Thursday, June 27, 2013
Pups- 3 weeks old today
The pups are three weeks old today! The female (who I am now calling Diva) was walking around the kennel and exploring everything outside the house, while her brother (Birch) was asleep. They're starting to play together more and wrestle.
New Dumpsters
The art campers have been busy painting new dumpsters to be put around town! Here's a sneak preview:
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Jarring Salmon
On Thursday I took a class on how to jar salmon. Jarring it allows you to keep it for a year+, and it's already cooked (via pressure cooker) and is about the same consistency as tuna fish out of a can. My jar is already gone, I ate it as soon as I picked it up! I'm hoping to be able to help some people jar their salmon this year.
Obligatory Summer Solstice picture
Summer solstice was late night. I didn't do anything crazy to celebrate, but I did take a picture outside around 1:30am.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Permafrost and Refrigeration
At fish camp we were shown how to make a food cache/refrigerator by digging a hole in the ground until you hit the permafrost! Then you cover the hole with plywood or something to keep it covered and so no one falls in! It kept stuff really cold that had been there for days.
Fish Camp
Two Wednesdays ago I was able to go to a fish camp and help set it up for a program that would be going on there over the weekend. A fish camp is a place where people camp/live while they are out catching fish on the river and cut/dry/smoke the fish there.
Our job was to open the camp, clean stuff up, make sure the buildings were ready, set up tents, and lay down pallets because the fish camp was swamped!
Our job was to open the camp, clean stuff up, make sure the buildings were ready, set up tents, and lay down pallets because the fish camp was swamped!
The heat wave we were having finally broke with a thunderstorm on Wednesday night. It was pretty crazy because this area (and Alaska in general) doesn't really get a whole lot of thunderstorms, and many people were saying that this is the first one they remember here in a while/their lifetime. It got up to 90 degrees, and now it's back down to 50 and windy with occasional rain. It was nice to have the HOT weather, but it's also really nice to cool back down. It was just way too much, and on Tuesday night I just ended up going to bed because it was too hot to do anything.
I went to my friends Sam and Natasha's wedding over the weekend which took place on top of Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. The wedding was gorgeous and we all got a little sunburned. Afterwards we had a reception at Eklutna Lake (2 hours after the guy there got mauled by the bear!) and camped overnight. It was a heck of a climb, and naturally at the part where you have to scramble up some rocks to get to the top, I followed the group that was going up the more difficult path so it was more like rock climbing than hiking! About 20 of us went, including two dogs, plus random tourists that joined us and were taking pictures. There was actually a group of people who stepped into the big group picture that no one knew!
Natasha's dress was beautiful! Some of us got changed at the top (like myself), and other braver women wore their dresses up the mountain! The guys brought button up or polo shirts with them.
I was able to pose with the couple before heading back down the mountain-while wearing my hiking boots! I decided that getting out of my dress and getting make into my hiking clothes was too much of a hassle so I just wore it down. It wasn't too bad, but I did get some interesting comments which has sparked the idea that maybe we should go hiking in dresses more often.
A lot of the VISTAs in Anchorage also joined a kickball league which is run by the city, and because I missed my flight (typical) I was able to catch one of their games!
The baby ravens who had a nest in the satellite dish by the college have been out and about flying and hopping around the tundra. I've seen them all over the immediate area, checking out the roofs of buildings, the area right below their nest (below) and hopping around the tundra by the Cultural Center. It was so cute seeing them experience tundra for the first time because they were testing out the squishy/bounciness of it and were using it like a trampoline.
I went to my friends Sam and Natasha's wedding over the weekend which took place on top of Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. The wedding was gorgeous and we all got a little sunburned. Afterwards we had a reception at Eklutna Lake (2 hours after the guy there got mauled by the bear!) and camped overnight. It was a heck of a climb, and naturally at the part where you have to scramble up some rocks to get to the top, I followed the group that was going up the more difficult path so it was more like rock climbing than hiking! About 20 of us went, including two dogs, plus random tourists that joined us and were taking pictures. There was actually a group of people who stepped into the big group picture that no one knew!
Natasha's dress was beautiful! Some of us got changed at the top (like myself), and other braver women wore their dresses up the mountain! The guys brought button up or polo shirts with them.
