by Robbi | Sep 1, 2015 | Alaska, Life |
Hello everyone! We’re starting off September with a MYSTERY! A mystery that one of you will hopefully solve!
When we were up in Alaska, we found a MYSTERIOUS piece of trash along the shoreline of the beach.
It didn’t look like the regular trash that washes up (empty bottles, pieces of net, jellyfish, etc) – there was a styrofoam box (on the left) attached to a stretchy rubbery material (on the right).
The styrofoam box had some MYSTERIOUS wires coming out of it:
And taped to the back of the styrofoam box was a MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE!
What in the world could it BE, we wondered?
Do any of YOU have an idea of what it might be? Make your suggestions in the comments and whoever gets it first wins a free book! Or, if nobody gets it right, we’ll pick whoever comes up with the most interesting answer! So put on your sleuthing hats and let us know what you think it might be…
by Matthew | Aug 16, 2013 | Alaska, Life, Stuff We Like |
I don’t know about you, but when I was your age (here, I am assuming that you are rather small), I did not know a lot of things. I did not know that fish hatched out of eggs (at the time, I thought only birds did this), and I certainly didn’t know that fish eggs were delicious and that people ate them with seaweed and rice. Although I had heard of rice, I did not even know that people ate seaweed.
Up in Alaska, we catch a lot of salmon. One type of salmon we sometimes catch has really big eggs. When we “clean” the salmon (a nicer word for “cut the salmon open and take out their guts”), we pull out the eggs. They are conveniently contained in a thin, clear membrane, kind of like a plastic baggie.
Have a closer look.
Then we take the eggs and soak them for several days in a mixture of salt, vinegar, and sake (Japanese rice wine). This makes them delicious.
When they are ready, we eat them. My favorite way to eat them is by heaping them on top of a heap of rice that is sitting on a piece of seaweed.
The eggs are like little balls of fluid that pop between your teeth. Robbi doesn’t really like the texture, but I do. I like that they are salty and taste like vinegar.
Here is how we serve our eggs.
And here’s a picture I found online of the eggs in a nicer bowl (thank you, Wikipedia!).
If you want to learn more about fish eggs, which are called Roe in English and Ikura in Japanese, here’s an article.
But perhaps you prefer to be like I was as a child, convinced that hot dogs and macaroni cheese were the only things worth eating.
Personally, I recommend fish eggs.
by Matthew | Aug 13, 2013 | Alaska, Writing Prompt |
Last week we asked you to write a story about a bear or a story about a mosquito or a story about a bear and a mosquito. Or a story about “beasts you’d rather avoid.”
As it turns out, we got a bit of each.
Fist off, from Spencer:
I’m trying to avoid Beetle-Rattle because it can bite you and poison you. It looks kind of like a snake and it has two legs in the front and two legs in the back and it has a poisoned needle in the middle. It’s about the size of a suitcase and can be found three deserts away from us on the other side of Asia. If it tries to get you, to defend yourself, you just get a rock from outside and try to smoosh it. If it sucks some blood from your body it’s ok – you just have to go to the doctor and they will give you a shot.
All I can say is thank goodness Beetle-Rattle is “three deserts away.” Even two deserts away would be too close for my tastes. That said, I’m glad to know that, should the Beetle-Rattle manage to sneak its way over here and steal some of my blood, the doctors will be able to patch me up. Still…I think I’m heading west this afternoon in hopes of getting at least four deserts between me and BR.
From Tyler:
Once upon a time there was a mosquito. It was looking for friends and then it saw a bear. The mosquito said, “Do you want to play with me bear?” And the bear said, “Of course!” And they played and played and played, but then the bear squished the mosquito. Then another mosquito was looking for a friend. He saw the same bear and said, “Do you want to play with me?” And the bear said, “Yes,” and then he squished that mosquito. Then after that another mosquito was looking for a friend, too. He saw the bear and said, “Do you want to play with me?” And the bear said “Yes,” and the bear squished the mosquito. The end.
When Tyler’s story started out, I thought we were being treated to a nice allegory about race relations. But then things took a dark twist and I thought perhaps we were being treated to a nice allegory about the redemptive power of learning from one’s mistakes. But then the merciless bear crushed three mosquitoes in succession without consequence or remorse, and I learned that we were being treated to an unfiltered dose of reality.
From Joe:
One day, a little mosquito saw a big bear.
It was nice outside.
The mosquito really wanted someone to play with.
So he said to the bear: “Let’s play together and be friends!”
The Bear says: “…. Ok.”
