Energy Moving

Anchorage scene after the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake.
 From the Alutiiq Museum Archives - Knagin Collection 

The 6.2 earthquake in the Anchorage Airport should have been a sign of shift and change to come on my trip to Portland to take a 4 day women's health class.

 As I sat in the big leather lounge chair in Starbucks, the earth started to lightly shake under my feet. I looked up at the others in the cafe and no one noticed, all focused on their phones. The intensity increased and the airport swelled up and down. I thought of Stuey's tears when I left in the AM…."Mommy, I'm going to miss you. I want you to help me with my homework. And make my sandwiches."

I darted under the archway and the barista behind the counter let out a scream. A very think layer of dust fell from the tiles overhead. Was Stuey right? Should I have stayed behind, with them? With the dust, the scream, people standing everyone could feel the energy. The movement subsided and only 5 minutes went by before someone had pulled up the stats on their i-phone: a 6.2 quake.

                                                                 ~

After class on my return to Alaska it is late.   11 pm and  I stretch  across 3 airplane seats, chilled. Even with a vest, warm boots and jacket on, I was  cold and hardly slept during the red eye hours.

In the airport, also cold. Trying to warm up at 3 AM and sleep for a couple of hours. Drowsiness wouldn't settle in. Too much energy shifting, perhaps. I breathed warmth, in and down-trying to warm my core. It helped some and I got a few hours.

The contraction, expansion of energy. All around. The earth, around body healers for 4 days in Portland. And understanding how it plays into rhythms of nature and in our lives as beings. So much shifting of energy.

                                                             ~

And now, nearly 2 weeks later. Class is over, and the classmates send e-mails back and forth. Facebook friend requests were submitted and accepted with these fellow healing souls. None of us went back to life as normal. We're all a little changed, more tuned in with ourselves, our needs and better tuned into the energy of our bodies, of the earth, people around us. That resonance that can fill a room..of either warmth or cold. Now I can work with it, understand it. And most of all, appreciate it.

Zoya

Visiting with Brian

While Brian was visiting it was not all hunting all the time.  We did some visiting too.  On the day he arrived we went back to Jewel Beach and Nora looked for sea glass while Stuey tried to outrun the waves.  Sheba barked.  And us adults enjoyed the sunshine.  I showed Brian how my new camera can take super closeups with its 'microscope' setting.

And then we went for a walk in the woods.  The kids had brought flashlights and really wanted to explore the bunker we found on our last visit (click here for picture).  It was a scary place, and VERY big.  I was surprised that much of the furniture was still in pretty good shape - things like the doors and cabinets.  And to think that as the Army Headquarters during WWII, it is likely that Franklin Delano Roosevelt probably visited in that very bunker!  Best of all, this time Sheba did not roll in bear poop.

Patrick

Stuey's game of outrunning the waves

Close up of a feather with the microscope setting on my camera

We brought flashlights so we could explore the bunker

Group picture in the bunker

Pretty scary place

Fall colors are still gorgeous

Hunting with Brian

This past weekend an old friend came down from Anchorage to go deer hunting near town.  We love it when Brian visits.  Right away on arrival he was in a wrestling match with Stuey.  And Brian had better watch out because Stuey will beat him one day.  Every meal was accompanied by laughter and great stories.  Best of all, Brian seems to like our cooking!

But the hunting was HARD.  Late September through early October is the hardest time to hunt for deer on Kodiak.  In August when you go deer hunting you almost always come home with a big, fat, tasty 3-point-buck.  Up in the alpine the bucks are red and stand out against the green, green August vegetation.  But by late September the deer have left the high country, turned grey, and hang out in the tall grass and alders just below the alpine.  They are VERY difficult to find.

The hunting does pick up again in late October when the alders have lost their leaves and the bucks start to move around a lot more as they go into the rut for breeding season.  But the hormonal changes also make them taste gamey and almost inedible. We generally stop hunting for bucks after mid October. So if you want tasty deer meat and did not get your deer during the salad days of August you have to endure the marginal hunting of early October. The scenery and hiking are great but the deer are scarce.

Every day we got up early and ate breakfast with the kids and Zoya.  And then an hour before sunrise we'd be out the door - off to climb up a mountain and find deer by the dawn's early light. The first day we blew a chance at a buck during a snow squall (on the road system near town you are only allowed to hunt bucks), and then hiked for miles and saw nothing more but does.  On the second day it was super cold and somebody beat us up the trail. We arrived at the alpine to find a party of hunters butchering a mountain goat.  Needless to say, but they had scared off the deer and we hiked for miles and did not see any bucks at all - just does and fawns.

Finally on the third day (I took the day off work on Monday) we got our buck.  I guess the third time was the charm.  After the snow squalls and wind of the first 2 days the calm and sun of the third day made for 'a bright, bright sunshiny day' (a la Jimmy Cliff).  Brian got his meat for winter.

