Category Archives: Shishmaref

Chores ala Shishmaref

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Today is Sunday. The beginning of the week. Chore day.

Some of the chores we have to do are usual. Today is our scheduled day for laundry. The staff all have a schedule to follow in order to equitably share the washers and dryers. When I used to rent my home, I used to basket up my laundry and drive over to the laundromat. Here, the basketing-up is the same. It’s the short hike over to the classroom which houses my assigned washers and dryers which is different. In the fall, the walk was over sand. Some Sundays, my walk is fighting against wind and icy temperatures. Today, my path was elevated by a few feet of packed down snow. Besides the venue, the laundry is the same laundry chore.

Most Sundays, I bake. This weekend, I baked more than usual. I always bake one loaf of bread. This loaf is for sandwiches to take for lunch during school. With only a few months of school left, I looked over what is in our pantry. It’s time to start using things up. I found bags of craisins and a can of pureed pumpkin. The aroma of pumpkin-craisin bread is now filling the house. There is bread available at the store, but the prices keep me baking at home. I’ve also come to really enjoy this chore and can see always baking my own bread. This weekend, I also made pizza dough. Again, at over $10 per frozen pizza, it’s cheaper, and fun and easy to make our own.

Every six weeks or so, we have to fill our water tank. We have a 300 gallon water tank inside our front door. A really basic electric pump sits next to it and pumps water into the kitchen and the bathroom sinks. We are really conservative with our water use so that we don’t have to fill it so often. As soon as it gets down to about 60 gallons, it’s time to refill. We are lucky, in the sense that we live right across from the school. There is an industrial-style spigot on the school porch that we run a hose from. The hose is long enough to cross the road and then is threaded through a hole in the wall and into the tank. We’ve got the whole process down to about a half an hour. Other staff members have to take a portable 150 gallon tank and fill it at the school and then take it home and transfer the water into their home tanks using a pump. A few of the lucky staffers have homes with “city water” which means they don’t have to deal with hauling water at all.

Today, the spigot on the school porch was frozen. It’s been hovering from 0 to 9 degrees. What to do? Simple solution…a blow torch quickly thawed the situation and we were seemingly ready to go. All right, one end hooked to the school and the other threaded into the tank, water turned on…and no water. Seems the last person who used the hose didn’t take all the water out, so the hose was frozen. Bring the hose inside to let it thaw and move on to the next chore…

Trash. We’ve waited a long time to dump trash. The last time we did it, we used the school truck and drove out to the dump. Now, the school truck is buried under a few feet of snow and will remain in hibernation until the spring thaw. Our dumpster is full. Jack had to locate the school’s snowmobile and sled. Once it was located, Jack and our friend Brian loaded up the sled with our two dumpsters’ contents and snowmachined out to the dump where they will burn it all. So far, no hitches on this chore. I’ll see what happened when they get home. The dump is an interesting place…there might be scavengers there…birds, foxes, or even a polar bear!

It feels good to have everything clean and filled. It was a beautiful sunny day. The house smells like a bakery. Life is good.

Dreams of Fireweed and Chamomile

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Yesterday, it stormed so hard that school was closed. To put this into perspective, our school is never closed. One of the teachers told me throughout her past eight years she has been at Shishmaref School, there has only been one day closed for weather.

The wind is coming from the south, which means it’s warm. It’s bringing wet snow. The gusts strain to knock me over on my short commute to school.

No planes bring people in to town or take people away. No mail leaves or comes in. Everything stays still until the storm passes.

I remember snow days when I was in first and second grade. (This was in the state of New York) I remember excitedly listening to the radio and cheering when we didn’t have to go to school. It was bonus time. I don’t remember having to make up days to make sure we had the required number of school days. I was too young to notice.  Maybe we did.

In Shishmaref, we make up the days. If we close school, then we make it up on the following Saturday. That sort of takes away the enchantment of snow days.

This kind of storm is dreary. It’s no fun to go out and walk. It’s no fun to look at the world through the veil of soggy falling snow.

So, I look at my photos of the beautiful fireweed from last summer. And I dream of the fireweed and chamomile I will harvest in the Kenai this coming summer. Maybe a cup of hot cocoa and a movie will help distract me from the soggy storm.

Parking Lot

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One of the big events out here is basketball. There are two outdoor basketball courts that are used in the summer. During the school year, the gym fills the need. Each school, no matter how small, has a basketball team. When the schools play, the community shows up to cheer them on. In what seems to be tradition out here, the natives cheer on the teams…our side or the other school’s. It’s a terrific social event. I like to visit with people I don’t normally get to talk to.

Today’s game is the first one of the season during the day. It was a great opportunity to photograph what the turnout looks like outside the school. Notice how the outside of the school is all parked up!

Sculpture

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It is gloriously beautiful these days. The sun shines so bright. It beckons you outside. I feel the sun on my face and wait to feel the warmth. I guess I will need to wait longer. Even though the sun is brilliant, -17 is too cold to feel the suns rays on my face!

Catching Caught Snow

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The view from my school window is not very interesting. My view is of a blank wall of a next door portable. There is enough space between the two buildings to see falling snow or blowing wind. My students and I use the window to hang “art” instead of viewing the outdoors. We almost don’t notice the window unless really dramatic weather happens.

