Weather

It has been very nice out in the past couple days. It It was nice enough out yesterday that I was able to change the oil on my Trx450r. I had two change two different oils on my bike. I have to change my engine oil every 20 hours after riding. And I have to change my transmission oil every 40 hours of riding.

Last Couple Weeks of School

I only have one week and two days of school left. My final day of academic school is on May 8th. But I graduate from high school on May 15th. The 8th is my last day of school because from the 11th through 15th my class will be decorating the Rec hall. We will be decorating for our graduation ceremony.

My Bike

I had to take my Trx450r out of my storage space this weekend. It was not able to start by using my electric start. And my bike does not have a kickstart. So I have to use my electric start all the time. So I had to attach a rope to my dads truck and had to pull start it.

When I pull start my bike I have to put my bike in second gear and hold my clutch. Once I get to an appropriate speed I have to let go of my clutch. And this will make the engine fire up. After the engine starts, I have to give it some gas by pushing the throttle to keep the engine going. After the engine stays on I detach the rope from my bike.

Once I got the engine started on my bike I brought it to my house. I was not able to take off with my bike. I was not able to take off because my clutch was sticky. It was not releasing after every time I pulled it. So I had to go to the store and by WD40 to spray on the clutch wires.

After I sprayed it a few times the clutch was a little better. I kept spraying the wires and pulling the clutch. I kept pulling it until it did not stick anymore. After the clutch was fixed I took it out for a ride. I drove it all through town and out of town.

Senior Skip Day

Two days ago everyone in my senior class skipped school. Every year the seniors at my school choose a day that they want to skip. Our class chose Tuesday to be our skip day. We chose Tuesday because it was the first school day of the week for us. It was the first school day of the week because we had parent teacher conferences on Monday.

For skip day everyone went to school at eight in the morning but left right away. Everybody went home until noon. At noon everyone went to one persons house. When we were at this persons house we just hung out and played games. We stayed at his house pretty much all day.

Trx450r

Yesterday I went to go check on my Trx450r that I bought late this summer. I had put it away around October last year. I put it away because it was not able to start anymore. It was not able to start because it was getting to cold outside. And my Trx450r only has an electric start and not a kickstart.

When I went to go check on it it was not able to start. It was not able to start because the battery was dead. The battery died because I forgot to disconnect it from my bike when I put it away. I was supposed to disconnect it because there is a short circuit somewhere in my bike that drains the battery. But it looked okay.

Weather

The past couple days of this week the weather has been slightly warm. On Wednesday the weather was really nice and calm. It was so nice that my class was able to go out to our ball field and play "softball." But we were not playing an actual game we all just took turns hitting the softball. It was pretty fun because I have not played softball in a long time.

On Thursday it was also really nice out. It was really nice in the morning and we went out to play softball again. In the afternoon it got a little colder but we went out and played softball again. It was kind of cold out when we were playing but it was not that bad. But it stayed sunny out for the rest of the day.

Today the weather is really cold. It is cold but it is not snowing at all. The sky is slightly cloudy. But it is mostly sunny and has been sunny the whole day. So the weather has been pretty nice for the past couple of days.

Hacky Sacking

Yesterday I played a game called hacky sack. A hacky sack is a small bag that is usually filled with sand or small beads. There are a lot of ways you could play hacky sack. But the most popular ways to play are games called "killer" and "elimination." These are the games that I played yesterday.

"Killer" is a game where you have to kick the hacky sack a certain number of times without letting it hit the ground.  And once you hit it the certain number of time you have to catch the hacky sack. And the people who did not catch the hacky sack have to sit completely still. And the if one of the people move, the person who has the hacky sack can throw it at the person who moved. And if they hit the person who moved than that person is out.

"Elimination" is a game where you have to hit the hacky sack on your first attempt to kick it. If you miss the hacky sack when you first attempt to hit it than you are out. But if you miss the hacky sack after you already kicked it once than you are still in the game. If a person catches the hacky sack in their hands than they are out. And if a person gets out than every single person who was playing gets to throw the hacky sack at that person.

It was pretty fun hacky sacking yesterday. I was playing the games with Robert and Andrey. I was able to win a few times in each game. And I was doing pretty good even though I haven't played in a long time. But yea it was pretty fun to be able to play hacky sack yesterday.

Summer

I graduate from high school on Friday May 15th. The seniors get out of school a week before the rest of the students in the school. For the week before I graduate the seniors will be decorating the town Rec hall. The day after the seniors graduate the head start children will use the Rec hall for their graduation ceremony. And the next couple days we will be taking down all of the decorations we used.

During the summer I am going to be working as a baiter. I will be baiting for my Uncle Phillip. I baited for him last year also and made quite a bit of money. Baiting is one of the highest paying job a person could have for the summer. And hopefully I will be able to make as much money as I made last year.

