Oh. Time.

Well, the best laid plans and all that.

I had such high hopes of competing NaBloPoMo this year, but life seems to be getting in the way again. I'm now away from my stash of Alaska photos after a few hectic days that kept me from posting. 

The biggest thing that has happened is that Darcy turned NINE!! It doesn't really seem like we left Alaska eight years ago, but it was the day after her first birthday that we flew out of King Salmon for life in the desert. She has provided us with adventures ever since. From our months spent living with as the Wright brothers to cross-country drives, from the desert to the red woods, she has adapted to what we've thrown at her and continued to amaze us with new skills and interests.

So...I will continue with the Alaskan tour when I get back home and I might try to post in the mean time, but I've failed in the daily posting goal. 

Alaska: Day 11

Last night, I gave a teaser for today's post: I got to pet a dinosaur! A baby dinosaur!

This is a fossilized dinosaur footprint. It was just being brought into the lab while we were visiting Denali. Because we have great friends, the paleontologist (NOT archaeologist) carrying it stopped to give us a look. It was a three-toed beastie, quite young based on the size. And the coolest thing? You could see skin impressions -- the actual texture of the beastie-skin:

See those ripples in the rock? That's the skin. I got to touch it. Pet it. Like you'd pet a baby dinosaur. Pretty darn cool, right?!

Alaska: Day 10 of NaBloPoMo

It seems like this single-topic NaBloPoMo might be cheating, but life is BUSY this November. I started a new job on Friday, but I'm still dragging from an early-season Crescent City cold, so it's been tough. We're recruiting for my old position, I'm learning my new position...also recruiting for a new VISTA. I have jobs to fill! 

So I'll take my cheat and stick to my topic.

We stopped for part of a day and one very fun night outside/in/near Denali National Park to visit with Jim and Jess, friends from Michael's ELEDP days. Jim made CHIEF while we were there, which was very exciting. Also exciting? Denali's fairly new main visitor center and the nearby Murie education center. 

There was so much art in both places and it was all art to a purpose, there to teach something cool about the park. In this photo, for example, is just one corner of a massive quilt made by a local quilter's guild. It is a map of Denali National Park depicting its different ecosystems. The boarder featured scenes from a variety of those ecosystems and you can see that even the background was treated thoughtfully, with animal tracks quilted onto the white. It was very, very cool and there were a couple other quilts from the same guild in the visitor center as well. (I was only going to do one picture, but it deserves more, so enjoy!)

(Teaser for tomorrow: I got to pet a BABY DINOSAUR at Denali!!)

Alaska: Day 9

We were in Alaska the week after President Obama's visit and the very tail end of the tourist season. The last cruise ship of the year was in harbor while we were in Seward and we got to take the very last of the summer sled dog rides. These pups were resting mid-run because it was "so hot" -- at least 60 degrees! They were amazing pups. They'd all drift a little during the rests and the musher would practically whisper, "Tighten up," and they'd all hustle back into a straight line, ready to run again.

Got a picture during the rest -- otherwise, it was too bouncy! Those dogs were FAST despite carrying a dozen passengers on a "sled" that weighed 800 pounds empty.

At the end, we got puppies! This is a training center for Itidarod winners and these pups have serious bloodlines attached to their names. There was much snuggling of puppies:

Alaska: Day 8 Friends Past and Present

Next stop was Seward! I had never been to Seward before and good friends of ours from Katmai are now at Kenai Fjords National Park, so we were excited to get there. We headed straight for the Alaska Sea Life Center for some closeups with the sea creatures. 

I love myself a good octopus and this one was showing off! Darcy got a cameo with it, too. 

The highlight, though, was meeting up with our good friends Sharon and Bryce and their daughter, who was born just two months after Darcy and slept in the same bassinet we'd bought used in Anchorage and passed along when we headed home to King Salmon. They were each other's first playmates, as seen in the very last photo. 

 It was very sweet to see how well they got along now that they were reunited after almost eight years. There will be more evidence of that tomorrow.

