Sledding & "Mom, you are my Sweetie Pie"

Today was fabulous for sledding. We went up to the ski chalet and the sun felt warm and the snow was fast. We all got good exercise hiking up, sledding down and the cousins had fun flying down the hill alongside each other. 

Stuey loves the luge position. He can't resist. He lays down in the sled and flies down the hill. Frankly, it freaks me out. Especially since after almost every run he ends up crying saying that he hurt himself. (Patrick says that he does that only when I'm around. And I did notice today that once his cousins showed up, there was MUCH LESS crying involved. Hmm....)  

I encouraged him to sit up, which he did-for 1 run. Afterwards he cried to me, "Mom, that didn't work. Because I bit my tongue." Sigh. I tried.   He has little to no control of what he can see or where he is going in the luge position; it just kills me. I believe its time to make him wear a helmet. 

We only had 2 sleds. But in the back of my car I had an expired wood floor sample, which worked quite well as a makeshift sled!

hiking up with Ella and my nephews

Nora LOVES snow. She loves to roll in it, and munch on it alllll day. 

Stuey and Patrick. I was thrilled when Patrick went with him b/c it slowed Stuey down a bit!

Ella and I; who's who? ;-)

Tonight after I put the kids to bed, I was in the living room matching nearly 60 pairs of socks (my favorite Saturday night past time). From Stuey's room, I hear him say, "Mom, you are my sweetie pie". It warmed my heart! I went back to his room and he gave me a hug and said it again. Then he said, "Mom, you are my honey sweetie pie". I"m not sure where he has learned such cute phrases but he knew how to get a hug from me!

Zoya

Ground Blizzard

Today when I went skiing the wind was SCREAMING.  But it was weird - the sky was clear and you could see - only it is was a total whiteout by your feet. I could see distant mountains, but not my feet!  This view of the summit ridge to Pyramid Mountain sort of captures it.  I wish I had taken a video.  The wind-driven snow lashing across my feet was sort of a surreal experience. That's what they call a ground blizzard!  Patrick

Beer Pong Saved My Life

Kids are so funny.  Today when I went out to turn on the car and warm it up prior to taking the kids to school I came back in less than 5 minutes later, and they met me at the door laughing hysterically.  Stuey and Nora  announced that they had watched 'a grown up movie on the computer'.  Nora said it was 'weird'.  And Stuey said that they had 'leaves on their pee pees and no clothes on'.  A little horrified, and convinced that I had been a seriously negligent daddy I took them to school. I tried to downplay it with the kids, but after I dropped them off I raced back and checked the netflix 'history' on the computer. 

It turns out that somehow they had gone from the childrens menu on Netflix to the movie 'Beer Pong Saved my Life'.  According to Netflix this is a 'a goofy and raunchy' movie.  I checked it out and the intro to the movie had the whole cartoon Adam and Eve thing with fig leaves over their privates.  Hence the Stuey quote 'they had leaves over their pee pees.'   Phwewwww! But I guess it is time to put some filters on the old computer.  And hey, tonight, maybe I'll watch a movie that the kids picked out . ... .. Patrick

Exceeded Expectations

Zoya and Adelia before the start of the race

I am very happy with my Tour because I did a lot better than expected.  I was hoping to break 2:50 and finish in the top 80, and I came in 41st in 2:36.  That is my fastest 50K time since 2002 when I broke 2:30.  So this year was my fastest time in over 10 years!  I also got 3rd out of 27 for my age group!  Before the start I had checked the seedings and had thought that with all the fast people in my age group that there was no way I was going to medal.

And the race did not start well.  I was late to the starting gate and started near the back of the pack.  Then the guy in front of me fell down on the first hill and I ended up dead last.  So for the first 10K and the Spencer Loop all I did was pass people.  It's a good thing I did so much mountain climbing this year because I had to do most of my passing on the uphills in the Spencer Loop.  

