not your typical 31 flavors

ingredients:
berries picked from the tundra (the maker must choose their ingredients- berry or fish and stay with that recipe for the rest of their life- if it is found out that they are using different kinds of berries it is considered inappropriate and they will lose respect in the community)
crisco (or whale/caribou/moose fat)
sugar

what do you get? the yup'ik delicacy of akutaq or eskimo ice cream.

for a friday treat we make some blueberry akutaq at school today. our master chef/administrative assistant, lucy, was our on hand expert who learned from her mother, who learned from her mother, etc. etc. with the help of an electric mixer we were able to recreate in a short amount of time what used to take hours of hard labor. there are special techniques for mixing the berries & fat- turning to the left is a bad omen.

if you dont think about the fact that you're eating crisco, it's not half bad.

watch out iditarod

our neighbors, the klejkas, have a dog sled team. i miss cash and murphy so much that myself and some of my roommates have volunteered to take care of the dogs and learn how to be mushers.

just waiting on the first snowfall- the wait will not be that long.

could i get more alaskan?

we've been in bethel for about a week now-the traveling days were long- however, i can tell you about the beauty of the portland, seattle, and anchorage airports after spending quite a bit of time in all three. long layovers=living simply. after arriving to bethel on a delayed flight we arrived at our house to find out- surprise, we were hosting a potluck dinner in about an hour. we met many people from town including many former volunteers who just loved bethel so much they stayed to hang out- with or without jobs. we have been settling in- and we had a true alaskan day on tuesday. we cooked caribou for dinner and then set out for the kuskokwim river to "catch the silvers run" aka fish for salmon. by alaskan state law- residents can use nets to catch fish due to subsistance living- but you have to live in the state for over a year in order to work the boat and pull in the net- and the DA, Tom, was our captain- so that law was obeyed. we caught about 10 salmon- which was pretty good for an hour trip and our first time on the river. little did we know the fun was just beginning- ya gotta clean what you catch- so we all learned how to gut and filet the fish- each taking a turn with the ulu (special knife used to cut fish). and froze most of it for the winter- and after seeing the prices at the grocery store- free food= good food. ps- this picture was taken around 11:30 pm- the sun really does set at midnight.

SJ i'll miss U

mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the hawk

he is flying though the doorway cause he never ever walks

he is flying through the rafters like a loyal loyal hawk

the hawk will never die!

glory glory what a hell of a way to fly

glory glory what a hell of a way to fly

glory glory what a hell of a way to fly

THE HAWK WILL NEVER DIE !