Kodiak Seasons

One of the best things about living in Kodiak is that we got such good seasons. Each is quite distinct with its own charms and activities. In winter we do a lot of skiing - both cross country skiing and downhill. In spring the skiing shifts to the mountain tops and alpine gear as the snow leaves the low country. Kodiak springs are long and brown but with white mountains all around. Summer in Kodiak is Green - it's not called the 'Emerald Isle' for nothing - and activities on the water dominate. Fishing. It's also when I do most of my archaeological fieldwork. Then there is Fall. Kodiak fall is long and lingering as the ocean around the island retains the summer heat. Fall is hunting season. Deer, elk, mountain goats and reindeer.

Photos: Top is the Old Harbor graveyard in early May. Second photo is of Gregg and Mike Mannelin skinning up to go downhill skiing in mid April. Third photo is of Horseshoe Cove on outer Uganik Island in late June. Finally the bottom photo is of the Anvil lake area in mid October. Patrick

Day after the Blizzard

On Sunday Zoya, Gregg, Lisa and I skiied across Buskin Lake, up the Upper Buskin River, and into the canyon at the head of the river. It was the first time all year that we have been able to get up into the canyon. A beautiful sunny day with practically no wind. Huge contrast with the day before. Hard to believe that 24 hours could make such a difference.

According to the weather service we got 9 inches of new snow in the storm, but on the upper Buskin it was 2 feet or more of new snow. All the snow blew off the mountains and settled in the sheltered canyon and trees. It made for tough work breaking trail while everyone following had it easy. Of course the glide back to the car on a well-beaten in track was divine. Patrick

More Mill Bay Rescue

Just thought we would post another photo of the rescue because it shows the sideways snow a little better than the video (see post from earlier today). All the people involved in the rescue are true heros. And we have learned that it was a rescue. For details go to the kmxt web site. http://www.kmxt.org/ Patrick

Mill Bay Rescue Video

Today we witnessed a Coast Guard rescue mission right here in Mill Bay. The Coast Guard rescue swimmers and people on the shore helping are heros in every definition of the word.

The winds were gusting 50, blowing snow and temperatures hovering around 30. This afternoon a helicopter made a sudden appearance and we could see the figure of a rescue swimmer in the open door. Coast Guard helicopters are not an uncommon appearance, but today they did a large circle around the bay, lower than usual and then we saw the capsized boat.

The boat was on the other side of the bay, fully capsized--bottom up. People were racing down to the beach to assist and there were people on the cliffs above. Many people were trying to get chainsaws operating, and they moved quickly-trying to gain access inside the vessel. Winds howled and every second counted. The boat kept getting hammered on the shore by gigantic waves and within 20 minutes or so, action was taken to anchor it to the shore with ropes. This made the hull a bit more stable for the rescue workers to try to saw open the bottom and rescue the people inside.

People came and went-it was hard to tell if people were coming out of the boat or what exactly was going on. Towards the end of the mission, the rescue swimmer was hoisted up into the helicopter holding a body in a survival suit.

The nature of this rescue gave Patrick and I a true appreciation of how amazing the Coast Gaurd is. The rescue swimmer worked so efficiently and almost effortlessly in the horrible weather to save lives of those inside the boat.

We don't yet know the outcome of the people on the boat. We hope everyone is OK.

Zoya

Stu is One

Last night we celebrated Stuart's first birthday with a small group of friends.
We enjoyed a king crab ceaser salad with crab given to us by Patricks co-worker, Rose Kinsley. Rose and her husband just returned from spending time on the South end of the Island and they harvested the King Crab just a day or two earlier. It was extra fresh-never frozen! Needless to say, we all decided it was about the best king crab ever, as it didn't have the salty taste that King Crab from canneries often have, as they are cooked in saltwater. Gregg brought scallop ceviche, (scallops "cooked" in lime juice and cilantro) which disappeared quickly! It ended up being quite the seafood feast!

