17. Accumulation.

Each was taken in the midafternoon from my livingroom. Top, right was durring the blizzard on Election Day. Now that the lake is frozen, it's a much shorter walk to the store.

16. Fun draising.

This is the third 8th Grade Pizza fundraiser for the Jr. Alaska Close Up trip to Juneau in January. It's a state program designed to give students a look at state government from the inside. It costs a lot to travel by plane, so we need to fundraise.

Pizza is fun to make. In the photograph on the right, Nicole, standing to the left, organized it. Lots of people chip in to help... Katie, (with the rolling pin) organized the Halloween party on Saturday the 30th. The Halloween party was a GRAND success... We decided earlier to hold school on the Saturday before Halloween just for the (ehhem...educational) party. Ryan and I were in charge of the scary room. For the most part, I was the head on the platter.

We had black lights, a strobe and a fog machine. There were all kinds of carnival games, face painting, etc., and at the end we went back to our rooms for pizza and a piñata. Everyone really came together and the kids had a great time. Last year, a teacher in Tunt took his class to Seattle through fundraising. His name is Josh Gill, and he plans to do it again this year.

Today, as Nicole and I were making pizza with our class in the kitchen, Josh was in the multipurpose room with his class

managing a community bazaar. There was soft ice cream with real Carmel melted from Carmel squares, pizza from the best (well, only) pizza shop in town, a book fair, and tables, rented by members of the community to sell all kinds of things... all in the name of fundraising. I bought a hat at the bazaar... it's made from seal skin by a woman who lives in Tunt and it is extremely warm and soft. The craftsmanship on these items is spectacular- and to wear them is to have the purest comfort experience possible. The coat was amazing... so warm, and it felt tough and sturdy. If you are interested, some of these

things are for sale. The woman who made the coat is asking $2500.00. From what I've heard, this is fairly reasonable. Sealskin products are illegal for non-natives to produce. If you are interested in having a sale arranged, I ask that you make a donation to our trip fund on top of what the artist is asking. My email address is at the bottom of the page. I've been wanting to do the Disco Tunt post for a while. It's also a fundraiser. More on Disco Tunt another time...

15. Blizzard Ballot

I'm registered in Pennsylvania, and I signed up for an absentee ballot in September. It didn't come until yesterday, so I filled it out and sent it back as soon as I received it.

After a little deliberation, I decided that since my ballot wouldn't get to PA in time to be counted, I should see if I could vote here. So I went to the community center; and as it turned out, I was able to vote (at least provisionally). The people running the voting booths at the center were very helpful and knew exactly how to handle my situation almost instantly.
Today was a hard day to be a voter in Tunt.

We had our first blizzard of the season. I realized we were having a blizzard when the school began shaking. Around 2:30, I first noticed the wind howling louder than usual outside.

I didn't think much of it until the floor started moving... I looked to the window and it was all white.

This is me in front of the school, pointing in the direction of the community center. The last picture was taken from the same exact location and at about the same time of day as the one from Center Tunt, From Livingroom. The blizzard got even worse later in the day.