New Videos

I'm gonna start recording short videos of routine life here in Kotzebue. Thanks for the idea Jim. I think it will help illustrate life here. These videos were shot in May and there is still over a foot of snow on the ground. The puddles are from the melting snow, and the entire town is a mess from them.

Blogging

I don't have the drive to keep up on blogging. I really enjoy reading other blogs, but I can never keep up with one for myself. Anyway, I posted a couple of pictures today and will try to post more later.
Spring is here, and temperatures are remaining right at their average - which is about 20-25 for the high and around 5 for the low. We have about 4 feet of snow still on the ground and it is melting at a rate of about 1 inch every 2 days. The sun is coming up at about 6:30am and setting around 11pm, making for some long days. After May 7th, we won't see any darkness until the end of summer.
I have been accumulating hunting gear slowly but surely to prepare for hunting season. I will be eligible to hunt beginning in November for large game. I traded some gas for caribou the other day, ran it through the grinder, and we all ate it as meatloaf tonight. It was good, but we cheated by mixing in regular ground beef with it.
The ATV and snowmobile are a blast, and I'm thinking of selling the Durango and buying a UTV. I can get top dollar for the Durango up here since it costs about 8 grand to get one delivered.

McMaster's in Kotzebue

First Blog

We've established this blog to keep friends and family updated with pictures and comments on our lives in Kotzebue, Alaska.

We have been in Kotzebue since November, 2008. We originally moved to this part of the country because I accepted a job that I always wanted. The plan was to stay here for a year, then move back to the East coast, preferably Philadelphia. That plan has since changed, as this unexplored frontier turned out to be just what our family needed.

Everyday offers a changing perspective above the Arctic Circle. Daytime is continuous in the summer and sunlight is limited in the winter, but not to the extreme as most people think. There is never a day where we have complete darkness for 24 hours, but there is about a month in the summer where the sun never sets. The cold is easy to get used to, the blizzards are not.

The kids, Patrick and Christopher, love it here. They are 4 and 2 1/2 years old, respectively, and enjoy their lives here immensely. They go to preschool M-F and Patrick will be starting pre-k shortly.

Life is expensive here, everything costs about double what you would expect to pay in the lower 48. Here are a few common examples: milk is $10/gallon, day care is $1200/month, gas is $7.13/gallon, and all food items are just about double. The gas being so expensive isn't much of a problem, since we generally drive the Durango less than 4 miles total round trip per day. I can have food shipped here from Anchorage and my employer reimburses me for shipping, so that cuts down on cost as well.

Kotzebue is the hub for the Northwest Arctic Borough. There are multiple villages outside the town where the Eskimo's live more traditionally off of subsistence (they hunt out of necessity instead of sport). About 3500 people live in Kotzebue and 5500 people in the entire Northwest Arcit Borough. Kotzebue is 33 miles above the Arctic Circle and you can get anywhere in the town by driving or walking about a mile. Their is a gun shop, a couple of grocery stores, a bank (where Stephanie works) a few restaurants (all chinese) and NO BARS...the town is "damp" so you can consume alcohol in your home, but you can't buy it or sell it, so you have to get it shipped in from Anchorage.