Off to College

 

Foggy Kodiak at 7:30 AM

Yesterday both Stuey and Nora left Kodiak for college. It is a little sad but also exciting.  My house feels a bit like an empty kennel except there are 3 dogs keeping me company.

Anyway, before the kids left we went on a couple of walks with the dogs on Pillar Mountain.  And both times I forgot my camera. On the first walk I picked up the kids at 7:30 in the morning. It was all foggy and grey in town. I told the kids that it might be sunny up on the top of Pillar but they did not believe me. And then when we got to the top it was sunny. I used my iPad to take a picture of the fog down below us.

The next dog walk was on the evening before their departure.  I forgot even my iPad for that hike.  And it was another stunning day with glorious views from the top of the mountain.  So to document the occasion I had Stuey take selfies of us with his phone.  I never take selfies, and Stuey knows this, so it was pretty funny.  

Patrick

the kids thought the jeep looked like a car ad

A deer for Stuey

 

I got back exhausted from 2 weeks of archaeology and camping on Karluk Lake and immediately went hunting with Stuey. We left town well before dawn at 4:30 AM, and hiked up the mountain in the dark. We got to the top about the same time as the sun rose.  

We saw deer everywhere, and Stuey saw a spike (legal deer - on road system only male deer are legal) in an easy place to access.  I wanted a bigger deer and told Stuey we'd pass.  Then while we were glassing a big bowl, and there were plenty of big deer on the bottom, a bear woke up in the bushes near us with a loud 'HUFF, HUFF'. We never saw the bear and pepper spray in hand we backed up a bit away from the bowl. 

This summer I've already been deer hunting a couple of times with Stuey and we have passed on deer. And then in the end we did not get deer.  Stuey did not want that to happen this time.  So we went back after the easy to access spike. And Stuey got him - a very tasty spike.

Good decision Stuey!

Patrick

Back from Karluk Lake

 

We were camped on the small point in the middle foreground

I am finally back from Karluk Lake. This year for our excavation we camped on the lake rather than stayed in a cabin. Since I went on a camping trip to Afognak immediately before the dig, I basically have been camping for the last 3 weeks. Then when I got back from Karluk Lake I went deer hunting with Stuey (post to come). I am exhausted!

It was a successful dig and there will be more posts to follow.  In this post I just put my favorite pictures. While there we excavated a 1600 year-old house, and also tested all the other structures in the small village. We opened up 45 square meters of the site and that is a lot to dig - no wonder I am exhausted.

Life was good by the lake, but the bugs this year were pretty bad. We learned that bugs do not like the wood stove.  So on buggy days we would retreat to the teepee, close the doors, open the top vents (so bugs could escape), and crank the wood stove. It would be hot in there but no bugs!

Anyway, more to come.

Patrick

Our camp on the last day - grass turning yellow!

On the last day I climbed the mountain behind camp for a view of Karluk Lake

crew with the 1600 year old house foundation that we excavated

Lloyd the teen bear

We had 2 frosts - one on August 11th!

Crew cleaning gear after excavation complete

Bad berries - wolfbane!

camp and wood stove

collecting driftwood to feed stove

Early August at Lipsett Point

 

Whaler at Anchor - we got there by whaler this trip

Today I am off to Karluk Lake for a couple of weeks of camping and an archaeological excavation. But before I go I need to report on our quick weekend trip to Lipsett Point. Over the weekend Stuey and I went up to Afognak with some friends from Anchorage. We don't usually go there in the middle of summer and it was weird to see it so green. 

On this trip we did a lot of hiking and tried to get a deer. However, the mornings were foggy and the wind was from the completely wrong direction.  It was always behind us as we hiked and all the deer smelled us and ran away. Still it was gorgeous in the trees, and there was plenty of teepee and beach time. And of course we cranked up our 'red neck hot tub' - an old cast iron tub that we fill with sea water and heat with a propane 'crab cooker'.

On this trip I discovered that the hedgehog mushrooms are out far earlier than I thought.  We usually harvest them around Labor Day, but here we were at the very beginning of August and there were plenty of hedgehogs.  I picked a solid 10 pounds of them to take home, and one evening Ray cooked up a batch for an appetizer.  He sauteed them and added the garlic scapes from my garden that we'd brought on the trip.

Patrick

Hedgehog mushrooms and garlic scapes cooking on the wood stove

The petroglyphs are particularly clear when the sun is just right at 10 AM

Berry Season

 

On recent dog walks the dogs and I have been browsing on the ripe berries.  I'll stop to pick berries and I notice that the dogs are chomping away at the bushes too. My harvest has all been in the realm of immediate gratification, and I have not been picking berries into a bucket and freezing them.  In the park yesterday I found and ate salmonberries, blueberries and 'Russian berries' - Russian berries are a yellow variety of salmonberries. I think my favorite are the Russian berries.

For some reason I've found that the salmonberries seem juicer and more tasty under the trees in Abercrombie than they do out in the sunshine.  I am not sure of the reason for this - maybe they ripen more slowly? 

Patrick

handful of Russian berries