Fall fun

Winding down some activities as winter quickly approaches, and embarking on the more cold weather centered ones soon.

Fall festival - complete with blue popcorn ball!

Abby and the teens had fun! She is cute, so they were in to cheering her on!

Sunset too soon

Ice formation!

Trying to hunt deer....good hike!

King of fish! Period.

pumpkin head

We went to the fairgrounds to get a pumpkin, play games...

"Surely one of these will turn out," Jill said.

Well, this is the best! Apparently only Zoe turned on the cute, Hannah too busy eating popcorn and Abby too busy being goofy!

sunrise at 9am

afternoon hike

I should probably mention my dad is a photographer/videographer, and he gave me a camera when I was eight. It's family tradition!

My gift to Abby on her fourth birthday will be a camera - a kid's camera. I probably could have got her a "real" camera for the price (well, almost), but it should be fine. The whole point of this blog is to document Abby's life. I know that much of what I write does not pertain to Abby. For example, she did not go to Ouzinkie, but I hope she will learn from my experiences. There is nothing like first hand lessons, but we absorb something from reading books right? Mine just happens to be a bit more mundane and not fabricated, only interpreted via my mind.

This year she will get a camera. So her pics will start appearing. We will work on this for a few years together. I imagine by the time she is nine, she will be the main contributor. I will be a guest author once and awhile if allowed.

Ouzinkie

Herman's icon corner.

Carmen, the temporary collections assistant, came with me. I think she had a good time. Here we are visiting with an elder.

We went to Ouzinkie to inventory and assess their books. They will be ordering a case to better store them and perhaps we will do a little work on a few - cleaning and storing.

Herman is a reader.

Alutiiq people have roles to hold services and care for the church in absence of clergy. In many cases priests serve more than one village.

Fr. Gerasim did serve Ouzinkie from the 1935- early1960s, but even he was mostly absent as he resided at Monk's Lagoon for most of the year.

http://www.alutiiqmuseum.org/exhibits/electronic-exhibits/281-orthodoxy-in-alutiiq-life.html

The cemetery is cared for very well.

This is the grave of Larry Ellanak and his wife. Larry was a reader during Fr. Gerasim's time.

Mossy! Spruce Island is so pretty.

Herman and Daria - what a pair! Two very different people trying to get along.

Daria is from Russia, currently working at the seminary. She is interested in sacred languages. Her assistance was invaluable! If it had been just Carmen and I, the inventory would have been quite a bit more vague - book in Church Slavonic, book in Russian, book in Slavonic, book in Slavonic! Instead, she could tell us what the book is and even do some complicated math to determine the date. Often, the date is recorded from the time from the creation of earth, not the time from Christ's birth.

4 wheeler tracks running right through a house pit. I am guessing, but it looks like a large village with multiroom houses, so Koniag era (abo. 800 years old) and reportedly a whaling village.

Bright pink flowers fade to white fluffy stuff.

There were two opinions on which image was better - sunset or fireweed.

I think both need some additional photoshopping.

Herman's backyard.

Boardwalk leading to harbor.

Cute house!

The most beautiful church I have ever seen.

An all women participation - except Herman.

Garman, Herman's son, and dog on skiff headed back to town via Anton's.

I am trying to get used to skiff rides! It was a good one. I lucked out. I still felt oogly for a minute, but it passed.

Svetlana

And her name is.......SVETLANA!

Oh, you thought I forgot. No, just busy!

Lighthouse of help

I have been, uh, a little on the depressed side for the past week. Perhaps a low after such a high in Honolulu?! I have no particular reason to be blue, but not even spicy food AND chocolate have helped. Well, ok, a little. I know I got it really good though, so I feel quite silly. Especially when I have researchers tell me "you've been our lighthouse of help!"

For example, we had a film crew in from Oregon studying Refuge Rock. They were fun to hang with! I assisted them with their discovery of the brewery, and then of course they proceeded to lose their glasses and their ability to walk because of it! Good times. But even today, I WAS supposed to go to Ouzinkie, but the weather was bad this morning, so I ended up in the dungeon again, and gave yet another collections tour. It may sound ho-hum, as I have given hundreds of tours, but actually they are rewarding every time! To see people's amazement is very uplifting and reminds me of what a good life I have.

I have such a wonderful daughter, a place to live, running water, food, supportive co-workers/friends, a cool place to live, a great "job", etc., so I best look up!

Not even 4 yet!

Colorful people

Portrait of mom complete with belly button!

Dad, mom, and Abby

Ok, so technically she said I was on the far left...

Abby can write her name. Amazingly smart girl, too bad she can't sit still or follow directions!

Girl holding a ball. Maybe a self-portrait.

last of the Honolulu pics

Every morning I would open the curtains and say, "oh , look, another beautiful day!"

The convention center is awesome!

Ralph Regenvanu speaking.

I got lei'd a lot!

Chinatown.

Reminds me of Van Gogh painting. I had such delicious food in Honolulu! The best food I have ever had really. For example, I had Vietnamese Italian!

View from the 27th floor looking towards Ala Moana beach park.

Whoa! Not used to being up this high.

Dog Bay

Back in Kodiak and end up in Dog Bay. I likey the "fall" color.

I climbed this all by myself! I did not go down by myself.

This boat is a mess - it is not well set up.

The inside is nice.

It has fancy equipment, but if you got a newby Captain and a jerk of an engineer, you end up with 43% by-catch! What does a pretty inside matter if the boat is not set up well where it matters and half the crew sucks?!