Thanksgiving and 30 years

Next week is the Thanksgiving holiday. It has been 31 years since I last enjoyed this holiday with the family I was raised with. Yes, the holiday I am remembering of would of been that of my senior year in high school. Ouch!! Since that year I have had 7 Thanksgivings in Colorado and will now have my 24th in Alaska.
My how times have changed... Growing up in New Jersey I remember having turkey and stuffing at 52 Division Avenue. Sitting around the dining table with a turkey on the platter and holding hands to give thanks before the meal. At that time the leaves are still on the ground and some are still falling. It is truly fall.
Today I looked out and saw a pretty sunrise at 9:15 am that was rising up over a frozen river. We have a light dusting of snow and the distant hills are covered.
The temp today said 5 below zero. Yesterday's high was about 10 above and there was a little breeze.
But as I stood in the doorway to take the picture I listened and heard.... not much... I could hear someone splitting firewood across town, I could hear a light wind. There was not any other sounds I could near, no cars, no trucks, no trains.


So what brings all this on.... on the 25th of this month will be the Summit High School Class of 1976 30th Reunion!!! Wow! Is that even possible. I guess so when I settle on the fact that I have a daughter who is turning 21 soon.
I had a great day Oct. 11th when I received an email from a high school friend who had found me by doing a google search. Thank you Eric Dagradi. It was great to hear from you and you started my mind on this journey of time. Since then I have heard from others as well and also gotten the details of the reunion. I so wish I could make the arrangements to attend.
I have yet to go to a reunion due to calendar issues and logistical ones. Although I think it would be a very fun time. They always seemed to fall on times when we had family gatherings.
So here I am this morning... in all my glory 30 years later... this is what I look like right at this instant...Yep, that is me.... this week anyway. For some reason my hair is growing out and have let it keep going. Seems like I do this now about every 3 years or so. When it is not long I usually wear it in a crewcut/flattop . The goatee seems to go every year or so as well. As seen in this picture from fall of 2005.







So, 30 years later and here I am ... still going to a high school every single day and actually spending many more hours in the building now than I ever did when I was 18.
Oh well, life is moving on and we are too whether we want to or not.
But winter is almost here and I do have a new rig to ride so it should be a good one. I hope everyone is having a super fall. I am so thankful that we have the technology to keep in touch with each other and keep people posted on what is happening in our worlds - because truly we are not that far apart. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wintertime is Approaching

Our temps have been in the low single digits lately. Today was about 8 above zero and there as a light breeze about 8 miles an hour.






















Two days ago we got some light snow and Becca decided to take some pictures. These were taken behind the house.
We have about 5-6 inches on the ground but not enough to really go riding about.
We did have the fun of accepting the arrival of two new snowmachines the other day.
An 06 Supersport and an 07 Trail RMK.

Moose Hunting

I have lived in White Mountain for 8 years now and had yet to shoot a moose until this fall of 2006. We have looked and looked every year. We have spent lots of enjoyable time running about the river hoping to find a moose that would stay still long enough for me to shoot it.


Finally this year it happened. Holly and I were coming home about 10:15 pm and it was getting dark. We saw a moose and it had antlers. Our season was only open to bull moose so we were in luck except that it was dark... But we decided to go for it anyway and the moose was kind enough to let me shoot it three times :-). The unfortunate part was that he decided to die in the river... so it was decided to let him sit over night and then we went back in the morning for the butchering. We managed to roll him onto a piece of plywood that sat on top of two logs to lift him out of the water.

Some evenings you are out until the sun has set and you make it home in the dark. Coming home by dwindling sunlight or beginning moonlight is always an adventure. Here is Holly bundled up against the cold wind.
Moose hunting is an activity that we do every fall. It is an annual event and a lot of fun. We go out on the weekends and also some weeknights depending on how long the hunting season is. This fall the season was 13 days long. We get lots of fresh air and spend time out in the sun (or the rain). This fall Holly and I had the great fortune to eat a few suppers as we hunted.
One night we enjoyed a baked fish on the river beach with our friends Kim and Eric.

The fish was delicious and the weather was fantastic.

As we left there was a wonderful sunset...


A great time.... and he tastes so good.

Fishing and berrypicking

Wonderful summertime and fall activities that get us out of the office, out of the house and onto the river! Holly and I had a great time getting out and we often were joined by Jessica, our new White Mountain teacher.











The fishing this fall was just wonderful. The silver salmon seemed plentiful and the fishing lasted for about four weeks so we had plenty of time to fill the freezer and get the smoker going.














Of course on days like these when the sun is out and the fish are biting - life just doesn't get much better!!

Is it really October? Oh My!

Oh yeah-I will really keep up with this blogging now so everyone can keep up with us :-) Oh well at this point I will try to recap the fall.... to start off with Becca and Denise went back to the East Coast to a family reunion on the Phillips side. The girls had a blast staying with Uncle Matt and Aunt Lyn and seeing some of the sights.
Of course they also got to see family that they missed and family they never knew they had.

