Brrrrrr It's Cold Ice Fishing

It is January 2011 and Anchorage has no snow.  The lower 48 has all the snow.  This isn't fair.Well, I knew if I waited long enough, it would snow.  It did!!!  I had a wonderful winter break in Memphis. I went home a week early and it was fabulous.  We celebrated our family Christmas in Chicago this year rather than everyone coming to Memphis.  The Warmbold picture was taken in Chicago with Tyler, Cara, and Jensina.  We had 20 of us for three days staying at my brother Chip's house. It was such a blast of family fun. We were thrilled that 4 of my siblings and Mom were able to be together this past holiday.  David's sister, Nancy, and family came to join us for the day and the traditional "Pictionary" game was once again won by the GIRLS!!!!! If you only saw what the boys drew.  That strange picture above was David's drawing of  "a strap".  Go figure? No wonder the women won. Since I returned to Anchorage, it has been a very hectic pace. I was fortunate enough to have another "moose encounter" a couple of days after returning.  That is my white Volvo in the background.  This moose was a grown teen but not quite an adult.  That is according to the hunters at my school.  I got very close to the hungry moose with one of my pictures.  So close I thought he was going to climb over the 6 foot fence to discuss his photo fee.  I got the message - please leave! So I did.  The trees outside my classroom  show the beautiful hoar frost against the gorgeous blue Alaskan sky.  School has been so exciting since I returned.  We have been learning about the different body systems and building paper models of the different systems.  Aren't they the cutest students.  I love teaching them and they soak up any information I provide.  If the students complete each lesson with a few minutes left over, we play "Minute to Win It" activities.  This young darling, Teleahlofonti, demonstrates how important it is to keep our muscles in good shape.  You never know when a cookie will land on your forehead and need to travel to your mouth using only your facial muscles.  The older classes had to tell me which muscles they used to participate in the MITWI.  My next MITWI will be fun to watch as well.  In early January, we celebrated all of our friends January birthdays by having an "Ice Fishing BDay Party"!!!!! And as luck would have it, it was minus 14 degrees this particular day on Fire Lake (one of Eagle River's float/ice plane landing strips).  Standing on ice was too cold for most of my friends, but I wore my Bunny Boots (US Air Force approved) and my tootsies were very warm.  Andrew agreed to give us fishing instructions and he brought all the fishing equipment.  The rest of us had to bring the chili dogs, brownies, Frito's, hot chocolate and the cold adult beverages.  The red Eskimo house was big enough to hold three adults while fishing.  We only had one fishing pole in there so we could keep the heater and food a bit warmer.  The auger drills the hole, then you attach the bait (salmon eggs froze so we used shrimp) and set the pole.  Andrew had fancy "pop up" pole indicator so we could attend to the hand held poles.  We had 12 fishing holes surrounding the tent.  The red thing is a skimmer used to skim off the top layer of ice so the fishing pole line doesn't freeze.  Andrew said the ice was 8 inches thick where we were fishing.  Andrew and Beth (room mate) shared a brew after about 5 hours and no fish!!  We saw a wonderfully big Pike swim beneath the hole but didn't take the bait.  The last few minutes we were fishing a float plane landed use beyond where we were fishing. That was so cool.  Each of us had an opportunity to drill our own fishing hole and then a group picture of the three of us with the "big auger". This week we have been busy hosting lots of activities. Last night our small apartment held 30 people for a Silpada jewelry party and then today I hosted the DKG chapter for breakfast and workshop to prepare for our April State Convention.  Lots of things are happening. I am getting so excited about the Iditarod this year (March 5). I am working the start of the race, as a dog handler (someone who gets the mushers dogs in line to race) and then I fly to Nome to help with the finish of the race.  I will be staying with a local family and work many different jobs.  More details to come.  My other big news is I will be taking a Bear trip in June.  It will be on Admiral Ty Island by float plane, kayaking and hiking to observe bears in different habitats. It will be mating season at that time.  More about this trip later.
I hope all of you will have a wonderfully warm January.  Memphis has had more school days off due to snow.  We finally got a few inches of snow last night and we went cross country skiing today. It was fantastic.  We work just a sweater, hat and no gloves because it was so warm (27) compared to the last few weeks when we have been below zero every day.
Take care. I will try to be more consistent with my blog. Hugs from Sheryl the Nanuq of the North!