June Underway

This summer  the kids and myself have found a good rhythm with our schedules.  The kids are involved in a morning summer camp program and a mommy helper, Abby is helping with drop off and pick up of the kids on days I work on the Coast Guard base.  She takes them on long walks to the park and out and about as well as reading and playing here at the house.

Today I counted 24 days until Patrick and the crew returns from Old Harbor.  I smile to myself when I think of the reunion barbeque that will ensue upon their return-the traditional fun energy which accompanies a group when they return from the field. They will be so excited to be around fruits, veggies and home baked goods. Some of our most fun summer gatherings are when field crew returns and we are all reunited.

PROGRAM
I'm continuing with Nora's program ( on week 10) which I do 5 days a week and its going strong.  Last week I missed a day of the program  and felt terribly about it for a few minutes.   Then I cut myself a break, as it was the first day I had missed in 9 weeks.  Not too shabby.

I am starting the auditory component of the PACE program  with Nora this week, so I have been giving myself phonics lessons in the evenings, as several of the activities will involve repeating sounds in fast sequence.

Fortunately after 9 weeks, I have a rhythm of how much time I need to be  prepared for Nora's sessions; several hours a week in the evenings. I review the upcoming lessons, watch/review CD's with the exercises on them.  At moments, it does feel daunting-especially when old activities are phased out and more challenging ones are phased in. There is a perpetual learning curve for me as well as Nora. Its amazing how Nora's brain just steps up to the challenges and she works so hard with me. Seeing the progress in Nora is invigorating and inspiring to power through the program this summer.

TRX!

This weekend the trainer from the Alaska Club is coming from Anchorage to train 6 other instructors and myself in how to instruct TRX fitness class. TRX is a band suspension system which uses ones body weight to strengthen, tone and work on core strength and balance.

 I've never even taken a class, and am very excited to learn it this weekend and proceed to teach it here in Kodiak. There are so many exercises that can be done with just your own body weight, and TRX really capitalizes on this. 

Below is a picture of the flooring that was just installed in the TRX room. Just add members and the strap system and we'll be ready to go!

Coming soon-TRX classes. Training this weekend!

MY ENTREPRENEUR 

Stuey has been very entrepreneurial lately-with his bookstore. He sells his pictures and books for 10 or 20 cents and he doesn't barter with me. If I say, "i'll pay you 5 cents" he refuses. He would rather accept no money than be talked down. 

The theme in his art lately is rainbows and our red house. I think the family therapist (who also had her degree in art therapy) that our family worked with this past winter  would have good reflections on Stuey's state of mind, as reflected in his art. Rainbows over a house would be good! So thats re-assuring. He is hooked on rainbows and houses (which have smoke coming out of the chimneys!)

Stuey's "Store". He loves making rainbow and house pictures. And selling them for 5 or 10 cents each. 

 MISS. DETECTIVE
Nora is Miss. Perceptive about people, time, friends, etc. She notices my every mood, and is the detective in the house, noticing if something is out of place, off schedule, etc. Her intuititve awareness about me is welcomed. I attribute this change primarily to the program we are doing together.  In years past, I wished she had more of this trait; at times I would be frusturated that she wouldn't notice my emotions or others emotions.

A picture that was on the camera. I think Patrick made these outfits with the kids! The shoes were made out of cardboard boxes.

Stuey in bed last night....with his latest store creation. 

Zoya

Back to work

We start to work on the large late-prehistoric 'house'

Last Sunday Zoya and I woke up at 4:15 AM after a short 3 hours of sleep and flew home from my college reunion in Boston.  We got all the way back to Kodiak but the plane could not land due to bad weather so we spent the night in Anchorage.  We did make it in to Kodiak Monday morning, and I went straight from the jetliner to catch the little commuter plane to Old Harbor.  The fellow passengers on the commuter plane was a camo-clad group of large men on their way to Old Harbor for a fishing safari.  I was met at the plane by a happy crew, and back at work by 9 AM.  Quite the culture shock – from 90 degree weather and events at the Museum of Fine Arts to rain and 40 degree temperatures with snow on the mountains all around.  From summer back to late spring – from the ‘urbanista’ culture of the city to rural Alaska village life.  I was back!

