Preschool Graduation

Several weeks ago, Nora was in the most precious preschool graduation ceremony. I must admit, I'm a bit of a pre/K graduation kermudgen. I have a thing about caps and gowns...they need to be saved for high school and college graduations and I was wondering if the kids would be in cap and gowns for this graduation. When I arrived at Baptist MIssion for Nora's graduation, I was so thrilled to see the kids in home made tye dyed shirts! Too cute! And I decided I probably shouldn't care so much about the cap and gown thing...

The kids sang a song and performed a play. Then the diplomas were handed out. The kids were all so proud and well behaved. Following the ceremony there was a nice potluck lunch and graduation cake and cupcakes. All the special touches really meant a lot--from the decorations to the song and play...it was perfect in every way. It made me excited for Nora going on to kindergarten in the fall.

Zoya

Kindergarten Shot and then some...

Its been a while since I've posted and I have no exuse except for, well-I've been extremely busy!
In a 1 week period I attended 3 births, as well as held down the fort while Patrick was gone. Phew. So glad to have him home!! :) Fortunately, the births were relatively fast, as all 3 of them were 2nd or 3rd time moms, which generally have faster labors.
I also finished a quilt that I had been plugging away on (YEAH!!) and started another quilt. Pictures to come soon.

So last week I took Nora to our favorite PA, Greg Mete, for her kindergarten screening and shots. The screen was a cake walk and fun. Greg is so thorough AND fun. He says things to Nora like, "I"m going to listen to you stomach and I bet I can guess what you had for lunch. Let me guess...you had....FOOD!!".He got laughs out of Nora and I with that one, Once Greg left the hard part began. Ttwo nurses (A &K) each came in hiding a needle behind their backs, trying to be subtle. Nora knew what was going on and started crying. The nurses guided me to hold her knees between my knees and hold her arms against her chest (she was sitting in my lap). It was like putting her in a human straight jacket. Rough approach, but really no other way to go about it. Afterall, these nurses were serious professionals and weren't going to get flustered. I got the impression they had seen MUCH worse.

After Nora was still wiggling too much, they had to call in a "reserve" nurse- Dirk. I could tell he felt horrible about this job--helping with more restraining power to her legs, but it really had to be done. Nora SHRIEKED when they poked her in each thigh and continued to sob for several minutes after. I felt horrible. But didn't cry or anything. As we walked out of the exam room, the two nurses waved and said bye Nora and I could tell that they didn't fully expect her to wave back. But she said, "Bye" and gave a small little wave. This made me feel better, as she wasn't mad at them--she may have been mad at what had happened but didn't seem to blame them.

I made the mistake of bringing Stuey--he was sitting on the chair (very well behaved....probably for fear of having to get a shot himself!!) in the exam room. During the car ride home. Stuey started crying and asked, "Why Nora have to get shots?"
I said, "To go to kindergarten in the fall". Stuey said, "I don't want to go to kindergarten. I won't have a birthday. I won't blow out my birthday candles." He said this several times with such conviction and such a serious look on his face--I couldn't help but smile. He was really, really, really bummed about the shots. Fortunately he has some time before he'll have to get his.

Zoya

Picture is from the night Patrick returned from Karluk River. Story time before he put them to bed!

Camp Life on Survey

Dishes, nettles & SPAM, avoiding getting shocked on the bear fence, and feeding the woodstove to keep the teepee warm - that's what our survey field camp is all about. That and this year Molly and Mary were all about the 'Twighlight series'. Molly was reading the first book and Mary had already read it - and they discussed it while we waited for dinner in the cook tent. In the bottom photo that's the book Molly is reading. All that I know about the 'Twighlight series is what I read in a People magazine while we were in the field last summer at Penguk.

Everyone is slightly afraid of the electric fence. Inevitably someone ducks under the fence carefully and does not bother to turn it off, and the next person, assuming it is off, gets the nasty shock. This year I got shocked one morning when I was turning it off. Most uncomfortable feeling. For these reasons I never quite trust the fence, and sort of assume it is always on and out to get me. In the photos Molly and Mary are ducking under the fence on their way back from doing the dishes in the fourth photo.

Nettles and SPAM is one of my favorite aspects of field camp. We pick just the heads of the nettles - preferably the small ones - I usually try and get a 1/2 gallon zip lock or so of them. Some of us use thin gloves to pick the nettles but I don't. I just make sure to pick them from down below in one motion and I rarely get stung. Then in a cast iron skillet we cook up the thinly sliced SPAM. I suppose if you are scared of SPAM or want to be gourmet that you could use salt pork. But SPAM does work GREAT for this. After the SPAM is crispy on each side I remove it from the pan and add a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil. I add more oil than I think I should. Nettles really soak up the oil! And then add the nettles.

