My efforts towards producing produce have been productive!

Now that the ground is frozen and the snow is starting to cover everything, I feel the need to be nostalgic about my forays into tundra gardening.  And to share my excitement over something new that literally drops into my life every week that makes, well, not everything, but pretty much most things, feel OK.

So the raised bed garden box was a project I started nearly 3 years ago, in the unusually early spring we had in 2007.  We had just moved to the new housing, and I was feeling the need to make it homey.  As the snow melted, it became evident that the ground around the new houses was littered with construction trash -- screws, pieces of wood and drywall, cigarette butts, and gross things I never could figure out what they were, that I assume were just tossed aside during the winter construction, in the rush to build the housing, and by the time spring came there was no one left to clean up.  So I started my beautification project, and that project led to planting of Alaskan wildflowers all around, and that project led to my clothesline, and that project led to my garden box.

It was fun to have an excuse to go down to the beach often for supplies (logs, etc),  and to use found materials (such as nails and wires), and to have an outside project while then-toddler Esther played in the dirt, as she always wanted to do.  I had no idea what I was doing, having only been informed by a few web searches.  But sometimes it's fun to have a project in which nothing too much is riding on it, and so it doesn't matter if I make mistakes and can learn through trial and error.

I didn't get anything planted that summer, but I read that letting a box settle for a year was helpful anyway, so I felt pretty good about it.  I ordered two big bags of soil, but other than that I filled it up with seaweed and other things I found on the beach, to enrich it.  I also started my compost project that year, as well, with an old washer found at the junkyard. I love composting. It's just one of those things that makes me feel good, even if I'm not really good at it or do it super well. I have ideas about how to do it better, but it's just one of those projects that is forever on the list.

So then the summer of 2008 I was pregnant, and didn't do too much with the garden bed except put the compost from the previous winter into it and mix it up and cover it with a tarp. Tuluk helped me dump the compost bin and it was still kind of smelly and he almost lost his lunch. It made me pause and realize who was going to be changing all the diapers in the near future. Ha!  Anyway,  then when I returned with Iris, everything was already frozen and snowy, so it was put off for another year.  But I think the extra time helped the compost enrich the soil. 

So this summer, I thought, what the heck!  I'll give it a shot.  I had some old seeds that needed to be used or tossed anyway, and so if they didn't grow, no big.  The question I have always had about this garden project is when to plant, because June is generally 40 degrees and rainy, and end of July/August is the time when it gets warm if it's going to get warm at all, but then I've only got about a month & a half till first frost.

Plus I generally travel in the summer, so when to tend it? How to protect it from marauding dogs and children?  Elders I've spoken with about gardening here said that earlier in the century, about the time of the reindeer herding, there were some gardening projects (maybe started by the missionary teachers? I don't know) here, and they had to be surrounded by large fences to protect them from the dogs.  Well, I haven't gotten to that part yet; we'll see about how I would make a fence in the future -- I think it probably would be necessary, because dogs seem to be drawn to the box as if it's a magnet -- not for eating the veggies, but for using the bathroom! But I think the danger was early in the season, rather than when the veggies were full grown.

Regardless, it was a success!  I tossed the seeds in about the middle of June, and although nothing had popped up by the time I left for our summer travels, by the time I came back the first week in August, I had great growth!  The spinach and kale was pretty fabulous.  The broccoli had already gone to flower, but we ate it anyway.  And the squashes seemed like they would have grown, but they just didn't have time. 

However, now that we sucked all the nutrients out of the garden experiment that we could and it's all under snow now, we still have access to fresh, organic produce, something that is unprecedented in all my years here.  It is definitely an expensive undertaking, but considering the cost of wilted, squishy, unknown-origin produce in the store here in town (and that's when it's available), and considering the cost and effort I put in to getting frozen fruits & vegetables out here as well as dehydrating fruits & veggies in the summer, it really pays off.

Who knew it could be possible?  I'm now a member of Carnation Washington's FULL CIRCLE FARM CSA! And I've converted many members of the teaching staff as well.  I'm actually kicking myself that I didn't research it earlier, because the farm has been shipping to rural Alaskan communities for a while -- many of them -- it just never crossed my mind that it could be possible.  It totally changes our quality of life -- my family is eating fresh, crunchy, ORGANIC things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Again, I ask, Who knew?

Basically the farm packs it on Monday mornings and ships it Alaska Airlines freight, which means it goes in the belly of a big daily freighter (I think?), and then it goes on the passenger planes out to Bethel (half of which is just cargo anyway), and then on the small plane with the company Hageland Aviation that comes here three times a day.  Most of the time it gets here by Tuesday evening, its scheduled delivery time, but there are times, mostly because of weather, that it gets delayed because the plane gets delayed -- however, that's been the minority of weeks.  Then it gets dropped off at the airport, and our very nice vice principal collects it for us, since he's often down there meeting the plane anyway, or our extremely nice plane agent Peter, who brings it to us out of the kindness of his heart, because it's not in his contract to haul freight to town from the airport.  There have been some weeks when I've been worried it would be frozen, but, really, for the most part it arrives in an amazing fashion.  AND Full Circle Farm guarantees everything -- so even if it's a loss for them, they credit or replace whatever has arrived badly.  They even will ship eggs!  Free-Range, natural eggs!  No more hormones or products of chicken cruelty for us!  Hoorah! 

