Hey folks, It's been a while, but we're still trying to get over the shock of the fact that our baby is without a doubt, an alien. It's hard to believe, but a picture is worth a thousand words, and I have only three words....... intergallactic child support.

And all those times I laughed and mocked the rednecks and their stories of UFO's and being abducted by aliens......

We'll see who's laughing when my kid's first words are "Take me to your leader"......

The Doc say's "It's normal" but I'm still going to have some sort of weapon on hand when we deliver.... I saw that TV series "V" back in the 80's.... I know how this works!

On a brighter note, there were whales in the other day about 15 feet offshore. These are Gray Whales (or is it Grey Whales... you'd think a Zoologist might know.....) and the Bowheads will be in soon. The locals only hunt the Bowheads, and these Gray's seemed to know it. They milled around eating krill (little shrimp) right in front of town. It was really amazing to be that close.

This is a momma walrus and her pup on the beach. I guess it's rare to see them on the beach when the ice is still out at sea, but I guess everyone's adapting to Global Warming......

I thought about getting closer, but I had a flashback to a "When Animals Attack" show I watched and I thought about how nobody ever THINKS they're going to wind up in a "When Animals Attack" show........

Here's Janna at the Will Rogers Monument where his plane crashed. It's about 12 miles down the beach from Barrow.

And here's Janna enjoying her favorite pastime in a field of lovely cottongrass just outside of town.

And of course, Barrow Football. Furthest north football game on the planet! This is the new field. They call it "Smurf Turf" and a Florida woman named Cathy Parker raised over 1/2 million to build it. It's pretty incredible to see a football game on fieldturf over one shoulder and whales in the arctic ocean over the other. ESPN came out and filmed the game..... must seem crazy to folks in the lower 48, but it all seems normal up here.

And should you win the game, you get a free swim in the arctic ocean. Water temperatures are in the mid 30's in the summer..........

And no, nobody tried to harpoon me.........

Arctic Mermaids?????


This is the sun "almost setting" right at midnight when we first got here in early August.
And here's a herd of caribou. Lucky for them, the mighty hunter (yeah, Janna) was without a rifle. I tried to catch one the old fashioned way, but due to lack of exercise, I'm not quite as fast as I used to be....... However, because of my lack of exercise, I now weigh more than the average caribou, so if I do get a hold of one, I'll have a decided weight advantage. And don't worry mom, the medical care up here is top-notch.

I guess that's all the pics for now. We'll keep you posted on the baby and everything else.

Miss you all,
-N&J

RIDE TO POINT BARROW

The sun was shining brightly, and even though it was around 8:00 at night, we decided to take a ride out to Point Barrow, which is as far north as you can go, without jumping on an iceberg. In order to get to The Point, you have to ride out a few miles on a spit. It was pretty exciting because the salmon were running, so we figured we would throw our poles in the water, and try our luck fishing in the Arctic Ocean.

Below is a picture of the spit as we are riding toward the end of it.

A self portrait of the adventurous duo.
This is the very end of the spit. There were actually some polar bear sightings here very recently, so we were very careful to be on the lookout while we were here. Somehow I think that running into a polar bear would not mean good things for us.
One really neat thing is the beach combing. There are a lot of really neat shells, rocks, and odds and ends that wash up on shore.
Nick threw his line in the water, but no salmon took the bait. Nick may have to stick to "catching" caribou and lemmings.

Lastly, there were birds EVERYWHERE. Ga-Millions upon Ga-Millions of birds summer in Barrow.

Anyway, we hope that all is well back home, and know that we are well and safe up on top of the world. We are really enjoying the community here and look forward to a great year!

The Pader's on Top of the World!