I stir them around on fairly high heat in the oil until they are all slightly wilted. Then I add a 1/2 cup of hot water and the water should hit the frying pan and steam off - effectively steaming the nettles. I keep stirring and do this one or even two more times. Then it is time to add the SPAM back to the frying pan, do one more stir, and then serve and enjoy.

Everybody likes this dish, and while we were waiting for ther float plane at the lagoon we picked nettles, and the next night I served them to my kids. It is one vegetable that they REALLY like - or maybe it is the SPAM ... ... Mark likes nettles so much that he took some root stock to put into his garden back in CA. In the field we ate nettles practically every night.

Patrick

Karluk Weather

Life was not all great on our Karluk River survey - at times we were not all that comfortable. Molly got the pushki burns that made her fingers look like 'lil' smoky sausages', and then there was the rain and hard frosts. For the last half of the trip when we had to set up a new camp along the river every night it rained every day. And in the beginning of the trip while sunny during the day - it got awful COLD during the night.

On the third night of the trip I was shocked it got so cold. I had brought a 30 degree summer bag and just about froze solid. Usually I am a warm sleeper but I had to stuff all my extra clothing down into the bag just to survive. When I got up to cook breakfast I noted that there was an inch of ice on the water bucket. So I was not a total wimp. I think it did get down into the lower 20's fahrenheit. Photos 1,2 & 4 show the morning after the big freeze. It frosted hard on three consecutive nights.

But the worst weather we had was rain and wind. Trying to work and write notes in the rain is only super-ceeded by having to set up camp in the rain. And on some days we both took down camp and set up camp in a driving rain. That was BAD. But on the plus side we did have a wood stove. So our desperate times were always tempered by warm evenings spent by the wood stove - frantically trying to dry everything out.

On our last morning on the river it was raining pretty hard and all the worms came out of the ground and climbed up the walls of the tent (third photo). The bottom photo is of the USFWS beaver float plane picking us up at the Karluk Lagoon. It had cleared up by then but everything was still soaked. Finally, I have embedded a video that shows just a few moments of what it was like while it was raining on our survey. It includes footage from the boat, eking it out in the tent, and digging a test pit - all in the rain.

Enjoy! Patrick

Karluk River Archaeology

The point of our trip down the Karluk River was to find archaeological sites (mostly prehistoric villages and salmon processing sites), and to map and date them. So at each site Molly and Mary would dig a test pit into the center of an old house pit looking for the hearth and charcoal to radiocarbon date. Meanwhile Mark and I would run around the site numbering the house depressions and arguing about what was what. Then I'd draw a sketch map of the site and we'd use the transit to shoot all the house pits in and make the map accurate. The second photo is a close up of one such village sketch while the third photo is of me using the transit while Molly writes down the numbers on the map. For every house depression we recorded the size and shape of all the rooms, the depth of the house and height of the walls, and its exact relationship to the site datum and river. That's a lot of information and many of the maps are so chock full of data that I'll need a magnifying glass to read the numbers.

Of course when it was raining we could not use the transit and then sketch maps alone had to suffice and I'd try to make them as accurate as possible. Also sometimes we needed to dig a test pit just to determine if a house pit was really a house pit or just a figment of Mark's and my imagination. And a couple of times we dug test pits into old garbage dumps outside of houses looking for the old bones that represent the remains of old meals and processing activities. The photo of Mary in a test pit is from a garbage dump that to Mary and Molly's chagrin contained a LOT of fire cracked rock (remains of past banyas) and, unfortunately for Molly, pushki roots. In addition to the ubiquitous salmon bones, we found the remains of cod, clamshells, and marine mammals that the prehistoric inhabitants had carried to the upper Karluk River from the distant sea. The salmon swam up there on their own.

To some extent we do not need a radiocarbon date to determine the age of a site. We have already dated many villages and already recognize that certain house types always date the same. In the bottom photo Mary is standing in a multiroom house pit with fairly low walls, and many of the siderooms to this structure had cold trap tunnels. Such a structure typically dates to about 400 to 500 years ago. More recent structures typically lack cold traps, have much taller walls, and are associated with much more intense vegetation. Another indication of age is roof sods. Houses from the last 700 years were typically thatched with side rooms and you can see the hearth depression on the surface while older houses were roofed with sod and dirt, and to find the hearth you had to dig a deep hole.

