Winter's here!

This morning, we only had about a half inch of snow on the ground.  The weather had turned too fast when winter officially came, so we got a tiny bit of snow, but alot of ice, and then just really cold weather.  On the ground, there is about a solid inch of ice on the ground.  It sure makes walking treacherous, we had to buy some cleats after I slipped on the ice, landed on my behind and smacked the back of my head into a curb!  I'm fine though.

Well, today, the weather people were predicting a blizzard; 1-4 inches of snow! The storm came in around 1 with some icy cold wind, and then around 2 the snow started.  By 5, we had nearly two inches of snow, and can barely see our neighbors house.  It's great!
  
Unfortunately no pictures today.

Winter travel in Alaska

One of the things that would only happen in Alaska:

When people travel by small plane up here in the winter, they're required to wear all of their winter clothes (snow pants, heavy coat, hats, gloves, etc.) in case of a plane crash, so that they have a chance at surviving in the extreme cold.  When Jeff flew out to the village on his first trip, he was fully clothed for winter just in case.  High school sports teams often travel from village to village for games, and are required to do the same.

Now, the river is frozen enough that people are driving on it, but there are still alot of good sized holes, so they have to drive carefully to avoid them.

We have a lake here called H Marker lake, which when frozen in the winter time, makes the road system in Bethel an actual loop instead of a horseshoe shape.  The other day, I took a taxi to church and the driver had to go over the lake to drop someone else off first.  It threw the three of us passengers for a bit of a loop when he veered off the "road" and did some donuts on the ice!  So then later Jeff and I had to do it too!  We're not the only ones; we have a good view of the lake from the house and often see people do the same thing.  I've never done donuts before, anywhere, so it was alot of fun!

Winter is definitely here!

Well, winter is definitely here, as the current temperature is 2 degrees with a real feel of -29.  And it's only November!  We've all shifted into the winter jackets and long underwear and gloves.  The unfortunate part is that the amount of snow on the ground is such a small amount, I'm not sure it can actually be measured.  :/  Everyone is hoping that it "warms up" soon, so that we get more snow.

Last weekend, we had freezing rain and by Wednesday, everything was soo slick!  We hadn't gotten our winter tires on yet (had an appt on Saturday) so driving was treacherous.  By then, the ice over EVERYTHING looked to be about 1/2 an inch thick.  It's very dangerous.  School was cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday because it was so bad.  There were two school buses that had slid off of the road and on the way to work, we passed a couple of taxi's off the road too.

Our driveway has a slight hill in the middle of it and it's slightly crooked, and on Wednesday morning, we couldn't get the car to go over the hill because it kept on sliding so badly.  Even worse, we have a fairly large ditch on the other side of the driveway that's filled with about 3 feet of water (probably all ice right now), and every time the car started sliding on our crooked driveway, it was toward the ditch.  We ended up taking a taxi to work that day and Friday and by Friday night, we were able to drive the car around the house where it was flat, so that we could get it to the appointment today to get the tired changed out.

When I left work that evening, I slipped on the ice landing on my back and my head smacked into the curb, so Jeff decided that I was too much of a klutz not to have cleats on my shoes.  So we invested in two pairs which helps get traction.  It's not so bad now. (Oh, and I'm fine thanks.)

Perspective?

Interesting!

Gas prices

Last week, a rumor was going around that gas prices were going to go up. So we filled up our car, and while there, saw a man filling up 6 gas tanks in his car.  This week, gas went up $0.55 per gallon.  And if you don't believe me, here's a current picture:

A friend's story

A couple of weeks ago, we posted about the river flooding, and being extra dangerous and rough.  On the Monday following, one of my native friends from when I (Laura) started working up here was missing.  He had gone hunting and was supposed to be back on that Sunday night, but Monday came and he wasn't back.  From what I understood, Search and Rescue was being planned.  After he got back safe and sound, I found out what had happened over email, and it sounded interesting and scary so I thought I'd share it.

B's story:
ME: What happened to you? We were all worried!

B: Oh just drove on the Kwethluk river(all day, from early AM to late PM) half way to Anchorage. Looking for Caribou(we seen some but were just too far in the distance, we seen large moose, male & females’ large eagles’(different kinds’)no bears’ though, seen huge boulders in the river(some areas of the river were shallow & swift(river is really loud up there in the mountains, seen a lot of snow top mountains, heard wolves’ howling & yelping in the night, we only had one good  day(when we went up)& the rest of the days were nothing but rain(off/on, constant at times)& heavy fog  on the last day. There is a different kind of tundra up there where by the mountains are, in some areas there was rocks under the tundra, the black berries have lots of flavor compared to our blackberries here, there was a lot of blue berries up there that turned bad from the cold weather. Would like to go back up there & look for a black bear if I could the that’s just a thought.

