Pre Christmas Activities

Cutting the 'yard' tree that Stuey picked out

The Christmas season is starting to ramp up.  Last weekend we cut down a Christmas tree from our backyard.  Zoya and I agree that picking out and cutting the Christmas tree is one of our favorite memories of the Holiday Season from childhood.  So last year I was devastated when the kids cried with my choice of a backyard tree.  And we ended up buying a tree.

So this year I had decided to just get it over with and buy a tree.  But when it came time to drive to the 'tree store' the kids wanted to go outside and find one in our yard instead.  I was delighted, and very happy to oblige.  I had also learned my lesson.  'Charlie Brown' trees make the cut when the kids are tots, but a big tree is needed for kids who take an active interest in decorations.  A big tree is needed for lots of decorations.

Out into the back yard we went and Stuey picked out a HUGE tree that was partially blocking our view and needed thinning. I cut it down and only used the top of the tree.  But inside the house it still comes close to the ceiling.  No waiting to put ornaments on the tree either - the kids were ON it.  Patrick

Decorating the tree immediately after getting it inside the house

Checking out the drive thru Christmas light show - the kids got the front of the car while Zoya and I sat in the back

The light show is VERY elaborate and is choreographed to Christmas music that you tune into on the car radio

Stuey and Nora play at building really tall towers and then knocking them down

Skiing the Lawn Snow

On Friday we woke up to an inch or so of new snow at the house.  It was one of those 'ocean effect' storms where only the north end of town gets any snow.  There is no snow out at the golf course or airport.  I had high hopes for more snow but the predicted 'Blizzard' never arrived.

But no problem, it turns out that at our house we can make do with very little snow.  The hill on our lawn is getting a little small for exciting sledding but it is still an exciting downhill rip on skis.  I actually did some sprint work on my own.  It's time to get in ski-shape for the Tour of Anchorage!

Still after 2 days of lawn skiing I think we'll go looking for a snow covered lake for today's ski.
Patrick

The World's Best Dog Food

Tank is liking what he sees (and smells)

Yes, this is a recipe for dog food - for canned dog food no less.  And I must add it looks so good in a jar that I have been tempted to turn it into people food.  The dogs REALLY love it and it is good for them - it has to be better for them than commercial dog food. Basically I can (put in jars actually) all the scraps of meat that are left over from processing all the deer, goat, and elk meat harvested during the fall.

In the old days we used to put some of these meat scraps into the burger, and inevitably while eating burger at a later date you'd get the occasional off taste or strip of sinew in the teeth.  By feeding the slightly 'off' smelling, bloody, dirty, or whatever, scraps to the dogs you are making the best use of a valuable resource.  And you are making your own burger so much better - all it takes is one pack of bad burger or deer meat to destroy the family trust in tasty wild game.  Turning iffy scraps into dog food means there is no guilt about wasting meat.

Up until this year I used to feed the scraps raw to the dogs.  But our new dog Tank will not eat meat raw (go figure).  So I have started to can it.  And I think it works out a lot better because now the frozen dog food does not take up freezer space.  The canned dog food is much more convenient too.

Anyway here is the recipe:

Needed:
large canner (I have 2 'American' brand canners)
Canning jars and lids (for convenience I have been using quart jars)

For every 2 pounds of scraps figure on one quart jar (a quart equals 2 pints and a 'pints a pound the world round').  My canner fits 7 quart jars on the bottom or 14 pounds of meat.  Today after filling up 14 quart jars I still had a couple of pounds of meat leftover.  So I filled some 1/2 pint jars to fit in the top of the canner.

Ingredients:
Meat scraps
Tap water

Process:
The process is pretty simple.  Stuff all the jars up to about an inch from the top with meat.  I then add a little water to each jar (so it looks about 1/2 filled).  Then I wipe the rims and put on the lids.  I boil the lids in water first.  Then put on the rings and fill the canner.  Check your canner directions for details.  Then can for 1 1/2 hours at 10 pounds pressure.

Pretty easy and your dogs will love you.

Patrick

Packaged up and well-labelled scraps from the freezer

I un-package all the scraps into a cooler and then fill the jars

Jars all stuffed with meat scraps

Finished product - 14 quart jars and 6 half pint jars

The Destruction of the Karluk One site

Karluk River mouth in 1957 with old canneries on the spit.  The Church is on hill to the right.  The Karluk One site is on opposite side of river just above the docked fishing boats.  At this time the river flowed in front of the site.  After the  storm in 1978 the river broke a new channel through the middle of the spit.  Image courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum - Christiansen Collection.

