Temperature Fluctuations - Only outside

I don't know if it's global warming that causes this region to always have a warm spell hit this time of year, or if it's just a natural cycle that I need to get used to. I do know that one weekend, I'm waxing skis and getting ready to hit the trails and the next weekend, I'm wiping mud off my boots and sweating in the classroom. It has warmed up, above freezing, for the past week, ever since the NYO team went to Chefornak one and a half weeks ago. And it's been raining almost non stop since then. Now, today it is finally cooling off below freezing again. There is still some light precipitation, but oh oh oh... only if all that precip we had earlier had been snow. We would wading through snow drifts up to our waists. Oh well, I guess we will have to wait a couple of weeks again.

One place that the temperature has been very stable is in our school's new Salmon Incubation Tank. Yes, we set up the tank on the 13th and 14th in preparation for the arrival of 500 Coho salmon eggs. I had four students, two high schoolers and two middle schoolers help set up the filtration system, cooling system, add the water, and insulate the outside of the tank. Then on Tuesday evening, we received our shipment of salmon eggs. Again, students helped to safely transfer the eggs from their chilled shipping environment to the tank water, which had been chilled to approximately 8 degrees C. (46.4 degrees F.) When I checked the eggs the next morning, there was only one casualty. I safely removed the dead egg with a turkey baster, and since then, all the eggs look viable.

My students then had to calculate the estimated time the "eyed" eggs would hatch. I wanted them to hatch close to our departure for Christmas break, so that we wouldn't have to worry about maintenance of the tank while we were gone. The egg development depends mostly on the temperature that we keep the water. Students have been measuring the water temperature everyday and calculating the ATUs (Accumulated Thermal Units). Coho salmon eggs hatch usually around 450 - 500 ATUs. Today, we calculated that the eggs have 371.5 ATUs at this time. We lowered the temperature of our tank to 7 degrees C. (44.6 degrees F.) so that the eggs would hatch around Dec. 11 - 13 and we would have enough time to do the 3 - 4 water changes necessary to maintain good water quality. During this time, we will lower the temperature of the tank down to 4 - 5 degrees C. in order to lower the biological activity.

While we are on Christmas break, the Alevin will be hiding deep in the rocks of the tank, slowly absorbing their gigantic yolk sacs. When they finally "button up", they will emerge from the rocks again and be free swimming salmon fry.

Overall, the students are pretty excited about the project. I usually don't have to ask for volunteers to help with maintenance and data recording for the tank. It actually presents another factor of classroom management that I have to deal with. Students love to just sit there and watch the "Salmon TV."

So stayed tuned for updates on Eek School's Salmon Incubation Project.
Thanks for reading!

Dirk

Getting Ready for Winter Fun

Well the temperature has dipped below the freezing mark. We actually got snow back in the end of September. It didn't last long. I believe the current snow will be here until April.

So in preparation, I set up the ski waxing station and prepped my skate skis for my second season of ski fitness. I am very much an intermediate skier and even less experienced at waxing, but I was very happy with the outcome of my wax job this time. Waxing skis is a very detailed and scientific process. There are numerous different waxes for specific temperature ranges. There is wax for new snow and old snow. There is high temperature (iron temp) flourocarbon wax and lower grade wax that you have to apply more often. And its pretty darn expensive. Yeah, leave it to me to find an expensive hobby.

All this will hopefully lead me to be geared up for the Tour of Anchorage again this coming spring. 25 Kilometers of rolling, scenic, perfectly groomed ski trails around Anchorage. Last year, my first year, I was brutally humbled at my lack of fitness and my lack of preparation of enough fluids and energy food. This year, I hope to crush my time from last year.

More importantly, these preparations with the skis is getting Katja very excited for another season of skijoring. We actually went out on Saturday this weekend, although the amount of snow was a little lacking for skis just yet. I know this because I fell a couple of times due to my skis hitting rocks just under the snow. I fell hard. I have a bruise on my hip and a mangled elbow to prove it. But that will heal and leave me stronger and more armored for the rest of the season.

So for now, my fingers are crossed for more snow and suitable temperatures for outdoor fun and adventure. I do have a snow machine (snow mobile) this year as well, so that will be beckoning me to head out for longer adventures. I might even be able to scoot over to Quinhagak (35 miles away) to ski with some friends there.

And with that, I wish you all a wonderful winter with bountiful amounts of snow and sunshine. Happy Trails,
Dirk and Katja

Salmon Workshop

Hi all,
This event is actually quite old by now, but it is still worth posting. I had the great opportunity of venturing to Fairbanks for 4 days and attending a workshop to bring Salmon into the Classroom. It is a salmon incubation project to help expand the awareness and educate students about this amazing and extremely valuable Alaska resource.

