Softball fields and sod houses

I bet you are wondering what a soft ball field has to do with sod houses?


Well, when the new school was built about 11 years ago, the architect included a softball field to go with the hockey rink and the playground.  There are two problems, the kids around here are not interested in softball and the snow is on the ground from October to April or May.



About six years ago, someone decided to build a sod house, Alaskan Style, for the students to use. Historically, many houses were built of sod and perhaps connected by tunnels.  The main house was where everyone met so the elders educated the children with ancestral knowledge.

 The only place to build it was in the unused soft ball field.  So they built it there.  Supposedly, classes were going to be held in the sod house just like long time ago.  It never really worked out so a few years later, they took it down because it wasn't built properly.

It was fun watching them spend time carting away the sod, dirt, wood and class to clean out the softball field.  It is now clear and it is still not used for anything.

Historically, many places in Alaska used the sod house as the learning center, meeting place, center of the village.  There is a site outside of town that seems to be several sod houses connected to a central sod house by tunnels.

Me, I get a bit uneasy when I go out there to check  it out because it is around 80 years old and starting to fall down.  Still is it part of the local history and many groups in Alaska are trying to preserve their language, culture, and history.

crabs and freezers.

When you talk about crabs you think of a marine crab, you think of dinner.  You know!  Crab legs!  Where you splurge and buy a bunch of crab legs to eat.   Lots of people eat their crab legs dripping in butter and tell me they are soooo good.

I looked for a picture of what I grew up with as a Sand Crab but couldn't find any.

This creature was the color of the sand and kind of flat and more roundish with the correct number of legs but they never got very big.  For all I know, they are not crabs, but some other crustacean.

I do know you do not eat these .  Not used in soup or crab cakes or any other type of delicious food.  

My brothers would spend so much time down at the beach playing, swimming and digging.  They  always seemed to bring these guys home on a regular basis. 

Rather than putting them out in the garden, they threw them in the freezer to be preserved for an eternity.  They would also leave a trail of sand on the floor from the door to the freezer.  Mom really hated it because they would throw these crabs in completely coated in sand and my brothers would never sweep up after themselves.

Every so often mom would have to clean the freezer out of creatures and sand.  She was always grumbling and threatening my brothers but it never did any good.  They would sneak in, throw the crabs and head out to play.  If they stopped to clean up, it was themselves in the shower and they'd leave a sand encrusted shower in their wake........LOL.

Arrggg

This week has been horrendous.  I look out my window at rain and fog.  The temperatures keep dropping rather than going up and I keep thinking of going somewhere warm. 

Warm like in the southwest.  A place that may have rather high temperatures but the humidity is low enough that it does not feel that hot.  I've been in the mojave where its 105 degrees but didn't feel that hot.  I've also been back east in Pennsylvania where it was 80 degrees out but the humidity was 98 percent and I felt like I was being suffocated to death.

I can picture myself walking along the beach with the ocean waves swirling around my feet, eating a snow cone.  Sometimes I pass places that advertise "Hawaiian Snow Cones" I run up and ask for the li hing mui flavor and they shake their heads.

They usually offer the standard flavors like banana, rainbow, strawberry, cherry, lemon, lime, etc.

The only place I've ever gotten the li hing mui flavor is in Hawaii.  Well maybe next time I go to Hilo for the Pow Wow, I'll enjoy it again.

You know there is nothing better than eating a huge snow cone as you walk along the beach.  It keeps you cool and the beach never seems to get too hot because of the gentle wind that blows most of the time.  A breeze, not a wind, a gentle breeze that ruffles your hair much like your mom did when you were a kid.

Sigh!  I'm off to face reality again.  Thank you for letting me share a dream that is keeping me sane for a few more days.

Black sand beach

When I was growing up, we lived about a block and a half from the ocean.  There was a lovely white beach just on the other side of the road past the row of houses.  Did you know not all beach sand is white?  There are places such as on the Big Island of Hawaii that have black sand? 

Yup, black sand.  The black sand beach on the big island of Hawaii is a place that the local turtles crawl  up on the beach to enjoy the sun and warm sand.  This area is a well known tourist area where buses stop and discharge visitors bent on enjoying everything.


There are do not pet the turtle sign posted all over the place but the visitors studiously ignore the signs to take pictures of their children, wives, or other family members petting the turtles.  In addition, there is a stand off under the trees that sells trinkets only when the buses are due in.

I've camped there before.  I slept in a van and was so glad I did because the wind off the ocean blew so hard, the tents flattened overnight.  The next morning, the wind was still blowing hard enough to cause more white tops on the waves.

This beach is just past the old sugar mill and on the way to the southern most bakery in the United States.   Further down, off the road is the southern most point in the United States with a cliff you can jump off into the water. 

