Tundra Topics

Cutetarianism

2010-04-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

A community member donated an otter that he caught to the school. I'm not an expert in any way, and though an expert could probably take care of it in seconds flat, people seem to like the fact that my style is up-to-my-elbows-in-it, willing-to-try-it-and-learn-from-my-mistakes, and I think folks like it that I always find a group of students to watch and participate, so they brought it to me and I took it to a nearby classroom:

If there are any other educators out there reading this, I'm sure it warms your heart as much as it does mine to see students so completely rapt. We looked at the organs, looked at the mouth, tounge, teeth, feet, toepads, claws, tail, etc. We noted how much fat it has on its tail compared to the rest of the body. We had a great teaching moment when one of the students wanted to play with the carcass, and his classroom teacher and peers scolded him, saying, "You have to respect something that gave its life so that you can learn from it and eat it. Would you want someone to do that to you if you were in the otter's place?" The student shook his head quietly and took in the rebuke. Regardless how you feel about animal rights and all that, I don't think anyone would deny that this 30 second interaction will stick with this group of kids, and hopefully influence their future behavior.

We worked on the otter until school was out(we started it at the end of the day), and still students wanted to hang around and watch. Two of them in particular asked out loud, "I wonder how the otter tastes?" So we called home for those two students and asked if their families would like to eat the meat -- and we found that yes, definitely they would like to cook it. So I divided the meat for them to bring home. Perhaps only in Alaska would you find schoolkids walking home with a plastic bag of meat.

The teacher and I stayed to slice more of the membranes and meat off the skin. It is amazing to me that regardless of the other activities I do, such as skiing and carrying babies, children, and all their stuff, that my muscles can never get used to sitting on the floor cutting up creatures. I guess because I'm using tiny little muscles, or nuances of motion, that I never use otherwise, and there's nothing aside from cutting up creatures that can get those muscles in shape. But man was it tiring! And just one little otter.

We ended up cutting an embarassing amount of holes in the skin. It seemed really thick, and it felt like you had to really use a lot of pressure to get through the membranes, but once you got through, you had to let up really quick. That, also, takes some muscle memory to develop, I think. But it is going to work out fine anyway, I think, because if the finished product works out well, I think the most equitable use of it -- the most students who can beneifit from it -- would be to cut strips of the fur for trim and added warmth on other projects, such as the skin booties that students make during our cultural festival. So the holes won't matter too much, as we can incorporate them into the strips we make. Yesterday we got it ready to put into the (environmentally-friendly) skin-tanning solution.

I've been getting a post ready on the process we've been figuring out for skin tanning for ages -- almost since the beginning of the school year! So I'm not going to go into it now (but now that I'm inspired, look for it soon). But something else happened that took me on a whole new train of thought.

After I posted about this experience on facebook, my friend Amy protested, "But they're so cute! I'm a cutetarian -- I don't eat cute food." Well, she's right on at least one point. Otters are cute.

No matter how adjusted I become to this Alaskan subsistence life, I can't seem to weed out (and do I really want to uproot something that's been a part of me since inception?) that little heart-melting moment when I see an animal is, well, cute.

Then there's the other feeling -- something that could be labeled as "cute" if you look at the feeling from the surface but it goes way beyond. There's a moment when, looking at something wild and really alive, that I feel awe that this creature is in the world, and doing its thing. A teacher friend asked, when she saw the otter, if I had ever seen them slide down snowy hills on their bellies. I haven't, but I can imagine being out on the tundra and witnessing such a thing, as I have with other animals -- I almost can't put it into words, witnessing its life force.

I feel like most hunters I know would laugh at my above assertions. There is a scene in the movie Australia when the white socialite is coming to the bush for the first time, riding in a jeep through the outback. They come upon kangaroos, and she is gushing, "Ooooh, BeaUtiful KangaROOs" and then pow, all of a sudden one of the hunters sitting on top of the jeep has shot it, and the next scene is them roasting it on the campfire. It's Ok, I laughed at that scene too. But when I really think about this, it feels like there is this rough, tough, rambo attitude in Alaska that animals are FOOD and that is IT. That if you feel any sentimentality towards animals, that you are some greenhorn who deserves to be poked fun of like that socialite in the movie. I don't like feeling like I have to reach some level of cold-heartedness to be a legitimate animal user.

But at the same time, uber-sentimentality sugarcoats things to the point that it's impossible to coexist with them on any true level. I've been an animal rights activist and vegan, but putting things on a pedestal and refusing any interaction with other creatures in a primal way is artificial and pretentious and styryfoam, and I don't think it's a true or fulfilling path for either party, humans or animals.

Besides, plenty of people who feel that hunting is cruel or that trapping is inhumane will eat hamburgers at McDonald's -- ever watch Food, Inc.? If you missed it, check out this Grist article, it sums up the problems pretty nicely. The mass-farming system is ridiculously cruel, not just to the animals but to the workers and to the environment. Animals raised in CAFO's (concentrated animal feedlot operations) have a horrible existence. They are victims funneled to the gluttony of consumerism -- they have no quality of life. There is no respect, no communion, in that kind of food. And yet it's more acceptable than subsistence hunting to many people.

This otter had an amazing life. It was born wild, traversed the tundra, experienced extreme weather and probably slid down a bunch of snowy hills on its belly. It was a male, so it probably fathered a few litters. It ate fresh fish, drank clear water, and died a quick death. Then it gave students a chance to learn from its innards, gave a few of them a good dinner, and will probably allow some of them to practice their sewing. Then it will keep a few babies' feet warm.

I posted about this years ago, in the beginning of the blog, but I feel like this is one step forward in the evolution of my thinking even since then, because at the time I wrote that post, I was still of the mindset that I would have to disconnect from my emotions to be able to hunt or cut up animals for food, that I would have to swallow any grief at the loss of life, awe-inspiring life. Now it feels like I've come full circle, because I have realized that having those emotions, sometimes belly-shaking emotions, about the dead creatures on my kitchen floor adds to the whole thing. I don't shake myself of the emotions, now; I invest them into the process. Recognizing their cute-ness, their beauty, being affected and touched by the life they once lived means that I will do my best to treat the animal with utmost reverence, as I do my job of taking care of its remains in the best and most productive way I can.

Recently an elder who is also a kindergarten teacher, named Dorothy, spoke to students about why it is important from a traditional perspective to take care of the environment, and she said that one time when she and her grandmother were out on the tundra, they had taken seal ribs with them to snack on. When Dorothy was done with the meat on the bone, she tossed it behind her to decompose into the tundra. Dorothy's grandmother scolded her, saying, "That seal's spirit will talk to all the other seals in the ocean and tell them that you did not treat its remains with respect. When your father goes out hunting next time, he may come home empty handed." The better thing to do was to bury the bone once you were finished eating it.

Dorothy also said that she was taught that everything has awareness, not just the living things. A log gets tired of being on one side on the ground -- as you walk by, turn it over. Another teacher told me that her grandmother taught her that even dust is grateful when you sweep it up. Just writing about this makes me feel like I've touched a chord in the universe that resonantes close to true spirituality -- the kind that imbues ever moment with meaning and mindfulness. Maybe the word mindfulness is overused these days, but I think it sums up everything I'm trying to say.

Icebergs

2010-04-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

Spring at the beach includes Icebergs! I'm sure they are not Titanic-sinking icebergs (though there may be that kind further out, I don't know), but they are user-friendly, kid-manageable (and manhandle-able), and quite picturesque:

Each year I've been here is different, as far as what order things happen, and when things happen. But basically the beach is covered with snow and ice, and the ice pack extends far out over the ocean. How far, I don't know, as it's not part of my experience. I think that varies year to year as well. But at some point, the ice pack that covers the ocean breaks off and floats farther out to sea, to eventually break up and melt, while the snow and ice that covers the beach is slowly eaten away by each tide coming up.

The weekend before last, I made it down to the beach on my skis, which is farther than I've gone yet this year. I liked thinking of it in this way: I skied to the edge of the North American Continent! (Don't tell Colin and Julie Angus that, I'm sure they would feel one-upped.... ha ha, right, they are only the first people to circumnavigate the world using only human power (rowing, skiing, bicycling).

Anyway, the dogs had a good time playing King of the Iceberg:

And Fancy had to jump on and off, on and off each one:

I think Fancy calved that one with her nose! And then they got so hot they partially destroyed one rolling around on it to cool themselves down:

So this past weekend, I decided I had to bring the girls down, as I knew they would have so much fun with some iceberg play:

You thought you saw everything in this picture, didn't you? Well, look again.....

Eeek! But that isn't even as creepy as this one, that kind of seems like Iris has found a child trapped in ice:

Then Esther decided to use it as her "unicorn":

Yeah, good times. :)

Some of the ice formations are really interesting:

Above is ice that seems to have just slid off it down onto the beach. Interesting. There was kind of a lot of that ice around -- on the tops of tide pools and such, where it was just-congealed slush, not hard enough to be ice, yet still holding together. I wonder if there is a name for that kind of ice?

And there's a chance to see cool critters in tidepools:

I haven't ever seen this kind of jellyfish before, and it was way cooler than the camera could capture. The stripes were kind of iridescent, and I could see little cilia moving like dominoes down those stripes. Then Draco came and put his paw in the middle of it and I think it got traumatized, because the cilia stopped moving. *sigh*

Sledding!

2010-04-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying the warm-ish and calm weather to the max and getting out doing an activity we all can participate in: Sledding!

Even though she was a little trepidatious, I made mom ride in the sled with the girls. She's such an awesome YaYa!

Our friend Katelynn, who is a first year teacher from Arkansas, came over on St. Patrick's Day to "play out" with us. She got excited after she saw the girls go down the hill, and just had to try it herself. I know that snow is a new world to her -- I wonder if she's ever been sledding?

Esther has turned into a rock star. All on her own, as we were sledding out on the tundra behind the school, she decided to stand up!

I think she's ready for a snowboard!

What a cool picture!

So last Friday night a group of us decided to go sledding at the dunes on the beach. It was quite the convoy, especially since Lindsey decided to surf on the sled behind the snowmobile, while I drove my 4 wheeler behind them. There was one sketchy moment when Lindsey fell off the sled and I could have run over her if I wanted to, but luckily I like Lindsey pretty well! :) Kids, don't try this at home!

Here is a picture of us coming up behind:

Our honda is pretty loaded with me and the girls and Katie and our sleds and stuff!

As soon as we got there, Greg drove away on the snowmobile to scope out the best hills. He almost immediately drove off the edge of a snow cliff! Here is a picture of his tracks: where he flew off the top and landed, then his shoulder-skid, then where the machine kept going and his footprints running after it. YES, this is the same machine that bucked us off last November and broke Iris's leg. I'm telling you, it won't stop for nothin'!

Below, the brave soul who was the first to go:

It was pretty steep!

And, defying our dares, Lindsey even tries it face-forward --

She makes it through alright, with tons of snow down her coat.

After those trips down the steep hill, I felt like she was pro enough to take Iris down the less steep hill. But, as you see, Fancy has to accompany them. :)

Melody takes the less steep hill, and still screams her way through it....

But she survives, so I give the OK for Esther to go down with her:

So then I took the reins...

