Sliding towards the Equinox

Here on Kodiak it isn't quite Fall - Yet. But a couple of weeks ago in the Brooks Range of North Alaska it was already Fall, and I gather the leaves have already turned in Anchorage too. So slowly but surely Fall seems to be moving our way.

One of the surprises of our Sheep hunt to the Brooks Range was how light it still was up there. The sun came up at 5 AM and did not set until around midnight. Since it was already getting dark at night here on Kodiak I expected the same up there. But if you think about it, 'equinox' means 'equal night'. Night and day is the same time - and this is true no matter where you are in the world on that particular date. All the nights are equal. Up North in the Brooks Range there is more light than places down South until the equinox and less afterwards. However, since there is so much more light in the summer and so much less in the winter the daylight slides much more quickly between the two extremes. On Kodiak this time of year we lose around 5 minutes of daylight a day, but up there I bet it is closer to 15 minutes a day.

Because of our maritime climate Kodiak seems to have Falls that last forever. The leaves do change in September but we do not usually get snow until sometime in November, and we usually eat out of the garden well into December. But I am pleased to note that the pushki has already died back and that the fireweed has already turned red. Fall is slowly coming to Kodiak.

Photos: Fall colors from the Brooks Range in Late August.

Mini Batches of Jelly & Jam

This fall, Patrick has been into making mini-batches of jam with the kids. Our friend Molly gave us a packet of pectin where there is no boiling required...simply mash the berries, mix the pectin and sugar and mix it all together. And voila~ yummy jam!

Even the cook method of jam making is quick, and easy to do with small batches of berries. For instance, today Stuey picked 2 cups of raspberries outside at my office and Patrick turned it into 2 good size jars of jam this evening.

We've made jams/jellies out of red currants, raspberries, strawberries and salmonberries! WIth the red currant jelly, patrick didn't add pectin, as he heard red currants have their own natural pectin in them. And it worked-the clear, red jelly gelled up without pectin!

Zoya

The Kodiak Rodeo

This weekend was the Kodiak Rodeo and fair. Our family enjoys this every year, and I especially love how much Patrick enjoys the fair. His favorite part is always the 4H exhibits where people submit chickens for exhibition, food, crafts, etc... He wants to submit some garden veggies with Nora next year.

This year was the first time we stayed for some of the rodeo. We did the pony rides, hay ride, acquired some pop corn balls and then sat down to watch the bull riding. This was the first time in my recent memory I have seen bull riding and it was something else. I can't help but think "ouch, ouch...potential injuries"...had thoughts of handing out my business card to the riders as they left the rink!!

At one point a bull escaped the pen, and went out into the arena. It charged the horse that had a rider on it, as well as one of the clowns. It was a little nerve racking with this bull running around the arena! Patrick started laughing so hard he was crying. The whole scene was something else...and very Kodiak!! The rodeo/horse scene is so unique and quite an adventure to watch. The stadium was packed full of spectators and the clown would run up and down the arena to get people excited and screaming. The new 2011 Miss. Kodiak Rodeo was crowned and there was goat tying, barrel racing as well. Good times at the Kodiak Rodeo.

Zoya

Tents Rings and Stories

During our recent sheep hunting trip in the Brooks Range Gregg and I used rocks to hold our tent pegs down and to create wind breaks. We also built a little hearth at every camp site to hold our wood stove up off of the ground. Thus, at each camp we left behind our own little archaeological site (see bottom photo).

When I am on archaeological survey I look for such tent rings and for evidence of prehistoric camps. So, at first, I felt a little guilty about creating an archaeological site that might confuse later archaeologists. But on reflection I realized that sheep hunters like Gregg and I are a part of the land use history for the area. We are a part of the story. In the future, archaeologists might be interested in how sheep hunters of the 21rst century did things. Sheep hunters of today are as much a part of the history of the area as the prehistoric hunters of the past.

I think our tent rings will be a bit confusing because we left so little behind. We tried to pick up every bit of trash, and our 'hearth' was really just some rocks built into a platform to hold up a wood stove. But Gregg and I also found some 'ugly' sheep hunter camps. Most of these camp sites were characterized by trash - in particular the remains of mountain house freeze dried meal packets.

