Staying in the far North

Well, decision time has come and gone. We're staying in Alaska for another year. It was a hard decision to make. The opportunities of Montana versus the financial benefits of Alaska. We weighed and discussed and fought and discussed and cried and discussed. Part of what tipped the balance was that the Montana state ed office refused to give Dave an answer about whether or not he'd have to take more classes for his elementary admin license until he sent in fingerprints. Well, maybe in the rest of the US that is no big deal, but for us it would have been an $800 flight to Anchorage to get them done. And if we'd taken the time to do so, we would have lost the opportunity to have the job here, as it would have likely been hired out at the Anchorage job fair this weekend. We won't be staying in this village, but moving next door, so to speak, to the village of Chuathbaluk. It's pretty similar to this village, but Dave will be the Lead Teacher, which is sort of a teacher-administrator hybrid position that fills the void from when one principal serves many village schools. We'll still have Susan as our principal which is a nice continuity. I'm actually fairly tired of thinking about it all, so instead I'm going to give you photos of what we've been up to. In Craftyland, I made a wooden Waldorf-style sunburst toy for Julia. Any carpenter would look at my crooked cuts and sigh, but I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I used a old fashioned hand saw to cut the sun points, and then I tracked down a jigsaw to cut the inner arcs. I should have tracked down the jigsaw first and saved myself the hassle of the hand saw, so lesson learned. I sanded it all down with very fine grade sandpaper, since that was all I had around. It took forever, but got the job done eventually. Then I used nontoxic watercolors to stain the wood and sealed it with a beeswax finish. I actually used a beeswax based lavender and peppermint headache soother balm, since it was all I had on hand, so the toy smells amazing. I used a piece of scrap wood, so I didn't have any dimension choice, but if I did, I'd make it a little wider. It is a bit tippy since it's only about an inch wide. 

 

I'm also working on a new knitting project. A friend asked me if I could re-create her hat, a vintage scandinavian pattern, which was starting to fall apart. I purchased some Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Sport in colors that were fairly similar, and started to copy the pattern. The brim was a easy k1 p1, and the pattern above it wasn't too hard to copy. I just hope the decreases at the top are easy to decipher too.

High fashion in the north

Kiley giving Julia a ride in the kicksled

My mom sewed and smocked this adorable dress for Julia out of an old pillowcase embroidered by my great-grandma.

Oh, and two more teeth are coming in, left and right of the lower front two!

Native Culture Fair

Several days ago, Julia and I and principal Susan took two students, Mattie and Miguel to a neighboring village called Kalskag. There's Upper Kalskag and Lower Kalskag, and in the fairly recent past they were warring factions, but now they have been able to come together enough to allow their kids to attend school together, so the high school is located between the two villages, and a school bus runs all over shuffling kids around. there are two more schools, in former years, each village had their own elementary, but now one is for the little ones and one for the older elementary. The high school is brand new, one month old. This is the third version, as they have had two fires that burned the school down. One fire was caused by sparks from welding in the shop getting sucked into a vent. I don't know what caused the other. We and other schools were invited for 4 days of native culture activities. There was native dance, beading, kuspuk sewing (the tunic-shirt), skin sewing, (with fur, making hats, mittens, booties, ect) and ulu making (a curved knife). There was also two dead moose, thanks to one of the teachers who took 3 boys out on a hunting trip. Kids used the ulus they made to cut up the moose and we had moose at every meal, and moose was distributed to the elders and people in need in the villages. We also had Blackfish, which are small little fish that are frozen, and then come alive as they thaw. No kidding, I saw it with my own eyes.  I sewed two hats out of rabbit fur called Malahai, (not how you spell it, I'm sure) and my nose ran the entire time, as I'm somewhat allergic to rabbit. No pain, no gain, and so I finished them, and made sure to pay attention to how the mittens were constructed so that hopefully I'll be able to teach the students we left at home, if they want to learn. Mattie made a pair of beaver fur mittens and Miguel made ulu knives. It was really neat to see the kids working on their projects. They really were taking a lot of pride in what they were working on. Julia was a star. Everyone wanted to carry her around and play with her. Even though she was cutting tooth number 6, she was pretty pleasant. Julia surprised us all by taking her first steps right in the middle of the sewing room. Just like that. I was pretty lucky to have my camera on me, so I got some video footage of the moment. Good thing too, because since we've gotten home, she's hardly taken any steps at all. We had a really great time at the culture fair, but after 4 nights of sleeping on the ground, I was pretty thrilled to have a bed again at home.

rehearsing a dance

lots of the boys danced too

Julia was very popular, everyone wanted to hold her.