And this is what I feel like we're doing every day, hurtling through the universe, me and my girls:

Yeah, the sledding is fun, but...

after every slide, you have to walk back up to the top! Might as well just make a snow chair and stay put at the bottom:

Here's a picture of the whole gang before we left the beach --

R to L: Lindsey, Greg, Katie, Melody, Esther, Me, Iris. Draco is nicely heeling by my side. Fancy is trying to lick people on her level in the front.

Brave YaYa ventures forth to the Frontier once again!

2010-04-06T11:35:00.001-08:00

Yes, even with the harrowing scrape with the volcano last year, my mom came up to visit us again this spring!

Finally we had some nice weather,

...and the inevitable illness that strikes at least one member of the family during her visit waited until the last couple days, so it was almost the best visit yet. Mom even got to visit Esther at school:

And eat lunch with her in the commons:

The only real issue of the visit was that we discovered, on the day before her arrival, that we were hosting some other, albiet extremely unwelcome, guests:

LICE!

Ah, the joy of learning what it means to have a child in school!

And since Esther and I are so close, well....

Yes, I had them too. I came about a centimeter away from shaving my head.

And, I guess, since she was seeing us all do this to each other, little miss mimic had to get in the act:

My mom escaped the plague. As did Iris. Thank goodness.

Some folks may wonder, why on earth are you putting this on your blog? It's gross and embarassing! Well, if some very helpful folks hadn't put a bunch of free information about lice on their blogs and websites, I think I would have lost my mind. I probably would have pulled out my hair in tufts! SO I'm going to share some tips and the sites I got them from with you....

First of all, I used to laugh when my students told me they treated lice with mayonnaise. It sounded like a big, fat wive's tale. Hower, I found out that any oily substance really does work in that it suffocates the lice and makes it harder for them to elude the comb when you are trying to get them out. I learned this method from a funny and informative site called the 5-Step Battle Plan. It's got a really goofy video that is still really helpful and memorable. I am really grateful to the makers of the site (AND you can get a really great metal comb on the site -- the ones that come with the chemical kits are for crap, especially for those of us who have really thick hair).

So, anyway, you have to leave the oil on for a substantial length of time, though, or it won't work, so most of the time it's reccommended that it's put on at night and covered with a shower cap -- hence Esther's cute washerwoman look:

Yes, it's messy, but man is it a relief to know that you're doing something that at the very least does not allow them to roam around your pillow at night. And it's non-toxic! You know, even though I am more on the earthy side of things, I was totally willing to use the pesticide for lice removal once in our hair. But then I realized when reading the instructions that the chemical does not kill the nits. The nits live on, happily, until you comb all of them out (nearly impossible, as they are SO tiny and blend in so well) or they hatch. Therefore you would just have to keep using the chemical several times before it's totally killed -- and that's just gross to me, using a chemical over and over. If you use the oil every 4 days, you'll catch and suffocate any lice who have hatched.

And here is a product that I'm excited to try (darn slow Postal service, it hasn't gotten here yet, but what it says on the website has me intrigued): Happy Heads They make a shampoo and other products that are made out of essential oils that supposedly dissolve lice exoskeletons. And since they are natural, it's possible to use them preventively, once a week. I like that idea since I doubt this will be our only run-in with lice during my girls' elementary school career.

I also liked this site's take on the whole thing; it's some of the same info but a couple different suggestions: Ask Moxie (You have to scroll down a ways to see the beginning of the article.)

Well, here's a sincere hope that you and yours never have to deal with such infestation!

Yes, we hunt for eggs in the snow....

2010-04-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

So when folks ask me about our life in Alaska, a lot of times they follow up stories with, "And you do all that in the snow?" Yes. Our snow lasts a long time, all the way into June most years. So we have to do a lot of stuff in the snow -- Including Easter Egg Hunts! Well, I guess it might be re-named "Easter Egg Race" since there is little hunting skill required for eggs scattered across a flat expanse of snow. A co-worker joked that leaving the eggs white would actually create more of a challenge -- maybe we'll have to consider this in years to come. :)

Esther and Iris are awaiting the start of the "hunt"

The colored specks are the eggs laid out.

It definitely gets a good turnout, and this was just the younger age group!

Tuluk is helping Esther find good ones.

Iris's auntie Vicky helped her score some.

Esther's loot -- it's hard to see, but inside one of the eggs was one of those new gold dollar coin pieces. There were also eggs with candy pieces inside, and two with tickets for:

Easter Baskets Prizes! We gave one of the baskets away to a child who didn't find an egg with a ticket.

Easter Beauties!

Hooper Bay 2010 OOOOO

2010-02-18T11:40:00.001-09:00

Now that the weather is reasonable again, we're having our own Olympics up here! And the medals go to those of us who can have the most fun. It's a fun fest! :)

It's been fun experimenting how to best combine kids, dogs, skis, and sled -- the girls have had fun and Esther has felt very official giving me feedback on the different methods.

Our breakthrough e-bay buy has been giving Esther a headstart into the world of ice dancing (she likes that way better than the term "figure skating"!): double-bladed skates!

They are perfect training-wheels, as they are much more stable than one blade. Usually by this time of year, there are high drifts of snow everywhere, but we have had such a sparse year of snow that I was able to scrape the snow off the frozen pond right behind our house and clear an ice patch just the right size for her.

She is working on learning the "push-glide" movement and giggling a lot in the meantime. And when she falls, she gets back up and tries again. Makes a momma proud. :)

I wish there were double-bladed skates for adults. Believe me, I've googled it; the sizes go from 8-13 in toddler. *sigh* -- Re-learning to skate is a lot harder when you're bigger and have more to balance -- and more weight to hit when you fall!

But the good thing about re-learning something alongside your kindergartener is that you show her that it's never too late to learn a new skill. And by practicing with her, I remembered that figure-8 trick that we used to do before we knew how to push-glide that really improves your balance. Yay for wholesome outdoor family activities.

However, my big focus for the spring is to learn how to "ski-jior", which is basically hooking up your dog to your belt while you're on skis. First, I thought, I'd better get practiced up in skiing once again -- I haven't skiied in ten years -- but turns out it's much easier than remembering how to ice skate, that's for sure!

Also, Jill & Jeremy gave me some advice on how to get the dogs prepped for this venture -- although the dogs pulled the sled last winter some, they never really got much into it because as I was working with them, poor Draco had his second mange outbreak and so I focused on getting him healthy first (supposedly he will now be healthy for good as he has grown into adulthood by now). So a few Sundays ago, I hooked them up to some light logs, just for some nice weight for them to pull. Fancy took to it like it was nothing, but Draco felt he was being punished -- poor pitiful thing!

So after practicing that a bit, I just decided to take the plunge and see how Fancy and I did together -- I always thought Draco, loyal, trustworthy, calm Draco would be the one I'd ski-jior with, but if he thinks he's in trouble while doing it, it's no fun! So I decided to try Fancy. She was not exactly thrilled at first:

But soon she got into it -- enough -- and it was a great first experiment. She was a little trepidatious when she felt my weight on the other end of the rope, and would stop trotting forward -- but that was OK, because it made a slow and steady first try. There was one time she totally forgot she was hooked to me and veered drastically to the left to smell something exciting and knocked me down. But it worked out fine -- she saw me fall and took the opportunity to lick me to death. We also had a few tangle incidents, but I predict that we will have the hang of it soon. And then the snow will melt! :)

I'll end with some beautiful shots of our recent gorgeous sky (made even more beautiful with two gorgeous girls!):

And I'll leave you to ponder this last one -- a great celestial arrow, or the heavens flipping us the bird?

Frigid

2010-01-16T11:41:00.002-09:00

This is a picture taken from school out across the bay. The lumps in the far right distance are icebergs. Doesn't it look pretty out there? Yeah, it's inaccessible right now. :(

It's so cold right now that walking from school to home (a distance of 500 yards at most) causes any exposed part of my face to get lobster red and throb all day. It's so cold right now that when we walk on the wooden porch, it snaps and moans. It's so cold right now that the impossible dryness that comes with it is causing all manner of skin ailments, including skin cracks that just won't seal up, no matter how much Weleda Skin Food I put in them. It's really cold right now.

Most folks imagine that I'm used to this type of cold, but as my mantra expresses: Hooper Bay is the most perfect place on the planet, and one of the reasons for this is moderate temperatures. The incredible cold that people read about in Jack London novels happens in the interior of Alaska, where there are trees and stuff. While we get really crazy wild windy weather, we rarely get this kind of cold that we have right now. And when we do, it doesn't stick. And usually, it's the calm days that cause the mercury to drop. This weather is defying all that.

What kind of cold, you ask? Well, for the past week, my thermometer has been reading between -2 and -10, and that does not take in to account any windchill. If the wind is calm, it's actually fun, actually cool to be outside in negative temperatures if you're dressed right. The snow is so dry and packed that it feels (and sounds) like walking on styryfoam, and it's usually clear skies, so the stars are twinkling flashing multicolored magnificent. It was like this last week, and I got a few early morning walks with the dogs in before anyone else was up, underneath the waning moon. With the moon's sliver light, and the wierd snow to walk on, it kind of felt like what I imagine it's like to walk on the moon itself.

It's on these nights that we actually get to see the fickle northern lights, though sometimes it's in the wee hours of the morning and I'm never up then.

However, this week when it was already negative temperatures, the wind picked up to 30 mph, and that has caused it to actually feel like it's -50 outside, and maybe I'm wrong since I haven't ever lived in the interior, but it's a more dangerous, more cruel -50 than when it's just -50 and calm winds. My lobster face says so.

So I'm not really used to weather that is too cold to function outside in. Usually, there is an activity that I like to do for every kind of weather -- I like to get out into those wild snow storms and such. Plus whenever we've gotten snow this winter, the storm it rode in on has caused the temperature to rise to 32.5 degrees, which makes everything all mushy and wet, which just adds to the thick sheet of ice that is covering everything when the temperature drops like a brick again when the storm passes. So not only is it too cold to do anything outside, those 30 mph winds make for some interesting walks to school on the foot-thick ice.

So we stay inside and bake, read, watch movies(when the girls go to bed), play board games, make up silly dances to Royksopp, talk on the phone, pretend to clean house and organize, put pictures in frames and scrapbooks, scurry the few hundred feet to the school to watch basketball games or participate in Yuraq (traditional eskimo dancing) in the gym, and BLOG!

In general we stay grateful for modern heating conveniences, though it always feels a little like living on the edge -- if the power went out, if we ran out of heating fuel... yeah, I can sense that the cold is a heartbeat away. It waits on the edges of the house, seeping in where I can't detect it and plug it up. I think of people who were here before us -- what did they do in cold like this, in a sod house, fur clothing & blankets, and a little seal-oil lamp to heat the whole place? Huddle together? Yuraq to get their body temperatures up? Although I think that it would be neat to experience a lot of things from earlier times, this weather makes me so glad I was born in the era in which I was born. Plus, two yaks, my job would have zero application if I were yanked back 300-500 years (though I'd like to say my avocations would!).

It's Interesting...

2010-01-03T12:15:00.146-09:00

This weekend we returned home from our travels far and wide visiting our loved ones far away. It was a great break, a great vacation, a great Christmas, a great chance to do things that the "real" world offers (shopping, movies, pizza, seeing the Nutcracker Ballet in a big city), but man is it good to be HOME.

Yes, even though I grew up in the middle of the midwest, Hooper Bay is home. Almost as if it was home beyond this lifetime... if you get into those things.

But it's a new year, and a new decade, and this blog has been around for 3 years now. I've learned so much about blogging and this internet world this past year, much in the last few months.