At one such camp we even found a stone cairn with a sub legal sheep skull inside it (see second to bottom photo). There were sheep bones and trash scattered across the site, and from the evidence I re created my own little story about what happened. It looks like some 'ugly' hunters shot a sub legal sheep (not quite full curl) and tried to break off the horn tips to make it look naturally broomed and therefore legal. They gave up their efforts knowing that they would not be able to fool a wildlife enforcement officer, and cached the head and meat. Later a bear dug up the meat and scattered the bones and trash across the site. This story does not reflect well on sheep hunters.

On Baffin Island in the Canadian East Arctic (top 3 photos) when I worked out there in the early 1990s I got pretty good at recognizing the different types of tent rings that we would find. Older tent rings only used rocks to hold down the edges of the tent like in the top photo of such a tent in use. More recent tent rings had both an inner such ring of rocks that held the edges down and an outer ring of rocks used to hold down guy line tent pegs. While on survey we even found CF Hall's square tent rings from a scientific expedition in the 1860s. He used square canvas tents.

The third photo down shows what a 600 year-old late Dorset tent structure looked like on the surface. That is a 'mid passage' hearth feature in the center with 2 upright supports that would have been used to hold up a soapstone container.

Back to Gregg and I's tent rings. I did think about trying to put all the rocks back were I found them. But that would have been disingenuous because the rocks would not have been placed exactly just so. In the past I have noticed when campers have tried to do just that. Inevitably one notices rocks with the lichen side down etc. You can tell that the place has been used for camping and in my opinion it is just as messed up as a camp like Gregg and I left it. All camps impact the landscape - only with our camp there is a better story.

Patrick

5 Years on the Web

After over 1400 posts, 112,000 site visits and 200,000 page views our Blog turned 5 last Tuesday (our current site meter is actually our 3rd such meter). Coincidentally the 30th of August also marked our 8th wedding anniversary. Who would have thought we'd keep up with the blog this long?

Below is our first post. Nora is now 6! I noticed that back when we began our blog we often just posted pictures with no written description. I think that over the years writing for the blog has made both Zoya and I better writers. And it is certainly cool how it documents our life. I can look back at the blog and recall the days of 1 to 2 year olds, diapers, and sleep depravation. I'd forgotten those days. We certainly have come a long way! Patrick

Nora's First Birthday

More Brooks Range

Just a few more photos from Gregg and I's recent Sheep hunt in the Brooks Range. In the top photo Gregg does crossword puzzles by the wood stove inside the teepee. We ended up taking along propane and a small camping stove but we need not have bothered. We did practically all of our cooking on the wood stove and barely used a can of propane. We discovered that in the Brooks Range there is willow up to about 4300 feet in every valley and that finding wood to burn was not a problem.

In the second photo Gregg looks back down what had been a grueling climb up to a 6000 foot pass. We found that very few people seemed to have hiked beyond these passes and hunted the valleys on the other side.

The next 2 photos are of us and the sheep we harvested. We nicknamed him 'Rudy the Ram', and it sure was a relief to find a full curl ram. We looked over 45 rams before we finally found this guy and none were sure thing full curl rams. You are only allowed to shoot full curl rams and we definitely did not want to get in trouble for shooting anything less, and so we patiently continued to glass every sheep in search of the elusive full curl. Rudy made our already worthwhile trip something special.

We've already eaten a bit of Rudy and I must say sheep meat lives up to its reputation. Some of the meat is even marbled with fat. He will be good eating.

Finally the bottom photo is of Gregg on the move with his portion of the camping gear. Every other day or so we moved camp a few miles so that we could hunt new valleys. Patrick

To Laugh or to Cry?

The past week during Patrick's sheep hunt absence, there were a few moments when I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

THE FIRE ALARM INCIDENT
For any of you who have been around Stuey in the past 6 months, you know that he can be a handful. He has an endearing side, but he also has this stubborn, rebellious side that is hard to contend with. He needs super firm boundaries.

