Olympic Peninsula

I went to the Olympic Peninsula this weekend to get out of town since our house is now on the market. Our main goal was to go to the Makah Museum in Neah Bay. The museum displays many of the artifacts found in the Ozette site - a 500 year old Makah village buried by a mudslide and excavated by archaeologists from WSU and the Makah tribe in the 1970's. Because the site was wet, all sorts of organic material was preserved that we don't often find in other archaeological sites - the planks of houses, wooden artifacts, baskets, cedar blankets, rope, nets, etc. For an archaeologists, finding a site with kind of preservation Ozette has is an amazing opportunity. Seeing the museum is something I wanted to check off my list before I moved back to Alaska. It's a five hour drive out to Neah Bay, but I'm glad I went!

We camped at Sol Duc in Olympic National Park last night- soaked in the hot springs and then checked out Sol Duc Falls this morning. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, but I expected no less from the Olympic Rainforest.

Fresh Snow in May

You would think that by the end of May I would be writing about something other than skiing, but the best skiing is at the very end of the season and this week was no exception.  Almost two feet of new snow fell at the higher elevations last weekend so I headed to a place called Micro Dot in Hatcher Pass with a friend.  With the sun still high in the sky after work we enjoyed a nice tour and found some untracked slopes.  There was lots of wet snow Avalanches on steeper slopes and around rocks, but we used good route finding to stay out of harms way.  Later that night I went to a friends house to celebrate his birthday.  I was amazed to find it was still light out when I drove home at 11:30pm!  That fact combined with the fat mosquitoes emerging are a sure sign that summer is just around the corner.

Skinning up Micro Dot

Getting near the top

The slope down to Gold Cord Lake

Gold Cord Lake

Looking back at Micro Dot from Gold Cord Lake

More Packing!

This was another busy weekend of packing and cleaning the house (see, it is the never-ending move!). Ryan was here and while we did get a lot done, it's still a lot of work to keep the house clean and everything put away between now and when it goes on the market in three days...and however long it takes to get an acceptable offer. We had the kitchen counters all cleaned off by Saturday morning for the professional cleaners. Then we cooked Saturday night and cleaned them again. Then I cooked breakfast today, ate a cold lunch that still managed to use several dishes, cutting boards and utensils, and cooked dinner. I cleaned the counters four times just today. And ran the dishwasher twice. I seriously considered just giving up on eating at home and going out, but I'm going to be here for another month; that could get really expensive! So, tomorrow I'll get up extra early to make sure I have plenty of time to tidy up after breakfast before the professional photographers come.

Here's to hoping we get a good offer quickly so I can go back to leaving my cereal bowl on the counter in the morning until I have to move out for good.

I've also been going through all the canned goods we have left and making sure I eat can eat them all up before I leave. Today I opened red currant jam from my mom. Makes me feel like it's August and I'm eating currants straight off the bushes in her yard!

Discovery Park

Stephanie on the trail down to the beach

This weekend I went for a walk around Discovery Park with a friend. She'd heard about a mudslide and a bunch of erosion that was happening down on the beach that seemed like a cool thing to check out. We didn't check the tide tables but were lucky to get there at a very low tide.

There are some different deposits of silty sediment that are eroding. These ones look particularly cool with all the nice layers.

Past that there is a deposit eroding with weird concretions. This flying saucer-looking one was my favorite.

Cleaning out the House

Ryan was here last weekend and we packed even more of our stuff up for the move. We also started really cleaning for putting the house on the market and Ryan touched up the paint around the house and the garage. I know it's always a hassle for anybody to move, but this really seems like the never-ending move.

We already packed a lot of stuff in Steve's trailer a month ago, and now our bedrooms are almost empty but I can't pack everything up because I'm still going to be living here for two more months. I'm still hesitant to pack things I might need any time over the summer because I'm afraid I might not see them again until...who knows when. Fall maybe? We don't really know what are living situation is going to be. We will be renting? A small place or a large place? Will we buy a house? Will it need major work before we can move in?

I need to keep anything out that I might need if I go in the field over the summer...boots, rain gear, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, etc. I'm also going to Ireland in June with my parents so whatever I need for that trip has to stay out until the end. And then other random things need to be available like a dress and shoes for my friends' wedding in CA over Labor Day weekend. It's just a little crazy trying to keep all these things straight and make sure I know where things are. But, I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to buy a new dress. Then again, do I really want to own more stuff? No.

Wool Dogs

"A Woman Weaving a Blanket" Songhees/Saanich (Central Coast Salish), by Paul Kane 1846-1859 from the Royal Ontario Museum

Some Northwest Coast Native Americans who lived in the area around Puget Sound had two types of dogs when Europeans arrived - village dogs and wool dogs. From what I understand, village dogs were just basically regular pets. Wool dogs on the other hand were bred for their hair which was made into all sorts of woven goods.

