Hello

Hi there, how ya doing?

I should be telling you all these excuses for not posting on the blog for weeks at a time, but I just really have no good excuse.

It's winter. There's nothing to do outside when the temperatures in December and January average -22 below. We stay inside, watch TV, read books, sew, bead, etc. Nothing fancy, nothing exciting. To me.

According to the weatherman, we haven't had a "colder than normal" winter. We were just used to an average of -5 for December and January and having windchills averaging -45 for eight weeks was enough to make us Eskimos turn wimpy.

Our snowmachines stayed off, our stove oil consumption skyrocketed (as a matter of fact, we went through 300 gallons of stove oil in a six week period. And at $7 a gallon, we had some serious budget crunching!), and we got super bored. (I literally read "the Hunger Games" trilogy FOUR TIMES last month. Both my kids read the series and I am now on book #4 following Stephanie Plum!) Cabin fever really sets in during January.

This is my garage last week. Fun times I tell ya!

But, as always, February is our storm season, and storm season means its WARM. In 2009 my entire house was buried. Other towns make national news for 15 feet of snow and the national guard comes in to help shovel. They need to come visit Kotzebue after storm season.

This year though, we had one measily storm. ONE. I mean, it did some great snow damage, but it's not like the house is buried! The garage is another story. But I guess if we want to eat, we have to shovel. Our freezers are located in the garage. Freezers full of fish and caribou and berries and seal oil.

I wonder if the National Guard would come help us. I wonder if they would come if I offered free food. I doubt it.

My husband and son do most of the shoveling. Once you open the door to the outside and find that looking at you, you say a silent praise to your wife (me) for finding one of the five shovels we have and putting it inside the storm shed! (You're welcome honey!)

Now that it has warmed up by about 60 degrees, and the sun decided that it would stay out and rise above the horizon this month, we will be doing PLENTY more outside. (And my "warming up 60 degrees," I mean it has warmed up 60 degrees warmer than most of the month, so it is a whopping beautiful 20 above zero lately!)

Like playing out with one-eyed dogs. Dogs who have no business outside in the 15 feet of snow, but love to play out and get snowballs stuck to their fur. Playing with with just a hat and falltime jacket on. Or just playing out on the snowmachines after work.

As a matter of fact, yesterday I came home from work and there was a dead caribou in the driveway. (no photos, sorry, I was waaaaay too excited about fresh caribou!) My husband went for a ride (and we ALWAYS bring a gun) found a herd, shot a caribou, gutted it, beheaded it, took the important parts (heart, tongue, stomach) and threw the rest of the animal on his lap, and drove home.

Then as I was super excited, he decided that we would GIVE it away. So we skinned it, cut it up and put it in containers for the local DD house. Apparently they were happy. I kivit and didn't go to drop it off. My mouth was too busy watering for fresh patiq soup! It's a good thing I love my husband and he swears this weekend we are all going out for a few, cause people should NEVER get in between me and fresh caribou meat! Steaming raw straight from the animal.

Whatever, hopefully we catch a few, and hopefully I remember my camera!

Stay warm. :)