I went to the hardware store again today.  It was 20 below, but no wind.  It was perfectly fine.  The air is different in the cold, and somehow the moon is also.  It was quite striking: the full moon in the middle of the day, while the sun was shining bright.  There were people driving all along the river.  There were many people ice fishing, and a few people traveling here from the towns close by.  It was interesting in that there was actually water alongside the banks; not ice.  The radio brings frequent weather forecasts, and part of the forecast is information about the tide.  Because we are about 20 miles in from the sea (not the Bering Sea itself, but the Kuskokwim Bay), there is an actual tide that still occurs even up here.  My guess as to where the non-frozen water comes from is simply the tidal surge.  So these cars and trucks that travel on the river find spots where there has been enough ice and snow pushed together to travel from the very fozen inner parts of the river onto the actual ground.  They all act like that's normal.

Many of the people were ice fishing.  What they do, while the ice is starting to form in the Fall and barely thick enough to stand on, is go out with a big poker and chip a hole in the ice.  A foot or two down the way, they chip another hole in the ice, and then they string a net from the first hole to the second, using sticks as they reach underneath the ice.  They go on down the line, making roughly ten holes all along the way, while their nets hang down.  As the temperature drops, they continue to chip at their holes; keeping them open and large enough to pull out the fish that get caught.  Naturally, they need to check their nets daily, but they need to keep the holes open too, which at almost four feet thick, is quite an endeavor.  They put up flags so that when people snow-machine and drive, they stay clear of the very significant holes in the ice.

Our house is almost a home, as silverware has finally arrived.  Samara has made a good friend in a neighbor.  There have been multiple sleep-overs that have occured in both directions in the past couple of weeks; mostly during Christmas vacation.  Her friend is in the third grade, while she is the second.  They are in different schools, however.  Our kids are now in public school, and try as Aidan might, he enjoyed his first day of school anyway.  Samara absolutely loooooved her first lesson in Yupik, while that was Aidan's only complaint, (which was very feabile, even considering his extraordinary talent).  The girls all went to a Slavik celebration yesterday (Russian New Year).  Many people all getting together, mostly speaking Yupik, singing Christmas carols and handing out candy.  The party goes on for a couple of weeks, or however long people want an excuse to play.

We got the web-cam operating today.  That was wondrous for the kids to talk with their cousins in Tennessee today.  Now we can branch out and talk with others in the mix.  Love the Skype!