More Cruising the Crust

Here on Kodiak the snow has been pretty good lately, and looking back at the blog I see that I have made a lot of skiing posts in the last week or so. But the skiing is so good that I just can't resist another.

What's been amazing is that while it has been sunny and warm with daytime highs of near 50 degrees it has also been getting down into the 20s and freezing hard every night. This has kept the snow solid and crust cruising at its best. Usually when it gets so warm and sunny during the day the snow pack does not freeze back up at night and you get a bottomless pit of iso-thermic corn snow. That has not been happening. Everyday it has been about an inch of thawed corn snow on top of a solid snow pack. Just perfect for cruising around on my skate skiis.

This afternoon when I went skate skiing I climbed up into the hills for the first 20 minutes, and then for the next 50 minutes I contoured all around and slowly lost elevation until I was back at the car. It was so gradual of a descent that I never had to snowplow or do any 'hockey stops' to bleed speed. I just ripped up and down and around, and the gradual descent kept it pretty effortless. Patrick

The Hunt for Red Alder Is OVER

Last spring I tried desperately and failed to find a red alder to plant on our lawn. Red alders are beautiful tall trees and if you are interested in what they look like there is one growing in front of the ADF&G building downtown. I looked around town for one of my own and found what I thought to be a red alder and went to a great deal of effort to plant it on our lawn. It turned out to be a normal alder. I outlined the events in our blog (see below).

http://saltonstall.blogspot.com/2010/06/hunt-for-red-alder.html

http://saltonstall.blogspot.com/2010/06/wrong-alder.html

But all was not lost. Tom a reader of our blog from the land of red alders took pity on me and promised to send me a red alder for the lawn. And yesterday he delivered! A box of neatly packaged saplings arrived at the museum. And not just one red alder but three, and big leaf maple seedlings, western red cedar, and even an Oregon ash tree. I'm in Heaven and have been scouting the lawn to find places to plant the trees.

I even planted one yesterday, but after a call to a local tree expert I removed it to a bucket filled with dirt. I gather it is still a bit early to plant saplings. And indeed I note that it is 27 degrees outside with a heavy frost this morning. I'll need to wait a few weeks before I plant them. In the meanwhile, they are all waiting in the barn in their individual buckets of dirt. Stay tuned, and THANK YOU TOM! Patrick

My Vitamin D fix is In

Sun and snow - a dangerous combination. After 2 days of skiing my face is a beet red color. Perhaps I should start using sunblock? But hey, at least I got in my vitamin D fix. Actually, I generally do not like sunblock because when I sweat big time climbing the mountains the sunblock inevitably runs into my eyes and burns my vision.

Anyhow, today the beet red face was worth it. I opted to go skate skiing and for the first 25 minutes I steadily climbed 800 feet vertical. There were a couple of plateaus in there where I could crust cruise around on the level and recover but no mincing words - it was a grind. Then, all at once, I was on top and it was glorious. I spent the next hour contouring around the hills and slowing losing elevation until I was back at my car. One of the best crust cruises I have ever experienced. Just flying here and there effortlessly like I was on ice skates and slowly but surely losing elevation. Hard to beat.

Photos: Top - a spruce covered plateau half way down on my way home. Middle - a big bowl up near the top of my ski. Bottom - Zoya on her way up yesterday with downhill gear. Patrick

Beauty and the Beast

Patrick titled this "Beauty and The Beast"--the crocosus' coming up are the beast, and skiing on Pyramid is the Beauty! Patrick has Nora trained to "pray for snow" so every day, Nora says, "Dad, I'm praying for more snow!". It seems to have worked, as we've had a good amount of snow this past week. None that really sticks to the ground, but the flakes have definitely been falling from the sky.

Today I went down hill skiing for the first time in 2 years. Last winter I didn't go downhill skiing at all and regretted it at the end of the season. This year I want to make up for it and get out on the snow when the conditions are half way decent. Today the conditions were perfect by all measures. Temperatures in the mid 40's, snow was perfect skiing consistency...I went all the way down without falling once. Good for a 1st ski of the season. It felt so great to be up Pyramid mountain with Patrick-such gorgeous scenery from the top.

