Maneuvering the locks on the Canal De Midi

Part of our trip to Europe consisted of a 1 week trip down Canal Midi in a small boat in Southern France. We took the train to Castelnaudary, France and met up with Haakansons, where we boarded a 40 to 50 foot boat and motored (VERY slowly) 157 KM to the Mediterranean ocean. Part of the adventure with the canal trip was navigating through the nearly 60 locks. The canal Midi was built in the 1670s and used to be one of the main supply routes for food and goods in the Midi region of France. It connected the Mediterranean Ocean with the Garonne river and boat could travel through France all the way to the Atlantic Ocean without going through the Straits of Gibralter (an important point during the frequent wars between France and Britain when the British controlled the Straits). By the 20th century it was pretty much obsolete for commercial purposes due to the small size of the locks and the advent of railways in the 1850's. However, in the last 30 years there has been a renaissance of sorts with tourism and the canal has been completely fixed up and repaired.

Patrick did the trip in 1981 when the canal had just recently been fixed up and tourism was just beginning. He saw a few of the last commercial barges to use the canal. He also had to hand crank the locks open. Today the locks are all operated electronically.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the Canal trip--what would the locks be like? Would our kids fall overboard? Would Stuey go running off the side? I'm typically not a worry-wort mom, but in the days preceeding the boat trip, my heart would skip a few beats when I thought about Stuey on the boat--and the possibility of him falling in the water. From the pictures of the boat that I saw prior to the trip, I saw that it wasn't a boat that was necessarily made for 3 year olds. I knew, however, there would be rules for lifejackets for the kids and lots of sets of adult eyes on the kids. (For this reason, we had our old babysitter, Hannah, come along for the trip to help with the kids. She babysat for the kids for two years in Kodiak and is now living in Germany. She was thrilled at the prospect of coming along to help with the kids and we were so thrilled to have her along!)

There were a few scary moments with Stuey in the beginning on the boat--where I thought my heart was going to leap through my throat...Stuey testing his 3 year old limits on the boat. Sven did a lot of re-assuring and helping with Stuey.

The locks work like this: You approach the lock in the boat. The guy who runs the lock comes out, and opens the gate up so you can drive the boat in. They close the gate. Then, you boat sinks like the plug was pulled in a bathtub. The water is being released to the part of the canal below. Once you are at the water level of the lower section, they open the door and you motor through. Several of the locks, had 4 or 5 different gates to them, and it would take over 1/2 hour to travel through them.

Sven drove the boat almost the entire journey and was truly a lock Master. You could tell he had lots of boat expereince, as there is an art to maneuvering the boat in/out of the locks without hurting the boat--knocking it against the walls, for instance. On our trip, we saw several skippers who had a hard time manuevering their boats, and it gave us a real appreciation for Skipper Sven's boat saavy-ness. At times there was 1 or 2 other boats in the lock with us, which made navigating in the canal more challenging--making sure the boats didn't bump into one another.

Going in and out of locks took 3 adults--Sven driving the boat, one adult to tie the back line and one adult to tie the front line. The lines were released when the boat moves forward. Balika and Patrick were the primary line people. I did it a few times, but to be honest-it freaked me out. Something about the boat sinking, and the fear that I would do something wrong and the boat would be hurt. I kept joking with Sven after doing a lock, I'd ask-" well, that was pretty bad. Am I fired yet?" He never fired me.

The boat really served as a floating hotel-with 4 small bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small (but efficient) kitchen and living area. The kids would spend their day playing below or on top, or on bike ride along the canal. We could bike and run faster than the boat could go. The max speed for the boat was 6 KM per hour. This pained Sven.

Zoya

Below is a time lapse Youtube video of the whole process.

"You're Doing What?"

Today we returned from a 2 week family vacation to France and Spain. In the weeks preceeding our trip, people asked me about the journey and after I told them the travel details, many would reply with, "I can't believe you're taking a 3 and 5 year old to Europe. Glad its not me!". After hearing this so many times, I started to doubt that the trip would be worth the journey. Europe is half way across the world. Were we crazy?

