The second is of just Kathlene and Sandra in front of their house.
The third is of Molly and Vince. . .This is the view from Kathlene and Sandra's house. You can see the frozen river and Ketok (Koliganek) Mountain.
Friday, May 2, 2008
LE4K Traveler Pics
The first is of Molly and I with Katlene (left) and Sandra (right) in front of their house.
The second is of just Kathlene and Sandra in front of their house.
The third is of Molly and Vince. . .This is the view from Kathlene and Sandra's house. You can see the frozen river and Ketok (Koliganek) Mountain.
The second is of just Kathlene and Sandra in front of their house.
The third is of Molly and Vince. . .This is the view from Kathlene and Sandra's house. You can see the frozen river and Ketok (Koliganek) Mountain.
Life Experience for Kids Donations
We can now accept credit card donations!! Well, in 3-5 business days anyway. Thank you to Ann U. for pushing me into looking for a way to do this. Turns out it is much simpler than I expected. I can now accept PayPal! In a few days I will add a link here and the LE4K website for your donating pleasure! Then there can be no excuses for why you can't send me the ten dollars you owe (see Life Experience for Kids posting below)!! Although, we will be charged about 3% of each donation so checks are still slightly better, but this will make things much easier.
Also related to donations, we would like to get two digital cameras to give to the girls who will be traveling this summer. Nobody in their family has a camera and we would like for them to be able to document the trip. Anyway, I thought this would be a great way for somebody to donate. . .Especially if you have a connection that could get you a discount on a camera.
Also related to donations, we would like to get two digital cameras to give to the girls who will be traveling this summer. Nobody in their family has a camera and we would like for them to be able to document the trip. Anyway, I thought this would be a great way for somebody to donate. . .Especially if you have a connection that could get you a discount on a camera.
Nearing the End
It i very exciting that we have only two weeks left of school, but that means that we will be very busy because there is a lot to do in the next two weeks. We've also been extremely busy over the past few weeks again because the end of the year is fast approaching.
Three weeks ago we started Friday clubs. Each teacher came up with a fun, hands on project based club and students signed up for the club of their choice. We meet for the last two hours every Friday until school is out. I am running "The Racers." We build things to race like CO2 cars and gliders. Molly has a movie making club and her kids are making music videos. It is a lot of fun to work with a different set of kids for this time. . .I have nine kids between 4th and 12th grades. It's also nice because the kids in each club are really excited to be there. Although, it makes for very long Fridays.
We held an Education Fair yesterday. My science classes displayed their science projects and gave demonstrations for the younger kids. Things like poking a skewer through a balloon without popping the balloon, a simple machine catapult, etc. Molly's art classes displayed their paintings and self portrait drawings. And all the other classes displayed some of their work as well. I had judges come in and judge various projects and we will be giving out awards next week. It turned out well and I think the kids got a lot out of it.
In the next two weeks we have only two regular school days. The other eight days have something going on where we get out early or do not have certain classes. CRAZY!! AHH!! At least the time should go by quickly!
The last thing I wanted to mention was our messed up weather. We are still below freezing most of the time and the river only has a little bit of overflow flowing. Last year, The river was flowing with a lot of ice chunks in the beginning of April. Hopefully we thaw out soon. All the kids are ancy to get out hunting ducks and geese. A few high school boys pushed their skiff across the ice to the overflow water, crossed the river, and hiked to an open creek where ducks and geese have been accumulating since they have no where else to go.
The very last thing! I bought a brown bear tag yesterday! Hopefully I can find a bear in the next couple weeks since it will be my last chance to ever shoot a brown bear. It's illegal to hunt without a guide if you are a non resident and guides cost upwards of $15000 for bears. Basically, I am never going to want to pay that much to come up and hunt bears. I don't plan on really hunting for bears, but at least if I see a bear this spring while fishing or camping I can shoot it legally.
