Hey,
I guess you folks down south are as my father in law said, doing nothing but dodging hurricanes. While you folks down there dodge tropical cyclones in the swamps, we in the arctic experienced our first snowfall of the season yesterday. For the last few nights the temps have been dropping into the upper 20's and swinging back up to the low 40's during daylight hours. Darkness occurs about 9:30 pm with light returning around 7:30 am as the nights get longer. On the 22 we passed the Autumnal Equinox-where the days and nights here are equal. We are gaining darkness at the rate of 16 minutes a night. The colder weather and the darkness makes it darned hard to climb out of bed in the morning believe me. While the temps are a bit mild compared to what is to come, we have had quite a bit of wind the last few days. When you round a corner and the wind slaps you in the face it takes your breath away. I spent most of yesterday in the office trying to sort out my new duties and most of this morning typing up things for work. (No, I am not going to have to work every weekend. This is not the big city believe me. Most folks including the top management leave the facility no later than 5:30 in the evening and most do not set foot back in the building until Monday at 8. See, there are some perks to living here.) As I worked at the computer I looked out on occasion and when I saw the folks going by were heavily bundled up (this is after noon of course) and one dog that trotted past was panting clouds of condensation, I figured it must be a bit cool out. Our outdoor thermometer is not accurate when the sun is up as it beats down on the probe. It was saying it was 49 degrees. So this afternoon we put on our heavy coats and for the first time, our over pants and fur hats, grabbed our plastic berry buckets, and headed out. All along the waters edge was a rime of ice and the shallow parts had already frozen over. We could see one spot where someone had thrown some big rocks at it and were unable to break it-it froze that solid seemingly overnight. We road out the loop road and up onto the tundra to pick cranberries. At 3PM there was still frost on the ground and ice on the berries. We picked for a while, until our fingers became numb and what little common sense we have left told us it was time to quit. I tried to get some pictures of the frost on the bright red berries but while I like the digital camera we own, the one complaint I have is it does not have a macro. Needless to say my pictures did not turn out to well. As we stood there with numb fingers I asked Patty what possessed her to make me come here. We almost lost our whole harvest of hard picked berries as she almost threw the bucket at me. I can't understand what she was upset about.
The ride back brought back not so fond memories of what cold can do to the face. John and Susan some friends of ours, were unloading their boat as we returned home. I stopped to talk with them and John said on the way out yesterday going up the Kobuk river there was no ice. They camped out on the beach and the temps per his thermometer went down to 16 degrees last night. He said the whole ride coming out of the river this afternoon was through 1/2 inch thick ice. It amazed me last year how rapid the freezeup was and it looks like it's going to be no different this year. Seems old man winter never really left, he was hiding just a few feet under the tundra. Believe me he is wasting no time coming back either. He's on the horizon and is bellowing with laughter as he swoops towards us.
We had an interesting night out Friday. We had dinner with the Hospital Administrator and his Russian wife. They are both interesting people and she does speak English. We brought gravlox we made from local salmon (cured with salt, sugar, black pepper, and dill). We also brought homemade jam we made from store-bought strawberries and hand picked cranberries. Both were accompanied with cream cheese and Ritz crackers and we also had red onions to go with the gravlox. All very tasty! For dinner they served a caribou roast with onions, potatoes, carrots, and asparagus, accompanied by a brown gravy, diced apples with yogurt, and for dessert fresh cheesecake topped with homemade local blackberry (crowberry) jam. As we ate his wife kept pulling out fresh utensils and plates. He explained she liked to use the dishwasher. Seems in Russia according to them there are no dishwashers because the kitchens are so small. Most households also do not have clothes dryers for the same reason.
I have to say again that I never cared for game that much. I did a fair amount of hunting and the meat did not go to waste but venison has a distinctive taste I never really cared for. Caribou and Moose are very good I have to say. I am just going to have to brave the cold after freezeup and go out and get one dang it. I do have some moose meat coming though Cathy has it and is going to bring us some............. theoretically.......... Really, she is.........going to bring some..... theoretically....... Of course if you have ever seen Gary her significant other eat........... I am just going to have to brave the cold after freezeup and go out and get one dang it.
That's enough. This along with the 11 pages I typed this morning has my shoulders aching. No, no, the berry picking and cold had nothing to do with it, only work stuff of course.
Again, you folks take care,
The Sam's
For problems or questions regarding this web contact
carlo@samsicles.net
Last updated:
08/29/05