As it turns out, the answer was no-we were not crazy. In fact, we had a blast. Sure, the airplane ride over to Eurpose and train ride to Southern France were a little rough. I won't powder puff the reality of travel with a toddler who has just flown across the world. However, hanging out with the Haakansons and all the adventures we had and yummy food we shared together made it all so worth it. Plus, our family grew closer. I learned some new tactics in dealing with Stuey's strong-headedness from Sven and Balika. Our kids had a fun time with Balika and Sven's kids. It was a true pleasure. And our lack of internet access for the 2 weeks provided good solid time to share with eachother. WIFI hot spots are a rare find in Europe, so even updating the blog quickly wasn't possible. Or checking Facebook. Or e-mail.

We arrived home to happy dogs and snow this morning. When I got into the house, I said, "Its good to be home." and Stuey replied with "Our house smells good." This made me smile. Theres nothing better than the warm smell of your own house after a long trip.

Zoya

Photos:
-Boating down the Canal Midi in Southern France. Sven was the brave skipper of our boat! He navigated us through over 55 locks.
-Group photo at Gaudi Museum in Barcelona.
-Hannah K., myself and Balika at a girls dinner in Barcelona. Self photo by Hannah! :)
-Sven and Stuey upon arriving at the Mediterranean Sea at the end of the week long canal trip.
-A silly posed shot of us pointing the same direction as Christopher Columbus--as seen in Statue behind us. We believe Columbus is pointing West. Taken in Barcelona.

We're back and I'm on Snow!

We're back after 2 weeks of visiting with the Haakansons in France and Spain (more on this trip to come). We did not have access to the internet. I found this quite refreshing while others did not. Anyway, on Tuesday I was swimming in my birthday suit in the Mediterranean Ocean and today I am skiing on Pyramid Mountain back here on Kodiak. I love the contrast and it is GREAT to be back. Patrick

Freezer Full

Before the elk hunt our freezer was looking a little bare. Now it is full. After the hunt was over it took all day Sunday and Monday to cut, process and wrap all the meat from the two elk. I have two freezers, and before we divided up the meat between all the parties, they were both completely full of meat. No room to spare. Everyone who went on the elk hunt ended up with a full cooler of wrapped meat. And we still have to grind up all the burger meat!

It is a very welcome change from last year when we did not harvest an elk. By the following May we were out of meat. And compared to deer and goat, elk comes in BIG slabs. We will be having some BIG roasts this year! Patrick

HealthCare shopping--Venting

Today I worked with a client who wanted help finding out about surgery options, MRI costs, etc for her knee. Cost is always a factor in making health care decisions, especially with costly exams such as MRI's. Even with insurance, there are co-pays and deductibles to consider. To help her through the muddy waters of medical decision making, I called Anchorage Fracture and Orthopedic Clinic to find out what an MRI cost-$1534 for an MRI of the knee. Plain and Simple. Nothing sneaky.

Then I called Providence Kodiak to see what the cost is for a knee MRI. I was transferred from the front desk, to radiology, then to the answering machine of someone in quality control department. I didn't leave a message. I got the feeling they really don't want to answer questions like that.

This was the exact reason I opened up my clinic. To provide honest, care at a pre-disclosed price. People don't need to play games to find out the pre-determined cost of a procedure. Finding good healthcare is already challenging without having to play 'procedure-cost-sleuth'.

Why couldn't someone in the radiolgoy department let me know how much a knee MRI is? The Anchorage Fracture Orthopedic Clinic knew instantly what that would cost. They were staring at the price list with me on the phone. I have heard this complaint from many clients about finding out cost of procedures at the hospital before the fact--it is very hard to find actual cost. Todays experience verified this for me.

I've been fairly "tame" about my big business complaints on my blog, but this one I couldn't resist. It is poor care. When we go to a restaurant, there are prices on the menu. If we got to buy a car, and ask the price, we are told the prices. Why aren't there prices for certain procedures on the hospital billing sheet available for people to see when they are deciding what procedures they can or can't afford?

At least I can go to bed at night feeling good about providing good care at a reasonable price and being completely upfront about what my services cost.