In honor of the big "1", Karen and Jeremy made peanut butter cup brownies and we enjoyed them with whip cream on top. Stuart wasn't quite sure what to make of the whipped cream...

My "little" guy is 1! How fun!!

(Nora had a hard time at dinner and Patrick ended up disappearing with her for about 45 minutes to get her to bed. So she wasn't able to enjoy the birthday cupcakes. We video taped the birthday song and Patrick enjoyed watching it all this morning, as he missed the festivities last night. This morning Nora also enjoyed watching the video and she kept saying "Happy", "Happy" and clapping. )

Zoya

Photos:
Stuart and I playing with the little cars Auntie MJ gave him.
Patrick and Nora in front of the King Crab before it was shucked for the salad.
Nora "cooking" in the kitchen...making onion soups with spices in it, etc.. .:)
Birthday card from Karen and Jeremy with whipped cream in background.

On the eve of Stuart's First Birthday

STUART'S BIRTH
It was 1 year ago-and seems like yesterday-that Stuart joined us in the world. My friends were all there as I climbed onto the bed and he dove into the universe! He had a hard time breathing and I can vividly remember his lungs working so hard with every breath. The trip to the NICU all seems so surreal-so long ago. Images of life flight nurses coming into my room to bring us to Anchorage, the scene in the Anchorage NICU still remain in my mind and I am forever grateful to the amazing team of people who helped him through every hour.

My baby is now more of a toddler than a baby. I LOVE everything baby about him...from his soft hair, soft whispers, tiny fingers grabbing mine, arms curled around my neck, baby smiles....but I remind myself it will only get better and better. He makes me laugh so much-sometimes I feel like I've never smiled so much before in my life. I'll look over at him and he flashes me the biggest smiles ever. So sweet. Makes my heart melt.

MORE KIDS?
People say, "well, if you love babies so much, have a third!"...and I know thats not the answer for Patrick and I. After many discussions on this topic, he and I are in agreement that we are so blessed with a healthy boy and girl and 2 is plenty for us. I want time for US again and time for ME-work, hobbies, etc....

NURSING BENEFITS
I will continue nursing Stuart-he is no where near being weaned. I'll let that be a natural process for him. Many look down on nursing kids past the age of one, but all around the world, kids are nursed until they are 2,3 or 4 years old. The benefits are far reaching-for mom and baby. The longer the baby is nursed-the better for mom and baby. Decreased frequency of illnesses for baby and health benefits for mom. Patrick is in full support of nursing-which rocks. He sees how it can so easily soothe Stuart and how good it is for him. Plus, he doesn't have to get up in the middle of the night to warm up a bottle-which makes him very happy.
It is hard to explain this to people who question nursing toddlers. I suppose I even questioned nursing toddlers before I had kids. But I didn't know anything about it.
Rather than try to explain myself, I"m just going to keep on nursing Stuart and enjoying that bonding time with him. This past few weeks when he was sick, I was so glad he was at least getting all of the health boosting immunities in my milk! I'm in no rush to wean him, and am going to enjoy the nursing time for as long as it lasts.

SNAPSHOT OF STUART
Favorite pasttimes: eating hairballs off the floor. He'll sit there quietly and smile as he chews on fur from dust bunnies. Ughh.
throwing objects. Hard.
opening and closing things.
playing with cords. I have to watch him like a hawk.
Skills: Cruises along furniture. Crawling is getting faster. Crawling is his primary mode of mobility.
Likes/dislikes: Likes soup, bread, V8, sips of water. Not crazy about new foods. Takes several tries before its a go!! Not quite as ambitious of an eater as Nora was....although you could never guess this from his 29 pound physique!
Loves playing peek-a-boo and will pull books/blankets over his head to play peek-a-boo with anyone who will smile at him!
Flashing smiles at strangers is also a favorite past time.

Zoya

Photos:
Stuart shortly after birth. He was quickly put on oxygen.
Stuart after his arrival home.
Stuart and Nora both nursing after Stuart's arrival home to Kodiak.

