Dinner Date

DC and I have both been trying to impress each other with our cooking skills. Of course there's certain road blocks in this, such as he is a vegetarian and my favorite food is hot dogs, and sometimes meal planning can get interesting with food availability. 

So tonight, I made kale chips:

 

And he made another one of his vitamix soups that cooks in the blender or something:

I think he wins this round. 

Watermelons

Many of my loyal readers/fans and Anchorage friends have probably heard me talk about the price watermelons here more than once. The price of a watermelon here can easily be $50. This year we've had a lot of yellow watermelons, and Yesterday in AC I saw these:

And here's a picture of Yukon just because she's cute:

Visit to Quinhagak and Nunalleq Site

Wednesday and Thursday I spent most of the day in Quinhagak in meetings regarding the Nunalleq archaeology dig and what steps would come from the finds there, such as upcoming meetings, workshops, capacity building, and involvement of organizations. 

The archaeology site and the artifacts they found and shared with the community were amazing. 

Here is the site. You can see how close it is to the Bering Sea. The site is in extreme danger of eroding away, and part of it already has. The location of the original 2009 dig site is now somewhere in the Bering Sea. 

Part of a boardwalk. 

A mask depicting transformation into Wolf. 

A whole uluaq or woman's cutting knife used to cut fish or whatever (still widely used today)

The start of a coil basket which was very exciting because it shows proof of pre-contact coil weaving/basketry. Some claim that Yupik people were instructed on how to make coil baskets by missionaries. 

A more "open" weave used in what is believed to be a bag for carrying the fish. The open weave allows are to flow through so the fish don't get gross and slimy. 

When the Moravian Missionaries came, Eskimo dancing was banned. This year, a dance group formed and Quinhagak dancers performed at the Cama'i Dance Festival in Bethel last March. Wednesday was the first time a public Eskimo Dance performance had taken place in Quinhagak in 100 years. The students who performed did an awesome job!

Quinhagak is a gorgeous village and I really enjoyed visiting it. I can't wait to go back!

Our housing accommodations were phenomenal. We stayed in a very toasty Quansit hut that had bunk beds!

The flight back was pretty bumpy, but I got some great pictures of the tundra. Does anyone else think that this section of land looks like North and South America?

Mystery Bird- Solved?

Saw this guy on our porch Sunday and has been identified by the Bethel Birders as a juvenile northern shrike. Maybe. 

Just another day in the Grocery Store

I have a really hard time trying to explain to people not only are the prices here outrageous (3x on some things than they are in CT/Anchorage, some things more, some things less) but really bizarre things happen in the grocery stores as well.  And it's not completely their fault but sometimes I have to wonder what the heck is going on. 

AC now has some fancy cheeses but once again is/was out of milk.  The avacados are all bad, and they had one package of hot dog buns left that were marked 50% off because two were taken out of the package. 

Neck lines and Tug lines

I spent Sunday (slowly) making necklines and tug lines for the dogs. A neckline attaches the dogs collar to the gangline (the big rope that goes down the middle and connects all the dogs together) and a tug line is where the dogs actually pull from and connects the back of their harness to the gangline. 

To make the lines first you need to cut the rope to size and then burn the ends so they don't fray and to make it easier to pull them through. 

Then to make the loop where the clips go , you put one end of the rope through the other and then put that end through the other one to lock it, then put the excess Into the middle of the rope to hide it.  Casie has a board with nails in it that helps you measure how long the line needs to be and how big the loops need to be. 

I got all the tug lines done but still need to do the necklines....

Got blueberries?

Shared some of my blueberries with the chickens-they now have purple beaks!

Blueberry season is near the end. I have to go out one more time and get some to freeze!

Blueberry Milkshakes

The pups and Lynx helped me pick blueberries last week....

...and tonight we used them to make milkshakes!

Blueberry Milkshakes

The pups and Lynx helped me pick blueberries last week....

...and tonight we used them to make milkshakes!

Kuskokwim Art Guild

Here are some pictures from around the store that I'm currently working in:

The Big Dig Continues

Katrina had a great time digging next to her spot in the dog yard and spent a lot of time working on it. 

...and then Casie and I filled it in so that we wouldn't break and ankle feeding the dogs. 

Katrina wasn't too happy about that, and last night resumed digging. 

So persistent.

And here is a picture of Birch just for the heck of it:

 

Tundra Walk w pups

Went on a tundra walk with Katrina and her pups today out on the tundra wit Casie. The pups had a good time running around and did a pretty good job listening ad coming when called.

More Dog Stuff

Last night Casie picked up the latest addition to the team, a really shy but sweet girl Blues. Blues is a leader and we can't wait to see what she's got! She's originally from John Baker's kennel, a musher in Kotzebue who won the Iditarod in 2011.

We've also been working on doing things to prep for the racing season. Yesterday we updated the dogs on their vaccines, and gave them some Advantix to help with the mosquitoes. Also on the list is to paint houses, deworm them, brush them out again, and then vaccinate/deworm the pups when they get old enough. We also have a couple of freezers full of fish right now which is awesome!

Pupdate

Back in Bethel Alaska. Everything is pretty much the same, except for me losing a bunch of friends to the Lower 48. A new batch of Jesuit Volunteers came in, the AC ran out of milk for about a week, the movie theater building is progressing on schedule, and the pups are huge. I can barely carry them anymore. 

Prices haven't gone down either:

I've been working at the Kuskokwim Art Guild gift shop which has been nice. Gives me something to do temporarily.  I might start selling cards and things there too in a little bit. 

 

I might by a truck which is of course a Bethel Car: the rear windshield is ply wood and plexiglass and there's a huge dent in the front of it. But it runs and it runs in the winter which are the two most important things. It's also cheaper than shipping my beloved Subaru up which is NOT winterized, so believe it or not it is more economical to buy another car and to keep paying for a car I'm not using. 

The Bethel Fair is coming up this week so we've been busy getting submissions and things like that squared away. There should be a lot going on, with a talent show one night and a concert the next night as well as a bunch of other activities.  On Saturday there is a Saturday Market as well, so today I really need to work on advertising and things like that. 

Here are some updated pup pics of Twig and Birch:

I'm planning on going to Quinhagak next week to meet with some artists. I've never been to Quinhagak before so I'm really excited! There's a triple bonus that comes with it to: I get to travel with my friend Saunders (who went with me to Hooper Bay and Toksook Bay), one of my Bethel friends who is an itinerant teacher is going to be down there at the same time AND there's a huge archaeological dig going on!

Anchorage tickets are on sale and I might be going into town soon but I'm not sure when that would happen. Part of me would like to goto Fairbanks and Denali while its still open and not -40.