diomede

photography

And fry it in bacon grease, of course

start with some vienna sausages and make some bisquick. narrowly averted disaster when i started to crack the egg into the pan instead of the pancake mix — start with some vienna sausages and make some bisquick. and don’t accidentally start to crack the egg (for the bisquick pancake mix) into the pan, otherwise you’ll have some weird eggy-texture-mini-blobs in the pancake.

get those little guys good and crispy and delicious

add some savory spice and pour that batter right on in there, on top of that sizzlin' canned meat — add some savory spice and pour that batter right on in there, on top of that sizzlin’ canned meat

put the spatula down child, no use for one of those. flip that big-boy-size fried pan-meatcake like a professional — put the spatula back in the drawer, child, no use for one of those. flip that big-boy-size fried pan-meatcake like a professional

and the maple syrup, put that down too. while you're over by the cupboard, grab the bottle of sriracha, 'cuz that's what you need for a big-boy-size panmeatcake. — and the maple syrup, put that back in the cupboard too, you won’t need it. while you’re over by the cupboard, grab the bottle of sriracha, ‘cuz that’s what you will need for this big-boy-size panmeatcake.

photography

Mail day

wednesday, captain mike flyin away to pick up more mail, hank takin a turn holding down the cargo.

other

Six days off the island, 350+ miles on my jeep, good times with some great friends (thanks for the food and hospitality, jason and heidi and carl and janet and dorothy johnson!). It was great and it’s wonderful to be back on the island, albeit two days late. We got to fly direct from nome, which means an absolutely beautiful hourlong low altitude helicopter flight, complete with extremely low mountaintop fly-bys and swooping and banking through arctic valleys.

And not a moment after I step off the chopper one of our super energetic 3rd graders nails me with a flying bear hug. Life is good.

..and tonight? Hours of lesson planning and organizing? Kinda miserable.

but part of the deal, and it’s a good deal.

Life is good.

photography

Blizzard warnings

other

Sunset

diomede, funny, other

12/21/12 12:01am (in Chukotka)

IT IS 3:01AM HERE AND 12:01AM 12/21/12 IN CHUKOTKA, RUSSIA, AND I JUST TOOK A PICTURE FACING EAST, HERE IT IS!!!!

just kidding. lol.

For real, here is a 30s exposure of the view east from the front porch of my duplex apartment, taken a few minutes ago at 3:03am. Too much weather to see big dio, but the dateline is definitely within visibility. The verdict is in, folks, the world is not ending, unless the end of the world is taking the form of complete coverage by sea ice. In which case, for us on diomede the end of the world would be hard to notice :-).

photography

High noon

other, photography

Walking stick

When you walk out on the sea ice, a walking stick is crucial. The tip is used for testing for good ice to step on. What’s good ice and what’s bad ice is pretty simle–good ice is thick enough to walk on. You walk with the stick horizontal–if you fall, the stick provides something to hold onto, to pull yourself out with, and (very important!) it keeps you from falling all the way in. Falling all the way in, aside of the obvious unpleasantness of submersion in very, very very cold water, is a dangerous thing because of the current. I’ve heard of several folks’ lives being saved by their stick.

Ed took me out with him for a little ice fishing, let me borrow one of his walking sticks.

So what’d I spend my afternoon doing? Working on a walking stick :-)