The artifacts we found also hinted at the age of the sites. Certain types and styles of artifacts are associated with particular time periods. For instance, in the top photo Mary is holding up a tiny and well made netsinker that was used to weight the bottom of a net. Such an artifact is typically only found in sites 1000 to 2000 years old. Larger, and more 'ugly' netsinkers tend to be older, and the inhabitants of sites from the last 700 years did not use this type of technology at all

In the end we found 24 new archaeological sites and mapped another 18 that had already been found by previous researchers. One interesting pattern that we noticed is that all the most recent sites, those from the past 600 years, are located in just 3 sections of the river (at the Lake outlet, by the Portage, and on the lower river from Shasta Creek on down). While older sites are scattered everywhere up and down the river. Most of the older sites are small and it is only in the last 1100 years that you start to see the formation of large villages on the interior sections of the river. Patrick

Our Transportation Down the Karluk River

On our archaeological survey of the Karluk River we had 3 big limits. There was the time limit of 14 days, the weight limit of the USFWS beaver float plane (1200 pounds), and then there was the limit of what our two inflatable canoes could carry. Before the trip I was the most worried about the canoes, but in retrospect I think the weight limit for the beaver was the most serious. We barely squeezed onto the float plane with 4 people and 750 pounds of gear - all set for 2 weeks in the field.

Then came the scary part. We got to the river and needed to load up the boats and paddle for a 1/2 mile or so to our first camp. Would it all fit in the boats? It did! And so the survey began. During the survey we set up at 4 different camps, and after each camp the boats got loaded up better and better. By the time we got to the Karluk Lagoon the boats were efficiently packed tight.

After we lost Molly to pushki burns on her hands about halfway through the project (see her blog for details - http://odellcross.blogspot.com/2011/06/home-early-with-bad-pushki-burns.html). We decided to tie the canoes together and make one big raft. I stayed with the raft while Mary and Mark walked likely sections of the river banks. And on practically every bank where we thought we'd find a site we did. By the end of the trip I was a little sick of stopping the raft to hop out and map yet another archaeological site (more on this in a later post).

Anyway our little Innova inflatable canoes worked out pretty well. They carried A LOT and really did not draw all that much water. Even in shallow sections we did not have to drag the boats - ever. I think they drew less than 2 inches loaded! And they handled the fast and deep water at the end of the trip well too. The river was about a foot or 2 higher than normal so the lower river was pretty swift. Patrick

Back from Karluk River

Late last night we got back from our archaeological survey of the Karluk River. It took almost 2 weeks - 20 odd miles of river - and we found 24 new archaeological sites (mostly prehistoric villages) and mapped another 18 prehistoric villages. We did a lot of mapping. The Karluk River was a popular place!

More to come but I thought I'd post a photo to get things started. I chose a sunset photo over the upper Karluk River near our first camp because this survey also represents the end of a 10 year long process of mapping the sites along Kodiak's big rivers. With the Karluk River survey complete we have now finished surveying the biggest salmon rivers on Kodiak. And that is a HUGE accomplishment. We are done with the Ayakulik/Red river, Olga Lakes, and now Karluk.

So what is next? I don't know, but I do know that the sunset has come on one phase of the whole project. The mapping is complete! Patrick

Coast Guard Transfer Season

Kodiak is home to the largest coast guard base in the world, as it has around 2500 people on it. Considering Kodiak Island has around 9000 people on it total, the coast guard population is a large portion. When spring transfer season arrives, there is a shift in the population of the community. Houses are sold by outgoing coast guard families and bought by incoming families (sometimes sight unseen!!). There are lots of garage sales by outgoing families and a HUGE Flea market on the coast guard base as well.

In the past I"ve noticed this flux, but this spring I am particularly sensitive to it and am bummed with the number of people I am saying good bye to. There are 6 or so families leaving with whom I've grown quite attached.

I"ve been back to Kodiak for 12 years and am wondering why it is hitting me harder this transfer season. I believe it is because since owning my own business, I get to know people and their families on a deeper level. Between teaching the birthing classes, being a doula and doing physical therapy with the coast guard community--I have more opportunity to get to know people and their families better than in the past.

The good news is that there is a good chance many of them will be back to kodiak in a few years for another tour. That will be so fun!! To reconnect and hear all about their lives in the "inbetween Kodiak" years.

