Fall Time

Today is the first day that Kaija has been able to rund free since she was spayed. Hopefully we will be able to take her stitches out tomorrow. Here are a few pics I took while we were out.

Buckland and Deering

At the end of August I travelled to the Village of Buckland for work. I took my camera along so that I could post some pictures, but I never got around to it. Since things are slow around her at the moment and I keep trying to update as much as possible I figured late is better than never. So...here are some picture of the trip to Buckland.


The weather was foggy near Buckland so we were flyinging over a low ceiling most of the way. The sun was shining off the top of the fog and looked really pretty, however the dirty windows on the airplane don't do it much justice.





Here are a couple of shots of the village of Buckland. It has population of about 450 people and is located about 75 miles southeast of Kotzebue on the Buckland River. As you can see Hageland Aviation does not spend much time washing the windows on their planes. Yuck. I'm going to start bringing windex with me when I travel.





These two pictures are the village of Deering. It has a population of about 140 people and is located on Kotzebue Sound at the mouth of the Inmachuk River, 57 miles southwest of Kotzebue. I have never actually been in the village but every time I fly back to Kotz from Buckland we have to land there to pick up and drop off passengers and cargo.





And here we have a couple filthy window aerial shots of Kotzebue.

Marmalade Skies

$$$$$$$$$

Alaskans receive $1,654 from oil riches investment fund
The Associated Press
Published: September 19, 2007
JUNEAU, Alaska: Nearly every Alaskan will soon be receiving a check for $1,654 (€1,183), their share of the state's oil riches, Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday.

The dividend checks are derived from the state's oil royalty investment program and distributed each year to eligible residents — just for living here one full calendar year.

"Oh, baby!" Palin said as she announced this year's dividend at the Valdez Convention and Civic Center.

Slightly more than 600,000 men, women and children in 248 communities will receive the dividend this year, according to the Revenue Department. The state's estimated population is just over 670,000 people.
Anyone who has lived in Alaska for a full calendar year can apply for the money — including children.

Of those receiving checks this year, about 41 percent — or 244,695 of the state's residents — were born in Alaska.

It is a perk that separates Alaska from the rest of the U.S. and was recently parodied in "The Simpsons Movie," which prominently features the television cartoon family's journey to Alaska. The movie depicts Alaska almost as a separate country. As Homer Simpson crosses the border with Canada, he is greeted by a customs agent who says, "Welcome to Alaska," then hands Homer a wad of cash, saying every Alaskan gets a stack of bills so oil companies can exploit the environment.

But for many residents, the check is no joke. It means getting caught up on bills and supplementing income that for some is a week-to-week living in Alaska, where the cost of living is high in part because of its distance from shipping centers in the Lower 48 states.

In Galena, a town of 600 residents located 250 miles (402 kilometers) west of Fairbanks, air taxi pilot Colin Brown said the money will help cover rising fuel costs that have beset the state's isolated rural villages. Brown says he pays about $4.70 for a gallon of gasoline, about $2 per gallon more than national average, according to the Energy Department's most recent data.

Others use the bonus to supplement their subsistence lifestyles. "A lot of times village people will spend it on fishnets to renew their equipment that's worn out," he said. Brown added that struggles to cover energy costs are not restricted to those living on part-time wages or government entitlement programs. "It's a day-to-day, month-to-month thing trying to keep up and get the funds to pay the bills," Brown said. "The dividend makes it possible to continue to live out here in the Bush."

The state established the Alaska Permanent Fund in 1976 after North Slope oil was discovered. Dividends have been paid since 1982, ranging from $331 (€237) to a record high of $1,963 (€1,405) in 2000. Last year's dividend check was $1,106 (€791).
The fund is valued at a near-record $38.7 billion (€27.7 billion), with total returns at 17.1 percent in the fiscal year ended June 30. In the last fiscal year, the fund earned $622,000 (€445,080) an hour.

