Nature hike featuring Fungi

Hello Everyone. This is a very short blog because I was gone all weekend. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to share with you some of Alaska's finest fungii.  These were all taken at the Eagle River Nature Center when Nan and Bob were here to visit. This particular day we didn't see any wildlife so all three of us made the best of a beautiful area and took lots of pictures of fungii.  I haven't been to a lecture on fungii yet but I am sure I will get to one sooner or later.  The Nature Center has the most interesting topics every week.  It is a matter of finding time to attend.  I will fill you in on the funniest from this week.  I had to teach this week with my big black eye.  These little kids are so cute, they wanted to know why I had a tatoo put on my eye and not on my arm like their mom.  The unit we are studying is digestion and during the middle of the class, a little girl (1st grade) let out a rather loud fart.  The rest of the class just looked at her and then broke into "Ahhhhhh that stinks".  She put her hand to her mouth and said, "my bottom just burped - excuse me".  I love the things children say.  So next time you have your bean burrito, remember to say - Ooops, my bottom just burped!  My apartment building has had an unusual month. First one of my two garage doors would not work with the remote (the one Beth uses) so they replaced both door motors last week.  Then the next day I hear this loud crash.  My neighbor downstairs got in her car to leave but the garage door didn't go up and she ran right through the garage door.  Her car got stuck half way so it stayed that way, half in the garage and half out for two days.  Tomorrow we get all new garage doors. So much for the PFD payments.  Remember, Permanent Fund Dividend, is the money all Alaskan's receive each year once the oil started flowing from the North Slope to the Lower  48.  The payout is based on the last 5 years of investments and oil prices, and other things, and this year the payout was $1300 per person  This is paid to every child (as young as one day old) to the most elderly.  A lot of people put the money away for a college fund.  However, the Natives who are members of certain Tribes or Villages receive additional money because of the land settlement with the Alaskan Natives in the 1970's.  October 15 is the usual payout for both the PFD and the Native Shares.  So you can guess the sales at Wal-Mart and Fred Myers are fabulous.  It is like having Christmas in October.  The air fares are a good deal as well.  I can fly from Anchorage to Chicago or Denver for $388 round trip.  But I can fly from Anchorage to Seattle (much closer) for $960 round trip.  Does that make sense?  I could fly from Anchorage to Hawaii for $290 round trip but to fly to Portland is $1000.  Go figure.  I personally think Alaska has some monetary connection with Hawaii because you can always get great flights to Hawaii. Do you think it is the Island thing?  Remember, the gentleman who thought Alaska was an island because it is always shown floating in the Pacific Ocean on the weather maps? I will blog again next week.  Until then, Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.

Moose Rut

Happy Halloween to all of you.  I hope your front doors are loaded with darling trick or treaters and lots of smiles.  Here are few things I have been doing over the past few weeks. First we went to photograph the moose rut.  This is quite spectacular.  I hike and take pictures with the Adventure Group.  We travel to all parts of AK and hike the trails and take photos all lead by Dan.  Dan's wife is a "traveling nurse" and will be stationed here for 3 years so he hikes all day long.  We started down the Power line Trail and got about 25 feet on our way and a BIG grissly meandered not too far away.  He was searching out the last berries.  I was very uncomfortable being between the bear and the moose.  Dan told us were were fine.  Apparently he was correct since I am writing to you today.  These moose are BIG. The male weighs about 1600 pounds and the females weigh about 1200 pounds.  The male antlers can grow as big at 6 - 10 feet wide on each side of his head. Think of holding up that rack!  They can't get a rack reduction on a whim like we can!  These antlers fall off in the fall and the antlers provide food for beavers, and other smaller land rodents.  Nothing goes to waste in Alaska.  So the moose rut is a mating dance and they like to show their male hood for the female.  The second picture is how AK marks the hiking trails to the most popular spots.  These plastic grates really help on the hike up and down the mountain. When we climbed to the top of the peak we could see Mt. McKinley or Denali very clearly.  We could see the beautiful wondering river below us (last photo).  By the mid of day, the clouds moved in and the landscape shades turned muted shades of tan, browns and some green.  Fall is definitely here. The next pic is of these innumerable gray moths that have landed in AK.  The experts at the Nature Center said they are new to AK this year and we should expect hundreds of thousand of caterpillars in the spring. I hope to get some great pictures then.  My photo doesn't show how many of these flying moths were swarming around us but there were hundreds.  HOWEVER, you can see how many moths there are in my moose picture.  They don't seem to bother him much either.  The moose was very content to stay far away from us and move in the opposite direction as we were hiking.  These darling children were trying to catch handful of moths as they ran/walked/got carried up the trail.  They were so cute. And for all you Chicago Bear fans, here is an Alaskan fan.  Isn't she darling?  This jacket the dad is wearing has a built in baby holder (like a back pack) and the outer covering is his coat.  They are all together and keep each other very warm. Quite ingenious. I am sure it was created in Scandinavian countries.  They have the best cold outdoor clothing.  It was Red Ribbon Week (anti drug message week) and our school kicked it off with a guest appareance from Kikkan Randall.  Kikkan has participated in three Olympics and was the first women to win the World Cross Country Ski race.  She held that medal proudly.  She is from Anchorage and such a down to earth young lady, 26 yrs old.  She is sponsored by Subway which is on her headband.  She told me she pays taxes on her health insurance from the Olympic Committee and any money received from sponsors. Otherwise, everything else, clothing, etc, is free to her.  She is going for her 4th Olympic to try and win a Gold Medal.  We wish her lots of luck.  That is one of my classes that came to the assembly.  They are soooo cute.  Next is a very creative and individually made camper.  It is a truck with a hard top camper and then to get extra breeze and space they have put a tent on top of the camper.  Cleaver???? It is for sale if you are intersted.  Then on Saturday, yesterday, I went to school for a few hours and as I was getting ready to leave, I thought I would put the big papercutter back in place.  So I grabbed it (heavy) and pulled it towards my body and just then the handle flew up and bonked me in the eye. It hurt so I dropped the papercutter and fell backwards. I hit my head on the table then the ground when I finally landed.  It happened so quickly.  No stiches but very black and blue and swollen shut.  It has gotten much worse since this afternoon.  David wants me to put a restraining order  out for this run away papercutter handle.  Isn't he cute?  Well, I am going to school tomorrow and I am sure the kids will stare and make fun of me.  I am going to have to tell them I thought it was halloween and wore my costume early!  That is it for now.  I hope you all are doing well.

