Sunrise

The sun is out today! (or at least it was this morning)

a self portrait.

Rain Rain Go AWAY!!

okay since I can't go outside because itwon't stop raining, here's a picture of a copmic that is taped to the back of the bathroom door.

Some arctic humor:

I'm happy to report I'm Salmon-ella free

Hehe- the title's for you dad.

This is my fish.

IT was given to me by a sweet family in Brevig.

Who had an adorable 3 year old little boy.

Who loved trucks.

Back to the fish.

It was a very large fish.

A very large salmon, that is.

Who had really sharp teeth.

And was not cut up by the local butcher.

Oh wait there is no local butcher.

OH crud that means I have to do it.

At 11:00 PM.

Because that's when the family got back from 'camp' and brought it to me at the clinic.

(It was still daylight outside by the way)

So, because I thought it would be funny to look back at. I've chronicled my adventures at "dissecting" and freezing my fish.

So here goes:

Here's the head. and those mean ferociously sharp teeth. I don't like fish heads.

So off they go. after a few hours of hacking at it with an extra dull knife that just so happened to be in the kitchen at the clinic.

 

 And then the insides come out.

slimy nasty insides.

And since I had to wait to get a sharper knife to actually "fillet:" the slimy fish I don't have any pictures.

In fact I don't even have the fish anymore

Dr. Liu stole it

She took my salmon right out from the freezer and took off with it

It's okay I guess.

I took the Trout that the family gave to Kim.

The trout that Kim offered to Dr Liu, NOT my Salmon.

She's going to be surprised when she opens the bags up and they have my NAME all over them.

( I used the bags I get my Rx in q month.)

I probably got the better end of the deal. the Salmon is kinda butchered..ahem I mean cut in perfect fillets.

the end.

Oh and I wore gloves. medical gloves. fish are slllliiiimmmeeeyyy.

That's why i didn't catch "salmon-ella" ;)

Brevig Mission- Part I

Finally- I know.
 I loved my time in Brevig and all the people I met there. Below are some pictures of the Berry picking and ATV riding outings.

Can someone tell me why the pictures always look so distorted??  Anyway- this is out berrypicking with Brenda (the girl in the picture) and Kim (the NP). They have blackberries (which are literally black-berries not what you typically think of when you hear "blackberries". They are about 1-3 cm diameter and are shaped like a blueberry. There are also blueberries, but those are harder to find- i think between the bears and the natives they were mostly picked by the time we went out.

If you look closely you can see the black berries. This is what the tundra looks like. Layers and layers of plants on top of each other. You can actually dig in it to find more berries but it can get rough and I wasn't that desperate to find berries. When the natives go out they can pick 1 qt  of berries in like an hour that is crazy fast to me I think I got like 1/4 qt in an hour, but in my defense I probably ate another 1/4 qt during that time too.
.
Here's a tundra mushroom- they are actually really tasty. as long as you get the clean ones

 
And below are pictures of the tundra... and Brevig.

At Sunset (an area to the E of the city)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The "mountains" behind the clinic. See how there are no trees- Thats the main difference I've noticed between brevig and Unalakleet.

This is Brevig. The only 2 story building is the school. Unalakleet has a lot more taller buildings. I think that is why it seems so much bigger (and easier to get lost in- not that i'm saying I have...I've just taken some extra long walks)

Unalakleet the town- Part II

One of my favorite buildings in town. I reminds me of an old barn...like at Churchill downs or something.

very rustic. very quaint. and I have no idea what it actually is or if it's even used.

 This building is on the opposite side of town from the clinic. It is across the street from the AC store (the larger of the two grocery stores in town).

There is one "main" street- or at least it's the main street I take. It goes by the post office, the police station, the coffee house, the AC store and Peace on earth the pizza place is right off of it. It continues  down to the boat ramp which is to the right in the picture of the grocery store.

   

One thing I learned last night...you can pull a boat with an ATV. I tried to be as discreet as possible, but the picture didn't turn out to great. but if you look closely you can see a boat being pulled right behind the ATV.  CRAZY!!

Another fun little building on the main road is this one:

Tell me I'm not the only one that thinks this looks like a fridge?!

It's outside.??

why??

why the heck does it have a boarded up window??

The last 2 pictures I have from around Unalakleet are of the clouds. It's been drizzly and cloudy since I got here (in fact we had some crazy turbulence flying into town because of all the clouds), and while I would love to see some sun, there are some pretty cool looking clouds.

'Camp'

I love how fake this looks.

I know, I'm wierd.

It reminds me of the edge of serenity.

So serene now but on the edge of an overflowing dam that could break at any minute and open a flodgate of rough tough alaskan weather.

Back to the real world.

There are so many parts of Alaska I love, but the part I love the most is the people- the natives in particular- and their culture and history to be more specific.

A little background first.

Subsistence. It's a HUGE part of native survival and their history.
When I use subsistence though, it's not the general definition of "barely managing to stay alive. It has to do with their hunting and gathering lifestyle.
They are allowed to catch all the fish, kill all the game, pick all the berries, and harvest all the onions and mushrooms they need to support their family (and extended family) but they are not allowed to sell any of it. (they can barter for other things with it though).

This means every spring/summer/fall time a lot of their time is spent doing all those things to get, prepare and store up food for the winter.
That is where 'camp' comes in. Every family has a "camp". which is basically a spot of the river, sound, or other shoreline that they use as a base to launch from, fish from, etc and as a place to prepare the things they've caught. There are little "huts" dotted all along the shorelines.

I saw this in Brevig:

And I see it here in Unalakleet:

I also have a few more pictures of the beach that I didn't post before.

<-- It wasn't intentional, but I think it's kinda unique that the focal point became the bird flying away.


"The point" -->

More Dogs!

Although I guess I haven't even posted the dog pictures from brevig... but here are ones from Unalakleet last night.

I call this "One pooped pup" very clever I know I amaze myself sometimes.

not even a side glance when I walked by unlike his neighbor 2 days ago

Last night though- even his neighbor was too tired to acknowledge that I was walking all over his road

 I walked farther out on the tundra last night and saw more sled dogs...mushing dogs.

Whatever you call them.

I'm rather partial to mushing dogs. it just makes them sound more fluffy and cuddly.

Even though they are very NOT cuddly.

But speaking of not being cuddly tell me how many generations off of wolf the  dog laying down in the back looks to you...

sorry the resolution doesn't look good on my computer screen. I hope it is better on yours :/

That is a wolf to me- not a dog.

And yes I do realize that wolves are dogs but seriously...not the same.

I can't tell if these are the same dog but this one doesn't look that far off either.

Actually it looks more like a coyote (is that spelled right- it looks wierd : /  )