We learned about some incredible information regarding ocean acidification, cultural history, life cycles of the different salmon species, and a host of great resources on line to enhance and supplement curriculum in all areas of education. We were actively engaged in many classroom activities related to salmon migrations, human impacts on salmon populations, and salmon anatomy.

I got lucky and was able to come back home with a complete kit for the Salmon Incubation Project and will be receiving 500 Coho (silver) Salmon eggs on Nov. 16th. My middle and high school students will then be in charge of caring for the eggs until they hatch and raising the young salmon fry until the end of the year.
Unfortunately, we will have to destroy the young smolt at the end of the school year, but next year I hope to take the project to the next level and actually collect eggs from our local Eek River. Then we can release the salmon smolt back into the Eek River again at the end of the year.
It was a very exciting and rewarding workshop and I am very "egg"cited to get started with our project. The students are excited too and keep asking me about when we are getting the eggs.

Stay tuned as I will try to write some posts on our progress with the project.
Until next time...

New Digs

When I left Eek last year, I had moved myself out of the new teacher 4-plex and into more modest living quarters. It is still very homey and I have a place to myself again, which I happen to prefer right now. I also only have to worry about Katja chewing up my belongings and not anyone else's. Most recently, she chewed up my new stereo remote.
Some other perks about my new living arrangement are ...
1. I get my own laundry appliances. I don't have to share with anyone else. After all, I am an
only child.
2. I can play music as loud and as late into the night as I want and no one complains about it.
Katja may not like it too much, but she doesn't complain.
3. I now have cable T.V. as well. This could be one of my downfalls this year. As my friends can tell you, when I watch T.V., nothing else gets done. Conversation is lost. I truly zone out. Like a zombie. Until I fall asleep. It's not something I am particularly proud of.
4. I can clean as often as I like...which ends up being less often than I should most of the time. I
do clean up eventually.
5. If I burn dinner, no one else knows about it. It happens to everyone once in a while.
6. I have a spare bedroom that I reserve for guests of the school, friends, and a place to store my fly fishing equipment and tie flies.

My classes this year are exciting as well. I'm teaching 7th and 8th grade math, science, and health/P.E. and High School Biology, Algebra, and Alaska Studies. I enjoy teaching High School level classes, although I do feel more pressure for getting grades in for transcripts and such. Things are going pretty smoothly. I have 15 middle school students and 10 high school students. I definitely deserve to have some smaller class sizes after teaching 23 students last year that ranged from 4th to 8th grade...for every class...all day long. Last year was rough. I am taking on more responsibility as well this year. I coach Cross - Country in the fall which starts up on the first day of school. I also coach our NYO (Native Youth Olympics) team in the fall and spring. I am also acting as the Athletic Director this year for all sports. I am feeling good about the roles that I'm taking on this. I just don't want to have to be the acting Site Administrator if need be. I will gladly let someone else take on that responsibility.

The last picture here is a view of my village along the banks of the Eek River. The river is tidal here and in order to catch fish, one has to travel up river about 15 - 20 miles. This fall has been particularly rainy, so the river levels have been extraordinarily high and the fishing has been pretty bad...at least for me. Therefore my world is far from perfect. I hope to get some fishing in before the fall season is over. Stay tuned.

Spring is in the air

I say this, but we will still have mornings of 23 degrees F. and occasional snow squalls. For the most part, spring has arrived and the winter season is slowly trickling away. Each day gets up to about 40 - 50 degrees now and more and more snow disappears for another 8 or 9 months. With the temperatures warming throughout the region a couple of things happen.

1. Ptarmigan start to appear and you can hear them clucking and laughing across the tundra in all directions. They still have their white winter foliage for now, but they will be quickly molting and starting to adapt to their brownish environment again. I actually got out a couple of weeks ago with a couple of students and bagged 3 - 4 ptarmigan. They will go nicely in a stir fry or stew. With the ptarmigan out, the students are itching for the end of each school day to rip across the tundra on their snow machines or 4 wheelers with their 22 rifles or 20 gauge shotguns to bag as many of tundra chickens as possible. They usually have to travel at least 3 - 4 miles to find descent sized flocks of birds to hunt.

2. All that wonderful white stuff is melting and running into giant puddles and mini lakes across the landscape. The actual lakes are still quite frozen, but the top layer melts more and more each day the sun shines down it. This gives the kids an excellent opportunity to go "skipping" or "sliding" on their snow machines across these water covered pieces of ice. So, all evening long, the intermittent screaming of snow machines can be heard as they race across the water. If you keep your speed up high enough, you won't sink and swamp your snow machine. Even if you did, there isn't any real danger of sinking to the bottom of a lake...yet. That day will be coming soon and each day, the risk increases.

