More Fairbanks

 

After the conference I stayed in Fairbanks to photograph objects collected from the Alutiiq Region at the Alaska Museum of the North.  The Alutiiq Museum is creating an online data base of Alutiiq objects from museums around the world.  So for the last few days Amanda and I have have been measuring and carefully photographing all sorts of Alutiiq ethnographic objects - spruce root baskets, wood quivers, bows and arrows, spears, model kayaks - all sorts of stuff.

Anyway, unlike when I first arrived and when it was unseasonably warm - it has gotten cold.  The photograph of the car dash is from yesterday, and this morning it is even colder - at the moment it is 33 degrees below zero and it is still dark.  Yesterday afternoon I went skate skiing at Birch Hill at 5 degrees below zero, and the snow was like sandpaper.  I squeaked along slowly - each pole plant a loud squeak. I did a 10K loop and it took a few minutes longer than it had earlier in the week.

Today we are heading back to Kodiak, and this morning I was worried about the car starting. So right after I got up I went out and started the car.  The starter ground a bit but it started.  Our rental is not winterised like most of the cars up here.  There is no plug so we can not plug it in at night and keep the engine block warm.  So we parked the car right next to the hotel building and under a tree in the hopes that it would not get quite as cold (the tree and building blocking some of the thermic radiation).  After the car started  I drove the car around for a bit.

Hopefully, it starts again when it is time to go to the airport!

Patrick

Update - the car started and it got colder.  We got to the airport and as we watch the sunrise from the gate at the terminal it is 35 degrees below zero.  As we drove to the airport the car dash temperature gauge steadily dropped and got to -29, but if we had driven longer it would have dropped below -30.  Filling the car with gas I took my glove off to put the credit card in the machine and then made the mistake of grabbing the metal fuel dispenser without a glove on - I froze my fingers and even partially blurred my fingerprint!  OUCH - it still hurts!

Alaska Anthropology Association Talks

 

Well the Alaska Anthropology Association annual conference meetings (aaa's) are over, but I am still in Fairbanks for work. I always enjoy the conference - serious archeo nerd fest.  I get to talk isotopes, fish processing and how to dig houses.  And meet with everybody I've been seeing annually once a year for 30 years.

Anyway, early in the conference I gave to 2 presentations and I did them back to back.  So I stood up and talked for a solid 40 minutes!  So here I present a few slides from each talk back-to-back just like I presented them at the conference.  First I talked about our survey of Tugidak Island and then about the 3000 year-old house we excavated at Karluk Lake.  If you want to read about the blog posts about the results I posted soon after the events click here for Tugidak and here for Karluk.

Patrick

Dogs at Play

 

These pictures are all from earlier in the week when I was still on Kodiak. Right now I am in Fairbanks for an archaeology conference where I am presenting 2 papers (post to come on papers).

Just before I left Kodiak we had some spring skiing, corn-snow conditions (see bottom photos).  It was a little mortifying how much snow we lost down low but the skiing was good.

The doggies LOVE their ski walk, and I could watch them for hours doing their play fight thing.  They charge each other and roll around and it looks like a fight.  But they are playing and I think it is one of their favorite activities.

Patrick

Snow, Slush and Rain

 

With the dismal warm weather of late I have not been taking very many pictures.  I have been taking the dogs up the mountain in the rain.  And over the weekend I brought up my old waterproof point-and-shoot camera. Above about 1200 feet elevation we actually have been getting a lot of new snow.  Saturday afternoon the dogs were running belly deep in the snow and we even saw a watery sun trying to shine through.

But mostly it has been slush and more rain.  Most of the snow is now gone by the road and I have been forced to park on the Anton's Bay side of the pass where there is still, just barely, enough snow to ski to the road.

Patrick