Eskimo Ice cream

This is Eskimo Ice Cream.

I had heard about Eskimo ice cream before coming up here but could not really believe that people ate it. I guess now that spring is here we can all celebrate with some!

Eskimo Ice Cream is made first with crisco. Yes all that white stuff in the cup....pure crisco. Then mix in some white fish, some blue berries (from the tundra up here), and some sugar and eat up!

The taste is, well, kinda fishy. The texture is like eating a spoonful of crisco. It was not too bad but Jeremy and Isa could not stomach more then one spoonful. It is just the thought of eating an entire cube of grease that makes you cringe!



Isa thinks that she will stick with good old milk and sugar ice cream.

What a beautiful day! Yes it is still very wintery here but there is spring in the air. We had a beautiful trip out in the bush on the "snowmachine". After traveling out for about 20 miles we found a beautiful spot to have lunch. Here is a picture of Isa and I by our fire.











We put on our snowshoes on and followed tracks all over the river. I followed some big ones until I found this....
















A little while farther down the creek I found this......the beaver den. You can look down inside the den and see the water.






























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After we had lunch Jeremy took us up on top of a mountain here to see the Isuk's, or rock people. No one can really tell us what they are for. Some say that they are trail markers, others believe that they are places of shaman magic. I like the shaman magic myself. The place really was magic, black soil was visible there at the Isuk. It was the first soil I had seen in six months. It smelled fantastic!

Easter

Isa had two little friends spend the night before Easter with us. Although it did not feel very Easterish to us with all of the snow outside the girls did not seem to mind. We all had a great egg hunt and everyone ended up with a lot of candy.







After the eggs were all found Jeremy made the girls bunny pancakes.

It's been a while

It has been while since the last post. The reason for this is three fold. First, I lost my cord to connect the camera to the computer so no photos. Second, I was very sick for two weeks with "influenza". No I did not get the shot. I will from now on, I promise. Third, before I was sick my mom was to come and see me but she got stranded in Anchorage due to the volcano. So I was depressed for the rest of that week. So those are my excuses.

Today was Easter. We had two girls spend the night with us and they were up at the crack of dawn looking for eggs and eating candy. Then we went down to the river for the annual dog races. These dog races are for the kids and Isa got to race with all of the other kids down the river and back. It was a lot of fun and Jeremy got to race too. (He lost.)

tae kuando

Here are some pictures of Isa doing her Tae Kwando. I think this is one great, yet very strange, program to have up here in the tundra. Some Tae Kwando instructor in Nome got a grant to bring 6 college age black belts from Korea here to this area of Alaska and station them at little villages around Norton Sound.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for these young men to show up here in December! All of the instructors are from the big city and they were just dumped, each one in a separate village. They had no idea what they were getting into.!



I am a strong believer in martial arts training especially for the girls. It is so good for them. This culture has a high incidence of violence toward women, sexual and domestic assault. In the Tae Kwando classes over half of the students are girls.



The instructor is also teaching mental discipline. Children as young as 5 are taught to sit straight with hands on knee, eyes front. They also must meditate for at least 5 minuets before class. We could all use that sort of discipline.

Garden at the White House

So this is the coolest story to read on spring equinox. I knew that these folks were really tree hugging pagans. They just could not run on that platform......

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/03/20/ST2009032002547.html

Spring Equinox

Today is the spring equinox. On this day all over the world everyone has 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. After this day we will continue to get more and more light until on summer solstice we will have 22 hours of daylight.

Back in the states this was always an important day to me. I am a big gardener. I love to grow things and the spring equinox, with all of its pagan overtones, was an important planting day and celebration of life. Here well, it is just another -20 degree day with a little bit more sun. The snow is still 6 feet deep and we will not be seeing the dirt for another 3 months.

So what can we do to celebrate? I think we will be going down to the Iditarod and watch the "red lantern" come in, maybe have a slushy (pictured above) and eat some Cheetos (pictured below). Not quite the pagan celebration I long for but you do the best with what you have. I have to remember that instead of planting seeds I am planting memories and hope that the seeds of Isa's culture take root. Happy spring everyone. I hope you are busy planting your garden in whatever form it may be.