With the quantities of subsistence food coming through my door, and the weekly deliveries of a produce box, who needs the store?!  AND who needs to leave?  I love my life. :)

The Wonders of Grass

Ha! I wonder how many hits (I meant search engine hits you guys!) I'll get off of that title? Just kidding. I really mean Grass, the stuff that grows all over the ground:

Hooper Bay is famous for its grass baskets that women weave.  These baskets, that are in our school's display case, have been referred to by an elder as "modern art" because the truly traditional baskets were big, functional food-holders.

They're still pretty.  The smell is the best part -- it's like fresh-mown sweet hay smell inside the basket, no matter how old the basket is.

So, anyway, the grass that can make these baskets has been a mystery to me for a while -- which grass? There are so many different grasses on the beach and tundra. Well, a kind Hooper Bayer took me under her wing this past weekend and showed me which kind it is:

and it's totally easy! It's everywhere! Here's Esther picking her first grass:

 We took the grass we picked that day to Esther's great-great Aunt Helen -- since it was our first grass we ever picked.  I know it's only traditional to do that for the first catch of an animal, give the catch to an elder, but I like the tradition, and Helen was very happy to hear about our day and grateful to receive the grass. This is the auntie that waxes long about how many uses there are for grass, how invaluable it is to survival and quality of daily life.  I like to think about what of my things I could replace with natural materials.  I like to think of how long I could subsist at my camp, making the things I need with stuff found around me.  Learning all of this about grass, a very simple plant that is plentiful around me, is a step in that direction. 

 We had such an awesome day; it was warm and sunny and calm enough that we could just loll around on the tundra.  This grass is all over our camp, so we spent the afternoon picking grass there and just being relaxed, spending time with the dogs and each other.  It was like saying goodbye to our camp for the winter since it was the last time we were able to hang out there before it was covered with snow....

Learning to weave it, however, will be another story.
Next up brewing mystery:  which moss did the people in earlier times use for seal oil lamps?  How did they make the moss into a wick?  How did the lamp function?

The Flood Hath Commenced and Receeded...

Double Rainbow over the flood waters, in front of the windmills, the store, and the fuel barge.

Our annual flood: perhaps counter-intuitively, it's something everyone anticipates and gets really excited about. This year's flood was just right -- arriving on a Saturday morning, cresting on Saturday evening, and it was over by Sunday morning.  (the only thing that was a bummer was that if it happens on a weekday, we get an early out of school!)

 I don't know if it qualifies as a tsunami or not, because it's not started with an earthquake, but by really strong winds and really high tides.  It's a regular fall occurance, so it must be related to the jet stream or currents or fall storm patterns or something (anyone know more and want to enlighten me?).  People in Hooper Bay say that winter can't begin until it floods -- I mean, and it's a good thing, because if it flooded after things began to freeze, it would undermine all the solid, safe ice forming on ponds and sloughs that make it safe to travel by snowmobile. 

But, as a weather junkie, I am very much into the flood. It's a cool wild weather event, and no one gets hurt, very rarely is any property damaged, and then when it's over we can go on with our lives. To get these pictures, I got drenched to the skin (even through really good raingear) and pelted with hail, and blown around the road on the honda.  That's what I call fun! (especially since I got to go to my nice warm home afterwards and get all snuggled in with my fluffy slippers.)This is taken from my backdoor, which usually just looks out on tundra:

The next day, we went to the beach to see the wild waves, to see if anything exciting got washed up on shore (I'm still hunting for one of those old glass floats that used to hold up nets).  I found a torn bit of old net that had cool barnacles on it and took it home for a decoration in the porch.  But we still had fun seeing the wild beach:

Complete with wild monkeys:

 At Esther's dad Roy's house, where Jasmine and Avery live, Fancy and Draco's sister Taki had 5 puppies.  Check out Fancy and Draco's cute nephews and nieces!

3.6 seconds of Fall

Fall is a blink-and-you-miss-it season up here, which is fine with me since I don't do well with transitions. September and October are all about "hurry up and do _____ before the weather gets bad, this might be our last weekend". And we crammed a lot in, as this post atests (in fact, I kept meaning to end this post, but kept finding other things to add to it, so it's a long one!) So here are some pictures of us hurrying up and doing _______ these past months (and having fun doing it), as well as some cute pictures of the girls accomplishing their most recent milestones.

 First up: Esther's First Day of KINDERGARTEN!  How did it happen?  Well, it is happening a year early, since we asked for early entry because the Headstart Preschool was too full.  But, still, how did she get big enough even for early entry?  It's amazing and wonderful and emotional.  By and large she is doing great, though she gets pretty tuckered-out.  I am really happy for her that her life is so full, though, with good, solid things.  Here is a picture of her walking toward her future, as her teacher calls her name and her classmates (and the principal) wait to line her up:

She is enrolled in the Yup'ik Language Immersion Kindergarten, so she gets lots of great language and culture all day long.  Every day she knows a new phrase or word, song or dance.  When I think about how I dreamed of her partaking in this program when she was a baby, and now it's come to fruition, I get all teary.  As a side note, I got voted to be on the Yup'ik Immersion School Parent Committee, which is exciting because it's all new -- every day of being a parent, being on the other side of education, is all novel and gives me thrills.

The other big milestone: Iris's First Birthday! She was feted and celebrated among her plethora of cousins, and seemed to enjoy it, even if she was a bit in awe of the festivities.

Directly after her party, it was first haircut time!  Daddy did it with an attachment on the shaver.  She was very unsure at first, and eventually started crying, but she lived through it. 

She looks nice, now, all evened out.

