Around the house and lawn

It's not even 9 o'clock in the morning and it is already almost 70 degrees outside.  The record high for today is 68 degrees and I think we already busted it.  We set a new record high for yesterday too.  It's been super hot and sunny for over a week now and it looks like it will continue.  There is a HUGE high over the State of Alaska and it is keeping all the lows and rainstorms at bay - they feel the high pressure and just skirt around the state.

We've been spending a lot of time on the lawn reading books and even eating dinner.  It almost makes it seem worthwhile to mow the lawn.  Now that it is nearly summer the sun is coming up before 6AM and bathing the house with light.  We eat breakfast in the sunshine.  By evening the sun is on the other side of the house and it does not set until almost 10:30 PM.

Next week I'll be in the field doing an archaeological survey.  Let's hope the weather stays the same!

Patrick

Fog=No High School Reunion Trip

Stuck. In. Kodiak. :)

This weekend Zoya and I were supposed to fly out East to attend my 30th High School reunion.  But we got fogged out in Kodiak.  It was kind of amazing how foggy it was out at the airport and yet so sunny at our house.  Normally when a flight is cancelled the weather is bad and you sort of expect it.  This cancellation caught us by surprise.

So I don't get to see my old classmates for the first time in 30 years and Zoya doesn't get to rock out to Boy George and other 80's rockers.  Oh well.  Now we get an unexpected stay-cation.  The weather is great, and we are on vacation.  Kodiak is not a bad place to be stuck.  I am far happier to be fogged in rather than fogged out!

Patrick

Driving home in the fog - our plane has been cancelled

Snow, Fog and Sun

A couple of views from near the top of Pyramid from the last couple of days.  It has been very sunny with fog down low that burns off during the day.  The panoramic photos below were taken on different days.  One shows the fog on Afognak Island while in the other it is all clear.  In both you can see the snow capped volcanos of the Alaska Peninsula on the other side of Shelikof Strait.  On Kodiak the snow is disappearing very quickly.  In years past I've seen more snow on Pyramid in mid June.

Nora looked at the photo of fog on Afognak and noted that, 'Afognak is 'a FOG nak' and foggy for a reason.

Patrick

"Is my feet on the right feet?"

Some recent kid quotes from the past several months. I write them down on the calendar as they happen and have been meaning to transfer them here for some time.

"Mom, do bad guys have kids?" -Stuey

"Is that milk dirty?" -Stuey    as I pour him milk from the carton. (What he meant to ask was it old or expired.)

"Is my feet on the right feet?" -Stuey as he puts his shoes on the wrong feet. 

"You have to help me. Its in your contract for being a mom" -Nora

"This apple tastes like Maine" -Nora when eating a green apple. 

"If you have a bigger mind, you can imagine bigger things, right?" -Stuey

"Can I have an appetizer?" -Stuey as he sits on the couch Friday night waiting for dinner. Patrick and I couldn't believe he asked this! 

Zoya

Bear Tracks

While skinning up the mountain to go skiing this afternoon I came across some fresh bear tracks.  It looks like the tracks of 2 bears walking one behind the other. Since both bears seem pretty full grown I am thinking it is a sow with her full grown cub.  Normally sows with young cubs do not come out of hibernation until June, and then stay up high until early July and the end of mating season.  The big boars will kill and eat a sow's cubs if given a chance so basically it is best for the sows and her young to stay up high and avoid them.  The big boars come out earlier in April, and that is why bear hunting season is in late April to early May - the Alaska Department of Fish and Game would prefer that hunters harvest the boars and not the sows.

My guess is that sow came out early because she is done with this particular cub.  It is time for her little teenager to make it on his/her own, and for her to get back on the dating scene. Patrick

38th adventures!

I love birthdays.  Especially one with as many surprises as 2014 had!

This year on the morning of my 38th, Patrick noted my birthday excitement. He smiled as he sensed the spark in my step and commented, "You love your birthday, don't you?". I sure do.

This year I took the day off of work, which I think I'll do more of on future birthdays! I went out to Java Flats with my girlfriend, E. Java F. is a fun small restaurant a 20 minute drive out the road. To outsiders, 20 minutes is no drive at all, but for some  Kodiak folks, its a small trek/adventure to drive for 20 minutes. There are always tall stacks of 4 or 5 varieties of home made cookies to enjoy as well as lots of sandwiches, burritos, coffee and tea. 