ME: So were you lost, or just stayed out a little longer than planned?

B: No was not lost just stayed out longer than expected, wanted to come home Sunday evening, but my guide thought that it was too risky to travel in dangerous waters when wearing glasses’ when its raining, he didn’t want to hit rocks or sweepers. So we left the next morning when daylight rose, but our visual was obscured by thick fog, so we drove slowly down the river, going w/the current  

ME: Wow, sounds crazy!  Good idea not to travel though if it was that rough.  Sounds very dangerous!

B: The water is high, but not high enough to where I would like to go, I’d need like almost a drum of gas to go where I wanna go, wanna donate!! For a good cause!! & if so give me your camera or camcorder & I’ll record my event for you so you can see how it is way up there, it sounds like a plan…


 Wish it looked like this right now!  I'm tired of blowing the tundra out of my nose!!!

Flooding, not near us thankfully!

Stormy weather is blowing up here.  It's been pouring like crazy for days, and windy as heck!  High water mixed with the storm surges from the coast is causing flooding  in many low lying areas.  Jeff and I drove down to the river on Friday, and the water was within two feet from the top of the wall.  It was much higher than usual, muddy and extremely choppy.  I couldn't believe that people were still going out in their small boats, but I think they were trying to get out before it got worse.  Seems dangerously risky.

When the river rises, "puddles" around the tundra rise as well.  It's fascinating how the water levels correct to stay about the same.



Here are some pictures.  This area is called "Alligator Acres".  It's very run-down and worn out looking, and the lowest area in Bethel.  If there is flooding, it's always there first.

Did I mention it's still September?!?

We had snow flurries several times today!  I'm so excited for winter!  Tonight, it snowed pretty heavily for about 5 minutes.  It melted off of course, but it's going to start happening more often and pretty soon, there will be snow on the ground again! YAY!

You can kind of see the snow here. :)

Summer's over!

Today's September 21, and the last day of September.  We really don't have fall up here, so we're quickly sliding into winter!  The weather people are already predicting snow showers next Friday (one week from today).  It sounds about right, because we did get a light snow last year at the beginning of October.  It didn't stick, but it was definitely there.

Last year, it was interesting when we had our first snows.  At the hospital, the lobby has a large area of windows and a lot of people, natives and transplants were out in the lobby, watching the snow come down, as if they had never seen it before.  It was kind of nice to see people take pleasure in something so simple!

I'm really looking forward to the snow this winter.  Everything looks so much cleaner and fresher.  No allergies or mosquitos or mosquito bites.  It's a nice time of year! :)

This is from July, when the mosquitoes really came out.  We had so many mosquitoes in the house, I was going crazy!  I woke up in the morning with these two bites on my face (one in my eyebrow) and about 8 others on me.  So I hunted mosquitoes that day with my bug zapper and killed something like 20 of them in the house that day. I'm so relieved that they're gone now that it's too cold for them!

Other things that happen in Bethel, that wouldn't happen anywhere else...

The hospital is currently under some construction.  Because of the high moisture, asbestos is a common problem.  For example, several years ago, the hospital built about 6 apartment buildings next to the hospital for employees.  Unfortunately, they discovered asbestos a few years later and now they're abandoned/condemned because of the asbestos.  So there they sit.  Empty and slowly deteriorating.

Anyways, recently they discovered asbestos in all of the inpatient wing of the hospital.  That's where patients stay when they're hospitalized.  They had to get it fixed, so they built a wall and are fixing one half of the wing.  This means that they're short of hospital beds and occasionally, they call the outpatient clinics (where we both work) and tell us they're on divert.  So that means that when we're on divert, any patients that need to be admitted end up getting medevac'd to Anchorage.

And this is only the first half!  Once that's done, they'll be switching to ther other side of the wing to get that one repaired.  So crazy!!!

The current cost of watermelon!

I just had to share this because even having lived here for a year and a half, I was still astonished!

Things that happen in Bethel, that wouldn't happen anywhere else...

Wow, it sure has been awhile since we've posted.  In the last 4 months, we've been back to Oregon for a visit, which was really great!  I wish we could've seen more family and friends, but it went by way too fast!

Our small airport is currently under construction and has been for several months.  The City of Bethel was having the airstrip resurfaced, causing a number of problems.  The project has cut the runway in half lengthwise, which makes it much harder for planes to land in high winds.  We have three flights (on Ala.ska Airl.ines) daily and lately, a number of them have either not left Anchorage at all, or left, but got to Bethel and turned back around over the town.