After the Spencer Loop I was in a small pack of 3 guys drafting each other, and we caught up with the elite women pack who had started out 2 minutes ahead of us.  Things were looking very good - it's always better to be in a pack where you can draft and keeping up with the other racers provides incentive.  Except only the 2 guys ahead of me made the pack.  They jumped to close with the women, and a small gap formed between me and them.   And once they joined the women the whole pack accelerated.  I was literally at one end of the Tudor Road bridge and the pack was at the other end, but I could not close the gap.  All the way to Westchester Lagoon I could see the pack in the near distance slowly drawing away.

So I skied the rest of the race completely alone with no one to draft and no one to help with the pace.  But I did pretty well because I still managed to finish within 2 minutes of the pack I almost caught at Tudor Road, and I beat most of the elite women in the pack because they finished less than 2 minutes ahead of me.  I must admit sometimes it is more relaxing to ski outside of a pack - maybe skiing sans pack is not such a disadvantage after all?  

Funnily enough, the fastest I went all weekend was the day before the race when I got chased by a moose.  I tried to sneak past a moose browsing by the side of the trail and he spun around and chased me down the trail.  I had a moment of serious panic when I looked back and the moose was not only still chasing me - but gaining too.  I needed that kind of breakout speed for the race!  

Patrick

Zoya eyes the finish line - she finished 4rth in her age class!  Not bad for very little on snow training!

The race announcer commented on Zoya's glasses and everyone laughed - 'number 2126 your sunglasses are on crooked'.

That's me entering the stadium - almost done!

Zoya in the stadium

Final sprint - not much left in the tank

Adelia, Todd, Zoya, Bonnie and the kids - Todd had never met Adelia before the race

Adelia at the finish talking race with Julie who finished just ahead of her.  Julie almost broke 2 hours for the race which is VERY fast.

The Post Race Party

After the Tour, our friends Julie and Ray have an annual post race party tradition. It includes pizza, some type of brownie or cookie and beer from the tap in their living room. Oh and enjoying their outdoor hot tub in the winter weather!

The gathering includes some post-race talk...conditions, funny stories, etc. And every 5 minutes, someone hits "refresh" on the web-Tour of Anchorage results page to see if results were posted. Yes, we were all admittedly obsessed and very curious about the final results. 

The kids are at an age now where they all  disappear as a pack and have a great time playing in the snow, with nerf guns or watching a movie together. Its fun to have them so happily pre-occupied while the grown ups can eat and enjoy the company of friends. 

Adults and kids alike enjoyed the pan of freshly made brownies that Julie spoiled us with!

For the kids, hot cocoa was the perfect drink of choice after playing "dig a snow cave" for several hours. 

Group pic!

Brownies and Brian!

Brian taught Stuey how to wrestle. Stuey LOVED it! I need to get him signed up for junior wrestling!


Zoya

Done with the Tour!

This morning we returned from Anchorage from the Tour of Anchorage ski race yesterday. It went great; weather was perfect, everyone reached their goals and a fun time was had with family and friends before, during and after the race. 

For me, the  highlight of the weekend was the addition of a longtime friend (pictured below), Adelia, who was also born and raised in Kodiak did the race with us. She is also 36 years old and placed second in our age category! This is her first time doing a ski race. Her husband Phillip took incredible photos throughout the course (some are pictured below...see credits - also click here for his  very humorous account). And they joined in on the post-race brownie and pizza celebrations. 

I placed 4th for my age group, which I was super pleased with, as I skiied 7 or 8 times since the beginning of 2013. I knew that no matter what, I was going to do the race and I'm so glad I did. The day was beautiful, the course was fast and it was a good feeling to do the race again. Every year it gets a little less intimidating and a little less daunting. 

Many more photos and a few stories to come, but wanted to share a few pics from the weekend. 

Zoya

After the race!

Adelia and I hugging at the finish line. (photo by Philip) 

Patrick and Nora at the airport. 

The daddy ski train...Hop on! (Photo by Philip)

Helen Keller Auditions and Off we go

FIRST AUDITION
Last week Nora auditioned for her first play, Helen Keller. Several weeks ago I saw an ad in the paper for Hellen Keller audtions-looking for a girl age 6-10. I mentioned it to Nora and she was very interested and kept bringing it up after. I watched clips of the Helen Keller movie on-line and showed them to Nora. The role is challenging in the sense that it doesn't involve speaking, but rather a lot of improv and temper tantrums. Nora and I practiced in the living room. She got the hang of walking like Helen Keller walked and got a taste of what acting is like. She really, really wanted to audition.

