel

Choosing a flight plan is always key to smooth traveling. The east coast was slated to get hit with quite a storm during the time that I was traveling, so I opted for staying away from the east coast in order to avoid delayed or cancelled flights. This means that I had several connections on my way.

A row to myself on one of my longest flights, yes please!

What jetliner windows look like at an ambient temp of -27

I finally arrived in Nashville, TN around 5:30 on Wednesday afternoon. Cory and Amanda, my brother and sister, were both flying into Nashville and riding with me to the house.  After I found Cory and got my bags we headed to pick up the rental car, grab some dinner and then come back for Amanda.  We finally arrived in GA sometime around 11:30 PM Wednesday evening. To say it was a long two days of flying and driving is an understatement.

A nice greeting in Nashville: the US Airways Steelers plane!

Dad, Brandi and Granny posing after the family dinner.

Cory, Me, Tony and Amanda in the family car.

I had a great time catching up with and spending time with family. This is the first time in at least five years that all of the siblings have been together. We spent most of our time hanging out at Granny's house and getting everyone's fill of favorite southern foods from BBQ to Krystal gut bombs. I even squeezed in a shopping trip to Target, Walmart and Sam’s Club! One simply does not travel to the lower 48 and bring nothing back. I filled a blue tub and a small cooler with things that have been on our want list.

All packed and ready to head back to AK

Complete torture in the Portland airport! This is on the airport map as an open location!

A little taste of PA in Portland.