For those of you who have not heard, we have moved to the top of the world--that's right, Barrow, Alaska! We would also like to welcome you to our brand new, improved blog. How is it improved, you ask? Well, the answer is that we are actually planning on updating it this year. I know. It is a miracle. We are SO excited to be in Barrow. We have only been here just under three weeks, and already are enjoying it immensely. We are right on the beautiful Arctic Ocean, and the sun has been shining 24 hours. Although that may seem like a hard thing to get used to, we just put aluminum foil on our windows and are good to go!

Below is a picture of the sign welcoming people to the Top of the World. It is surrounded by whale bones.
You can just make out a barge over to the right, which was unloading things that people ordered from Seattle. The barge only comes once a year, and is stationed in Seattle.
I will take some more pics of Barrow, but this is a picture right next to the beach.
We took a ride out onto the tundra. We were joking that they shouldn't call this area "The North Slope" they should call it "The North Flat." It IS flat, but there is an amazisng beauty to it. When you think that the ice only leaves for a few months out of the year, the plants that survive out here are pretty amazing. We were dissapointed to learn that blueberries don't grow all the way up here, but hopefully our friends will send us some berries (hint, hint Damon and Heidi)....
We think that the wood that you can see in this picture had a gas line on it at one time.

You can see the white flowers in the picture above are everywhere. They look like a stem with a big ball of cotton on each one. We haven't seen any fireweed up here yet....

We thought the picture above was really pretty. Some sort of arctic crop circle....

And now for the best part....Caribou! We saw a big herd on our first ride out. You can see them in the distance by the lake.

We are really excited about being up here, and are hoping we have a lot of visitors this year!

Summer 2007

Well, we had a really fun summer fishing in Dillingham and visiting friends and family in Seattle and Spokane. Perhaps the highlight was meeting my nephew Jack for the first time. Jack is ten months old, well technically eleven months now. He is the cutest baby I have ever seen, and I could not resist putting this pic in our first blog of the year. More soon!

Hike up Snake Mountain

Toward the end of October, we had the opportunity to hike up Snake Mountain. It is probably a couple of miles to the top, and has the most gorgeous views that you can see around. Below are some of the pics from our hike.

The day was really clear, and actually quite warm still. The ground was pretty muddy in places. Nick appreciates that I did not take a picture of him sliding down the hill on his butt--but I guess there were more scenic things to see.

More gorgeous shots....

and more shots....

and more......

Above is a shot of Charlotte (our friend), walking up the "false summit." I swear the hike had about seven false summits. Every time we thought we were getting to the top, there was just a little more to go.

Nick hunted on the way up the mountain. We didn't see any Spruce Grouse, but we did see a few Ptarmigan (the Alaska st. bird). Apparently they are pretty tasty. They turn white in the winter, and their feathers were just starting to change.

A view from the top--you can see Snake Lake off in the distance.

It was pretty frigid at the top. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and our hands got pretty frozen. The views in Dillingham really can't be beat--it is easily one of the most breath-taking places I have ever been.

We hope this blog finds you all well. Keep up the emails--we sure do appreciate them.

Dillingham Pics: August/September/October

I know it has been a really long time since we last blogged. So we thought we would give you a taste of what we have been doing the last few months. Below are some of the highlights of life in Dillingham in August, September, and some of October. We will load some more recent ones in a couple of days.

When we first arrived in Dillingham, the Silver Salmon were just starting to run. We missed the Sockeye Salmon run by a few weeks. Above is a picture of one of our better fishing days. We caught Silver, Char, Rainbow, and Whitefish. We fished right at the outlet of the Wood River on Lake Aleknagik.

Nick, taking the eggs out of one of the silver salmon. We cured the eggs and then used them to catch more Salmon.
Janna--proving that she can still fillet like a champion. Seriously.... a champion!

The view across Lake Aleknagik. The lake is 17 miles up from the town of Dillingham, and just across the lake is the village of Aleknagik.

