Aana's Hands

.

I have a warm fox hat that I have had for a few years. The fur was starting to rip but the rest of it was still good so I asked Uyaana's Aana (grandmother) Lena to help me replace the fur.




Aana had me rip the seams to take off the old fur. I can sew skins but I'm not so good at using patterns. I have made a few pairs of mukluks, but never a hat.




Then she cut pieces out of a new fox skin and started the sewing for me. Once she had it in place she let me stitch the rest. If I had more time I would have had her let me do it all myself so I could learn how but we were leaving that day and we needed to finish it quickly.




Aana has been sewing since she was a little girl. We were talking tonight, wondering how many mukluks she has made over the years? How many parkies? Her hands show years of hard work living off the land in the arctic. Working on seal and beluga, cutting fish and meat, drying and scraping skins. Washing clothes and scrubbing socks by hand. Sewing skins, knitting socks. 76 years of hard work in those hands.

.

Frosty Day

.

The days are getting shorter and shorter. I go to work in the dark, I go home in the dark. Pretty soon I will be eating lunch in the dark and picking up Uyaana from school in the dark. This also means there will not be much picture taking in the dark. Most of my free time will be in the dark. So enters the photographic lean season.

I figured I would take some photos while I was running work errands today. Gotta take photos while the sun shines, right? It was a cold and frosty day with a bit of ice fog. In the first photo you can see how low on the horizon the sun was at it's highest point today.















The ice fog in the air settles on anything that is still long enough. This is the fence across the street from my office.



Even the ravens are frosty.



Ice fog caused by vehicle exhaust.

















.

The Great Motivator

After I posted the photos I took of Denali the other day Ish from Kodiak Konfidential left me a comment saying "You need to turn the top one into a postcard and the bottom one into one of those inspirational/motivational posters. Maybe... "Even in the darkest time, remember that the sun is still shining somewhere." or something like that."

And so he made one for me!





Cool, ah?

.

Denali

.

Mt. McKinley in the background and I think Mt. Foraker in the foreground. Taken from the jet on the way to Anchorage.








.

.

I'm off to Los Anchorage for a few days to eat Thai, waste many mindless hours in Barnes and Nobles and renew my covenants with Target.

Veteran's Day Potluck

.


There was a potluck lunch today at the Kotzebue Senior Citizen's Cultural Center in Honor of Veteran's Day. It was originally scheduled for yesterday but it was postponed due to the blizzard.




The kids from Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat, the Inupiaq immersion school here in Kotzebue,sang some songs for everyone.




And Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski stopped by and had a donut.




I'm not sure what her official business here in Kotzebue was but she was nice enough to say a few words in honor of the Veterans and shake some hands.

.

Dear Campmor.com......

.

You suck. Yeah you heard me. I used to love your site. I used to waste many an hour looking through your pages and pages of jackets, mittens, hats, and camping gear. I used to spend hundreds of dollars a year there on winter boots and gloves and face masks.....but no more I tell you. No more! You have now joined the ranks of places that give Alaskan's the shaft.

I mean come on Campmor, I live in the United States of America, not Bangladesh! Is it really so hard to ship something to me USPS Priority Mail? Nooooo...you had to sell out to the UPS God and relegate me and my fellow Alaskans to USPS Parcel Post. Come on, PARCEL POST????? Do you know that it takes USPS Parcel Post anywhere from 4-5 weeks to get to Alaska??? Seriously.

And you know what really sucks, Campmor?? You didn't even have the DECENCY to tell us that it is Parcel Post. Nooo....you call it "Standard Shipping" just like you always have so we don't even know our stuff is on the slow boat from China until it happens!!! That's what happened to my friend. Her Daughter broke the zipper on her coat so she ordered from Campmor, like always for a new jacket. 3 weeks later IT'S STILL NOT HERE! Thank goodness I found this out BEFORE I spent several hundred dollars on Christmas stuff and winter gear from your site.

So Campmor, I'm sorry to say that you have lost me as a customer....not that you really care about this Alaskan, or any of the rest of us, anyway.

.

Hardcore

.

The guys at Kotzebue Electric Association are hardcore. 11am on a holiday, half dark, 60mph winds in a blizzard with near zero visibility and they are up in the bucket truck fixing the electric wires.











.

Snow Day!

.


Well, a miracle has occurred in Kotzebue. The Northwest Arctic Borough School District canceled school today. I guess they learned from last Spring's Debacle of kids getting stuck at school in a blizzard until midnight. I have the day off from work for Veteran's Day, so I had already decided if it was ugly out I wasn't bringing Uyaana to school whether they canceled or not.

When I woke up this morning there was a pile of snow on the living room floor by the back door . While sitting at the computer 5 feet away I could feel the wind blowing through the room from the door. So I set out to try and keep the wind and the snow outside.



Here is my new and improved weather stripping.




It didn't stop snowing in the house until I took some kleenex and shoved it into the crack on top of the door with a pencil.

.

Uyaana's Snogo

.
Last weekend we went to camp to see Uyaana's Ahna (grandmother). She lives out at her camp year round. We went with snowmachine along the edge of Kotzebue sound to Lockard Point and crossed the Noatak River mouth on the way to her camp. Later in the winter when the ice is thicker we will travel straight across the sound to get to her camp.

While we were there Uyaana got to ride around on his snogo by himself.























.