Three weeks ago we started Friday clubs. Each teacher came up with a fun, hands on project based club and students signed up for the club of their choice. We meet for the last two hours every Friday until school is out. I am running "The Racers." We build things to race like CO2 cars and gliders. Molly has a movie making club and her kids are making music videos. It is a lot of fun to work with a different set of kids for this time. . .I have nine kids between 4th and 12th grades. It's also nice because the kids in each club are really excited to be there. Although, it makes for very long Fridays.
We held an Education Fair yesterday. My science classes displayed their science projects and gave demonstrations for the younger kids. Things like poking a skewer through a balloon without popping the balloon, a simple machine catapult, etc. Molly's art classes displayed their paintings and self portrait drawings. And all the other classes displayed some of their work as well. I had judges come in and judge various projects and we will be giving out awards next week. It turned out well and I think the kids got a lot out of it.
In the next two weeks we have only two regular school days. The other eight days have something going on where we get out early or do not have certain classes. CRAZY!! AHH!! At least the time should go by quickly!
The last thing I wanted to mention was our messed up weather. We are still below freezing most of the time and the river only has a little bit of overflow flowing. Last year, The river was flowing with a lot of ice chunks in the beginning of April. Hopefully we thaw out soon. All the kids are ancy to get out hunting ducks and geese. A few high school boys pushed their skiff across the ice to the overflow water, crossed the river, and hiked to an open creek where ducks and geese have been accumulating since they have no where else to go.
The very last thing! I bought a brown bear tag yesterday! Hopefully I can find a bear in the next couple weeks since it will be my last chance to ever shoot a brown bear. It's illegal to hunt without a guide if you are a non resident and guides cost upwards of $15000 for bears. Basically, I am never going to want to pay that much to come up and hunt bears. I don't plan on really hunting for bears, but at least if I see a bear this spring while fishing or camping I can shoot it legally.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Life Experience for Kids
There are a lot of misconceptions about the world around us that many of our students have and we are always surprised when we uncover them. Things like how long the longest road is (yes, you can drive across the entire country if you want) and how big a "big" city actually is. We often tell stories from our own experiences and only to realize that many students have never experienced the things we took for granted like water parks, road trips, museums, cities, farms, etc. On the other hand, many students in the lower 48 have not experienced life in a very, very rural location.
Anyway, one day in February Molly and I were talking about a couple students of ours who have only briefly been somewhere other than a village. How fun would it be if they could visit us in Wisconsin and we could take them to water parks, malls, restaurants, museums, farms, cities, etc.! As expensive as it is to travel from here to there we would have to do a lot of fundraising for this trip and it would be great to do something similar every summer for deserving students so maybe we should start a non-profit organization. So we did!
We started an orgaization called Life Experience for Kids, LE4K for short. We will be piloting the program bringing a few students from Koliganek to the midwest this summer. As long as that trip goes well we are hoping to continue raising money all year to run a similar program the next summer and start smaller local projects that all provide experiences for deserving students, helping to develop self confidence, leadership, cultural awareness, and many other life skills.
Now the really important part. If you are reading this, you owe LE4K $10. Since we only have a few months to fundraise, there is a lot of work to be done. We estimate that it will cost at least $5,000 to bring two students to the midwest for two-three weeks this summer. That includes airfare, admission fees, gas, food, hotel, and spending money. Airfare alone will cost over $2400! That is why YOU owe LE4K at least $10. We just need 500 people to donate $10 and we're set! Every little bit helps! We are also writing letters to businesses in the area so hopefully we can scrounge up enough to keep ourselves out of debt.
Visit our website for more information and where to send your donations at:
www.lifeexperienceforkids.org
Just copy and paste the address into your browser. Keep in mind that we are just starting out and our website is under construction. . .Suggestions would be great!
Anyway, one day in February Molly and I were talking about a couple students of ours who have only briefly been somewhere other than a village. How fun would it be if they could visit us in Wisconsin and we could take them to water parks, malls, restaurants, museums, farms, cities, etc.! As expensive as it is to travel from here to there we would have to do a lot of fundraising for this trip and it would be great to do something similar every summer for deserving students so maybe we should start a non-profit organization. So we did!