I was recently asked to join a group on facebook called, "I Am Eskimo" and my blog was listed as one of the group's favorite blogs. Thanks! I like it -- I like feeling like my blog is getting out there to the world -- AND the whole experience raised an interesting point of discussion and made me feel like I needed to re-asess and rethink about the purpose of this blog and you, my audience. I'll fast forward to the results of this thinking process and tell you that I feel great about this blog, its content, purpose, and you, my audience. But you may find this thinking process interesting, so I'll detail it below. :)

When I moved to Alaska for the second time, with my M.Ed in hand and ready to take on the rural Alaskan educational system, and with Esther as a babe in arms, I was sending monthly newsletter emails with a couple pictures attached to a group of friends and family. This was a success -- and the number of people who were interested in our adventures kept growing. So I decided to start a blog instead, so that I could post more pictures. I also had the motive of reaching out to teachers new to Alaska, new to Hooper Bay, helping them visualize their soon-to-be surroundings, and showing them by example how to make the best of their experience: to get out into the community and the tundra.

Then when the random readers kept appearing, I realized that my words were reaching kind of a lot of people -- not as many as the big bloggers, but maybe some who had never read anything about Alaskan life before. Maybe my voice would be the representation of Alaska for the reader in Brazil, in the middle of the Amazon Forest (for real! Check out the Clustrmap on the margin!). Although most folks in other parts of the world know by now that people don't live in igloos up here, Alaska is still a shadowy region in their minds, especially rural Alaska. And I have to say that a lot of what information does make it out is not good. There are books and movies that, because they need a climactic plot line and a hook to drag people in, show the ugly and tragic sides of Alaskan life (or the overly romanticized parts, which doesn't help, either). So it was at this point that I promised myself that I was going to show the positive and wonderful parts of living in Alaska -- not to gloss over the hard parts, or to put on a rosy show that was not truthful, but to give a portayal of healthy wholeness that is inspiring, to show the ways we deal with the hardships that everyone knows are there but that I choose not to write about.

One example is the book "Ordinary Wolves" by Seth Kantner, which is really a fabulous novel and has received critical acclaim around the globe from all my favorite writers (Louise Erich, Barbara Kingsolver). Although it tells an important story about cultural and identity confusion, does not give one positive depiction of an Alaskan Native person within its pages. I appreciate the catharic nature of his novel -- it must feel good to express the difficult experiences he writes about (though it is indeed fiction). And for many people who are going through similar issues as the main character, it may be a helpful read. I think there is a lot of power in straight-on dealing with the ugly, hard side of life, and in my personal life I am definitely on the side of talking about things directly and keeping no secrets. However, I believe the problem comes in when the book or other media that reaches a worldwide audience who have no context to embed the portrayal within, or any real life experience with a culture to balance negative portayals with positive ones, and that one piece of media becomes the representation of the entire culture to the reader who lives far away.

This area of the world has its share of troubles, troubles that have no easy solution, and troubles that it's hard to get a break from. But my answer to dealing with all of that is to focus on the positive, good things that are possible, to work on the things that can make even a small part of it better -- and to get outside. I really believe that the tundra heals all, if you give it a chance. Subsistence activities are the most healthy mind-body-soul activities I have ever had the honor to partake in, and I'm sure to a Yup'ik person, or any other native person, it is even more healing -- as Dr. Oscar Kawagley says, "Landscape creates Mindscape."

With Dr. Kawagley's quote in mind, I've chosen to raise my daughters here so that with any luck, they will be fluidly bilingual and bicultural. Although this blog may seem mommy-bloggish at times, it's really the story of our family navigating complicated ground -- and I hope that our success so far is inspirational to any of you out there who are contemplating the same thing, whether you are thinking of taking the plunge into village life or you are in a different culture/region entirely. I guess my point is this: it is possible to do important, meaningful work, be very involved in the village community and raise your family in a healthy way in rural Alaska, despite the challenges. And to prove it, here are pictures of my Esther, taken within a 10 day span -- she's riding the cultural divide with finesse, and I can't wait to see how she and Iris choose to negotiate the rest of their lives -- it's all new as they're living it; they're creating their future with each choice they make.

So please, enjoy the pictures and stories, and know that we are loving our life up here, and thanks for reading!

My first award!

2009-12-14T13:08:00.002-09:00

Wow!

Terria at the Daily Good

graced me with a Best Blog Award. I am honored, surprised and happy. It's so nice to be recognized. The Daily Good is a cool spot on the web that, as listed on the site "was created to highlight and share information and news about people and organizations who are doing good in the world; the people and the issues that need our help and support, and ideas related to humanitarian service, being kind and caring, and green living", which is as cool of a mission statement as I can imagine. Thanks Terria!

So, in turn, I get to bestow the honor on my picks, as well. Some of my favorite blogs have already received this award, so my list of Best Blogs will be a bit shorter than the list is officially supposed to be, but I think my list will make up for that in quality and variety.

Amy at Pretty Babies

Amy is so funny and makes me laugh with every post. She is also super smart and says things in just the right way, which gives me vicarious satisfaction, as if I'd expressed myself in just the right way.

Kat at Slugs on the Refrigerator

This blog is so freaking beauitful; the pictures are amazing. And this cool, crafty lady lives in Scotland, and, as only a select few know, Scotland was my first choice before Alaska (obviously it didn't work out, and that's OK!). I spent the summer of 1998 in the Highlands and Islands and it was the most incredible, transformational few months of my life. So it was awesome to find this awesome blog.

Maija at Finnskimo

The Daily Good also awarded her the Best Blog Award, but, hey, she's one of my favorite bloggers, blogging about a subject close to home (and yet so far. She lives in Kotzebue, which is close by Alaskan standards, but probably not by the rest of the world's standards), so I'll doubly grant it to her, all in one day. She is so cool and talented, and I'm sure if you read her blog you'll be hooked.

TwoYaks at Geneflow

Reading this Fairbanks guy's blog makes me feel smart. Especially since sometimes I even know enough to make a tentative comment one of his erudite topics. :)

Milkweed Diaries of the Swanannoa Valley

Too many years ago, now, when I was a student at Warren Wilson College, I thought I wanted to be an organic farmer. I had the whole plan in my head, how I would teach for a while to support the creation of my farm (replete with draft horses), and then full time dive into it. Even though my love of experiencing new places and cultures won out over my farm dream, I still like to visit it in my mind, which this site allows me to do. And I still want to figure out how to get a Kombucha mushroom up here to Alaska!

Mary at Little Weloos Mom

I really like this mom's sense of humor and cute pictures. :)

Raging Wombat at Ugly Overload

This blog was recently made a "Blog of Note" by blogger, so maybe this award is silly on top of that, but I love it so much, beyond words. AND a creature from my blog (well, actually from the bay) was featured on this blog recently. So, to spread the joy, a best blog award to you!

Enjoy, all! Thanks!

Why Not to Postpone Packing the Emergency Bag

2009-12-03T10:25:00.001-09:00

I was all set with my long to-do list Thanksgiving weekend, excited for days to accomplish things that have been wasting away on that thing for months. Something I kept chastising myself for postponing was the chore of packing the Emergency Bag -- that is, the bag that stays full of everything we would need in event of having to fly to the hospital in Bethel at a moment's notice: changes of clothes, diapers, toiletries, travel toys & crayons, etc., as well as IDs and credit cards and things that I never need on a day to day basis here in Hooper Bay -- I only need those things when I travel. Every summer after we come back from our travels, I need to reorganize and get everything in the leave-in-a-moment bag. I hadn't done that yet this fall, and recognized I was tempting fate leaving it unpacked.

Also Thanksgiving weekend I even planned a special snowmobile drive down to check out the frozen beach and let the dogs have a run and I would take pictures of it and blog about it! Especially since the snowgo is new to me -- a couple other teachers and I went in on it together and are sharing it, and I was excited about its purchase and the outdoor adventures we could do with it. And please don't be picturing me hot-rodding through fresh powder like the snowmobile commercials, because it's more me puttering along looking for fox tracks as I go.

But then it doesn't matter because it didn't happen. Because on Wednesday afternoon we crashed on said snowgo. And then, wouldn't you know it, we needed the emergency bag, yes, the one that was not packed yet.

So now, instead of reflecting on a weekend productively spent with a nice outdoor adventure, I'm going to post the story of our crash and and any pictures I may have squeezed out of the whole experience.

First of all, I don't think I've written about the most amazing thing that has come to Hooper Bay, yet (even more amazing than the windmills and the black plastic road) : The Sub-Regional Health Clinic, our link to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC). It has been a long-awaited and highly-anticipated structure, here, because all time before this, we have only had a tiny trailer-esque health clinic staffed by medical professionals called health aides. I wish I'd thought to get pictures of the inside before the clinic officially moved; we happened to be seen there a day or so before they moved over to the new building. But here is a picture of the outside of the old clinic:

The appointments for the day are always filled by 9:am, and the health aides are overworked, underappreciated, and stretched in 15 directions. They are the people who keep the village sewn up at the seams, and yet they only get a few weeks of training a year. Now there is a proper facility and many more medical professionals to support them -- we get itinerant physician's assistants, doctors, and dentists, but it's still the health aides who are the spokes of the wheel. Here are pictures from the grand opening barbecue of the facility we had in August, where the whole community was invited for a Halibut Barbeque, with other delicacies rarely known here (like salad!):

Above is Tuluk anticipating the great eats while we wait in line by the entrance, and below is Esther with her cousins Avery and Jasmine and her uncle Alex:

And the building is so freaking beautiful -- it's just like a real, normal medical clinic somewhere else closer to civilization. I took these pictures of the waiting room while I was waiting for Iris's appointment before all the calamaties began:

It even has a child play area:

So on Wednesday afternoon we had an early release from school, so we scheduled an immunization appointment. It was time for Iris's MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) and Varicella (Chicken Pox) shots. These shots make me nervous anyway because they are live vaccines and because anecdotally I've heard of many reactions to these shots -- but since we live in a town with no running water and a plane's ride away from a hospital, we do our vaccinations.

But, actually, all goes well that afternoon, Iris is not happy to have the shots, but gets it overwith, and she was running around the waiting room while we waited our mandatory wait time after the vacs. My good friend Amy over at Pretty Babies gave us a call; her daughter Mary Grace wanted to ask Esther why she wasn't coming to her house for Thanksgiving, and by then it was time we could be released. I had driven the new snowgo to the appointment, with Esther in front of me and Iris in the hip carrier, strapped to me. I only drove it so that I could get gas for it, since the gas station was going to be closed the rest of the week for Thanksgiving, and I had the trip to the beach planned, remember?

There is a significant dip between the parking lot of the clinic and the road if you don't hit it just right, and the way the snowgo was parked, since it doesn't have reverse, I would have had to physically drag the skis around to make it hit just right. Why oh why am I always so lazy to do that sort of thing? Well, whatever, I decided to go through the dip because I saw other snowmobile tracks go that way and I figured it would be ok. Ugh.

So at the top of the dip, right at the edge of the road, I had to accelerate to get up on top. Being only the second time I've driven the thing, I didn't know something crucial about it: it has a belt that is too small and makes it leap into its acceleration at times.

