Caribou Roast

Well, we did it! We survived our first Caribou Roast Dinner!!

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Before Chris left for Astoria, Oregon he butchered the caribou he hunted in St. Paul and made: roasts, steaks, and summer sausage.

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In honor of his return back to Kodiak, I defrosted our first attempt at a caribou roast. I found a recipe online for a Caribou Roast and it was soaked in vinegar and other spices for 24 hours before we cooked it. I think this may have helped with the "gamey-ness" of the roast.

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The meat was tender and tasted wonderful! I think our next roast will be made into a stew with veggies.

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We also made summer sausage. Chris ground the caribou meat and mixed it with ground pork and spices to help with the flavoring. We were able to purchase a Summer Sausage Kit at our local Wal-Mart and it gave us everything we needed to make our very own summer sausage! This was also delicious!! Be forewarned that there may be a summer sausage sample showing up in the mail for you! Don't be scared - you can taste something that many Californians don't normally get a chance to try!

Sleepless Nights

Question for everyone out there:
The last week or so Emily has been continually waking up at night and is no longer sleeping through the night. She'll sleep for about 2 hours and then wake up fussing...and eventually screaming. ALL NIGHT LONG!! Both Chris and I have spent the night trying to calm her down, and as a result, we're sleep-deprived. What do we do?

We've given her bottles (which she stopped taking a while ago)...we've fed her...we've slept with her...we've calmed her down and put her back to bed...we've even let her cry it out...nothing is working!!

(OK...so, she has a slight cold right now...BUT, nothing that would cause this!!) I'm looking for any advice that we might try to get her back sleeping through the night.

Advanced Helicopter Rescue School

This past week Chris has been down in the Lower 48. He attended Advance Helicopter Rescue School in Astoria, Oregon. He had a good time while away and got to experience some pretty awesome rescue scenarios!

Here's a recap of what the school was all about...

And, here are some pics of his time there...

Christmas Has Come Once Again!

The box of Christmas Toys took the "slow boat" to the island. We shipped all of Emily's Christmas toys (well, the ones that wouldn't fit in a suitcase)...but, we shipped them off on January 30th.

And they arrived today!!

The large box came this afternoon and Emily was excited to get all of her California Toys. Now I'm just trying to find a place to put everything!! We've turned the closet under the stairs into a "Toy Storage Area" and all of her toys are kept in the closet. The closet is shown to the right and turns the corner under the stairs to include another 5' of floor space full of toys!

It's just amazing

how much stuff this kid has!

Don't Eat the Yellow Snow

So, there is a problem which most native-Californians wouldn't even think about...dogs and snow. Yes, my dogs love the snow and have a great time running and playing out in the cold...Chloe even loves to lay in the snow that has collected on the porch...they love it!

But, that's not what we're talking about here...

We're talking about "Yellow Snow" -- well, I guess we're really talking about "Brown Snow." You see, back in California we heard about Yellow Snow...but now, in my mind, Yellow Snow isn't really a problem. Your pee is hot, the snow is cold...it basically burns a hole thru the snow straight to the ground. So, your "Yellow Snow Problem" is only about an inch in diameter. No Biggie!!



The REAL BIGGIE here is the Brown Snow! And dogs...what do you do with your dogs in the winter?!?! Our dogs go out about 3-4 times per day to go potty. They're usually pretty quick about it...they go and come back inside. We open the door to the porch, let them out to the backyard...and they come back when they're done.

Well, often times it's too cold, windy, rainy or snowy to go outside with them. We trust them and know they won't get lost or run away. (Oh, did I mention that we don't have a fenced backyard?) It's a big, open yard that has about 6 houses which open up to it. So, the dogs are free to roam where ever they wish to go potty. Usually it's right near our house. HOWEVER, our next door neighbors have been complaining about the poop in the yard and have said that their son has slipped in poop on 2 separate occasions.


First of all...I never even knew that had a son until he slipped in the poop! The kid is never outside! How in the hell did he step in poop?!?! And the only time I see the neighbors outside is when they are out having a cigarette on the patio. But, that's besides the point...


My question is: What do I do about the poop??
I 've changed their food to a more expensive brand, but that only seems to make them poop more...so I'm switching back. We used to buy Nutro Dog Food, which is supposed to cut down the amount of poop they produce, but they don't sell that brand of dog food here on the island. Right now they're on Science Diet and it's costing me about $50 every 3 weeks...but I think we're going back to Ol Roy.


We thought about getting a small fence to create a little dog run so that they were limited with where they can poop...but, guess what...??? The hardware store doesn't sell a waist-high fence! I can't make one myself because I'm not that crafty and I've looked into getting a fence shipped in, but that's going to cost too much. Look, we don't own the place we live...it's "government property" so I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on a permanent fence.


Our neighbors across the street have fenced yards. In fact, our houses that face the lake are the ONLY houses in ALL of Kodiak Government Property that DO NOT have fenced yards! They say that they are "planning" to put in a fence...but they've been "planning" for the last 3-4 years! I'm sure the hold-up is our rather steep hill that drops off toward the lake - and - fenced yards would really spoil the view from the porch...but, why not at least a dog run along the side of the house?!?!?!


Anyway...back to my original question: What do I do about the poop? I picked up the poop 2 days ago and there were about 15 new dog-piles when I went out there today! AMAZING!! I can't follow them around with a pooper-scooper, and I am not able to pick it up on a daily basis. So, the poop sits out there and the neighbor's kid is stepping in it!

How do I handle this situation??

Honestly, I have no idea what to do and I'd really welcome your comments or suggestions on this!

Two Babies are Better than One

Yesterday Emily discovered that she has 2 babies and not just one. One baby was a present from The Colucci's and one was a present from Great-Grandma Mendolia. She started carrying her baby around while we were still in California (we had left the other baby at home in Alaska)

Since we've been back home one baby has stayed upstairs and one has stayed downstairs. This way she has a baby where ever she may be playing. Well...yesterday she found both babies.

She is totally into her baby right now and sleeps with her, under her arm, every night...now there is one baby under each arm at bedtime.

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By the way...she's been sick all week...probably caught something at school. She's had a ton of boogers and a congested cough. :0(

Other then that school seems to be going great! Yes, she has a tough time leaving us in the morning, but I think she'll get over that shortly. She's already picked up some potty-training-basics and yesterday she told me "more" in sign language! I can't believe how fast she's picking up on everything!!!

Vegg Head

So...one of my most Favorite Events here is the day the veggies arrive. There is nothing more awesome and refreshing then fresh vegetables! Here in Kodiak we only have a couple choices for market shopping. The Commissary on Base has vegetables, but they've usually been sitting there for a while and/or they're moldy. There is a Safeway in town, about 10 miles away, and you will go broke trying to afford vegetables there.

So, we heard through the grapevine about this CSA Farm (Consumer Supported Agriculture) who delivers fresh and organic veggies to Alaska. Every two weeks a box with our name on it gets sent to the island and we have fresh veggies. We pay $40 every two weeks to have fresh veggies...which, in the grand scheme of things, is a really good deal!

It's always a surprise of the veggies in the box and we look forward to the shipment every 2 weeks! This week we got carrots, strawberries, apples, oranges, lettuce, bok choy, swiss chard, grapefruits, bell betters, potatoes, and a few other things. Its a great variety and it's always fun trying to find new recipes for the surprises in the box.