We started an orgaization called Life Experience for Kids, LE4K for short. We will be piloting the program bringing a few students from Koliganek to the midwest this summer. As long as that trip goes well we are hoping to continue raising money all year to run a similar program the next summer and start smaller local projects that all provide experiences for deserving students, helping to develop self confidence, leadership, cultural awareness, and many other life skills.
Now the really important part. If you are reading this, you owe LE4K $10. Since we only have a few months to fundraise, there is a lot of work to be done. We estimate that it will cost at least $5,000 to bring two students to the midwest for two-three weeks this summer. That includes airfare, admission fees, gas, food, hotel, and spending money. Airfare alone will cost over $2400! That is why YOU owe LE4K at least $10. We just need 500 people to donate $10 and we're set! Every little bit helps! We are also writing letters to businesses in the area so hopefully we can scrounge up enough to keep ourselves out of debt.
Visit our website for more information and where to send your donations at:
www.lifeexperienceforkids.org
Just copy and paste the address into your browser. Keep in mind that we are just starting out and our website is under construction. . .Suggestions would be great!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Pictures
I just added a whole bunch of pictures to our snapfish page. I added a Christmas album and a Winter 2008 album. The Christmas album has. . .you guessed it. . .Christmas pictures!! And the Winter album has a whole bunch of different pictures of winter camping and trapping stuff. Check it out!
One Big Wolverine!
This is the largest wolverine I have seen or caught. . .and he is very pretty as well! I might have this one mounted, but we'll see.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Back to Wisconsin
It is official, we have decided that this will be our last year of teaching in Koliganek, Alaska. There are a lot of reasons on both sides of the debate, but the primary reasons we want to move are to buy a house and start a family. Those two things are on hold while we're up here, but hopefully they will be in progress in the near future. School gets out on May 16th and we will be flying back to Wisconsin on the 23rd. Then, I plan to come back to Koliganek for a couple weeks with family to catch king salmon again in July!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Moose!!
About a week and a half ago the weather finally returned to normal and we have been in the teens or lower making the traveling for trapping and hunting better and better. Ron and I were going to go out on our trap-line Saturday morning and try to make to a cabin about twenty miles away where we would spend the night and return on Sunday. However, our trip was cut a bit short.
We had our sleds all loaded up with traps and gear when we finally left around 11am. We were about a half mile past the dump when I saw a bull moose standing in the trees about 75 yards away. I stopped and pulled my rifle over my head and looked at him through the scope. It takes a lot of effort to get the rifle sling over my head when I am all bundled up like I was. I expected the moose to move into the trees and I wouldn't have cared because we had big trapping plans for the weekend that would be ruined if I shot him.
Well, he didn't move into the trees and I knew he was a decent bull so I lined up and pulled the trigger. . .Nothing happened, so I tried again. Nothing happened. I looked down and apparently I didn't get the safety off so I fumbled with it for a bit, took aim and . . .nothing. I thought I was carrying a loaded gun, but apparently not! I put a shell into the chamber, pulled up and "click!" I pumped a new shell in, pulled up and "BANG!" I think I missed because I was rushing and by this point I was going crazy! I took a bit more time for the second shot, pulled the trigger, and "click!" Again, I pumped another shell, my last one, into the chamber. . . .The moose was gone.
Just kidding! He was hiding behind a tree. I could see his head and neck so I tried to put one through his head to knock him down, but he just stood there after I shot. My gun was empty and my extra shells were three layers down in a pocket. I frantically dug until I found a shell. I loaded it, pulled up. . .I took my time and leaned on my snow-go handle bars. . ."BANG." He just stood there! So I did some more digging, found another shell, loaded it, and . . . He looked hurt so I paused for a second, then he laid down. I got him!!
This all lasted for about 10 minutes of me shooting, digging for shells, waiting for him to show himself, all the while our snow-goes were still running. Ron said that he would have passed this bull up because of our trapping plans, but there is no way I was going to pass up an opportunity at a nice bull. In a way I hope we don't see another bull moose this December, but Ron still has a tag so I guess I would settle for seeing one just a bit smaller!!