When we walked into the drama pod, Nora was very shy and I had to coax her to sit down in the chairs. There were 7 girls at the auditions and they all did so well. The director would show them as a group what she wanted them to do, then one by one, they would act the small scene out. One of the scenes was with Helen's teacher, and Nora did great with this.

I thanked the director for making the auditions so relaxed and fun for the girls. I couldn't have asked for a better first auditioning experience for Nora!

EARLY RELEASE
Yesterday the kids got out of school and Nora had 3 girlfriends over. They dressed up in costumes and raced around the house, before I took them down to Mill Bay Beach. The day was sunny and 37 degrees, but it felt so much warmer as the kids searched for beach glass by the ocean.


TOUR OF ANCHORAGE
This morning we're off to Anchorage to do the Tour of Anchorage ski race. I"m very excited to see friends, family and do the race tomorrow morning!

Zoya

Tour of Anchorage Goals

Family and friends meeting for dinner the night before the race last year.

Zoya and I pre race last year.

This weekend we are all (except the dogs) off to Anchorage to see family and friends, and ski in the Tour of Anchorage.  This is a yearly event and really it isn't all about doing well in a race.  It's more about seeing friends and family in Anchorage, and the race acts as a touchstone to rally around.  About half of the people we will see are in the race and the other half will be watching the race and cheering the racers on.  That said, everyone who's racing also wants to do well - improve their times and maybe beat someone they lost to last year - and the race acts as an incentive to get/stay in shape during the slow days of winter.  On a rainy day in January I might go skiing instead of staying at home.  I like to be in my 'best shape of the year' in March for the race.

This year training has been a bit difficult.  We did have great snow early in the season from mid November through December, and training for the race was easy.  But the conditions in January and early February were 'tough'.  I did manage to train but I did not do any of the 'speed' work - wind sprints, race pace days - that really helps out if you want to do well on race day.  A lot of the time I was training by climbing mountains and going downhill skiing, or hiking up to the snow with my skate skiis.  Zoya did a lot of her training at A Balanced Approach - teaching powerflex and indoor cycling classes.

And then this week I got sick..  . ..  I'm hoping I got sick early enough that I'll be fine by race day.  The last time I raced sick back in 2010 (click here) it was awful.  I got REALLY sick afterwards and coughed for days.  So this year if I am still sick on race day I plan on taking it really easy.

All that said my goals for the race this year is to beat my predicted time of 2:48 (my 50K time in 2011 when the race was 2K longer than usual) and finish in the top 80.  I am seeded in the second wave - so basically I want to have an average second wave race.  In the second wave to do really well it is actually pretty hard to pass all the slower elite women and first wave skiiers in front of you.  They are just going slow enough that you do not want to stay behind them, but just fast enough that it is tough to get past them.  I started in the second wave way back in 2002 and I remember it was all about passing and getting stuck behind slow people on hills.  But back then I was a fast wave 'oner', and still broke 2:30 for the race.  Now I am an older, slower skier who belongs in the second wave.  This year I want to enjoy the race and finish with the pack in wave 2!  And then have a beer with family and friends after the race.  I can practically guarantee that I'll be able to meet the latter goal.

Patrick

Training yesterday when it was raining in town.

The downhill skiing was GREAT.

Making Sense of My Own Old Notes

Last week I mentally went back in time while I re-examined some of my first archaeological field notes in Alaska.  I first came to Alaska in June of 1985 to help with the Bryn Mawr College archaeological project in Karluk.  Most of my summer was spent excavating at the Karluk One Site, but the team also surveyed the lagoon and lower river - finding and mapping old villages - and the majority of the team excavated at KAR 031 another prehistoric village site on the other side of the lagoon from Karluk One.  I remember that my first day of archaeology in Alaska was spent working on a stratigraphic profile along the erosion face at KAR 031, and I also dug a test pit in what we thought was an old Russian fort on top of the site.  So the Karluk One Site is actually not the first site in Alaska where I worked. However, within the first week I was digging away at Karluk One.  I know this because last week I found my notes from June 12, 1985 (see below).

