i am learning

After living in the bush for 2 years I have learned and experienced a lot.  One thing I have always hated though is coming home from a long day of fishing and having to clean and put away fish.  I perfer to take the 30 trout or the 85 tomcod and through them in the freezer and get to them at a later date.

A few days ago a guy from the village asked to borrow Diannas sled to go caribou hunting.  He was successful and when he returned the sled he gave us a rib cage of caribou.  After a long day of school I did not want to cut it up and deal with it so I quickly through it in the freezer before Dianna would notice.  If she saw it out she would want to cut it up and put it away that night.

I learned after putting a muskox leg bone in the freezer Dianna also doesn’t like dead animals in the freezer that aren’t wrapped or bagged.  Since I didn’t have a bag large enough for the caribou I decided it would be ok on some cardboard.

This was perfect, it was put away until a later date, and it wasn’t getting her freezer all bloody…until she reached into the freezer to get something for dinner.  To her suprise there was a rib cage of caribou, that wasn’t quite frozen yet.  She didn’t seem overly pleased that I was thinking of her as I put it on top of cardboard.

bathroom remodeling

Here is what Dianna’s shower looked like.  It had a plastic bag duct taped over the holes.  The walls were rotting, and there were some pretty crazy stains in the bathtub.  She got this great idea of buying a new tub and shower walls and then when Phil comes to visit she would go to Anchorage for the week and we could remodel her bathroom.  I don’t think she realized that when Phil and I would get stuck we would start tearing out walls.  It wasn’t long before we had several walls torn out and the old bathtub was still sitting in the bathroom.

Here is the bathroom with no shower walls, and then with no walls.  I wasn’t able to get it quite finished by the time she came home and I am not sure if she was happy she wasn’t here to deal with the mess or if she was just happy her bathroom had walls again.  The bathroom project was suppose to be a suprise for her mom when she came to visit but due to Mt. Redoubt her mom’s trip was postponed until a later date.  But the bathroom is finished now, so when company comes they have a nice looking tub and shower to use.

Here it is the finished project.

golfing on the bering sea

Phil’s last day in Alaska was spent in the glamorous town of Nome participating in Iditarod activities.  Phil joined our golfing party for 6 holes on the Bering Sea.  Each hole was considered a par 6 and I think we all pared every hole.

It doesn’t seem very tough at first, but the greens were bumpy and usually the biggest challenge was finding you ball after you hit it.  We started off with 8 balls total and after 6 holes we only returned to the clubhouse with one.

You can see by the pictures of the greens they weren’t very easy to put on and we usually ended up using our wedges even once we were on the green.

Dianna pulls back and lets the ball have it!  Well kind of, the ball only went a couple feet but at least she didn’t lose her ball.

Phil gets ready to take a swing.  Watch out Tiger there is a new golfer around.  The only problem is after a good hit, the ball is hard to find.

Here April, Phil and I all spend time looking for the ball.  Other ball lost on the Frozen Bering Sea.  I don’t think we will see the Masters play here anytime soon, but it sure was a fun way to spend an afternoon in Nome.

phil makes it to nome

I didn’t realize when I asked Phil if he wanted to snowmachine the last 100 miles to Nome, that he would drive so slow.  It took several hours on a very bumpy course but we did arrive in Nome.

Here is phil coming over a hill.   You can see the trail stakes, that is the Official Iditarod Trail.  Then he had to stop, not sure what it was this time, hands were cold, feet were cold, face was cold….it was always something.

Safety is the last checkpoint before Nome (22 miles) and also a bar in the summer and during the week of the Iditarod.  We managed to swing in and warm up for a couple minutes before making the last push into Nome.  Its one of those places where you sign a dollar and staple it to the wall.  If you ever make it safety look for the Walrus mount and you will find the Schollmeier’s dollar.

After arriving in Nome Phil decided he wanted to hang out with some locals.  He met them all.

We were able to see several mushers finish.  Here is one of them as he and his dogs run down Front street towards the finish.

After the musher came through me and Phil were able to go and get our picture under the finish line.  Even after all the crazy ride on a bush plane, the hard work, the adventures, and the long, bumpy, cold snowmachine ride to Nome he was able to manage a smile.

phil’s last day in elim

Today was Phil’s last day in Elim. Tomorrow we will make the 115 mile journey by snowmachine into Nome.  This is pretty neat because it is on the Iditarod Trail, so Phil will get a little taste of what the dogs and mushers go through on their way to the finish.  Today was pretty low key, we basically hung around Elim and did little things outside.