Zoya

Elk Hunt Photos

The great thing about having a boat as base camp is that you get to move around a lot. You are not stuck in one bay or limited to a single peninsula. So we got to explore thick spruce forests and hike around in the alpine tundra on the outer capes of the Peninsulas. Afognak Island really does have a HUGE variety of habitats. Looking at some of the photos it is hard to believe they were all taken on the same island. Patrick

Back from Afognak with Elk

Yesterday we got back to Kodiak from Afognak on the Alpha Centuri with 2 elk on board. A successful trip! While there we found 2 different herds of elk and saw elk on 6 of the 7 days we were hunting. But something seemed to go wrong every time we stalked an elk and it was not until the last day that we harvested our 2 cows and carried them back to the boat. Compared to hunts past it was a relatively easy elk haul - about a mile and a half with a 1/4 mile 400 vertical climb at the start and then a 1800 foot drop down to the beach. We got the elk back to the boat just as the light failed and did not have to use headlamps - a welcome change from years past!

Since we did not get our elk until the last day we did a LOT of hiking. I don't think we have ever covered more country in search of elk. We split into 2 parties to cover more country and camped in the high country between bays so we could glass for elk at dawn. We learned that elk herds round up every morning at 10:30 AM sharp and with a lot of whistling move off in a line to bed down. So you got to be looking for them before 10:30 AM. We also saw more bears than ever before - at least 3 or 4 EVERY day. And Justin and I had a very hairy experience when we surprised a sow with 3 cubs in the trees and she charged us - I am ashamed to admit I hid behind Justin as we backpedaled with the snarling, jaw-snapping bear approaching. All and All an exciting and successful trip! Patrick

Doula Moments

There have been some cool doula moments the past couple of weeks...

-At a first post-delivery visit with a mom, her baby girl had a onesie on it that said, "I Love my Doula". It was precious. My heart melted! Moments like that make my heart smile.

-Tonight I had a pre-natal doula meeting. The dad remembered me from a couple years ago--he is a utility repair person and remembered coming over to my house--he remembered that I had two black dogs and purple subaru. Its funny how you never know who's birth you'll be involved with! I laughed and told him, "I never would've guessed two years ago that I would be at the birth of your child!". Fun moment.

-Recently after a birth, the brother of the newborn said to me, "Thank you so much for helping mommy have the baby". The words meant so much to me, as I could tell he really meant what he said.

Zoya

Waiting for Kindergarten

Nora is doing well this fall and I'm so glad I didn't put her in kindergarten. I would be lying if I said I haven't had any small moments of regret...like during dance class when Nora is the only 5 year old not in kindergarten taking the 5 year old dance. But in the bigger picture, she wasn't ready. He speech therapist didn't think she was ready. And I didn't think she was ready. I really understand how being ready for kindergarten has little to do with age and more to do with speech, behavior, attention span, developmental milestones etc. That said, kindergarten teachers are incredible and work with kids at all different levels.

Nora turned 5 at the very end of the summer, and after talking to a LOT of people about it, the consensus was there was no reason to push kindergarten. What I heard from many parents was that the ones who put their kids on the early end regretted it in 4th and 5th grade. In fact, many folks I spoke to said they had to have their child repeat a grade later, which was hard. Especially with boys. And the ones who waited extra time and started their young ones late were really glad they did. THey talked about how their child felt more like a leader of the class, instead of at the bottom.

I think Patrick and I have put extra thought into it, as he had to repeat kindergarten as a youngster. Yes-a little known fact about my husband. (He talks about this publicly, so I hope I won't be in trouble about putting this on our blog. I guess we'll find out when he comes home from hunting...)

And I'll see where Nora is at in the spring, summer and fall to decide what would be right for her learning and social development...kindergarten or homeschooling. There is SO MUCH to do in Kodiak with other kids that she would have lots of great social opportunities homschooling. And from what home schooling parents say, at the K-1 level, it takes several hours a week to get the academic work done and the rest of the time can be spent playing, exploring, going to the beach, etc.

I think a big part of the decision will be class sizes, as I'd like for her kindergarten experience to be a small class. RIght now I believe the school whos' zone we're in has 20+ kids in each kindergarten room, which would be a lot for Nora. But maybe by the fall she'd be up for that.

Zoya

Stuey-isms.

The other morning, Stuey came walking into the kitchen, sat up on our counter stool and looked around at Patrick and I and said, "Hey, we all have noses!". That got a laugh out of me!