I was able to pose with the couple before heading back down the mountain-while wearing my hiking boots! I decided that getting out of my dress and getting make into my hiking clothes was too much of a hassle so I just wore it down. It wasn't too bad, but I did get some interesting comments which has sparked the idea that maybe we should go hiking in dresses more often.
A lot of the VISTAs in Anchorage also joined a kickball league which is run by the city, and because I missed my flight (typical) I was able to catch one of their games!
The baby ravens who had a nest in the satellite dish by the college have been out and about flying and hopping around the tundra. I've seen them all over the immediate area, checking out the roofs of buildings, the area right below their nest (below) and hopping around the tundra by the Cultural Center. It was so cute seeing them experience tundra for the first time because they were testing out the squishy/bounciness of it and were using it like a trampoline.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Alaska's Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge
Here's a video about the birds found in the area and some information about the YK Delta. It's a great way to see what the landscape around me looks like:
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
This blog post brought to you by the color green
It's FINALLY spring here. A little bit of rain, a lot of sun, and warm temperatures have transformed the tundra and now all sorts of stuff is growing, including these flowers I saw on my walk yesterday:
The smelts came and went on Saturday. Someone told me that he had never "heard so much misinformation and excitement about smelts than this year". No one seemed to know when they were coming, and there were all sorts of rumors going around about when they would come and if they would come and maybe they had already came under the ice. At any rate, the smelts came just after midnight on Saturday morning, and later that day I was able to take a 10 minute break from Saturday Market to watch people "smelting" on the sea wall. Smelts are small silver fish that you catch via net. The measurement for smelts seems to be in gallons, as in you will often hear people say something like "Oh I got 5 gallons of smelt" (I think that's also how much each person is allowed to get but don't quote me on that). They only come once a year, so if you want smelts you have to be around when they come! Right now you can see them drying outside of people's homes.
My parents came to visit me and I did some traveling with them around the state. I didn't post anything about that trip but I will soon. Maybe tomorrow. Our internet at work is acting funny. This week I might go upriver to Kwethluk for a visit, to a fish camp to help prepare it for a camp (Teens Lead Ahead), and then back into Anchorage for my friend's wedding on Saturday!
I'm up late washing all sorts of stuff because today (Monday) is water day, meaning that sometime between 9ish am- 7ish pm a water delivery truck will come and fill the water tanks up with water. In the dorm I have city water, meaning that water just comes in via outside pipes. However most places in Bethel have "hauled/delivered water". The greatest expense in getting water delivered is the actual cost of the delivery, so if you have a lot of water, usually the day before "water day" people start doing laundry and doing dishes and washing stuff to use up as much water as you can. I'm house sitting right now with one of the JV's, so I did some of my own laundry and then washed the towels and sheets, washed dishes, filled the Brita pitchers, watered the plants, made sure the dogs bowl was full, and made some kind of juice mix.
The smelts came and went on Saturday. Someone told me that he had never "heard so much misinformation and excitement about smelts than this year". No one seemed to know when they were coming, and there were all sorts of rumors going around about when they would come and if they would come and maybe they had already came under the ice. At any rate, the smelts came just after midnight on Saturday morning, and later that day I was able to take a 10 minute break from Saturday Market to watch people "smelting" on the sea wall. Smelts are small silver fish that you catch via net. The measurement for smelts seems to be in gallons, as in you will often hear people say something like "Oh I got 5 gallons of smelt" (I think that's also how much each person is allowed to get but don't quote me on that). They only come once a year, so if you want smelts you have to be around when they come! Right now you can see them drying outside of people's homes.
I'm up late washing all sorts of stuff because today (Monday) is water day, meaning that sometime between 9ish am- 7ish pm a water delivery truck will come and fill the water tanks up with water. In the dorm I have city water, meaning that water just comes in via outside pipes. However most places in Bethel have "hauled/delivered water". The greatest expense in getting water delivered is the actual cost of the delivery, so if you have a lot of water, usually the day before "water day" people start doing laundry and doing dishes and washing stuff to use up as much water as you can. I'm house sitting right now with one of the JV's, so I did some of my own laundry and then washed the towels and sheets, washed dishes, filled the Brita pitchers, watered the plants, made sure the dogs bowl was full, and made some kind of juice mix.
Friday, June 7, 2013
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