Alyeska Ski Trip

We are at Alyeska-rain coming down outside. My stomach is full of fish tacos from the Sitzmark restaurant which overlooks the ski lifts and kiddos skiing down the easier slopes. The kids went swimming first thing this morning at the hotel pool then a ski lesson in the late morning.  This is our first family ski vacation-one  Patrick very much wanted.

After patrick returned from his February ski trip with his 6 college roommates to Taos, he has been determined to make a Girdwood family trip happen. This was surprising to me, as I'm typically the one wanting to travel with the kids and him wanting to stay home. Patrick's roommies encouraged Patrick to start skiing with our kiddos when they're young-getting them lessons and comfortable skiing. It is such a life sport-one which Patrick is able to do with his roommates.

Now that we're here and survived the first night of all of us in a hotel room, hehe, I'm very happy. (Last night I slept in bed with Stuey, who sleeps as hard as a rock. Nora was with Patrick and she had a much harder time going to sleep…saying that Stuey's "snoring" was keeping her up. Nora is by nature a much lighter sleeper than Stuey) 

Yesterday evening we set the kids up with pizza and movie on the TV int he hotel room and Patrick and I went downstairs to the sushi place for dinner. I was glad to enjoy the food and atmosphere without the kids…A wonderful bento box meal and company of strangers in a long table seating awaited us.  

This afternoon there is a Wisconsin NCAA playoff game to watch, more swimming to be done, more lounging to be had. Good R&R on this family ski vacation.

Zoya

Lende Book Reading

About a month ago, Kodiak had the fortunate occasion to have Alaskan writer Heather Lende in town to do a reading. Heather has lived in Haines for many years and has been the obituary writer there for 20 years. The Kodiak College sponsored Lende's trip and she did an evening reading of her recent book "Find the Good" at Kodiak College.

Heathers' reading was well attended, and there were lots of misty eyes in the crowd as she read passages from her book.  A book reading brings the words to life-amplifies them. To hear Heathers words spoken by her was very powerful indeed.

After the reading there was an evening gathering of local writers with her. I enjoyed talking with Heather and hearing about her years as columnist at the  then-Ancorage Daily News. The stories which resonated the most with me in my current state as a columnist is how she, too, would scramble to find things to write about. This was comforting, as I, too,  sometimes find myself scramble for topics.

Heather has a beautiful, comforting presence. She is so grounded and positive. Such lovely energy. I"m so glad to have met her in person.

Zoya

Glimpse of the Sun with Scouts

After many straight weeks of rain and winds, the sun finally made an appearance last weekend. Thankfully, it coincided with a very casual scout outing I had planned to celebrate the start of spring break.

I popped up popcorn to put into paper lunch bags, packed some percussion instruments and off the troop went to run about together on the trails of Near Island.

There was no patch work done, no big plans…aside from enjoying the warmth and the sun. With the percussion instruments we made some simple rhythms together; what does happy sound like? How about rainy? Windy?

We mimicked each others made up rhythms and passed the little egg shakers and maracas around the circle. Lots of smiles from the scouts as we made simple music together.

Fun times with troop #118

Zoya

Seaweed Chips Update

These are the blooms coming out of the soft necked barnacles

Yesterday Nora and again took the dogs down to the beach and collected seaweed.  This time we brought back some fronds off of a bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), or as they label the fronds in the book - 'sori patches'. We also collected some more of the Sieve kelp.  This time the tide was not low enough to collect plants attached to the rocks so we collected freshly broken off pieces floating in the water.  The Sieve Kelp was far more mature than last time.

Anyway, this time when we made chips at home the Sieve Kelp was AWFUL - perhaps it was more mature or maybe because it had not been freshly cut?  And the Bull Kelp 'sori patches' made the best chips yet.  They turned a cool lime green color and melted in your mouth like cheetohs.  Bull kelp will now be our goto chip seaweed.  Patrick

Impromptu Seaweed and Potato Chips

Tide is out - dinner is served!  Note dinner bag in Nora's right hand

Wednesday evening as I drove back from work in the sunshine I noticed that it was low tide in Mill Bay.  The kids are on spring break so I decided it was a good day to visit the beach.  I had the idea that since the kids love the seaweed chips we buy at Cost Savers why not make some for ourselves?