Zoya

-My friend, Kim and I on the coast guard base last weekend. She and her super-piolot husband Nahshon gave us an INCREDIBLE tour of the hangers on base. (See next post....).
-The kids and I sitting on the back of a C-130 plane....where they are able to lower the back part and drop supplies out of!!
-Going inside the helicopter hanger on a gorgeous spring day in Kodiak!
-Stuey's liking the pilot seat...
-Kims son and Nora standing next to the basket which is lowered to rescue people from the ocean. So cool!!! I'm completely in awe of the work the coast guard does to keep our waters safe.

Helicopters and C-130's

Last weekend we had the most incredible opportunity of touring the C-130's and Helicopters. Our friends, K. and her husband N. (who flies C-130's and helicopters) are transferring and they offered to give us a tour of the two hangers. I was in awe. I was born and raised and Kodiak and have never really seen the heli's and C-130's from such an up close perspective. The kids were in heaven--sitting in the seats, looking out the windows. Their son came along as well which was so fun--he is so saavy around the aircraft.

Nahshon was an incredible guide. he knows the plane inside and out and would so articulately answer every single one of Stuey's "Whats that?" question. Every single hole and knook and cranny--he knows the purpose of.

A few facts I learned....
A C-130 plane can fly for 12 hours on 1 round of gas!!!
Nahshon was once called out for a mission and from the time the call came in to the time he was in air was 12 minutes! Pretty darn fast!!!

Zoya

-Kim and Nahshon in the control room where the missions are dispatched from...it used to all be done on the magnetic board behind them until 3 months ago when they got a google earth computer. Amazing, eh?!!
-rest of the photos are kids and airplanes!!

Very Important Meeting About Trails

Finally, after years and years of discussions Kodiak has a trails plan. This is something that is VERY important to anyone who uses trails and recreates in the wide open spaces of our road system. It's a plan for the future and my hope is that it will allow continued access to the places where we all love to play and hunt. I fear that without a plan the road system will get developed willy nilly and the places where we all love to play will become closed to the public. A trails plan is our only hope to maintain the great thing we got going here on Kodiak.

A rough draft was released just last week now it is up to the public to comment on it. On Wednesday June 1rst at 7 PM at the Kodiak High School commons there will be a public meeting to introduce the plan and a forum for people to comment on it. You have all summer to read over and comment on the plan, but the guy who wrote the plan will be at the meeting on wednesday. This is your chance to express your opinion.

Remember what happened with the Public process for the improvements out at Miller Point in Fort Abercrombie? Too many people missed the meetings like the one coming up for the trails plan. Let's not let that happen again. So read the plan - see online link below or go to the Community Development Department at the Borough Building and pick up a hard copy.

www.kodiaktrailsplan.com

Read the plan and then GO to the meeting! We need to hear your voice.

Patrick

RIP Subi

Today my subaru was involved in a very serious accident and it could very well be the end of the life for my 8 year purple-blue car. Today my friend was driving it and she was struck by a very new driver who was attempting a U-ey in the middle of the road. He only had his license for 2 weeks and after the accident, his friend (who was in the car with him) even said, "Man-he is a bad driver." Thank heavens neither driver was badly injured.

I was pretty shocked to see my Subi so tattered when I arrived to the accident scene. The trooper said it will most likely fit into the "totaled" category, and it now sits in the back yard of the auto repair place. This afternoon as it poured down rain, the kids and I went to look at it. I thought it would help them make sense of it all--to see the Subaru in such a state of despair. Nora's reaction was quite strong--she broke into tears and was so sad. She cried almost the whole way home. Stuey was in the back saying, "stop crying, nora". He didn't seem affected by it at all.

This afternoon we've been making up lyrics for a "bye bye subaru" song to the tempo of the Scooby Doo song.

Nora made up other song lyrics which included...."I will never forget you in my heart. I'll keep you safe and warm in my heart..."

Zoya

One funny kid quote moment--this afternoon I had to go to the troopers to get insurance information for the person who hit the car. The kids were asking why did I have to go to the police? I said to get information so we could hopefully get money for the car. Then this evening we were driving to a party, and I was going a bit over the speed limit. I said outloud, "Oh, I should slow down so I don't get stopped by the police." And then Stuey replied, "Yeah. If you go to the police, you get money.." I got a kick out of that.

An Hour for New Moms...

For the past 8 months, A Balanced Approach has offered a mom-baby hour for moms and their new little ones. I hold it on Fridays right before lunch, and it has been so fun to see the moms have a chance to catch up, talk about new baby topics and be together. I bring in guest speakers periodically--massage therapists to do chair massage, occupational therapists (to talk about oral motor development), and a variety of other speakers. Sometimes I talk about back care, abdominal exercises, etc.

