Saturday, October 8, 2011

Saturday, Snow & Shopping

First of all, hurrah for Saturday of a three-day weekend!  It's off to a pretty start, too.  This is what I saw from the window this morning:


Except for, perhaps, when the fireweed is in full bloom, Kotzebue is prettiest when there's a layer of freshly fallen snow over everything!  I was wondering when it would snow.  Actually, it did snow just a little earlier this week, Thursday morning, I think, but it didn't cover the ground and was gone by mid morning.  However, even that seemed late.  Of course, I'm only going into my third winter here, but based on what other people say, the first snowfall usually happens in September.  Not this year.  I was trying to find some historic weather data for Kotzebue, but was unsuccessful.  I did find some interesting summaries for Anchorage.  I think Kotz would be fairly different, though.  There would be a lag in temps and begin/end dates, for sure.  Anchorage probably gets much more snowfall as well.  The amount of snowfall in Kotzebue isn't much.  We meet the definition of a cold desert, a desert having < 9 inches annual precipitation.  Just for reference, though, here's what I found for earliest and latest dates for first snowfall in Anchorage.  The entire page can be seen here.



My neighbor is into yard sales and always finds out if there are any and where to they are (addresses are a different animal here; I'll write on that another time).  Last week there were none, and I thought with the weather getting colder, and now with snow starting to fall, that we had probably seen the last of them until spring.  Space is a premium here, though, so if you have to get rid of things, you find a way.  There were, indeed two sales.  One was inside.  I got a little knife for free that I'll add to my survival kit.  The other one was outside, and I picked up a few hangers.  



Now I have to take advantage of this Saturday of a three-day weekend and use those hangers to do some long-awaited cleaning and organizing.  This snow won't stick around, but it's usually here for good before Halloween, and I have to be able to get to my boots and snow pants!

Here We Are Again

 It's that time of year again.  I'm traveling to villages; the goal is 9 or 10 within the school year.  I've done 2 so far and will have 3 more before Christmas.  This is my 3rd year, and I'm getting more and more requests.  My first visit this year was to Kiana, which also happened to be one of the later visits last school year, so I was just there this spring.  It was nice to get to see the village during different seasons.


On this visit, the teachers asked me to stay the whole week.  I arrived Monday, at a very busy time as you can see from the crowded airport picture below, and stayed through Friday evening.


I had probably missed the really pretty fall colors by several weeks, but there was plenty of pretty green and gold contrast with the spruce and paper birch.


Kiana has an interesting history.  It's situated where the Squirrel and Kobuk rivers come together.  The name came from the Inupiaq word Qayaana, which to my best understanding refers to a point of land across the river from the village.  The natives tended to call the place Katyaak which means where the rivers meet, but English speaking folks around 1900 heard them saying, "qayaana katyaak," and called it Kiana.  There's a neat website with lots of cultural info about Kiana.  Go to Kiana Jukebox to learn more about Kiana.


The reason there were lots of English-speaking people in Kiana around 1900 is a story in itself.  You might know that was during the time of gold rushes all around Alaska, the biggest being the Klondike (in Canada but accessed through AK).  Shortly after the Klondike rush, it was reported that gold was found on the Kobuk, and about 2000 prospectors arrived to Kotzebue in July, 1898.  When they arrived, locals informed them that the rumors were lies, and over half turned around and went home.  About 800, however, made their way upriver and spent the winter.  They didn't find anything, but eventually there was some gold found over the next 10 years in a few tributaries of the Kobuk, including Squirrel River, which joins the Kobuk right at Kiana.  To read more, start at this NPS website.

Here are a few more pictures to enjoy:



Kiana Lynx gym