The temperature never did get above 0, but it came mighty close today.  Most of the time it was between -20 and -30 and thats without the wind.

Phil was complaining that I never did any work and I made him chop all the wood.  But Dianna always tells me that you always need 2 people for any job. One to do the work and one to watch what your doing and make sure you are doing it right.  Since Dianna was gone I thought I would take over her job and make sure Phil was doing things right.

All of the mushers that are racing serious have came and gone, but there are still 25 or so mushers on the trail.  Here is Phil at the Checkpoint watching Ryan Redington care for his dogs.

day 2 for phil

Today was filled with all sorts of adventures.  We started the day by replacing the belt on my snowmachine.  Phil did a great job standing and watching me do all the work.

At least I think this is Phil.  In his defense the wind was blowing less today, but with a windchill it was still below -30.  Once that was replaced the playing started.  We snowmachined for while, then stopped on top of Bald Head.

Here is Phil with Elim and the runway in the background.  After driving on the Iditarod Trail for awhile it was time to go play in the trees.  Since we were back on my wood trail  we decided to cut down some trees and then we could pick them up at a later date.  Phil seemed a little nervous to be using a chainsaw, but he quickly got the hang out it.  he knocked down four trees.

When this tree hit the ground it was one axe length away from me.  Good Job Phil exactly where we wanted it to fall.  At least thats where I wanted it to fall, maybe fill was hoping it would land a couple more feet over.  While cutting down trees we could see a herd of musk ox off in the distance.  Even with the binoculars you could barely make them out, so we jumped on our machines and tried to see how close we could get.

We found them.  They weren’t thrilled we were there, and they especially didn’t like Miles barking at them.  I told phil to walk towards them a little so I could get a picture of him with them.  He basically took one step and turned.  I think he was nervous that they would charge and I would take off running leaving him to get run over.  We ended up getting within about 30 yds before we decided it was close enough.

phil chopping wood

Yes, this was the funnest thing I have ever seen in my life.  I am sure I looked just as funny last year, but at least no one took pictures of me as proof.

Take a look for yourself.

Not sure whats going on here.  He dropped the log over his shoulder and is not even using the sharp side of the axe……hmmm good thing I have some wood already chopped, or we would freeze.

He visualizes where he wants to hit the log…

He touches the log with the right side of the axe…

Finally he swings,  but he never split the log in the first hits, it usually took him between 8-10 hits to split the log.

He wanted to have a competition to see who could split a log in the fewest hits.  In three swings I had three good pieces.  In seven hits phil had a log and a splinter.  I think he mumbled something about whose stupid idea was that and continued telling himself that he is making kindling and everyone needs A LOT of kindling.

Keep it up Phil 3 more days of chopping wood!

phil talks with lance

This morning Lance Mackey was still hanging around Elim, so I took my class down to see him and his dogs. [He has dominated this Iditrod, and the looks like this will be his 3rd straight Iditarod victory].  Of course they wanted Phil to come so we stopped by home and got him.  When we got the checkpoint Phil had many questions for Lance, but he didn’t want to bother him or get in his way.  Phil stood behind him and waited for a picture to be taken.

Phil will never forget meeting Lance.  I think they will be life long friends by the look of this picture.

This sign marks the offical Elim Checkpoint, Phil has proof he was there.

problems fixed

PROBLEM #1  Dianna’s house is small, but when you are having a conversation and some one goes into the bathroom the conversation gets put on hold until they come out.

PROBLEM #2 Dianna’s cat is getting old and doesn’t move around much.  It is a great deal of work for her cat to get off the couch, go eat food, then back to the couch, then to the bathroom.

I took it upon myself this week while Dianna was gone to fix both of these problems….

Now you can not only here what they are saying in the living room, but if they are sitting can in the blue chair you can see them.  Also the cat can eat her food and go through her ‘cat door’ into the bathroom.

Dianna probably forgot you never leave a Schollmeier with powertools, and ask them to do a small project.  Next time she will either take me with or take away my power tools.  Oh yeah Dianna asked me to change her chaincase bearings and seals in her snowmachine….hmm I guess I don’t need powertools for that one, but this was deffinately more fun!

snow, snow, and more snow

The winds have died down but the snow keeps falling.   The snow is starting to pile up so high Miles can climb on top of his dog house and up the snow pile and peek into Dianna’s kitchen window.

This afternoon I had decided to was about time to shovel the entrance to teacher’s quarters.  Here is the beautiful stair case I was able to produce out of all the snow.

Going up….                                                        Going Down!