So it did the leap -- it hit ice on the road -- and there was no stopping it. Way too fast for belief, we skidded across the road and sideways-hit a metal pole that prevents people from driving over the above-ground water pipe on the side of the road:

Actually, my arm hit it, as I was trying like hell to turn the skis. But I didn't even feel it at the time -- since my arm was around Iris, what I felt was Iris smashed against me as we ran into the pole. I was sure we were done for, especially when I felt the snowgo flip out from underneath us and dump us to the side.

Somehow Iris turned out, facing away from me, while still in the carrier, when we fell. That's the moment her leg was broken. I think she took the brunt of the fall for both of us. It's so wrong! It's supposed to be me that takes it -- whatever hurt -- for the both of us.

Meanwhile, Esther was fine. I don't think she felt anything but a nice little topple onto the ground -- but she was freaked out as I was incredibly freaked out, thinking I'd killed both of them.

Being a few feet from the clinic, we turned around and ran back. I was too panicked to say anything so I laid Iris down on the desktop of the registration cubicle , and tearfully said, "We crashed!".

Wow, those health aides can move! It was pretty amazing how we were immediately surrounded and supported. The new urgent care room was well put to use. It was clear pretty soon that Esther was just fine, and I was OK besides my banged-up arm. They were able to x-ray my arm right then and there with the fancy, brand-spanking new x-ray machine that was installed in the clinic, and it was not broken. Here is the picture of the gnarly bruise several days later:

Not too pretty, but at least it didn't end up looking like this (sorry, fun with photobooth):

Because if you think my arm looks bad, check out the tilt in the pole, now!:)

So anyway, Iris seemed fine -- she was responding well to all their tests, all their movements of her body -- except that she was inconsolable, crying so sad and pitiful. But that might have been expected since she had had immunizations (and she always goes downhill for the evening after immunizations) and also experienced the crash and watched her mom freak out AND had not napped well earlier. So it was really hard to tease out what exactly was going on with her, especially since she would move all her limbs and joints just fine. Here is a picture of us in the urgent care room:

So once she had calmed down and actually slept a little in my arms, and we had spent another mandatory waiting period, we were able to go (Tuluk driving us slowly on the 4 wheeler) home, where we were shaky and sad and freaked and went to bed as soon as possible. However, before we went to bed we realized that Iris would not stand on her own. We said we would reassess in the morning.

Thanksgiving Day was a perfectly funked up day. I woke up feeling shaky and anxious, but I had invited 10 people over for Thanksgiving, and I didn't feel like cancelling, as it would just make me feel worse, so I decided to just get started and then I might perk up. But I was not at the top of my game; everything I cooked was just a little off. The rolls had burned bottoms, the pumpkin pie was bitter, the turkey got done an hour after we got done eating (I promise it was thawed! Thank goodness John & MaryEllen brought turkey, too.), and there was a cranberry incident involving the kitchen floor and all of us walking around with the bottoms of our feet dyed purple. But we got through it; it was fine. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food I had cooked, even if it was not quite the level of what I usually produce.

Iris still would not stand on her own, which was worrisome, but there was no swelling, no bruise, no redness anywhere. We kept doing little tests on her, like me holding her towards me and Tuluk would come up behind her and touch or move various parts on her body and legs to see what got a reaction. We could do whatever we wanted and it did not hurt her, seemingly. So even though she spent the day scooting herself around, we couldn't isolate the problem -- we pretty much all agreed that it must be a reaction from the vaccinations. Again, we decided to reassess in the morning.

Friday morning was no question. I noticed during the night that while Iris kicked her right leg, her left would stay still. It felt hot to me, and so we called the clinic right away who told us, despite the fancy new x-ray machine that had cleared me of a broken arm Wednesday night, that I would have to fly with Iris to Bethel to x-ray her leg. The x-ray technician has not been trained in infant legs at this point.

This was bummer news to me, because a trip into Bethel means several things. First, there is always the chance that you will not be able to return the same day, because weather can change during the day and cancel the evening planes, especially since we were on weather delay in the morning already (usually the morning flights arrive in Hooper around 10:am; and we actually got out of Hooper around 12 that day). The next thing is that the ER in Bethel gets really backed up and the wait times are extreme sometimes -- also a contributing cause to missing evening flights home and having to spend the night in Bethel. The third issue is cost -- right now it is $209 one way from Hooper Bay to Bethel. It's not pocket change, and it's not something that I'm likely to have lying around, and it also meant that I couldn't just bring Esther with me, and I've never left her behind. And it was likely that I was leaving her for overnight, since I would most likely get stuck. And it all came to fruition, just like I thought.

After we finally got on the ground in Bethel, I was lucky to have awesome friends Marta & Frank were waiting at the terminal to help us. It was only a moderate wait (a couple hours) at the ER, and here are some pictures of our wait with Iris in her precautionary splint:

After Iris got her x-rays, the doctor summoned us to the computer where the images had come up. He pointed to a little line above her knee and said, "That's a fracture."

Oh, the guilt. It was an avalanche, crushing, horrible weight. I broke my poor baby's leg!

However, the doc had plenty of reassuring things to say. It is a stable break, which is why it didn't hurt her when we were moving her leg around, and it is above the growth plate, so it won't interfere with how her leg grows. Also that infants' bones mend so well at this age that the fracture won't be visible on an x-ray a year from now. The nurse said that a common adage of bone doctors is that at Iris's age, you can put two bones in the same room and they will grow together.

However, there is a chance it could kink as it grows, especially since it will be hard to keep her from using it. They chose a fiberglass cast (in a sparkling blue color) and put it at a certain angle to try to discourage her from using it, but you and I both know that it's not going to slow this child down for long. She has already developed an adept butt-scoot, which thankfully has been cleared as an OK activity for her, because this is not a child who will sit still.

But in order to make sure that the bone is not "kinking", the bone doctor wants it x-rayed once a week. And since we have already been through it that the brand-spanking new x-ray machine already installed in Hooper Bay is of no use to us, I guess that means we are going to have to be gifting the airlines with $400 a week until Iris's leg is healed.

Not that I want anything to compromise Iris's health, and of course the money is nothing if it means she'll be healthy, but it still is a huge financial undertaking, not to mention the other things listed above -- especially leaving Esther behind. However, at the time of this post, I'm not giving up yet. I still have some paths of inquiry to explore, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. Till then, here are the pictures of poor little scoot-scoot in her cast:

(She's not allowed to crawl, but she can pull it along, which she's doing here)

And finally, with her sister, the queen:

Oh, yeah, and on the homefront, Esther had a fabulous time staying home while we flew to Bethel, making cookies and going to the school gym to watch basketball with Tuluk, and with Melody and Katie, going to Katie's son's birthday party. She was no worse for the wear when I returned home Saturday morning.

BUT then as if we didn't have enough going on already, pretty much the moment we got home from the plane on Saturday, Esther woke up from a nap (which she never takes) with a rocket-high fever and signs of what we thought was swine flu, but the folks we got it from were tested positive for Influenza A, so I guess that's what we've got. Tuluk fell prey to it on Monday, and for the past two nights Iris has been battling it. No fair to have flu AND a broken leg all in one week. And I refuse to go down -- somebody has to keep this crew alive! :)

Of course this set me off into high overcompensation-mode and had me dragging out all my (child safe) herbal and nutritional remedies. One of the tests run on us after the accident said we all three were slightly anemic, and so I latched on to this as something I could fix, so I tortured my poor children some more making them eat wierd combinations of vitamin C and iron-containing foods ("Here, have a spoonful of molasses right after you sip this home-squeezed lemonade" Blech!), before I got hold of myself and calmed down. (While I get that iron and calcium compete in the body for absorption, why is that both calcium and iron are often contained in the same foods? Anyone out there nutritionally savvy that can answer that question?)

Thanks for sticking with me on this long and involved post!

Princess Esther's 5th Birthday and Mischevious Miss Iris

2009-12-01T19:52:00.001-09:00

Princess Esther turned 5 on November 19, and we celebrated in style. She had a party in her Kindergarten classroom with cupcakes (above). When we came in to the classroom with the party goods, I saw evidence of how awesome her Yup'ik Language Immersion classroom is: the kids were "storyknifing" in plates of mud, which was a traditional way of telling stories while drawing pictures to accompany it in the mud or snow:

Then, over the weekend, we had a celebratory homeade pizza party with a Pink Lady Cake with adult friends. Then it was no holds barred for her kids' party, for which she wore a special YaYa-chosen sparkly party dress:

Which was fabulously accessorized by the faux otter stole that was given to her by Auntie Marta:

Hordes of children came to eat cake and play party games which included a Dora Pinata (thanks tons Carla!):

It was a fabulous birthday week. I believe Esther felt sufficiently presented (understatement of the year!)! :)

And not to bypass the other lil' chick in our household, Miss Iris has been showing off her mischevious side lately, by getting into interesting places:

By figuring out how to spend momma's money:

By putting on big sisters's winter clothes:

By making funny faces at momma:

And trying to sneak computer time:

What, baby, do you want your own blog? :)

My efforts towards producing produce have been productive!

2009-11-24T13:32:00.001-09:00

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

2009-11-11T11:04:00.002-09:00

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...

2009-11-06T15:44:00.002-09:00

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

2009-11-05T15:55:00.000-09:00

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

2009-09-11T22:02:00.008-08:00

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

2009-08-19T15:38:00.022-08:00

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

2009-08-18T14:44:00.014-08:00

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

2009-08-17T15:38:00.014-08:00

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

2009-06-15T16:42:00.015-08:00

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

2009-06-07T14:40:00.012-08:00

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

2009-05-15T14:04:00.010-08:00

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!

2009-05-15T13:38:00.006-08:00

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!

2009-04-22T14:23:00.007-08:00

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

2009-04-13T14:36:00.022-08:00

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

2009-04-09T08:48:00.008-08:00

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.

Mt Redoubt, Hear ME Roar...

2009-03-30T14:20:00.015-08:00

So Mount Redoubt has been on high alert for eruption for a few months now. It is located on the top of the Alaskan Penninsula (not the panhandle where Juneau is, the one that goes down into the Pacific and turns into the Alaskan chain -- that bunch of islands that stretch nearly into tommorrow), across a strait from Anchorage, Kenai, Homer, etc. Actually I have been worried about my friend Jill who lives just north of Kenai, because her town is at high risk for ash fall, and what would she do about all the dogs she's got in her sled dog lot? But it seemed like another "hurry up and wait" kind of situation, with the eruption imminent for months.

However, it did erupt -- a few hours after my mom arrived in Hooper Bay to visit during her spring break. We all breathed a sigh of relief because she had gotten here -- all flights to and from Anchorage were cancelled after the eruption because of the danger ash poses to airplane engines (yes, no "Lost" situations while my mom is on the plane, please). The bush flights were unaffected -- the ash was blowing east from the volcano, towards Anchorage, and not northwest, towards us. Even if it did blow northeast towards us, I'm not sure if we would have been affected -- it's pretty far away.

So we relaxed and enjoyed our week -- though I caught one of the only stomach flus I've gotten in the past few years, and while I worshipped the porcelain deity, my mom got major quality time with both girls.... :) Here are some cute pictures of our visit:

So on the day she was to leave Hooper Bay, it was gorgeous weather -- cold, clear, calm. The volcano also erupted again that morning. With such crazy storminess we've had this spring, it's impossible to say "wait and see" if you're flying out. You have to jump on the first plane that comes because you never know how it's going to be in 15 minutes. So we did all the research we could do, checking on the Alaska Airlines website and calling them by phone -- by the time my mom's plane came to bring her to Bethel, they had not cancelled any flights from Bethel to Anchorage, so in good conscience, even though I wanted to keep her here indefinitely, I sent her off to the plane.