Another amazing fall accomplishment was the First-Ever Camping Trip with Students.  As a school, we have been wanting to take the students out on the tundra as part of our Place-Based Education initiative, but it has always fallen apart, as it is a huge undertaking to bring a large group of students anywhere.  However, it was a success!

Above, Jerry sings campfire songs with the girls -- they're totally enthusiastic and also totally out of tune.

Iris was kind of sick during the evening -- she kept kind of spitting up, and I couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with her, if she was really sick, because she had no fever and was playing fine, acting happy, or if something else was wrong.  I felt guilty keeping her out on the tundra, but she really was having a good time and got to get held by some of the older girls that she adores (and Esther was in seventh heaven with all the high school girl attention), so I just hard-core mommed it and stayed out.  She woke up crying in the night and I worried she was sicker, but she went back to sleep with some nursing and in the morning was totally fine, so I'm glad I stayed out.  But the following day I woke up with yucky digestive issues, so I bet it was a bug, and I made my poor child camp in a tent during that!  Well, at least she'll have lots of stuff to talk about during therapy when she's older.  But, seriously, look at how much fun she looks like she was having: 

Below, several boys caught birds and proceeded to pluck and roast them over the fire for the group to gnaw.  Gnarly! :) Below, the boys coming back with their catch:

Then, the plucking and roasting that even impressed Tuluk!

I took advantage of the time outside to show Esther some stars, because much of the time when we are outside when it is dark (because, remember, when we camp in the summer it is never dark enough for stars) it is too cold to stay out long.  Iris fell asleep inside my coat and so I got to snuggle my two girls on the tundra under the stars.

That night, it was what you might have expected from a group of high school students -- howling between tents, tent-swapping, tent-shaking, running around tents, everything I'm sure I put my chaperones through on camping trips when I was young -- till ridiculously late at night.  In the morning, when Tuluk woke up early, he went close to the student tents with his large shotgun, pointed away, and fired several shots for wake-up revelee, just for keeping him up so late!  Amazingly, even after only a couple hours of sleep, the students were happy to get up. 

In the morning, we had hot cocoa and a good-morning fly over by a local pilot(maybe he was coming to see if we had survived the night!)....

The students had gone to several learning stations the afternoon before, led by the other teachers on the trip, about tundra plants, microorganisms in water, and a reflective writing station, and so this day it was time for the students to host the same learning stations for other, younger students who were making the trip out to the campsite.  Here Chuck helps a student look at a caterpillar under a microscope: 

 

They did pretty well spreading their learning, and the experience, out to the other kids.  It was by and large a really great success, and a foundation to grow for next year's trip.  

We also had some pretty fab Beach Evenings before the cooler weather hit. Check out Iris figuring out starfish and Esther and the dogs enjoying the Bering:

The starfish are so cool.  I love fall time when they wash up on the beach in hordes.  They are so interesting, leaving trails and cleaving to anything in their path:

Another fabulous happening this month, which was a culmination of lots of work and arranging on everyone's part, was that Veterinarians came to Hooper Bay!  The group "Christian Veterinary Mission" travels to out-there places in the world to volunteer their services to the animals of the place.  As some of you know, there is a tremendous need for animal care in rural Alaskan villages, as vaccinations are hard to come by (every winter there are cases of rabies when foxes come into the village and tangle with the dogs) and the dogs breed willy-nilly, creating such unlikely mixes as this husky/corgi (or something -- yikes!):

See, it looks like it has a nice, Husky head, but then its body is all little teeny dog:

SO, anyway, we need help from vets.

However, it costs seat fare (as much as a person's seat) to fly a dog out of the village just to Bethel (where a vet comes once a month), and with tickets at over $200 one-way to Bethel these days, it's pretty near impossible to do it unless you win the lottery.  SO  we needed help, and, actually, the credit goes to my mom for starting it off, because she talked to her Equine Dentist about his involvement in a similar organization, and it just spiraled from that point.  And it was awesome!  Check out the vet team doing a neuter surgery in the school shop, as Esther watches (she has quite the stomach for medical procedures. She always has to watch everything when we go to the doctor, too):

They accomplished over 200 vaccinations and 60 spays & neuters!  It was such a success that the parent organization asked Liz, the lead vet, if she would lead another trip next year.  Awesome.

This fall's main subsistence goal: I was a woman on a mission to gather Cranberries:

I mean CRANBERRIES:

 

I stole moments here and there to sneak out with just the dogs and pick them near the beach (our camp was covered with them), and then some nights after school we all went down to pick them:

 There's Esther filling her mouth, not the bucket, as usual.  Iris likes them too:

 Some people say they're not used to their tartness, but the girls like them fine, and they are far superior, if smaller, for Thanksgiving cranberry sauce.  So they're actually one of my favorite berries to pick. They're just like crimson treasure on the tundra.

We've had fun showing New Teachers to Alaska & Hooper Bay the exquisite flavors of our environs, and Katelynn, a 21-year old brand new teacher from Arkansas, has been the best sport about everything.   Here she is learning to pluck ducks:

 Tuluk was impressed with how she plucked it, saying "She almost did as good as me!"  Ha ha, sir.

She also really enjoyed her first taste of seal (mukluk, bearded seal), saying it tasted like "filet mignon"!

That can be the tagline when we advertise it: "Seal: The Next Filet Mignon" and we can use these pictures of Iris completely enjoying her seal rib to promote it:

Yep, that girl has a healthy appetite. :)

Katelynn and another new teacher, Lindsey, came down to check out a beluga whale catch, as well, and tried it out!  Good for them, getting out of the school "compound" and experiencing real life here. Here Tuluk is beginning to cut the flipper off the whale as Esther watches:

Esther gets a bite of "gum" the raw whale skin -- she liked it!

