Happy Belated Birthday -- USA

I looked back through my posts on this blog, and I skipped July 4th last year.  It's always a busy day because NPS staffs a booth at the fairground.  I did blog about it back in 2009, but I was using a different blogging site then.  Here's a link to it.  Frostbytes on Tumblr

The novelty of some of the events has worn off, or maybe it's that I have to spend the day in my uniform because I work part of the time at our booth, but I didn't watch as many of the activities this year.  I did happen to catch the opening ceremonies.  Of course John Baker (2011 Iditarod winner) was the grand marshal.

John Baker's trophy

Another thing that happens, that I'm not typically a fan of, are the various pageants -- Miss Arctic Circle, Teen Arctic Circle, Miss Maniilaq, etc.  The redeeming quality of these pageants is that the girls are actually covered, head to toe.  What covers them is what I enjoy getting to see.  They borrow parkas from friends or relatives, very nice and often very old parkas.  They're amazing to see, and the photos don't do justice.

Oh, and don't forget the mukluks on their feet.  Beautiful craftsmanship!  On this day, those girls were happy to have the warm parkas on; it was cold and windy.

I didn't watch any of the other events this year, but while I was at the Park Service booth, there were a few of the field events happening (foot races, water balloon, etc.)  One funny one is the tug-o-war.  In addition to the usual age/gender competition, they always have two certain groups face off for this event.  They call for the native women and white men on opposite ends.  The native women always win, but to be fair, they have a lot more of them to pull.

Every year our NPS education staff comes up with a theme to interpret in our booth.  This year it had to do with bears and bear safety.  We had a pretty elaborate setup.

To get people to read the information on the board, we make some pretty cool, unique buttons, and if they take a quiz (using the information on the board), they get one.

This display highlights a project that our biologist is working on.  People here live off of fish.  They build big fish drying racks to prepare the fish for winter storage.  It's a great place for bears to find the food they need while they're trying to put on their winter fat!  Our biologist is providing electric fences to people who have fish racks in order to keep bears out.  We don't want the bears getting people's fish because they can become habituated to humans....

Here we demonstrated examples of things to not do when you camp. 

Even though we don't sell fried snickers or cheap, made-in-China plastic toys, we're still a hit with people!

Cottongrass-->Blueberries

I recently heard that traditional knowledge here indicates that a year with abundant cottongrass means there will also be plenty of blueberries.  I wish I could say that's what's been keeping me busy.  You could infer from my last post that the cottongrass made a good showing this year.  I have been berry picking some, but it was mostly because I needed some for a teacher workshop I just helped present.  But no, mostly I've just been working, especially these last few weeks.

The good news, well, there are two parts to it.  First, I didn't use all the blueberries during the teacher workshop.  Anyone who has spent time picking blueberries on the tundra can appreciate that.  It takes forEVER to get a decent amount of the tiny fruits, so every last one of them is appreciated.  The second part of the good news is that after a short, very busy summer, I'm taking leave for a couple of weeks to spend time with family and welcome a new member.  Put these two pieces together, and I'm able to attempt the transport of some small but delicious blueberries from the arctic tundra to cheer some family that has been sweating out the summer in Texas.  Whether or not they get there intact remains to be seen.  They seem to have made the first leg alright.  We still have 15 hours and two airports to go.

Kotzebue blueberries on their way to Texas

As for abundance, this is only my third summer, so I really don't know anything.  There were definitely patches that had plenty of them, but I think last summer was better.  I hope there are still some to pick when I get back.  I did freeze a couple small baggies of them.  I would have brought them all if I could be confident they'd make it in good condition.  Everyone I listened to said that when they've tried to travel with them, they end up all popped and mashed by the time they arrive.  Of course you could still bake with them or make things like smoothies, but it's nice to be able to grab a handful of fresh berries to pop in your mouth.  I waffled but decided that I might not be forgiven by at least one member of my family if I didn't try to bring some.

As I mentioned, I wasn't blueberry picking all summer.  There were lots of things I wanted to post and just couldn't seem to carve out the time.  I'll have to play a little catch-up now, so I might as well do it while I'm waiting at the airport if I can stay awake (sleep has been a luxury lately).  So, the next few posts will fall somewhere between the cottongrass and the blueberries.