And then got her call a couple hours later that her flight was cancelled -- the volcano erupted several times that afternoon. It just kept spurting up ash, like brimstone belches or something. And here is the source of my ire: Redoubt, just get it overwith already! I mean, a volcano should just erupt, right? Erupt and get it over and done. Not all these puny eruptions here and there. They are messing up our lives! (And everyone else's lives: check out all the cancellations on this flight arrival/departure board at the Anchorage airport:)

Mom did make it to Anchorage the next day, on the ONLY flight to make it out of Bethel that whole week (after a nice layover in Bethel during which she at least got to experience the Camai festival, Bethel's big dance event), but was then totally and completely stuck in Anchorage. At first they wouldn't even rebook her flights, because everything was so up in the air, and the volcano kept shooting up ash every couple hours. So she found a cheap hotel and settled in for the duration. (And at home, I was freaking out that she was neither here nor there, not with us, not at home, all that wasted time she could have been with us; I should've just kept her, I should have let her go a day early, to the point I was annoying myself with could'ves and should'ves).

She was down about it at first, because she knew she'd be missing work on Monday at least, but then she started to look around herself at the wierd situation she was in, and she started to enjoy the adventure of it all. The airport was an eerie place, she said, with the kiosks covered with garbage bags to protect them from the ash:

And the piles of baggage that were lost from their people due to flights being all messed up and all over the place:

The wierdest part of the story is what happened when she called to book a night at a hotel. She asked for the airport shuttle from the hotel to pick her up. They replied that they weren't allowed to drive due to the ash -- and she looked out to see that there were no cabs lined up, either! She finally found a hotel that would send a shuttle for her, and the driver was wearing a mask. She was entirely creeped out, telling me on the phone, "Cate, it's crazy here!" She took this picture of the notice in her hotel room:

So after several tries and false starts of going to the airport and booking flights, only to have them cancelled and rearranged due to the most recent eruptions, she got on a flight out of Anchorage Tuesday morning (after leaving me on Friday afternoon!) to Chicago. Redoubt erupted a few minutes before they took off, and I guess the pilot said that they just had to get out of there before they were grounded again -- so she made it in the nick of time.

My mom is so awesome, to go through all this to come see us. She is an amazing mom and so wonderfully supportive-- I'm so lucky to have her. But, that volcano on the other hand -- look out, Mt Redoubt, Grrrr.

Oh, yes -- In other news, Iris pulled herself up to stand the night my mom arrived here -- a full week before she was 7 months old. Eeek! I'm scared out of my wits that she may be walking soon, and that she'll be accident-prone (aka hell on wheels). But on the other hand, she is so cute; amazed and proud of herself, it's hard not to just enjoy. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment as well, of the girl standing up:

Yuraq makes March happy

2009-03-23T14:46:00.012-08:00

Yuraq is traditional Yup'ik dancing, and every March Hooper Bay has The Louie Bunyan Festival in which the dance groups in town dance for the community, as well as groups from visiting communities, such as Chevak, Scammon Bay, Stebbins, etc. Every year different groups come, though the villages close by almost always come (and Hooper Bay goes to their festivals as well). I wrote more about the history of the festival in the spring of 2007 here and here.

It was my goal to bring Esther to practice with the school dance group every Sunday night and perform with them this year. We did it! I am beginning to feel more and more tied in to the dancing each year; I am beginning to remember the dances (instead of just having to watch and follow one of the leaders), which frees me up to be more creative with the movements. The crowd loves expressive dancers and funny endings to songs; they love to laugh at silly and vehement dancers, which encourages the dancers to be sillier and more vehement. The songs and lyrics are all very old, but they are free to be interpreted in new ways. It feels like this is one tradition that is not dying out because it is adapting to the new world; of course it is not the same as it once was, but nothing is. What will survive are the things that can change and yet stay the same in substance... I think this is one tradition that is just that. Here is a picture of the girls in their matching qaspeks that I made for them:

Snow Sailing!

2009-03-05T22:34:00.007-09:00

We have been having the stormiest spring I have experienced since I've lived here, with a storm every other day or so for the last couple weeks. But out of a crazy windy storm today was borne an exciting and perfect day for a fun arctic activity: sailing across the snow in a sled. A couple things have to come together to make this happen: hard snow (which was a given with these warm to freezing temps we've been having, which makes the snow melt and then freeze into a hard icy layer on top when the temp goes back down), good visibility, since it's dangerous to play out far from home in bad visibility (the storm we had today had a LOT of snow and just about zero visibility at some points, but it all cleared out by 4:pm), and a huge wind -- yeah, I'd say 53 knots is a strong wind!

Inez, Jasmine, Esther & I experimented with this yesterday, and while the kids just zoomed along like magic -- especially when they decided to use another plastic sled instead of the tarp -- it wasn't as dream-like for the adults, who were kinda heavy... but, hey, we still got to slide along, albeit slowly. But, man, holding up that tarp sure makes the arms tired! I realized I am getting old today when I got out of bed and between my arms being sore from holding the tarp & sleds (&Esther, at points!) against the wind, and being sore from slipping and falling on the snow-covered ice at lunchtime yesterday (after which the wind blew me several feet along the ground -- crazy!), my body is rejecting me, which is what my dad used to say. All in all, though, a fabulous fun activity. I loved hearing Esther and Jasmine's giggles!

In other news, Iris crawled her first crawl steps yesterday. *sigh*

The Light is coming back....

2009-02-25T11:46:00.015-09:00

We've gotten SO much snow the past week or so, and it's pretty cool. It's still not as high as it gets over on the other side of town, where the old school was, but it's the first year that it's gotten close since we've lived over here: It was fun to bring Esther and Iris out, as it was fairly warm (30 degrees), and while Esther sledded by herself and with other kids, I let Iris ride in the sled down little teeny drifts, me holding on to her sled. She really liked the feeling. She liked it so much that then she fell asleep! Here's Iris all decked out in her winter garb:Where's the baby in this picture?:Ah, there she is, and unhappy with me that I've stopped rocking her snow-cradle!:

We had an amazing morning of ice fog, also, which I've rarely experienced, and got some cool pictures of how it laid down frost in interesting textured patterns on stuff, like the antlers from the moose Tuluk caught last September (the moose whom we thank profusely everytime we eat him for dinner):

Many people, when remarking on aspects of my life in Alaska, say that I must get tired of the dark, since we have fewer hours of daylight in winter than people do in the lower 48. However, I always beg to differ. Even though we officially DO have fewer hours of daylight in the winter, it rarely seems like it.

Think about it, Midwesterners, East-coasters, Pacific Northwesters -- how much sunlight do you actually enjoy in the winter? When you get up, when you go to work, it's dark, right? When you commute home, or shortly thereafter, it's dark, right? It's the same here -- BUT only in the very darkest times, I would say about the month of December, give or take a few days on either side (I think at winter solstice we have a 4-hour daylight day).

Even if we officially may still have less actual daylight than other places at this time of year (Today the sun actually rises at 9:08 am and sets at 7:23 pm, with dawn/dusk giving us light an hour on either side), it FEELS like we have a LOT more light: since we are surrounded and covered with bright white shiny snow, and no trees or big buildings to cast many shadows, and the mountains are far to the north, walking outside on a sunny day is like walking around on a mirrored floor-- it's wildly bright! I'm willing to bet that we get our RDA of Vitamin D in a few seconds. And sunglasses are really a must for us in the springtime sun. It feels fabulous, way better than anywhere/anytime in the Midwest at this time of year.

Then, into February, we start gaining light by leaps and bounds, nearly 6 minutes a day -- that doesn't sound like a lot, but in a week that's another half hour of light, and in a month, that's two hours more light. By this time next month, it will feel like the evenings last forever, and let me tell you, my energy grows along with the light. Although sometimes I regret it in the morning, I can get SO much done with the light inspiring me and egging me on. It helps that spring is my favorite season, and that the excitement and anticipation for spring activities coming soon, soon pretty much infests everything I do.

By summer, it's just light all the time, and I love it. I love it that I have a job that lets me have a summer schedule, staying up and sleeping whenever, not knowing what time it is (especially out at camp), and just enjoying all the light. So, although folks think that the extremities of dark/light are a negative thing about living here, I think it's a positive, all the way around, because it's better than most places and never worse than anywhere else. :)

But, hey, in Iris news: She's sitting up by herself! It's kind of amazing, as it developed over just a few days this week. She's been rolling and kind of propping herself up for a while:
And then this week (she was 6 months on the 26th of February), she suddenly was able to pop herself upright, by herself:
AND she's figuring out how to push herself up into a crawling position, and rocks herself back and forth, sometimes creeping the slightest bit backwards. What a rock star baby! It's all very exciting, but I know it's near the end of us being able to be relaxed while we watch her... she'll soon be into EVERYTHING....:)

Fun (and then not so much) in stormy weather

2009-02-12T20:29:00.020-09:00

Although our signature wild stormy weather is not fun for folks who get lost in it -- more on that later -- it's lots of fun for just playing around in when you stay close to home and dressed up safe -- when it's a warm storm like today, with temps around 25-30 degrees, but winds blowing at 50 mph and gusts stronger than that. The biggest issue in any storm here, whether it's a cold weather storm or a warm one, like today, is visibility, because the snow really makes it impossible to see very far. So Esther and I just stayed right inside the teacher housing area and enjoyed the wind safely. (Is there an Esther in this picture? Look up on top of the drift! She's hiding in the blowing snow)
The wind plus the lack of natural windbreaks makes the snow pile in drifts around buildings in interesting ways. This particular drift is right in the middle of all the teacher housing units, and some neighbor kids were tunneling through it. Fancy, Draco, Esther and I (as well as neighbor beagle Hunter) had fun going in and out of the tunnels in the ferocious wind. The wind makes even just normal actions hilarious, what I imagine people living on the space station must experience when they're getting used to zero gravity...
The article of clothing that makes or breaks a fun time outside in a storm is a pair of goggles -- yes, they can get fogged up, but it's so worth it (and if you're like me, optically challenged but unable to wear contacts, you can get the fancy goggles that have a fan to clear out the fog!) The rest of the stuff is kind of expected, the snowpants/suit, boots, coat, hat, gloves -- it's also really good to have a neckie that you can pull up over your face. Dressed like that with goggles on, you are not so bundled that you can't move, and yet you feel fairly invincible, because the wind and sharp snow isn't making it so you can't see. Wearing goggles in strong wind totally makes me feel like a superhero. Fun! Here is Esther feeling like a superhero:

So here's my recent Arctic cautionary tale, for those of us who feel like we have made it into the modern age (yes, I know I was just talking about goggles and feeling invincible) and we are safe from whatever the arctic throws at us because of our various technology -- Tina and Dane, fellow teachers and good friends, had a not-so fun experience in this storm. They actually got lost when they were trying to make it JUST from the airport to town -- barely 3/4 mile from town. I guess the plane just barely made it in, dropped them off, and the visibility got that bad in that short of a time that while they were riding on their snowmobile to town, they couldn't find town! They were lost and circling town for SIX hours, and since it was such a warm storm (meaning right at 30 degrees) much of what was coming down was sleet, and it made them wet. They were dressed great, but when their gear got wet, it wasn't much help. I guess modern technology DID help keep this situation from being tragic, because (and I guess we have GCI to thank for bringing cell phone service to Hooper Bay) without Tina being able to call on her cell, who knows if they would have been found -- but our heroic Public Safety officials AND our amazing Search and Rescue team were able to find them. The old wisdom still remains: when you realize you are lost, STAY PUT and try to build shelter. Tina and Dane were doing just this when they were found, but by this point they were near hypothermic -- when they were taken to the clinic, their body temps were 73 degrees! And Dane was snow-blind -- he had to wear cotton pads over his eyes for a couple days, and sunglasses after that.

