Picking (not throwing) the nature!

This is a picture of me after picking berries(which are in my coffee can) with the Kwethluk river in the background.

Let me preface this post with a little story about the title I am using.  Some of you may know that I have been thoroughly involved through camping, counseling, deaning and working at Placerville Church Camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This name comes from one of the many favorite experiences of mine as a counselor in Faith Explorers.  I believe that this happened in the summer of 2007(I may be off..the memories merge).  

A large group of campers and counselors were hiking to the top of Perrin(probably the most challenging of camp hikes) and I recall being exhausted.  After quite a few warnings to campers about not picking up rocks, sticks and other various items on the hike, I was at my wits end! I may add that I believe this was near the end of the week of camp, and I was exhausted and patience was running low.  I loudly exclaimed to the nature offenders that they were to "STOP THROWING THE NATURE!!" 

Looking back at this moment if life, I have learned many things.  One, I should have more patience. :) And two.  Let the kids be kids, as long as their safety and the safety of others is not in danger.  I can now laugh at this moment of frustration I experienced along with the counselors, and hopefully any campers that I hollered at can laugh also.  I hope if any of you are reading this, you also get to experience the joy of counseling and learning to control your emotions with junior high adolescents.  :)

After that long story, I will get to my newest nature experience!

Yesterday, our neighbor Cindy invited us to go berry picking! Specifically blueberry picking, but I saw many other berries.  My students had spoken of berry picking, which is a common activity in the summer in this area. And I have been looking for an opportunity to go. After a half hour boat ride we climbed up the bank of the river and saw this incredible view!

I have to say these remind me a little of South Dakota.  The ground in South Dakota is much drier than the tundra here.  It reminded me of the bog my dad took my brother and I to which was near his childhood home.  The ground seemed to shake if you jumped!

We arrived around 4:30 and picked blueberries until 6:30! I was definitely not as good at picking the blueberries as our neighbors or the other two teachers that went with.  But it became much easier for me to spot the low-growing berries as I picked.  We were there to mainly pick blueberries, but there were also cranberries and blackberries(different than the ones I knew of).

The first two pictures below are of blueberries.  The one in the middle is of a bunch of cranberries.  The lowest left picture is of blueberries with cranberries, and the lowest right picture is of the blackberries.

Below is an unripened salmonberry which is my favorite of the tundra berries I've had.  They are very sweet!  You can see it kind of looks like a bunch of fish eggs.

Me picking berries!

I am wearing my rain boots because the ground was VERY wet and soggy!  The weather was really nice while we were out and there was a breeze that kept most of the mosquitos away.  I also saw a plane flying over while we were picking.

After picking for a few hours, my coffee can was half full! We got into the boat and went over to Cindy's mother's fish camp.  Fish camps are set up in the summer, where families clean and cut the fish they catch.  Here are some pictures of the one we visited.

Most of the pictures are of the fish hanging to dry.  The last picture is of the maciq(I may have spelled that wrong) which is a steam house.  Most people in the village steam as their means of showering because there isn't running water.

The fish hanging to the left is from the beginning of this summer, and the fish hanging to the right are salmon strips from fish caught this week.  These were in a shack smoking.  Cindy told us that there was a brown bear that broke into this shack a couple weeks ago.

The last thing we did before leaving the fish camp was pick a few more berries.  I can't remember the name of the berry on the left side, but I tried just one bite and it was the most sour and bitter tasting thing I've ever tried.  We also found some wild raspberries.  They are a little different than the ones we have back in South Dakota, but taste just as delicious! :)

Lastly, I took a picture of the fireweed which has beautiful pink flowers and a vivid red tassle at the top.  Pauline explained to me that fireweed is the named as such because it is the first plant that grows back after a fire. 

After a great day outside in the sunshine (which we haven't seen much of lately) I was exhausted.  

I will end with a picture of my first blueberry harvest! And a photo of the blueberry muffins I made this morning. I used the package my friend Sarah sent last week, but I spiced it up with some fresh blueberries!

Thanks Sarah!

I'd also like to end with a shout out thank you to Vonnie who funded my last packages from my mom! It is so wonderful to receive mail. Feels like Christmas :)

I am now 2 for 3 on the packages I (my mom) sent to myself before I left.  Hopefully that last one comes this week! 

I'm sure I'm forgetting something else I had meant to tell you all about, but I guess that will just be more for next time. :) Please email me or comment if you have any questions.  I will try to update this once a week or so. But I'd better get to my planning for this week!  Have a good one :)