I will be working with three other people. I think that two of the three people I will be working with are the same people I worked with last year. My uncle usually likes to hire two boys and two girls to work for him as a baiter. I think that my uncle will hire a different girl this year. He might hire a different girl because the other girl left for school and he does not know if she will come back this summer.

I think that baiting is a pretty good job to have for the summer. It is a good job because it is a really high paying job. And you only have to work about three to four hours a day. Also it is a very easy job to do because you are just cutting up bait and putting the bait on halibut hooks. The only down side of being a baiter is that you have to wear the same bad smelling clothes every day.

Weather here on St.Paul Island

The weather here on St. Paul has been very cold recently. It started to get really cold here a couple days after we came back from our basketball trip. The day we came back from our trip it was pretty warm here. It is very cold but there is still barely any snow around. All of the snow gets blown away and covered in sand.

Carpentry Class

In my final semester of high school I am taking a carpentry class. This is my third carpentry class that I have taken in since I have started high school. I took my first carpentry class in my 9th grade year. And I took my second carpentry class in my 11th grade year. So now I am taking my third carpentry class in my 12th grade year.


During my first carpentry class I made three different things. The first thing I made was a small tool shelf that I kept in the carpentry shop after I made it. The second thing I made was a medium sized table to put my television on. And the third thing that I made was a small wooden bowl that I use for coins. It took me nearly half of the semester to carve out that bowl. /


During my second carpentry class I only made one thing throughout the whole semester. The thing I made was a large box. I use this box for extra parts that I have for my four-wheeler. The reason why that was the only thing I made was because the teacher I had during that semester only wanted us to make what he said to make. And he made us do it really slow so it took us the whole semester to make it.


During this semester I had made only two things so far. The first thing I made was a small spice rack. The second thing I am making is a small jewelry box. I am still making the jewelry box but I am almost done with it. When I am done with this project I am going to start making a small shed just big enough to fit my four-wheeler in.

Iditarod Reading Race

Here in St.Paul our school does an Iditarod reading race. Most of the students in the school have to participate in this race. But the majority of the students who enter the race never finish. You have to read about 380 pages of a chapter book to be able to finish the race. I was able top finish the race yesterday.

Anchorage

When the basketball was finished with regionals we went over to Anchorage Alaska. We had to take a nine seated plane from Newhalen to Anchorage. The plane ride lasted about an hour. When we landed at the airport we had to sit at Iliamna Air terminal and wait for our ride. Our coach had to take a cab to the Ted Stevens airport and rent a car so that he could pick us up.

When our coach picked us up we took all of our luggage to the Coast International Inn. After we got all of our bags there we went over to the Village Inn, and had some lunch. After we were all finished eating our lunches we went over to the Fur rendezvous/ carnival. We only stayed there for about an hour because it was boring and it was cold outside. So we decided to go to the 5th Avenue mall. 

After everyone was done buying stuff we went back to the hotel. We stayed at the hotel for a while and just hung out. Then my sister picked Robert and I up from the hotel so that we could go eat. We went to Red Robins for dinner. After we were done eating we went over to Walmart and bought some stuff. 

After we went to Walmart we went to my sisters apartment. We sat in there living room for a little while and watched television. After a while we got bored so we went upstairs and started to play video games. We were playing Call Of Duty online with other people. After we played games for an hour or so, we went to bed. 

The next morning we had to wake up early. We had to wake up early because our coach had an appointment at the apple store in 5th Avenue mall to have his computer fixed. While he was at his appointment every one was just walking around the mall. Some of us went to the food court at the mall and ate lunch. I went to subway and ate a sandwich for lunch.

After everyone was done buying stuff from 5th Avenue Mall we went over to Dimond Center Mall. We stayed there for about an hour and a half. Our coach had to go to the hospital and get his teeth worked on. Some of us who were at Dimond Center mall walked over to Walmart. We bought a bunch of drinks and snacks. 

After we were done at Walmart we took all of the stuff we bought to the hotel. And when we left the hotel we went over to Moose's Tooth for dinner. We had to wait there for a while before we were able to eat because we were waiting on the person who said they would pay for the dinner. We were waiting there for about a half n hour before the guy showed up. When he finally showed up we ordered four pizzas.

After we ate we went back to the hotel. Then Robert and I got picked up from my sister and Roberts brother. We went to there apartment and hung out for a while. After a while we decided to go to a gas station to buy some drinks and snacks. Then we went over to Dimond Center and watched a movie.

The next day we had to wake up early and head to the hotel. We were up before the rest of the team. When we got to the hotel everyone else was still sleeping. After every body woke up we went over to the University of Alaska Anchorage. We took a tour of the whole campus. The tour lasted about an hour.

