Stuey Graduates

 On Friday was Stuey's preschool graduation from Kodiak Baptist Mission. His teachers, Miss Ashley and Miss Lucy have been amazing this past year with amazing arts and crafts projects with the kids.

 The teachers made each kid a teeshirt that said, "preschool graduate". And they had individual diplomas for each kid.

 And the morning ended with pizza and congratulation cupcakes!
Stuey is on to kindergarten at St.Mary's in the fall!

Zoya

Crab Fest 2012~creating family traditions

 The past few years Patrick has been here for Crab Fest, which has been fun as we've created family crab fest traditions. For several years in a row when the kids were even younger, Patrick was out on archaeology surveys and missed the annual 5 day festival. 

 Our family tradition starts by parking at the Alutiiq museum where there is always a guaranteed parking spot and we walk the short distance to the fair. Then we get some food, and Patrick always gets a fresh king crab to shuck the delicious meat out of and share with all of us! the kids sit and watch semi-patiently, eager to go on the rides.

After the crab and meat-on-sticks are consumed, its finally time for the rides. This year we ran into some of our friends by the kid rides and their kids. A great time was had by all!

Before heading back to the car, the kids get a ballon-on-a-stick to enjoy on the ride home and once they are at home. Nora gets Dora every year and Stuey always gets an airplane.

Zoya

Quick Survey

I came back a few days early from hanging with the family in Anchorage to do a quick 2 day archaeological survey on the north end of Kodiak.  North end of Kodiak means spruce trees!  And most of our survey was conducted under the canopy of these very large trees.  

Since we were on a north facing slope and under spruce trees we had a serious problem with frozen soil.  We dig test pits to see if what looks like a site on the surface is actually an archaeological site.  For one test pit that we absolutely had to finish, we had to use a hatchet to hack through the dirt.  Needless to say, but this is not the way I like to dig test pits.  

Another 1/2 day of the survey was spent looking for an old mine shaft adit.  I had found the mine shaft on another survey last year, but we later learned there was an adit associated with the mine.  So this year I wanted to find the adit and see if it was associated with an old camp.

The adit was very difficult to find and if we had not known it was there I doubt very much we would have ever found it.  The mine was from around 1908 and all the trees had grown up on the tailings from digging the mine.  There nothing but a little hole into the moss - see below.

But once you looked inside there was a scary, long tunnel.  We did not go inside, but supposedly it extends for hundreds of feet into the hillside.  We did not find a camp, nor did we find any gear or trash associated with the mining activity.  I guess these were pretty tidy miners!  Patrick

Mainland Adventures of All Sorts

 Our trip to the mainland is officially a wrap. The kids and myself returned this morning. Patrick had to return several days ago early for an archaeology survey. We got lots of good park time in at Anchorage and Homer Parks.

 Sometimes the paparazzi at the parks was thick... (thats our friend Julie we stayed with in Anchorage!)

The scenics along the Seward Highway were gorgeous. My favorite scenic is always the glacial blue water in the Kenai River. And no, I wasn't able to capture that blue color  on my camera.

And what would be a road trip without misbehaving and some sibling rivalry? There was plenty of that to go around. Exhibit A below: Stuey intentionally annoying Nora.

A low moment of the drive was when Stuey and Nora got into a blueberry juice fight in the backseat. They each had partially full containers of Odwalla blueberry juice and it was thrown all over my car. I pulled over, they vacated the premise, there were some choice words used by myself, and the kids were promptly put on restriction from any fun "sweet" food for the rest of the trip. no cookies, ice cream or any fun summer food. I think they got it. Mommy was not happy! Fortunately the blueberry juice cleaned up cause I got it right away. Phew!

Upon arriving in Homer we visited with my Uncle Roger and Aunt Kathy and they treated us to  some amazing home cooked meals as well as fun times with Legos and Uncle Rogers Ipad....a novelty for Nora. Here Aunt Kathy helped Stuey build a dinosaur out of Legos. It was a several hour project, but a success! Bless their hearts for their patience with the little, tired, worn-out Nora and Stuey.

 In the middle of the night, we got up and sailed home on smooth ocean waters on the M/V Tustemena. (Stuey was the only force of nature to be contended with, but his punishment was not being able to go to  crab festival with Nora and myself today. He stayed behind with Patrick and they worked on the garden a bit together, which was good for him.)

On the ferry we had time with my friend Elke and her girls who were coming to Kodiak from Anchorage. The kids were all able to run around a bit together on deck and watch the boat dock.

Zoya

Very Memorable Mainland Trip

 This past week after Nora's graduation, our family piled in the car for a trip to Anchorage and Homer.   The ferry ride was 9 hours and the seas were moderately  rough. Even with dramamine in their systems, Nora and Stuey  felt sick at the dining room and we retired to our bunks at 7PM to sleep off the queasies. Patrick felt unusually sick as well in the moderate seas, as he normally is able to tolerate a good swell in the waves.