My moose measured 53 inches wide, which I think is pretty good. Ron said that he thinks it is an older bull, which I think is also good. I guess I would say that I am happy.
Ron went to get Mike to help us haul out the meat and I began butchering. One of my students came by and helped while I waited for Ron to get back. It took us a couple hours, but when we were done there was nothing left but a few organs and the back bone. I skinned out the head and hung it at the dump for the birds to clean it up. Now comes the real fun. . .Cutting up hundreds of pounds of meat ready for the dinner table!
There are a lot of pictures of my moose added to our pictures site if you would like to see more.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Bad Weather
The weather and I have not been getting along this month. We had almost a foot of snow early, but then it all melted away in a short warm spell with rain. A week and a half later we started getting cold and got more snow. Little by little we made it up to another foot or so with snow falling and melting a little here and there. Then we had a week where it began staying below 32 all day and things where freezing up nicely. Ron and I went out and were setting traps for wolves and wolverines. We still needed more snow, but at least we were staying cold.
Then a few days ago, the temperature spiked up again and almost all of our snow has melted. The river, which was near freezing, is now flowing freely again and it's not looking to get cold until early next week. I can't even get out to check traps with my snow-go anymore. Everyone says that last year the river was already froze over by now and that this is a very unusual winter we are having.
I can't wait until we get some real cold weather so I can get out and do some trapping.
Then a few days ago, the temperature spiked up again and almost all of our snow has melted. The river, which was near freezing, is now flowing freely again and it's not looking to get cold until early next week. I can't even get out to check traps with my snow-go anymore. Everyone says that last year the river was already froze over by now and that this is a very unusual winter we are having.
I can't wait until we get some real cold weather so I can get out and do some trapping.
Congratulations to our Volleyball Girls!!
We hosted the district volleyball tournament here at Koliganek. It was fun, but it made for a very busy weekend with teams flying in and getting ready to play. Koliganek took first place in the district and is now in Unalaska for the Regional Volleyball Tournament. The top three teams form that tournament will go on to play at the state tournament next week. I have a good feeling that we will make it to state. The only problem is that the high school is very small while they are gone.
Seven of our 23 high schoolers left on Tuesday to go to the regional tournament and the won't be back until Sunday. If they make it to state, they will leave again some time next week (Wednesday maybe). Because the PFD checks have come out we are also missing several students who are taking trips to Anchorage or Dillingham. It's really hard to get much done in class when more than half of the students are gone. The nice part is that because Molly and I are the only high school teachers, we combined our first and second hour classes so we each have one class period off every day this week. Flexibility is great!
Seven of our 23 high schoolers left on Tuesday to go to the regional tournament and the won't be back until Sunday. If they make it to state, they will leave again some time next week (Wednesday maybe). Because the PFD checks have come out we are also missing several students who are taking trips to Anchorage or Dillingham. It's really hard to get much done in class when more than half of the students are gone. The nice part is that because Molly and I are the only high school teachers, we combined our first and second hour classes so we each have one class period off every day this week. Flexibility is great!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Crazy Week - Halloween/Sports/Snow
This week has been nuts! Monday was the only normal day we had. Tuesday we began planning the haunted basement, Wednesday we decorated and ran the haunted basement, Thursday it snowed and we finished watching a movie we had started on Wednesday, and on Friday the sports teams are leaving to go play. Because we have to fly to other schools, our teams sometimes leave as early as 10:45 am.
Right now we are in wrestling and volleyball season. There are 9 volleyball girls and 6 wrestlers. That means that every Friday when they are traveling we lose 15 of our 24 high school students. There are always a couple students gone, so we are usually left with maybe 7 students! It's not always that bad because most Fridays we try to schedule one team to come to our school and one of our teams goes to another school. However, lately it seems like both teams have been leaving to play in tournaments which last for a few days. I can hardly remember the last time I had afternoon classes!