That's me  (lower right) excavating at the Karluk One site with Dick Jordan who ran the project (on left).

What's ironic is that I NEVER thought I would ever have to examine those old notes again.  However,  the Alutiiq Museum is in the process of creating a book about the Karluk One excavation.  The site had excellent wood preservation, and the excavation ended up creating a spectacular collage of Alutiiq material culture that forms the core of the Alutiiq Museum's collections today.  Since no one took day to day overall site excavation notes we have been forced to go back to the individual unit notes to piece together a lot of what happened at the site.  A lot of the notes, maybe 25%, are in my handwriting.  Evidently, I was a quick digger.  But sadly I don't remember all that much about it.  Unfortunately, I think I was focused on the minutiae of the squares where I was digging, and was not really all that concerned with what was going on at the site as a whole.  So here I am, almost 30 years later, using my own notes to try and to piece together what was going on at the site.

Core Karluk One crew in 1985 eating lunch (left to right: Rick Knecht, Marie Shugak, Philomena Hausler, Frederika De Laguna, Patrick Saltonstall, Jennifer Krier, Brian Panamaroff).

My first set of notes from the Karluk One Site - less than a week after I first came to Alaska.

Another ongoing and related Alutiiq Museum project is the Karluk Lake and River survey.  Over the last five years we have re-surveyed the entire watershed - all except the last 2 miles of the river and lagoon.  Between 1983 and 1987 Bryn Mawr College teams did do an initial survey of the system, but they were new to Kodiak archaeology and did not have much experience doing river surveys. A quarter century later we are much better at doing such surveys on Kodiak. We have a lot more experience. The recent Karluk survey was my fifth such survey of a major river system. Practice may not make perfect, but it sure helps!  Also, since 1985 we have excavated a great many sites on Kodiak and we are better at recognizing features from the surface.  For example, I can recognize cold trap sideroom tunnels on the surface since I have excavated a number of them.  As a result, our survey maps are much more detailed.

Unfortunately, on our recent survey we did not have landowner permission to investigate the uplands around the lagoon and the last 2 miles of the river.  To complete the survey I needed to go back to the old survey maps/notes and 'translate' what they found into something compatible with our new data.  This was NOT easy.  For one thing, all the old survey maps were made by different people doing the drawing and are not very standardized.  For instance, sometimes they measured houses based on outside wall dimensions, sometimes they used top-of-the-wall dimensions, and sometimes (like us) they used interior dimensions.

 Nonetheless, I was able to put my 'Karluk River survey eyes' on and do a lot with their old maps.  Also  since we mapped many of the same sites I could compare how we mapped the same thing.  To look at some of our recent Karluk River survey site maps check out this blogpost (click on 'blogpost').  We now have a complete survey of the whole river, and it is an amazing dataset.

Just yesterday I wanted to see how settlement patterns changed through time.  So I created a photoshop document using a map of the river and lake as a base layer.  Each time period got its own layer in photoshop, and I put dots of various sizes on the layer to represent the sites and their respective sizes.  Below is the layer that represents the Kachemak (2500 to 1100 years ago) occupations along just the river (my base map also shows the whole lake).  It seems that during this time period the Alutiiq people made heavy use of the middle section of the river - there are NO late prehistoric sites in the lower mid section of the river.

There are lots of other very cool patterns in the data set.  The next step will be to figure out what the patterns mean.  To put the puzzle together and create a picture so to speak.  We might even need to return to some of these sites and do a little digging to figure it all out.  We will also have to go back and re-examine the notes, artifacts and samples from the excavations Bryn Mawr College did way back in the 1980s.  I just wish I could remember a bit better what I did way back then.  I wish I knew then what  I know now.

Patrick

A portion of a prehistoric village map that I helped create back in 1985, and recently had to re-interpret.

Settlements along the Karluk River 1100 to 2500 years ago.

Summer Field Work Plans

This is the site of our Old Harbor excavation - our future campsite is on the left in the foreground.

