Superbowl Weekend

This past weekend was a beautiful weekend in Noatak. After our really cold snap the days have been really nice. It has also been really clear which is somewhat surprising given how warm it has been. Saturday I went out to check traps and get wood with Stan who is one of the other teachers. Getting wood here is quite the operation. First we traveled about 5 miles downriver by snowmachine to get to where there are some big trees. We dropped about 6 trees and limbed them. Then we had to pack down a trail to turn the sled around to haul the logs out. We cut them into eight foot lengths and then loaded them onto the sled. We could only load about 4 logs at a time to haul out to the river where the trail was good. Stan made about four trips while his son Zach and I waited at the fire and roasted mukarra and cheese. We saw a group of about 5 ptarmigan on the way. Stan shot one of them to use the wings to bait for their traps. Ptarmigan are really cool looking birds. They look very similar to partridge but they are completely white with a red comb on the head like a rooster.
There were ball games again this weekend. The boys team played Buckland and both of the middle school teams played the Kivalina co-ed squad. We didn't watch the games on Friday night. Sometimes it is hard to not go to the games just because there are so few games that we just feel like we should go whenever there are games. It was good to have a nice relaxing Friday especially after Friday was an inservice day. I did watch the boys game on Saturday while Kayla was preparing for her week next week where she has to take the girls team to Buckland from Thursday to Sunday.
I have a few traps that I set for fox. I set them up down by the pit so I get out and ski to check them. Its about a 45 minute round trip. There is a nice trail packed by snowmachines. It's a good little trek.
Today Kayla and I went and watched to Superbowl over at Stan and Doris' house. There were a few people over there. Pretty much everybody was rooting for the Packer's except Stan and Doris' boys, Caleb and Zach. I wasn't really sure who I wanted to root for. I decided on the Packers even though I thought the Steelers were going to win.

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