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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally! An evening at the Beach

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

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

Baptized by Blubber

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

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

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

It's a Moth!

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

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

Esther went Manuqing!

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

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

Wild Spring Snow

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

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

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

#3: Esther can even dunk!

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

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

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

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