Thank goodness they are OK, and for showing us that even on a trip to the airport, to bring survival gear. Before this, it always felt like a trip down to the airport was just a jaunt, like popping down to the convenience store. Now I am chastised! However, it also gives me respect for the ancient Yup'ik weather-wisdom, also, because there is a guy from Chevak who was lost in this storm for 4 days... when they found him, in his snow-shelter he had built, he was just fine -- wow, impressive.

In other news, Iris has begun eating food! Here are some cute pictures of her first avocadoes, for which she was very excited. She LOVED the eating experience, and it was so cute to see her enjoy it:

Iris' first day playing out and Esther's Snowperson

2009-01-27T09:12:00.012-09:00

So even though we live in a land of snow 8 months of the year, very rarely is it snow fit for making things -- snowmen, snowwomen, snow castles, etc. -- because it's often very dry snow, and the wind whips up what is not hard-packed. However, we had a really warm wind storm this month that brought the temperatures up to near 32 degrees (and a little bit over, because we had some RAIN for a couple hours before it dipped below again), and a bunch of wonderful, wet, malleable snow fell. Esther has been dying to make snow creations, so I told her we were going to seize the moment to do so, and to take advantage of the warm temps to take Iris out to play in the snow for the first time!

Here is Esther pushing a big snowball up the hill:

Iris was NOT excited at first to sit down in the snow:But then soon realized it was cool and different:Especially when she got to hang out with big sister!

The finished snowperson (Esther said it was a girl AND a boy snowperson. Great!):For lack of fresh produce, we used candy to decorate, and the hard candies promptly sunk far back into the snow, producing gross brown stains for buttons. It's ok, Esther loved it anyway, as you can see in this picture of Esther loving up her snowgirlboy (as a thinly veiled strategem for munching on the licorice nose -- she insisted she was just "kissing" its nose...)Nice one, babe!

Dog Fun

2009-01-24T13:29:00.025-09:00

Fancy and Draco are now sled dogs! Ok, so it's not like we're going to start full-scale mushing anytime soon, but I do think we've accomplished enough with the sled to say that they're sled dogs -- even if we say it with a little smile on our faces... because they're never going to be SLED dogs.

And that's totally ok -- that's not what I'd want; I just want to have a new outside winter activity that we can all do together (eventually). I don't want them to go fast and run ahead of us like real dog teams do, I just want them to pull the sled at a walk, and walk alongside of me. BUT as you can see from these pictures, although we have had a great start, we have a long way to go before we get to that point! We took pictures on a sunny Sunday afternoon when the temps were a bit above zero, maybe around 10 degrees F. Jasmine and Esther were my test pilots on this particular day, and the dogs seemed to be able to pull their combined weight with no sweat... once we got going. Getting harnessed and hooked up is the most challenging part, because the dogs are excited and don't really sit still for me very well (we're working on it), so they are constantly getting all tangled up as they turn around and try to lick me, etc. Then when we take off, the dogs' attention is not always on me, and they have trouble understanding that they need to just stand next to each other, not at wierd angles to each other, and they also have trouble understanding that they need to walk TOGETHER, not zig zagging around each other and getting their lines tangled. Then once it's time to pull, they totally rebel at first, and Fancy takes it out on the leash (which I attach for steering, because they totally don't know where they're going yet, and it's not a perfect system because it's hard to steer from the side of them or behind them -- because a lot of the time they want to trot along, and then I trot along, then they run, and I have to run, faster and faster....).But then once we get going, and we're in a nice rhthym, it's smooth sailing, like a dream. Check out these cool as a cucumber pics:

We also have been having silly fun with the dogs -- they are the first puppies I've ever raised from birth forward, and since I knew exactly when their birthday was, because it happened in my house, Esther and I decided to have a birthday party for them. It was totally silly and totally great. Their birthday happened to fall on a Friday night(January 23) so we were able to get it together to make hats and cakes for them (cakes made of turkey broth, eggs, flour, molassses, and iced with salmon cream cheese -- mmmmmm....). Here are the pictures from the fiasco! Fancy snarls,"Just because you gulped yours down doesn't mean you can move in on mine!" And Draco is duly chastised.
And what would a birthday be without a walk down memory lane, to see how these beasts began their life in my porch? You can check out earlier puppy posts in 2008, but here are just a few quick pictures in this post:Draco, a few days old...Fancy, a few weeks old.The litter's first time outside, at about 4 weeks.The cutest picture of Fancy & Esther, at about 6 weeks old.Fancy & Draco in a box -- at about 2 1/2 months old. It is so fun to remember how cute they were then, but they were SUCH a handful! If you're wondering what some of the other pups in the litter turned out to look like (they all must have different dads, because they all look so different), here is a picture of Jego, who visits my house as often as he is at his own house: The other puppies got cool names from their adoptive owners: Taki, Scrap, Zeus, and Bandit. Abby is also doing great at her new home, playing with lots of kids, even getting to be a house dog sometimes.
Now they're hardcore village dogs (ha! They're still really spoiled by rural Alaska standards!) that they can weather storms outside and even choose not to be in their houses: It's like a hidden picture drawing: where are the dogs in this picture?Here they are!

We didn't have to dream of it...

2009-01-13T21:11:00.043-09:00

It was a seriously white Christmas, as in white out, super-duper blizzard, with wind gusts up to 50 mph for a span of days around and including Christmas. The only window of relative calm was Christmas Eve morning when, thankfully, my mom was able to fly in from Bethel -- where she had only be stuck 24 hours, sheesh. So, with my mom safely here, our holidays were fabulous, and I wanted to share pictures and stories....Esther wearing a beaver hat, a 'Palaggai."
Iris happy about going out visiting with daddy -- cute!

Christmas just gets more and more fun with Esther being so so into the mythology of Christmas and Christmas traditions, and we had Esther's cousins visit to make crafts and cookies and such. Here we are a couple days before Christmas rolling out sugar cookies:
Even though we don't have a tree -- obviously real ones are not possible, and I hate artificial ones -- I'd rather have no tree than a fake one -- we do it up nicely, anyhow, yes? I've made our decorations with at Star theme rather than a tree theme:
Iris was actually pretty into the present-opening process, and big sister was loving helping!
Fancy Nancy doll: Who knew? So perfect for my little fancy girl:
Looking tenderly at her first ballerina music box, which plays Swan Lake:
Esther's Hello Kitty Stereo from Santa:
Iris showing off her First Christmas duds, with Dad giving a kiss to the top of her head
The girls basking in the after-Christmas glow (as in, enjoying the lights right before I take them down:)--

The evenings after Christmas, the village had a great activity in the school commons: Christmas Games. I had never been to this event before, and did not know what to expect, kind of thinking it would be a basketball tournament. But it was just a bunch of games like relays and such, divided by age group. The winning teams would get small prizes, like little plastic toys, balloons, crayons, -- often, though, the game coordinator would say "All winners!" and all the kids would rush over to the area where there were just boxes & boxes of prizes.
Being my first time at the games, I thought that they would just be for the children. The game coordinator would call out for different age groups to come into the center of the commons to play a game, like Tug-of-War for kids Esther's age, below.
She was pretty confused as what to do -- she'd never played Tug of War before. Too bad, though, because being the tallest one in the group she could've kicked butt! :)
After watching a bunch of kids' games, then, I was pretty surprised when the game coordinator called out, "Men and Women!" and all kinds of adults rushed into the center of the game area. Of course I'm game for anything like that, so I joined in. We formed two lines, mixed gender, and were all given toothpicks to hold in our mouths, and the object of the game was to pass a fruitloop all the way down the line, toothpick to toothpick. The last person in the line had to run up to the front, holding the fruitloop on the toothpick, the toothpick in his or her mouth, and start the fruitloop down the line again, until everyone in the line was in the orginal order again. Funny!:It was totally hilarious, and although I couldn't keep from laughing and accidentally blowing the fruitloop off my toothpick the first time with my breath, some folks were ALL business(as you can see from these photos -- I got permission from everybody, by the way, to post these), and everyone was having a great time, participants and observers.It seemed to me like a game that was fun and funny because it was as close to kissing as you could get without really kissing! In fact, the next game, which I didn't get pictures of because it was too fast moving, was a relay in which you had to hold a playing card in between your nose and upper lip, flipping your upper lip totally up and inside out, passing the card to the next person in line who would hold it the same way. I couldn't figure out how to hold it at first, because I didn't realize how completely I had to flip my upper lip up, and some of my teammates teased me, looking at Tuluk (who wouldn't play, just wanted to hold Iris and watch) and saying, "Well, don't you know how to kiss?" in a teasing tone. I think the game itself was even called "Eskimo Kiss."

Here I am trying my best!The whole games experience was one of my favorite community activities because everyone was so involved, even the observers were active observers, and there was just such a great feeling about the whole thing. Hearing people talk about these mouth-to-mouth games, I realized they were old favorites -- people totally knew what they were in for when they lined up, and were into it! Everything I love about living in this community was embodied in these games, the joking, teasing fun is the best thing about Yup'ik culture. And when I closed my eyes to the artificial lights and the western architechture, I could imagine playing these games eons ago, in the dim light of sod house....
AND we were "All winners!" I loved the prizes, too, very utilitarian: Rit stain-whitener powder, bobby socks, dental floss, washcloths and plastic tupperware....:)

We packed up and traveled to Anchorage for New Year's, for a vacation and to take care of medical appointments (a reality of life here where there are few options for medical care, that we have to schedule our appointments for school breaks), and it was a good thing that we took the girls to a pediatrician, because they both developed croup over the vacation and soon after.:(
When I had bought the tickets, I had cringed at how expensive they were this time, thinking it was because of the holidays. Well, for some reason they were expensive because all that was left was first class tickets! So here is a picture of mom and Esther living it up in First Class on Alaska airlines -- our first time! Too bad it's only an hour flight from Bethel to Anchorage.
My mom and Esther posing by (and in!) the 5th avenue ice sculptures:

You know you're in Anchorage when:you see tacky things that are supposed to remind you that you're on the last, great frontier all over the place -- like this enormous bear in JCPENNY'S at the downtown mall.
We actually made it to Anchorage & back without travel woes! Amazing and wonderful.
Here are just some cute pictures of the girls:
Esther said she was missing camp, so she made a tent out of a big box...
She's stocked it with all kinds of provisions--including a place for her sparkly shoes!

Esther in her cute rabbit mask and Iris in her bumbo seat --
Iris wants the big bunny!

Snowy Sunday

2008-11-17T11:58:00.010-09:00

Just for fun I thought I'd post some pictures of Esther, Fancy, Draco & I having fun rolling around in the snow yesterday. :) Oh, and Happy Birthday, Mom!
And for good measure (and good giggles!) a cute picture of Iris, now smiling, in an adorable sweater (thanks Auntie Millie!):

We made it Home!

