November 29 - Thursday

November 29 - Wednesday

Well, we finally got a little snow. Four inches on Monday is better than nothing. Then this morning I awoke to a few more inches. I caught this picture out my bedroom window, but should have taken the picture before I had breakfast and before it started to melt.



Across the street, you see the house of Barb and Ken. Barb has been the acting community library director and wonderful to work with. Today, she and Ken fly out to their trap lines until March. They would normally been gone long ago, but Ken had pneumonia and had to delay the trip. The way she talks about his coughing, it doesn't sound as if he's well enough to go now, but she says he's been chomping at the bit to go.

I have been trying to organize a library aide training that would bring all the village aides into McGrath for lessons with the Alaska State Library Youth Services Librarian and me, but I was told 2 weeks ago that the money had to be spent by the end of December and I've only gotten three people who will come, besides the aide from the McGrath library. The state librarian is chomping at the bit for answers and I'm trying to learn from the school district accountant if we will even proceed with the plans. The only possible time would have been next week. There was a suggestion that we hold it in Grayling since that is the library that needs the most help, but one of Grayling's aides will be outside (out of Alaska) and the other has another day job and probably will not come even if it is held in their library. The McGrath aide couldn't have gone to Grayling because it is a community library in the school district building. Besides, I can't imagine climbing in a bush plane with my one good foot and crutches - a truck is bad enough.

Last evening, we had a houseful of people for Mike's 60th birthday. Most of the people I already knew. Two new acquaintances where one the local Physician's Assistants and his wife with their 3 week old baby. So, new baby, Mike's birthday and Carla's being home from Israel gave a lot to talk about, if help was needed. Mike also talked about some of his youthful experiences. There was talk about Francis and Joanne having to move their cabin 3 miles because it is now on federal land; materials are so hard to come by that one does not abandon a house and build another. We discussed the old way of mining gold when they used mercury spread on tables to pull the gold out of the ore dust and then balled up the mercury to heat, which vaporized the mercury and left the gold. There is an operating gold mine near McGrath. Several here last night worked in the mine at one time and the assistant superintendent's son works there now.

I've taken the day off from work because the heels of my hands have swollen so badly from the crutches that I can barely hold the handles anymore. When not writing a blog entry, I'm emailing to settle the training questions.