March 2007 Archives
Here's the current clothing management system at work. Notice the ice in the corner of the ceiling. Last time I tied to move the cardboard sock-box, it was frozen to the floor.
And yes, that is toilet paper. The pee-buckets are just outside the backdoor.
While the beginning of February was unusually balmy, we paid our dues during the past three weeks with temperatures clear down to -59. Preschool was canceled for extreme cold two days, and we had a few below forty below attendance optional days.
Although we had bought a small portable propane heater to help get the snogo warmed up on chilly mornings, the propane starts to get slushy around -45 and the heater doesn't work for very long once we stick it under the machine. And so, for the last couple of weeks we've spent most mornings walking to work. By the time we arrived each day our eyelashes would be frozen to our facewarmers, and our hats would be frosted up from our beath. When I would dare pull down my facewarmer to speak more clearly (usually about how much the little stones on the snow reminded me of cookies-n-cream ice cream), I would only end up choking on the dry air, too dry to breath.
The following photos show how winter began to creep into our house, not to mention that a half full box of soy milk froze solid in a windowsill one night. Keep in mind that both these doors are inside arctic entries, neither leads directly outside.
These boots were sewn for me by an elder in town. She is currently expecting 9 grand and great grandchildren, by this I mean that currently 8 of her descendants are pregnant...one with twins. But, says her daughter who is expecting the twins, nine more isn't that big a deal, if you already have over thirty grandkids. Yeah, no big deal at all.
I wear felt liners inside the canvas and mooseskin boots. They are like wearing slippers and always keep my feet toasty. Recently I've walked to and from work many times in them, two miles each way, with no problems. Tough skinned, those moose.
A long overdue thank you goes out for these wonderful chairs. We spend much time here right in front of the fire, like Keith pictured below. It's wonderful living.