He has had a thing with reaching for door handles, buttons, etc on walls in public places. Not sure why he can't control himself, but before I know it, his hands are all over things which he shouldn't be touching. When I've talked to him about it in the past, he says, "I tell my hands, don't do that-but they don't listen to me." I told him he needed to be firmer in conversations with his hands.

Last Friday, he pulled the grand-daddy of levers--a fire alarm. At the Alutiiq museum. I was absolutely horrified. We went down to pick something up and in the foyer stuey pulled the alarm. The alarms went off, everyone evacuated the building. I stood on the sidewalk crying, feeling like a failure of a mom. I put Stuey in the car and he was crying. April came over to me and consoled me and told me that she did it when she was a kid. I felt like such a failure of a mom for that moment--not catching him sooner in the act.

PRESCHOOL SHENANIGANS
Then on Monday, I dropped him off to his first day of preschool for the year. When I dropped Stuey off, he told the teachers that he was going to go to kindergarten at St. Mary's--and I had to explain that he meant next year--and that Nora is going to St. Mary's and Stuey is excited about it.

When I picked Stuey up in the afternoon, he was in the yellow time out chair in the corner with a mad look on his face. I knew something had gone terribly wrong, as Stuey has never had discipline problems before at preschool. The teacher exused herself from the rest of the group to speak to me and explained the downfalls of Stuey's day.

"The day started off good, but then it went downhill after lunch...Stuey peed in the lawn and laughed while he was doing it, then he raced across the driveway here without listening to us and he hasn't listened well in group this afternoon..." She went on to say that Stuey would say in a strong voice, "I"m going to kindergarten at ST. Mary's". He believed that if he acted bad at preschool, he would get kicked out and sent to St. Mary's. The teachers and I explained that if he has time outs, the teachers at ST. Mary's won't accept him. His eyes got big and I think he got it!!

Since then he has had two days of preschool with no further discipline problems. Thank heavens. He is on a roll now with good preschool behavior once again. His cousin, Z., starts on Monday at the same preschool which will be very exciting for both of them!

Zoya

Brooks Range Colors

Kodiak May still be pretty green, but in late August it is Fall in the Brooks Range. It dropped below freezing on a few nights while we were up there and all the vegetation has turned some sort of bright color. What's amazing is that there was still pretty much continuous daylight. The sun took forever to set, but it really did not get dark until midnight and then it was light again by 4 AM.

Also FANTASTIC berry picking. And i think the light frosts made all the berries taste a bit sweeter. Patrick

Successful Sheep Hunt

We're Back from our great adventure and I must say everything went perfectly. I also have to add that while Zoya posted a picture of a full curl sheep - it is a Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep, and not a Dall Sheep. Dall Sheep, the kind we were chasing, are white. They have adapted to Alaska's climate and since it is white and snowy most of the year up in the mountains where they live, they have evolved a white fur coat. The top photo is of a Dall Sheep (not furl curl) that wandered into our camp. We think he thought our white tent was another sheep.

Anyway, it was beautiful up in the Brooks Range. Incredibly raw with bare rock mountains and very little vegetation. Yet in the valleys all the plants had turned yellow, purple and red. An amazing number of animals too - we saw lots of caribou, a curious bear, sheep everywhere, a porcupine, ground squirrels, and even wolf tracks. But mostly our hunting trip was all about hiking. We hiked around 30 miles between camps carrying all of our gear, and another 30 miles carrying lighter packs while exploring side valleys from a base camp.

Our daily routine was to wake up at 4:30 and then hike up a side valley at dawn while the cold night air was still draining down valley . Then at the top of the valley we'd cross over into another valley and hike back down to the main valley and to base camp. By around 10 AM the main valley had warmed up and all the warm air would move upslope up the valleys. So going down valley we would again have the wind in our faces. It is always better hunting when your quarry can't smell you coming!

Once back at base camp we'd usually take a nap and then pack up camp and move a few miles carrying all of our gear to another location, and another base camp.

And such Glorious hiking! None of the brush, grass and salmonberries that bar the way when you hike on Kodiak. It was like hiking in a park. Gregg said it reminded him of Glacier national Park on steroids. Anyway - more to come!