2008-10-31T19:48:00.036-08:00

The landscape in Hooper Bay changed in our absence: Three awesome windmills, set to be functional sometime in the coming months. Hooray for wind energy!
We got back and settled in to Hooper Bay just in time to celebrate Halloween in style:

Esther is a mermaid, and I am the princess and the pea!

Even if the costume did induce her world-famous pout (seriously, did you ever see a child's lip stick out so far?) :)Esther doing a beautiful mermaid dance in her gorgeous costume......and here's how we managed to fit her out for trick or treating in it, over her snowsuit -- good thing we got it one size too big!
Here are some pictures from our trip back, which took us briefly through Seattle and Anchorage.Here we are arriving in Seattle, no worse for the wear after our first solo flight, the three of us -- we fared well! Esther is SO in her element when we're traveling; she was so much help. (picture courtesy of Melissa)
Jodi, Bob and Lucas stopped to see us in Seattle at Joyce's house -- Joyce was so awesome to host our whirlwind day visit and allow all our friends to descend upon her house to see us, too -- as well as a bunch of other folks that it was fabulous to catch up with. Here is a picture of Esther and Iris with Melissa and Dana:
We had a great meet up with Jill in Anchorage (also where Tuluk joined our travels to help us out)Here we are being cultured at a "Chocolat" shop -- yumWe checked out a cool Korean grocery (Esther and the crabs match in their lovely shade of blue) next to an awesome Indian restaurantAnd even had time for an awesome afternoon at H2Oasis, the totally fun indoor waterpark, meeting up with the Greniers. Esther & Simon are sliding out of the watery pirateship, in this picture.

Our trip from Anchorage to Hooper Bay, on Monday October 13 (otherwise thought of as "D-Day", since we were traveling with Esther and Iris, all our insane baggage -- they still let us check 3 bags per passenger within Alaska, and it's just too tempting to resist the opportunity to take advantage of that! So we end up with a ridiculous amount of baggage -- AND the dogs, Fancy and Draco, reclaimed from Jill & Jeremy's doglot, spayed and neutered as well as mange-free & healed up -- yes, we had quite the situation and I felt it would be my greatest travel achievement yet!) actually went smoother than could be believed, with only a few bumps regarding the dogs in Anchorage, but we all made it home by the evening! Here is our whole baggage situation piled up at Hageland Aviation, the small plane company who took us from Bethel to Hooper. When I checked in, I said, "Hello, I'm with this circus over here" and I'm thinking they knew they'd need a bigger plane...:)Tuluk grooving to his country tunes and Iris sleeps away her time while waiting for our flight home at Hageland.

We got home to an intact house and a cold wind -- going from Indiana October to Hooper Bay October was a chilly transition -- but actually, there is more light here, longer in the evenings, than there was in Indiana, so it kind of evens out No, I'm not flashing you -- there's a baby inside my coat! This is Iris's first honda ride, the day after we got home, over to Aana's (grandma's) house. Aanas, aunties, and cousins were all overjoyed to reunite with Esther and enamored of Iris.Here she is, zonked out on Aana's bed (rumored among the Hale family to be where the babies get the best sleep) in her Qaspeq (traditional shirt) and Piluguqs (booties I made for her, which got the approval of Aanas and aunties, thank goodness).

Back at home, everything is settling down as we are settling in. Here are Ping and Iris getting aquainted.
Draco & Fancy are doing great -- they remembered their routines and everything! It is so good to have them back; they have grown into such beautiful dogs. I am so happy with them, and grateful to Jill & Jeremy for taking such good care of them. Here they are enjoying their outside digs -- though they still get to sleep in the porch at night.

Going back to work has not nearly been as traumatic as I thought it would be -- Iris has been doing fabulous, and thanks to Jodi who loaned me her pump, Iris can still breastfeed exclusively. Esther has been having a harder time with me going back to work than Iris, but she's getting OK about it, now, as I've been back to work for two weeks. I love my new position as a reading specialist, and even though I am installed in kind of a wierd room overlooking the commons area of the school and so it gets loud, I have really fixed it up to my liking and I kind of love it. It's dubbed the "Treehouse", and it does feel like one, up high overlooking everything. I love the rafters, and all the natural light, even if it does get really loud.

Tuluk has been working nights and it works out great for us -- we have been able to have Tuluk's niece babysit most days to let him get more sleep, but it's a lot less stressful than last year regardless. And then he grabs naps through the day:

I'll end with some of the many expressions of Iris -- including some of the first smiles -- who is a full two months old, now!

Iris's First couple weeks

2008-09-11T10:57:00.022-08:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged one -handed (one hand being full of baby) So here goes!

Just wanted to share pics anyhow.

Esther is the best big sister!

She's found her thumb! :)

Tuluk's visit to IN the week of labor day was awesome -- great family time, and he didn't quite roast in the Midwestern heat --yay.Our wonderful family! :)

Welcome Iris!

2008-08-26T14:55:00.006-08:00

Iris Ruby Ida Hale

Born at 5:08 am, Tuesday August 26, in Valparaiso, IN.

9lbs. 7 oz, 22 inches long.
Mom accomplished her goal of a natural, intervention-free birth (though it was really intense!)

Looks like her dad!

Smokin'.....

2008-06-26T21:06:00.013-08:00

No, nothing crazy -- just our salmon! Last year our fish weren't done drying before we took off to Indiana, and so I missed the smoking part of the dryfish process. This year I made my travel arrangements for later, plus Tuluk and I decided to smoke the fish earlier so that they will be slightly softer than fish that has been all the way dried before being smoked. Our original plan was to smoke them down at our camp, but it's been pretty windy and that might have proved challenging... so Tuluk's mom generously let us use her smokehouse. Here are some pictures of the process:

First, down at camp we cut some willow bushes and peeled some of the bark, which lends a bitterness to the smoke.
Then we hauled all the fish to town, to the smokehouse behind Tuluk's mom's house, and we carried the fish inside, as Esther is showing us in this picture.

Then we hung the fish on the racks inside the smokehouse -- Tuluk laughingly said, "What are you doing taking a picture of me doing this women's work?":). Well, since he showed me how this year, I can do it myself next year... :)
Then we lit the fire...And waited for it to catch...and then it got too smoky to take any more pictures until the fish were done! Over the fire was a piece of tin that kept the fire from growing too large, so that the main output was smoke. It took 3 days of constantly (or almost, anyway) checking the fire, keeping it smoking, adding wood (except at night we left it alone) and by the third morning the fish were done and ready to be put away. Tuluk and I are a great team processing our stuff -- he got a vaccum sealer, so I cut up the stuff, put it in the bags he's getting ready, and he seals it up. Here are some pictures of me processing the fish in our kitchen:

Surrounded by all our food ready to put up for the winter in the freezer! It feels great to accomplish all this, especially since Esther and I are leaving Hooper Bay on Thursday for 3 months, to stay in Indiana with my mom and wait for our new baby. It's been an awesome June, and hope you enjoyed watching our process also.

Fabulous Fishing!

2008-06-23T14:26:00.022-08:00

On a nice, calm day this past week, Tuluk couldn't find a fishing partner to go driftnetting (exactly what it sounds like, to set a net out from a boat and drift while you wait to catch salmon), and so we convinced him to take us out on the bay -- we had a great time and caught some awesome fish! Then we took them to camp and cut and hung them up on our drying rack. Here are pictures of the whole process:
Tuluk setting the net out from the side of the boat.
Esther is so excited to be out on the bay, singing to the ocean and the birds and the fish -- here she is waiting to see if any salmon get caught in our net.
These guys are caught....

Bringing in the catch.
Tuluk and Esther on the Dock with our day's catch in a gunny sack.
Esther showing us the difference between chum salmon and king salmon -- the kings have black spots on their tails (hard to see in this photo) and hooked mouths. They really are rich!

Cutting Fish:
First, cut off the head and out the guts (we'll show you what we did with the heads later).
Split open the Fish along either side of the backbone with a Kinaluq -- in most parts of Alaska, it's called an "Ulu" but in Hooper Bay we use a more specific term. It's a rounded-blade "woman's" knife. This one I'm using was made in Hooper Bay by expert Donald Tall, and Tuluk got it for me for Mother's Day. How nice!
Next, lay the fish open, slicing down the sides of the ribs so that the side of the fish lays out into one flat piece (the two sides are still connected by the tail).
Make cuts through the flesh down to, but not through, the skin on each flank, and as a final step, stretch the skin so there is space between the cuts. Cut out the middle, with the ribs and spine, so that there are two flanks hanging, still connected by the tail.
Brine the fish in your special mixture -- some folks use sea water, some use spices, some use brown sugar...I like just salty water.
Hoorah! Esther and I are proud of our work cutting fish, and feel we've accomplished a lot when we look behind us at our fish rack, with the fish hanging there.

Making Ooksook:
So now we get to the really gooey part: how to make "stinkhead" fish by putrifying them dug into the ground for a couple weeks. Although it sounds totally gross, there are many northern cultures who make this delicacy; it's akin to the Norweigian "Lutefisk" I believe it's called. I actually have never tried it, but I'm never opposed to trying something out, and I like it that the fish heads don't go to waste. Tuluk loves the stuff. Supposedly it smells horrible but tastes sweet and delicious...we'll see. But here's what we did:Fish Heads in a gunny sack awaiting their "burial". Digging the Ooksook hole in the sand. Dropping them in...Burying them (For a couple weeks or so, depending on the kind of ground they are in -- it's sand where we buried these, so they will be ready sooner than other kind of soil).
Marking the spot so we don't forget where they're buried!

Clam Chowder Camp Date

2008-06-20T11:30:00.014-08:00

Tuluk dug a bunch of clams for us, and then we cooked them into clam & beluga whale skin chowder at the camp. Here are pictures from our fun day & evening:
Esther is holding an oosoonglook, a kind of sea worm, very strange creature, that lives in the mud with clams. The sink behind her is full of the clams from the day.

Esther was very interested in watching the clam-cleaning process.
We took the clams down to the camp and I put together the yummy, creamy soup. Tuluk waits for it to cook over the fire (campfire food is always the best!)
Esther is ready to eat!
She likes it!
"Come on, Mom..."
We stayed the night at the camp, and in the morning, my cute sleeper awoke happy:

And she's not the only one who loves camp-- the puppies are in heaven. They're getting big but still cute, and Draco has been victorious in his struggle against mange, thanks to awesome vet Dr. Keely in Valparaiso, IN, so all is well in dog world. The dogs don't even want to come home when we drive away -- we have to carry them or offer treats to get them to run with us away from camp. :)

Draco even found a cute hiding place:

Back at Camp!

2008-06-02T11:26:00.011-08:00

Hoorah! Although it's been such a late spring and I've been counting the seconds till we could get out there on the tundra, the day arrived a week before I got out there last year, since school got out on time this year. We are outfitted with a fab new tent and new ideas and plans. Getting stuff set out and ready
We've also got the puppies to teach about camping and the beach. We set up the tent first thing Saturday morning, got our stuff together Saturday, and spent our first night Saturday night. Almost set up! Fab, right? :)
Although my belly is getting big with the new addition soon to join our family (another girl due in mid-August!) I was determined to still camp, and with a new inflatable mattress and foam, etc, I was very comfortable and slept well -- accompanied by bird sounds galore, as well as the sound of the surf not far away. The pups slept near the tent most of the night, but it does seem that they went out adventuring at some point --cute.