Here is the Haviland clan minus Andy and Holly and cousin Jacob.

Looking down over Central Park!












Becca and Denise had a blast traveling together especially on the jets!

Dipnetting on the Kasilof

On July 19th I headed down to the Kasilof River with a friend, Rudy Howard, to go dipnetting for red salmon. Dipnetting you say- what is that? Alaska has a personal-use subsistence fishery which allows residents to net their catch. Dipnets come in all shapes and sizes but most have a hoop, which cannot be larger than 5' in diameter, and are on poles ranging from 5-20 feet long. The picture above shows a person entering the river with their net.
Basically you stand in the river, at times up to your chest and wait for a fish to swim into your net!

On the right is a photo of Rudy (middle) waiting for the fish. You need to wear neoprene waders if you want to seriously fish, the water is very cold. Rudy was in the water for quite a while.
Dipnetting is not a solitary sport... at times it gets quite crowded once the fish start running as you can see in the following pictures. You also tend to fish with the tides. The incoming tides seems to be the best.
Unfortunately for us while we were there the Dept. of Fish and Game decided to have an emergency commercial opening so many boats were setting their nets just outside the mouth of the river which made it hard for the fish to get to us.

These were taken about midnight as the sun was setting! We fished until 2 am. We decided that my legs wouldn't do well with the current and in the muddy bottom so Rudy did the dipping while my job was to bonk the fish and gut them. As well as make the coffee. We took the Westphalia down so we spent the night. The next day we dipped some more but the commercial nets were back in the water, it was raining and it was crowded (many people went to the Kasilof because the Kenai was having a weak run of reds) so we headed home. The fifteen fish we got are being smoked for us and we look forward to doing it again next summer!!
Another look at the shapes of dipnets.

Summer Barbeque in Talkeetna

On Sunday the 9th of July we traveled to Talkeetna to visit our friends the Yocum's for a barbeque. The weather was gorgeous and the drive went just fine (95 min). Louise Simon was with us, having arrived into Anchorage from White Mountain just that morning. Cheri was our school counselor for four years.







They have a wonderful spot right off of the spur road with a really neat little cabin/house. Cheri's sister and dad were also there. Her dad is 93
years old and just a delight. Ken took care fo the grill and made some delicious burgers.

White Mountain

White Mountain, Alaska 99784

The Haviland's have lived in White Mountain for the past 8 years. White Mountain is a village of about 195 people with a school population of 54 k-12. The village is on the banks of the Fish River about 18 miles in from the coast. We are about 70 miles south east of Nome.
Andy and Becca are there during the school year while Holly is in Anchorage for part of year working for Everts Air Cargo as a cargo agent. Denise also lives in Anchorage and works for the same company as a customer service agent. During the summer Andy and Becca join Holly and Denise in Anchorage. The village name comes from the hill you see in the picture below which is White Mountain hill and is made of very white rock.

The new school will be built above the city garage which is the large roof you see in the trees towards the upper left of the picture. This picture is about 3 years old.










The picture qbove is taken from the top of White Mountain hill looking over towards the airport which is up above the village. The elem school and the other school buildings are the farthest buildings you can see on the left of the picture.



The picture below shows the lodge. Our school cafeteria is the right side of the building. Our house is the first floor and left side of the building with another apartment up above us which is used for itinerants.

School As We Are Today

What we have now are three buildings that we are using for 2 high school classrooms and the jr high classroom. Luckily for us all three buildings have running water and bathrooms and are very adequate for our needs. In the photo to the right you can see the two high school classrooms: the gray building is called the bingo building. It is owned by the IRA (the local trible govt.) and they immediately leased it to the district. We use it for the science and math classroom. The light blue building is owned by the City. They had leased it to the University system but they all agreed to end the lease so we could use it. This is our language arts and social studies classroom. This view is taken from the front of the Lodge building which has the cafeteria and two apts. in it, one of which is where we live.
A single wide trailer is our third building. The trailer sits right above the gymansium and is owned by the District. It had been the principal's quarters for many many years and in recent years was used for teacher housing. Just last year it had a music studio in it and our video conferencing equipment. It now houses the junior high classroom and my office. Here are some views of the inside of the trailer.
There are two entrances to the tailer so we do not interrupt each others daily business (much)!
In the picture below you can see down the narrow hallway to my office.











Looking into my office from the hallway.
The data closet is to the right behind the Kronos clock and when you turn all the way back to the left you see the filing cabinet closet. This room used to be a bedroom...

















All of our buildings are in the same general area so we now have a campus with 6 buildings (within 150' of each other) which includes our cafeteria which was always a separate building.


I spent 4 days at the end of June in White Mountain going through orders and inventorying materials that had arrived. I worked 3 of those days with jack Adams and made a lot of progress with our new science materials.