So down to the beach we went to collect the ingredients for seaweed chips.  We climbed down the cliffs with the dogs in tow to the beach below our house.  I noticed right away that the tide was not quite as low as it looked and that there was surprisingly little kelp for chips (maybe it is a little early in the spring for good kelp growth?).

But we did find some 'red' kelp and small 'wrinkled' kelp in the tidepools.  I carefully cut them off above the root ball so that they could grow back.  We collected mostly red kelp because I seemed to remember that it is tasty (click here and here for posts about the last time we collected seaweed), but we also collected some of the less appealing 'wrinkled' stuff just for experimental purposes.

Back home we heated up the wok and oil, rinsed off the sea weed, and dried it out on a kitchen towel.  Then came the big moment - I had Stuey back away because I remember some explosive results in the past - and I added some red kelp to the hot oil.  We put the screen over the top and there was some serious hissing and bubbling - Witch's brew type stuff!

And then we looked in the wok and there was nothing there!  The red kelp had completely disappeared!  So I took the rest of the red kelp and cut it up fine to make a seaweed salad (see recipe linked here).  Now I was glad we had collected the 'wrinkled' stuff, and we added some to the hot oil.  This stuff bubbled and snapped, but did not disappear.  And we ended up with awesome seaweed chips.  Better than the ones you buy at the store - even Zoya agreed.

Only we did not have enough kelp to make any more.  So to make use of the hot oil we sliced up some of the potatoes from the garden into cold water, dried them out, and put them into the oil. I could not cook them up fast enough.  The kids gobbled them up as fast as I could cook them.  We lightly salted them, but in the past we have used ranch dressing salad packets to powder the chips.

Anyway, the kids are hooked and on the next low tide we'll be collecting some more of the brown stuff (Sieve Kelp - Agarum clathratum?) from the beach for more chips.  I think the red stuff I used for salad is Red Sea Cabbage  (Turnerella Mertensiana). I do have the 'Field Guide to Seaweeds of Alaska' by Lindeberg and Lindstrom, but obviously I really do not know my seaweeds!

Patrick

The red stuff on the left does NOT make good chips - the brown stuff on the right makes sublime chips

looking for seaweed

Cool underwater tide pool close up

Our 'deep fat fryer' with potato chips in progress

Stuey tests out a freshly deep fried seaweed chip - better than the ones you can buy!

Spring Break beach time

A picture speaks a thousand words... How Stuey felt about the hike at the beginning of our walk.

Shipwrecked boat which has sat on this beach for years. we'd never before seen it up  close.

 Today is the second day of school spring break and another day without non stop rain!

 This afternoon I wanted to drive out the road with the family-seems like we don't do that nearly enough, considering what a beautiful 40 miles of road system Kodiak has. We picked Patrick up and got to-go lunches from Java flats.

Patrick showed us a beach hike around the Marine Hill/Cliffpoint area-one I'd never before done. Stuey wasn't so into the hike at the start (Exhibit A is picture above) but by the end he had a great time. On the walk back we played a game where he would step on rocks and I would have to copy his exact foot steps on the same rocks. A few small rocks spoke to me, so I tucked them into my pocket and brought them home.

Patrick and Nora walked further along the beach, as Stuey and I sat and did rock drawings. He wrote "I Heart Mom" on his rock. Made me smile.

Zoya

Stuey REALLY REALLY wanted to find a way to climb on board and was bummed when the reality sank in that he couldn't explore the insides.

Dogs are SO tired from great beach walk!

Science Fair Projects

Nora discovered that spruce boughs do terrible in vinegar (left) and best in plain old water (right)

Last week the kids had to complete their science fair projects.  I was always dread the week before science fair - every evening brings drama as we try and get the projects together.  But then they were all done and the St Mary's science fair was on Tuesday.  It ended up great and Nora even got a third place ribbon for the 3rd and 4rth grade category  I guess the more work that goes into something the more it all means in the end.  The kids definitely learned a lot.

Nora's project stemmed from watching our Christmas tree needle at the end of the Holidays.  Nora decided she wanted to figure out what liquid under the tree would keep it from needling the longest.  She discovered that plain old water works best.