Alaska: Day 7

Well, I thought I was going to get us out of Bristol Bay with this post, but then I realized I didn't actually show Bristol Bay! And we did make a special trip to Naknek just so we could show Darcy. First, though: this is the bulletin board in the multi-agency visitor center next door to the King Salmon airport. The little piece of paper in the corner is four haiku I sent with a Christmas card our second Christmas out of Alaska. The photo at the bottom is of Darcy Jo from the same year. She is CRAZY-LOVED in her first home.

And here is Bristol Bay, home of some of the world's largest salmon runs, where peat and tundra fall off the cliff onto the beach. Where set-net rights are emblazoned on small billboards with ramshackle buildings for fish camps. So beautiful.

Alaska: Day 6

It is, of course, really Day 6 of NaBloPoMo, not of our trip to Alaska. So far, all of the photos are of just the first two days. Time moves slowly in Alaska. 

I can't really show pictures of Katmai without showing pictures of at least one bear, so here's your bear. The salmon runs are all dying out and spawned-out salmon are just hanging around in the water waiting to die. They are easy pickings for the fat, happy September bears. If you want to see what I mean by fat, happy September bears, check out Katmai National Park's Facebook "Fat Bear Week". So fat. So happy.

But let's move on, shall we?

Flying back from Brooks Camp, we got a great view of King Salmon before landing on the Naknek River. I couldn't quite get the "supermarket" in the frame, but otherwise, this is pretty much all of downtown King Salmon. We lived in the large building in the top center of the picture, just to the left of the weather dome. Convenient to the airport and downtown!

Alaska: Day 5

So it's my last day as Food Projects Director for the Community Food Council for Del Norte and the Adjacent Tribal Lands. That makes me sad, even though I am truly excited for my new job. Part of my motivation for doing the work at the Food Council is that I understand from lived experience what it's like to live without a real grocery store and have out-of-control food prices eat every pay check. 

We visited both of our "supermarkets" in Bristol Bay and I couldn't resist snapping some of the food prices. This is part of what made us leave Alaska -- we just couldn't afford to eat!

Alaska: Day 4

This might not look all that exciting. But it's for my mom. The light bits floating on top of the water are all pumice -- that is, of course, floating rocks courtesy of the eruption that created the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, the original reason for the creation of Katmai National Park. We have video, too, of Michael and Darcy throwing armloads of pumice into the lake and having them bob back up to the surface. Mom/Kathy/Grandma loves the floating rocks!

Alaska: Day 3

(There may be some time travel involved in the next two posts. I am transitioning from one job to another AND I'm sick, so I'm allowing myself the gift of procrastination of pre-dating posts.)

Katmai Lodge is a true icon of old-fashioned park lodges. There's a big 360-degree fire place with ancient arm chairs around it. Old-school benches and tables in the dining room. And a permanent hot drink corner.

Darcy missed school for this trip, so we signed her up for independent study to avoid having her listed as absent for 10 days right at the beginning of the school year. She was ready to take a break from the rain and we were bear-jammed on the lodge side of the river anyway. Here she is doing her math homework with the Katmai poster behind her and a cup of cocoa in hand. About 15 minutes later, we rushed out to watch a mama and two cubs walking down the beach.

Alaska, Day 2

Day 2: Still flying!

So after four flights to get us from Medford, OR, to King Salmon, AK, we got to sleep one night in King Salmon before taking a float plane to Brooks Camp to see the bears. Darcy got to be co-pilot and had a blast! Rain, which would follow us for most of our trip, didn't stop us from seeing the tundra on the flight. These float planes saw service in World War II, so they don't fly high or fast.

NaBloPoMo

Ah, November. The air gets cooler (and wetter, here). The days get shorter. And National Blog Posting Month once again rears its head. I had only the vaguest thought about doing this because, um, I'm starting a new job on Friday. "But," I thought to myself, "we DID just go to Alaska. If I posted a photo a day with a brief description, it wouldn't be THAT much work."

And then a friend asked me on Facebook and reminded me that I got her involved last year. 

So here I am. And here you are. Let's just do it, shall we?

