Chignik Bay Weather Since the Beginning of December

            The weather in Chignik has been cold and filled with snow since the end of November and begining of December. Now it is February and it is wet and warm. This is the time the avalanches come down. So we take caution when driving and walking around these mountainsides. And most of the elders here know about the casualties of messing around near the avalanche areas. We’ve had three avalanches in one night. And that tells you that we should not be near these destructive path makers. Just last winter, an avalanche came down behind a locally owned shop and destroyed crab pots and some old boats that were stored in the back.  One village elder told me that the winters have been getting worse since the late 80’s and early 90’s. About ten years ago an avalanche-forced people to evacuate their homes. The slide was so massive that it took them one week to clean. It also through a chunk that was thirty or forty feet tall into the bay and when it hit the water sounded like a airplane ran out of gas and crashed. And as I was typing this article, another avalanche came down, it was enormous. It had to be forty to fifty feet tall. As it came down it destroyed everything in sight. We are going to need some warm weather and rain to melt the snow away. But that is not going to happen with the weather we’ve been receiving.  

Avalanche engulfs locally owned shop.

Caylen digging out snow that stacked up more then 7 feet.
 

Extra picture of the shop, everything inside got pushed forward.

            

New Lights for the School!

            Anna Hilbruner, working for the Alaska Building Network, came to Chignik Bay School to work on changing the lights to use energy efficient light bulbs. This helps the environment and save our school money. Their guess is that the school will save about $4,579 per year. I think it is pretty cool because that saves the school more money and we can do more stuff with that money.

She said her favorite part of the job is seeing new communities’ and meeting new people. She got her job by meeting the right people and talking about the right things. She said her college degree helped out when she was getting her job.   

The crew getting lights to put up. 

Finishing up the lights. 

The tree in the libary.

The biggest tree cookie in town.

  There is a tree cookie in our library.  Ron Richter was the one that brought it here.  He found the tree cookie in Montana.  He thinks it’s a Ponderosa Pine from the west fork of the Bitter Root Valley.   The tree started to grow in 1512 and the tree died in 1992. The Ponderosa Pine was 480 years old. It has a paper on it that tells when it was born and when it died. There’s a lot of history on it. The paper was written when Ron Richter was helping build the school.

The tree has rings that tell how old it is. Dendrochronology is how to tell time by a tree.  I want to be a Dendrochronology person when I get older and grow up.

 

Science project

 We are having a wonderful year, we started with taking weight from the gym trash to the kitchen trash. Now we have red wiggler worms that are for the compost that has started right after thanksgiving. The experiment was to see how much trash could be reduced. The amount of data collected over the first couple months showed the average was found 25.3 pounds per day. It was then multiplied by the amount of days we had of school. Which was then equaled to a total of 4,630 pounds of trash a year. Our goal this year is to reduce the pounds of trash wasted every day. By doing so we will feed the left overs to the red wiggler worms. As for the metal cans we are going to find new uses and ways to reuse it in projects. I will tell you what those projects will be as soon as we start them.

Do we have enough cans.

Bread anyone it has it's own flavor.

Do i have to weigh this?

Dose this garbage smell funny to you and it weighs more in the kitchen then it dose in the gym.

Overdue Halloween Pictures

Getting ready for the party!

This creature will hurt you.

Minute to win it games.

The Gypsy vs. The Lumberjack

This is what fun looks like in Chignik Bay.

Down, Set, Hike!

Fish and Wildlife visitors

            Mrs. Kresl’s class talked with Fish and Wildlife visitors.  We did lots of activities with them.  We touched animal furs like beaver, muskrat, land otter, and weasel.  We also played a migrating bird game.  Then, we learned about the Water Cycle.  We played a game where we pretended to turn into a water drop and went on a trip around the gym.  Next, we went for a walk outside to look for things that had water.  Then, we drew pictures of what we saw on our walk.  We saw monkey moths, fish, a rainbow, boats, a river, and waterfalls.  We had lots of fun!

 

Written by: Candace, Ella, Faith Ann, Kya, and Walt

Our Favorite Parts:

Candace & Faith Ann

“The Water Drop game was our favorite!

Kya

Playing the migrating game was the best!

Ella & Walt

I liked touching the animal skins the best!

School Lunches

School lunches!    

By: Babyboo  

Chignik Bay School has the best cook in the district. She is also my grandma. Minnie has been working for the school for quite some time now, off and on for about 25 years. All of the children in Chignik Bay have grown up eating her school lunches. She is one of the most talented cooks I know of. I am going to tell you about one of her best dishes.   

Students enjoying some real cooking!

Minnie makes the best barbeque chicken. My guess is she rubs the chicken with the barbeque sauce. The way she makes the sauce is good. It tastes sweet, sour, and a little bit spicy, but not too spicy. She never over cooks it either; it’s always so perfect. And when people are done with the chicken you can hear them licking their fingers because it’s so good and the sauce is so awesome they can’t get enough of it. When you get done eating you can feel that sticky sauce on your fingers.

Lunch time in Chignik Bay.

Minnie said she learned her good cooking skills from her mom, Annie. Her mom taught her how to make homemade bread when Minnie was only 8 years old. Try a piece of her homemade rolls or donuts and you can tell she’s been at it a long time.

If I were you, I wouldn’t wait any longer to eat Minnie’s cooking.

Note: Minnie is currently out of town and won’t be back until the end of November. We are anxiously awaiting her return!