Who's Thrown a Snowball?

This is a graph showing that 100% of the students in the K-2 class at my school have thrown a snowball. A class of 2nd graders who call each day for our weather did their own snowball graph, which you can see in the photo. Their poll had a different result. Notice the creative snowman on the right. If we aren't building them outdoors, we are building them inside.

Birth of a Log House

John has started on a new log building. As someone who can't finish knitting a sweater, I can't imagine finishing a project like this - especially when I think of how much work is in one log. It takes him 1 1/2 to 2 days of hard work for each log.

Snake Note

I forgot to post this note that came with the snake. I didn't open the container, but I did lift it to feel how heavy it was and thus determine how big of a snake was in there. It was VERY heavy, which concerned me. I was happy to learn that the weight was mostly a warming rock. It turned out that the snake was a ball python and was really cute.

Snakes in Offices

When I arrived at work today I saw this lunch cooler sitting behind my chair. A teacher brought it in and wanted to store it there until she was ready to show it to her class. It was distracting at first as I was concerned that the snake could push the lid off and slither out. But I was brave got lots of work done.

Winter STILL

Even though everything is really pretty and the snow looks so silky-smooth here - It is still really cold. And even though it is officially spring, it isn't anything like spring yet. It was 12 F this morning. We have a ways to go still.

The View

Here's a photo we took of the owl that the birder was photographing. It allowed us to get quite close.

Birding in Alaska

Birding in Alaska is a big deal. People even come here in below-zero temperatures to see all the eagles congregating on the Spit. This photographer came from far away to find an owl right in our driveway and survived -15F to take the photos.

Granola Snowman

When I went to pick up one of my kids the other day, I found this snowman at the end of the street. The kids had taken some clods of snow and stacked them to make a snowman, no artifical ingredients. He was about 2 feet high.

Cold Day for a Turkey Shoot

One of the competitions at the Snow Rondi was the turkey shoot. Second and third places got lesser birds. The prizes sat on the table all afternoon, and even though it was sunny, it was plenty cold to keep them frozen for the duration.

High Ski

During Snow Rondi, when we were freezing in the wind chill, we saw this flying contraption overhead with skis attached. Everyone was more impressed that the flyer could survive the cold than with the actual machine itself.

Parade End

There goes the parade! To the right, beyond that snow bank, is where I found out that cars cannot drive on snow machine trails. My car sank in pretty deep. I was asked this question: When you do something stupid like that, why do it when the entire town is going by for a parade?

Trailer Up

First we had the four-wheelers, next came the trailer with the snow machines on board. The Snomads is an organization that provides lots of outdoor fun on snow machines for all ages.