Wool dogs were carefully kept in pens away from the village dogs so they would not interbreed. Once trade with Europeans/Euro-Americans became widespread in the 19th century, people had access to all sorts of other materials for making textiles and use of dog wool declined. Combined with the depopulation due to introduced diseases, most villages stopped keeping their wool dogs separate from other dogs. The wool dog was basically bred out and/or extinct by about 1850.

I've always thought this sort of dog husbandry was very cool, but didn't know a whole lot about it. This quarter I'm teaching a class on the archaeology of the Northwest Coast and some of the readings have mentioned wool dogs. My students were fascinated by them and dug up all sorts of information about them on the internet.

There are no photos of wool dogs, but the painting above gives us a pretty good idea of what they looked like. I have to say, they're pretty adorable. Check out this link for a larger image of the painting above.

Easy Egg Meals

Now that Ryan's in Alaska and I'm just cooking for myself, I've been eating a lot of meals with eggs. None of them are particularly exciting or elaborate, but they do the job. And I love eggs. They are a perfect animal protein for me to keep around because I can just use one or two at a time and not have to worry about the rest of the package going bad (unlike buying many types of meat).

I've come across some good egg recipes recently. This rice bowl is nice and simple and can be adapted to use up whatever you have one hand. I made it with couscous, chard, and asparagus.

Next up I came across a healthy spin on a staple from the Odell household: soft boiled eggs on toast...with spinach (or more chard in my case). The greens make it a little more diner-ish.

Next I'm going to try this lemon and egg soup. And, just because I love it so much, here is a recipe for creamed eggs on toast - one of my favorite meals my mom made when I was a kid.

Spring Skiing in Alaska

Like most places, spring skiing in Alaska is the best skiing.  There is still new snow, the days are long, and the temperatures are mild.  To take advantage of the conditions I headed up to Hatcher Pass Friday evening for some after work cross-country skiing.  There was almost too much new snow.  The trails had only been run over once with a groomer so I found myself sinking in the soft snow while trying to skate along narrow trails.  I had the entire mountain valley almost to myself.  The lighting was flat with a thick overcast a but still very bright.

On Saturday I drove to Arctic Valley for downhill skiing hoping to take advantage of the new snow that had fallen earlier in the week.  The lifts are only open on the weekend so I was optimistic about the conditions.  It was fairly good skiing but not surprisingly a breakable crust had developed from the wind later in the week.  I had not skied at Arctic Valley in probably 13 or 14 years so the experience was new and strangely familiar at the same time.

Very white and bright cross country skiing in Hatcher Pass

My boot's perspective of skiing

High on the mountain in Arctic Valley

Great views of Anchorage and upper Cook Inlet from Arctic Valley

Lake Union Steamboat ride

My recent trip to Seattle was mostly a chance to pack up the house, but we did have time to play a little.  On Sunday morning we went with my Dad to the wooden boat center on Lake Union.  We were lucky enough to get signed up for a steamboat ride on the Puffin.

The Puffin, built in 1906, is a 19' boat with a small steam engine that generates 5HP.  With a total of six passengers including two to operate the boat we took a nice cruise around Lake Union taking turns piloting the boat and blowing the whistle.  This was a great way to see a little of Lake Union and learn about steam engines.

The Steam Engine and boiler

Dad and I waiting to board the Puffin

Checking out some Lake Union house boats

Packing for the Move

Over the last few days we've packed up most of our house! I'm not moving out until June, but Ryan's dad offered to drive down with his trailer this spring before work gets busy for him and while I have a few days off from school (although between grading finals, turning in grades for 226 students, getting my next class ready for next Monday, and preparing my talk for the Northwest Anthropological Association Meetings in Portland later this week, it doesn't really feel like I'm off anything except having to lecture in Kane Hall at 11:30 three days a week) and take some stuff back to Alaska for us.

Ryan and Steve both got here late last week and we (well mostly them, given all the above reasons) managed to load over 4000 lbs of our worldly belongings into the trailer. It was really nice of Steve to offer to drive our stuff to Alaska but it still makes me question why on Earth we own so much stuff. And we've even made several trips to Goodwill over the last few months thinning it out!

Here is a photo story of the packing adventures of the last few days:

On Thursday night we packed some of our dishes and fragile belongings into the dresser drawers.

I'm going for the minimalist vibe for the next three months.

On Friday morning Ryan and Steve started filling the trailer with furniture in our first snow of the season (on the first day of spring)

 

After emptying most of the bedrooms, half the living room, and half of the kitchen, Ryan moved on to the garage on Saturday.

On Sunday they stuffed the last few boxes and odd items into those spaces - pretty much everything they could scrounge up that I'm not going to need before June.