Eagles for Lunch

I took this picture while sitting at my table eating lunch at the Powerhouse on the channel. He sat on the rail the entire time we ate lunch. I must admit I no longer 'see' eagles in town because I have become so used to them. But lately two out-of-town visitors have been so impressed with all the eagles sitting in trees, on poles, buildings etc, that it has opened my eyes to them again. When you think about it - the eagles in town are really cool. So much better than the pidgeons or crows of your average city. Later on during lunch our out-of-town visitor was also impressed by the HUGE sea lions that swam by the window in the channel. Now if only the Killer Whales had made an appearance. ... ... Patrick

First Caucus

Yesterday I went to my first caucus. I gather a lot of Kodiak brethren also went for the first time because the place was packed. I had to wait in line 20 minutes just to register as a Democrat (I was 'undeclared') and get inside. And everybody did not fit in the space chosen for the caucus. I gather that four years ago about 18 people showed up - this election year over 200 people showed up. Needless to say, but we could not physically move into little groups according to the candidate of our choice (the usual caucus practice). We had to go outside and then get counted as we re-entered thru the particular door designated for our candidate.

I must admit, to my chagrin, I thought caucuses only happened in Iowa. It was quite the social scene. Practically everyone I know in Kodiak was there, and everyone was talking politics. It was much more fun than just voting in a booth. And none of the secrecy that comes with the anonymous voting booth. Everyone had to be quite upfront about who they sided with, and, of course, this meant that you had to be able to explain your reasons. I think it got everybody there excited about the election season, and we certainly heard everyone else's views. I look forward to my next caucus!

Photos: In the top photo we are getting welcomed to the caucus - note the people still waiting to come in the door. In the other photo Nora eats triscuits in her den with the dog. The dogs tend to be far more tolerant of Nora when she is brandishing triscuits.

New Ski Loop

Lately I've been cross country skiing on the Upper Buskin practically every day. It's my new favorite place to go. Park at the outlet, ski across the backside of the lake, hook up with the old military road and then get on the river and keep going. We've had such a good run of ski weather that I've had a chance to explore the area. Generally in Kodiak, we get good cross country skiing, go a few times, and then it rains. Not this year - I have had a chance to figure out how to link all the fields, river and old roads into a couple of loops. Good sized loops of more than a couple of miles. Bombing up the river, down old military roads that seem like alder tunnels, crossing fields, the occasional twisty trail through an alder thicket to negotiate. I'm loving it.

These two photos were taken today in a series of meadows that I only discovered last week. I used to stick more to the river and old roads and did not realize the extent of these meadows, nor how close they are to the river. Another big loop to add variety to my ski tours. In the bottom photo you can see the river, where we usually are skiing, down at the bottom of the shallow canyon. Just a bit further upstream the canyon gets very deep and leads to a waterfall (ice fall this time of year). Patrick

Food Adventures

1 month down of 2 NEW recipes a week and I've managed to keep up.
Last night Patrick said, "Yeah, its actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be. (making new recipes)" He has gotten into it as well-in fact a week ago he made home made corned elk and it was SO yummy. He took a big elk roast, put it in a bag with various spices and salt, let it sit in the fridge for 5 or 6 days. Then we boiled it on the stove, added some carrots and cabbage and ta-da! Yummy Corned elk. (The only mistake I made was not washing the salt off before cooking it, so it was a tad bit salty but next time we won't make that mistake...)

Some of the other new recipes involve the breadmaker. I got a new breadmaker recipe book which has fabulous tried and true recipes. I'm much more apt to make sandwiches for lunch with fresh bread so I'm making a serious effort to keep some fresh bread on the counter. Its ridiculously easy-putting the ingredients in, hitting on and 4 hours later there is a fresh loaf of bread. It ALMOST seems like cheating. But its fair. Afterall, it does take some thought, recipe and ingredient collection...and manipulating the machine...

So many recipes, so little time...trying all these new recipes has been so fun. I'm finding my food groove once again. Cooking is such a big hobby for me and its fun to put the apron on, sip on a glass of wine, chop the veggies......

