Winter

The Lagoon that our house sits near in Kotzebue has finally frozen over. Today when I went out on the deck, there were people ice fishing. Here are a few pictures from 11:30am.





On the other side of town is the Kotzebue Sound. This will most likely be frozen over by the end of the week. Here is a picture:



Seagulls pick up the scraps left behind...and snag fish themselves from the holes in the ice:







Hopefully, temperatures will remain below freezing until Spring. When we get a few inches of snowfall, and with everything being frozen, we will be able to get outside the town on the snowmobiles. I've felt trapped lately - too cold to go out on the ATV, no snow for the snowgo's.

I will be eligible to hunt November 10th, and I plan on shooting a moose and a caribou.
Life above the Arctic Circle is great.

Nothing New

Things have been pretty boring lately, which I don't mind at all. Part of the reason of moving to Kotzebue was to relax and slow down, which we have done. I'm not a social person, so I'm in heaven in Kotzebue. Stephanie has found a lot of positives about this place as well. She doesn't worry about crazy stuff that happens in the rest of the world...you know - the random horror stories you hear on the news all day. No Amber Alerts in Kotzebue, no horrible car accidents, no murders, no abductions, no life threatening natural disasters. It's nice - this place offers peace of mind.
I'm trying to get over the swine flu, I'm feeling much better than I was a week ago but still have a bad cough.
The kids are doing great. Patrick now has "homework" that we do together nightly. Chris is obsessed with ice cream.
The season is changing quickly. Most of the lagoon is frozen now, and the temperature stays below freezing most of the day. We have a dusting of snow on the ground and more snow in the forecast. With any luck I'll get to ride the snowmobiles in a week or two.