After skiing we met up with the kids at the parking lot and took them sledding at the old ski chalet area across the road. Nora and Stuey went off a mini ski jump on their sled and caught some serious air. They liked that!

Zoya

Stuey-ism for the day...
Patrick took the kids biking down the road. I was here at the house finishing up dishes. Stuey came into the house by himself. I asked him where daddy and Nora were. As he tried to catch his breath he replied, "I raced them. My breath was out of gas."

Tracks

The skiing is pretty good these days on Kodiak - both the skate skiing and the downhill. Every day after work I have the angst of deciding which discipline to go with. But really, how can I lose? Yesterday when I went up Pyramid I had the entire mountain to myself. There was not another soul up there. It made me realize how good we have it here on Kodiak when the nearest, most accessible skiing to town is so uncrowded. I imagine if this was near Anchorage or some other large town that the place would've been packed on such a nice day. And there really is nothing quite like looking back up a ski slope and seeing just your own tracks on it. Patrick

Fishing for Ritz....Kodiak BBQ season begins

FISHIN' FOR RITZ
In our kitchen we have a space called, "The Big Hole" which is a gap between the backs of the cabinets. If items are accidentally dropped into there, they are never really retrieved, as it goes all the way down to the floor. This past week Patrick put an economy size box of ritz on the top of the cabinet and it fell in The Big Hole. He was concerned about mice finding them and having a feast, so it was time to do some fishing for Ritz. He put his headlamp on, got out his halibut rod with treble hook on it and went fishing. 20 minutes and some sweat beads-on-his-forehead-later, he retrieved an old book and box of ritz. It was definitely fun to watch!! (I cannot tell a lie--I didn't think hooking a ritz box with his halibut rod could be done!)

BBQ
BBQ season here in Kodiak has begun. This past week we've had two barbeques of veggies and meats. Granted, the temperature hasn't yet hit 50, but even with the readings in the mid 40's we're ready to go. Just add sun and we're gearing up for a BBQ!

Our fire pit from last summer remains a big hit with the kids as well as Patrick and I--its fun to sit around and watch the water, stay warm by and cook dinner on. The kids, (particularly Stuey) LOVE the fire. Stuey likes finding all the pine cones he can lay his hands on and throwing them into the fire pit. Photo is of them cooking their marshmellows on sticks.

It has felt so good to be home, working on quilting projects, reading, etc without any travel in the near future! Work has been very busy--new physical therapy evaluation slots are a 2-3 week wait. I feel badly about this, that people have to wait, but people understand I'm a one person clinic with no other therapist. And I only see PT clients for 12-15 hours a week, which really limits the numbers of new clients I can take.

TRUCK FOR SALE
Last photo is of our truck that is for sale. 2003 Chevy S10 pickup for $4500 or best offer. I've had it on Craigs list for a week with almost no bites.

The good:
Handles Kodiak roads well.
1 owner.
4 wheel drive.
3 doors, 3 seats.
Has a new tire.

The bad:
history of alternator/starter problems. Both have been replaced, however.

The ugly:
Fender bender on the side. You can see it in the photo.

Contact us for more details. Or if you have a truck in the $4000 range you want to sell or trade! :) I'm ***excited*** to send the Chevy off to a new owner!

Zoya

Winaq

Last night at the Old Powerhouse Restaurant we had a table by the window and suddenly Nora and Stuey exclaimed 'walrus'. 'No', we explained, 'those are sea lions, or winaq (singular) in Alutiiq'. Later another one went by and I said, 'Stuey, look another sea lion', and he replied, 'No daddy, Winaq'. It's actually a little ironic that he picked up on that Alutiiq word because back when he was a VERY large baby I used to call him winaq as sort of a joke. Now only if the Killer whales had also swum past while we ate our dinner.. .... . Patrick

My Personal Terrane Park

Right now on kodiak the crust cruising on cross country skate skis is about as good as it gets. Up at the Anton Larsen Bay pass the snow is REALLY deep and the crust is solid with just about a 1/2 inch of powder on top. It is like groomed trails at a skate board terrane park. I can go anywhere and I pick my route to make best use of the topography. I like to gain speed to climb small hills and skate my way down hills and up the steeps in a rolling symphony. It really is great out there. I don't know if the 2 pictures really capture it or not. Patrick

Skiing with Mike

We've had visitors since Friday and it has been VERY busy of late. Hence the lack of posts. On friday is was the ITN film festival, and on Saturday the Marine Science Symposium began. Our visitors Mike and Catherine are archaeologists who came to give papers at the symposium. Throw in the Madsen Bear dedication and that the museum had its accreditation visit on Monday and Tuesday and it has indeed been very busy. I've barely had a chance to come up for air!

