Friday, June 20, 2008

I Met Some Friends


Yesterday I met 10 friends; they all wanted to visit. Their names were Nelly; Desandra, James, Rosy, Eddie, Lee, Ronald, George, and David. Their ages were from 14-4. There were more boys than girls. It was fun, after everyone left our house, we all went to a 4 way street, and played tag. Then it turned into throwing rock tag. Soon someone spit on someone and it was spit tag, but someone told their mom and everyone ran. It ended up with me and Eddie jumping on Eddie’s Granma and Grandpa’s trampoline until 10pm your time it’s 1am. I want to stay out later but G-ma says no.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Compilation from Layni





It snowed and snowed last week.. Also after it snowed the streets were buzzing with snowmobiles. The road soon became nothing but mushy snow and a lot of mud. It is better now, with warm weather - up to 60 and 65.


Today me and grandma went walking in 40* [with wind YIKE’S].As we were walking we saw a Marten [it’s a squirrel looking thing, it has a hump towards the back. It’s a little squirrel compared to the ones in Texas. Editor’s note: Locals say this is not a marten, but a ground squirrel. We sent pictures already.


Here in Wainwright almost everyone has a dog, except they all have their dog chained up outside. If they were lucky they would have a dog house. There’s this one dog that looks like Beethoven. I don’t know his name so I call him Beethoven the 4th. And Roscoe is a female dog that we really like. We have petted her.


Grandma and I counted 14 trampolines, but we’re puzzled on how they get them up here? It cost a lot just to buy a trampoline; a whole other story is the cost of shipping it all the way up here.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I'm Bored

Well, it's cold and it snowed a few days ago and it was 4 inches. On my way here I counted 49 airplanes including the planes I flew in. In Wainwright, I counted 9 trampolines - we dont have one. I wish we did though. Sigh. My Grandma keeps me going. Sometimes she makes me go outside even though I dont want to. The best part is the cafe. I know Allisa,Sally, and Ramond. They all work there and I really like them.



Here's a picture of Sally.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Pictures from Layni

Here's the best we could do with SLOW dial up access from Wainwright. I think you'll get the gist though...


The long black pieces are baleen, taken from the latest baleen whale kill. Click here for another image.


The second picture has her wearing a traditional Inupiat parka.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Wainwright Day One

Last night I ate caribou stew. Two whole helpings. I like it, but I didn't like the mooseberries. They were too sour.

This morning we got on a small plane patched together with tape and glue and flew to Wainwright.

There are no trees...and the ocean is FROZEN. There are dried up star fish washed up on the beach.

I might really stink by the time I get out of here. We have a bathtub but no shower curtain, and NO washing machine to wash our clothes in. Grandma says she'll have to do our laundry in the sink! No only do we not have a shower curtain, or a washing machine, we don't have a TV, or a car. And no internet access here at our house. Even Grandma says she wants a TV.

Grandpa says the villiage has already caught two whales and that we'll be here for the big celebration.

Fallen into the Black Hole of NO ACCESS

The last communication I had from Layni was last night at 12:09 AM...our time. She was in Barrow, Alaska, and was at the home of a family friend, Rex and Leona Okakok. She could NOT believe that they had a TV, an XBox and Guitar Hero!!


She told me that it was cold, and that it snowed a few snowflakes as they got off the plane.


Today, however, they took the small bush plane to Wainwright....and hence, she's fallen into the black hole of ....??? What did we do BEFORE cell phones and texting??? Will I have to resort to WRITING a letter?


Please Internet Access gods....please send her some connectivity. I've not gone 2 hours without a text message from Layni since she got her phone!



Thursday, May 29, 2008

You Tube of the Downstairs Composting toilet

This is the builder explaining how he built the composting toilet.

The Recycling Toilets


You will never believe me if I told you. Cindee's house is weird when it comes to the bathrooms! The top floor bathroom you pull the lid up until it touches the button, then the toilet makes this changing cat litter sound. The weirdest part is once your hiney touches the seat the thing inside the toilet opens.If you do number 2 in the upstairs toilet you have to clean it out.{ basically the toilets are porta-potties} Once you put the lid off the button the toilet makes the cat litter sound again which means its spinning the wee wee out .{ the top floor only allows pee}.