Lately at work I have been helping put together a book about the excavation of the Karluk One Site.  This was the excavation that first brought me to Alaska as a bright-eyed-20-year-old way back in 1985.  The site had incredible preservation and we found stuff like wooden masks and dolls, spruce root baskets and ulu knifes with wood handles - things you do not ordinarily find in archaeological sites.  We found everything from the floorboards and posts of the house to the grass matting the inhabitants put on the floors. Needless to say, it was a very important site.  Sadly, the site no longer exists.  All that remains of the site is photographs and descriptions, memories, and the artifacts and documentation in the collections at the Alutiiq Museum.

For the last few days I have been documenting what happened to the site.  I looked at old photos and created the crude figure below showing how the river cut through and demolished the site during the 1990s.  I have heard through the archaeological 'grapevine' that some archaeologists believe that the large excavation itself contributed to the erosion and demise of the site.  As you can see in the photos below, the site did not erode away because of wave action from the ocean along the front of the site.  It was wiped out by the river changing course and migrating through the site.  It was destroyed by a force of nature and not the hand of man.  In fact the location of the main area of excavation did not erode into the river until 1996 when the site had already been mostly destroyed.  The site eroded from the tip south and not from the side facing the ocean. 

In 1978 a winter storm breached the spit in front of the site, and created a new river channel to the sea.  After the breach there was no longer a spit to provide protection between the lagoon and the sea, and the site and the shoreline all around the Karluk Lagoon experienced severe erosion. The front of Karluk One eroded a couple meters back at this time.  But after the beach stabilized and created a berm in front of the site this erosion largely ceased.  What destroyed the site was that the river tried to find its old channel and in doing so migrated through the site and destroyed it.  The same process has probably occurred a few times in the past couple of thousand years.  In fact I wonder if the old pond behind the site in 1983 was an old river channel from the last time this happened.

The photos below document how the river destroyed the site between 1983 and 2008 - a sad story for your enlightenment. Patrick

Crude map of site showing rate of destruction.  The map is based on a base map made of the site with a transit in 1983.  The green represent the site.  The red lines represent the river bank at various moments in time while the black lines on the site represent the eroding face of the site.  The small graph squares are equal to a meter (the site is around 140 meters long).  The church is in the lower left corner.

The site in the early 1950s (left) and in 1983 (right).  A comparison shows that relatively little had eroded prior to 1983 - one or two meters along the front (left side) and maybe 10 to 20 meters off of the tip (far end). Images courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum.

An aerial view of the site in 1983 - note the bulldozer in the middle of the site.  This is the same bulldozer going over the edge in the photo of the site from 1995. Image courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum - Karluk One Collection

The site in 1995 - note bulldozer going over the edge and how close the river is to the edge of the site.

Poor quality aerial of the site in 1996.  This is the year that the river channel started to cut into the site.   The pieces of concrete along the site's erosion face is where the main excavations took place between 1983 and 1987.

View of the site in 1998. Very little of the site remains.

Another view of the site in 1998 from the hillside above the site.  Note that  the river  channel is REALLY cutting into the site now.

View of the site from 2001 - the site is now completely gone and the river is starting to cut into the hillside behind where the site was located.

Another view from 2001

2008 - all that remains is the church on the hill and the river continues to cut deeply into the hill. Image courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving feels like it was forever ago with Nutcracker performance, work,  and putting up the tree last weekend.  Time ran away from me and I forgot to do a thanksgiving post. The evening was full  of meat and laughter and fun times!

Stuey cutting the mushrooms for the stuffing. 

Brooks brought a smoked white king salmon which was  simply amazing!

Laura serving the desserts.

Zoya

Holiday Bells-Nutcracker

This weekend was the local production of the Nutcracker. The production is done every 3 years and this year around 200 dancers performed. The dancing, costumes, lighting, choreography was really stunning and the older girls did especially fabulous on their solos and duets.

Nora finished her final performance today (she was in 2 out of the 4 shows) and I'm glad that the production is over for her and now we can resume with regular programming holiday season!

Over the years I have taken it for granted that all kids in ballet class can dance in the Nutcracker. Then a conversation this past week reminded me how our local production is   a treat. A girlfriend who moved here from Anchorage remarked how what a treat it is that our young ones can be in the nutcracker. She said in Anchorage only the top 5% of dancers can be in the Nutcracker and the top lead roles are ALL flown in from out of state. She remarked how supportive all the girls in the production are of eachother and how everyone has a good time. 

