I'm dreaming of a white... Halloween!!!

Well, it's been a little while since we've blogged, so we'e got a few updates for you.  It snowed on Tueday morning while we were at work.  It was cold enough that the 1/2 inch we got didn't melt until the next day.  The temperatures have been much colder for the last 3 weeks.  Tonight, it's 30 degrees and... snowing again!  It's been snowing now for about 3 or so hours and there's definitely a cover on the ground.  We'll see how long it stays, but it's obvious that winter is already here.  The tundra is brown again,  all the leaves on the bushes and the grass on the ground is dying for the winter.  Jeff and I both agree that it's prettiest up here when there's snow on the ground so we're excited for that.

The only part that makes me a little nervous is that it really gets soo cold up here we'll have to learn soon what people do on the coldest days to keep their pipes from freezing, etc. 

On Thursday a week ago, I was making a cake and a friend called me to ask if I'd seen a bear.  I found out later that one road up from our neighborhood, there was a bear walking down the street.  This is a rare occurence, as the mountains are about 50 miles away and they don't come this far unless they're hungry.  Apparently when this happens, they spend their time at the dump scavenging for food.  It makes me alittle nervous so when I go outside on the deck to enjoy the night, I bring a flashlight and make sure the door isn't locked, just for a quick exit!

The days are obviously shorter now.  It gets dark before 7:40 at night and doesn't get light in the morning shortly after 9:45!  We lose about 5 minutes of light every day, so the difference is very noticeable every week.  My co-workers told me that on the longest day of winter, the sun comes up as late as 10:30 in the morning and goes down as early as 4 in the afternoon.  Our shortest day will be about 5 hours long.  We're definitely making sure to up our vitamin D intake, to hopefully combat any depression that might happen because of the dark.

Beaver hunting!

Our friends Mike and Natasha invited us to go on their boat up the Kuskokwim river.  We were so excited to go and see another part of Alaska that we wouldn't have been able to see, unless we drove on the ice river in the wintertime.  (we'll see if that happens. I don't know if I have the guts!)

Anyways, it was the 4 of us, plus another of their friends and his kid, and we were all going beaver hunting!  We took off up the river and Mike occasionally took offshoots until we saw a beaver in the water.  Then Mike guided the boat around, keeping the beaver about 20 feet away in the water so the other guys could take a shot.  It took about a half hour, and multiple turn arounds and shots before the guys got it.  LOL, I was so impatient, I almost told the guys to give me the gun and let me take care of things.

Here's Jeff in the co-pilot's seat!  It was about 37 degrees that day, so by the end of the day, we were all frozen through.

 This is my friend Natasha!  We met when she asked Jeff if his wife would like going with her to a Scentsy party, which of course I was!  She's been here for (I think) a year and a half and knew what it was like to move to a place where you don't have any friends.  She was so sweet to include me in different activities and I got to meet alot of new people thanks to her! :)

 The first beaver the guys sighted!

 The guys are preparing for the hunt...

 After they got the beaver, I had to hold it up because I'd never seen one so close-up before.

 The river

 We couldn't figure out if these were swans or geese, but other than the beaver, that was all the wildlife we saw, which was kind of disappointing. Natasha said sometimes you'll see moose and bears.  Maybe next summer we'll go camping with them and see more wildlife.

 This cross was on a hillside by the river.

 We also saw a bunch of fishcamps!  They are basically barebone homes where native people go in the summertime to catch fish for subsistence living. 

 On our way back to Bethel, we went through the ship graveyard.  Floating through these ships and boats made me sad; it felt like a ghost town.  It seems to be pretty normal up here though, to leave something where it dies.  There are so many cars just sitting in people's driveways, that have obviously been sitting there for years.  Our next door neighbor has a tow truck that looks like it's from the 40's or 50's sitting among his other stuff in his driveway.

 And here's the port in Bethel again!  At this point, we were grateful to be back because we were all so cold!