Happy Holidays Y'all

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Hope your year was as blessed as ours. It has been a great year! Later, Jim and Steph

Finally...

Last night it finally happened. Finally got my first look at the northern lights. Finally (Have I said that). These pictures were taken at Midnight and we (Mr. Broz) stayed until 2:00am. Needless to say, I was a zombie today and will be tomorrow, because the sky is clear and the forecast is for more action. Later jb

Look What the Tide Brought In...

So... We woke up Monday morning and had icebergs in the yard. Strange. The night before the wind came up real strong and when that happens sometimes the tide comes in real high. Around midnight, Steph woke up and thought someone was trying to break in. In reality it was just huge chunks of ice beating our porch silly. I guess town was all under water. I cannot say though because I was sleeping. Like a baby. Anyway, it stunk really bad. Like salt, fish and honey bucket. Yum!

These pictures are from today. The picture of the sun was taken at 2:00 PM. That is how high the sun gets these days. Many people ask about the darkness, so I took a picture. The actual time it came up was 10:43 AM and will set at 4:52 PM. We lost 2 minutes and 13 secs from yesterday. We'll lose another 1 1/2 hours before we start gaining again. The other photos were just some closeups of tundra grass and ice frost. enjoy, jb

26 year old dog learned a new trick.

So I learned how to crop... A now I probably ruined some otherwise good pictures.

Click on each picture for a larger, hopefully better view. Good NightOOOoooo.....

Grill'n and Chill'n

Steak, Chicken, Salmon anyone? Thanks to the Walmart 17.99 camp grill Steph and myself are living in style. Beats the heck out of the George Forman. Do you like the preparation table. I got it at target on sale, it's real nice.

Anyway, about time Huskers

Ice cube anyone?

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago, before the snow started flying. Brought that baby inside to melt and drink. Just another fun aspect of drinking water from your gutters. Warm soda anyone?

Saturday, Steph, my parents, and I took a boat trip out to the Bearing Sea. Willie our guide took us out in his 16 ft. Lund boat with a 30 horse motor. It was 50 degrees out, does it look 50? We made a couple of stops and then Willie said he was taking us to the sand bar. I have been out to the ocean many times by now and have never been to the so called sand bar. In my ocean travels I have seen mud upon mud, but never any sand. Willie however proved me wrong.



The sand bar turned out to be one of the coolest things that I have seen since arriving in Kipnuk. There was in fact sand on this little sliver of an island, about 1 mile out into the ocean. The island is long maybe 4-5 miles, but only about 100 yards wide. Waves were breaking offshore and making their way to the island. There was nothing really on the island except for a birds and about 10 million starfish. They just lined the beach. It was really incredible to see. In the water was about 10 million little jellyfish. Once again, incredible to see. On a side note, once we got out of the boat Willie couldn't help himself and popped off a couple of shots at a few ducks floating offshore. Then while we were exploring, he jumped into the boat and disappeared. When we came back we couldn't see him for the longest time. Inside my inner Surviorman came out. I immediately thought about Les Stroud and Bear Gryles and what they would do in this situation. My next thought was, "Are Starfish edible?"


Finally, a parting shot once the family was back on squishy, wet ground. Note: The camera does not add 10 pounds. It was 50 degrees, excessive clothing was necessary.

Tundra Walking

Mom and Dad are here! They got here Thursday and will be staying until Monday.

My Dad took this video today as we were out picking Black Berries.

jb

Little Kipnuk Video

Never know what you are going to find on a walk in the village. The other night I was out taking pictures and stumbled on this guy and his mammoth tusk. Yes, Mammoth tusk, that he found with a rake on the bottom of large shallow lake. He was doing his best paleontologist act, cleaning the thing with some sand paper. Pretty cool nonetheless and when asked how much it costs, he said "highest bidder".

I'm cold.

I’m cold, but it feels good. Better than 95 degrees with 95 percent humidity inside an arena, 15 rows from the top with the overhead fans hitting 6-7 rows in front of us and exhaust fumes filling my lungs like I’m trying to kill myself in the garage. I love Demo Derby’s! Summer was good, short, but good. Steph and I made several big decisions like paper or plastic and Amigo’s or Amigo’s. We ate out a lot, made up for time lost and we had to, because the stove wasn’t hooked up. The stove in our new house (easy decision). Yes Yes we must love Nebraska, with the bingo nights, cruise nights and humid sticky nights. We love it much better than the ugly mountains, small fish and 65 degrees at 3:00pm. The question was raised during the drive through Alaska; what were we thinking buying a house in Nebraska. But then I cut myself and guess what? I bled red, Nebraska Red.

Canada was Canada again. 2,000 miles of Canada was Canada again. Good thing we only took two day’s huh? Like Nate Bolen says it was God’s country, but we drove through it like hell. We took turns driving, and sleeping with the dogs in the back. Usually 6 am – 10 pm this would go on. Then we would settle down in the back of the old Montero, all 5 ft. 10 inches of it. Folks, I’m 6’2”. Canada does have it good qualities, it was cool -15 degrees (Celsuis), gas was cheap – 99 cents (a Liter) and we dove very fast – 120 (kilometers per hour). But it all equals out it you know what I mean. All told 3,500 miles – 3 ½ days – No dog puke, pee or poop in the car. Good Trip.

Once we got to Alaska and it was early in the fourth day, we decided to take a new road down to Anchorage. This road cuts across the state 134 miles to Denali National Park. This road is gravel. This road is long and this road is gravel. I have ripped off the “priceless” commercial before for a laugh, but here goes again. 134 miles of Alaska backcountry – priceless. Few people – priceless. Views, oh, the views – priceless. 90 miles in and hissing sounds – not priceless, pricey and stressful. But ASE certified Mechanic James Barthelman changed the tire and finished the 43 miles in a record crawling pace, trying to not blow a tire we couldn’t replace.

Stretchy pants...

Two weeks ago cross-country skis showed up. Last night dog harnesses showed up. This afternoon I almost broke my leg. Novice skier with two, not one, dogs pulling as hard as they can is ok. Dog popping a squat is not ok. It is hard to stop in six feet when you are going 10-15 mph. We were clipping along just fine as Steph watched in the distance. As we turned around after about 1/4 mile and started going back is when the mess happened. Bela' suddenly stopped to take care of business and Marley tried to avoid death by bolting in another direction only to make matters worse and then I joined the party crashing into the whole mess. Yes!

On an even more embarrassing note, I swallowed my pride and purchased some stretchy pants, Nachooooooooooo! I am glad that I did, because horizontal skiing takes it out of a guy. I wear only the stretchy pants and soft-shell jacket and sweat bullets. Not naming names, but in high school I swore to never don the stretchy pants after witnessing their glory on a certain coach. In my defense, mine don't have stir-ups. Today was the first time skiing during the day. I have been out 4/5 times before today, but only under the cover of darkness. You know important recon missions, where I could not be discovered. Once again stretchy pants and falling. Today’s whole incident was done on the river away from houses, people. I gave a quick look around while untangling and saw only Steph. Thank goodness, maybe it’s time to go under cover again…