The bottom bathroom is another story. If you need to go number 1, you have to sit close to the edge of the seat if you have to do more than that, you have to put your whole bottom on the seat. {after you do your job, you have to scoop svagnumos (Sphagnum Moss) it adds bacteria that breaks down the solids... its also worm food}Also all the food scraps go down the toilet.

(The picture to the left was added by my mom...and no it's not really what the toilet looks like....it's the 1876 rendition of the same thing)...

Monday, May 26, 2008

It's Time to do Something Different

We've been part-time residents of the Bolivar Penninsula for 13 years now. Much longer than I'd say quite a few of the now residents of CB.



For those that know me, I'm not one to really tell you what I think, unless asked, but also know that I stand up for what I believe in. So...



To all of you who visit the Bolivar Texas beaches....both visitors and property owners:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Manners your mother obviously never taught you.

  1. Clean up after yourself.
  2. Throw all of your trash in the TRASH can.
  3. When you borrow something, return it in the same condition.
  4. Nothing comes for free. Someone ultimately pays for it.
  5. Don't take advantage of the system. That's just UNFAIR.

Two years ago, my daughters and I chronicled the various sand castles that were built on our beach during the summer of 2006. This year, we think we're going to chronicle something much different. The BIGGEST MESSES left on our Beach, 2008.

Today, after the Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend, it was clear that CB came through and emptied our beach trash cans over night, in anticipation for the new crowd that would stake out the beach today. In just the few minutes that I was on the beach looking at the leftover devastation from the visitors yesterday, three golf carts circled three different trash cans, BRINGING their trash generated at THEIR BEACH HOUSE to the BEACH!! What does this matter, you may ask? Well, one gentleman had 5 bags of trash, of which 2 fit in the trash can. The other 3 were left on the ground. This was at 8:15 AM. Where is the rest of the trash going to go during the course of the day for the new batch of beach goers? You guessed it. ON THE GROUND.

My message is...follow the rules your mother SHOULD have taught you. PLEASE. If you own property, PAY for GARBAGE PICK UP. If you are going to borrow our beaches, CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF.





LaM's First Post




I'm going to Wainwright, AK. Keep up with my adventures here.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Layni's Ordeal...Turned Triumph..An Update

Yesterday Layni came home from school distraught because she'd lost her science review sheet in gym. When I asked her why she had it in gym, she said, " because I wanted to study during my spare time..." Ok.. how noble...but then she was in a pickle. She came up with several plans (outlined in the email to the teacher below, of which none panned out. Read the email I sent to the teacher...and then view her video diary about what happened to her today...

Ms. Pierce:

Layni came home from school saying she'd lost her review for the test. So...I asked her what she should do. Her response was to see if it was on your FBISD page. Guess what? Our internet access was down. Plan 2....go to my son's house to use his internet access....turns out we have the same provider...so on to plan 3...to the library...unfortunately the library was CLOSED.

So....I'm asking for special dispensation...we tried...we really did, and Layni can't afford to fail.

Thanks for taking this under advisement....

Sandra McCubbin
(sent from my wireless)


Sunday, March 30, 2008

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Christmas with Santa

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

50th Anniversary Celebration

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween...Motley Crew

Monday, October 29, 2007

You Never Know....


Here's a picture of our stray cat that we found as a kitten....who has turned out to be such a sweetie!!

Friday, July 13, 2007

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

This year, in working in the Educational Technology office, I had the opportunity to work during the summer, to ready the department for the upcoming year. That means that the only vacation I had this summer was the week of July 4th, when the district offices were closed.

A week at the BEACH!! YIPPEE.....

Take a look at what my week was like.



Flood waters came complete with fish, tadpoles, snakes and TONS of fire ants and spiders swimming for safety. All things that I don't do well.

Don't feel sorry for me...wouldn't you have liked to be in a 1200 sq. foot beach house with 5 children under 12, when it rained everday for 7 straight days?