The Trip Home

I've decided that if given the choice, and cost not an issue, I would rather spend seven days driving the Alaska-Canada highway, sleeping on an air mattress on top of the tubs in our trailer, shampooing my hair in shoe box than flying to/from Alaska.  Time and cost both discourage one from taking the road route since driving takes a week and will cost at least $2000 in fuel plus food and other such expenses and that's only one way.  Flying will take one day and cost $500 to $700 for one person round trip so it is more time and cost-effective, but not nearly as much fun or comfortable.  I won't spend too much time complaining about never getting an aisle seat when I remember requesting it for Mike because I'm always in the middle, so it makes no difference to me.  I will whine a little about getting stuck in the last row with seats that are leaning a little more forward than all the rest and do not recline at all, while the row in front of us all feel the need to recline.  I will definitely not complain about sitting next to the girl who spent the entire descent for landing throwing up in what seemed an effort to fill the entire trash bag in her lap.  It could most certainly have been worse - I would rather be the person sitting next to the girl throwing up, than be the girl throwing up on the plane while the flight attendants who wouldn't allow her to go to the bathroom are fussing at her about her seat belt being unfastened.  We'll just leave it at driving was far better, but less practical.

One advantage to flying was getting to visit with Mike's cousin, Tina, and her family in St. Louis who were gracious enough to let us stay with them before and after the trip.  We really enjoyed the time we had with them and are looking forward to getting together and visiting with them again.  We're truly blessed to have such great people in our lives.

Leaving in a Small Plane, Then a Jet Plane

6/19/13

It's a bit of a mouthful to fit into John Denver's song, so I won't even try to accomplish it in my head, but the time has come to leave the village and return to Missouri.  We got to the airport early this morning, gear in tow, to head out and start the drive to Anchorage to catch our flights and was quickly reminded of the difficulties we faced as we were leaving Alaska last year.  Last year I learned it was easier to get an assault rifle on a plane than a cat and it is apparently also easier to get firearms on a large commercial jet with TSA security, than on a small plane with no security.  I did not think to mention that we would have a lot of luggage when I scheduled a flight because usually people have all of the freight going into the villages, not coming out.  You only bring your clothes and such out, but you return with all of your groceries and other shopping.  They shouldn't have any problems getting our stuff . . . not exactly.  They decided to be ultra efficient and scheduled six people out of the villages that morning, leaving room for only our luggage and the cooler - not the gun case.  Of all things we were faced with leaving behind, it had to be the gun case.  It's contents cost more than this entire trip and are priceless to my desperately needs to find a support group for his firearms addiction husband (and no, the NRA does not count).  Fortunately, as the pilot looked as his manifest he noticed we were short one of our scheduled people and since she was a no show, there was just exactly enough room for us and our things.  Small crisis averted!  Next, of course, came the really hard part . . . "Please, God, don't let me die today. . . "  I won't go into the entire discourse for you, but will say that it did involve not having gotten a will written yet, and I really should since I keep doing crazy stuff like getting in little planes, etc.  If God has a sense of humor, I'm sure I keep Him laughing.

The drive up to Anchorage was very nice.  It's amazing to see the transformation in the landscape in the short three weeks since our arrival.  The large lake (on the side of the road, by the way - so it also is a lake of death!) that was frozen completely across the top is now entirely melted with no hint of winter.  The landscape has shifted from mostly brown to fully green.  Mountains once nearly covered with snow are half to almost completely rid of that chilly covering and streams are now flooded with the run-off.  Summer is short and nature seems to know it has to get things going quickly.  Solstice is but a few days away and then each day will be shorter than the last, bringing winter closer and closer with each sunset.

We stopped along the way to enjoy the scenery, look for bears with no luck, and see some of the streams along the way.  Mike and I lived here for a year, traveling this road to Anchorage several times, and didn't see half of what we've seen on this trip.  I suppose there are disadvantages to being too goal oriented.  When Mike and I are on a trip, we have our final destination in mind and drive towards that goal, and that goal only.  We usually make very good time, but I think we sometimes miss a lot of great scenery along the way.  I definitely think goals are important and good, but I think we can allow those goals to make us miss out on some great experiences in life as we hurry to achieve the destination without taking time to stop and enjoy the sights along the way.  Alaska has given me a lot of great experiences, and a few lessons along the way.  We will definitely miss her, but all things must eventually come to an end.