Zoya

DG477

Hurray, I drew a goat tag!

Unlike with deer you can not just go out and hunt goats - you need to enter a lottery and win a goat tag. Just a few years ago it was not difficult to draw a goat tag, but lately Kodiak has become a very popular place to hunt goats and it has become very difficult to draw a tag. What this means is that fewer and fewer local people are getting goat tags. Used to be over half the tags went to locals - this year practically no one that I know got a tag. But I can't complain - I appreciate that I got very very lucky - especially since I drew one last year too.

This year I drew a goat tag that only allows me to hunt on the south end of Kodiak (permit area DG477). It is a less popular hunt because it is so difficult and expensive to get down there. I last drew for this area in 2003 and I think the price of the air charter has just about doubled due to higher gas prices.

In 2003 we had one of the easiest goat hunts I have ever experienced (anti-climatic even). We camped by the ocean, and the next day climbed up and harvested a goat. We were back at camp with all the meat by early afternoon! Down on the south end many of the goats hang out in, what is for goats, very mild terrane (look at background in top photo). I think that is why the 2003 goat (bottom photo) was also the tastiest goat I have ever eaten. Elsewhere on the island most goats live in very rocky areas with little in the way of forage, but not the goats on the south end. More like cows than goats.

Not that goats elsewhere taste bad - goat meat is one of our favorites! Just so long as you don't go for the old goats. Other than my brother's goat (see story in archives for April 2007), which was over 10 years old, all the goats we've eaten have been great. My brother's goat was practically unedible. So just don't shoot the huge or yellowish ones and all is good (older goats tend to acquire a yellowish tinge with age). We try and get some goat meat for the freezer every year - if I do not draw a tag myself I'll help someone else who did for a share of the meat. And if all else fails there is the late season subsistence hunt that is open to bow hunters only (See goat hunt in the archive for last December).

Life is good - I drew a mountain goat tag! Patrick

Chicks. What's a guy to do?

On our trip to Hawaii, Stuart was the only guy in the group. He had quite enough of girls curling their hair and shopping. In this video, you'll see him taking his disappointment out on the window. Zoya

Coming out of the "cold" haze

Today Stuart and I are finally turning the corner with our colds. Last night was a rough one-as Stuart was up for an hour coughing. Sitting in front of the steaming shower and a teaspoon of honey helped and he finally went back to bed. Phew. I felt so bad for the little guy.

This morning I woke up zapped, but went to my spin class anyhow. I taught the class off my bike and walked around and swept as I taught. Thats the great thing about teaching indoor cycling classes-as long as you can count to the beat off the bike, you don't have to be on it to teach. I've never done a class like that before. The 3 people in my class didn't seem to mind and they all got a decent workout, and I felt good about not overexerting myself today.

The snow is so gorgeous outside and part of me wanted to go for a small ski this afternoon. But I still wasn't feeling 100% so instead I made bread in the breadmaker then nursed Stuey to sleep in my arms in the recliner as I looked out over the ocean. I was very happy with my decision to not ski! The day turned out quite well.

Patrick took Nora sledding this afternoon. Many squeals of delight from her as he pulled her up and down the hill. Simple pleasures.

Zoya

Nora Word of the Week - co'uuk

The Nora Word of the Week is Co'uuk which translates to the verb 'cook' in English. When Nora uses the word co'uuk she always makes the hand motion of using a spatulla in a frying pan - as if she was flipping a pancake. Nora likes to cook and do the dishes. She'll spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning the dishes in the sink - filling cups and transferring water from container to container. She pushes up a chair next to the sink to gain height and then digs in. Mom and Dad have high hopes that she might actually enjoy cooking AND then doing the dishes. Patrick

Winter cold persists

A day after Stuey and I returned from Hawaii, he came down with a cough. I did too, but not as nearly as bad as his. His is worse in the mornings and the humidifier next to his bed gets him through the night. I"m home from work for the second day again-hoping he will get better with some TLC. His cough is a sharp, painful sounding one and I can tell he is uncomfortable. Sitting in the bathroom with the shower going and windows steamed up REALLY helps. No coughing when he is in there!