More to come on all the happenings, but first I thought I'd go back to Mike and I's ski on Pyramid last Friday. Mike was feeling a little poorly due to a bug he brought with him from his North Carolina nephews. But he hung in there and got to the top. Quite a spectacular day. Perfectly corned up snow. However, it got a little soft near the bottom of the mountain. When Mike and I had arrived at the base of the mountain it was cloudy and snowing - so the sun on top surprised and fried us (no suntan lotion). Then when we got to the bottom the clouds rolled back in and it started to snow again. April weather! Patrick

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts...

The past several months I've gotten back into quilting. I had 4 projects all in various phases and they are all officially completed!
The first was a quilt for my nephew Leo. Ella had been slightly begging for a quilt for him for some time, so Leo got his as a Christmas present. It was fun picking fabrics for a boy--the fabrics ended up having a celestial theme and I loved the lime green and orange...

The second quilt I started 4 years ago, for my sister Bonnie. I picked the fabrics and started her quilt shortly after I had Stuey. I worked on it some, and then-as with many quilts, I got busy and it was on hold. There was some correcting I had to do to it as well, which I kept putting off (ie seam ripping and re-doing). It felt so great to finally finish it and mail it off for Bonnie's birthday!

The 3rd quilt is one for our kitchen. I've made around 12 or so quilts, but none for our couch. So I got some fabrics that I loved and made a couch quilt. I"m loving having the fun colors in our kitchen (thats right--the couch we spend most of our time on is in our kitchen).

The fourth is a quilt I completed in December...for our friend Sophie who celebrated her 1st birthday.

One change with these 4 quilts is I outsourced the actual quilting. The quilting is the stitching that is done on the top which holds the top layer to the middle and bottom layer. It was hard for me to do--to bring them downtown to have someone else do the quilting on them. But this is the step which I always have the least enjoyment with and dread doing. My dread of this step prevented me from completing quilts in a timely manner. In a discussion with a physical therapy client who is also a quilter, she mentioned that some people will really appreciate the lovely professional quilting on it, and it can accentuate the beauty of the quilt. So I decided to send these off to the local quilt stores to get the quilting professionally done and am really glad I did. When they came back all quilted, I put the bindings on and they were ready to go!

I'm not sure what I'll do on future quilts...to quilt or not to quilt them? That is the question....

On to more quilting projects this spring...I"m always a happier person when I have a few quilting projects in the works. Thats what Patrick always tells me, at least!!

Zoya

Our Little Burritos

At night Stuey and Nora say, "Tuck me in like a burrito" when I put them to bed. This involves tucking blanets tightly around them, pouring imaginary enchilada sauce and saying "yuuummmm". The kids laugh and love it!!

The other night we had a package of deer burger we didn't know what to do, and decided to give a go of making samosas. One google search later led us to a fairly simple recipe which was a two person effort. The dough had to be spread VERY thin (1 cup of flour and water for 24 somosas!) which made filling them challenging. I rolled out the dough, then patrick filled and deep fried them. They were delicious and as I took bites, I could only think of Bruin burgers...from crab festival! So yummy. We want to try making them again in the future, but with a recipe which involves a little more flour.

Zoya

Photos:
April sunrise on Mill Bay
Nora and Stuey "quilting". Lately I've been quilting and they have made paper quilts for all the beds.
The Empanada adventure....

Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival

Put it on your calendar. The submissions are all in and the Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival is ready to go.

6 PM, this FRIDAY APRIL 8th at the Kodiak Harbor Convention Center

Get ready for a night of pizza, prizes and a silent auction. This year you can even purchase beer to enhance your viewing pleasure. The festival is put on by the Island Trail Network and the event is free for members. So become a member of ITN and enjoy one of the perks of membership - movies made by your friends highlighting all the cool things you can do outdoors on Kodiak. And best of all free Big Al's Pizza!