Yesterday, we had a snow storm. Up here, a snow storm could mean many different types of weather. Yesterday, it meant beautiful, medium-sized snowflurries that gently drifted down from the sky. The flurries were wet enough to stick everywhere. Walls and windows were covered with fluffy drifts. I happened to look out my window and for some reason was drawn to look down the alley way between the main building and the portables. I noticed a little chain link fence filled with flurries. The fence had been shaped by winters of heavy snow and bent by heavy ice. Now its bends and curves were draped with all the soft flurries.

I went back today to see if I could climb back through the snow and take a closer shot. Alas, the snow had been blown out by the wind. I’m glad I was able to capture what I did. It was another reminder to always have my camera with me.

Grocery Shopping

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(The current mode of transportation for us is a snowmachine towing a sled. Cool, huh?)

Last summer, we shipped up 30 rubbermaid tubs full of provisions for the year. We calculated out how much rice, beans, pasta, flour, canned products, tea, coffee, etc. that we thought we would need. We spent a full day shopping, packing, and shipping our groceries. From Anchorage, it cost about $.75 per pound to ship the containers to Shishmaref. In addition to the mailed tubs, we stuffed three coolers full of frozen goods (meat, juice, veggies) and hand carried those out here. We actually saved all of our lists and have them analyzed and ready to use again this coming summer.

We estimated as best we could what we thought we would need for a school year. I’m impressed how well we have done. We have supplemented our initial shopping with items from the two stores in Shishmaref. The stores have quite a bit of ready-to-eat processed food. We were surprised at how much was available at the stores. We are careful. Sometimes the products are outdated. Our grocery shopping at the stores is usually eggs and fresh fruit or veggies. The eggs run about $8 per 18. Because eggs are too hard to ship ourselves, we rely on the stores up here.

People up here take opportunities to go to Anchorage to do fill-in shopping. Otherwise, we can “bush order” groceries through the mail from Fred Meyer or a couple of other companies. Most companies will charge a packing fee, the cost of the groceries, and the cost of the shipping. Besides flying in and out of here, groceries are our biggest expense.

We had an opportunity to go to our district office last weekend. The picture above is the last of the grocery shopping for the year from the village store at Unalakleet. We bought frozen vegetables, apples, butter, onions, gum, and other items. After spending $212, hopping a 10-seater bush plane, and being toted behind a snow machine on a sled,  our groceries are home and we are stocked up for the last part of the school year.

What to do with half of a bag of marshmallows and a Saturday afternoon…

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Chewy chocolate cookies fresh from the oven stuffed with chocolate chips, pecans, and marshmallows. A few more marshmallows topped the cookie bites during the last two minutes of baking to give them that just toasted taste and look. Yum!

Banana Split ala Alaska Bush

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We spent the last couple of days finishing up projects and watching lots of football with friends. A perfect end to a great weekend? A bush-style banana split. Curious?

(Warning-the following blog entry may make you crazy with cravings for a banana split…read on with great care…)

Bananas rarely appear at the store. A beautiful golden bunch was waiting for us at just over a dollar a banana. They were perfectly ripe and unbruised. They tasted creamy and sweet. These bananas begged to be used in the perfect split.

Several months ago we happened across heavy cream at the store and bought them out…twelve cartons. We quickly realized that we had two weeks in which to do something with these or else they would spoil. We made four different kinds of ice cream: rocky road, chocolate chip, vanilla bean custard, and toasted almond. We also froze whipped cream topping and squash pie filling. Whew…used every carton.

A good banana split needs more than just ice cream and bananas. Toppings! We found a bottle of Smuckers caramel sauce at the store. Ok, that was good. How about hot fudge…homemade! Oh my…I made the best hot fudge I’ve ever had in my life. It was chocolately and smooth and oh, so tasty.

Nuts! Don’t forget the nuts. Jack toasted up some chopped pecans in butter. He sauteed them long enough for them to get hot and absorb the buttery goodness.

There it was…a creamy golden banana, halved.  Scoops of home-made rocky road, vanilla bean custard, and chocolate chip ice creams. A drizzle of caramel topping. An avalanche of home-made hot fudge –so hot it melts the ice cream –. Generous scoops of toasted pecans drenched in butter. All topped with a few dried cherries.

The dish was set in front of us and two minutes later it was a glorious memory.

Mother and Child

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Have I said already that I am a big fan of Edwin’s work?

This piece is carved from reindeer antler. As I imagined, he saw the antler and immediately saw the shapes of the mother and child, and carved the antler to release their images. The small black dots are inlaid baleen. The decorative spray fan is also made from whale baleen. The faces of both mother and child are joyful and sweet which is a mark of Edwin’s work.

Parki

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The Inupiat Eskimos in Shishmaref wear these beautiful coats. Up here, they call them “parkis.” At first glance, they look like brightly colored, thin, pullover-style coats, trimmed in fur. As I have gotten my hands on a few (I have literally petted several), and talked to people, a more interesting coat was revealed.

While it’s true that the outer layer is colorful and sometimes is made of very thin fabric, it is actually only an outer layer. Underneath is a very heavy layer made of animal skin. In many cases, it is spotted seal or caribou. The bottom of the skin is ruffed in a more ornate fur, like beaver. You can see my young model’s parki is ruffed in beaver. The cuffs and hood are also ruffed with fur designed to be attractive and also designed to keep the wind and cold away from the face and hands. I’ve spoken with a few people about different animal furs. It seems wolverine and polar bear are very warm and shield well from the wind and blowing snow. The creation of the parki is definitely women’s work. I understand that some women teach their daughters to pass the skill down and other women take classes that are offered in the community.

(I did get permission from my young friend’s guardian to post her picture. But because of the insanity of the world, that is as much as I will share about her.)