3. The snow is really mostly gone already. There are occasional patches of the white stuff left, but most of the trails that were used in the winter are now turning to torn up strips of tundra moss, blueberry, blackberry, and cranberry plants, and other types of vegetation. We actually had an elder gentleman from the village visit several classrooms in the school and talk about reducing the human impact on the fragile tundra by staying off of it with machines. And just like kids everywhere, there are always some that ignore the wisdom and advise of adults and do whatever the heck they want. The fact is that the tundra does an incredible job of bouncing back. This has been happening for years now and each fall when I return, the tundra has returned to it's springy, supersaturated carpet of vegetation. It's still sad to see the condition of this ecosystem as the season changes from winter to spring and no one wants to put their machine away for the summer and fall. They are just to darn fun!

Walking across the tundra with Katja on our daily explorations is kind of nice this time of year. You definitely need your muck boots to keep your feet dry, but with the permafrost still pretty shallow, you can walk across some more swampy areas rather easily. Katja usually finds about 12 - 15 bones that have been covered up by the snow and will find a spot to settle down and gnaw on the skeletons of the dead every so often. I've taken to walking because... obviously I can't ski (much to my dismay) and I don't feel like trashing my bike in the muck. The running shoes will be broken out soon enough.

Time is ticking away for the school year! In another 28 days, Katja and I will be walking barefoot on the grass around my folks home in Maryland or running the C&O canal along the Potomac River. Looking forward to it.

Skijoring on the Tundra

Untitled from DirkMartin on Vimeo.

Well winter is dragging on. Not that I'm complaining about it. I'm actually glad that we still have enough snow for skiing. This video is from two weeks ago when I went out early in the morning and just kept on going. I got out to this video site and rested for a while playing with my camera set up. Then I just continued on to a nearby fish camp on the Eek River. I was still feeling fresh, so I went about another 1 1/2 miles up river and then turned around. Looking at my GPS, I figured I skied about 15 miles total that day. It was the longest distance I've skate skiied since the race in Anchorage. When I got home, I laid around the house nursing my sore, tired muscles and my new blisters from my boots. Katja slept for the rest of the day. I love my skate skis!
I'm not looking forward to the snow leaving us here, but it's going to happen sooner than later. It will be interesting to see what happens in Eek. I imagine that things will turn pretty swampy and marshy, but it still won't be as bad as my experience in Toksook Bay last spring. There, I lived in one of the lowest areas in the village and basically had a small river running past my house and emptying into a small pond just below my house that almost flooded my knee high boots when I waded through it. Hopefully that will not be my experience here in Eek.
On a brighter note, the warming temps will bring the Ptarmigan out of their winter hiding. I hope to take the bike or skis, which ever is more efficient, or buy gas for one of our students to take me on a snow machine. Either way, I want to do some hunting. Ptarmigan is really good in stews and stir fry. Since my salmon supply is almost gone, I need to look for other bounty of the Delta. I'll keep you posted. Hope you enjoyed watching the video as much as I did making it.
Thanks for reading,
Dirk and Katja

My First "Last Great Race"

I've been in Alaska for almost 4 years now and have yet to see a dog mushing race. So, when a couple of friends mentioned that they were going in for the 2010 Iditarod and the Tour of Anchorage nordic ski race, I jumped at the opportunity. I asked for a couple of personal days to allow myself a relaxing stay in Anchorage without having to rush back to work right away. I'm glad I did that, because I had a hard time walking around after my ski race.
I stayed with some friends from Eagle River, which sits right at the base of the Chugach mountains. My friends stayed downtown Anchorage at the Millenium hotel, which happened to be the base of operations for the Iditarod Race. The lobby of the hotel had tons of gifts and memorabilia for purchase and there was always lots of people mingling around the tables and displays.
Saturday morning was the ceremonial start for the Iditarod. The first musher started around 10 am and others continued a staggered start every two minutes until around 1:00 pm. They ran the dogs about 4 - 5 miles around Anchorage. The city of Anchorage had to truck in tons and tons of snow to fill the streets of town so the dogs could actually pull their sleds. The official start of the race was Sunday at 2:00pm in Willow, AK near Wasilla where there was plenty of snow. We were concerned about parking, because "Fur Rondy" had been going on for a couple of weeks and downtown had been crowded the whole time. Fur Rondy is a two week celebration focusing on the Iditarod, Native Arts, and culture. We happened to find relatively close parking spaces near a part of the course that was not too crowded. We were able to stand right on the edge of the course near a corner with plenty of space to take photos and catch the candy filled dog booties.
The race is coming to a close with three top contenders battling it out. Lance Mackey is in front with Jeff King and Hans Gatt closing in from third position. If you want to follow closer, check out the following site, http://www.iditarod.com/ to read all the stories. Now in honor of celebrating the winter season with your dog, I'm going to go skiing with Katja. See ya!