hardcore

Miles has been known to eat anything.  Two of his most famous meals have been the kids glove that cost me $1500 vet bill and the 500 tums, that made the vets laugh when they had to induce vomiting and it came out looking like a rainbow.  Since he eats everything when we give him toys they have to be EXTREMELY tough.  He recently received a couple gifts in the mail (Thank You Barb).  He was given a HARD CORE fire hose chew toy.

Within 60 minutes he had it ripped open and was pulling the stuffing out.  Either it wasn’t really HARDCORE or Miles is beyond hardcore!

childhood dreams vs apples

Ever since I was a young child I have liked the way the Air Jordan 12s looked.  Since I was never a basketball player I never had any real need to buy an expensive pair of basketball shoes.  As the years passed and I started playing more ball I decided If I ever see them I would buy them…..That dream came true a couple weeks ago.  Dianna was a little surprised when I came home from the post supporting my new shoes.  For those of you who don’t remember these are the shoes Jordan wore in the Finals when he had the flu and scored 37 points, only to be helped off the court by Pippen.

A couple days after I had received my shoes Dianna decided to make a purchase of her own.  She wasn’t thinking long term like I was.  She was only thinking about the next month.  She decided it would be well worth the money to order a case of apples from the Nome grocery store.  Keeping in mind we live in rural Alaska, this was not a cheap or easy feat.  None the less store said they would send the apples out the next day.  Dianna was so happy they were going to send her apples the next day she didn’t even ask what they were charging her.  The next day her apples and bill arrived….It was over $160.

Now we are both happy, and neither of us can give the other a hard time about spending a bunch of money on silly things.  By the way my shoes didn’t cost as much as the apples.

new years eve celebration

If my New Years resolution was to blog more I have already failed.  Before I even realized it January is gone.  In Elim the best part of Christmas break is celebrating New Years.  Everyone goes outside and shoots their guns in the year.  I think someone said you are shooting away the old year…I just like shooting my guns in the air.  Here I am walking around with the 12 gauge, trying to find a safe place to shoot.

Whats even more irresponsible and fun then shooting guns in the air?  Starting things on fire.  After shooting a box of slugs, I quickly put the gun inside and grabbed the Christmas Tree and the lighter.  The problem was even though the tree was dry and dead, it didn’t start on fire as fast as I wanted it to.  I did the next least responsible thing…grabbed a cup of gas.  This ‘helped’ my tree start on fire.  Here are several pictures Dianna took while standing pretty far back…mumbling something about an idiot burning down the house…not exactly sure who she was talking about.

And the Christmas tree is now just a black stick, stuck in the snow bank.  Oh yeah and the house is still standing!

christmas in the shop

The 1st week of Christmas break Dianna decided to head home, so I had plenty of time to spend working on my snowmachine in the shop.  It wasn’t running properly so I thought maybe I had a little water in the gas tank.  Thinking this was going t be a quick easy fix.  I took my machine into the shop to thaw out, went back the next day and with the help of Carl, realized that its wasn’t water in the tank one of my cylinders wasn’t keeping any compression.

Before I knew it we had everything disconnected and the head off looking at the problem.  One of my pistons was bad.  The following day I ordered pistons and all the little expensive parts that go with them.

one of my new pistons

After spending a couple 10 hours days in the shop putting everything back and then taking it apart again and again.  I finally had replaced my pistons, and had my machine running again.  Not only did I learn how to take my machine apart, I learned how it works, the names of things, and some preventative maintenance tips so I can limit problems in the future.

Here is my engine all taken apart.  Not only do I know where things go I now know the names of most of these things.

stow away

After 2 days of hiding underneath the house, the missing puppy was found.  This little puppy made friends with Miles and then used him to stand guard for him.  Every time someone would go looking for the little puppy he would run underneath the house and hide.  Then when they would leave and no one was around he would come out and play with Miles.  I finally spotted him while looking out the window.  It took 25 minutes and some left over sausage to finally draw him out.  Good thing Dianna wasn’t around cause he was cute enough, Dianna would have wanted to keep him.

christmas tree hunting

Yesterday our class ventured out in the woods to get the perfect tree.  On our way out to the the snowmachine the principal caught us.  I was pretty sure I was in trouble, but instead he asked us to get one for the kindergarteners, and one for the lobby.  All 10 kids loaded up into the metal sled and off we went.  We did find 2 good trees and one perfect one.  The perfect one is sitting nicely in our class room.