Julia was excited about all the basketball playing going on

Miguel, working on his ulu

Miguel and his finished products

Another one of the finished ulus

Julia met Barbie

One of the moose

Students using the ulus they made to cut up the moose meat

One of the students, sewing her first kuspuk

and the finished product!

Mattie sewed beaver skin mittens

I made two hats, called Malahai, but probably not spelled like that. 

Julia sporting hers

You can tie back the ear flaps. 

testing the hat out in the cold

the source of sanity, the Marathon Nap

Julia is taking one of those marathon naps that is lasting so long I have to get up periodically and make sure she's still breathing. I even risked waking her to take a picture. She's been a needy little girl lately. Pretty much ever since we got home, she's been very reluctant to play on her own, and instead she hangs on to my knee while I eat or type or read or cook. When I put her on my lap, she stiffens and squirms to get down. When I put her down she wails like I've pinched her. When I stand up and carry her around on my hip she is happy and content. Since our house is about 10 feet by 10 feet this gets old for me fast. She is content in the great outdoors too, so I've started adding a morning walk to our routine. Unfortunately this has also coincided with bad weather, so our walks have been confined to close to the house. The river has finally frozen solid, so we have new territory to explore. This clingyness could be a sign of the eminence of new teeth erupting, but she won't let me near her mouth to see. This could also be a sign that I've caused her significant emotional damage by taking her traveling for a month. Or this could be a sign that I've raised either an insecurely attached child or a child with avoidant attachment or ambivilant attachment or disorganized attachment (I'm learning lots in my psychology class)  Or maybe she's on drugs. I learned that phrase from Kaethe's excellent parenting blog http://dearthisbe.blogspot.com. Why wait until she's 16 to use that reasoning when it applies so well to her behavior now?
Most of this I doubt though. Maybe the teething excuse is valid, or maybe this is just a phase.
We finally had a date night. We sent Julia over to Taylor and Angela's house for an hour last night. Dave and I ate chocolate cake with strawberry sauce and talked, mostly about whether we thought Julia was crying, bawling or wailing at that very moment. When our hour was over, we ran over to collect our poor abandoned baby only to find that she barely noticed that we were gone, didn't cry at all and had a great time playing. So I guess date night was a success and will hopefully be repeated often now that we can release our fears of having a traumatized child.
I am typing away on my new laptop that my sweet husband purchased for me which is a small miracle considering that 48 hours ago Julia dumped about a cup of water straight onto the keyboard. The laptop promptly shut itself off with a decisive "zoop" and I went into a panic thinking of all the photos I'd probably lost forever, not to mention all my class assignments that I hadn't submitted yet and not to mention having to tell Dave that I'm responsible for another laptop's demise (ask me sometime about how I had Dave's laptop run over by a bus.)  Turns out all my fears were for naught. I propped it tent-like upside down above our heater and let two days go by before powering it back up and it's like nothing ever touched it. Praise Be!

Molten Chocolate Cake from Martha Stewart
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz really good bittersweet chocolate, melted

arrange a baby sitter.
preheat oven to 400.
butter 6 muffin tin cups or 6 ramkins. Dust with white sugar.
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in flour and salt. Beat in melted chocolate. Pour into cups and bake 8-10 minutes, until still jiggly in the center. Let cool 10 minutes. Turn out onto serving plate.

Strawberry Rum sauce of my own invention
Thaw frozen strawberries or use fresh.
puree strawberries until you have about a cup of liquid. Add a splash of rum and a drop of vanilla or better yet, make your own vanilla rum by adding a vanilla bean to a small bottle of rum and letting it sit for a month, shaking occasionally. Add a splash of that. Add brown sugar to taste.
Pour over chocolate cakes and eat!

Julia woke up so fussy that I had to wrestle her down to check, and it's true, tooth number 5 is making an entrance! I guess she's not on drugs yet...