Picture #1: One very happy Alaskan-born chicklet very, very early in the morning, waiting to board the first of four flights to get us from Medford, OR, to King Salmon, AK, on the first day of our Alaska adventure. As you can see, she is sporting an Alaska shirt for the journey.

Happy Birthday, Darcy Jo!

In honor of the end of Darcy's eighth trip around the sun, here are some pictures of Darcy for you to enjoy. Vaguely chronological, but fairly otherwise fairly random.

Ok. Now the computer made me do non-chronological, so you'll have to deal with it. Sorry. I've apparently broken it because it's being weird about letting me add even more photos of Darcy's first eight years. You might have to be satisfied with her first 3.5 years for tonight.

Hmmmm...What Was I Doing Eight Years Ago?

For those in the know, the answer might come quickly. At about this time eight years ago, I was being moved from the birthing center at our midwives' office to the hospital because our girl was being stubborn about coming into this world.

Can't blame her -- it was twenty or thirty below zero! Who would want to leave a private heated swimming pool for that kind of weather?

Darcy Jo is turning EIGHT tomorrow! Our girl is getting so big! Stay tuned for some pictures through the years.

Cranberry Curd -- Thinking Outside The Can!

I'm thinking outside the can with all my cranberries!

It's so fun to have lots of cranberries to play with. I'm going to do something savory with them tonight for dinner -- still in experimental stages -- but I also juiced a few cups this morning so I could try my hand at cranberry curd:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the color is red, but not as vibrant as the berries or the juice because the color of the egg yolks is tempering it a bit. It is delicious and smooth as silk, though. Curd is supposed to freeze well, so one jar will be going in the freezer for Christmas, just because it's the right color. 

Addition: I got chastised for not including the recipe. I used this lemon curd recipe as the model, but switched the lemon juice for freshly-squeezed cranberry juice. I also added a pinch of salt because I thought I needed to add some pop to make up for the lack of zest.

Cranberries In Photos

I am a little sore and a little sunburned, but I'm ok with that because the cause was a glorious afternoon of cranberry picking! As I mentioned yesterday, the two Oregon counties to our north grow many delicious cranberries. We got to go pick the edge of a bog that is waiting its turn for a flood and harvest.

On our way to "our" bog, we got to see the tail end of the harvest of a flooded field. Such amazing colors!

It's hard to tell size from this picture, but the berries are HUGE compared to the tundra cranberries I picked in Alaska. But you CAN see how plentiful they are.

Picking into a white, slightly translucent bucket on a sunny day leads to the illusion that these are free cranberries, all huddled in a circle. They're not! This was my half-full bucket.

Our food crew, showing off our harvest. All told, the three of us picked about 29 pounds of cranberries in just over an hour.

I wasted no time. An hour after I got home with the berries, there was a cranberry crisp bubbling away in the stove, another assembled and frozen, and some sliced berries simmering in balsamic and sugar to go into a roasted beet salad.

Now I just need to finish cleaning and drying the rest and I can go to bed!

Cranberries!

Really, I should wait until tomorrow to post about this because I'll probably have pictures, but I'm excited, so I can't wait.

I didn't know this until we moved here, but the two Oregon coastal counties to our north produce about 5% of the national cranberry harvest. Because the growing season here is so long, the berries get to stay on the bush longer than in other cranberry-producing regions, so they get bigger and redder and sweeter.

And I get to pick some tomorrow!

A friend/colleague leads cranberry gleanings in bogs near Port Orford. Gleaners get to keep half (I think) of what they pick, with the other half going to support the Port Orford Co-op. I'm hoping my fingers remember their cranberry-picking lessons from Alaska so I can come home with lots of berries to play with.

The End Of KRECR And An Unrelated Picture

Here's another view of the Bald Hills, just because it's such a beautiful place. It's unrelated to the rest of the post.

Today was a beautiful fall day. We hiked out to the ocean through the Tolowa Dunes, just one of several amazing ecosystems that surround us. We passed by many different mushrooms on the trail, and way too many of the yellow banana slugs that call this place home, too.

Once we got to the beach, we watched the waves, picked out beautiful rocks and driftwood, got kisses from a dog there with other people, and left as the fog reached back onto the land.

