April - Sun, Snow, Surf

April is a good time of year. The sun starts to rise out of the sea in front of our house and the skiing is great. It seems there is suddenly so much light. More than enough light to go down to the beach with the kids after school - or even after dinner. Today the tide was out a bit more than yesterday and we found more beach glass.

When I went skiing at the pass after work there were 2 ladies with beach chairs catching the sun next to their truck with the stereo blasting - 3 or 4 feet of snow all around. But it was baking hot with all the reflected sunlight. I went skate skiing in short sleeves - absolutely perfect conditions. The second from top photo I took today and it is of Pyramid with all the area in between a wonderful terrain park.

About the only sad thing about April is that summer is on the way and the snow now has a limited lifespan.

Patrick

Beach Glass

Yesterday evening I took the kids and dogs down to the beach by our house. Nora and Stuey love walking the dogs on leashes on the way to the beach. Roxie often would pull the leash right out of Stuey's hand. Down at the beach the kids looked for beach glass. They found quite a bit, but I was surprised there is not more on the beach. I know a lot of people break their bottles further out on the rocky cliffs to create beach glass. Kodiak does not recycle glass and our landfill has a limited amount of space.

So where has all the beach glass been going? My question was answered when I realized how many other parents with kids were down on the beach looking for glass too. I gather looking for beach glass is quite the evening routine down at Mill Bay beach. What a way to recycle glass!

Chickadee

Our friend John Mahoney built this bird house almost 10 years ago. He built it and we put it up together, and then.. ... No birds nested in it. Until Now.

Yesterday I heard Nora squealing in the living room, and checking on the commotion I saw she was pointing at the birdhouse. Our first bird guest has arrived. It seems the pair moving in are chickadees. But it must also be said that I have not seen them since. Were they just checking out the house and decided they did not like it? We'll keep our eyes open.

Patrick

Exploring on Skate Skiis

Today I went exploring on my skate skiis. I cruised on the crust on over to Sheratin Bay. To start, I parked at the Outlet to Buskin Lake and then skiied across the lake and over the low pass into the headwaters of Elbow Creek. It was fun to explore a new area and to come at an area I visit frequently from a new direction. In the Fall I often take a boat to Sheratin bay to go deer hunting. Today I got there more quickly on skiis than if I had taken a boat!

The upper Elbow Creek Valley is a pretty cool place with copses of spruce trees and a creek running through it. I flitted here and there on my skate skiis and the mountains loomed up above on either side. That's the backside of Sheratin Mountain on the right side in the photos. Patrick

"And How Does the Jury Vote, Madame Foreperson?"

This past week was crazy. Wild. Wow.

In a 7 day period I
- attended two over- night births as a doula
-helped my sister at the hospital, as she is recovering from appendicitis (bless her heart! she is a trooper and recovering day by day! Going home tomorrow, I believe)

-then I went to Grand Jury duty today....

I thought, "After what a busy week it has been, this will be a CAKE WALK! I'll go in there, surely they won't draw my name and I'll be outta there!"

Well, I was one of the 18 out of 50 randomly drawn to serve on the jury. And then, the icing on the cake, the judge picked me to be the jury foreperson. I couldn't believe it. Not only do I have to go every thursday, but I have to be uber responsible, in leading the group to vote, ask questions, read the oath to witnesses, etc. Thats what I get for thinking I could get a "day off"!

In the end, I am glad to be the "Madame Foreperson", as the District attorney calls me. I can help ensure that the process moves along with our group in deliberation. I had a chance to practice today and it went smoothly. It will be interesting to learn more about the legal system as well.

I googled 'Jury Foreperson' and it looks like there some information on how to be a good one, so I"ll read up on it. I figure this could be the only time in my life I am asked to do this, so I might as well make the most of it and enjoy it!

Zoya

picture is of kids in block city they built sometime this week

Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival 2012

The ITN film festival is upon us - it's tomorrow night, 6 PM at the Kodiak Convention Center (right there by the only stop light in town where the Toyota dealership used to be). Zoya and I have a film in the festival titled 'Mosquitoes and Archaeology'. It is all about the archaeological excavation I ran over on the other side of the Alaska Peninsula 2 years ago. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes. The moral of the story is that life is better on Kodiak. Anyhow, come check it out tomorrow night at the Kodiak Convention center.

Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival
When - Fri, April 6, 6pm – 9pm
Where - Kodiak Harbor Convention Center

Free to ITN Members. Register online at www.islandtrails.org/join to avoid lines on the night of the event, or join at the door. ITN membership is $15 student, $25 individual, $40 family. Admission includes a free pizza dinner from Big Al's, salad and no-host bar and an evening of Kodiak's best local footage of 2012!

Telling Nannies and Billies Apart

The last 2 days I have been skate skiing back up to the big ravine at the headwaters of the Buskin River. We have a lot of snow and there is a solid crust for skate skiing. There is a herd of mountain goats in the ravine and it has been fun to check them over and see if I can tell the difference between the nannies and the billies. This is not an easy task. By looking at the photos above can you tell the difference? The nanny and kid are pretty obvious but what sex are the 2 goats in the top photo?

For a couple of years I did a lot of bow-hunting for mountain goats. When you bow hunt you get up close and personal to the goats quite often, and I got pretty good at telling the difference between the nannies and the billies. generally the big billies are bigger and off by themselves with a dirt-stained back end (in the fall), but you can also tell the difference between them by their horns. Billy goat horns are much fatter along their length and curve evenly the whole length while nanny goat horns are thin and sort of flare with a bend near the end. I look at how fat the base of the horns are in relation to their eyes - fatter than the eye and it is probably a billy, thinner and it is probably a nanny. Also billies seem to have almost no space between the horns at the bottom and you can often see a black gland around the bases.

Anyway, in the top photo, at first I thought both were billies, but on inspection I think the top one is a billy and the bottom one a nanny. But I am not sure! What do you think?

For more information on how to tell the difference check out the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=goathunting.billyid

Powerflex Promo Video

Powerflex from A Balanced Approach on Vimeo.

Here is a 1 minute Promo video of the Powerflex class taught at A Balanced Approach. If you have been curious as to what a group weight training class is like, check this video out!! (or come try a class! Or do both!)

Many thanks to Hanna Craig for filming and producing it~Shes amazing.

Zoya

Emergency Surgery

Yesterday my twin sister underwent an emergency appendectomy for her appendix, which has become very infected. On Sunday she had complained of a painful stomach and she went to the Clinic, then the ER. After extensive testing, a diagnosis of appendicitis was made, she was admitted to the hospital and yesterday morning they did the surgery.

When she awoke from the anesthesia, the nurses told her that her case was quite bad....one of the worst ones they have seen. Which means a longer and more tough recovery time. as they had to do open abdominal surgery, leave a drain tube in place, etc... My sister is on intense fluid restrictions for the first 24-36 hours...she is only allowed 1 cup of fluids every 8 hours. She will be so excited to finally be able to drink more, hopefully today. The docs have to make sure her digestive system is up for larger amounts of fluids before giving her the a-ok.

She is a tough cookie. She hasn't complained at all. She is amazing. It was a bit hard for me to see her in so much pain yesterday afternoon. Each day will get better.

Picture is of the sign on her door at her hospital room. She will be there for 1-2 more days for IV antibiotics.

Zoya

Childbirth Class reunion III

Yesterday I hosted A Balanced Approach's 3 childbirth class reunion. 10 moms and their babies and a few birth partners attended and it was fun to watch the babies all eye eachother and play with eachother! The moms had a chance to reconnect and meet the other little ones. Its fun to go full-circle with couples, from pregnant, to giving birth and seeing them as parents with babies several months old!

Zoya

Pictures:
-Group picture
-the 10 month group
-My fabulous co-teacher, Julie and myself
-A recent doula client, Elizabeth, her baby and myself
-Everyone playing

Making tracks

I love being the first one up the mountain to go skiing after a big dump of snow. There is nothing quite like driving home and seeing your tracks, and no others writ large down the face of the mountain. It really was an awesome day for downhill skiing. On my second run I dropped 1600 feet to the road without stopping in one big fell swoop. Spring skiing has arrived. Patrick

Translating Patrick's Ski Report

Over the past years, we've learned how our friends have a translation system for interpreting Patrick's trail report. Since I met Patrick almost 13 years ago, I've learned how to loosely interpret what the ski trail conditions actually are based on what he says.

-If Patrick says, "When we ski today, these conditions will really help with your technique" ...I"ve learned this translates into "Taking Zoya on these conditions will be hard on our marriage"

-If Patrick says conditions are "fast" it actually means "icy".