It has snowed several times in the past few weeks, but has not amounted to much because it continues to melt. Yesterday it snowed all day and we have a solid 4 inches, maybe more. The kids, and myself, were so excited about the snow and when we heard snow-goes outside they all went nuts! A bunch of kids left at lunch and didn't come back because they wanted to go ride around. After school it seemed like everyone was out riding around, including myself. It's supposed to be warmer over the next few days, so we'll see if this snow stays or melts. Hopefully it stays and we can add more to it because it is not enough to go anywhere exciting.
Right now we are in wrestling and volleyball season. There are 9 volleyball girls and 6 wrestlers. That means that every Friday when they are traveling we lose 15 of our 24 high school students. There are always a couple students gone, so we are usually left with maybe 7 students! It's not always that bad because most Fridays we try to schedule one team to come to our school and one of our teams goes to another school. However, lately it seems like both teams have been leaving to play in tournaments which last for a few days. I can hardly remember the last time I had afternoon classes!
It has snowed several times in the past few weeks, but has not amounted to much because it continues to melt. Yesterday it snowed all day and we have a solid 4 inches, maybe more. The kids, and myself, were so excited about the snow and when we heard snow-goes outside they all went nuts! A bunch of kids left at lunch and didn't come back because they wanted to go ride around. After school it seemed like everyone was out riding around, including myself. It's supposed to be warmer over the next few days, so we'll see if this snow stays or melts. Hopefully it stays and we can add more to it because it is not enough to go anywhere exciting.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Haunted Basement
On Tuesday, the day before Halloween, Molly, the high school, and I decided to have a haunted house in the school. We began planning that afternoon. The next morning we began rearranging and decorating the basement of our school. We decorated four classrooms and the entire hallway with spider webs, bats, spiders, streamers, and a lot of black paper. By the end it was a pitch black maze of terror! We announced on the radio for the community to come up it they'd like and had the two elementary classes come walk through. It was a blast! We did send a bunch of little kids out the entrance crying because it was too scary, but most enjoyed it. The best part was when it ended and all the students started cleaning up right away. They had all the classes back to normal in a matter of minutes! Not a lot of academics on Halloween, but a lot of good teamwork.
Trick-or-Treat
We saw almost all of our students out trick-or-treating and most came by twice. Molly and I were talking about how it is funny to think about us trick-or-treating when we were little because we would plan out how we could get to as many houses as possible in a night. Here, it doesn't matter because everyone can get to everyone else's house in 20 minutes! Molly dressed up as me and I dressed up as her to go trick-or-treating at our neighbors house, but I changed out of my costume right away after that. Her clothes were a little too tight. Hopefully, I'll get th pictures put on this weekend.
Trick-or-Treat
We saw almost all of our students out trick-or-treating and most came by twice. Molly and I were talking about how it is funny to think about us trick-or-treating when we were little because we would plan out how we could get to as many houses as possible in a night. Here, it doesn't matter because everyone can get to everyone else's house in 20 minutes! Molly dressed up as me and I dressed up as her to go trick-or-treating at our neighbors house, but I changed out of my costume right away after that. Her clothes were a little too tight. Hopefully, I'll get th pictures put on this weekend.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Congratulations Tim and Beth
Tim and Beth were married on October 13th and being that I am such a nice brother, I flew to Wisconsin for a week to be there for this. Of course it was a lot of fun to visit with friends and family and I was sad to come back to Koliganek. If I hadn't come back Anuska (my sub) would have killed me so I guess it is better that I'm back! That said, it is nice to be back into my regular flow of craziness. . .school, sports, water/power outages, weather. . .
I also got to see their new baby Della!!! And hold her!! And feed her!! And pretty much hog her to myself because I was only there for a week! She's very cute.
I also got to see their new baby Della!!! And hold her!! And feed her!! And pretty much hog her to myself because I was only there for a week! She's very cute.