 These pictures were all taken before the queasies set in.....leaving Kodiak....

 We arrived to Homer shortly after midnight for a 5 hour drive to Anchorage. The kids were awake for a bit before finally giving in to the short period of darkness and falling asleep.

I did the driving and was hoping that someplace in Homer would be open for a cup of coffee. Nothing. So we drove on and 1.5 hours later was in Soldotna where McDonalds arches glowed in the distance. COFFEE!! I wasn't tired, but didn't want the tired to sink in.
Patrick and I both ordered coffee and I learned that it IS possible to get bad coffee at Mcdonalds! I thought Mcdonalds coffee was standardized or regulated somehow....I guess not.  I ordered the iced and he the regular and both of us had really bad coffee. We stopped at a gas station for a bathroom stop and Patrick tried another cup there...it was also bad. I suppose 2AM Coffee anywhere in Soldotna is a bad idea. We chugged down and were just grateful for caffeine at that point. If we had thought ahead enough, we would've packed a thermos of coffee for the drive.

The thing about Patrick's seasickness is that it never subsided after getting off the boat. He still felt very queasy during the car ride and would have moments of stomach pains. We attributed this to the fact that he ate a very large quantity of bacon earlier in the day, but this seamed unlike his usually strong digestive system. He would tilt his seat back in the car and main "ohhh" as he hurt.

The drive was very fun. There wasn't a single RV on the road, no construction to speak of and after 2:30 AM, the sky gradually lightened. Gotta love living in the land of the midnight sun.
Patrick and I talked in the silence of the car as the kids slept in the back and the scenery...gorgeous, of course! Mountains, rivers...

 We arrived to Anchorage at 5:15 AM and started looking around for a place to eat breakfast before going to our friends house. We didn't want to arrive to their house before 7 and had some time to kill.

We drove by Middle Way Cafe, a favorite place of mine to eat breakfast. They serve healthy, organic type of meals, smoothies, etc. We pulled into their empty parking lot and there isn't an HOURS sign on the door. Patrick made a joke about how the workers can't get to work before 9AM probably because they are watering their bean sprouts and feeding their yogurt cultures at home. Part of the humor was probably our sleep deprivation and the fact that it was so early in the morning and the whole scene of trying to find some place decent to eat was quite funny! I laughed so hard...fun road trip times! The whole feel of the morning reminded me of college days when you would stay up all night and at 5AM everything is very funny.

We finally decided on village Inn and had a good breakfast, aside from the fact that a tired stuey put his feet up on the table at one point. The waitress asked Patrick if he wanted something to eat, and Patrick replied, "no I'm not feeling so good. I'm still seasick from the ferry." The waitress looked at him really funny (you could tell she was thinking, What ferry? here? In Anchorage?) and I started laughing and I said, "the ferry was 6 hours ago, honey!" I explained that we got off the ferry in Homer at midnight. Once again, 5AM Denny's humor.

The not funny part is that his "seasickness' wasn't actually seasickness but an 18 hour stomach virus, which I ended up with the next day. Hence no blog posts until now. We took turns being fairly under the weather.  It didn't put too much of a damper on our trip, however. We saw some family, friends, and our kids got some good park and play time as well. Here they play croquet with our friends Julie and Ray's two kids.

More pictures and posts to come as I play catch up!

Zoya

Kindergarten graduation and a slight hair malfunction

Last Friday Nora graduated from kindergarten. There was an hour long awards ceremony where the teachers of each class presented various achievement awards for the students, as well as kindness awards. Amazingly enough, the hour flew by. It was fun to watch all the different students in the school receive awards, pose for pictures, etc. The principal took turns with each class telling them they had "Graduated" to the next grade.
Nora was one of the 3 recipients in her kindergarten class of the "Golden Achievement" award, which is for academic excellence in all areas.
At the very end of the ceremony, each teacher took a moment with their students individually to whisper something in each of their ears. Nora said her teacher whispered to have a good summer and to keep reading lots. It took 10+minutes for the teachers to do this and it was fun to watch the hugs and moment of connection between the teachers and their students.

And no, Nora's hair did not look like that when we arrived at the church. That somehow happened in the 10 minutes between us arriving and her sitting with her friends in the front pew. It was quite the disheveled/mad scientist look! 

In a very rainy morning, right after the service, I drove Nora and her good friend N. down to the museum so Nora could show Patrick the diploma and awards.

Zoya

A beach of sorts. ... . .

I can already hear Zoya groaning as she reads over my blog post, 'not more pictures of snow'.  And yesterday I did promise myself that I would not post any more snow pictures for a while.  But I could not resist.  Actually, the reason I did decide to post more pictures of snow is because yesterday Nora was reading the 'baby blog' (her name for printed out versions of our blog) from last spring, and left it on the couch.  I found myself reading it and checking out the snow conditions for last May.  I noticed that my last skate ski last year was May 2 - so we really are doing better this year.