Stuey, our little white processed foods guy, wanted to look into the effects of yeast on muffins.  What is the optimal amount of yeast for maximum puffiness.  He discovered that the more yeast the better - at until you use twice as much as needed (he did not try more than that).  Now I wonder why the muffin recipes only call for so much yeast when more would be better?

I was actually a judge (for the 6th and 7th graders), and got to see how the whole process worked.  Next year I'll have some pointers for the kids on what the judges see. Maybe I'll even have some science 'cred' because I was a judge.  Patrick

Stuey found that lots of yeast made for puffier buns

The difference between Nora's branches after a couple of weeks sitting in various liquids

Stuey determines the water temperature used for the yeast

Nora took third place in the 3 & 4rth Grade category

Sunshine

 Yesterday the sun came out for the first time all winter (felt like it anyhow). So Nora and I took the opportunity to go for a hike with the dogs.  The whole point of the hike was to get Brewster to swim.  Tank loves to swim and would plunge in after each stick.  Normally on land he is the slowest of the dogs, and often does not even bother to chase a thrown stick because he knows he'll lose.  But in water it is a different story.

At the pond we got threw stick after stick for the dogs and Tank was getting a bit waterlogged.  Sheba who always has been adverse to water was swimming, but not Brewster.  He'd wade into the water until his paws would leave bottom, and then sort of go, 'woah, that's a little deep' and back up.  Once he did swim about 3 strokes when Tank pulled him into the water during a stick tug of war.  But that was about it.  Brewster will swim on another day.  Patrick

The tide pools were full of pink coral and red starfish

My favorite Spongebob character - Patrick Star

Blueberry blossoms

White on White with blue

This morning when I got to the parking lot at the pass to go skiing it was overcast, gray and dreary.  I thought I might even be skiing in the rain.  So I left my sunglasses in the car - Big Mistake.  I got to the top and the sun came out.  The sunlight on the snow was very intense.  It was so bright that I had to keep my eyes shut and open them every once in while to make sure I was going in the right direction.

But there were clouds too.  Big thunderheads.  And the visuals of cloud shadows, white snow and varying shades of white - stunning.  Patrick

Good winter for growing glaciers

Koniag Glacier from Koniag Peak looking toward Mount Glotof

As I discussed in the last blog post below the last three winters in Alaska have been abnormally warm. And yet each has been different in terms of moisture and extreme events etc due to the moving position of the warm 'blob' of water in the North Pacific - the cause of the warm winters.  Two winters ago the weather was warm, wet and extreme; last winter was warm and dry; and this winter is warm, wet but stable.  What's interesting is that each of these winters has had a different effect on Kodiak's glaciers.

In general Kodiak's glaciers have been rapidly shrinking over the last 50 years or so.  In the above photo from 2004 the darker colored granite is where rock has been exposed above snow every summer and lichen has had a chance to grow.  The light colored rock represents rock that has never been exposed in the summer - the rock had been covered by a glacier.  As you can see there is a lot of light colored rock with no lichen growing on it.  That's because with 'global warming' the glacier is disappearing at a rapid rate.

However, I think this year the glacier will gain 'snow'.  Let me explain why.

Last year when it was warm and dry Kodiak's glaciers did not add a lot of snow.  And the winter before when it was warm, wet and extreme it often rained to the very tops of the mountains, and again the glaciers probably did not add mass.  But this year with the stable warm weather the snowline is sharp and all the extra moisture above about 2000 feet has mostly fallen as snow.  I gather in town we have had the third wettest winter on record.  So for alpine, interior Kodiak that translates to a top 3 snowiest winter.  We are getting a LOT of snow in Kodiak's alpine.

Now whether or not the glaciers grow because of the extra snow depends on how hot and rainy it gets next summer.  If the summer weather does not melt all the new snow the glaciers will grow - at least for one year.

It's ironic that a warmer climate does not necessarily mean retreating glaciers.  This winter despite super warm temperatures and practically no snow at sea level the snow pack is still super deep up high. So maybe if the weather stays warm, wet and stable there is still hope for Kodiak's glaciers.

