Happy man, rowing around the icebergs spilled by the Nizina Glacier June 2012
I love my man Mozen's smile!!

Moving in to our home at glacier-side this past week.  All was in good order, after leaving this spot deeply covered in snow in early March.  Snow almost all gone.  Water line in and working by May 25th. Dead voles cleaned out of "rot-box" pseudo root cellar. Yesterday picked up our dear friend  Tim on the West side.  He is here for 3 weeks. Today we alternated running down the lower road and riding the 4-wheeler, into MXY, in time for a pre-trip meeting for a raft trip. We are helping with a training trip for a raft co. that I owned from 1993-2000.  This will be a 3 day trip starting tomorrow.June 3rd.  First trip in all the trips that I've floated out of here that I am not a leader - type.  Avery and Owen made art in MXY a la Goldsworthy, Tim and I organized gear, went to Mark Vail's to get starts to plant in our garden. Avery drove the 4-wheeler up the hill, (yikes, so grown up).while Tim, Owen and I did the bike ride .  Thanks to a friend who was hanging out in Chitina, we had our first Copper River salmon tonight cooked on our grill in the rain.  Mmmmmmmmmm! Sacred and good!

Avery's Graduation Essay
Chugach Optional Elementary
May 16th, 2012



Do you remember that girl who was an hour late on her first day of school in second grade because she thought school started at 9  this was her first learning experience at Chugach but she could not imagine what would come and how much she would learn  Every one and her great teacher wanted to make the new girl feel welcome. Well by recess she had someone to swing with and she thought she was in a fairy land, it was so wonderful.

She learned all about Alaskan animals especially about whales.
Part of the whale studies that she remembers most was when she went outside with a group unrolled 100 feet of paper on a role to see how long a blue whale was.

But a year can’t go on forever so all too soon it was time for her to go to 3rd grade.   In 3rd grade she got a fun vibrant teacher that had so much fun stuff for that new 3rd grader.  Like all the basics to math that if she had never learned she would never be able to do the math she does now and much much more  she can’t name them all.  Throughout 3rd and  4th grade she studied the Aleut tribe for native alaskan studies did medieval studies where she got to build a castle.  She was going to burn it to celebrate winter solstice and was very excited about doing it until it went up in flames and she began crying because all of her hard work on the castle had turned a burning orange and yellow.

  In 5th grade she was really fortunate she had gotten such a great teacher.  In 5th grade she did something new and exciting all the time and it was all so much fun.  She got to study the revolutionary war.  And then she got two really good friends that were so great.  She also got to go to outdoor school and play in the snow for three days.

  Finally it was time for her to go to 6th grade. Really, already, but she just started no this can’t be true but it was true she may have just started life but she was just ending elementary school even with a year left.  She tried to get everything she could get from the school before she would have to leave and in that time she made more great friends that could always bring a smile to her face.   She created a book about outer space she studied architecture and built the Milan Cathedral which inspired her to draw a to scale drawing of what she thought her family’s new house in the woods should look like. She also built a bridge which by the looks of it was really fun for her.  She stands before you now so I think I will let her talk.

I will have to make this part short so I don’t start crying I want you all to know that I really love this school there's no way I can describe it. It’s a place where you are welcome. My life without this school would be like a book with no meaning, a life without love, or a bell that does not ring . This school is a extraordinary school, and you know what? every one of you makes it more extraordinary and great.I will miss you all !!!!!!!!!!!!!                  

The Prey
by Owen Mozen
(written especially for Cami 5/16/12)


Little does hare know of shining eyes

Wolf slowly creeps closer

suddenly the wind changes direction

hare makes a twitch of the nose

then he’s off bounding over twigs and logs alike

wolf close behind

in a high tree top an old owl spots hare

he swoops down snaching hare off his feet and flies off

wolf lets out angry growl

then slinks into the woods to find a potential meal

My little O as a merman, we had fun afternoon at Assateague Island, MD in April. He wanted me to bury him in the sand, so I took it to the next level............

Things are shaping up.......

Well I have been saying that we will have a family blog about our upcoming year of homeschool and travel. and lo and behold I already 'started' a blog 4 years ago..... So might as well as get it rolling. We are a month away from leaving anchorage for a long while and heading to the home our hearts, McCarthy, Ak. Summer fun, fall hunts, winter homeschool and international travel await us. But first a lot of packing and organizing to do. And the need to get over this nasty sore throat and cold. It is wonderful warm spring time weather, the snow is almost gone and we even have a couple crocuses blooming. Today's big event will be a thorough washing of the family Subaru, inside and out.

Um.... why did I do this?

So I have been admiring my sisters and some friends blogs and on a whim I made this one. We shall see if anything ever comes of it. Elizabeth