In my absence the crew had removed the sods from 3 of the houses at the late prehistoric village that will be the focus of the next 4 weeks of the dig.  They opened up 96 new one meter squares to excavate - this was a lot of work!  And on Monday afternoon we started to dig in the main room of the largest house.

After 3 days of excavation we have mostly finished with the large ‘house’, and I now suspect that it was not really a house at all.  We uncovered in the middle of the room a large area of multiple old hearths filled with fire-cracked rock, burnt sods, calcined bone and charcoal.  It looks like the structure was used for some sort of smoke processing.  It clearly was not a house where people lived for extended periods of time, or where they spent the winter.

Unlike a ‘winter’ house the structure lacks well built up sod walls, storage features,  a formal hearth, and a flat floor.  Nor did we find a large variety of the tools one would expect in a house where people spent the winter and worked on the activities typical of domestic winter life – adzes for wood-working, needle abraders, flensing knives etc.  However, we did find lots of unfinished slate lance points, a couple of harpoon/arrow endblades, and lots and lots of ulus at the front of the house.  Also it does look like people were hanging out in the structure.  We found a tiny toy lamp, a well-made ground slate pendant, and a couple of quartz crystals. 

Last year the other houses we tested at the site did seem to have formal hearths and lacked charcoal features.  We had a hard time even finding enough charcoal to radiocarbon date the structures.  For this reason I am wondering if the other houses were where they lived while the structure we are now excavating was where they processed fish or seal meat.  Alternatively the houses we tested last year could be older, and the houses in the dense salmonberry thicket could represent a younger site occupation. 

It is a good thing we will be excavating more than one of the structures because if there is a variety of house types at the site we will recognize them.  This is why I like to excavate large portions of a site.  Rather than a tiny window of the past we will get more of a full-portion view of what was going on in the village.  Eventually we will learn the answers to some of my current questions.  I can’t wait to get to some of the other structures!  Patrick

View of the site where we are now excavating - we've been plagued by pretty dismal weather

Dani shows off the ground slate pendant that she found

Tiny! lamp - note the hand scale in background

Ground slate endblade - this one is REALLY sharp

Old Harbor intern Danielle shows off the quartz crystals that she found in a corner of the structure 

A broken ulu that we re-fit together

Crew excavating in the multiple hearth feature

Hearth feature with rest of structure for scale

Completed hearth feature - now to remove the rocks and to finish digging it out!

48 Hours in Boston

The Friday night Delphic Club class of '88

A Pink

A Rhododendron

Emmy greeting us at the airport...Hour 1. Complete with dunkin' donuts coffee!

A Gum tree in yard at Patrick's parents house. 

Dinner get together Friday night with Patrick's roommates

Pre-reunion drinks

A few of the mini quilts that hung overhead. 

Beautiful quilts were strung overhead in the museum. This is what I learned about them From the MFA Site....

"Visit "To Boston With Love," an installation of hundreds of hand-sewn squares created created by quilters in the US and around the world, including Canada, England, Ireland, France, Holland, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and Africa. Each mini quilt delivers a message of peace and hope and is signed on the back by the artist, with his or her country. The project was a grass-roots effort conceived by Berene Campbell of Vancouver, Canada, and organized locally by Amy Friend of West Newbury. Those interested in making a quilt to be included in the installation can visit the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild website to learn more about the project."

They were beautiful. What a thoughtful tribute.

Chihuly glass sculpture and the quilts overhead. 

On the wall at the bar...Zoya thought it was cute. 

Patrick brought a can of tuna from Whole Foods and shared it. This wasn't just ANY tuna, it was from Tomas' tuna plant in Costa Rica. So delicious it was and fun to share with friends that night. 

With Thomas & Anna (from Costa Rica)

Lunch in Sherborn on patio. Hot day, fun times catching up. 

Our 48 hours flew by and so fun it was to catch up with friends and family.

Patrick and Zoya

25th College Reunion

Last night Patrick and I attended Patrick's 25th college reunion in Boston and what a fun time it was!

 The evening gala was held at the Museum of Fine Arts and almost all of Patrick's college roommates attended. I was looking forward to the evening since Patrick's 20th reunion 5 years ago. The night was a dream; fun reconnecting with his roommates and their wives. And dancing up a storm with some very groovy people. 