On the hike back to the trail head, we realized that it's almost exactly a year since Michael came back to Del Norte from Pennsylvania. Darcy and I moved back two months earlier, but Michael needed to finish up some work at Delaware Water Gap before coming back to Redwood. In the last year, we have settled back into our community here almost as if we'd never left.

When we left Del Norte for Pennsylvania, the last place we stopped was Darcy's school, the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, known as KRECR (pronounced krecker -- with a short 'e'). We had asked Darcy if she wanted to see our empty house or just remember it as we lived there and she chose not to see it empty. So she went to school like any other day and we picked her up in the afternoon and drove out of town with very heavy hearts.

Her classmates and after-school friends had loaded her down with gifts -- unexpected things I needed to find space for during our long drive across the country. She also had a pea shoot to try to keep alive on that drive. (You can see it in a Pennsylvania hotel here.)

Darcy started back at KRECR just three days after flying back from Pennsylvania last year. She had a great year. 

She went back again this year. We had high hopes despite a staff change over, decreased enrollment, and other issues, but KRECR was facing serious hurdles. After weeks of late night discussions, we moved Darcy to a new school this week. It was a difficult decision, one we didn't make lightly, and one that created a lot of sadness and guilt in our family. We wanted to support the school. We tried to hold on during a difficult transition. In the end, we just couldn't let Darcy watch her school fall apart around her any more.

For most of this week, I had put away the sadness. My last three minute encounter at KRECR on Darcy's last day had made me so angry that I hardened my heart to the school's troubles and moved on with my life. The anger was justified, but the cause isn't important now.

Yesterday, KRECR announced that it will close after December 19th. There are simply not enough students left to maintain the school. At first, even hearing this, knowing that a dear friend's heart would be breaking with this news, I couldn't feel sad about it because of those last three minutes.

But truly, KRECR is bigger than my last encounter and it's bigger and better than this shortened school year. It was started with love to bring an alternative to this community, one focused on place and culture. It's goals were to help every child thrive at their own pace, to instill a dream of college in a community where that is so often not the dream, to use restorative justice to resolve conflicts in a more meaningful way than suspensions and expulsions allow, and to create a school that honored this place and the people who have lived here since time immemorial.

We gained two new school board members in this week's election. Neither of them, based on the non-partisan debate I attended, seem likely to support the kind of learning environment we valued at KRECR. It would be nice to think that we could bring some of what we loved about our school to the larger school district. In very small ways, maybe we can. But a larger overhaul of the system will require that all parents stand up and demand change and put tremendous pressure on the school board. 

Darcy was elected last month to be KRECR's school historian. Now that it is closing, it is up to all of us who loved the school to make sure its legacy is not judged by its last few months.

The Great Thing About Not Posting Much

The great thing about not posting much at all this whole year is that now, when I most need blog topics, there are so many things I didn't post about! And I can post about them now!

So, for example, this was a stellar year for lupine blooms in the Bald Hills. The Bald Hills are gorgeous open mountain sides in the southernish part of Redwood National and State Parks. Some springs, they are dotted by lupines. This year, they were carpeted in them:

 That bit of red is me, for scale. So dense. So lovely. (The flowers, not me.)

 Our little imp almost blends in.

The Braces

Day 2 of NaBloPoMo features a photo I wanted to post about a month ago, when Darcy first got her braces on! Our girl has been so tough through the whole process. Her orthodontist commented on it after he installed (?) her braces and she has adapted to the metal in her mouth amazingly well.

Apparently, the only person traumatized by her braces is me. Having never had orthodontics, I don't understand them and they look like they should hurt. Michael and Darcy hardly give them a second thought these days except for brushing time. 

According to Michael, the reason I couldn't post this earlier is that iPhone 6 broke his iPhone 4S. Ever since the new release, his photo stream hasn't been working properly, so photos aren't getting transferred from his phone to our computer. It's annoying, but a very first world problem. We had to do this the old new-fashioned way: Michael emailed me the photo from his phone. Or is that the new old-fashioned way?

Either way, it's NaBloPoMo, so rejoice!