If you want to join beforehand you can sign up to be a member on the ITN webpage.

http://www.islandtrails.org/join/

Last year the crowd was WOW'd by a great variety of films - ALL LOCALLY PRODUCED! Come support Kodiak's only local film festival!

See you there. Patrick

Birth Camp!! Eugene!!

This past week I took my annual trip to Eugne Oregon for the annual Midwifery Today Conference--where midwives, doulas, childbirth educators learn about how to promote normal, healthy birth. Topics offered included, "Shoulder dystocia and malpresentaitons, 3rd Stage Management, Prevening Preterm Birth...

The thing I love about this annual conference is its a chance for all health care providers to all work towards the same goal--HEALTHIER BIRTH. There were lots more OB nurses this year than I ever remember before...nurses wanting to make positive changes on their L&D floors. I met a wonderful gal, Jen-who is an OB nurse in a hospital in Corning, NY--not far away from Ithaca where I went to college. Jen is absolutely fun, excited about helping moms have healthy births and we hung out lots between going to sessions together and eating meals in between. It was really fun to connect with her. She has such positive spunky energy and I think the moms and babies in Corning NY are VERY lucky to have her as a nurse! She really thinks outside the box.

The presenters I went to were all experienced midwives-most with 25+ years of experience. The most famous one was Ina May Gaskin. She wrote "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" which I have several copies of in my clinic and refer to her teachings a lot. She has been a midwife for 30+ years, has written many books on birth and is a strong advocate for healthy birth--The Farm, is where she works and teaches in Tennessee. She gets asked to teach at medical schools and help promote normal birth.

I say 'normal birthing' to mean physiological birthing. What happens in birth if midwives, doctors, nurses don't intervene (aside from intermittent occasional monitoring of mom and baby) because many nurses and MD's in today's trainings never see a birth that is without intervention--so there isn't any concept of what a normal uninterrupted birth looks (or sounds) like. Why does this matter? Because unnecessary interventions into birth can cause trauma (physical or emotional) trauma to the mom. And the more medicine intervenes when its not necessary, the more moms and babies get sick during labor/birth. (I cannot emphasize enought.... there ARE times when medical intervention are vital for the health of the mom and baby. It is the overuse of the interventions that is the challenge)

For example, a mom who has an epidural has a 30% higher chance of needing a vaccuum extraction to help birth the baby. This can be very hard on a moms pelvis and pelvic floor muscles. This isn't to say that every epidural causes problems, but some epidurals can cause temporary or long term damage to the woman's body. As a physical therapist I work with women who have post-birth trauma to their back or pelvis from a traumatic childbirth. Pelvic floor trauma can also cause urinary incontense, chronic pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction.
Emotional trauma presents in the form of post-traumatic types of syndromes. Women who felt like they didn't have a say in their birth experience and chain of events lead to unexpected outcomes for them or their baby. This can stay with a woman for days, months or the rest of her life.

Birth can be a powerful, positive experience but it can also be traumatic if a woman isn't allowed to birth as she desires. Medical interventions can (and do) save lives, if not over used. What has happened in our culture of birth, they have been significantly overused and has resulted in a 30+% rate of ceserean section. This means 1 out of 3 women is having major abdominal surgery to have a baby, and this isn't a healthy trend for our birth culture. (the world health organization recommends somewhere between 10-12% cesarean rate for most countries).

On a positive Kodiak Birth note, I looked up the 2009 Birth vital Statistics for curiosity--Kodiak was at an 8.4% Primary C-section rate--this is good progress! The last 5 years, it was inching upwards of 11 percent and now we have the second best rate in the state. (Providence Anchorage has a primary cesarean section rate of 33%! Ouch!! That is seriously high!! Granted, they are getting the high risk moms flown there...which impacts the rate somewhat, but not THAT much? I'd be curious to learn more about their number). There is variability in the c-section rate depending on the year--but it was 4.8% in 2000 and 6.3% in 1999. I think we could get back down to 5% with a little more effort, in whatever form that would be. More Childbirth education, doula support?