The past few days, Stuey looks at me very intently and says, "I look into your eyes". If I"m not looking at him, he'll hold the sides of my head gently and rotate it towards him. And give me this big smile.

The other day there was 1 brownie left that someone gave us. Stuey said, "Mark can have this brownie. Daddy not like brownies. I'll give it to Mark." Stuey charged out the door to the shed (as Mark had been in there the week prior cataloging artifacts. hes has been out on the Elk hunt with Patrick). He walked back to the house slowly, with a disappointed look in his face, brownie in hand. He said, "Marks not here. Hes not at work, too. Hes out skiing." LIttle does Stuey know, ski season isn't quite in season yet. But I think he believes that Mark would do the same things as his dad. :)

Zoya

SAT phone-A mixed blessing

For years Patrick has owned a satellite phone to call with when he is out in the field. There have been many times when this has brought me significant peace of mind--knowing that he could be in the middle of nowhere and get help if needed.
There have been downsides to the sat phone which I never would have anticipated. For one, if he says he will be back at 4 pm and hes not home, then I worry. Significantly. This is because Patrick is almost NEVER late, so when he is and the sun has set, AND I know he has the sat phone on him, I worry.

Granted, this doesn't happen often, perhaps once every few years. Twice, I've put a call out the search and rescue team. Pete C. from Kodiak Search and rescue has had to "talk me off the ledge" so to speak, with being overly worried about Patrick lost in the wilderness. Pete consoles me by saying, "Zoya, I know what happened. They're probably getting to the car right about now and working on warming up and the sun just went down-maybe a few minutes sooner than they anticipated." And sure enough-after I get off the phone, Patrick pulls up in the driveway or calls.

The other caveat of the sat phone is if I"m terribly sick, then he needs to come home. This occurred when I had my severe bout of vertigo for a week. I was down and out, recovering from the virus which caused the vertigo, taking care of sick Nora on top of it. Patrick called and asked how things were-he was on a goat hunt. I told him I wasn't pregnant (we had been a bit concerned about that before he left-because I didn't know what was causing the lightheadedness). He was so relieved to hear this, that he didn't hear that I was quite sick and exhausted, taking care of the kids. And I needed him.

When he got home from the hunt, I asked him, "If you didn't come home then, when would you come home? Would you come home if I was dying?". This wasn't really a fair question of me to ask him, as I know he would. But I needed to know deep down inside that if I was quite sick and needed him home for a hunt or trip, that he would come. He understood and we came to an agreement--He would come home if I needed him, and I agreed to not "cry wolf" and ask him to come home soon. (Admittedly, I"ve done this a few times in the past---especially on elk hunts. When I'm more at wits end with him being gone on hunting trips all fall.)

In the end I"m glad the sat phone is in his back pack, but I think perhaps it will be used a little less to check in, then it used to. Which is ok with me. I know that its there in case of an emergency.

Zoya

Young Professionals and feeling older

This fall in my spinning classes, I have felt Old. Maybe I should clarify-- older than normal. I've noticed there is a big group of young professionals who have moved to Kodiak this fall. They are in their mid to late 20's and have jobs with the hospital, KANA, etc... During spinning classes, several of them talked about their "SIgnificant Others" and I remembered how Patrick used to be that to me! Their conversations revolve a bit more around evening schedules and workout schedules--some of them going straight from spinning to swimming. Those were the days--unlimited workout hours!

It makes me remember how I used to be in that "new to Kodiak" and "20 something" group and now I"m in a different group. I"m in the "Married-with-kids with steady job and been here for a while-group". Or maybe its the "I"m happy if Friday nights are at home on my couch" group also. Or the "fuddy-duddy" group. Whatever you want to call it, its a place where fun times are found with our family, friends and the outdoors. I couldn't enjoy this time in our life more.

I love that the gals who came to my spinning class enjoyed the hour and they said they loved my music-phew. At least I can still pick out good workout tunes. Its funny, cause Patrick and I have friends of all different ages and I love how our friendships aren't limited by age at all. In fact, Patrick is 10 years older than me, and age difference has never been a concern. He has friends who are 10 years older than him, which makes them 20 years older than me and its not an issue.