I like how our blog is a record of years past, and decided that I might as well show my future self what I was up to in mid May in 2012.  Hey - it may bore Zoya and you the reader, but it wont bore me next time I read it!

So here are some pictures from yesterday and what I suspect will be my final skate ski of the year.  Today it is raining, and as it is I could barely ski to the road yesterday.  It's time to complete the transition to downhill skiing.  Patrick

Converting my skate skis to classic skis

Lately it has been freezing at night and setting up the crust on top of the snow up at the pass.  But by the time I get up there after work the snow and crust has softened up down low by the road, and it is difficult to skate ski up the hills to where the crust is still good.  So yesterday I brought along mini little climbing skins and put them on the bottom of my skate skis for the climb up to a spruce tree covered plateau where the crust cruising is still sublime.

For the skins I cut in half a left over strip from trimming my downhill climbing skins.  The skins have a reusable stick surface on one side and 'reverse hair' on the other.  The hair allows one to walk in skis up pretty darn steep slopes.  To turn my skate skis into classic skis I just use a short, 18 inches or so, piece of skin directly under and slightly forward of my boot.  I then use hockey tape to wrap around the front and back edge of the mini skin to keep it from peeling up (I have already removed the tape in the above photo).

Then off I go using the skis just like classic nordic skis.  With the soft corn snow on top of a pretty solid base it was very easy going.  I had a bomber kick and I was amazed at how well the skis glided along.  I climbed 300 feet or so and cruised in and among the spruce trees until I got as high up the mountain as I wanted to get.  Then I peeled of the tape and skins and converted my skis back into skate skis. If you look closely below you can see my classic ski tracks in the distance and then my skate tree tracks in the foreground - this is where I converted my skis back into skate skis.

Then it was off to the races.  I skate skied all around and slowly lost elevation until I was back at the car.  The snow was a tad bit soft but I did not mind because it made it easier to snow plow when i wanted to slow down.  I was even doing parallel turns in my skate skis on downhills.

Only bad side of the day was that I got back to the car and found that the clutch did not work.  I had to hitchhike back into town and call a tow truck.  Good thing I got in a good ski or that might have made me GRUMPY.   Patrick

Kindergarten nearing completion. Kid reflections on the world.

KINDERGARTEN ENDING
This week Nora's first year in school wraps up and she'll be moving onto first grade. She also just finished up a semester of dance class with a concert last weekend.

 I looked back at my blog posts from her first day of kindergarten last fall and appreciate how far she has come with maturity, confidence and her speech.  She has friends and connections with her peers in kindergarten. She tells me about things her friends say throughout the day, or questions the teachers asks her. She is really starting to put the world together. And at times she'll just shake her head to me and say, "its ok, mom. You really don't need to worry about that." I smile at this.

REFLECTIONS FROM NORA
Nora is starting to be thoughtful and reflectful in ways that surprise me. For instance, while driving by the animal shelter the other day, she asked me if we could go in and say Hi to the workers there and bring our dog Jake by. We got our dog Jake there 6 or so years ago and she wondered if Jake would like to see where he lived. I had to explain to her that the people there have seen hundreds of black labs come and go and they probably wouldn't remember Jake, but maybe we could go and I could show her the kennel where Jake lived.

Recently at a restaurant our waitress was pregnant. When she was away from our table Nora said, "Mom, you should tell her you're a doula!". Nora really understands what I do in my work and I adore the fact that my little kindergartener is thinking about birth and the fact that people have the options of having a doula at their birth!

(And a funny comment Nora made to me today-maybe not blog friendly, but oh well. Kids say the funniest things....Slightly PG13 rated....
This morning when I was getting dressed and Nora was hanging out on my bed, watching me.
Nora: I like your boobs.  (Pause) And your boob covers. (Pause) Why do you wear boob covers?
Me: (Laughter then Pause)  You mean a bra? Because.....

I told Patrick after and he and I had a good laugh at that one!!)

Kindergarten truly couldn't have gone better. Nora is beginning to read, likes school, as well as afterschool dance class.  think a big part of Nora succeeding was waiting until she was 6. Lots of kids start kindergarten at age 5 and do wonderfully, but I'm so glad we waited a year for her. She was primed for learning by the time school started last fall.  I"ll never regret waiting that one year for her to be ready.

During the winter Patrick and I  had rough patches with Nora having a long bout of  insomnia, a 6+week illness which left her exhausted and me wondering what we were doing wrong, as she was unhappy and tired. Fortunately about 3 months ago things shifted, and she has really found her groove. It gives me an appreciation for how kids go through shifts in their lives, just as adults do. Harder times and easier times.