6/18/13



Coming in from the valley

Today the village was abuzz with excitement again as the helicopter came in to claim the float plane that flipped in Second Lake last week.  They got the float plane upright within a couple days of it's misadventure, at it has been waiting patiently on the beach at Second Lake for the helicopter to come in and take it out.  The entire process was actually very speedy and we spent far more time at the runway waiting for things to begin than watching them take place, but it was still pretty cool to watch.  Given that several flights come in and out of the village most days, accidents will happen, but they seem to have had more than their fair share the last few years.  One got caught by a sudden gust of wind as it was landing and ended up in the lagoon right before we moved to the village two summers ago - I think I posted pictures of it, with it's curled up propeller.  In December of that same year, one experienced problems taking off and the pilot took it over the water before going down to soften the crash - very brave considering he cannot swim.  Everyone was shaken up and very cold, but okay and we were all thankful.  Last summer, that same pilot went down in the neighboring village.  I'm pretty sure everyone was okay again, but I'm thinking he should rethink his profession before his luck runs out.  Later that same summer, the same company lost a plane to incoming tides.  They had landed on a beach for a bear viewing tour, and couldn't get the plane up before the tide came in.  Now this float plane has also been sunk, at least in fresh water rather than sea water so it is salvageable, although it will be the insurance company doing the salvaging - I would hate to see what's happened to their rates over the last two years.  Hopefully, they have experienced enough problems to satisfy Mr. Murphy and his law, because this little duck still has one flight out of the village to go.

Bringing the plane down for a break before heading to Homer

On another note, I found some interesting treasure on the beach this morning as I was looking for sea glass.  Were I still living here, I would be making Mike drag it up to the house to put on our porch for decoration, but I am not still living here and do not have a place to put it in my house in Missouri, nor am I interested in paying the freight to get it there, so a picture will have to suffice.  I know it's a gear, but I'm not sure where it's from.  It's obviously been in the water for a while since there are rocks rusted into it.  I thought it was a pretty cool find for a sea glass expedition.

Sea Treasure - it would look awesome on my porch,
if only it were still my porch

Cabin Fever

6/17/13

We're been enjoying our stay in the village and are keeping quite busy.  Saturday Mike and I helped scale and cut up some salmon for Carol to pressure cook.  Gertie wanted to help too, but I think she got confused about what kind of help we needed so she tried to get rid of the salmon rather than prepare it.  Sunday we went up to James and Carol's cabin to celebrate Father's Day.  First the guys went down to the meadow to finish up Christopher's bear stand, then did some wood cutting to work up an appetite.  Gertie also came along to keep us safe from any prowling bears and was quite busy patrolling the grounds when she wasn't napping on the porch.  Carol started cooking Saturday for dinner Sunday night and my belly very much appreciated all of her work even if I did have to waddle home after.  Today we went back to the cabin to do some hiking behind the cabin to look for bear sign.  Somewhere along the way I picked up a short cable I thought might be important to something - turns out it wasn't, but I didn't know that at the time - which came in very handy for something about Alaska I had forgotten about:  Mosquitoes.  I remember seeing a bumper sticker saying "There isn't a single mosquito living in Alaska.  They are all married and have very large families." and it is very accurate.  Even if those little critters didn't bite, there were so many they were still frustrating to try to walk through.  So I doubled my little cable over and swung it around to keep the area in front of me clear of bugs that might be tempted to try to make friends.  Hopefully they won't think me snobbish for rejecting their offerings of friendship.

Christopher's bear stand before they
finished it

It's Always the Innocent Who Suffer

6/15/1

Anyone who knows Mike or his family, knows they are all prone to pranks.  He and Carol were two peas in a pod while we lived in the village, constantly pulling pranks on each other.  My personal favorites were Carol sewing Mike's coat sleeves closed while we were at school and Mike taping the office phone to the back of Carol's chair so that every time it rang she could hear it but, turn around as she may, she could never find it.  I think she's been plotting ever since because she had her first prank pulled before we even arrived so when we went to bed our first night, we found our bed had been short sheeted.  That should have been my first clue that we innocent by-standers would most likely suffer most from these merry mischief makers.  One of their favorite pranks is hiding things in each other's shoes and I'm pretty sure that they both emptied their boots of those foreign objects into my boots.   They were also fond of using rubber bands to keep the sprayer on so that when we turned on the water in the sink it would spray whoever was standing at the sink.  This is one prank I'm pretty sure got me more times than anyone else - but I did get sprayed 3 times in one night after I knew the rubber band was in place and ready to go.  James suffered from an attempt to short-sheet Carol.  He was warned ahead of time to let her go to bed first, but she noticed things were a little different than when she left them so she just slept on top of the sheet so James couldn't get into bed and had to sleep on top of the sheet as well.  There are about a billion other little things they've done to each other over the past two weeks, some only affecting the intended target, some affecting the innocent.  With several days left before we return home, I'm curious - and nervous - to see what these two will come up with next.