The other day, the morning plane was coming in, and even had their landing gear down, flew over the house and Jeff and I noticed that they were pretty high up still.  It was foggy that morning, and instead of landing, the plane kept on going and turned back to Bethel.  Poor people!  That would stink.

The project was stalled for nearly a month (leaving Bethel with only half the runway) because the building materials hadn't passed the state requirements.

There have been rumors going around town that Alas.ka Airl.ines was going to withdraw all their flights this winter because of the poor runway conditions.  However, according to DOT, the airport should be good this winter.

It will be interesting because we constantly have high winds, fog and snow in the winter; we are wondering how many flights are going to be cancelled or delayed because of this.  It should be an interesting winter!

(Just a fun little fact: Bethel airport is the 3rd busiest passenger airport in the state and the 2nd busiest cargo airport in the state.

The river break-up is almost here

This is from www.bethelsar.org which you should check out if you ever want to know what's going on up here besides on our blog. 

Friday May 10 - Tuluksak Bluffs jam turns into a monster

Like Godzilla. 

Sometime on Thursday, the miles-long Birch Creek Crossing jam between Aniak and Kalskag broke and its debris and water surge flowed quickly downriver to join the large jam at the Tuluksak Bluffs, turning it into a ham of a jam. Islands around the Bluffs disappeared under water and ice, and the countryside is now inundated with water.

Some people say the water might go going backwards (upriver), due the amount of water that can't go downriver. Water escaping nonetheless is causing water levels to rise at Tuluksak, so it's 'under the gun' now and emergency evacuations are being prepared if needed when the Hoover Dam at the Tuluksak Bluffs finally breaks free. Hopefully, there'll be few more jams before Tuluksak so it doesn't reach the village all at once.

Elsewhere, near familiar locations below the Bluffs--such as the Bogus Creek, Wise's Camp, Nelson Island, Tuluksak, Mishevik Slough, Mikey's Island, and Cauneq (just above Akiak)--the ice is either deteriorating or shifting, with leads or open-water areas.

The ice at Akiak moved about a quarter-mile downriver, as did ice just above Kuskokuak Slough, blocking the channel to Akiachak. Ice at Akiachak also moved down and is "stacking" (long pieces turned sideways). In the Kuskokuak Slough, ice moved about a quarter-mile below Wass Evan's camp, as did ice below Kwethluk.

Even the tributaries--the Tuluksak, Kisaralik, Kasigluk and Kwethluk--although free of ice, are experiencing near-flood stage high water. This won't be good news for the village of Kwethluk, which had floods in the past from its own river.

With this high water we're having, continued shifting of ice and/or jamming anywhere along the lower Kuskokwim will cause water to rise in villages from Bethel to Tuluksak. Some water rise could be sudden, as in the case of Crooked Creek last year.

From the Akiachak/Kwethluk Fork to Bethel to Napakiak and Oscarville, the ice is still intact with no apparent cracks. But it's changing from white to darker or grayer colors, meaning that water is now seeping from the bottom to the top of the ice, and is expected to begin fracturing at anytime.

It appears we're not through with winter after all!

We've had snow for the last 4 days up here.  It's been just warm enough that it mostly melts off by the end of the day, but this morning, this is what I saw out the window and there's more coming down!  Nearly all of the ground that you can see was brown last week because most of the snow has melted now.

The beginning of May

This blog should actually have been titled interesting stuff around Bethel!  We finally got our car up and running again, now that the gas line won't freeze anymore and it was so great to be able to get around on our own steam without having to pay a taxi!

The cost of fruit here is outrageous!  Apples normally cost $3-something a pound, but last week, they were on sale for $1.75 a pound so we stocked up!  The bananas were on sale too!  I was so excited I slightly overdid it, so we ended up eating alot of fruit for the next week.

 Our library and cultural center, and kind of the center of town.  This is where they have the plays, the Saturday markets, the banquet dinners, pretty much everything.

 The cost of internet here is insane!  We have the largest internet package, which costs around $100-ish a month.  However, we're limited to how many gigs we can use AND if we go over, they can charge $20 per gig up to $460.  And unfortunately, since Jeff got his kindle at Christmastime, we've gone over numerous times because it has to download and it's so frustrating because we haven't been able to completely figure it out.  We even gave up netflix trying to figure out where we were going wrong.  This picture is Jeff trying to get WIFI at the hospital! LOL

 Then we went to fill up the car and had to show everyone how much we pay for gas!  The only fortunate part is that we only drive about 5 or so miles each day to work and back.  And most of the places we might have to stop at are on the way between work and home.

 The gas storage tanks just off the river.  When the barges come in to deliver gas, this is where it goes.

 We got 6 and 1/4 gallons...

