Havin' a Ball!

John looking on as I cut the fillets

I'm hungry and ready to eat!

 I went for a hike yesterday, thankful for a clear day. It was the first time in a week that you could actually tell where the ground ended and where the sky began. We had a huge blizzard all day Saturday and it left us with 15 foot high snow drifts, people snowed inside their house, cords ripped off of houses, and the obvious fact that we were once again shut off from the outside world. The winds Sunday, even after the blizzard, were 70 mph. I managed to walk a mile on the outskirts of the village, climbing over the snow drifts and sliding down the other side or else falling through the drifts and digging myself out. I turned around to head home and would basically have to throw all my body weight forward just to stay upright. I would try and throw myself forward and the wind would hold me up - it was pretty amazing. The biggest struggle, though, was my darn backpack strap being slapped continuously in my face by the wind. I wasn’t wearing a face guard because it wasn’t extremely cold, and I didn’t imagine I would be assaulted by my backpack. I had red streaks across my face when I reached home, burnt from being whipped repeatedly.

So anyway, after my 3 mile hike yesterday I was circling around and coming back to the village from the North. I was walking home and passed a man pull up with a sled slap full of lush fish - he and his son just got back from ice fishing. He kindly offered me some, and as I was quite hungry from my walk, I accepted. So he went and got a plastic bag, tossed a couple of burbot in, and I carried them home gratefully and excited. I spread some cardboard out on our porch, grabbed the traditional Alaskan Ulu knife, and went to work cleaning and gutting the fish. They were still alive, flopping around, and I admit it would have been much easier had they been dead!

Some Eskimos stopped by the witness the “gusuk” gutting fish, even taking pictures. I finished the job, threw some hunks in a skillet, and scarfed it down. It was pretty tasty! As I’ve said before, the Eskimos are respectful to the land for providing their food, and they use every part of the animal. Sarah (Grant’s wife) came over and showed me how to clean out the intestines because they even eat those. Nasty. I did as she told me, saving the spleen, heart, pretty much everything, but I doubt I’ll eat most of that. They even boil the head, smash it up, and eat that. I can eat the skin of the fish - the tail and even the heart, but I don’t know about crushing up the eyes and eating those. Gross.

I visited Grant’s house and they gave me some seal oil to dip in some dried fish, and it was pretty good. Sun dried fish is like jerky, and it’s probably my favorite way to eat it.

There was a Yupik dance in Toksook Bay Friday and Saturday, and as the village is on Nelson Island and only a couple hours away on the snow machine, at least half the village drove over to it. They were consequently weathered there, not even able to come back after the blizzard because of the wind. We came to school Monday and hardly any kids showed up - by 10:00 we had to send them home because the rule is you have to have 60% of the kids there, and we only had 30%.

Kevin, Betsy, and me went out afterwards and had some great fun jumping in the fresh piles of snow, and some kids came up later and joined in the fun. We had a great snowball war - with ready-made trenches for protection against snowball barrages, weaving in between the drifts like a maze. It was so much fun!

Allen and Amita coming back from Toksook. Kevin's in green.

 

Around 5:00 we heard in the distance the sound of snow machines, and knew the traveling group was making their way back from Toksook. We grabbed the binoculars, headed out to the barge landing used for relocating, and watched them come back. We decided to hide behind the machinery when they got closer and barrage them with snowballs as a welcome home token. But as we watched them get closer, we witnessed two snow machines fall through the ice! The people were able to get off before they were submerged too, but it held everyone up and they were trying to get the machines out of the water. We watched them go to work, using rope and pulling them out with other snow machines. It took about 30 minutes, but they were successful in getting them out and everyone went on their way.

Snow machines in the distance to the left, you can see the broken ice in gray.

For the first time since November, it’s beginning to get daylight before I walk to work in the morning. The sun comes up around 8:00 and sets around 10:00. I’m very much looking forward to summertime, when I can walk outside and not get snow blind and have to wear shades, and walk on grass instead of snow, and go swimming, and have a BBQ, and watch baseball. :) Needless to say, I miss Texas. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still having a ball up here in the bush.