The mosquito flies around and the bear chased him.
They played “you can’t catch me.”
It was fun~
But suddenly, the mosquito bite the bear…
“Ouch!” “Oops, sorry!”
The bear was angry: “Why did you bite me?!!”
The mosquito said: “Sorry, maybe I was hungry.”
The bear was still angry: “It’s not ok.”
The mosquito didn’t know what to say.
The bear went away…
All the way to the other side of a tall mountain.
And the mosquito never saw him again.
And here is the picture Joe drew to go along with his story:
In a surprising inversion of Tyler’s tale, Joe paints the mosquito as the aggressor. Which, frankly, is a much more accurate read on the state of things on the tundra. Bears would rather keep to themselves and eat dead fish in the wee hours before we awake, whereas mosquitoes mount a relentless attack at every possible moment.
Which leads us to Kato’s story, which is short but powerful.
Kato:
The mosquito bit me on the butt.
Alas, this story is nonfiction. Kato’s butt was the target of a mosquito attack. It itched and it itched a lot.
Consequently, Kato took precautions, such as hiding and camouflage.
And comprehensive skin coverage.
August, who takes careful note of everything his brother does, followed suit.
These aggressive tactics did not entirely eliminate the mosquito threat. Bites (and itches) were delivered on hands, cheeks, necks, etc. But no more butts were harmed. No sir.
by Matthew | Aug 9, 2013 | Alaska, Alden, August, Kato, Kids, Life |
The kids love Alaska. For lots of reasons. Late bedtime. Freedom to roam. Permission to get as dirty as they like.
Rides in Uncle David’s skiff.
Making angels in the sand.
Playing in the nets.
Sitting on really big piles of really big rope.
And standing on the edge of the bluff looking down upon the world below.
But their favorite thing to do by far is climb onto a four wheeler and gun the engine.
Or, at least, to try to gun the engine. The unfortunate fact of our four wheeler fleet is that they are all so old and broken down that the auto-ignition switches no longer work. Which means starting any of them up requires a swift pull of the starter cable.
August understood this in principle.
But lacked the arm strength (and arm length) to accomplish the deed. Even Kato was not equal to the task. For this we were quite grateful.
But really, who needs a running four wheeler? It’s just as fun (almost) to simply sit on one. Even small children, it seems, are not immune from the intoxicating thrill of the ATV.
Minivan at home. Four wheeler on the tundra. It’s our “other” family car. It’s all a matter of context.
Here’s one for the 2013 Christmas card.
And here’s Robbi’s brother and his family, looking good in four wheeler chic.
Four wheelers, long days, endless stretches of beach…
Life on the tundra is, quite literally, an occasion for jumping for joy.
Alden has already started asking how many days it is until we go back.
by Matthew | Aug 7, 2013 | Alaska, Writing Prompt |
It’s time to take out your pencils, typewriters, or personal scribes, because today we have a writing prompt for you.
As you know, we recently returned from Alaska. Although we go to Alaska to catch fish, while we’re there, we do our best to avoid bears. You know, grizzly bears. They are very large.
Fortunately, the bears would rather not spend time with people and so they mostly come out at night. But almost every morning, we see their pawprints on the beach.
They walk along the water’s edge at high tide, looking for any fish that might have been swept to shore.
There is another menace in Alaska, one even more fearsome than bears.
Mosquitoes. They are everywhere and they are mean, and we spend most of our time trying to squish them before they get us. Sometimes we squish them right after they get us.
It is a constant battle, one with heavy casualties on both sides.
And so, your writing prompt for today:
Write story about bears and mosquitoes. It can be a true story of your personal adventures with either of these pests, or it can be an imaginary story. Or, if you have nothing to say about bears or mosquitoes, feel free to write a story about the beasts that you’d rather avoid, whether lions or dragons or cute little white mice.
Send us your story (be sure to give it a name) by next Monday afternoon (August 12th), so that I can post it on this blog next Tuesday.
Happy writing!
by Matthew | Jul 22, 2013 | Alaska, Life |
Hello every0ne. We had a great three weeks in Alaska and will tell you the stories of our adventures in the days ahead. But we just wanted to let you know that Iggy, Baby August, and our six coolers of frozen salmon fillets have returned from the tundra.
As have the rest of the family, but so far this morning, I’m the only one in the family who’s awake. It’s still 4:00 in the morning in Alaska, and our bodies aren’t ready to admit that we’re back in Maryland.
We hope you had as much fun as we have over the past few weeks. Check in tomorrow for some pictures of our adventures this year.
