I saw a lynx!

I saw a lynx! For the first time in either Venetie or Stevens, one of the Arctic's mammals was hanging around our house. The lynx was walking down the road in broad daylight like it didn't have a care in the world, less than a football field away. I spotted it while running between the back door of the school and our house. I threw open the door and started yelling to Alice and the kids to come to the front door, then realized that it would be out of sight, yelled at them to go to the window. We all watched it saunter on down the road until it went out of sight. So cool! Like the northern lights or the hot springs near Fairbanks, it's these little things that will turn into the awesome memories of living in Alaska when we leave.

Now, the power going out when it's -60 and staying out for 3 hours will also stick in our memories, but for other reasons. After 3 hours without power, the trailer was getting cold, but not unbearable. The village generator had run out of oil and the generator house was so cold that all the extra quarts of oil had frozen. The school generator house's heating unit was also out, unbeknownst to me, and it took a portable generator, heater, and about an hour and a half to get our generator warm enough to run. Then, as luck would have it, the generator was overheating every few hours, and it took some time to figure out that problem. Another day in paradise!

On a plus side, the -60 temperature was a bit of a surprise, as we've been spoiled on temperatures right around 0 for most of January. With the sun coming back at about 5-7 more minutes of daylight a day, it's starting to feel more and more like spring here. We could always dip back down to extreme cold in February, but we really feel like the worst of the winter is over.

In even better news, we're nearing the end of our adoption journey. In fact, we intend on leaving Stevens in a short 5 weeks to begin heading to the lower 48 and then to Africa to complete the adoption. 35 days left! When we finally leave, we will have been in the village, and off the road system, for 200 days straight! We haven't seen a stoplight, a Wal Mart, a Starbucks, a police car, a grocery store...you name it! For 200 days! How have we not gone insane?

If things go as we plan, and they probably won't, we will drive on down to the lower 48, fly to Africa, come back and visit with family before heading back to Alaska in August, meaning we'll have 5 months away from village life. Then we'll begin what will likely be our last year in the Bush, and this time we're definitely coming home for Christmas! After 200 days of living between the school and the 20 yards to our trailer, we have a lot of excitement coming to us in 2013!