Tuesday, August 5, 2014

 On Sunday,  Group 4 & 5 took this picture in front of
Francis and Monica's house. The people in these groups are from:California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio and Iowa.
 James, the city Manager came over after dinner on Sunday night      to share community and cultural similarities and differences.                 The out-of-doors tends to serve as a gathering place on warm evenings.




Wilbur making plans with Cyprian Angline, the city water works manager.




Isadore, one of the city workers and Wilbur sharing a joke.
 Karen has been painting since she came on Tuesday. She is doing a great job, with the trim for Harry's house.
 Freeman arrived on Tuesday and he is now the Construction Foreman and here he is installing the water heater in Harry's house.
 Lee had been working on trim at Harry's, which is almost finished.
 Francis and Monica's siding is almost finished. After Group 4 leaves today, there will only be the trim left to do on the Arctic Porch.
 Generators have been invaluable, because we still are not hooked up to electricity. Roger and Paul are preparing siding for the two groups installing on the ladders.
 Tim and Ray have the job on the ladders on the long wall.
 Rod and Aaron are installing the siding around the vent box on the arctic porch.
 Leave it to a bunch of carpenters in MDS, they Make Do Somehow:  a bench in the living room on nice evenings.
 A Moose leg was shared with us on Saturday. Clara, one of the assistant cooks cut it up and we had yummy roasts and we had bone marrow to sample. It was soooo good.








The cooks have been favoring us with local fare. In this meal to the left, we are having at least 5 different kinds of fish.  From dried, half-dried, several different kinds of Salmon, pan fried. In the foreground you see the white Beluga Whale. We also had salmon spread with crackers. It is so appreciated that they make native food for us at least once a week.






Here is one of the moose roasts with mashed potatoes! YUM.  The moose was very tender and not gamey at all. Another Alakanuk treat for us. 
 This is the deck that Jim and Zach built. If you build it, they will use it.  I have not gotten a completed deck picture yet but I will post it next time.  The community is so grateful and people have been using it.  It is an entrance to the Tribal Center along with some steep steps.
 Daisy, one of the head cooks, had her two girls here
 at the dining room.
 Francis' beach is nice and gradual and sandy. This is a typical scene on any warm day this summer.  Notice, that all the children are wearing life jackets.  The water is swift, the current is strong and somewhat uncertain. A few adventurous MDSer's also tried the water and said it was cold.





This firetruck shows 
the damage of the flood
 and it also
destroyed the fire station. 
 The cloud formations were so beautiful yesterday. There is nothing like a clear Alaskan sky, with clouds rolling through.