After we were done with the tour we went over to Dimond Center for a while. When we were done at Dimond we went over to the Cabelas store. I bought a bunch of bullets from there. After we were done there we went of to the Sports Authority store and then went over to REI. And then we went over to Red Robins for dinner.

Regionals

We left St. Paul last Wednesday to go to Newhalen for a Regional Basketball tournament. There were six different teams here at the tournament. The teams that went were St. Paul, Newhalen, New Stuyahok, Port Alsworth, King Cove and Manokotak. The games started on Wednesday the 4th and ended on Saturday the 7th. There were at least two games every day except for Saturday where they only had one game.

We played our first game against the Newhalen basketball team. The score was very close through out the whole game. We were down by a couple points near the end of the fourth quarter but we were able to time the game and the game was put into overtime. They put four minutes on the clock for over time. We kept it close through the beginning of the over time but we ended up losing at the end.

The next game we played was against Port Alsworth. We played this game the same day as we played against Newhalen. Every one on our team was playing a little sloppy. We were all tired because we played a game already that day. We led throughout the whole game but we were playing really sloppy in the first half and our coach was mad at us. We played a lot better in the second half and came out with the win.

The next day we played our final game against New Stuyahok. Every one was still tired when we started playing this game. We were a head by about 14 points at the end of the first half. But we started playing really sloppy when the second half started. We ended up losing to them by about eight points.

Basketball

I played my last home game on friday. We also had senior night before we started the game. Senior night is when our coach announces that we are seniors and that it will be our last game we play at home as Sea Parrots. Coach had each one of walk to the middle of the court while he talked about how it was having each of us on the team. It was pretty fun playing our last home game.

Basketball Practice

On Wednesday we started off our practice with three quarters of running. Each quarter was 8 minutes long. And the breaks between each of the quarters were only about a minute and a half long. When we were finished doing all of our quarter we practiced our plays. After we were done practicing all of our plays we started to shoot our free-throws.

On Thursday we started off our practice with only one quarter of running. We only did one quarter of running because we usually only do a shoot around practice the day before we play a game. After we were done with our quarter we started shooting our twenty-fives. And after we were done with that we started to shoot free-throws for a little bit. Then we went back to shooting our twenty-fives until our coach came out of a meeting than we were finished with practice.

Basketball

At the beginning of this week our basketball coach told us that we need to be running our hardest while we are in practice. He told us that we have to be running 110% every minute while we are in practice. He want us to run harder than we have before because we only have two more weeks until we go to regionals. Regionals this year are going to be in New Halen. If we place first or second in regionals we will go to Anchorage and and go to State.

Weather

The Weather here on St. Paul is really sloppy. The temperature was really cold last week. But this week the temperature has gotten really warm. It has also started to get really rainy the past couple of day. All of the snow that we had is melting and it is turning into slush.


I am hoping that this means winter is almost over. I hope that winter is almost over even though we barely even had a winter here on St. Paul this year. But I do not want to have a lot of rain because it is making the roads really slushy. I would rather have it be warm outside but I would rather have snow than rain. I just want it to be summer already so that it could be warm out.

Valentines Carnival

Tonight the basketball team is going to host the Valentines carnival. We are going to have at the Rec Hall. It is going to start at 5:30 p.m and will end around 8:00 p.m.  The carnivals here are not really big but people still have a lot of fun at them. I am going to be running the "Jail" at the carnival.


We are going to be selling spaghetti and halibut fritters at the carnival. The fritters will be sold with french fries. A couple basketball players and I will go to the Rec Hall after school and start frying the french fries. And the other basketball players will stay at the school and make the spaghetti. We will also be selling soda pop at the carnival.

St. Paul tournament

We had a basketball tournament here on St. Paul last week end. We played against New Halen, New Stuyahok, and Port Alsworth. We played each team one time. We had won every game that we played in the tournament. We had won the first place trophy in the tournament.


In our second game we played against New Stuyahok, we were down in the first half. We were down but our coach talked to us and made us play smarter. After he talked to us we played a lot better. We ended up winning by about 11 points. I was able to make 10 points in this game and had gotten 9 rebounds.


The last game we played we went against Port Alsworth. Their team was not in the best shape. We were up by almost 30 points by the end of the second quarter. Our coach did not have to talk to us during half time because we were doing good. We ended up winning the game by 44 points, the final score was 67 to 23.

St.Paul Round Robin Tournament

       The St. Paul School is hosting a basketball tournament here on St. Paul. This is the first time that St.Paul has hosted a basketball tournament with teams from other schools since about twenty or so years ago. The teams that came here are New Stuyahok, New Halen, and Port Alsworth. All the teams came in today at about 12:30 pm. There were a few of our community members who fed the teams lunch and dinner.

