The Fun Weekend

This weekend was awesome. Here I am salmon fishing wearing my extra tuffs at Rentacan. This is the salmon river where you have to drive through bear territory to get to the river and then bring a gun in case they show up.
Here I am casting into the river. The extra tuffs protect your feet and are water proof. I didn't catch anything and it was depressing. The humpies were still running and they were disgusting.
We had to learn to shoot a gun in order to go salmon fishing. Here I am with a 22 and it was very easy to figure it out. I have surprisingly good aim for someone who has never shot a gun in their life.
Here I am learning how to aim the gun and shoot a log in the water. It occurred to me that even if there was a bear that I would not be able to load and reload fast enough to save anybody. Mark's advice was to kick a friend in the head and then you could get away while they got attacked by the bear.
This is a bear print from Rentacan. They were all over the place. For a size comparison see the shoe print to the left of the bear print- that person wears a size 14 shoe, this bear was huge.
This is Megan and me with Gilda picking wine berries by the airport. The berries are tiny and hard to find so you need to look for hours to get enough to make some jam.
See Lola, my car, by the airport. The little white building is the terminal- or warming hut as it is called. There is no baggage check or anything, basically the little plane flies in and you run out with your bag and then they take off again.
Here is the Roo running around like a freak all over Mt. Dutton. We went blueberry picking and she was supposed to be our bear dog but all she did was speed around the grass like a nutter on speed.
Brianna and I pose on the lava field after our super model walk off. This field is 20 miles from Mt. Dutton and when it blew a hundred years ago it spit huge boulders all over the tundra around here.
Here is another picture of the lava rocks. They are spread in a big arc from the base of the mountain almost to the road to town. It is a huge area and they are very big. The rock in the upper left hand corner is the size of a house.
Me standing by the mouth of the hydro plant. This is where the waterfall goes over and spins electricity and water for the town. The clouds in the background roll down the mountains like water- very neat to look at.


Well that was my weekend, I had a blast and I walked all over the place. On Sunday we walked to Rams creek along the beach and had to walk barefoot through 38 degree water to get to the road. I stepped in the decomposing carcass of a salmon and then almost fell face first into the river after my feet became to numb to feel- we are the genius out here.

Jam and Fishes

Check the hot pink croc boots- they are awesome at keeping out the wet, but stink at keeping out the hurt from stepping on the rocks.

Here we are driving on the actual creek, its only a foot or so deep and you can drive out on it to get to the silvers- those are the good salmon. You catch them with your bare hands in the Aleut way- I sucked at it. As you can see- no fish in my hands.


Making jam in Meg and Bri's house. First you have to pick the berries- a pain in the butt. Then you squish them in a bowl with sugar. You boil them with the pectin and then put them in jars.

Dana and Friends.

Meg and Bri made me a cake for my birthday and they also had dinner for me too. Happy Birthday to me!

Here is the view from the T-dock, where the ferries come in. The breakwater is stopping the big waves from hitting us.

The wind was blowing so hard that it felt like you could fly away. I put my jacket out and almost fell off the dock. The town is in the background.

Rescuing a Sun Starfish from the dock. We went to the dock to see the sea lions and found this guy out on the dock with no water and he was dying, so I picked him up and threw him back in the water.

Playing Dance Dance Revolution with Megan and Bri. I rock.

Here is a view of the Cove from the road to the airport. We go there on the weekends because that is where the good berries are and the awesome bear sightings and good fish.


This is me, Megan, Bri, and Karen in the tiny plane. I sat in the back because it had its own door to escape in the event we crashed.

Pretty King Cove

This is a picture of the boardwalk heading around the main part of the bay. We have these boardwalks all around town for walking when it is muddy out. You have to watch out for the bears and wild dogs but it is a pretty walk.

This is the mountain to the south of us, it is spitting ash into the air.


Here is a sign for the primitive road- we have a couple of those and basically it means that there will be massive potholes all over and your car will be swallowed up by it.


This is a sign that is in front of our school, basically telling cars to watch out for kids on the playground and then also to look out for bears in the same area.

Rainbow over the bay. We get these rainbows at least three times a week because of the amount of moisture in the air and the clouds here.

My Classroom

Here are some pictures of my classroom. Its about 20 feet wide and 40 feet long with a ton of windows, space, and cabinets. I have two whiteboards on opposite walls and six computers- all new iMacs plus the kids have their own laptops. The kids are mostly great, actually they are all great and some are just more crazy then others- but that is what makes the classes interesting. I have a big table in the middle of the room and balance balls for the kids to sit on and we do our work in a roundtable fashion. I have a publishing class for the school newspaper and yearbook and they are great, especially the editor who is very driven to get her work done and to be a leader for the other kids. I will also attach one of our newspapers. I basically love my job, the people are nice and the kids are great. Today we have Student Council elections and I am the SC adviser so I have been listening to speeches and helping kids get prepared to speak.

The School Life

The school is great. The building is warm and dry and the rooms are big. My classes are small, only four to seven kids in each class and its super great that they want to learn or at least are compliant about it. I have three computer application classes, a publishing class, a video production class, and a business class. The students are in 7th-12th grade and all have their own laptops. This week we are having student elections for the student council and I am the adviser so there are speeches to look at and posters to monitor. My favorite one is "I'll Support You Like a Bra, Vote for B" or the one that says "Free Water, Vote for ___" over the public water fountain.

Price Check King Cove

Everyone told me that it was going to be twice to three times as expensive to buy things here as it was in Minnesota but I am still surprised by some of the stuff.

Examples:
Bag of Tositos- 2.99 Minneapolis, 9.80 King Cove
1lb of Butter, 1.99 Minneapolis, 6.35 King Cove
1/2 Gallon Milk, 1.45 Minneapolis, 5.50 King Cove
Spices of any kind are at least 7.00 here.
Tomatoes-1.99 lb Minneapolis, 7.00lb King Cove
1 Banana, 30 cents Minneapolis, 1.90 King Cove
Grapes 2lbs- 3.99 Minneapolis, 15 dollars King Cove
4lb Watermelon, 5.00 Minneapolis, 34 dollars King Cove


Suffice to say I will be putting in a SpanAlaska order or getting food in bulk. Its just that sometimes you want a snack food, fresh fruit and veggies, or juice and that is where it gets pricey.

My Apartment and View

So far school has been great and my apartment is awesome. The kids are very self-sufficient. I am not used to giving instructions and then having them just work. They understand stuff and don't ask a lot of questions so I am left with not a lot to do after the first couple of minutes. I am getting used to having free time- as for an example right now I have my 9th graders- only three of them sitting in front of me at the table and they are silently doing their research for their presentations tomorrow- total silence- its a little creepy.

Onto other stuff. Here are pictures of my apartment, the dogs frolicking in the lagoon and shots from my front porch, you can see the whole bay from there. It really is beautiful here.

Pictures and Video From the Ferry

The ferry ride from Homer to King Cove took 3 days and it was on the open water most of the way. There were tiny villages, lots of puffins, seals, and whales to see. I loved the vastness of the water and mountains and it was really neat to see all of the clouds rolling down the hills in the background. I am attaching a video of the ferry too.

It was pretty cold on the ferry and the wind blew all the time. The dogs had to stay in their cages unless we were in port and then we were either off and then on again super quick or I was stuck with them for hours and hours and they hated being on the leashes.