I really enjoy visiting the black beach but hate watching people ignore the signs and disturb the wild life.

Sort out the wisdom from the brain.

I just listened to a conversation on the differences in culture and this comment came out of the discussion.  One guy said he was driving through Canada with his father and his father kept going 65 mph instead of 50 km.  His dad apparently told him to "Sort out the wisdom from the brain."

His experience with his dad was so similar to my experience with my mother.  We were driving from Alaska, down through Canada to Washington.  

My mother did not know the difference between kilometers and miles.  It was something else.  We were in an old Mazda station wagon that could not go over 55 mph without shaking. 

So when my Mother drove, she tried to follow the numbers on the speed limit.  Yikes, it was a challenge.  She saw 85 and tried to go 85 mph.   The car just couldn't handle it so I'd have to talk to her every time the speed limit changed.

It went something like this:
"Mom, you need to go 30 mph."
"But it says 50!"
" I know mom but that is in kilometers not miles."
"There's a difference?"
"Yeah mom, there is.  you need to go slower."

I think we went through the same conversation every time the speed changed.  it got to the point, I just gave her the speed in mph so we didn't have to have the conversation.

It save my sanity, my car and I didn't kill my mother on that trip.

Snakes

You know snakes are really interesting creatures.  Most of the snakes I've come across are either in science classrooms,  on belly dancers, in zoos or once I almost stepped on a huge green snake slithering across the back road I was walking down.

There are two snakes kept in fish tanks over in the science room at the school.  One is pale yellow and the other is a nice orange. 

The kids love the snakes and fight to feed the thawed mice to them. It is fun to watch them swallow their dinner whole and to see it slowly work its way through the digestive system.

A couple years ago, the orange one got loose and disappeared. The science teacher and maintenance guys took apart the room, looking for it. They looked in the bookcases, behind the heating vents, and every possible nook and cranny but they could not find the snake..

Two or three months later, in the middle of the night, while  the  security guard was on duty found the snake when he looked down and noticed he was about to step on the snake.  I'm told he let out a scream of surprise and promptly rousted the science teacher out of bed to come collect his missing pet.  The snake is still alive and doing well.

Years  ago,  when I was participating in a 20 miles walk-a-thon to raise money for a charity, I almost stepped on this huge green snake that was slithering across the road at around mile 4.  I was having a great time walking down the dirt road, checking out the flora and fauna, when I checked to see if I was still on the road.

Geez, my foot was about 2 inches from landing on the sucker!  I think I screamed and covered the next mile in less time than any other mile during the 6 hour walk. I think it took me till mile 6 for my heart to quit racing and for me to quit shaking. 

I didn't realize snakes could be that big.  Alaska does not have snakes up here at all but we have a plethora of mosquitoes.  I think its too cold for snakes to survive, even in the summer. The other state reputed to be without snakes is Hawaii but guess what?????  They do have one native snake the size of a worm.  Yeah a worm.  Its called the Island Blind Snake but there have been a few other types of snakes that people have brought in illegally. 

I don't mind snakes when I see them in captivity.  I've even held some and discovered they were warm and slithery, not cold and yucky.  In some cultures, snakes are held in high esteem but not in most of the places I've lived.

I hope to have the Softball fields and sod houses for you tomorrow but I'm having internet issues at home where I am writing it.

So what do you think of snakes?

Adam's downfall

You know the story.  The one where Eve talked Adam into eating the apple from tree of knowledge!  I've been looking at apples in general because there is nothing better than a crisp sweet apple that crunches as you bite into it and it releases its sweet nectar to drip down your chin!  Sooooo good.

Did you know you can grow apples most any place now?  There are apples that are grown up near Fairbanks, Alaska. These apples are small and tart and descendents of crab apples Yeah I know, apples aren't supposed to grow so far north!

 The largest apples are small, around 1 inch in diameter and even the sweetest ones are still tart.  The ones I get up here are usually yellow and I use them in cooking but still fresh, they are just as crisp and juicy as a regular store bought apple. 

I've thought about moving to Hawaii.  I wondered if you could grow apples there and I discovered there is research going on to breed varieties of apples that can grow in Hawaii.  Yes in Hawaii!   Most apples need a certain number of chill hours and I think the lowest I've actually seen is 400 hours for apples developed in Israel and are grown in places like Arizona.
The last time I was visiting Hawaii, I stumbled across something called a mountain apples in the Farmers Market places in Waikiki.  It was shaped like a heart with a lovely red skin and a crispy, juicy, white meat.  The flavor is not exactly like an apple. Its more like a pear, yet it is refreshing and lovely.

So you see, even in the far north, the southwest, paradise or most anywhere else you can find apples grown.

Tomorrow see what sod houses and softball fields have in common.