He must have contracted this germ on the plane ride home-as he didn't have any symptoms in Hawaii. In the past 3 or so years, the worst illnesses I've had were right after air travel. Airplane air. Yuck. Germ ridden.

Zoya

Sailing Time

CATAMARAN SAIL
The highlight of my Hawaii trip was the Catamaran ride we went on the last day. Mary Jane had been on a sailboat before, but not on one where the sails were used (during a trip she went on in Bali-evidently there was not enough wind so they had to motor)....so sailing on the catamaran was a treat. The sea was rough, music was perfect for the mood (regeea), lunch consisted of a simple sandwich and chips. And the ocean was blissful to swim in. Someday it will be fun to go back with the kiddos and get them in little life preservers kicking around in the ocean looking for fish with snorkel gear. I could see Nora being WAY into that!

The sign next to the toilet on the boat cracked me up-just had to take a photo of it! It read "Do not put anything in the head unless you have eaten it first."

Photos: MJ in front of the catamaran
View of Diamond Head and Honolulu from the water.
MJ snorkeling break.
MJ and Zoya on the boat.
Sign inside the "Head" (aka toilet).

Zoya

Dinner out and Stuey and the Sun Goddesses

GIRLS NIGHT OUT
Mary Jane insisted on taking me to a nice restaurant, Bali, for a 7 course meal-and boy am I glad she insisted! The restaurant looked out onto the water and had such a relaxing ambiance. Included in the meal was eggplant ravioli, veal, albalone, foie grois (MJ's FAVORITE!!) 4 different wines, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate... It was the type of meal where we would take a bite, stop somewhat breathless, enjoy every morsel of flavor, discuss it, have a sip of wine and repeat. The "wine guy" would come by and explain all the wines and their relation to the food to us. It was heavenly.
At the end of the meal they brought mini chocolate molded "diamond head" to our table on a bed of dried ice. In the diamond head was a chocolate truffle for each of us. After we finished the truffle, the "wine guy" kindly pounded our diamond head in a napkin to produce small pieces of yummy chocolate. The whole scene was quite funny-him pounding away on the chocolate at the empty table next to us.

We chatted and laughed the night away--two and half hours passed before we knew it and when we arrived back to the room Krissy and Stuey were sound asleep.

TANNING TIME
MJ and Krissy are sun goddesses. They were out in the sun every moment possible (well, almost every moment). They got darker and darker and darker by the day. I was worried that by the end of the trip I wouldn't recognize them!
On the otherhand, Stuey and myself are more fair skinned so we stayed out of the sun-only taking brisk trips to a shady area outside. I think what got me thinking about the intensity of the sun was words spoken from Sephora (the skin care shop at the mall) cosmetics girl....her words rung through my head...
"...oh-yes-sun damage starts occuring to the skin within 12 minutes after exposure..." Perhaps I took it too literally-she was trying to sell a good facial sunscreen, afterall. I couldn't help but look at Stuey's pure skin and not want those horrible damaging rays on him. Plus, I knew that on the beach he would only sit there and eat the sand. Maybe when he's walking I'll see the point in lathering him up in sunblock for a few hours on the beach.

Photos:
Top: MJ and Zoya enjoying their trio of desserts during dinner at Bali's.
Middle: No, Mary Jane is NOT smoking! The steam is the dried ice coming from the chocolate diamond head! By the time the photo was taken, the truffles which sat in the volcano crater were long gone into our tummies. :)
Bottom: Stuey and the Sun Goddesses on the hotel balcony.