Katelynn watches Tuluk do the same -- just before she spits hers out -- she didn't like it! :) Well, Katelynn, you liked seal, so I guess you're still in the Hooper Bay "cool" club. (I joke).

Daddy and Iris -- her Yup'ik name means "creature from the ocean" -- with another creature from the ocean, or what is left of it at this point.

The first SNOWFALL was on the Autumn Solstice -- Sept 22, and then again on Oct 5. But it didn't really stick; it got colder and colder with no snow.  In fact, we had a week or more with frozen dust blowing around, which was not pleasant at all, but at least it will make it safer when we travel by snowmobile (that's right! We went in with a couple folks to buy a snowmobile!) after the snow covers it.  So when we finally we got to the days when the ICE stayed on the ponds, we went for a walk to check it out:

 

Here Fancy and Draco remember ice, and how to break it to get a drink. And Esther has fun cracking the brittle little pond surfaces:

So now this brings us to HALLOWEEN!  Yes, these are the pictures you've been waiting for, and though by Halloween, we were officially into winter, I'll still put it in this fall post because I've had so many requests to see these pictures, and I might as well do it now while I'm posting.  Esther decided to be a lion, and I toyed with the idea of Iris being a lamb and me being a Shepherdess, but all the Little Bo Peep costumes online were "sexy" Little Bo Peep (really, people?) costumes and that was too gross to contemplate.  AND the skunk costume was totally cute and I figured it might be the only year I could get away with it.  So (drumroll please)  here is the menagerie!

My little lion with glittery shoes -- and practicing to be fierce!

And my little stinker -- who loved getting her stuff on, even her face makeup (which was all natural by the way, from Luna Organics off of Etsy.com, not that I feel I need to advertise, but so many folks wanted to know where I found it.)

And me, I am the ringmaster of my own personal circus.  I live it everyday, but on Halloween I just dressed like it!

We won the costume contest!  

A Moose in my House

It's been a rewarding month of moose: our freezer is full of many bags of tender moose meat. Yum! Here is a picture of our kind benefactor: He was caught by a neighbor & colleage's son, his first moose, so he gave all of it away, in accordance with tradition. We were one of the lucky recipients! Tuluk had been on the hunt with him when he caught it, and helped carry it out of the bog as well.

Recently I commented to a Facebook friend, "I just didn't have time what with the moose coming into my house and all" and the friend said, "Gee, that is quite a mental image for someone from the lower 48..." But it is kind of what happens when there's a catch of some kind of animal, because it kind of takes over everything for a while: takes up the floor, takes all the kitchen implements to put it away, and takes up all your free time while you take care of it! And it kind of looks like an alien creature when it's all in pieces, rather than part of a whole -- check out this hoof:

I was lucky that Tuluk did all the heavy lifting and it was just left to me to cut it into pieces I thought were a cookable size. We've been totally sold on moose in the crockpot -- it gets so tender it just falls to pieces. Who needs beef? :)Esther was so funny -- when she was helping me, she said with a sigh, "I love messing around with meat. Look! There are all of my favorite colors in this meat!" (I think she was talking about the pink in the meat and the silver of the fat/membrane). What fun to have a hardy Alaskan child.

The weather was so nice that Tuluk went out several times -- and after the first goal was met of enough moose for everyone in the family, he just went out to camp. I have a feeling that it's fun for all the guys running into other guys out there, visiting each others' camps. I have to say I'm jealous! I would LOVE to go out camping in good weather indefinitely, if it weren't for the drag of having to work for a living....nah, I like my job. :)

Ok, so now for the graphic shot.... Tuluk cut the tongue out of the moose for moose tongue soup, and even though it was kind of gory, it was interesting to see the moose's cud (yes, moose chew regurgitated grass just like cows) and the teeth:

Hooper Bay Zen

One of the reasons I love living here is the feeling that we have the chance to make things better -- we don't have a ton of infrastructure, so when stuff gets put into place we (the collective "we", as in Hooper Bay) have a chance to make things more sustainable than they would have been made a few decades ago. Not that there still aren't a million things to make better, just like any place, but living in a small, unique part of the world, it feels like it's possible to make a positive change, a positive impact, whereas in other places things are so big, complicated, and entrenched that it would be harder to change things. Anyway, here are two of those good things that make me feel uplifted whenever I see them.

The windmills that were installed a year ago are finally working. We had to live through several multiple-hour power outages while they were getting hooked up to the town's electrical system, but it was worth it. Look at how beautiful they are!
For an environmentally-minded (read: constantly feeling guilty about polluting/using energy) person like me, the fact that our town runs on diesel fuel REALLY bothers me. The existing power plant looks like this, with the fuel tanks all around:
So, now, whenever I look out and see these windmills, I feel a strong sense of calm and reassurance. They add so much to the landscape of the town, the beauty of the view, like they are tall guardians watching over the town. At night they have little red lights so that they planes can avoid them, and they seem like watchful eyes (yes, I suppose it could be reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, but there doesn't seem to be anything sinister about these lights!). I know that they are high-tech industrial metal things, but for some reason they are also extremely beautiful to me, and they actually FIT in with the landscape. Perhaps it's the constant, perpetual, circular motion of the arms -- it's SO calming to watch them. I've never been able to meditate well, as I always have thoughts buzzing through my head, but I can actually push pesky busy-thoughts away when I'm relaxing and watching the motion of the windmills, just watching the motion and breathing, slowing my heartrate down.
They also make a wonderful whoosing sound when you are directly under them. What can I say, I'm in love with the windmills. I'm so grateful for their installation, thank you AVEC (Alaska Village Electric Company) and other powers that be that made it possible.

