Caribou and Jury Duty

Caribou
So last night as I was getting ready to head over to the school to work on my weekly lesson plans I got a knock on my door. It was one of the other teachers asking if I wanted a leg of a caribou that had been killed that day. I took the leg and cleared off a space on my counter. The sinew is so tough. I am learning a lot about muscle anatomy as I cut the fresh meat away from the bone. There are tough sheaths of connective tissue that bundle the muscles together.
This is the meat after it was all cut away from the bone. Maybe 4 lbs?
Tonight caribou fajitas. I have the tortillas from New Mexico thanks to my land lord. I have a head of iceburg lettuce from the village store, and even an avocado, a few shades shy of ripe, but edible add a little salsa and we are cooking.

Zoey got a nice leg bone and was able to enjoy it despite the fact that a stray village dog was trying to steal it from her.

Jury duty

I think there is a lot of crime in New Mexico. Almost everyone I know who has lived in New Mexico has been asked to serve Jury Duty, I am no exception. But seeing how I was supposed to be there for orientation on the 26th of September and today is the 29th, and the fact that I am about 3 thousand miles away, I don’t think I am going to make it. That’s too bad, it would have been an excused absence from work and I could have visited my friends, but I do not think the minimum wage stipend they pay would have covered my travel costs.

Fred Myers

I just received a bunch a fresh produce from Fred Myers. Romaine lettuce, kale, broccoli, apples oranges, mangos, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots. I had a big fat salad for dinner. In fact I did not have room for the Salmon that I made. I guess I can have that on my salad at lunch tomorrow. Yum I need to enjoy the fresh produce while I can… I do not think that I will be able to get much of it when it is 40 below. It would freeze and get all soggy. I might as well plan on eating a lot of frozen veggies for a few months.

Care package #4 New Mexico Green Chile

Wow that little flat rate box was packed with green chile. 6 cans of Hatch enchilada sauce, 4 cans of diced chile, a can of re fried beans and a package of tortillas. Kay even remembered that the former samosas were my favorite girl scout cookies!

Thanks so much to Kay and Paul Souder, my former landlords in New Mexico!

Sunny Day

Fox tracks in the snow. I saw a red fox last week. For some reason I expected to see arctic fox here. No, I guess global warming is pushing everything north.



Today was a nice sunny day. I went out to hike around on the tundra and soak it in while it lasts, because it won't be long before the sun will fail to rise. Wednesday was the Atumnal Eqinox, the sun was up for 12 hours. Its all down hill from here.



Today the sun rose at 8:04 and set at 7:52. Almost 12 hours.

Zoey King of the tundra.

blogg worthy?

well things have been busy around here the past few weeks. I have been trying to get out and walk as much as possible before it gets too cold. I am already wearing more clothes than I did in the heart of winter in New Mexico! Can't wait to see what January brings!

So in my health class we have been talking about physical fittness and I have been making the kids take physical fitness tests. They are not in as good of shape as I expected. Maybe this will inspire me to try to improve my own physical fittness and stop using the I am a busy teacher excuse for letting myself get out of shape.

I have been taking lots of walks, I walked out to the dump at the end of a road that goes about 2 miles north of town. Round trip is about 5 miles. If I ran that would be a good run. I have heard there are sometimes wolves out there so I have ot be careful.

I has been snowing off and on for the last 2 weeks. I think the snow may be here to

stay is is about 4 or 5 inches of fluffy snow out on the tundra. I might be able to ski soon if it keeps up.

I have found several fossils along the river, I think this one is crioniod, also known as sea lilly. I have also found some fossilzed coral. Who knew you could find coarl in the arctic?

Sunset on the Snowy Mountains

It snowed again today. 4rth day this week. I wonder if it is here to stay. Hard to belive after picking berries last saturday it was 60 degrees F. Need to start thinking about a good winter parka. I don't know if fluffy down is going to cut it.

SAY ahhh

So I was working at school late on Monday night, when I left my throat was dry and tight. My voice was scratchy. I waited two days before going to the clinic despite everyone telling me I was sick, I had strep, maybe pneumonia... or what ever is going around...

So I finally made an appointment and went over there. The guy working at the clinic is a little quirky, but nice. He looked in my ears and told me both my ear drums were completely scared over. I don't remember any other doctor ever telling me that. I know I have ruptured my ear drums, but I did not know they were scarred. Oh well. So he looks in my throat, and nose, yup they look red and sore. Okay. So let's do a rapid strep test. So he tries to swab me but I can't seem to relax my tounge long enough for him to get in there and get a good swab. I don't know why I could not say ahhhh and just let him swab my throat. Well he ended up taking three separtate tests before he determined that I did not have strep. Oh well, so he hooked me up with 800 mg of Motrin and I was good to go. Wow that really works... I felt a lot better. well the Motrin, copious amounts of tea, salt water gargle and the neti pot...

Rock Fishing

In the fall when the rivers dry up, the fish are concentrated into pools and short riffles.  The kids have a custom of working together to scare the fish down stream until they essentially have them cornered. They throw rocks in the water to scare the fish, and sometimes hit the fish and stun them.  The most common fish in the river running through town is the graylng.   

Snow

I woke up this morning and let Zoey out to find a fine white dust falling from the air.  I think this is snow.  A fine film of white crystals was accumulating on my porch railing.  By the time I left for school the hills of the tundra looked white.  I will post photos later...

Well the snow was gone by mid-afternoon.  The same happened on Tuesday.. snow in the morning for a few hours, but basically melted on the ground.  Last night it snowed but the snow line did not make it all the way down to the village.

Happy Monday everyone.

Plant Collecting

In my Science class we are studying Plants of the Tundra.  We have been learning about how to take field notes and collecting plants.  Once we get a lot of plants we can look at how they are adapted to this cold climate.  I enjoy taking my students out while the weather is nice, they are good for the most part, but they really like to push my buttons and push the limits.   I guess the kids are not used to having limits here in the village.  For the most part the people at school, mostly the teachers are the only people who tell them what to do.  No one at home tells them what they can and can't do.  Most students to not have a bed-time or allowance... they get a dividend check from the corporation and they do what they want with it.

AHHHHHH

It is Tuesday Night, I have been back one day from a wonderful weekend in Fairbanks and I am already ready for another vacation.  The week is almost half over and I don't have a plan.  I have tests to grade, tests to write, homework to grade, homework to create, lessons to prepare and so on and on... and just not enough hours in the day!!!

I spent over $2,000 this weekend and I am not sure how.  But I am pretty sure I will not need to go shopping again for a while.  Despite this, there are things I forgot to buy... like hooks and a coat rack.  I guess I will survive without.  Today I got home from work... I have a freezer full of meat and salmon... but I did not have anything ready to cook because all my meat was frozen!  Ashley had me over for dinner, what a savior.... dinner in a box.  I brought over fresh veggies and hummus.  Yum.

There are so many things I want to Blog about.... Rock fishing, plant collecting, my students...

I hope I will have more time soon...

I'll keep you posted if I survive this week.