I started the sessions last fall, because there wasn't such a group on island. The first 6 months post-partum is such a unique time in a woman's life--she is learning so much about herself and her baby, and its nice to have a group of ladies to help talk about milestones with. The group has been especially lovely for 1st time moms and/or moms who are new to Kodiak.

I'm taking the summer off with the hour, because of travel schedules for the moms and nice summer weather (hopefully) but will start it back up in the fall season.

In these photos, Amy S. (Occupational therapist) and Genevieve C. (physical Therapist) shared their knowledge about oral motor development in infants with us. I learned so much as well!! All about binkys, sippy cups and more... 3 moms and their little ones were in attendance.

Zoya

Some More Pretty Pictures

Here are a few more pretty pictures that I found while looking through my photos from the last 3 years. Another thing I've noticed about my own pictures is that I seem to like the panoramic format A LOT. In the old days I used to use a point and shoot film camera that only had a 28 mm lens. I had to learn to make the landscape fit. Nowadays, I have a zoom and my camera can even make pans for me. It's amazing how far cameras have come in just the last 10 years.

Anyway - here are the photos: Top is of Gregg on a ski tour above what we call the blueberry bowl. Second photo is of the North Sister cirque that I took during the Christmas bird count one year. Third is from the same ski tour as the blueberry bowl picture and is of the valley behind Pyramid with Nipple Peak in the background. Fourth is from a hike at Abercrombie. And finally the last picture is of Lily Pad lake on Afognak taken during an elk hunt. Patrick

First Salmonberry Blossom

On Saturday I saw my first salmonberry blossom - in my own yard no less. And on the same day I mowed the lawn for the first time. Year after year these 2 events seem to be closely entwined occurrences. I keep a close watch on the day-to-day happenings related to our yearly climate. Such events as the ice letting out on a particular lake, the first crocus blossom, the last day I skiied to the road at the pass, last snowfall, shorebird arrivals, the last frost etc. This way I know how the particular year stacks up against the norm. It also helps me know when to plant the garden and when the deer will go out of velvet (early springs mean the deer also go out of velvet early), and much, much more.

This year has been pretty average. No extreme cold during the winter, but no extended warm spells either. A bit drier than normal, and we did not get much snow up high this winter. As a result, of late the snow has been disappearing at an alarming rate because we never had much to begin with. Still it has been a cold spring - winter has lingered a bit longer than usual. In years past I've seen my first salmonberry blossom in April. Mowed the lawn in April too. In terms of the average I think we are about a week or a little less behind.

But as far as I am concerned the further behind the better. Go winter! I was very happy to find new snow on the mountain when I went skiing today. Patrick

Cinderella

Yesterday was the two Cinderella dance performances. I'm so glad it is over. Last week was rehearsals almost every night...some of which we didn't make it to. With a 4 and 5 year old, I was a little selective about how many hours of rehearsal into the late evening that they could handle. Dance weeks are rough on our family...Nora got progressively more tired and needy as the week went on. She started crying from the moment she woke up. Tired. Tired. Tired.

Last night Patrick and I went to 1/3 of the show and watched Stuey as a bee and Nora as a mouse. The bumblebees were something else...such a cute little bunch. There are 3 guys in Stuey's class. As part of their role, they were to flutter their arms like butterfly wings. Stuey adapted the move to do a shoulder--wing--shrug. He did it almost the entire dance and had a funny smile on his face. Patrick and I were laughing so hard---I had tears running down my face I was laughing so hard. I wasn't sure if it was just us that found Stuey and the bees so funny--but the whole audience was laughing.

I got a facebook message this morning from someone in the crowd that said they were laughing so hard at Stuey's bee moves that they had tears running down their face. I really look forward to watching the video of it all so I can relive it. The older dancers did such a good job of shuffling all the younger kids around. They are so gentle, patient and positive through it all. Its a big job for them to not only do their own dances, but to help corral the younger ones. :)

Nora was in her regular mouse dance, and then a second small dance where 4 mice dance around one of the older dancers. You can see this in the picture. It was fun to see Nora in a smaller dance. She looked so pleased.

Patrick and I joked that during the remainder of the performance, we half expected Stuey to randomly sprint across the stage with a helper chasing behind...when he gets tired he most definitely needs 1:1 supervision!! Fortunately, Sara was behind stage with the kiddos so we didn't have to worry at all about them.

Zoya