Patrick

The South Bowl of Pyramid Mountain this afternoon

Interesting Weather Article

Alaska has had 3 extremely warm winters in a row, and this has had me worried that 'no winter' is the new normal.  So I was heartened to see this opinion column in the Anchorage Daily News that basically says that even with climate change these have been abnormal winters.

http://www.adn.com/article/20160305/weird-winter-isnt-new-normal-thats-its-way

But it is a 'cup-half-full' kind of thing because it also talks about how this sort of thing is going to happen far more commonly in the future, and that sometime in our children's lifetime it will be the new normal - Just not yet.

The article correlated the recent warm winters with a 'blob' of warm water in the North Pacific that has been slowly moving from west to east.  I had heard about the 'blob' before, but what I found interesting is that the changing position of the blob has made each winter's weather different. When it was furthest west 2 winters ago it pushed warm and wet weather directly up into Alaska.  Then last winter, having moved further east, the warm air hit the west coast mountains before deflecting back into Alaska - this made for warm and dry.  And finally this winter, with the blob the furthest to the east, the warm air has set up an 'el nino' pattern and coupled with unusual warmth in the high arctic the weather has been warm but stable.  This means that there is a sharp snowline on the mountains - with lots of snow up high and no snow down low.  And that is exactly what I have noticed on Kodiak.  Only, it-has-to-be-said, Kodiak seems to have been warm and extremely wet of late whereas Anchorage has been warm and dry.

It's an interesting article and well worth the read - I only hope it is right and that the 'new normal' has not already arrived.

And yet another blast of warm weather headed our way from the North Pacific

Some Snow

 Yesterday I went for a walk in the park with Nora and the dogs.  When we started it was 'slushing' but soon it turned to all snow.  In the park the snow even started to make it to the ground in the spruce forest.  Pretty soon there was a lot of white everywhere.  Normally the black dogs Tank and Sheba are the hardest to see in the dark woods and white dog Brewster the easiest.  But with the snow on the ground Brewster suddenly had the camo advantage.

Today the forecast was for warm temperatures and rain, so at the crack of dawn we went to the golf course for some cross country skiing - this winter you grab it while you can!  And I'm glad we did because by the time we left it had started to rain.  Patrick

First Flowers

First blueberry blossom

 According to this blog, last year the crocuses were blooming by February 24th, and in 2014 they had budded in early February but didn't actually bloom until early march.  But 'usually' as in 'the way it used to be' they would bloom in late March or early April.  And if it was a good winter (like in 2009 or 2012) they would not bloom until late April.  This year I first noticed the crocuses blooming in the sun yesterday on March 3rd.  So not a record for our house, but pretty darn early. However, we can't really call the crocuses a harbinger of Spring because we never did have winter (and I still have some hopes in that regard).

 Yesterday during my walk with the dogs in Abercrombie I noticed that the blueberries are also blooming.  It looks like it may be another banner summer for picking blueberries in the park.

 When I got home from my walk I checked around in the garden and noticed that my garlic is all sprouting up through the spruce boughs I used to needlessly protect them from the cold, and that some of the shoots are already 3 inches tall.  Of course, like last winter, the kale never did die.  This year the parsley did not die either, and I even noticed that some of the swiss chard bulbs are sending up new shoots.  It will be interesting to see how it tastes!  Of note, the kale that survived the winter of 2014/15 finally did die - so it looks like kale has a 2 year life cycle in a warm climate.  Patrick

Blueberries are blooming in the woods

Garlic shoots in the garden

First Crocus

Kale that never died

My weekend

Last weekend we had a super windy and rainy Saturday day followed by a spectacular 'Sun' day.  On Saturday it was so nasty that I balked on going skiing.  I got all the way to the car and was about to go - but it was just so nasty with sideways rain and swaying spruce trees that I turned around and went back to the house.

Instead I went hiking on Russian Ridge behind town with Nora and the dogs.  We followed various different trails and made a loop.  The new signs put up by ITN really helped us find our way around in the woods.  It's like a brand new trail system!  Until this year I had never really gone hiking in this area, and I still do not know it very well.  It's a great place to explore and far larger of an area than I expected.  And so GREEN.

On Sunday I found out that all that Saturday rain turned into snow on the mountain.  The skiing was pretty good and there was only one other person up there skiing.  With all the rain in town people just assume that there is no snow on the mountain.  Their loss is my gain!  Patrick