Patrick

Sheep Hunting Husband

Patrick and his friend Gregg are off in the Brooks Range Sheep Hunting. This is Patrick's first hunting/hiking trip to the Interior and he has been looking forward to it for many months. When he arrived, he called and said, "These mountains are HUGE. Its a little intimidating". He talked about how the scenics are absolutely spectacular.

I can tell from his voice that he misses the kids and is so curious about Nora's first week at kindergarten. He went from full on archaeology season to leaving for the sheep hunt, so he hasn't had much down time with the family. I can't wait to see his pictures and hear more of his stories. What an adventure he and Gregg are having in such beautiful country!

Patrick says there are lots of sheep that come through camp, but they aren't "harvestable" (ie shoot-able) because they don't have a complete curl on their horn. That is the extent of my knowledge about sheep hunting...they must have a full curl. He says they have seen lots of caribou as well.

Meanwhile, back at the farm-Nora has been home sick for two days with a rough cold. Tomorrow she'll definitely be headed back to kindergarten. And tomorrow Stuey starts his regular preschool routine. The week after Stuey and Nora begin their dance classes begin and thus begins the official fall routine!

And, No...that isn't a picture Patrick took...just stock images from Google....Sorry to disappoint the blog readers who are into hunting... Can't wait to see Patrick's Brooks Range Pictures!

Zoya

Nora's 6th

Last weekend we celebrated Nora's 6th birthday...with a little family party on Friday night and a kid party saturday afternoon. Gone are the days where we can get away with just having a few of our own friends over for a laid back dinner and some cake. Nora is at the age now where she requested 1 or 2 games, and a hello kitty theme. So, I went for it. Many kids came over, there was some running around the house and Ella took Stuey to Safeway. As soon as the kids descended upon the house, Stuey turned into a nightmare...being all out unruly. So bless Ella's heart for removing him from the scene for the first 1/2 of the party to Safeway. Evidently he was an angel there--loving his 1:1 Auntie Ella time.

I've been so thrilled that I waited till Nora was 6 to start kindergarten. She is really ready for learning and isn't exhausted at the end of the day. She has been going to sleep much quicker since starting school, which is an indicator that she is a bit more tired, however.

Getting details about school out of Nora is an interesting process. If I say, "tell me about school today" she won't say much. Then at moments throughout the afternoon, she will come out with a random fact such as "there was a girl at lunch who only had chips and a fruit roll up for lunch. I felt bad for her because she didn't have anything to drink or a sandwich". Or she told me that the lady who teaches her music class played music at my wedding. Fun little kindergarten factoids.

Zoya

Lab Work

The Amak Site dig may be over for the year but the lab work continues. In archaeology the general rule of thumb is that for every hour in the field there is 2 hours in the lab. And if you include writing up the results of the dig into a book or some sort of publication then you better count on even more hours of work out of the field. Lab work and analysis is what I do all winter at the museum. And now it begins.

Not that lab work is all drudgery - some of the most exciting discoveries are made in the lab. In fact, yesterday when we were cleaning the artifacts I was shocked to see what looks like a tiny Arctic Small Tool Tradition end scraper that I never saw in the field because someone just assumed it was a flake. Arctic Small Tool Tradition peoples never made it to Kodiak but we do find the occasional tool. This one is made of basalt, a type of rock not found on Kodiak, and was probably picked or brought from the Alaska Peninsula where Arctic Small Tool Tradition peoples did live.

In the lab, the first task is to clean and catalogue all the artifacts and samples we brought back from the site. Each sample and artifact is in a bag with all of the provinience information written on the outside. Thus we know where the piece came from (KOD 1053 the Amak Site), and more importantly the grid square and level where it was found. We also know the initials of the particular excavator who found it and the date - this latter information is important if I need to refer back to my notes and jog my memory about what was going on that particular day in that particular area of the site. All of this information goes into a catalogue and each artifact is affixed with a tiny paper catalogue number that refers back to the catalogue. For all time all anyone has to do is look up the number in a catalogue and they will know who found it, when and where it was found.