Zoya

Ecstasy and Agony

Tomorrow we leave on our Afognak Elk hunt. It's an annual event. Every year we leave on Jim's seiner and cruise to Afognak Island to hunt elk. And every year we leave Kodiak with visions of big elk in our heads, and seem to forget what it took in years past to get them back to the boat. Elk are big. Once we get one there is always that euphoric moment before you realize, 'this thing is as big as a horse - how on earth are we going to get him back to the boat?' And then the work begins.

This year BEFORE we left on the hunt I thought I'd remind myself just how big elk are, and try to remember what it takes to carry one through the brush with no trail to follow. Hopefully this will help temper our enthusiasm and, as a result, we will not shoot an elk on the back side of a mountain 5 miles from the beach. That said, elk are where you find them - and they are ALWAYS a lot of work. Even if you find them on the beach. Patrick

Neighborly relations

A lot has happened this past year on Cliffside drive. Several lots down the road were developed with houses in the works on them. A friend's house at the end of the road is having a new addition built on it. Two houses down, there has been exterior construction on it. And the latest change is a house just down the hill got a new family in it.

The family which used to live in the house was somewhat reclusive--there were 2 kids, perhaps who lived there, but we never really saw them outside much. The curtains were often closed and I never saw many signs of life outside.

The other day as I was walking by, a dad and two of his girls were outside unpacking and moving in. I said Hi and welcomed them to the neighborhood. They were so friendly and bursting with enthusiasm about living on Cliffside road. The kids and I made brownies tonight and brought them over tonight. The 4 girls and mom who greeted us at the door were just thrilled about being welcomed to the neighborhood. Sometimes it feels that people stay in their houses so much and there isn't nearly enough interaction between neighbors living so close. This fall that has changed for us, as Stuey and Nora have been biking with the neighbor boys. Nora even wrote the neighbor boys a note and left it on their door. And they wrote her one back. It is exactly the type of neighborly relations I would've hoped to have.

Zoya

Fall Colors

It's finally fall! Last weekend when I went deer hunting with Gregg it was still pretty green up in the high country and there were flowers blooming. This past weekend when I went hunting with Mark and Jason all the greens had turned to brown and the flowers had been frosted. The fireweed is at the fuzzy stage, and it will not be long before all the cottonwoods lose their leaves!

Our hunt was successful. We climbed up into the alpine before dawn and shot a spike. I also tried something new with the neckmeat when I butchered it back home. Rather than teasing all the pieces apart and cutting off all the tendons and fat which always seems to take forever (and you just end up with a tiny bit of meat after all the trimming). I just lopped it off the backstrap and cooked it covered with the ribs at low heat (200 degrees) with a little water in the bottom of the pan for 8 hours. I then used Gregg's rib marinade recipe and cooked both up on the grill in the evening. Outstanding! The neck meat melted and tasted just like really meaty ribs. I will not waste my time trimming neck meat in the future! Patrick

Travel Jitters

In 3 weeks we leave for France to see Balika, Sven and their two girls. The plan is to fly from Kodiak to Paris, meet up with our prior babysitter, Hannah (She has been living in Germany for a year) have 1 day in Paris, then take the train to Southern France (Castelnaudary) and do a 1 week canal boat ride on a boat we've rented. The boat is a small one and Patrick and Sven will drive it down a canal with lots of locks. After the canal ride, we'll go to Barcelona for 4 days then fly out of Barcelona home.

This is my first time out of the country since we went to Costa Rica when Nora was 6 months old. And I"m nervous about it. Stuey is a definite 3.5 year old boy and the thought of being on an airplane for a seriously long 2 days gives me a small pit in the bottom of my stomach.I'm also nervous about the language differences and making our way around from train station to airport, etc. This is something Patrick is very confident about-PHEW. He speaks a small amount of French and is not concerned about making our way around in Paris. SO thats a relief.

I have to remember that the journey will be a big adventure for them AND us. New sights, sounds and smells (hopefully of chocolate croissants) around every corner. The big bonus on this trip is that there will be two wonderful girls close to Nora and Stuey's age they can play with.

I know once we're on our way-there will be no turning back and it will be a fun adventure!!