Outside the Museum of Fine Arts

Some of our high heels. 

Eric and Shelly

So fun dancing!!

The roommates

Friends and dance partners!

Scenic inside the MFA

Panoramic with a Chihuly Sculpture in the background. 

Walking home after...my feet were so sore. My first time seeing the big Harvard library. I was in awe. Various gates out of Harvard were locked and it was a seemingly long trek home as we maneuvered off the campus.  Spirits were hight after such a fun evening!

Zoya

Back in Time-A Box of Letters

A couple of months ago my Aunt Barbie, my late fathers sister,  passed away. In the process of clearing out some of her things, my cousin Genevieve found some boxes of letters and pictures and asked me if I wanted them. Of course, I'd love them. Aunt Barbie was one of the letter writers in my life and I was curious as to what letters could be in the box.

The box arrived and I put it aside in a corner of my bedroom, planning on waiting for a time when the house was quiet and to myself. This past week, Nora awoke early one sunny morning and asked if we could open it. I said, "No, Nora, I'm going to wait for a quiet time to open that. Its old letters and pictures". That made Nora even more insistent and encouraged me to open it. So I did. There were bundles of letters in rubber bands and a moderate collection of pictures. Nora was fascinated.

I opened a few of the letters and read parts of them out loud. Tears trickled slowly down my cheeks and Nora wanted to know why I was crying.  I explained to her that the letters were written by my dad when he was young and reading the letters made me miss him.

The 3 letters I read were from my dad to my Aunt Barbie when he was in his early 20's. My father passed away when I was 16 and his writing is a chance to see inside his thoughts and mind; at such a formative time in his life. Many of the letters are written on a typewriter, single spaced. His style is reminiscent of a journal entry-really sharing his thoughts on people, himself and his aspirations for life.

I called my twin, Ella, and told her about the box and read a few sections of letters. We laughed and cried together at the chance to truly re-discover our father. Though his pen, his thoughts. We giggled  at a few of the things he said and reflected on how similar we are to him. We are his daughters and found comfort in our similarities with him.

Ella and I mutually agreed that I would hold off on reading the letters until we are together and can go through them together and perhaps organize them somehow. They are an incredible piece of family history to be treasured.

Zoya

Cliffside Bunkhouse

The past two weeks since Patrick has been gone, our house reverted to a summer bunkhouse. Before kids, we would take in lots of summer archaeologists and house guests and haven't done so much of it since Nora and Stuey have come into the picture.

The local Island Trails Network needed a place for 3 summer interns, so I agreed to them staying at our house for 2 weeks. Taking in unknown guests can be a a bit of a gamble, not knowing who will be in our house.

We lucked out with 3 thoughtful, helpful interns who are kind and playful with Nora and Stuey. Stuey took quite a liking to the intern, Nicole, after she showed him the game Mindcraft on her computer. When Stuey would go to bed, he'd ask, "how many hours until I wake up?" so he could play mind craft again with Nicole. I joke that Stuey needs a shirt that says, "I (heart) Nicole". We also have our friend Elke staying with us while she awaits the closing of her house at the end of the month. It is communal living-fun dinner togethers in the evening and a spirit of collaboration with stocking the fridge and cleaning.

Patrick and I head East to attend his 25th college reunion in Boston. The kids are staying back with a mommy helper and the pack at the house. I've looked forward to this trip since Patrick's 20th college reunion 5 years ago-to dance to 80's music, visit with his family and his cool roommates.

Zoya

Visitors to the site

Archaeology is not all finding artifacts and features and figuring out the past.  A large part of the discipline is getting the word out about what you do find.  Scholarly articles, classroom visits, public lectures,  museum exhibits, tidbits on Facebook - are all good ways that the Alutiiq Museum uses to get the word out about its archaeological discoveries.  Through the Community Archaeology Program the museum also shows the public what archaeology is all about by letting them participate in the excavations - we also give a lot of site tours.