The next morning we had a great beach exploration and even found a live, in-shell hermit crab! The dogs totally wanted to eat it, and Esther ran away shrieking at first, but we all got used to it and got some great pictures. Esther was soon on to what we were going to feed it... but we left it where hopefully it will not get eaten immediately by all the shorebirds flying around. It was a great start and we have a whole month left to experience it... :)!

Esther's First Eggs

2008-06-01T19:58:00.007-08:00

Esther found her first duck eggs on the tundra, on the way to our camp this past week. While we were driving the honda on the path by a large pond, a mallard duck flew up from the reeds on the edge. Upon inspection, we found a nest with two eggs. She was thrilled! Here are some very cute pictures of her with her discovery:

She wanted to know: Why didn't the mother duck stay with her baby eggs? I told her that the mother thought she could draw us away from the eggs if she flew away from her nest. What a cute thinker girl. :)

Still Winter

2008-04-14T15:29:00.011-08:00

So bright, (with all this snow & sunlight) We GOTTA wear shades
Though last year's early spring was a fluke, and it's normal to have cold and snow this late into the year, it still feels like it's time to be melted. I love all the great light (till 10:30 pm), but I miss the warm, muddy breezes of spring -- that probably most of you in the lower 48 are experiencing already.

But we still manage to go out and have fun -- here are some pictures of our walk with the puppies Sunday evening.

Esther and Fancy lookin' pretty at the top of the playground slide
How can you rock on a rocking toy when the snow is up to the bottom? Ha ha. Esther managed. :)

Ya Ya's visit up North

2008-04-05T08:59:00.020-08:00

Tuluk and Esther watching the weather outside on the morning of Ya-Ya's arrival. Tuluk went by snowmobile far out onto the tundra that day to check his brother's blackfish trap out under the ice of a meandering slough. Blackfish must be amazing to be living under the ice!

Arriving by the skin of her teeth Easter Eve, my mom came and spent a week with us up here in Hooper Bay. She was on the last plane in that evening, after a harrowing day of delays due to our buddies Alaska Airlines, and by the time she got to Bethel, weather was rising on the tundra out here, rising winds and blowing snow. One bush airline cancelled flights, and I was holding my breath till I heard (via VHF radio -- how did I ever live without one? It's the information hotline) that her flight was 25 minutes out. It's still not a guarantee, since sometimes pilots will make the effort to get out to a village, only to see that the weather/visibility has closed down so fast that they can't land on the airstrip and have to turn back to Bethel. But, luckily, it all just came together and my mom got on the ground 30 hours after she left Indiana the day before. I have an awesome, adventurous mom! She's so great to even want to come out here, and then to endure the wild travel... she's a superstar. :)
Esther and Mom outside the new Hooper Bay Restaurant/Church building.
So she also got here in the nick of time to experience our new Hooper Bay highlight: The restaurant! The restaurant was built by volunteers from the missionary organization "Samaritan's Purse" last summer. The building is one-half restaurant and one-half church, but we have lovingly dubbed even the restaurant the "Jesus restaurant." It's basically a hamburger joint, sans fries, where you can get a double-cheeseburger with lettuce & tomato for around $6. But they also have soft-serve ice cream AND the option of milkshakes-- Hoorah, we all scream with JOY for it. SO it is definitely an exciting addition to our town, even if it is only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. It is also an awesome hang out for kids, as they have games and a football table and stuff like that. It's always packed to the brim with kids, and it's wonderful to see they have a healthy place to hang out.
Esther and YaYa play Chutes & Ladders at the Restaurant
Kids hangin' and playing games at the restaurant

It's also a little over the top with the Jesus stuff. Ya know, I don't care what people do or believe if it gives them happiness and hope, and I'm not downplaying all the great things that Samaritan's purse has done for the people of this town (built houses in the wake of the fire, built this restaurant, brought guest speakers/singers etc. to entertain), but it just seems like if you're gonna do nice things for folks, just do the nice stuff, don't make it with religious strings attached. I guess I don't totally know the reasoning behind their approach, but, like I said, it is a little over the top.

When you walk in to the restaurant (after taking off your winter clothes in a wonderfully large clothes-room), the first noticeable thing is the Jesus music. It's broadcasted through a sound system and also can be viewed, Kareoke-style on two big flat-screen TVs posted on either ends of the restaurant. It's the kind of Jesus music that's meant to be "hip!" and appeal to the younger (maybe as yet unconverted?) generation. It's the kind of music that gets into your head and you find yourself waking up to it at 2:am.

Then there is the wall of Jesus books, with titles such as, "The Bride of Christ," and "The Spirit Subdues." AND there was a special mini-golf event inside the restaurant, and if you stood back and looked at all the mini-golf stations, they spelled out "JESUS." And then there's this: here is a shirt that's on sale near the counter --
Although I have not neglected religious education with Esther -- we have had many discussions on her level about what I believe and what others believe -- I think she has gotten more exposure to Christianity at the restaurant than anywhere else. Which is why it totally made sense when she spouted this incredibly hilarious statement: "Right, God lives at Church and Jesus lives at the Restaurant?" Yes, there's Jesus in the back, flipping burgers.

But it was great to show off the hot spot of our village to my mom, and as she said, "It's not a bad burger at all!" It's just one more thing that we're not missing from the outside world: fast food. And since we get it so rarely, YES I do let my child eat it -- though she doesn't like it too much! (ha -- success of the whole-foods mom!) Except for the ice cream... yeah, I've passed on my sugar tooth. *sigh*
Esther getting into her Easter basket
Then the next day was exciting: Easter! And this year, Esther was not afraid of the Easter Bunny (last year she was terrified for some reason) and totally got into the egg & basket search. But we managed to traumatize her again, because it was my bright idea to try to teach her "hot" and "cold" to help guide her searching. I thought it would make the search more fun until, when I was excitedly telling her "You're hot, hot!", she turned to me in tears. Great job, mom! First I try to teach her to stay away from hot stuff, then I encourage her to go to something by saying it's hot -- well, what can I say, it was early and I hadn't woken up yet! Well, she ended up having a good time and getting lots of goodies from the Easter bunny. And yes, I let her eat Easter candy.
Coloring Eggs
We had an Easter dinner at our teacher buddy Tina's house, and then visited Tuluk's family's house, so that my mom could meet his family and his mom. It was a really nice, relaxing day.

I had to go to work all week, but Esther and my mom had great grandma-baby time, and even though Esther spiked a fever a couple days that week, it was OK because they got to snuggle and read lots of books. The week went too fast, and although I was happy that my mom got to make her flights (though not without more drama from Alaska Airlines) and get home on time, I couldn't help but wish a snowstorm had come up to keep her with us. Ah, well -- we'll see her in July. :)

Esther's first Dogsled Ride

2008-03-12T15:09:00.016-08:00

Esther and lovable Maku "Moochie" dog -- she has been wanting to find a dog she could "ride" like this forever! Since she read the "Carl" picture books when she was a year old. Finally, Moochie was accommodating and sweet for her.

Right in time for the Iditarod season, Esther got her first dogsled ride! We visited our best buddies' Jill & Jeremy's house in Nikiski, Alaska, on the Kenai penninsula, where they are building their house and training their dogteam last week.
Esther and Jill on their bluff overlooking the ocean and mountains, a five minute walk up the hill from their cabin.

We had a great time in their warm and cozy cabin, where they are homesteading in the long tradition of Alaskan homesteaders. I'm very proud of Jill living without running water, Jeremy building the house himself, and both of them figuring things out as they go along. Jill & Esther & Ruby
Esther being a trooper on the outdoor potty chair! Sorry, I can't figure out how to get this picture to be vertical -- sorry for any neck-craning!

Slackline Kennels (their team name) is still overbrimming with wonderful dogs, and it's so impressive to see how professional and smooth their dog mushing operation has become. They have a great system, and their dogs are so well taken care of. I was reading some ridiculous criticisms of the Iditarod today online, in which people were saying that dog mushing is animal cruelty and all that nonsense. You only need to spend 5 minutes looking at Jill & Jeremy's dog lot to see that these are some healthy, well-cared-for, and insanely happy dogs. And they love to run -- they get super excited when they are getting hooked up, and their howling is soothing to the spirit. It was a great visit, as you can see!

Jill & Esther in the doglot, meeting the dogs.
Taking a break in the doglot while the team gets ready.
All packed in the sled and ready!
Right before take off. Sorry, another one I can't figure out how to make right-side up.

Esther totally loved the ride -- they even had a few bumps and dumps along the way, and she got right back in the sled, excited and chatting with Jill the whole way. They even got back after dark! What a cool experience.

Grown-up Litter

2008-03-12T14:10:00.011-08:00

Esther taking Fancy for a ride on her bouncy horse -- Fancy looks thrilled, doesn't she? :)

Talk about a pile o' puppies!

The whole cute group, at about 5 and a half weeks, right before they were given to their prospective homes...

The remaining two, Fancy and Draco, who have no idea what's in store for them during their first bath.

Little wet rats! :)

They survived, contrary to what they believed when they were getting washed off. :)

Puppy Update

2008-02-10T17:25:00.001-09:00

The puppies are growing bigger by the minute and getting cuter all the time. They are waddling around now after their mom, and they have their eyes open, which makes them seem more puppy-like. It's pretty fun so far, especially because Abby has been doing such a good job of cleaning up after them -- I don't have to pick up poop or anything. :) Here are the 2&1/2 week pictures:

Puppies!

2008-02-03T17:53:00.001-09:00

Yes, we are now a household overbrimming in fur: Seven puppies were born to Abby on January 23. They are still just little squeakers, crawling around without even their eyes open yet. Most are boys, and all are spoken for -- in fact, I have folks on the waiting list! So it's been a really great venture so far, with a rosy ending in sight, when the pups are big enough to be weaned.... Here are some pictures!

Esther's 3rd Birthday -- November 19

2008-02-03T17:11:00.001-09:00

Wearing the hat her grandmother Melba made for her birthday

It was just what a 3rd birthday should be: all kinds of tooth-rotting goodies, a bunch of cousins to help celebrate, and a couple special surprises. Oh, and don't forget the frazzled mom who was under the table by the time everyone left. :) Just thought you might like to see some pictures of the celebration.

Esther wearing her birthday crown, holding her birthday wand, next to her homeade cakes, with cousin Sheila.

The festivities

Here are the five girl Josephs born within 6 months of each other: Patricia, Alicia, Sheila, Esther, Heather

Esther with her Dad on her birthday

Our Annual Seattle meet-up!

2007-12-22T19:07:00.001-09:00

Our Annual Seattle trip was full of great visits with truly awesome friends, who stay close friends regardless of the time and distance between us in the rest of life. And of course Esther and Ya-Ya had the best time together!

Here are Esther and Ya-Ya under the amazing aquarium at the Rainforest Cafe.

Esther with Adriana and Sandra -- Esther and Adriana are destined to be best buddies:

We got to meet Lucas Hunter Marshall, the newest addition to the Marshall family, and he is so super cute and STRONG!:

And it was great to stay with our heart-friends Joyce &Erik (and we even caught a glimpse of Sylvia!):
We also had a great dinner and evening with Melissa & Dan and Carrie & Kara. It was a great trip, and for the first time in years, (knock on some major wood!) I didn't get stuck in the airport either direction.... :)