The other thing that I've been having a love affair with is the black plastic road -- I know I posted about this not too long ago, but I'm so enamored with it that I am going to wax on about it(I know, I know, I am NOT a fan of plastic, but here it is, used in a perfect way, where we don't want it to break down). I took some pictures of honda trails here and there around town that do not have the black plastic trail installed. Some are nice trails, just as they're supposed to be, with just two solid tracks through the tundra:
And some, tearing up the tundra, are NOT:
The main reason for this is because wet spots develop and people keep trying to go around the wet spot and it ends up getting wider:
Flying in and out of the village, looking out over the tundra from above, these honda trails are very evident, cris-crossing the ground. It is not very pretty, especially when you think about how long it takes for the tundra to be revitalized -- a LONG time.

However, with the black plastic trail, this is not an issue. Drivers can get through wet spots unpeturbed because there is traction at the bottom of the wet, muddy, messy dip (and I HATE getting stuck. It tears up the ground, it wears out my honda, and it is unsafe for me and the girls), and there is no need to make the trail wider and wider:
In fact, even some of the impassable creeks (they are tidal creeks, and in general they are deceptively deep, even if narrow) are now made passable by honda with little bridges:

There are even pull-off spots so folks can park or pass, still on the trail:

And the tundra flourishes underneath this trail because inside the little grid, the pressure from the wheels is distributed:

In fact, in time, I can see how this trail will totally blend in with the tundra, just with hidden reinforcement underneath:

This trail was built by Sea Lion Corporation -- what a great idea; and it really makes a difference. It makes me eager to take my family out on the tundra -- thank you! Oh, PS: Any suggestions as to what to name it? "Black Plastic Trail" is kind of boring and not as exciting as it really is.

Contentment Defined: Berry-picking on the tundra

I think I once thought salmonberries (or cloudberries; I don't know which they are truly) were an aquired taste. I can't imagine, now, life without that tart slipperiness, that hard seed exploding between my teeth. And now my girls need never know life without it.
So solemn, like Esther and Jasmine are partaking in a sacred ritual involving food of goddessess....:)Iris figuring out that there are good things to pick up and put in her mouth on the tundra:Katie is a good berry buddy:Iris with a wild tundra Iris flower -- I found out the Yup'ik name for this plant, but it was hard for me to remember. I'll find it out soon and write it down.

When we went that day, most of the berries were not ripe yet -- they were still dark red and hard. But after the advice of three people that picking them unripe is OK if you're going to freeze them, as they will soften after being frozen, I decided to take advantage of the most gorgeous weather day all summer and go pick as many as I could find, ripe or not. Here Esther decides to use a plant as a mike and play tundra idol:
Melody was our berry partner this day:

And here is what makes it all possible without being too hard on our tender tundra: the hard plastic road:
It has been built and steadily extended over the past few summers by various folks employed by a village organization -- it's SUCH a good idea. The plastic is REALLY hard and heavy mesh, like a grid, and it makes it so that it can kind of sink into wet places and muddy places, but it won't get warped as easily as wood would, and since the 4 wheeler can go through shallow spots of water and mud, it just adds some traction down under that. And then the places where the creeks can get high because of the tide, there is a bridge-structure with the black plastic on top that can kind of rise or fall depending on the tide. I am so grateful for the inception and building of this road, because now I can get out further on the tundra than I would by walking with two children and all our crap (yes, there it is, piled up on the front of the honda), I can get through the mucky places by myself without worrying about getting stuck or driving like a maniac to get through them, and I can do it all without destroying the tundra that I love... *sigh*

Homecoming! Or AKA: the one in which we arrive home and immediately I become famous and make friends with high-up government folks...well, KINDA

We left Indiana Friday night, and somehow made it through the 6 hour flight directly from Chicago to Anchorage -- it was a source of trepidation for me all summer, but we did it, and it actually went OK. There were definitely some moments when everyone on the plane hated us, but those moments didn't last long. Since the flight left at 6:pm Chicago time, and landed at 10:pm Anchorage time which is 1:am Chicago time, both girls pooped out about halfway through the flight, after a fierce battle with sleep. But, hey, at least they pooped out! So then, after a gorgeous, fun weekend on the Kenai penninsula and a day of shopping in Anchorage (hooray Natural Pantry!), we made our way home to Hooper Bay on Tuesday, and made it seamlessly; with our bush flight even taking off early and getting us home so we could collapse. Jill and Iris looking at a book during our short siesta in NikiskiEsther is hamming it up in Jill's dog lot:

But big things were a-brew at home. Rumors were flying about big-wigs making a stop in Hooper Bay, but no one could figure out who or why. Or exactly what day, or what time. Everyone I talked to knew about the previous security check, when security folks had flown out to Hooper the week before and timed voyaging around the village, such as how long it took to get from the airport to the school, from the school to the store, and so on.

It sounded exciting, but it was one of those things that I thought would never pan out, like however many times Sarah Palin was supposed to visit Hooper Bay and never did. It always seemed like she would schedule her Hooper visits on the days she really just wanted to stay home because she could always beg weather concerns (which she did) since they so commonly interfere with air travel here. But this did indeed happen, even with some fast-moving fog (but then, they also had a fast-moving plane and probably got here and out of here really quickly). So here's the news on my big moment: I had a chance to talk with the #1 person directly in charge of education policy in the US: Arne Duncan, the US Secretary of Education.