Fishy, Fishy!

6/13/13

We've been running down to the end of the runway twice a day at low tide to try to catch some fish and got enough today to get the smoke house going. 

Step one: (after catching the fish) Fillet them out.  They fillet things a little differently here int he village.  They cut down the back bone and cut down towards the belly until they are almost all the way through and then rip the rest of the fish off of the ribs.  It's pretty impressive to watch someone who's been cutting fish all of their life as they fillet these out.

Step two:  Cut the fillets into strips

Step three:  Tie together any lose strips.  Mike and James cut a lot of strips so that two were attached at the top, so they did not need tying, but a fillet does not always come out to be a neat, even number of strips.

Step four:  Brining.  Every one's recipe is a little different, but the basics are water and salt and the best way to tell if you have enough salt in your water - float an egg.  If the egg doesn't float in the brine, than you add more salt until it does.  A lot of people add some extra flavors into the brine with molasses or brown sugar as well.

Step 5:  Hang them up in the smokehouse

Now all that has to be done is tend to the fire to keep it smoking for 10 days.  These strips will have a cold smoke, so the fire will be kept to a minimum so it won't produce enough heat to effect the temperature of the smokehouse much.  After the 10 days is up, they'll take them down, freeze them, and enjoy throughout the year.

You can also smoke for a 2 or 3 days and then can them which is called kippering and makes for yummy salmon spreads.

If you want to make suqiak (spelling may not be correct), then you smoke the strips for one day, cut them into strips, and bake in the oven with olive oil, garlic, and worchestershire sauce.  I've not had salmon prepared this way, but hear it is very good.

The Plane that Wanted to be a Fish

6/12/13

All you can see of the plane, it's floats sticking above
the water

Being in a location inaccessible by road, planes are very important to the village.  They are the only way in or out of the village for a good portion of the year and are a lifeline for groceries, mail, prescriptions, and means of getting items to and from the repair shop, vet, bank, etc.  Words can't accurately reflect how essential the plane is to life in the village.  They come in so often that you quickly get used to the sound and don't notice their rather loud landings and taking off again.  The last couple days, though, we've had a few extra that have drawn our attnetion and created some excitement in the village, one in particular.  We had a float plane land in second lake a couple days ago, that hasn't quite made it out of the lake yet.  One of the floats filled up with water causing the plane to flip over during its attempted take-off and is still upside down in the lake.  Everyone in the village is hoping it'll be taken out soon as the red salmon are starting to come in as they prepare to spawn and they do not seem to think oil, fuel, and other engine fluids are very good at setting the mood for romance.  Perhaps the plane knew this love fest was about to take place, was lonely, and ended up looking for love in the wrong place.

Between those little finned love birds of the lakes and late low tides, this early bird has turned into a night owl.  Low tide makes for the easiest fishing as the salmon have less water to maneuver in and hide and is currently happening around midnight each night making me get to bed much later than I am accustomed to.  Fortunately the sun is in on nature's conspiracy to make a mess of my world so there's still plenty of daylight at that time to see to fish.  There are usually several members of the community along the banks of the creek at low tide, regardless of the time of day, trying to get fish for the winter.  The sense of community is strong here and everyone helps each other so that all can go home with fish, calling out the schools' locations and directions, sharing tackle when needed, and often sharing the catch.  Many of the smokehouses are starting to fill up and show what can be accomplished when people work together.

Enjoying our Time!

6/7/13



Salmon!



We've been here just over a week and the sun is no longer interfering with my ability to go to sleep at night - yay!  Unfortunately, that is only because it has my whole sleep cycle thrown off so that I'm staying up until it's dark outside - grrr!  This did come in handy last night since the shift in tide that encourages little red salmon to come in from the ocean is happening late - around 9:00 - but we were able to catch our fish and clean it at midnight without needing any light.  Of course that also means we're sleeping until 10:00 in the morning (1:00 pm at home) so my sleep cycle with be a total mess when we get back.  Always adjusting . . .