It's only February and my summer schedule is already looking packed.  I'll be running a 6 week excavation in Old Harbor from late May through June; helping with an excavation/survey on Chirikof Island way out in the North Pacific in early July; the 3 week Community Archaeology excavation at the Kashevarov Site near town at the head of Womens Bay begins in late July; and finally, in September there is a possible 10 day survey on Afognak Island.  WOW!  But at least I'll be living at home for the Community Archaeology excavation.

At the Old Harbor dig we will actually be excavating 3 different sites slated to be destroyed when they extend the airport runway.  One is a 400 year old village site while the other two are much older  (4000 to 7500 year-old) special purpose sites.  One looks like a temporary camp while the other looks like a place where Alutiiq people smoked meat or fish (see photo below).  

Now that's a positive test pit!  Some sort of Ocean Bay era  (4-7000 year old) smoke processing feature.

Out on Chirikof Island I'll be helping Catherine W test middens and collect fauna samples.  I'll be in charge of camp and logistics.  I'm really looking forward to this project because Chirikof has some awesome beach combing and it is a GREAT place to find glass balls.  But I wonder if the beaches will be covered in Japanese Tsunami debris?

The west side of Chirikof Island - great place to find glass balls.

Deflating archaeological site on Chirikof Island.

Jill and I found the Kashevarov site just last October (click here for post about it), and less than a year later it looks like it will be the focus of our Community Archaeology excavation.  I suspect it will be the same age as the other nearby sites we have excavated over the last 8 years - Salonie Mound, Bruhn Point, and the Amak Site.  Each site has had components dating to about 3-7 thousand years ago.  And yet each of those sites, though less than a mile seperates them all, was a different 'type' of site.  Salonie Mound looks like it was a permanent camp; Bruhn Point was a fish processing site; and finally the Amak Site was a seal mammal hunting and processing site.  What will we find at the Kashevarof Site? Will we FINALLY get some duplication?

Kashevarov Site from the air - the site is on the terrace just above where the oxbow begins (near middle of image - slightly up and to left).

Our DEEP test pit at the Kashevarov Site - the wood tape is 2 meters long and we still did not reach bottom.

The survey on Afognak Island has not been funded yet - keep your fingers crossed - but I am really looking forward to this one.  We would be using inflatable kayaks to survey 3 different parts of the coastline.  Our goal will be to find new sites and check on the condition of the already known sites.  Most of the areas we will be surveying have never been formally surveyed - so I anticipate that we will be finding a lot of new sites. This is also my elk hunting 'stomping grounds', and right after the survey is elk season.  To save the cost of a plane charter I hope to come home on the elk boat. So the hunt and survey would be literally back to back.  My one big worry is that we'll see elk everywhere during the archaeological survey, and then nothing but archaeological sites during the elk hunt.  Patrick

Foul Bay on North Afognak Island.

A prehistoric village site on North Afognak - note HUGE house depressions.

Another archaeological site on North Afognak.

TGIF

This past week was busy. Between work, trying to get skiing in for the upcoming ski race in Anchorage, and teaching weekly birth class, and fitness classes...the days have been jam packed. This afternoon it hit me.

I had clients at the coast guard base from 8-1 then was planning on skiing with Patrick. After lunch and leaving work, I met up at the lake and I just didnt' have it in me. The day was sunny, conditions perfect. I went half way around the lake and admitted to Patrick that I just didn't feel like skiing. I came home, took a short 1/2 hour nap before picking up the kids from school.  It was a rare Friday moment where my energy reserves were low. Usually once I get out on the snow, I'm good to go and now matter how busy or tired I am, I put in a good workout.

Half an hour after kids were out of school, they donned their ski gear and we headed out to the golf course. It was fun to cruise around with the kids and watch the sun descend behind the mountains.

I'm ready for a chill, low key weekend.

Bless Patrick's heart for rallying the troops this afternoon and insisting that we all go skiing...it was good to get everyone outside!  Zoya

Downtown Kodiak

This is what downtown Kodiak looked like on President's Day just as the sun came up.  I had the day off and was on my way to go for a ski.  I love President's Day because I get the day off but the kids do not - no Daddy day care needed.  After my ski I canned fish with Mike P.  The kids came home and sledded for a few hours on their own.  They did not even fight!  All and All a good day off.  Patrick