Good Times in Hawaii

HAWAII WRAP UP
Krissy, MJ, Stuey and I had such a smooth, relaxing trip to Hawaii. I loved it so much there, that I almost cried at the thought of returning home during our final day there...don't get me wront- I LOVE my home here in Kodiak-I just think the time away, warm ocean, warm breezes rejuvenated my spirit and I would have enjoyed a day or two longer. Everything went so perfectly-plans fit together so smoothly and I enjoyed the relaxed pace of it all.

MJ's SHOES and KRISSY"S SWIMSUITS
I have known for years that Mary Jane is "obsessed" with finding cute high heel shoes. She'll wear high heel shoes in 6 inches of snow, through mud puddles-you name the weather condition and shes there in her heels. She will buy a pair of shoes, then buy the dress to match the shoes. On vacation, she brought 8 pairs of shoes with her and bought 4 pairs on the trip-a grand total of 12 (or was it 13?) pairs! I was in such awe that I had to take a photo. See below...

Krissy's obsession is swimsuits. She admitted to us that she owns 20+ swimsuits. I never would've guessed this as she had 1 swimsuit on our trip-it was reversible so it served as 2. :)

Photos:
Top: Krissy, MJ, Stuey and myself on a self-photo on our deck.
Stuey taking his hat off.
MJ's shoe lineup on vacation in Hawaii. :)

Zoya

Sturgeon River 2004 Part II

We floated out of the ‘valley of the bears’ and out into a wide plain, and the rest of the trip went pretty much as advertised. Admittedly we both had a healthy case of bearanoia for the rest of the trip, but we had no more problems. One morning we did wake up to a bear hanging about just outside the electric fence – his eyes glowed in Dicky’s headlamp beam. He swore it was a bear and I told him it was probably a fox. It did turn out to be a bear! But he was just hanging out and checking out our camp. He never gave us any problems.

We camped for a few days at two different campsites and went deer hunting. Lots of big bucks wandering about the landscape and with no particular effort we managed to harvest 3 of them. The horns on top of our meat cache seemed quite elemental, and somehow Nordic, so we named our camp Vahalla.

The boats carried all of the deer and gear quite handily (cue the Deliverance soundtrack) and we floated all the way to the lagoon where Rolan picked us up in his seaplane. While on the trip Dicky was excited to learn via SAT phone that Ella was pregnant. I learned from Zoya that the Red Sox had come back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Oh the joys of a SAT phone.

Photo: Top photo is of our ‘mega light’ cook tent. We’d pitch it over a hole in the tundra and have lots of room for our legs. The second photo is of a pond next to our camp out in the broad valley after leaving the ‘valley of the bears’. If you look closely at the third photo you can see our last camp in the ‘canyon’ on the lower part of the river. The 4rth photo is of me hunting deer with Sturgeon Lagoon in the background. The 5th photo is of our meat cache – Vahalla! Finally the bottom photo is of us in our loaded canoes negotiating the last part of the river to the lagoon. My boat has two whole deer (quartered) and gear in it. Patrick

Morning Catamaran Sail

This morning MJ and I enoyed a morning catamaran sail. The boat pulled up on the beach and took us to a small reef where we went snorkeling for almost an hour. After a few minutes of snorkeling, I took the mask off and just floated in the water. Toes in the air, relaxing on my back-I soaked in the view of Diamond Head in the distance and had fun splashing in the water. Sea turtles floated around us and we were in the thick of a school of fish.
After snorkeling, we enjoyed lunch on the boat with the 4 other guests and crew. The other guests were a group of Australian gals-all with a great sense of humor. The hour that followed lunch was a sail along the coast-big winds provided lots of speed as well as ocean spray to keep us laughing! The crew talked about how they were "freezing" but it was quite warm! At least for us Alaskans...

MJ and I determined that a future Hawaii visit must entail surf lessons. We saw several surf lessons in progress-both on the beach and on the water. We asked out catamaran guide about it and he said he teaches surfing as well. Also, he remarked, "we guarantee you'll ride at least one wave standing or else you get your money back..." Quite a guarantee, I must say!!

Zoya

PHOTO is of Stuey-in front of the hotel waterfall-taken by Krissy while MJ and I were sailing.