We stopped often so the kids could go wander in and out of the trees.  After a while I would whistle and they would all come back to the snowmachine and report their findings.

We found one.  Here are 2 of the kids gently caring it back to the sled making sure they don’t break off any of the branches.  Loaded and ready to go.  All 10 kids and the tree.

christmas presents by mail

I thought this year staying in AK would make for a very relaxing holiday season.  I didn’t take into affect that I would have to spend 4 hours in a Fred Meyers in Oct. getting all my presents bought.  Once I got them back to Elim I had to find boxes to ship them in.  I don’t think Mattel understands how hard it is to find a box that you can fit a Barbie bedroom set in.  My niece better appreciate it

I used enough duct tape the box should get there, unless the obnoxious noise making cars start to go off while in transportation…I’m not exactly sure what they would do then.

Merry Christmas!

miles

When the holiday season rolls in it always seems to bring a lot of chaos with it.  There is Christmas programs to practice for, Christmas craft shows to get ready for, finishing up odds and ends in the classroom before kids take a 2 week mental vacation and forget everything you have spent the last 4 months teaching them, and chopping enough wood to keep the house warm…included in this is trying not to get the snowmachine stuck, or have it break down, and keeping all limbs out of the way of falling trees and chainsaws.

Here are some randoms pics of the Miles.

Here is Miles after our first snowfall.  He was very excited and loves playing in the snow.  The second one is Miles chained up.  Its a little confusing, he tells me he likes being an outside dog, but Dianna says that he tells her that he wants to be an inside dog.  As of Now he still sleeps outside.

Here is Miles laying calmly on the rug playing with his ball…this almost never happens.  Then he picks it and starts running circles around the kitchen table and up and down the hallway… this is usually what Miles does when in the house…exactly why he is an outside dog.

When no one gives Miles attention he resorts to lying on his back and playing with his ball by himself…while doing this he continues to look at us periodically until he catches our eyes then jumps up and starts running again.

little bit of everything

I don’t think there are to many places in the world where you see both 4-wheelers and snowmachines zipping around at the same time.  We now have about 2 feet of snow and most of the roads in Elim are packed enough that you can cruise around on 4-wheelers but if you want to go out in the country you need to be using your snowmachine.

Over Thanksgiving break I only had a couple of things to do.  One was to build a wood sled.  This doesn’t seem like a difficult task, but every time I try to build something it seems to turn into a week long project with many frustrations and having to redo everything several times. This time it went relatively quick and I didn’t have to redo anything.

The real nice thing about the sled is that except for the 2×10x10s everything was scrap that I had laying around.  The 2×4s were taking up space in the house.  The plastic runners and bridle came from an old sled that was being tossed out.  Most of the bolts and nuts I had laying around…I did have to buy a couple nuts and bolts, but I already had most of them.

After it was built I took it out to see if it would fall apart, but was happily surprised that it didn’t and it sits almost perfectly in the tracks of the skis of my snowmachine…next test, see if it can carry a load of wood.

gasoline not diesel

This fall was a quiet one.  I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out why Dianna’s four-wheeler quit running.  After trouble shooting it by myself and getting no where Dianna made me call people around Elim for help.  One after another people would come over and try this and that and the four wheeler still wouldn’t work.  Finally I broke down and bought the Clymber manual (800 pages of very detailed info) for it.

I was after 6 weeks of trying every possible thing I was finally ready to spend the $1500 to send it in to a Polaris mechanic.  When we called them they said try changing the fuel filter, before sending it in.  I drained the tank and changed the fuel filter and then had CO (John’s brother-in-law from Brevig Mission) look at it.  He came over and it started right up.  He then asked if I was sure the four wheeler had gas or if maybe by accident it had been filled with diesel.  Sure enough the last time it was filled up someone grabbed the wrong can and instead of gas they filled it with diesel.  24 hours later I had the four wheeler put back together and running.

See both cans look alike…I guess I learned 1. four wheelers don’t run on diesel.  2. Label your cans and don’t leave them next to each other.  3.  I learned a lot about four wheelers…so next time I know a little more about what I am doing when it breaks down.