 This building is across from the actual hospital; it has the executives offices, HR, the gym, the eye clinic and the dental clinic.

 This is a hotel on the river, which is behind me.

 The tripod!  Everyone has their tickets for the break-up of the river.  They started around last week and go up into June.  It got alot cooler this week which might have slowed it down a little, but I think the break-up is coming pretty soon.  SAR and told people that it's unsafe to be on the river now, but some people still walk on it, or ride their snowmobiles on it.  Kind of risky, I think.  I wasn't willing to be on it until the dead of winter when I know it's frozen solid and I can't fall through!

 The other view of the fuel tanks.

 HELLO!!!

April Update

The view out of our front window.  The weather has been incredibly warm lately and the snow is melting like crazy!  The ground is muddy and the tundra is starting to come through again.

 A couple of days later, the tundra was more obvious.  We went for a walk and checked out more of the area.  It started out nicely, but then the wind picked up and it got crazily cold!  My ears started hurting as bad as that time when I think I almost got frostbite!  By that time, we were walking really fast to get back home.

 Huge puddles (or lakes) started to form everywhere!  There's a big one by our house now that we're thinking of getting some of that mosquito killer stuff and throwing in in before they hatch.  That might help cut down on the mosquitos around our house all summer.

 There used to be a road here! LOL, this is where the ice road was that made the road system into a loop for the wintertime.

 The road stretched across the lake here just to the right of that gray building on the top right side of the road sign. 

Winter in Alaska

What it's like to be an Alaskan...

Hehehe, and that's about right.  Winter started around Halloween and we're just starting to come into the end (hopefully) and into spring, though we're not there yet!  There's still alot of snow on the ground and it has still snowed off and on in the last week.  The last couple of days have been in the 30's (positive 30's, that is) and the roads are a big mess!  Probably half of the roads here are dirt and when the snow started melting so fast, the roads went from slick ice and packed snow to a big muddy mess.

If the warmer weather keeps up, the ice road and river will thaw out soon so that no one can drive on them anymore.  Too bad, we never got a chance to drive up the river to see the villages.  Maybe next year.

Want to know how much snow we've gotten this winter?

FINALLY, an udpate!!!

Wow, so much has happened in the last few months and I sure haven't been very good about updating everyone.

We spent Christmas at our friends house and then played some wii games for awhile which was fun, but still not what we're used to with our families.

Then in January, we finally flew down to Oregon to visit our families!  We were so excited to see everyone and wanted to have as much time as possible that we left Bethel on a Friday night and spent the entire night traveling to Boise and then we drove two hours west to be with Jeff's parents and I have to say that it was soo nice to see a friendly face!!!

After a few days in eastern Oregon, we spent the rest of the time in Hillsboro, visiting my family and staying at the beach one night which we have missed so much.  It was so hard to get back on that plane to head back to Alaska, but we got there on time and once we were on the plane, they deiced the wings and we taxied out to the runway.  But it was snowing so hard that after several minutes of waiting, they announced that we had to go BACK to the tarmac and deice once again.  We really thought we weren't going to get out of Portland, but the second time did the trick and we were on our way home.

Over the winter in Bethel, it has been a record breaking cold streak.  The temperatures were below -30 for about 45 days straight and it was soo cold!  Once, we went to church and after going inside, I decided that I shouldn't have left our friends truck turned off (it was around -55) so I went back out to turn it back on again to start it up and when I got back to the church door, it was stuck and I couldn't get in!!! I wasn't wearing a hat and after about 3 minutes of banging and yanking on the door, I could feel my ears start to hurt.  Another girl came up and once she knew the door wouldn't open, she told me there was a door around the back.  We RAN around to the door and when we finally got inside, my ears were hurting so bad, I had to rub them for about 10 minutes to thaw them out.  That's apparently how close I got to getting frostbit on my ears.  Thankfully, I got inside just in time.

The last year here has been something else in regards to crimes and deaths.  In the last 12 months, there have been more than 12 deaths and since it's such a small community, the gossip gets around fast.  People have died from suicides, murders, freezing, being drunk, getting lost and suspicious alcohol/drug related deaths.  It certainly doesn't help that it was so cold during the wintertime.  It's been pretty sad with all these deaths.

Anyways, we didn't get to see everyone when we went back to visit so we'll definitely make sure to get everyone in when we come back in August.  It's my dreaded 30th birthday and if I can't be in Hawaii, I'd rather be with my family!  :)

For a fun little note, this article ran on our news website today:

$800 heating bills not uncommon in Bethel

by Angela Denning-Barnes on February 23, 2012

Expensive heat is a reality for most Bethel residents as oil prices remain high. For some, the monthly bills are more than their regular pay checks will bear.