It happened like this: truckload after truckload of fair-skinned and blonde haired folks started arriving at the school, even riding in the back of the truck. We thought, "Wow, these politicians are hardy!" But it turns out they were just the press. It felt like we were playing a game of: how many reporters does it take to photograph a politician? But it turns out that it was more than one politician: it was kind of a lot of politicians from the state level and no less than FOUR of Obama's cabinet members AND their staff: the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Energy. They arrived at the school and were ushered in quickly -- everything happened quickly. The secretary of Agriculture spoke, and then our mayor, Joseph Bell, and our tribal chief, David Bunyan, spoke, all briefly, and then it was announced that the cabinet members wanted a tour of the school (too bad school was NOT in session yet and none of the classrooms had been set up). The members of the President's Cabinet and Alaska Senators, listening to Tribal Chief David Bunyan speak:

Everyone stood up and was milling around, and I lost no time. I located family members to toss my girls to, squared my shoulders, and in my rainpants and mudboots, with my tundra-wind-tossed hairstyle, made a beeline right for Mr. Duncan. I wondered if I would have to push through other people, but surprisingly I think folks were a bit shy of the bigwigs; I had wondered if I would have to ask a security person to approach him, but I encountered no obstacle as I made my way there. I waited patiently for him to finish his conversation with an important person in tribal government, and then he turned to me and stuck out his hand.

Although I was quite nervous, I think what came out of my mouth was halfway coherent. I had run it over and over in my mind how to say what I wanted to say succinctly and passionately and powerfully, and even though I didn't get it out exactly how I wanted it to sound, I think it went OK. Molly, another teacher at the school, came up and backed me up, and she said I sounded OK, so I'm just going to go with the memory of me sounding OK. Whatever happened, what I said held the attention of a very important man for at least 3 minutes, and to his credit, whether he is genuinely concerned with what little peons like myself think, or whether he is just a really smooth politician, he made me feel like what I was saying was the only thing he was interested in/paying attention to at the time.

I rarely mentioned my opinions or politics on this blog because I feel like it wouldn't necessarily mesh with the focus of the site. Also, as a teacher, I worry that my words and politics may get me in trouble. But sometimes I feel chafed by this because I am a strongly opinionated person and I feel like I am reaching a fairly wide audience at this point, at least from where I started out. So I am going to write what I spoke to Mr. Duncan about, because it's important, and although what I believe runs cross-current of national policy, that's why I value free speech. And I am not going to write anything I wouldn't say to any student, principal, or even the superintendent of the district. But don't worry -- I'm not changing the focus of the blog! :)

So this is my memory of what I THINK our conversation was like:
Me: Hello, my name is Cate Koskey, and I am a reading specialist at this school, and I would like to express my hope that the president will fulfill his promises to change the No Child Left Behind Act to reduce the testing pressure that our schools are facing.
Mr. Duncan: (nods) How long have you been teaching here?
Me: Ten years, off and on. I took time out to get my Master's Degree.
Mr. Duncan: Thank you for your years of service.
Me: Yes. In my time here, I have seen that our students have great intellectual strengths in spatial and kinesthetic intelligences, and we can use those strengths to teach them core skills such as reading, math, and science, but we can't do it within this intense testing framework. As teachers we do nothing but prepare for the tests; we have no time to teach to students' needs.
Mr Duncan: What would you like us to do differently?
Me: Replace the current testing with various authentic assessments that allow us to measure a student's strengths and growth from a previous assessment point.
Molly: I agree with everything she is saying (yay Molly, backing me up!).

And right then, a security person said to me, "We need the Secretary now so that he can go on a tour of the school with the superintendent," which was wierdly considerate that they would say anything to me rather than just bustling past. Next to me slipped his Chief of Staff, a tall blonde woman named Margot M Rogers, who said "If I could just give you my address," and handed me her card, "you can email me to articulate more of your concerns. Let's walk and talk," and I was bustled along with the crowd touring the school; a security person tried to stop me (and Molly! She was still with us!) from following the group, but Ms. Rogers said, "They're with us." and we were bustled through with the rest of the bustling group. Fancy!

Ms. Rogers said that they are working on the education policy. She said that of course there need to be standards -- and I told her that our district had gone to a level system in which students need to master certain standards to move on, and she liked that. She said that she thought they will be moving towards a system in which students can show growth from a previous point, which I agree with, but I spoke about how time-consuming some of those systems can be, as we use one in our district that takes away so much time from teaching. She said she really was glad to hear about our experiences and thoughts, and she felt she was learning a lot about all the corners of the country on this rural tour, as she was learning a lot about the challenges of inner city schools as well. I mentioned that one of my good friends is teaching in a school in Brooklyn, and that when comparing challenges, that we find they are often the same. Finally, I told her about our Yup'ik Immersion School, and how important that is for preserving Yup'ik Language and Culture, and how the testing interferes with that because the students are still required by the state to test in English. She appeared really intrigued by the Immersion School and said, "Well, I hope to hear from you," and by this point we had reached the bottom of the steps and the politicians and reporters were streaming out of the school for their tour of the village by truck, and she smiled, shook our hands, and rejoined her group.