During analysis we can use the catalogue to see if there are activity areas on the site where we found many more of particular types of tools. What activities took place in a particular structure we excavated? Or we can check and see how the types and frequencies of tools changed between levels, or even, how the site compares statistically with other sites around Womens Bay. Do my impressions about what we found during excavation hold up to the cold light of statistical analysis?

Another task that we do right away on getting back from the field is drying out all the samples. We also pick out particular charcoal samples from the features and levels we want to radiocarbon date. We pick out the individual grains and chunks of charcoal and sent them off to a lab in Florida where they do radiocarbon analysis. In a few months they send back the results of their analysis and we know within a few hundred years when the tree or shrub that supplied the charcoal died. We will have a better idea of how old everything is in the site.

The lab work and Analysis begins! Patrick

All Backfilled

The digging part of the Amak Site excavation is over. We finished backfilling yesterday. And for the last 2 days it has rained hard - I am so glad we weren't trying to carefully excavate at the site for the last 2 days. Also, I must add, this is the first year that I can recall that we did not lose a single day to bad weather. So let it rain - we were done digging anyway.

Backfilling the excavation is a VERY important task. It is putting the site to rest for the year. Too often in times long past archaeologists did not backfill and would leave their excavation pits unfilled. Then the walls fall in, it looks terrible and people start to think archaeologists are slobs. I try to leave sites looking like what they did before we started to dig. This is very important to me. Anyway, it was pretty muddy on Thursday. It rained 2 inches but we got her finished. All Done. Now on to the lab work. Patrick

First day of Kindergarten-Done!!

Its over--Nora's first day of kindergarten~

I didn't cry when I dropped her off!! The night before I did a small amount of crying--Patrick didn't understand and asked, "Its a happy thing. Why are you crying?". I sobbed, "Be-e-e-c-cc--ausee she is really growing up now...and on her journey of school." I stammered. It was hard to explain why it was so bittersweet. I think because it is a much anticipated milestone with kids and for it to finally arrive seemed monumental. For her to have a teacher who expects things from her, fellow new friends, a new school. I think I sensed Nora's angst and ran with it.
(And just to note-Patrick just told me he cried on his way to work after dropping Nora off!!! I'm glad he was able to admit that to me...)

The day couldn't have gone better. I asked Nora's teacher if I could pick her up at 2 and the teacher said no problem. Kindergarten runs from 8:40-3, which seems a little long for Nora so I was glad the teacher was fine with me getting her early. After the kids dropped their things off in the classroom, the kids lined up in the gym and it made me realize how small the school was. There were only 80 or so kids in the gym I believe. All the teachers, the new priest, the new principal were there. They all introduced themselves and then said a few prayers.

The kids stood incredibly still and quiet in the lines, even the young ones as they listened to the teachers. One of the teachers read a story from the bible, which took several minutes. After she was done, the principal began asking questions about the story, which kids raised their hands and started answering. Admittedly, I wasn't listening to the story-but rather thinking about my day, etc. Made me feel bad that I hadn't been listening more intently to the details of the story. I liked that the expectation was on the students to be listening to all the details of the story and to be able to recall them.

Shortly after that the kids filed to their class rooms and I left.
When I returned at 2 to get Nora, her teacher remarked that several of the kids had said they were tired, including Nora-so it was a perfect time to get her. The afternoon was fun and Nora and Stuey played with Leo and Zeke. I had anticipated Nora to be more exhausted then she was, but she really had lots of play energy in her. I was glad I picked her up early--before she got completely drained.

All in all, her first day couldn't have gone better. Today is her birthday and we're bringing cookies to her class to share!

Zoya

Garden At Full Bore

It's taken a while, but the garden is finally at full bore. The carrots are getting big, there is lots of lettuce, the snow peas are out of control, and the potatoes are lush. We've been eating the new potatoes and it is amazing how they are sweet. You definitely can't buy new potatoes at Safeway. Nor can you buy carrots that taste like ours do right now. In early July I always wonder why I bother with the garden, and come this time of year I know why. The kids love to eat the carrots right out of the garden. Patrick