Dividend totals are not directly tied to the fund's total value or with robust oil prices, said fund spokeswoman Laura Achee. Oil prices, which topped $80 a barrel this week, can boost the fund's principal, but the money must be invested.
Payouts then get calculated on a five-year average of investment income from bond interest, stock dividends, asset sales, plus other investments.
Familiar stock investments include high-profile brands such as Pepsi, Microsoft and Apple. Also among the fund's top 50 stocks are North Slope oil producers Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and BP PLC.

Direct deposit of this year's dividend is scheduled for Oct. 3 for those who applied online in January. The next payout will be an Oct. 17 direct deposit for those who applied online later. The Revenue Department will begin mailing paper checks on Nov. 13 for those who chose that option. If a resident has received a check every year since the first was issued in 1982, their total take in the program would be $27,536 (€19,704)

Homework

As some of you already know I am taking some college courses this semester. 12 credits to be exact. Yeah, that's a lot to take in one semester while working full time during the day and being a mom and what not. I decided to pursue an Associates in Science in Disability Services. It is a program offered through Prince William Sound Community College's distance Education Program. I can basically do the whole degree without stepping into a classroom. PWSCC is part of the University of Alaska system so I can mix and match required degree courses offered by any of the state system college such as Chukchi College, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PWSCC or University of Alaska Anchorage and PWCC will accept the credits and give me the degree.


So now I am constantly lugging around this backpack full of books. I figure that in my spare time here and there I will hit the books. I think I need to get a bit more disciplined about that.


Here's the books for three of the four courses that I am taking. The first is Native Cultures of Alaska. It is a paper based course. It's basically a course in a box. You get a box of books and a syllabus and you are on your own. I am also taking Managing Behaviors and Intro to the Special education system. The SpEd class doesn't start until the end of this month so I don't have the books yet. And finally we have......the horror of my existance......DEVM-050.....aka IdiotMath-050.


Witness my nightmare. I am traumatized just looking at it. I have spent my entire life avoiding as much math as I possibly can. In high school I took the lowest possible math classes just so I could graduate. I don't know if I can adequately express in words how much I DESPISE math. In order to get this degree I have to be able to pass DEVM-105, Intermediate Algebra. INTERMEDIATE ALGEBRA!!!!!! Just the words make my flesh crawl. I don't even know how to multiply FRACTIONS! I have to take probably two remedial math classes just to pass the required one. Good greif. So anyway, this is a year long course. I have exactly one year to finish it and truth be told I have only opened the book long enough to hyperventilate and then slam it shut. Just taking that picture made me sweat. Lots of luck. Well, I'm off to spend the next 8 hours or so doing homework. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Poor Doggy

Yesterday Kaija got spayed. A special thanks to Dr. Phil Meyer of Wasilla Veterinary Clinic in Wasilla, Alaska. He comes to Kotzebue 4 times a year to provide us with quality health care for our pets. Without him we would have to send our pets out to Anchorage or Nome for spay and neuter surgery. He said that Kaija came through with flyying colors........


....but try tell that to Kaija. She doesn't look like she is feeling too colorful. We brought her home around 6pm yesterday and she was truly pathetic for the next 16 hours.


Doesn't she look pathetic?? Poor baby. at about noon today she brightened up a bit and ate a little bit of watery canned food and then went back in her kennel to hide. I truly feel sorry for her but I know that spaying her was the right decision for her health and safety.

Today the Boys and Girls club of Kotzebue is sponsoring a carnival at the elementary school. Kids games and food all for free. Uyaana is lookung forward to going. Maybe I will take my camera.

Berry Picking

We went berry picking yesterday evening. The low bush cranberries are just about ripe. Technically they are lingonberries....but around here we call them cranberries. I picked about 3 quarts.





Aren't those berries pretty. I like picking cranberries. You can pick them by the handful and fill up your bucket quickly.



Kaija had a great time digging for mice. Lucky for the mice she didn't find any.

Then I made her pose for pictures. She wasn't real thrilled about having to sit in one place for too long so her tail is down instead of all curly.





There were other people off in the distance also picking berries. She really wanted to go see them.





Ooh! What's that?!



It was raining over there but thankfully not on us.

Birthday Boy

Uyaana's birthday was September 7th. He is eight years old.