First Basketball Game & First Trip to the Steamboats

The Stebbins boys and girls basketball teams played in St. Michael on Friday. Although they were just scrimmages, the games provided some excitement for the weekend. These were the first games of the season, and both the girls and boys played well.

And if you didn't already know, Heidi is the Stebbins Knights girls basketball coach this year. Woohoo!!!



Notice the scoreboard below. Yes, we were the home team. It was a successful night for the the Stebbins girls. Final score: 81-24. We played Savoonga.


The weather has warmed up substantially since last weekend, and so Heidi and I thought we would take another group out to attempt to find the steamboats once again (our first attempt proved unsuccessful). With the added snow from the last few weeks, the ten mile trip across the tundra was now possible.


P.S. Here's a rare behind the scenes look at how our blog is written. Heidi snapped this shot while I was writing last week's post. Neffy usually dictates the first draft, and I just edit from there. She would write it all herself, but she doesn't have any thumbs.

Moose Hunting

Heidi and I went moose hunting with our friends Drew and Candy last weekend, at least that's what we're calling it. We never saw a moose, and we didn't really try to look for one. Sometimes you just need a reason to get out.

Here's our rig. That's a borrowed sled in the back to carry our gear. It's a twenty-five mile trip out to the cabin, so we needed to make sure that we had plenty of gear (yes Mom & Dad, I brought the pack shovel you gave me for Christmas so we could make a survival igloo if we needed).



It was an absolutely beautiful drive, but at -30 degrees Fahrenheit we were glad to find the cabin when we did. Yes that's right, -30 flat cold, without windchill. And yes, that can get a little cold crossing the tundra mile after mile on a snowmachine. I'll have to say that it can't be done unless you have the right gear. Heidi and I have been building up our gear for awhile now and so we can do this sort of thing.


A large fox scampered across the tundra right in front of us as we pulled up to our destination. It was really exciting to see the fox after going so long without seeing much of anything.

The cabin that we stayed in was built by Candy's uppa (grandfather) and is a typical remote Alaskan cabin with no amenities except a wood stove. As is also typical of remote Alaskan cabins, we were extremely well insulated and sealed off from the elements. This little rusty stove kept us toasty warm all night.


The next morning our friend Drew fixed some Spam and cheese bagels for breakfast. Careful observers will notice that the stove pipe has changed from a rusty old one to a new silver one. Late the night before, we realized the the old rusted stove pipe was not going to make it through the night. It was literally collapsing onto itself. Drew and I searched around for materials to remedy our problem and found this new section of pipe under the cabin. Everyone was a bit nervous while we fixed our only source of heat for the night, and we were relieved when the exchange was made without a hitch.


We're already planning our next hunt. Maybe next time we'll actually do some hunting.