I also met up with Patty and John Mahoney who live there now. We went out to dinner and went to their house afterwards where I saw all the wonderful improvements to house and yard they've made since I was there last 2 years ago. My time flies!!

Also--I very much welcome any and at all comments about birth in Kodiak and Alaska. I always enjoy the discussion with friends and family about birth. Share your thoughts, ideas, concerns, etc as a comment...or send me an e-mail! How can we make birth better and better in Kodiak or Alaska or the USA or the world?

Zoya

INA MAY!!! Her books are (have been and always will be) such an inspiration to women all around the world.
Jen and I!
Elizabeth Davis (yes she is holding a placenta with umbilical cord)
Patty and John in Eugene.

Cruising the Crust in Spring

I love spring and crust cruising on skate skiis back into the backcountry. The snow pack is getting close to its peak so there is a LOT of snow and most of the bushes are covered up. And the warm weather has created a crust on top of the snow that allows you to skate ski everywhere as if the whole backcountry is one big groomed skate ski trail.

But it does beat you up! There are a lot of ups and downs. Today I crust cruised back up behind Pyramid Mountain. To get to the valley where I wanted to ski I had to first climb almost 500 feet, and then do a rapid descent for 400 feet. I think I ended up climbing around 1200 vertical feet total. I was one sweaty mess when I got back to the car.

Nonetheless, riding the crust whenever it was flat or slightly downhill was sublime. Watching the scenery go by and hitching and dodging this way and that with no effort. Pretty darn good! Patrick

More Fishin'

These days here on Cliffside Fishin' is all the rage. Yesterday the plan had been to ski from the golf course to Buskin Lake and try to catch Dolly Varden Trout at the melted inlet to the lake. However, the weather was NASTY so we tried Mill Bay beach instead. Once on the beach I even dared to put real hooks on their lines. But no fish bit - not even a sculpin. Still, everyone got to practice casting and at least no siblings hooked each other.

Nora has a cast where according to her she 'can get it WAY out there'. Stuey has even learned to back up the beach to get the line in faster. When there finally are fish willing to bite I think these guys will be ready. Patrick

A Visit to Mr. Otter

Monday I took the kids for a cross country ski out at the golf course. There is plenty of snow and I've been feeling a bit guilty about not taking the kids cross country skiing more often this winter. I'm worried they will never learn or like to cross country ski. The fact of the matter is that it is a lot of work to get the kids all gussied up in their ski gear and then they usually only want to ski for 10 minutes or so. It is often easier just to go sledding.

However, on Monday afternoon I tried something different. The kids set off on their skiis and were having fun, but I decided to try something new. We'd go exploring and visiting. The last few days the kids had been playing 'tree house' in the backyard so I thought I'd employ the same sort of game on skiis at the golf course. So I pointed out a tree in the distance and said, 'let's go visit Mr Otter.'

The kids loved it! We got to Mr. Otter's house and I pretended I was Mr. Otter and gave them each a snow cone (snowball). And then off we went to see Mrs Beaver, Mr Rat (only rotten cabbage to offer), Mrs Weasel, Mr Muskrat, Gump the man who watches Santa's house on Kodiak (and who fed us oats), nasty Mr Wolverine who would not give us anything to eat, Bruno the Brown bear, and finally Nanook the Polar bear. We went from tree to tree all over the golf course and even when the wind picked up and it started to snow the kids did not want to stop. It ended up as their longest ski to date by far.

I guess the take away message is that I should not worry or stress about them learning to cross country ski and just take them exploring a bit more often (but on skiis of course). Patrick

Goin' Fishin'

Ever since Stuey's fishing pole broke last fall (after a summer of HARD use), he has asked, "how about a new fishing pole?". The past month I told him he could get one when the snow melted. So over the weekend when the snow was almost vanished from our yard, Sara took he and Nora down to Macks and they got him the fishing pole he has been waiting for. Stuey was thrilled...beyond thrilled. They went to the beach and tried them out--by the time they got home, the line was tangled and it took a good 20 minutes to untangle. Thus begins fishing season here at the Saltonstalls....months of casting a pinecone or stick in the yard...simple pleasures.

Zoya