Brian later told me that the thought of having deer meat for winter made him overwrought with emotion.  As he put it, 'it's just so tasty'.  Tonight he returned to anchorage with meat for the winter.  Patrick

Hiking up during the first snowfall of the season

If you look closely you can even see the goat hunters in this picture butchering their goat below the black spot in the scree field

Negotiating the brush on the third day on the way to the alpine

Whoo hoooo meat in the pack at last!

Brian's one happy guy. He has what he came for - primo game meat for the freezer

Brian's drawing of the hunt - it manages to include a great many of the details of the final stalk, including topographic and geographic landscape features

World Peace

I'm not usually all that excited about evening commitments, but a couple weeks ago our children were a part of the International Peace Festival and Prayer Service at St Mary's School.  And I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The service was short, beautiful, and to the point.  I particularly liked how it incorporated many different viewpoints of peace from the different religions of the world.  It was an inclusive rather than divisive service.

But I think my favorite part of the whole affair was socializing afterwards with all the other parents.  The students  had their art and research projects on the walls for parental perusal.  Stuey and Nora had learned about the people of the Philippines.

Patrick

Color

I don't think I can remember a fall on Kodiak where the colors have been so bright or lasted so long.  It's funny but I assumed all Alaskans had experienced the same sort of summer and fall as we have on Kodiak - we all live in Alaska right? But I gather that in the Interior and in Southeast they had wet summers and falls.  I had a friend from Fairbanks who wrote me to the effect that he was glad that the wet miserable summer was over.  What?

Sometimes I think we forget how spread out and varied the various parts of Alaska are - from the rainforests and glaciers of Southeast, to the windswept, tree-less Aleutians, to the dwarf spruce taiga of the Interior.  It's ironic because in terms of population the state is small and tightly knit - everybody seems to know everybody no matter where they live.  We forget that it is also a HUGE place.  Patrick

Portland Love

In the PDX airport. 

Returning home early tomorrow. 

Feelin' the Portland Love~  

The warmth, smiles, hugs and love from the other kindred spirits in my class. 

Retreating to the peace and quiet of my hotel room after dinner. My little slice of quiet and solitude.

Staying up late watching House Hunters. 

Grazing through the stacks of beautiful books at Powells. 

Being in the presence of healers of all types for 4 days-natropaths, midwives & massage therapists. 

Walking through city streets. City lights. 

Portland Food Trucks-especially the Georgian one. Wow. 

Tami Kent, my class instructor. Her skills, patience, expertise…she's a gem. 

Portland food-Smoked Elk Tongue, Rabbit, eggplant dishes, local white wine…yum.

and….my long distance Stalker, Stuey. His breathy voice messages left on my phone. "What are you doing, mommy?"

Portland, I'll be back! 

Zoya

Jewel Beach

This past weekend it rained on Saturday, but indian summer continued on Sunday.  We went to Jewel Beach with some friends and all the dogs.  The main objective of the trip was to find beach glass, but our friends also brought wetsuits, and we learned that Nora and Stuey REALLY like to swim with wetsuits on.  I'm wondering if we might be swimming in January.

I took a lot of pictures and played with taking backlit pictures of the kids in the water.  I really like how the sparkles turned into little 6 armed 'stars'

Cici, Sophie and Roxanne looking for beach glass

On the way home we checked out an old WWII bunker that was supposedly the main headquarters for all of Kodiak.  I had heard it has 7 stories underground, but I later talked to Joe at the military history museum and he set me straight - only one floor. And yes it was the headquarters for the Army.

The downside of our bunker visit was that Sheba found and rolled in bear poop.  Rotted humpy bear poop - the WORST kind.  I had to wash her in a pond and our car ride home was quite smelly.  Patrick

washing Sheba - at least she stayed still

Dirty old carrot-eating dog

2 1/2 gallons of harvested carrots (1/2 bucket)

You might have heard of the 'egg-sucking dog' - the incorrigible hound best known from the Johnny Cash song of the same name.  Well, here at our house we got our own version of the 'egg-sucking dog' - only we can't keep her out of the garden rather than the 'henhouse,' and she's killing our carrots rather than the 'chickens'.  And if she doesn't stop eating our carrots we are NOT going to send her to the 'great chicken house in the sky' either.

Unbelievable!  We got a dog that eats carrots like chocolates.  

I think next year I might have to use an electric fence.  This year I decided to just harvest the carrots.  It was pretty much time anyway.  I harvested just under half of a 5 gallon bucket's worth of carrots.  And this year we harvested carrots pretty much continuously from late July on. It is amazing how many carrots you can get out of a small garden patch.

I wonder how many carrots Sheba harvested?

Chomp, chomp - Sheba lays waste to the carrot patch (note the slug)

Arghhhhh - is it time for the electric fence?

Fall colors on the Karluk River

The weather was on the gloomy side for my float trip down the Karluk River.  Floating along down the river watching all the colors go by was incredible, but even at the time I was thinking - 'with this light the landscape is impossible to capture on my camera'.  I almost did not even try.  And I do think a few spotlights of sunlight would have brightened things up considerably for the camera.