Maybe it was all just smooth politics, but I have to say that I felt listened to and valued by these Washington bigwigs. I never expected that going in to the conversations. Could it be true what I feel about our current administration, that Obama and his people truly care about citizen's opinions and experiences, and are genuinely listening to people? I have been so jaded by our government that I never expected to feel this way again, kind of hopeful and sweetly optomistic. I guess it's like I'm having a crush on the current administration. Is my heart destined to be crushed? What do you think? Any teachers out there with a message that they would like for me to pass on to the Secretary of Education's Chief of Staff when I email her? :)

Beach Days, Camp Haze, Eggs, And Fish from the Bay

June arrives and the magic begins. I am yet again reminded of why I live here, why I put up with the hassles of living somewhere off the road system and all that entails -- Because of everything I'm going to post pictures of below. I really don't feel I need to explain much, because the past two years I've pretty much explained everything (if you're new to my site, check out my archives!), and I'm just going to let the images speak for themselves....

Last Monday, the 9th, Tuluk took Esther and I across the bay (south) to what I call "bird land" to find eggs. It was just as cool as I remember, with birds everywhere.Above is Esther listening to the egg because we had just read the children's book, "An Egg is Quiet."Above is a goose hunkered down on her nest trying to hide from us. It is the best picture I could get, as they fly away when we get too close; so this is going to be a continuing goal of mine -- to get a better picture of a goose on a nest.Esther with a swan egg -- so huge!
Although we went fairly late, and most of the eggs had tiny bird embryos in them already, when they're scrambled up, you can't tell that the egg was developed at all. I know that might seem gross, but think about it: an egg has the same stuff in it whether it's developed or not -- it just has a different form.

We finally got out to camp! Wednesday the 11th we set up the tent and got settled out there. We had two days of amazing warm weather; we fully enjoyed our time before it got cold, rainy and windy again and we're back in the house for a few days. Here are some pictures of camp 2009: Tundra Teeter-Totter: Esther and Jasmine:Iris's first morning waking up in the tent (in her snazzy leopard-print wrap that functioned as her sleeping bag):

The weather was SO warm and fabulous that the girls and I were able to wade into the Bering! Yep, below is the proof that we're at the edge of the western world.
YES, the water was cold (especially since 10 days ago there was still ice on the beach), but nowhere near as cold as I've experienced in some mountain streams in the Rockies or such. We just kept going in and out. The girls figured out that if they covered themselves in the warm sand, they stayed warmer.. then they got in again to wash it off! Iris enjoying the beach:

We got our first fish this weekend -- chum, or dog salmon, which is what we generally use the most of. This year fishing for King Salmon, even for subsistence, is restricted in our area (though the trawlers in the ocean get to legally waste hundreds of thousands of King Salmon a year, which is why there is a shortage to begin with), and though this is a hardship for many, we are happy with any salmon we can get. Chums are fine with us. Here are pictures of Esther cutting her first fish!

Finally! An evening at the Beach

Even though I knew this year wouldn't be the most hard-core we've ever camped, since Iris is so young, I am disappointed at how long the snow has kept us from the beach and tundra. But it's also given me time to take care of projects in the house (like dealing with the fact that I pretty much stuffed everything extraneous in all the closets all year while I was working and taking care of lil' girls), and just being out of work and not having a set schedule has been so relaxing and such a relief that I've just been enjoying life -- and being thankful for the time we CAN get outside. We have our whole lives for hard core camping; we can be laid-back, take each day as it comes, and enjoy our family time no matter where it happens. The beach on June 3:

That said, we had a gorgeous beach evening this week. For Hooper Bay, it was an amazing mix of conditions: in the 50's and sunny (it's amazing how balmy that feels after weeks of 32 degrees and sleet), no wind (that never happens!), and yet still too early for mosquitos. It was Iris's first time on the beach on the outside of my body, and her dad named her after the ocean for her Yup'ik name, so he set her up on his knee and talked to her about her namesake. We watched 4 spotted seals diving and popping up very near to shore, hunting herring. Neat!
Esther and cousin Jasmine, Fancy and Draco, cavorted over the beach and dunes, squealing and woofing in delight, respectively. Fun, fun. Iris tried to figure out if she likes crawling over tundra:Hopefully this week the weather gets warmer (though Yup'ik tradtion says not to think about it, hope for it, expect it, or count on it, because that kind of arrogance, thinking that we have any sort of control over the natural world with our hopes and expectations, will NOT be rewarded. So I'm carefully stating that it would be great if the weather got nicer (that's why Yup'ik people speak conditionally about just about everything ("IF he comes," "IF I go," etc) and then I'm going to forget it and just see what happens). And if the weather decides to be cold and rainy for the next three weeks till we start our summer travels, my closets sure will be organized, and that will be refreshing and fulfilling too. :)

Baptized by Blubber

Iris got to partake in a cool ritual last night, though some folks might think it's a bit out there. If you know me, you probably understand why I thought it was so cool!

Tuluk had brought home a huge bearded seal (mukluk) from hunting on the ocean, which he brought to his mom's house, and when the family called me to go help them work on it, they said that they would like baby to "swim through her daddy's catch". I think they thought I would be wierded out by it, or something, but I thought it sounded cool, like a kind of baptism.

So once the meat and innards were removed from the blubber and the skin, and then once the blubber was cleaned up and removed from the skin, it was nearly ten o'clock, and Iris was sleepy. I bet she would have been more open to the idea of crawling through cold blubber had it been a little earlier in the evening. So, she cried. But most babies do at their baptism! But it still accomplished the goal of the initiation if you will, even if she was in the blubber for only 30 seconds. Supposedly some babies love it and dive through it and rub their heads in it. Well, think about it, it probably feels just like jello wrestling, and a lot of folks love to do that! :) It was also the first time I'd seen how to take care of seal intestines. I really like seal intestine soup!With this big of a seal, you can see that it really takes the whole family to deal with the various parts. But it's a fun visiting/learning time... it's awesome:

It's a Moth!