Zoya

Going, Going, . .. .. .

I'd say the snowstorm gave us exactly one additional day of winter.  By the end of today we will be where we were before the storm.  Green grass, budding trees and birds singing once again.  Actually the birds never did stop singing, and the grass was green under the snow, but you get the picture.  And this was as I expected - you can't turn back the clock.  Once the ground warms up and the sun gets so strong, winter just does not stand a chance.

Every year I sort of track the elevation where snow is still accumulating.  Sometime in early April the snow no longer accumulates in town at sea level.  After that I've noticed that about every week it moves up another 500 feet.  Lately it has been at about 1500 feet. Next week it'll be at 2000 feet.  Right now our snowpack at 1500 feet and above is as deep as it has been all winter long.

I've noticed that while winter may pause above the 'snow accumulation line' it never does so below that line.  In other words once it warms up to a certain point Spring can't be stopped.  And so it is with our one additional day of winter.  The top photo was taken yesterday at 12:30 PM, and the one immediately below at 6:30 PM.  Finally the third photo was taken shortly after 3 PM today.  It's amazing how quickly a solid 6 inches of snow can disappear at this time of year!

Below is Stuey and his snow house.  Yesterday it was quite elaborate, but it got knocked down by dogs and cousins.  This morning he did his best rebuilding job before school.

Below is a picture I took of town from the Hoser Bridge while I was on my way to work.  As you can see at higher elevations back in the mountains it is still winter on Kodiak.

Stuey is holding the ice that formed on the puddles in the driveway this morning.  At 5 PM it is now 51 degrees outside.  Our one additional day of winter lasted until around 9 AM this morning.  Stuey wanted to use this 'glass' for windows in snow house.  Patrick

Over Now? Or hopefully more coming?

Tomorrow when I go to work my co-workers might very well kill me.  At work, I've been making jokes about sacrificing chickens to extend winter.  I also have been creating joke forecasts about snow just to hear them groan.  Now what I've been praying for has happened. Here on Kodiak we've gone back to March, at least, if just for the day.  And I swear - no chicken sacrifices.

Although I have to say, I can't see why everybody is so surprised.  Snow in May on Kodiak is not really all that of a rare event.  I remember Don Clark telling me about an excavation in Late May back in 1971 on the Afognak River where it snowed a foot.  And, he tells me, that year there was still 3 feet of snow under the spruce trees even before the storm.  Now that is far more extreme than what we have this year.

A few years ago in mid May we got 10 feet of snow on Pyramid over the course of 3 days - the most snow I have ever seen from one storm on the mountain.  But that storm was all rain in town.  Still every few years we do get a May snow storm.  People should not be shocked by what has happened today.

Also, I will add that Kodiak's long winters and maritime climate is one of the main reasons I live here.  If I wanted endless summer or warmth all the time I would probably live in LA or Hawaii.  I like long winters and snow in May - it's why I chose to live on Kodiak.  But I can also see how a person who might have chosen to live on Kodiak for different reasons might be a little tired of the snow.

All that said - I think I am going to hang a little low tomorrow at work.  No need to gloat over my prayer coming true.

Compare these two photos with the ones I posted below from this morning.  We got a lot more snow after it seemingly stopped this morning.  Perhaps we'll get another squall  and another dump of snow later on today? One can only hope!   Patrick

It's Dumping Out There!

After posting this morning I went for a ski expecting the snow to stop or turn to rain.  I got to the pass and the road was bare.  By the time I finished my ski (deep, dry powder from top to bottom on Pyramid) there was already 2 inches of new snow on the road.  Since this morning the temperature has dropped down into the 20s and it is now REALLY dumping.  My drive back from skiing was quite hair-raising, and I probably should not have been taking pictures while driving.  In my defense I did not look at the camera but kept my eyes peeled on the road, and I was creeping along in 3rd gear.

This is mid-winter driving conditions!  At Mill Bay cars were backed up at the bottom of the hill trying to get up the hill.  I passed a car going backwards down the hill and numerous cars coming off of Mill Bay Road (from Safeway) were skidding right across Rezanof.  We now have a good 6 to 8 inches of new snow at our house and it is still dumping!

All the new snow has me thinking about what I wrote this morning about my garden and winter.  Wouldn't it be great if as long as I was constantly planting my garden it would stay winter and keep killing what I planted?  Sort of like Sisyphus and the rock he has to keep pushing up the hill.  The only problem with this scenario is that I might not have enough time away from gardening to enjoy the snow.  Then I would be like Tantalus thirsty and hungry in his pool of water with fruit hanging all around and no way to get at either the water or fruit.  I'd be living in a world of snow but constantly working on my garden.  

So yeah I guess it's a good thing we have seasons.  And I do hope to eventually get my garden planted. but in the meanwhile I am going to enjoy the snow and I am going to root for it to keep falling!  

Patrick