But what I did not realize was how much the clouds added to the pictures.  I did not even notice them when I took the pictures!  Looking back I wish I had exposed a bit better for the clouds and incorporated them more in my compositions.  Funnily enough, the pictures that turned out the best were all 'accidents'! Patrick

Class & Burritos

Within a few minutes of talking with the other attendees at the start of today Holistic Pelvic Care Provider Class, I realized that as a Physical Therapist, I was in the minority. And I liked that.

There are lots of natropaths, massage therapists, midwives and only a small handful of physical therapists in this 4 day class. Don't get me wrong, I love my profession but it sure is nice to be around women healers of other sorts (and especially to have the knowledge of so many natropaths in one room!).

I chuckle at myself for being nervous, or not excited about going last night.  I think I was nervous about unknowns…finding the class, a new teacher and style of treatment. And a class which steps away from looking at things from a strictly medical approach. 

 I left class today completely energized and so excited for tomorrow. 4 days of class in't seeming like a long time anymore…not with this group of incredible, thoughtful ladies. 

                                                                -

A Bean & Cheese Chimichanga :)

After class, peers dropped me off at my new favorite Portland digs… a little Mexican restaurant called Santeria. I discovered it yesterday from a google search-it got rave reviews for being a small little restaurant. In searching for Santaria, I walked around several blocks slightly disheartened, as I wasn't able to find it. Finally I asked some people walking down the street and they pointed me in the right direction. It was then that I realized why they didn't have pictures of the restaurant on their website. 

"Oh, its right on that corner, two doors down from the strip club" the two strangers informed me. I looked to a spot of real estate on a block which I had totally avoided on the prior search.  A strip club, a small grocery mart and then several unmarked units adjacent.  There wasn't any markings on the outside of the building for a Mexican restaurant. 

I backtracked, and upon closer inspection, I realized I had in fact walked right by the little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. It had only 6 small tables in it and a small bar and a goth style decor to it with a few black curtains on the top part of the tall windows. 

The same waitress was behind the bar again tonight. She sings along to songs and occasionally goes over to her phone and changes the tunes playing overhead. She turns the music down, and then a new song comes on and she belts out confidently with the lyrics. 50's and 60's style peppy ballades. I can see it feeds her soul.  She wears a very see through through sleeve blouse top which is barely buttoned up and her bosoms are seriously flowing out of her shirt. In this city, with her neighbors next door, I suppose anything goes. Especially since this little Mexican joint is open till 2 am. I shudder slightly to think of the scene she must have to put up with at that time of night. 

Her tattooed arm compresses the lemon squeezer with vigor over a mixed drink. Lemon juice pours down her arm and some of the juice makes it into the cup. She zests the lemon in a beautiful curl on the edge of glass after glass.  She  takes care to  sweep up any drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice off the side of the glass before bringing it over to the customer. 

And the food….it exceeds my Google expectations. I love Mexican food and especially this style of Mexican food where the meats are marinated there and the spices have an authentic taste to them. Mexican spices which make my taste buds come alive with curiosity.

Glad I have a few more nights in Portland to enjoy Santeria!

Zoya

Karluk River Float trip

Nate, Donn and Matt on the raft

Yesterday I did a quick, one-day float trip of the Karluk River with Donn, Matt and Nate. A lot of people hunt, fish, hike and camp along the river, and we were helping the landowner come up with ways to minimize everybody's impact on the landscape.  My job was to help with the archaeology.  The landowner wants to make sure the archaeological sites are protected. I've surveyed the entire river and lake and know the area very well, and I had some suggestions for where trails and campsites should or should not be situated.

We started our float trip downriver of where I visited on another quick visit just over a week ago.  At the outlet to Karluk Lake, where I was on that trip, the bears have been demolishing the archaeological village sites (click here to read post).  On this trip we saw relatively few bears and the sites were all in great shape - no digging bears or really any site damage at all (just lots and lots of digging voles).  No damage that is until we got to the Karluk Lagoon.  There, we again saw lots of bears and lots of bear damage.  On the Karluk River the bears seem to be mostly hanging out at the outlet to the lake and at the lagoon.

In years past when I've floated the Karluk River I have always been on survey, and very focused on my job.  Every time I saw a likely spot for a village site I had to stop and go onshore and check it out.  Then if it was a site I'd have to stay a while to map and record it.  It was always vaguely stressful and very much start and stop.

So this trip was a real pleasure. All of our stops were pretty much planned and I got to sit back in my kayak and enjoy the river.  The fall colors were stunning.  Patrick

The fireweed has gone from red to brown to white in the last week

This was my view for most of the day

The lower section of the Karluk River flows through a sort of canyon in the mountains 

Nate and Matt standing in the middle of a REALLY big prehistoric house depression 

The Karluk Lagoon where we ended our trip - that is the village of Karluk on the left