Zoya

Photos are from trips with the kids over the years.

Stormy Fall Weather & NO HEAT

It's getting to be fall - Termination dust on the mountains, temperatures in the 30's at night, and the lawn has finally stopped growing. All the cottonwoods are turning yellow and it seems we've gotten into the Fall weather pattern of a big storm every three or four days followed by clear windy weather. This year cool weather has been late arriving - I don't ever remember the hills around town staying so green so late. Patrick


NO HEAT
As of late, I'm on a mission to not turn on the heat.So far, we haven't turned it on. Not sure what has gotten into me this fall. I think if we can get by with little or no heat, then its energy cost savings.

Late last fall we had the windows replaced in our kitchen and last spring the windows in the back of the house replaced. Since this was done, our house is much less of a tent. Our kitchen warms up even without heat on-especially when food is on the stove or in the oven. And we spend most of our time in the kitchen, anyhow.

The key to doing "no heat" living is warm baths. I take one in the morning before getting ready and a really hot one right before bed. It doesn't have to be a long bath-even just 5-10 minutes does the job. Getting ready for bed in the cold bedroom then climbing into a cold bed is the part that is the hardest without heat. Something about being heated to the bone by the water keeps my body warm for several hours. And I sleep so much better, too with a bath before bed. Plus, Nora really enjoys the morning baths with me--she calls it her "mommy time".

Over the years, I have become more accustomed to a cooler house. When I first met Patrick, I remember insisting that the thermostat be at 70. I cringe when I think back to those days. Patrick must've been roasting.

Zoya

Kodiak's Roadsystem Buck to Doe Ratio

Yesterday Gregg and I went deer hunting on the Kodiak Roadsystem and saw around 30 deer. Sounds pretty good right? But they were all does and on the roadsystem you are only allowed to shoot bucks. So there were no dee for us to harvest.

To see so many does and so few bucks has become fairly typical on the Kodiak Road system and I think it is a result of the 'bucks only' harvest rule. Elsewhere on Kodiak you are allowed to hunt does after October 1rst, and up until about 10 years ago on the roadsystem you were allowed to harvest a doe during the last week of the season. It is over the last 10 years that the sex ratio on the roadsystem has become so skewed.

I believe that the new 'bucks only' rule is the cause of the problem. Just 4 or 5 years ago you could still find bachelor groups of bucks up in the high country on the roadsystem. But no more, in the last two years I have not seen a single bachelor group of 3 or more bucks. On average, these days when I am hunting the roadsystem, I generally see 15 to 20 does and fawns before I see a mature buck. That's why I was so devastated yesterday - after just 15 does and fawns I should have seen a big buck!

I gather that a skewed sex ratio hurts the chances of bucks surviving the winter. They get worn out servicing the does during the rut and then die during the winter. So the fewer bucks there are in relation to the does, the harder they have to work and the more likely they are to not make it through the winter. It is a self-accentuating feedback loop. And every year near Kodiak we are seeing fewer and fewer mature bucks. I actually think there are now not enough bucks to go around. These days does without a fawn are a common sight, and fawns are getting born late into early summer (rather than spring) because the rut has to last longer before bucks can get to all the does. Fawns born later in the year also have less of a chance to survive their first winter.

A couple of weeks ago when Gregg, my brother , and I went goat hunting at the south end I was struck by the number of mature bucks in relation to the does. It was really amazing to observe a more normal sex ratio - big bucks were everywhere! On the Kodiak Roadsystem I think they should go back to allowing people to harvest a doe during the last week of the season. We need to get the sex ratio back out of whack. Patrick

Photos: Some scenics from yesterday's fruitless deer hunt.

How old are these bones?

Over the last month I have sent in 22 samples of charcoal for radiocarbon dating analysis. This is how archaeologists find out the age of the things they excavate. At 3-600 bucks a sample, it is an expensive process, and this is far and away the most samples the museum has ever sent in for analysis. But we did a lot of digging and the samples are from our work at Alitak, King Salmon River, Cliff point, and a few from our surveys on the south end of Kodiak (the USFWS gave us some money to run a few dates of samples we collected for them in years past). Now comes the exciting part - getting the results back!

