Icebergs

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*

Hooper Bay 2010 OOOOO

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?

The Wonders of Grass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Contentment Defined: Berry-picking on the tundra

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

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

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