Life in the Fast Lane!

As always, life seems like it is passing me by here in Kotzebue. So many experiences and events have happened since I have last blogged that it is hard to figure out where to start.  To start out, as a recap, Sam and I picked up and moved into Kotzebue from Kiana. It was tough to move but it was the best choice for us. We started looking for a house, which is extremely difficult in this market. We were finally blessed by finding a house. It needs some work but were decided that we could handle it! We had it painted, we are changing up the floor plan, adding rooms, walls, taking walls away, adding a wood stove we are like a regular HG TV show!






































It was a whirl wind summer, we did a fast trip to the lower 48 during the month of June and we were back in Kotzebue ready to close on our new home June 30th. Unfortunately we did not close then, bank issues, fixing issues, just plain issues kept us from closing on the house until August.
We have had a lot of stuff to move around, a lot of building materials to buy, furniture to move, freezers and refrigerators to move and buy so because of all this we decided to purchase a truck. We bought a 2005 Dodge Dakota quad cab and it has been really valuable in hauling trash, moving nsow machines and even collecting wood in Kotzebue.




















I had a great labor day weekend. I went over 90 miles up the Noatak river from the village of Noatak. It was an amazing adventure. I went with two good friends who live in Noatak. We took a jet boat and decided to go as far as our gas would take us. We camped out on the banks of the river every night. We cooked out food by campfire. It was a great time being out in the wilderness with some great friends. We ended up seeing 9 bears. Had an encounter with a grizzly and had a lot of fun!

School had been going well fro Sam and I. Of course i have have the growing pains of being in a new school with new staff and new kids. It has been ok so far. I was able to teach cold water safety in the Arctic Resource Management class and we were able to go swimming in about 40 degree water while in dry suits.


It's getting colder and colder every day. We are starting to see a thin sheet of ice over the sound Winter is coming. I feel like i didn't get my fill of summer or fall, i feel like the seasons have progressed too fast, but not that winter is coming I want it to be here now! I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and staying up to date with my GreaterNorthernAdventures!

Life is flying by

It has been almost a year since my last post and I find that crazy! I have always heard that once you get married, a job, and start "life" that time will fly by. Well I can attest to that fact! Time has flown by, another year in the Arctic has passed and yet again we find ourselves on the doorstep of summer. This was obviously our first year of marriage and things went great. This year has been challenging with a lot of big decisons being made this year. Let's start with two huge life decisons Sam and I have made.

Decision #1 we have decided that our time in the Native village of Kiana is over for now. We are moving to Kotzebue (the big city). There were many factors that led us to this decision one of which was being offered some great jobs in Kotzebue. Sam will be moving back to elementary school and I will be teaching CTE at Kotzebue high school.

Decision #2 We have decided to buy a house in Kotzebue. Come the end of June we (hopefully) will be new home owners! 892 Caribou St. You can view it at the following link
http://melissaford.point2agent.com/Kotzebue_Homes/page_2534454.html

We have made an offer and it was accepted so we are in "hurry up and wait" mode. Waiting on an appraiser and inspector. Pretty excited to be 1st time homeowners.

Since we made our decisions I spent most of the spring traveling back and forth between Kiana and Kotzebue hauling sled loads of stuff into Kotzebue. We have a friend that was kind enough to let us store our stuff in his connex (shipping container) until we can move into our house. We also had many friends that came out to Kiana to help haul sled loads in.






On spring break I hauled a load into Kotzebue and was then able to go out to the Native Village of Noatak to hangout with a great friends Zach and Lyle. We had a lot of fun and it was a great break from Kiana. Fish had a great time too!





School is winding down for us. Today is Sunday, mothers day, of course you all know I have the greatest mom in the world, love you mom. We have 4 day of official school left. We have been packing our house and getting ready to move to Kotzebue. Every day we play the "what do we have to eat" game. We are trying to clean out our pantry and freezer so we may have some interesting meals ahead of us.
We have a rough summer plan that includes Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan and Alaska all in one month. We have work to do on our house this summer so we will be spending a lot of time in Kotzebue. I hope we get to see a lot of family and friends this summer. We will have a guest room in Kotzebue come visit us! As always thanks for reading about my Greater Northern Adventures.