Clams!

It was a digging-for-clams kind of a day today.  Sunny, a little chilly and a little windy,  Luis,  Mark (teacher friend) and I spent a couple of hours on a beach, making watery holes with rakes and plunging our hands in to feel around for clams.  It was a stunningly successful with just about every blind grasp producing a clam.

Fishing around for clams with Mark.

It was even easier than gathering cockles from the same beach last week.  Cockles look very similar to clams, but they are found just below the surface of the sand.  Pulling rakes through the top inch of sand overturned cockles upon cockles.  All four of us, along with our friend Nick, were successful cockle hunters that day.

The next day Nick and his family came for dinner and we steamed open the cockles.  Luis sautéed the cockles with garlic, butter and white wine and Nick brought pasta.  Wow.   I'm anticipating another great meal with today's bounty of clams.  We may not have any restaurants, coffee houses or breweries on the island but we've got loads of fresh seafood, there for the taking-- a low-tide,  a bucket and a rake is all you need.

The beaches here have only recently opened for gathering shellfish.  For the last four years the area has been plagued by PSP .  It seems we moved here at a good time.

The Miss Chiefs are going to State!

There's been a lot of excitement around here lately, with both the Chiefs (boys basketball), the Miss Chiefs (girls basketball) and the cheerleaders winning their district tournament in Ketchikan.  The town organized a pep rally last night to send them off to Anchorage.  I had never heard of a town organizing a pep rally for a high school and I wasn't  keen on going. Cheerleaders, speeches, pep band, I figured, like anywhere else.  But Maite and her friend really wanted to go, and I went into Good Mom mode and took them.

Holy smokes. This pep rally was anything but typical.  The dancers and drummers were in full Tsimshian regalia, decked in their black and red capes, conical hats, and tunics made of skins.  Five drummers, elaborately dressed, played drums made of stretched skin in a steady beat while they sang in Tsimshian.  The girls basketball team wore their uniforms,  and the cheerleaders were in their tiny pleated blue skirts and white sweaters.  Just about everyone got out to dance as their clans were called.

First were the Wolf clan;  at least a hundred people from the stands got up from their seats and joined the dance as they moved counterclockwise in a huge circle around the floor.  Next came the Eagle clan, extending their arms like wings as they moved around the Town Hall floor.  Raven and Killer Whale clans followed.  Maite went to the floor with her friend, who is a Killer Whale, and I was pleased to see her attempting the hopping movements of the dancers.   I jumped right in when the Butterfly Clan was called to dance. All of us non-Tsimshians, of which there are only a handful on the island, are part of the Butterfly Clan.  We are butterflies because we can easily flit away and are not of substance.  It's nothing personal.  It's just the way it goes.   Maite sat out when the Butterfly Clan danced.  Neither she nor Lucas liked to be reminded that they aren't part of a clan.

I think it's great fun to dance and love to be included.  Not everyone thinks so; I was amused to see the girls basketball coach, a fresh-faced teacher from Indiana, walking stoically on the floor, surrounded by his hopping, dancing basketball team.  Poor guy.  The boy's coach, another butterfly, couldn't bring himself to dance either.  He walked along in the circle, surrounded by his non-dancing team.  Getting teenage boys and young butterfly coaches to Indian dance is a stretch, I guess.

Besides the Tsimshian celebration, the cheerleaders performed their routine, the pep band played "Tequila"  (instead of shouting "Tequila!" everyone shouted the more politically correct "Metlakatla!")  the mayor waxed poetic, the coaches talked about how their teams arose from humble beginnings to go on to kick butt, etc, etc.

This place really comes together for basketball.  What an awesome send-off.

Go Miss Chiefs Go!  Onward to Anchorage!

Searching for cockles

A girl can only search for cockles for so long before she needs to take a break to write in the sand.

Cockles.  Not to be confused with clams.  

All steamed up.  Just need a little white wine and garlic . . . 

Happy families enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Beach time.  Here comes the clouds.

Lucas's team played on Saturday.

Lucas gets ready for the jump ball.  Bulls vs. Celtics.

Lucas and I rode out to the abandoned airport today.  15 miles round trip.

Bright sun for our bike ride!

The abandoned hangar is from WWII, when there was a base here on the island.  The airstrip was used for commercial flights through the 1970's.

People love to drive really, really fast on the abandoned runway.  Sometimes muscle cars come over from Ketchikan to drag race.

On the way back to town we checked out the city dump, otherwise known as the "Metlakatla Mall".  People come to rummage for hidden treasures.

Lucas found a few things he thought would be useful.  He wants to come back with his dad in the car.

Trailer Court

Note the large fishing boats.  Those bring in serious money.

Taking care of Bisness.

Trailer court

Traffic Jam.  Love the Smart Car.

New floor on the covered play area at the school.

Kelso's Choices, the conflict resolution curriculum we use in the elementary school got built into the new floor of the outdoor covered area.  Very useful. as so many kids' conflicts happen during recess.