 I tried a new sandwich which had an incredible combination of scrambled eggs, bacon, carrots, hot sauce, and smoked salmon-all on a warm croissant. The combination of flavors was really wonderful together and so exotic!

We then ventured for a beach hike over to "Sometimes" island-an island which is available for hikes only on low tide. I've never been over there…have driven by hundreds of times in my Kodiak existence! There is a nice trail on the island, beautiful look outs and man it was fun to explore someplace new here in Kodiak. Just a reminder of what new adventures there are to be had right here in our back yard. 

Ella and I enjoyed lunch together, then around evening time, she and I met up with a small group of friends at El Chicanos. We spent several hours laughing, enjoying margaritas and nachos and then a Neopolitan birthday cake. The chocolate layer is a rich, heavy brownie-so YUM! 

My birthday  ended with  reading a box of old letters as the rest of the house slept. That was an adventure in itself.  More on that later….

Ella and the cake

Zoya

No More Easter Bunny & Room Makeover

This Easter, the kids took it upon themselves to go up in the attic, find the old plastic eggs, fill them with old candy in preparation for Easter day. This is the official year of "The Easter bunny doesn't exist"!

That said, Nora and Stuey enjoy the egg hunt tradition, so we did have 2 friends over to dye eggs and hide the plastic eggs outside. 

Holding up a completed puzzle

egg dyeing in progress 

Last summer Stuey moved into Patricks old, old bedroom. Since that time, Stueys things have been perched on top of, or alongside of Patrick's things. It hasn't seemed quite fair for Stuey to not have his own official digs, so Patrick agreed to start clearing out his room. I took this photo as the "before" pic. Its a work in progress. Now the bookshelf is gone and Stuey has more breathing room. "After" pic to come later.

The "Before" Picture

Summer fire pits continue in record breaking warm May weather. Last week we had a record breaking day of 65 degrees. Really lovely and makes it feel like July in Kodiak!

Zoya

Flat vs Vertical

Lately during my afternoon ski I have been trying to capture just how glorious it is to be up on the snow in the sunshine.  Down at the parking lot before I head up the mountain all the plants are sprouting and budding out, the snipe whooping, and fox sparrows singing.  And even up on the snow the birds are quite active.  Yesterday I'm pretty sure I saw a gyrfalcon cruising for nesting ptarmigan.  

I have discovered that it is difficult to create panoramics because it is so difficult to see the camera screen in the bright sunlight and align the pictures correctly. It is also very difficult to keep the horizon straight.  I have found that it helps a lot if you try and keep the horizon in the middle of the picture - too low or too high and the horizon bends dramatically at the ends.  Sad to say, but most of attempts have not stitched together very well.

Here are 2 tries at the same view from Sunday afternoon.  It's kind of cool how the vertical pan stitch looks complete different from the more traditional, horizontally aligned pan.  Patrick

First Salmonberry

Today I saw my first salmonberry blossom of the year.  Checking back in our blog I see that while this is definitely earlier than usual; it is not the earliest.  In 2011 I saw the first blossom on May 14th (click here for post).  But I have seen salmonberries blossoming before in early May and even in April. In 2011 when I saw my first blossom I also had to mow the lawn.  The same thing happened today.  So clearly seeing salmonberries bloom and having to mow the lawn are linked.  I remember I once mowed my lawn on April 30th - so that year summer was a week earlier.  Still green up seems awful early this year.  Patrick

Backyard Firepit Season

It has been a sunny week.  We've woken up to light frosts in the morning and then by evening it is 50 degrees.  These days it is still barely getting dark at night.  In a few weeks it will seem like it is light all the time.  As it is the kids are going to bed a little later and often, with the light sneaking in past the window blinds, have a difficult time getting to sleep.

Outside in the evening I've been working on the garden, and pulling dandelions out of the lawn while the kids bike in the driveway.  I got the potato beds all prepped and full of beach peat.  Next I'll prepare the soil in the vegetable beds, and over the weekend we'll start planting stuff. On the downside it also looks like it is time to start mowing the lawn.

Up on the mountain the downhill skiing is at its peak.  There is less snow than usual for this time of year, but up high it is just reaching its maximum depth.  And the conditions are spring corn - hero snow.

And then, of course, there are the backyard fire-pit feeds.  It's the beginning of summer on Kodiak.