-If Patrick says, "Its not too bad" it translates into "Bad for Zoya".

-If Patrick says, "This is sort of advanced intermediate conditions" it "means "I'm the only one on the island who will enjoy this"

We all very much appreciate Patrick's trail reports...we've just learned the art of interpreting what he says..as he has a different idea of "fun" sometimes than the rest of us. To his credit, he doesn't take me out to the back country unless he is VERY confident that the conditions are going to be good. And for that, I am appreciative!

(And thanks to Philip T. who helped with this post!)

Zoya

Spring Snow

So far so good, while the weather pattern has changed and it has gotten much warmer - it still has not turned to rain and ugliness. It has even been snowing on and off. Judging by the weather satellite photo the storm lows have been tracking just East of Kodiak and sparing us the warmth we'd have received if they had tracked just a little further to the west. Let's pray that the storm track stays to the East!

Lately I've been doing a lot of classic cross country skiing and my favorite route of late has been through the valley pictured above. I love the cottonwoods, and the mountain in the background is Pyramid Mountain where I usually go downhill skiing. Patrick

Sledding on Pillar

Yesterday we went sledding at the gravel pit on Pillar mountain. It was super sunny and warm. I even wore sunglasses. It was quite the scene with people getting towed on ATVs and some VERY steep sled runs. Of course Stuey again wanted to go from the very top and when he had his inevitable wipeout he did cartwheels. I did not let him know that he should have been hurt, and all was well. Again the whole competition between Nora and Stuey was to see who could go further. In the bottom 2 photos (taken with the camera's paparazzi setting) note that there is no track behind Stuey - that's because he is landing a jump. No fear. Patrick

Me'an the 'Kid'

Zoya and I checked out the online Tour of Anchorage ski photos (by Michael Dinneen photography and available online at http://dinneenphoto.smugmug.com/ ), and I loved this one of me and the 'kid'. I raced practically the entire race with the 13 year-old 'kid' you see behind me in the photo. I beat him in the end, but I doubt I'll ever beat him again.

What I find funny is that I am so obviously the 'old grizzled veteran' while the thirteen year old is the fresh faced kid. I'm 10 years past my fastest race times while the 'kid' is still probably 10 years from his fastest time. One of us is on the up track while the other is going down.

It reminded me of that scene in Greek mythology where Oedipus meets the Sphinx and has to answer a riddle correctly or get eaten. The Sphinx asks the riddle, "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?". And Oedipus correctly answers: "Man: as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a 'walking' stick". And so Oedipus survives to go on and do some pretty awful things, or at the very least, some cringe worthy things.

Anyway, so here I am in the photo one step removed from the 'three at night' stage while the kid is barely off of all fours. Patrick

Get it while you can

The snow is GREAT now. But, you better get it while you can because it might not be so great for long. I checked the weather forecast and they seem to be predicting a warming trend. Still they could be wrong. I certainly hope so.

In any case, the Pollyanna in me says that if it does warm up - at least we'll finally get some snow up high on the mountains and the downhill skiing will be good.

Photo is of Pyramid Mountain that I took yesterday while cross country skiing. Patrick

Snow Pictures

It really has been an incredible winter. It is late March and we have powder on the ground in town - and best of all it has stayed as powder for weeks. Usually it turns to ice pretty quickly - especially in late March. But not this year! And this has put in a very good mood - a good mood all the time.

Here are some photos I took yesterday - the top 3 I took from the Hoser Bridge at dawn before work. It was flurrying all day yesterday - even when the sun was shining. The bottom 2 photos I took when I went skiing in the afternoon. In one of the pictures you can see my ski tracks. This winter I have been mostly cross country skiing, and yesterday i found my legs are out of shape for downhill skiing. Patrick

St Patrick's Day Ski

On St Patrick's Day Gregg, Lisa, Philip, Adelia and I cross country skiied up the American River. It was a gorgeous day and superb skiing conditions. And also at around 15 miles round trip a VERY long ski. But it was mostly flat along the dry river bed of the American River. Once we got a ways back in there were no more snowmachine tracks and the trees closed in on the river. We gradually climbed up to 450 feet elevation so the homeward bound portion with an already broken in trail was MUCH faster. I think my favorite part of the trip is the huge canyon at the head of the valley. As we were skiing home realized that I have not done this particular ski trip since the day after Gregg and Lisa's wedding 6 years ago! Patrick