Enjoy,  Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.

October in Alaska

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Flat Top Mountain Hike and Native Cultural Center

Wow! I had a tremendous time with Nancy and Bob. Today we began our day taking in culture (Alaska Native Cultural Center) and exercise (hiking Flat Top Mountain).    Flattop Mountain is a 3,510 foot mountain in the Chugach State Park about 25 minutes from my house.  It is the most climbed mountain in the state of AK.  The trail head is a well maintained 1.5 mile hike with an elevation gain of 1280 feet from the parking lot to the summit. Flattop is known for its panoramic views of Anchorage and the surrounding areas.  We could see Denali, Mount Foraker and Mount Spurr from the top view.  The trees are very unique with very twisty trunks.  Wouldn't these trees make a great "tree fort"?   We discovered blue pine cones.  Yes, I did say blue pine cones. Then of course the mountain was full of people picking wild blueberries. Our conclusion about the blue pine cones was because there are so many wild blueberries that the coloring soaked into the ground and eventually into the cones.  Beth and I look like real hikers. It was an interesting climb. Warm in the parking lot, cool as we climbed and then it got warm again and cooler at the top. The view is spectacular.  The Alaskan Native Culture Center was having many demonstrations when we arrived. We were entertained by the gentleman showing up how the "AK Native Olympic" games are played.  I take as much information in as possible since I will be Co-coaching our Airport Heights Youth Native Olympic team.  Doesn't that sound cool?  So the first event is wrist wrestling. The two boys hold a very round stick between their hands and their legs are straight. The winner is the one who pulls with their arms and pulls the other opponent off the ground.  The Seal Kick is my favorite event. The boys and girls sit holding opposite hand/foot and butt off the ground. They have to push off with one foot and support themselves on one arm and kick the sealskin ball.  The women's records is 5 foot 7 inches high and the men's record is 7 foot 3 inches high!!! That is amazing.  The Tlingit (pronounced Klink et) dancers were next. They were demonstrating their beautiful blanket covers with buttons.  Their "Tribal" colors are red and black with the raven and wolf as their ancestry.  Since the Southeastern part of Alaska is a tropical rain forest it is very hot and humid and they use to no wear clothing. They told us that the missionaries gave them blankets to cover their naked bodies and since they didn't know what to do with seashell buttons, they used them to decorate their "blankets" not used to close the blanket for modesty.  The southeastern part of Alaska is noted by the green area of the map on wall.  Oh, in case you forgot, Alaska is TWICE as big as Texas so the wall map is huge to make sure you can visually see all the parts of Alaska.  Anchorage is where the light purple meets the red area.  The Cultural Center is like visiting Williamsburg, VA. It is a living and interactive museum where you visit the traditional housing and TOUCH furs and tools.  This past summer there were wood carvers at the Cultural Center preparing house totems to represent each of the Southeastern Tribes - Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Eyak.  The first week in September each tribe was in Anchorage to celebrate the "posting" of the house totem in the Southeastern Long House.  The next pictures are the new totems and they were all carved from ONE tree trunk.  The inside of the house smells so wonderful with the freshly carved art. The shavings are kept in the center of the long house to represent the fire pit. The shavings smell so wonderful!! Each animal represents something special to the cultures.  They are about 12 feet tall and about 40 inches wide. Amazing!! The next picture is the gentleman showing us how to throw an ATLATL. It is a flat wooden piece of wood and you butt an arrow end up to one end and then throw the arrow towards the target or Caribou or wolf. It was one of the first inventions that helped hunting become easier for the hunters.  The same gentleman showed off his work of art with his wooden visor.  This piece of art, saleeg^uu, a bent wood fishing visor, which is used by the Aleutian to keep the sun and water spray out of there eyes.  If a hunter was right-handed they would put their seal whiskers on the left side of the visor. Why you ask, because their throwing arm would not hit the whiskers. The more whiskers and ornaments the greater the hunter. This is how many families decide whom their daughters are going to marry.  Once selected the man has to live with the girl's family for 2 years to prove himself worthy.  Talk about  an "indentured servant"! Bob was once again our "Bob Vanna White" as he posed by the whale jaw bone.  Jason, his English name, was one of our tour guides.  Many of the local students, high school and college, complete an internship at the Cultural Center which counts as school credits.  They have to speak their native language and be able to talk to large groups of people.  The next contraption is a fishing wheel.  This is usually used by women and young children. If you don't have a fishing pole in your hand you may be asked to "work" the fishing wheel .It is placed in the river and the was turns the baskets and scoops up the fish. The worker takes the fish out of the basket very quickly.  Quite an ingenious invention.  The photo of the "spring" shoes were worn by the lady in front of me throughout the village.  Can you see the springs? I wanted to ask about them but I just couldn't interrupt the tour.  Then there is Nancy sitting in the entrance of the long house. This demonstrates how big the opening is to the house.  I will close now.  I will keep you up dated with the most recent "Warmboldism" from this past week - on the next blog.  Stay tuned.  Enjoy and have a wonderful week.  Hugs from Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.

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