To the ocean and back

After a brief few days in Oregon, Julia and I hopped back on the train to the uncharted territory of Santa Barbra, California. I was hopeful that the train ride would result in glorious ocean views, but unfortunately night came upon us before we reached the ocean. We did see some lovely views in northern California though, and it was fun to see things like palm trees and cacti popping up along the way.  We had the pleasure of a sleeping car on the way down again, so it was a very pleasant ride. I met a woman with a 10 month old baby and we got seated at the same table for dinner. We talked each other's ears off all the way until our destination, swapping baby and birth and life stories. I'm not a naturally gregarious person, so when I have a random interaction like that, I really find it amazing. Our purpose in heading this far south was to visit our Holden friends, the Meitzkes. They showed Julia and I a wonderful side of California. Apparently three months of bad weather decided to lift just in time for us to arrive. We walked on beaches, saw starfish the size of a cocker spaniel and saw dolphins swimming in the ocean. We walked through parks full of green and sunshine, and walked through art, the booths stretching for blocks upon blocks. We drove through picturesque mountains and incredibly wealthy neighborhoods, dreaming about what we would do with a house that big and lovely. (Invite everyone we know to live in yurts scattered along the property, open the world's biggest cat sanctuary, ect.) We ate in restaurants! (A big deal when you live in a village of 100 in Alaska.) Julia ate sand and crawled on grass. She lurched from side to side in her backpack, trying to see everything.  We took Jasper, the dog everywhere (he barks when left at home) and took the cats and baby on walks in strollers and slings. And we conversed, about so many things.

And all too soon it was time to go north again, coach class. It was with great reluctance that I left the sunshine and beaches of southern California. I did get my incredible ocean vistas on the train ride north though. Miles and miles of beaches with hardly a soul to be seen on them. My secret to traveling on the train with a baby is to request the lower level seating. It has way less traffic than the upper level seating area, so Julia can crawl around and explore in a safer, more enclosed setting. And we got the seat against the wall of the car, so we were able to make a little nest of blankets and curl up on the floor for the night. It wasn't luxury, but it was ok. Now we are back in Oregon again, enjoying the last days of my extended vacation. In a few days I begin the final leg of this journey, back to the far north. 

Uncle Joe

Uncle Olaf

Lunch with Grandpoppa Jack and Great Granny Helen

Discovering the basket of dominos

Discovering a bulldozer

And she finally let me get a picture of the new top teeth!

Full Steam December

We got our tree and I've been busy decorating. For some crazy reason I didn't pack any christmas ornaments, so I've had to make them. Good thing we got a small tree!

Gingerbread Ornaments

A seed pod from a bush outside my house made a nice ornament 

a bit o bunny for your tree?

I've also been making some ornaments out of bits of rabbit fur. That's a sign of getting used to a different culture. I've never ever worked with or worn fur before now, but the school has a ton of fur waiting to be used by the kids in a native cultures project. the hard part is finding someone to teach a native cultures project, so in the meantime, I used some sealskin and bead earrings that were given to me by friends in Anchorage as a model for rabbit skin and bead earrings. I decided that they also make good christmas ornaments. I got the 6th and 7th graders making earrings and ornaments, and they did well, though one of them said "oh, that stuff stuck to the fur is skin?? I just thought it was something they glued on to hold the fur together"     sigh....

Julia supervising

Whitney's earrings

Miguel's ornament

Julia has come down with athlete's foot. I couldn't believe it, having never heard of a baby getting athlete's foot, but I took her around to all the moms here in the village and that was the consensus. I got ahold of a doctor who recommended an antifungal cream for a week, so we are working on that process.  She's also got the signs of more teeth coming in, general fussiness, an increase in drool, a rash on her chin from said drool, but I can't feel any more teeth yet. I'll keep you posted. Her new trick is sticking her tongue out at us.

Julia's wearing a sweater knit by her dad's grandmother

Julia's favorite place, hanging onto my leg

In the kitchen part of life, I've made my first successful batch of sourdough bread. You can find Oregon Trail Sourdough, at http://carlsfriends.net/ It's an old strain of sourdough, and they will mail you enough to get started if you send them a self addressed stamped envelope. I did so, and activated it in water and flour, fed it a few times, then I followed these directions: http://carlsfriends.net/carlospics/PanBreadRecipebyHand.pdf
and made my first ever sourdough!

I'm also going to give out Bambi's Carrot Pie recipe. We had this at thanksgiving, and she created the recipe because her store received a shipment of carrots that got frozen. Trying to salvage them, she pureed them up and substituted them for pumpkin in a pie. It was actually quite good.
Here's my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, from Joy of Cooking
2 c pumpkin, pureed
1 1/2 cups cream or evaporated milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
2 beaten eggs
Mix it all up, I like to do so in the blender. Pour into a prepared pie shell and bake 15 minutes at 425 and then 45 minutes at 350.

To make it carrot pie, substitute the pumpkin for pureed carrots.
happy baking.