Above is a picture of the moose that Nick and Larry (green sweatshirt) shot. It isn't very big for a moose, but even a small moose is a huge animal. As the guys skinned and quartered it (in the dark), we could hear a large animal (almost certainly a grizzly bear) in the brush WAY too close to us. Janna stood guard with a spotlight and a gun, protecting the men from certain death, with nasty, big, pointy teeth....... The next morning the carcass had been totally ravaged by a bear and covered with grass and brush. It was really quite an adventure, and we stocked our freezer with meat for several months.

On the way to Lake Aleknagik there are a couple of lakes called, Twin Lakes. We crossed one of the lakes in our float tube, and fished the larger lake in back (I am not sure what it is called). Anyway, we were just about ready to quit, when a Northern Pike grabbed Nick's lure. It was so big, it wouldn't fit into the net we brought, so Nick had to kick the float tube to shore, just to land the fish (I'm having Moby Dick flashbacks....).

A better shot of the Northern Pike--also called "snakes" because of their shape and nasty teeth (and the fact that they prey on mice and other small rodents near shore).
Above is a picture of Snake Lake. On one of our first weeks here, we went exploring, and ended up on Snake Lake Road. We had no idea that at the end of the road was this gorgeous lake. Apparently it has good trout fishing at the outlet, but you need a boat to get there.

We were lucky enough to get to go out on Lake Aleknagik on one of the most beautiful fall days. Our friend TOny took us out in his boat. We went up to the inlet of the lake and fished (we caught mostly Char). That's Tony in the back hiding behind Janna.

This picture just doesn't give the day we had justice. Between the fall colors, and the gorgeous weather, it was the perfect day.

Another gorgeous picture. There are actually five lakes all connected by rivers. Lake Aleknagik is the lowest lake. This summer we are going to fly up to the fifth lake and do a float trip down. It is supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.

Another view from the boat.

Nick and Tony, pulling the boat up on shore after our trip.

Well, this last one is for Damon and Heidi--we have continued to keep the tradition of making pizza, even though it isn't the same without you guys. Lately we have been into making pizza bagels, mostly because they are yummy, but also partly because they're yummy.

Hope you all are having a good fall/winter. We're having a great time here, but we sure do miss all of our friends and family. Keep in touch.
-N&J

Trip to the Steamboats!

We were lucky enough to get to borrow a snowmachine for the day, and we took a trip that everyone has been saying we must take before we leave. Apparently, the town of St. Michael, which is only about 12 miles away, used to be a booming goldrush town in the late 1800's. So much so that the town grew to over 20,000 people at one time. There was a hotel (that could sleep over 500 people), as well as other ammenities, all of which are long gone now. There were over 55 companies that sold passage on steamboats that usually went from Seattle to St. Michael. Eventually, a canal was dug, to make the trip shorter and safer. The story goes that a steamboat got caught up in a big storm, and the water level rose significantly. So much so that when the water went back down, the boat was miles from the canal. Another steamboat became grounded trying to save the first one. So, these steamboats, paddles and all, have been sitting on the land since the early 1900's. They are supposedly 200 feet long, by 40 feet wide, and the paddles are still visible. This year, they were mostly covered in snow, but in the past, teachers said that they stood right on the deck of the ship. The goldrush ended in St. Michael when gold was discovered in Nome, and most of the population moved that way. Now the town of St. Michael is only around 200, and the only real signs of the goldrush are some pieces of rusty equipment on the beach.

Getting ready for our trip.....

We left Stebbins in the late afternoon. Damon, Heidi, Vern, Irene, and Robin were all a part of the entourage. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was at least 35 degrees, so it is really warming up around here!
The group by one of the paddles. A lot of the wood has been stripped, but the basic outline of it is still there.

Another shot.............

Robin and Nick, defying gravity, and the tests of time. (The wood did not look real sturdy).

More shots of the paddles.

And More.....

Afterwards, Heidi and Damon broke out the hot chocolate and we relaxed in the snow.

It is really fun to see this amazing part of history. It is really crazy to think that the town we have been visiting all year for groceries, is the same town where 20,000 people were living at one time!