Are you sure this is Alaska?

My key ring.

Some old Alaska friends have moved south and are living on the east coast. The Pitsenbergers live in Washington, SC and on FB they were say it was 2*F yesterday. Here in Platinum, at the same time of evening, it was 36*F.  People want to travel between villages using the river ice roads. They want to go ice fishing and the ice isn't thick enough to get out on it. They are going out on it anyway. This is their source of winter protein.

Well anyway, I have pictures from our Valentine's Day Sleepover. We started by cooking up three beef loin roasts we had in the freezer. I added to them potatoes, gravy, peas, and a cake (with my sister's brownie frosting). Lori, our cook, baked dinner rolls. Those slices of beef were soooooo tender and almost tasted like filet mignon--it melted in your mouth. We have one more (not enough for another feast) and I'm not sure what to do with it.

We then moved on to our crafts. The main one was a valentine pillow. They had to tie the cut tabs together and stuff it. Then some of the students attempted making lanyard with braided plastic line. I made a key ring. The teachers and students played "flashlight hide-n-seek" in the school. I spent that time cleaning the kitchen. The boys moved into the secondary classroom for video games and the girls and younger boys moved into the elementary classroom to watch movies and play on computers. I headed home around 1 am. I got up the next morning and cooked pancakes for everyone. Except for the girls, John, and Nayumi, everyone went home. Those who stayed played with the hair chalk, in an attempt to put colored strips in their hair. In my opinion, it was way too much work for way too little color.

Arlin and Devin

Devin--pillow head

Faith's pillow

John really likes his.

Nathan & Nayumi working at it.

The whole group is starting their pillows.

Sancho's is completed.

They all had a great time and are asking when they can do it again. I don't know if we will do it again this year. As usual, this second semester is jam packed with things to do.









Wednesday, February 18, the entire school had an hour long class via Video TeleConference (VTC) with the Seward Sealife Center, on cephalopods. They sent us a large container of fresh frozen squid. We thawed them out that morning and by 2 pm they were ready to dissect. We teamed each elementary student with a secondary student. They were given lots of background information about cephalopods, saw some great video clips, and asked all kinds of questions. A very well spent hour.

I know--I know!

Where's the beak?

Really getting into it.

There it is. I see it.

Look at that!

Where are the two hearts?

Female egg sack

What? (Norman & Audie)

I'm done.

Frieda found the ink sack.

Several of the boys decided to collect the dissected parts and use them for bait. When we were all done, there was still half a container of squid. Three students divided it among themselves and took it home for dinner. The SSLC teacher told us that they were fresh. I talked to won of the mothers and she said they were yummy. :)