This was a good reminder for me that it truly is a gift to have  small scale local Nutcracker production  that the girls can dance in!

I"m proud of my little Holiday Bell. She worked hard and gave lots of hours to class rehearsals this past month. 

Curtain Call

Behind the scenes waiting to go out on stage

A LOT of sitting downstairs in the hallways of the 'green room'

Zoya

Foggy Walk

The fog in Abercrombie during my slow walk through the park yesterday

Here on Kodiak it has been warm and foggy of late.  Ordinarily I would not be happy about this run of weather.  This is the time of year I like it cold and snowy so I can ski, ski, ski.  But ever since I stuck an ice axe into my shin I have not been able to go skiing or do much of anything else.  And I am grounded for a few more days at least.  Being grounded is bad enough, but I think being grounded WITH great snow conditions would just about kill me.

So I am enjoying the fog.  

Cantering

Today I took Stuey to his 4th or 5th horseback riding lesson.

We shared the arena with an advanced rider-a middle school gal who was receiving lessons on the other half of the stadium with a different teacher. The students long hair bounced on her back and she was so graceful cantoring and trotting; posting seemingly perfectly. Posture perfectly upright.
 I watched her with fascination-how fast she made the horse go and what incredible control she had of it. And how much fun it looked. And hard work, too.

I realized that while she was on that horse, time was probably frozen still for her. She  noticed every small shift and change in the horses body as the horse ran along and knew how to respond accordingly. I watched her and remembered those days of youth during flute lessons or basketball when I was completely engulfed with focus and effort. I suppose nowadays I have small moments like that, but not to the depth like I did in adolesence. (I think that needs to change.)

Stuey was also fascinated by the other rider and his tendency was to keep looking over and watching her.  I didn't fault him one bit-so fun to watch! The contrast between Stuey and the middle schooler was quite stark. Stuey and his old pony, Bob, walking around the arena with an occasional trot.
Versus the middle schooler's horse running constant circles for nearly 20 minutes.

The whole scene gave me such an appreciation for Stuey's teacher, Becca, and how wonderful she is with younger kids. She really explains things so well, makes them comfortable and challenges them just enough. It was fun for both Stuey and I to see what it is that he can look forward to doing someday when he gets bigger and more confident!

Zoya


Random kid quotes from the past week, before I forget them!

~Stuey: "Want to play people?"(Stuey referring to little trains and figurines which Nora and him play inside a home made cardboard house)

Nora: "Sure! As long as your people always do what my people tell them to!"

Stuey: "Ok, Nora!"

I couldn't believe Stuey agreed to such an arrangement!


~Stuey, when crawling under the warm covers of our bed in the morning before getting up. His legs perched over mine. He says, "ahhh...mom...your legs are so warm like a hot tub"


~Stuey (while playing with Nora and Estella)
"Its so far...farther than this whole world, whole globe, past this town, past outer space, past God, past Phoebe."


~ The other night I was tucking Stuey into bed. I said, "You have all the doggies in the house in your  bed now" as Tank and Jake were cuddled up with him. Stuey and paused together and I said, "well, except Roxy. But Roxy is gone now. "
Stuey said, "Mom, Roxy isn't gone. She is in my heart with me."

A post Roxy walk in Abercrombie

Stuey finds a gravel hole

Odds and ends from Fall

At our house you know it's fall when the sunrise is through the Spruce Cape trees

This morning I was cleaning up the iphoto files on our computer and found some photos that somehow missed the blog.  Here they are in no particular order with captions.

I helped Stuey make this block temple, but he created some amazing structures by himself

Despite not having a tape player these cassettes have remained in a drawer in our kitchen for years - Zoya finally put them away

This one is sort of sad because it marks the end of me 'choosing the music'.  In the old days I was quite active in picking up new music.  These days Zoya picks out most of the new music in our house.  Looking back at those tapes brought back some memories and nostalgia for the days of homemade cassettes. Some of these tapes followed me from college to South Africa to Madison, WI and then on to Alaska.  I wish I could get a cassette tape player for my car and get re-acquanted with them.  Or .. .. Perhaps I should just go to itunes. .. ..

That's one big carrot from our garden - I actually found this type 'woody' and preferred the 'Nantes' type that we also grew as a better 'eater'

Stuey harassing the spawned out silver salmon

When Zoya was away for training in early November I took the kids for one last fishing trip out at White Sands beach.  There were still a few bright silvers coming in from the ocean but most of the fish we saw were pretty red looking.  Still you could see the fish, and that meant there was always a chance that you could catch a fish.  Stuey really, really wanted to catch one of those spawned out silvers.