Vince
For those that did not know, Vince was hit by a four wheeler in September?? I was moose hunting for the weekend and Molly was with Vince when it happened. He had broken his leg so Molly flew to Dillingham with him and put him on a plane to Anchorage. In Anchorage a vet picked him up and did surgery to remove the bone fragments and insert a new ball joint to fit in his socket. Two days later he was on his way back home and we picked him up at the airport. For the next few days he didn't move much and would hide under blankets. After that he was back to normal except he didn't use his back leg much. Now he is using it almost like the accident never happened. It's not fair, my dog got to go to Anchorage and I didn't!!
Our once free dog has become one of our most expensive possessions!! It wasn't as bad as it seems because we have had to fly him to Dillingham anyway to be neutered and get some shots, but he had all this done in Anchorage.
Our once free dog has become one of our most expensive possessions!! It wasn't as bad as it seems because we have had to fly him to Dillingham anyway to be neutered and get some shots, but he had all this done in Anchorage.
Molly in Juneau
I had to fly home after Tech Camp, but Molly flew to Dillingham, to Anchorage, to ???, to ???, and to Juneau. She is in a program taking a set of math classes to get her math certification. She'll have to tell more, but she went to Juneau for these classes and it sounds like she had a great time learning and getting free stuff! She was supposed to come back yesterday, but was weathered in in Dillingham so hopefully she will be back today.
Only two planes came in yesterday and they were filled with our volleyball girls and wrestling boys coming back from tournaments. They told me that they were flying really low and could still only barely see the ground because of the fog. Scary!
Only two planes came in yesterday and they were filled with our volleyball girls and wrestling boys coming back from tournaments. They told me that they were flying really low and could still only barely see the ground because of the fog. Scary!
Tech Camp
Last week Molly and I went to New Stuyahok with the entire high school for two nights for a technology camp. We flew there on Sunday and went to different technology sessions during the school days on Monday and Tuesday. We learned about podcasting, web design, book making, and photography. The sessions were great and we learned a lot. However, the evenings were not so much fun.
We slept in three classrooms in the school which was ok, but we had to pack everything up each morning before classes could begin. This wouldn't have been too bad, but it is very hard to get all the high schoolers to go to sleep by. . . ever! In the future I hope we have our own tech camp at our school because this was a bit of an overload for Molly and I.
We slept in three classrooms in the school which was ok, but we had to pack everything up each morning before classes could begin. This wouldn't have been too bad, but it is very hard to get all the high schoolers to go to sleep by. . . ever! In the future I hope we have our own tech camp at our school because this was a bit of an overload for Molly and I.
2007-2008 School Year
School has been cruising along since mid-August now and we just finished the first quarter. It's a little different from last year because the middle schoolers stay together all day with one teacher and the high schoolers switch between Molly and I. It's funny to think about the fact that Molly and I are the only high school teachers. It's really nice on days when we want to rearrange the schedule because we don't have to worry about anyone but ourselves.
All in all there are 24 high school students that we share. I teach physical science, government, algebra 2, health, and keyboarding. Molly teaches English (1,2,3,+4), art, pre-algebra, algebra, and Russian. It's enough to keep us busy.
All in all there are 24 high school students that we share. I teach physical science, government, algebra 2, health, and keyboarding. Molly teaches English (1,2,3,+4), art, pre-algebra, algebra, and Russian. It's enough to keep us busy.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Caribou
The day before I shot my moose, we saw a heard of about 20 caribou crossing Cranberry Creek. As the ran up on to the shore I shot this small caribou from about 3 yards away. It was really neat to see the caribou so close, but it isn't exactly what I imagined when I though of shooting a caribou. The picture shows Ron's son Conner who was with us that day.
Moose Hunting
I was fortunate enough to get moose this fall!! He's not exactly a monster, but he sure tastes good! I got this moose in the last hour of the last day of the season. Ron was driving the skiff and I saw him up a small slough. We approached to about 75 yards before I was sure it was a bull. I lined him up in the scope, pulled th trigger, and heard a "CLICK." Crap!! I didn't have a shell in the chamber!! I frantically put a shell in and opened fire. He ran 15 yards back into the willows and I had him!!
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