But it's not often that you get to give a site tour to a Senator.  Yesterday Lisa Murkowski - Alaska's Senator - visited our site.  Some members of the Old Harbor Native Corporation (OHNC) board came along for the tour too.  OHNC is paying for project.  I was very proud to show off all that we have learned so far at the 2 sites. I think they were impressed that we had learned so much about Alutiiq history at 2 seemingly insignificant sites.  I emphasized that in the past archaeologists have focused on excavating the big village sites and that the seasonal sites where they processed fish or lived at for just a few months of the year have received little attention.  Very little is known about those aspects of the prehistoric Alutiiq seasonal round.

I told them that in all likelihood these sites would never have been excavated unless threatened by the new Old Harbor airport extension.  Federal law requires that such sites get studied before they are destroyed. Lisa and the members of the OHNC board seemed genuinely interested in all that we had learned at the two sites.  They even had suggestions for other subsistence activities that might have taken place at the sites.  I really appreciated the opportunity to show our politicians and the people who pay for such work that studying these sites is worth the cost.

Lisa told me that she took an archaeology class in college and that for a short while she was interested in anthropology as a career.  I replied that she seemed to have done pretty well for herself in a different field.  Patrick

Finished with the old sites and on to the new

More digging in the rain - opening up another 4 square meters of the house

Today we finished up our excavations at the 2 very old sites that we’ve been digging at for the last week and a half.  At 6000 and 7200 years old they are both very old sites for Kodiak.  The site we are moving to for the next four weeks of the project at 400 years old is considerably younger.  Hopefully this means we will not have to dig down as deep to find the surfaces that people lived on.  Over the last 6000 years repeated volcanic ash falls and silt flowing downhill had deeply buried the older sites.  We are looking forward to excavating houses where we do not have to remove ½ a meter of ash before we get to the interesting stuff.

This afternoon when we walked over the new site we could see the house pits and their siderooms right on the surface.  Clear enough that we can map their outlines without even any excavation.  One drawback of the younger site is that the site vegetation is much more intense – it’s an elderberry, salmonberry, pushki, nettle jungle out there.  The soil is still enriched from people living out there – all the food scraps, midden etc.  It would be a great place for a garden.  We plan on using a chainsaw to clear it up so that we can map the houses and set out a grid.  Still removing the sods and all the roots so that we can excavate the houses will be a real chore.

Since I last reported we uncovered another 4 square meters of the 6000 year old house.  Catherine found a perfect chipped basalt lance in the back of the house and Chase found an ochre grinder metate just outside the doorway with the mano right next to it.  We also uncovered many more of the holes that had held the posts to hold up the roof.  It was a substantial structure.  It looks like it had an open front and was dug in at the back.  It looks to be about 3 meters deep and 4 meters across, but we still do not know for sure because we did not uncover the whole thing.  If we have time we hope to return and open another 5 square meters to catch the other side of the house.

At the 7200 year old house we discovered that the Alutiiq who built the smoke processing feature had intentionally filled in the lumpy bumpy ground around with sods to create a flat surface.  We also found some blades – an artifact type only found at the very oldest Alutiiq sites.  I suspect that seal hunting was the subsistence focus at both sites, and we certainly did see a number of seals just off shore during the day while we were digging.  I can’t wait to see what we find at the new site!  Patrick

All done at the 7200 year old smoke processing site

The ochre grinder complete with mano in front of the 6000 year old house

A happy Catherine with her basalt point

Close up of the basalt point

6000 year-old house after excavation - we still do not have the wall on the left side and a little at the back

The elderberry and salmonberry jungle at the new site

The crew and view from the new site where we will be excavating

Growing Pains

Nora and I are on week 9 of her Seattle Learning program and last week we had some expected lows with fatigue and frustration.

When we embarked upon this 20 week program, I knew the days would come when Nora and I would struggle through the sessions, and sure enough-we did. These were the days when she had dance recitals and her last week of school. I was committed to keeping her on the 5 day a week schedule but it was tough.  I was also tired and my patience wasn't as strong. If she rolled her eyes at me, or if I sighed heavily at her, we became frusturated with each other and didn't enjoy the sessions as much as normal.

This week I discovered that Nora really likes having a Menu, where she can see the different
activities that we're going to do and pick which ones to do first. I draw out little pictures of the exercises so she knows what the abbreviations are for.

Tomorrow morning summer camp program starts, which the kids are both looking forward to. Its fun to be on the summer schedule now and do Nora's programs without feeling like it is too much on her brain after a full days school!

Zoya