Damon Hargraves

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 firs...

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 scampere...

Here are some more pictures of Heidi and me out on the tundra. We are receiving a little more snow each night, but we still can't quite make it to the steamboats yet. When you are out here and there isn't another living thing in sight you really feel like you are on another planet. Our parkas are our spacesuits and the snowmachine is our moon buggy. This is what it looks like in every direction.

We had a carnival in Stebbins a few weeks ago. It is really nice to have a community activity that is family oriented. People of all ages, including whole families, come to the carnival. A group of students helped me take some pictures and then we put them together to make this video. Video of the Stebbins Carnival Also, click here to look at a few pictures.

I've been holding out for some real snow. It's been slow (with snow) this year. Finally though, Heidi and I took our first snowmachine trip of the year. We headed out to the old steamboats , but couldn't quite make it. Without the heavy snows the terrain is still very rough and some of the streams are still impassable. It's a pretty amazing feeling to have our back yard be such a remote area. In the time it takes for most people to get to the video store and back, we can be out and in the middle of some of the most remote country left in the United States. Thanks to Barb for the pictures.

Notice the new links to the right. The Stebbins School link is for our school site. Not a lot there, but go check it out. Damon's Student Writing Blog is just what it sounds like, a collection of writing from all of my students, throughout all of my classes. There are over forty posts, covering all sorts of topics. Each post is a paper written by one of my students. Go browse around and be sure to leave comments.

THANK YOU DAD!!! Having taught and worked in the Bush for many years, my dad knows what's important. So far this year my dad has sent four shipments of produce, and as anyone who has spent any time in the Bush knows, produce is worth its weight in gold. Without my dad the only produce that we see is a little too soft, or a little oddly colored. Below is a picture of just some of what he has sent. If you have been following the blog for awhile, you may remember the blog post about his shipments from last year. He used to send huge boxes of stuff, and inevitably some of it got smashed. This year I think he has improved his technique by sending smaller boxes. Below you'll see a box that barely survived the Bush shipping process, and it should be noted that all the goodies inside survived. This has been an ongoing project for my dad and we are extremely grateful.