       There were two basketball games that went on today. The first game was at 6:30 pm tonight. New Stuyahok and Port Alsworth were the first teams to play. New Stuyahok was the team that won in that game. New Stuyahok won the game by at least thirty points.

       We played the second game that happened tonight. We played against the New Halen team. We started the game at about 8:00 pm. We beat their team by thirteen points, the final score was 67 to 54. I finished with about ten points and I had gotten a lot of rebounds.

       There will be two more games tomorrow. The first game will be at 6:30 pm. And the second game will start at about 8:00 pm again. We will be playing during the second game. I do not know who is going against who yet but I think that we will probably go against New Stuyahok. 

       There will also be two more games on Saturday morning. The first game is going to be at 8:00 in the morning. And the second game will be at 10:00 in the morning. We are going to be playing in the second game. They are having the games in the morning because all of the teams are going to be leaving in the afternoon on Saturday.

The Basketball trip

The St. Paul basketball team and I came to Dillingham yesterday for a basketball tournament. We took a one and a half hour plane ride over here. When we got to the school here in Dillingham the first thing we did was eat dinner. After we were done with our dinner we took all of our bags and suitcases up to our rooms. When we got all of our bags in the rooms we went to one of the gyms and watched the free throw and 3 point contests.

The contests went on for about one hour. The contests were for both boys and girls but boy were on one side of the court while the girls were on the other side. Shawn, Dallas, and Andronika were all in the contests. Shawn and Dallas entered the three-point contest. And Shawn and Andronika entered the free throw contest.

We played our first game against the Togiak Huskies on Thursday. I made six points and got a few rebounds. We beat the Togiak Huskies by eleven points. Robert received the player of the game award. The announcers gave Robert a certificate and a five-dollar coupon for a restaurant.

On Friday we watched most of the games that were going on all day. We watched all of the boy’s games that went on. Then we played our game against the Dillingham Wolverines varsity team. I did not make any points but I got a lot of rebounds.  We lost by eleven points but everyone said that they were impressed that we were able to keep it at such a close score.

Today we are going to watch the other boy’s basketball games. But at noon the school is going to start the award ceremony. They are going to do the award ceremony even though there are still going to be games going on until eight o’clock tonight. We are going to play against Bristol Bay at five o’clock today for the third place trophy. And Dillingham is going against Manokotak for the first place trophy.

Practice

    On Monday we started off our practice with three quarters of running. Between each quarter we took about a one minute break. When we were finished with our running we worked on our plays. We practice our defensive plays mostly. We practice our 122 and 221 plays.


    On Tuesday we started off our practice with six quarters of running. Between each quarter we only took a thirty second break. When we were done with our quarters we practice our offensive plays.
When we finished our plays we did our twenty fives. And that is all that we did on Tuesday.


    On Wednesday we started off our first practice with just two quarters of running. When we were done three other players and I practiced our post moves. We practiced about 7 post moves. We kept doing the same move for about a minute then we would go onto the next move. When we were finished with those coach let us leave.

     On Wednesday we started off our second practice with some warm ups. When we do our warm ups we usually just do lay ups. When we finished our warm ups we did our stretches. When were done with those we had a scrimmage with the community team. We did this scrimmage so that we could get more familiar with our plays.


      On Thursday we started off our practice with only one quarter of running. But the other seniors and I were about 5 minutes late so we only did about half of the quarter. When we were finished we practice our post moves again. When we were finished with those we did our twenty fives. And when we finished our twenty fives Coach let us leave.

Christmas Break

This whole Christmas break I pretty much did the same things every day. I went riding on my 4-wheeler. I also took my parents car out riding every other day. And I went out shooting with a few friends while they were here on island.  These are really the only things that I did during break.

We barely had any snow through the whole break. There was probably only about 6 days where we had snow during the break. It only snowed kind of a lot on Russian christmas. When there was snow I tried to go snowboarding around my house but I did not really work out. These are all the things that I did during Christmas break.

Practice

On Wednesday we started off our practice with two quarters of running. That only took us about 20 minutes to get that done. When we were done with that we practiced our 122 and 212 defensive plays. We did this through out the rest of the practice. When we were done with these plays we finished off our practice with our free throws.

On Thursday we started off our practice with three quarters of running. This took us only about 30 minutes to get it done. When we were finished with that we practice our 212 and 122 defensive plays. We did this for the rest of our practice again. When we were done with that we finished off our practice with our free throws.

practice

On Monday we started our practice with running. We ran our two 8 minute quarters and we took about a one minute break between each quarter. When we were done with our running we practiced our offensive plays. When we finished our offensive plays we practiced our defensive plays. And at the end of our practice we all shot our free throws.