This week I found out the age of the midden we excavated at Mitksqaaq Angayuk during Community Archaeology. I had hope it would be 2 to 3 thousand years old and it turned out to 3400 years old (see older posts on dig from August for details). Perfect! This is really exciting because it means Molly can study how Alutiiq peoples' subsistence changed over the course of 3400 years in one place. Finding a midden that reflects 3500 years of hunting and gathering shells, fish, and sea mammals in one spot is really difficult. It is important for Molly because she can now argue that any changes that she sees in the midden composition reflects overall climate/human behavior and NOT differences in the location of the middens (i.e. if she had to study various middens from around the island to look at subsistence changes through time).

So the bones and shells in the above photo are 3400 years old! That is pretty darn old, and I only know of one midden on the entire archipelago that is older. It also means that Miktsqaaq Angayuk is the oldest continuiously occupied midden on the whole archipelago. No other midden, that I know of, on the whole archipelago has such time depth. It also means that the harpoons Leslie found at the bottom of the midden are over 3000 years old (see posts on dig from August).

Photos: Top: Close up of bones (fauna) from the 3400 year old midden. Second photo is of the midden after we 1/4 inch wet screened it. We had to wet screen it to find the charcoal we used for radiocarbon analysis - note the little black blocks of charcoal mixed in with the shells and bones. Finally the bottom photo is of one of the excavation walls and shows the midden stratigraphy. The shell and bones from about the middle of the wall on down are all older than about 3400 years (everything below the top rocky layer). Also note beach shingles at the bottom of the excavation - that is the 4000 year old beach that the people living at the site dumped their trash onto. Patrick

Changes

WEATHER
Fall is in the air here in Kodiak. Rain returned after weeks of sunny weather. The leaves are coming off the trees and it seems that Kodiak is in full fall-mode! I rather like the return of darkness...its a bit easier to put kids to bed when the sun is starting to set. They're more easily convinced, lets say. (anyone who spends time around here during bedtime knows that its not the most smooth parenting part of our day).

SPEECH
Today I took Nora back to speech therapy, as she had the summer off. It felt good to have her walk into the speech therapists room and be excited to be there. She just seems extra confident. It made me realize how much progress she has made with speech in the past 3 months.

Nora also had an improved attention span with speech therapist Jean and I had a moment where I thought, "wow-Nora is blossoming!". We've still got a ways to go with her speech therapy, but I'm starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

STUEY
Stuey gives me a run for my money lately. He is getting over the cold Nora had and is slightly run down from it. The past week he wakes up in the middle of the night coughing, comes to my bed, coughs for about 20 minutes and finally returns to sleep. This makes him a tad (well, a LOT) grumpy during the day.

He screams loud, and is demanding. Its something else. He just starts screaming louder until he thinks he'll get what he wants. My strategy? Well, we use time outs pretty heavily. But I'm trying to shift to putting his toys to time out. He HATES it when toys are put to time out. It seems to be working.

Tonight at bedtime he was threatening to get out of bed, so I held a favorite train pamphlet he loves and told him that if he got out of bed, his pamphlet would disappear forever. He knows that I stick to my word, so he said, "ok, mommy" and laid in bed and didn't get out.

I remember he went through a challenging time about a year ago. Nora and Stuey go through their phases of change. I think with the start of preschool, this is a time of change for Stuey. Hopefully things will stabilize in a few days (or weeks!).

BYE BYE VERTIGO
The vertigo is on the out. Thank heavens. Now I only have very rare vertigo...infrequent. And usually related to rolling over in bed. And even that is getting better. My energy is back and I"m back to work this week and loving it. Taking a week off really was the pits. I love what I do too much. But I really did need to the break to fully get over the vertigo.
I won't be returning to my full on yoga practice for a while--no downward dogs unfortunately. I'm really nervous to try it. I'm doing some yoga, but very, very cautiously. I don't want to trigger a temporary spell of vertigo.

Zoya

Photos: Exercise Equipment camp when at dinner at Lisa and Gregg's house. Stuey loved the exercise balance board, stuey loved the ball.
The yoga photo was before my vertigo. I loved doing a short series of sun salutations and the kids loved joining me. Looking forward to returning to it!