Yesterday morning, May 14, I awoke to see fluttering in the long-silent caterpillar cage: the creature had emerged from its cocoon! And it was a moth, a black and tawny brown moth. I had almost given up on it, because it had crawled under the soil in its cage so long ago, and there had been no activity for weeks and weeks. I was thinking, "When do we know if it's dead? When do we just empty the cage and declare it a loss?" Well, I'm glad I was just waiting to see, because it actually worked! We actually gave a little caterpillar a chance at life on the tundra. And I'm pretty sure it will be bird food within three seconds of letting it go, since there are about a million birds on the pond near our house....oh well, feeding the food chain is a good thing, too! :)

Here is a picture of when we first saw it, when Esther and I first woke up (so she looks sleepy):Here is a picture of when we let it go, just seconds before it fluttered(too quickly to catch a picture of it!) away into the warm afternoon:Yay experiments!

Esther went Manuqing!

Now she's done things that her mom has never even done! For some reason, I have never gotten out ice fishing. I think it's just that this time of year is always so busy with the end of school that I just never get out there. But Tuluk took Esther out while I was in school and Iris was with a family friend -- and she caught over 20 smelt (which, those of you who smelt-fished on Lake Michigan when we were kids, those smelt have nothing on these! These smelt are nice-sized fish). And they taste so rich! Iris loved her first smelt, opening her mouth wide for more. :)

Here are some pictures of my lil' Yup'ik girl on the ice:

Wild Spring Snow

The snow this year is pretty wild. Although I am a bit bummed that, by April 12, it hasn't really started to melt yet (meaning it will be here at least as long as it was last spring, end of May), it is pretty cool to walk around and see how deep the snow is. So here it is... aka How deep is the snow? Let me count the ways:

#1: It is deep enough that this house, on the old side of town, is completely buried. The residents have dug a stairwell down into the snow, then a tunnel, to reach the doorway.And from the inside out:

#2: It is possible to stand on a roof next to a chimney without ever walking UP a drift -- just walking ground(ha)-level:

#3: Esther can even dunk!

#4: Esther can climb to the top of the monkey bars without help:

#5: We had to revise the fire escape plan for the classrooms that are supposed to go out the school's back steps:

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures of my Easter Belles:("Mom, do I really have to wear the hat?")

And also of the girls finding their baskets and eggs that the Easter Bunny hid in our living room:Crawling to find eggs:Yeeppp -- Straight into the mouth! Eeesh.

Upside-Down Cleaner Funny Bones

Well, I was voting for "Hector", but I have to admit that it is the cutest kid name ever for:
A miraculous caterpillar who dropped out of the ONLY bunch of incredibly random bok choy (I think...?) I have ever seen in our local store, the AC. Living in rural Alaska means that previously mundane occurances turn into miracles, yes...If I had tried to get a caterpillar out here by mail or even carrying it when I flew out here, it would never have worked. But the universe dropped it in our laps -- awesome.

I was estatic seeing the choy in the store, thinking it might have been chard or leeks (in fact I'm still not completely positive what green it is) during this season when, although we have vegetables and fruit in frozen and in dehydrated form, we always crave, I mean salivatingly crave, fresh things that crunch when we chew them.

I have this bad habit of hoarding when I have something really good -- I'm not "being stingy of it"(as Hooper Bayers would say), but I'm saving it for something REALLY GOOD. I don't want to waste them on frivilous ideas or a bad recipe. I also don't want to cook them on a busy night, if I don't have enough time to savor them. SO the chard sat in my fridge for nearly a week before I remembered the sauteed greens with garlic, raisins, and pine nuts recipe that I REALLY wanted.

When I took the choy out of the produce bag, the caterpillar plopped out -- I thought for sure it was dead. I mean, who knows where that bok choy came from, and how many planes it was on before it got to Anchorage, then a plane to Bethel, then a plane to Hooper -- and then how long in the store, and nearly a week in my fridge? But Esther said, after I'd put it in the sink: "Mom, look, it's drinking!" And it was kind of sucking up water, or whatever caterpillars do. I had moment when I thought we should get rid of it, like why would we want a bug in the house? But then I stopped short -- What on Earth was I thinking? We had a great opportunity to watch a bug! A rarity!
And Esther has been wild about the thing. She gave it the cutest name ever, and she keeps checking on it, making statements about how it must think or feel, decorating its jar, etc. We have talked about how it has had a rough life, so we have to be prepared that it might not make it, but that maybe it will, and maybe it will spin a cocoon and turn into something entirely different. I am actually very trepidatious about what it will turn into -- will I introduce a whole new interloping bug species to Hooper Bay that will become invasive and ruin the ecosystem? Any ideas on what I should do if it survives its metamorphasis?

And searches on caterpillar websites come up fruitless -- I can't figure out what kind of caterpillar it is, so I can't figure out what it will turn into -- moth? beetle? butterfly? Anybody recognize it? It seems happy eating romaine lettuce as well.

But, in general, these kinds of things are too few and far between up here. Fitting that it should happen around Easter. And it was just plain sweet to hear Esther's good night to the bug when I put her to bed last night: "You are our friend, and we used teamwork to keep you, and good night." Awwww.