A Knight to Remember

Last weekend was the annual St. Mary's Serendipity auction. This years theme was "A Knight to Remember" and the gym was dressed up in a castle theme. 

To celebrate the theme, we rented costumes from Anchorage and reserved 2 tables for a batch of peasants, knights, maid marians and kings. This kept the spirits high, bidding steady and when dessert time came-it was dessert mania!! The dessert auction is an annual tradition at the auction. Cakes go anywhere from $50 to $700! By the end of the evening, there were 4 desserts at our two tables, 3 of which were consumed on site. 

I won't say too much more about the auction except that I was just awestruck with the generosity of the community for St. Mary's. There were a few tear jerker moments where prior St. Mary's students gave testimonials about the impact that St. Mary's had on their life. The stories from prior students was a great reminder of why we were all there that evening and it was fun to share in the night with good friends. 

Zoya

From left to right: Marias, Jason, MJ, Patrick, Zoya, Shanna, kelly, Erica and Dan. 

Nora's class shield

Cookie shots! Chocolate chip cookies which could be filled up with vanilla infused milk! So delicious and fun. 

The king at our table

Last Talks

I have been presenting a lot of public lectures lately - 6 since January!  Yesterday at the Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium I presented on how archaeological data can be useful for marine scientists studying the Gulf of Alaska while last week, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Great Alaskan Earthquake, I presented on how earthquakes have effected Kodiak and the Alutiiq people in the past.  Yesterday's lecture should be the last one for quite a while - phweeeew!  I have to admit that talking in public makes me nervous so it is kind of a relief to be done for a while.  Below are a few of the slides from my last 2 talks.

In my talk for the Marine Science Symposium I basically talked about how archaeological data can be used to give time depth to analyses of the Gulf of Alaska's ecosystem.  How did people react in the past to changing conditions in the Gulf?  Also I showed how archaeological data can be used to examine what the Gulf of Alaska looked like at various moments in the past.  Sometimes I think marine scientists assume that conditions in the Gulf for the last 50 years are 'typical' when in fact commercial fisheries have created a system in far more of a state of flux than normal.

My presentation on past Kodiak earthquakes focused on Afognak Island and emphasized how such earthquakes have occurred every 400 years or so.  Back in the 1990s I excavated a village that was abandoned after a huge earthquake in about AD 1550.  Basically the same thing happened to Afognak Village in 1964.  What's amazing is that these events do not seem to have effected the cultural trajectory of the Alutiiq people - they seem to have weathered such events remarkably well.

Patrick

Art Lessons; Receiving and Giving

Several weekends ago I attended an "artist in residency" training with the kodiak school district. All attendees would be given the certificate and "two thumbs up" to teach art in the schools. With quilting being my primary artistic medium, I was curious with how it would be to delve into other  art mediums and the big question...."How could I possibly teach other mediums if I'm not already familiar with them?"

After two days of experiencing art ourselves with drawing self portraits, block printing, and learning about how to teach art appreciation, I left feeling WAY JAZZED about teaching art! St. Mary's, here I come! :)

Sheila D, who is a popular sculptor statewide, taught the class and was so positive and encouraging to go, try, learn. My take home message from the weekend was a reminder that art is so good for the soul. Time to explore art more! 

Zoya

Reading in Church

Several weeks ago when I was at work, I got a text from my friend Angie. 

Attached to the text was the picture below and Angie said that Nora was doing the reading for church that morning. 

As Patrick and I  later discussed, we're grateful for public speaking being part of the education in the earlier years...makes it seem less daunting and scary for the little ones as they get older. 

Nora has come a long way with her reading and writing this past year and I'm proud of her hard work!

Zoya

Nora reading scripture at school mass. 

Spring Scouting

I"ve been doing my best to keep the "outing" in Scouting with my Brownie Troop #118. Several weeks ago we went on a hike through the woods to a beach. Along the way, the girls had a scavenger hunt where they had to notice different elements of nature and check them off on their list. Things like "something translucent" or "something sharp"  or "something with veins"….it kept them guessing!

Once we got to the beach, the girls assembled a fire from tinders and beach wood. Several of the dads led the girls in lighting matches.

And they enjoyed roasted marshmallows… (mom-I spelled marshmallows correctly! Woo-hoo!)

Another fun day in the sun with Troop #118! 

Zoya