'Fishing' - note stray fishing lines

It's always fun when there's a chance you will catch a fish!

Patrick

The other side of the story….

As the wife of a hunter, I'm never fully ready for a phone call from the field with bad news.
It happened today, but it could have been so much worse.

The first call came in this morning from Patrick's satellite phone. The message was brief and broken up.  I listened to it several times to decipher it. Patrick said that he had fallen and Brooks (hunting partner) didn't see him fall but that he was ok.

"Wow" my mind screamed over again inside. The thought of Patrick falling off a goat ridge and Brooks' not knowing where he was…it had the recipe for disaster. I knew, however, that Brooks would find him and that they would make their way out. (I must say, that Patrick has the best hunting partners ever. More to come on this later.)

About an hour or more later,  Brooks called and told me more about Patricks injury-a puncture wound of some sort on his lower leg which was sustained by a fall. He didn't know how bad it was but they were making their way home. They weren't sure if the injury was sustained by the ice ax or a rock.

I didn't say  anything to the kids and trying to keep on with my day. A call to my girlfriend Elke put me at greater ease…she said, "So, no organs were hit, right?" "No" I replied. "well, then he'll just get back and get all stitched up and he'll get put back together again."
This re-assured me. Yes, there would be some healing time involved but all would be well.

At this point, I knew that when Patrick came home, I didn't want the kids to see him in a bad, bloody shape. I dropped them off with my girlfriend and with ella and waited at home for the guys to arrive.

The wound was bad. A deep puncture wound with muscle exposed that really needed stitches. But after discussing pros and cons, and calling our friend who is an ER nurse- Patrick opted for no stitches. The deciding factor is that Patrick hates needles and the thought of getting numbed up, etc for stitches terrified him AND that today is Sunday and no clinics are open. We would've had to go to the ER.

 So we'll be managing the wound and helping it heal without stitches. Fortunately I've done wound care as part of my PT career, so its not completely foreign to me. And if something isn't looking normal to me in the next day or two, I'm going to have him go in pronto to have it checked out.

Oh, and about hunting partners-
I am appreciative of all of Patrick's hunting partners. They are all confident, quick, resourceful, thoughtful guys (and gals) who would help Patrick in any outdoor predicament--as he would help them. I think that why I worry so little when Patrick is on these adventures-Patrick is in the company of good people who all take care of each other.


Zoya

Ouch!

Sunrise over Kodiak's wind turbines

 This morning I helped Brooks go bow hunting for goats.  We hiked up in the gloaming before dawn.  Really just a spectacular day to be out and about in the mountains.  We saw a few goats, but mostly they were just nannies and kids which you are not allowed to hunt.

We put on crampons and climbed up a fairly steep slope and I was thinking that in the old days such slopes had not scared me at all.  Now they do, and I was not looking forward to climbing back down.  No goats up on top but the view was well worth the climb.

And then came the climb back down.  It really did not seem all that bad, and I was wondering why the prospect had had me so freaked out.  I was practically at the bottom and relieved to be back on 'safe ground' when suddenly my crampons broke free of the ice and I went into an uncontrolled descent.  My ice axe did not stop me and I saw the grass and rocks coming and was scared the crampons would catastrophically catch.  The grass and rocks did not stop me either and I did a little tumbling and crossed some more snow before coming to a stop.  Wow did that HURT!

My leg was killing me and I could not walk.  Blood started to seep through my pants and I lifted the pant leg and saw an awful hole in my leg.  That sort of freaked my out because there was no hole in my pants.  I was more than a little worried that I may have broken my leg.  Brooks showed up on the hillside above, and I yelled to him that I had fallen.  He stepped out onto the snow and also catastrophically broke loose and slid for a 100 feet or so.  However, he did not get hurt.  We later decided that the sun had warmed the top layer of the snow and ice on that particular aspect and that this had hampered the effectiveness of our crampons.

He joined me and looked at my leg.  No broken bones - just a big hole in my shin.  He thought it was from a rock - I think I got 'poked' with my ice axe.  Ghastly puncture wound but not the end of the world.  I walked back to the car using my ski pole and ice axe as crutches.  

All's well that ends well, and the fall was a bit of a wake up call.  Scary slopes are scary for a reason - you can slip and fall and not stop for a long ways.  Today's experience has re calibrated my slope sense.  Patrick

Near the top of the third (south) sister

Beautiful views but scary slopes

Looking for goats shortly before the fall