Fern sprouting up



Even though we're off to a late start each day, we're still having a great time.  We are very much enjoying our visit with James and Carol and have to send out a "Happy Anniversary" to them (and a "Happy Birthday" to my mom while I'm at it, since I'm missing it).  Mike's been working with James and Chris to get their boat up and running as it seems resistant to wake up from it's winter vacation just quite yet and I've been out on the beach trying to get eagle pictures and sea glass.  We went up to the cabin today and helped cut some fallen trees up, serving two purposes.  We were able to get some wood cut up for James and Carol and make a very user friendly path for the bears so Make can get some hunting in while we're here.  Now, we just need some bears to show up to use the path.  I seem to remember this being a problem last year before we left - is it possible the bears have figured out what we're up to?



Working at the cabin



The Last Frontier

6/6/13

There's something about Alaska that gets in your blood and stays there.  While it's definitely not a life for everyone, Mike and I love it here and feel like it has become a part of our identity.  Looking beyond the obvious beauty of the land, it is a place full of little eccentricities that make it truly unique.  There aren't many places where, when you're driving and have to stop to check for traffic, that you also have to check the sky for airplanes before taking off or where activities are guided more by the weather, the sun, and the tides, than by a clock.

I can't help but look at that view and occasionally ask
myself "What was I thinking?  Who lives here and leaves?"

"The Last Frontier" is truly an appropriate name for this land.  While the road district can be pretty much the same as the rest of the United States with better scenery, even those places have their share of roughing it beyond what many would tolerate elsewhere.  The absence of running water in a household is not uncommon and there are tons of cabins that rent for over $100 a night that have no electricity or running water.  There exists a strong sense of rugged individualism that permeates every aspect of life.  Most people live off the land at least a little and many carve out nearly all of their existence from nothing more than determination and the resources mother nature provides.  There is nothing easy about that life, but there is something supremely satisfying about enjoying the accomplishments of one's own hands.

Conversations with Jesus, Again

6/1/13

We made it into the village today.  James had meetings through the week in Anchorage so we ran around the city and hung out in the hotel until he was finished and came down with James and Christopher on their way home.  On our way down we stopped and watched some people catching hooligans (this is the actual name of a type of fish, I promise).  They are small fish that are very rich in oil and pretty easy to catch by letting the current carry dip-nets down stream for a short distance.  We also stopped by a wildlife preserve to sneak a peek at the animals there.  Perhaps it's the crazy cat lady coming out, but the lynx twins were my personal favorites.  I will post pictures as soon as I'm able to get the pictures off of my camera, which may take a while given it uses a weird memory card.  We also saw plenty of wildlife on the side of the road, counting 21 moose on our way down including a couple newly born and very cute babies.

Our site seeing, while fun, got us into Homer a little late - 12:30 at night to be exact - so I was able to take a break from my ongoing battle with the sun as it was already dark when we got to the hotel.  Unfortunately, that also meant I was rather tired and not very attentive when we checked in and I realized on my way back from breakfast that I didn't know which room I was staying in and had to ask the front desk.  After a quick stop at the grocery store, I was once again sitting in a very small plane on the runway saying, "Please, God, don't let me die today . . . "


Musk Ox



Baby Musk Ox

Black Bear nursing an injured paw

Bull Elk

Kitty!  One of the lynx twins rescued as kittens after
a forest fire left them orphaned.

Running Away Again

5/29/13

We have run away to Alaska again!  While we have many concerned friends and family members who fear we may not return, we're only here for a few weeks.  We took our trip as an excuse to visit with Mike's cousin and family who live outside St. Louis and are looking forward to visiting with them again on our way back home.  Besides having our tooth paste confiscated at security, a few delays, and an interesting bout of musical chairs aboard the plane courtesy of TSA the flights went as well as eight hours on a plane in one day can be expected.  My tush made certain I knew it was as unhappy as the five-year-old sitting behind us, but all was forgiven upon landing in Anchorage.

James and Christopher met us at the airport, reminding us of two things we love so much about this state.  Stepping out of the airport brought another reminder with the sweet, salty smell of spruce trees and the ocean, followed quickly by a magnificent view of the mountains we love so much.  Given that we landed at 9:00 pm I was also quickly reminded of another aspect of Alaska I sometimes love and sometimes do not - the sun.  I remember having many unkind thoughts about the sun when we first moved up here as it enjoyed it's extended stay in the skies each day, then regretting every single moment of dislike when it disappeared over the winter.  There is currently a little over 21 hours of visible daylight each day, which means the sun and I are currently in the hate stage of our love-hate relationship - we may need to seek counseling.