You Can't Get There From Here

One of the questions I get a lot, and I have been getting this question lately from people on the blog, is “How did you end up in Kotzebue???" I can understand why people would ask that. After all, Kotzebue is not exactly a place you just happen through. It’s not like driving down the highway, going through Pocatello Idaho and saying “Gee, what a nice place! I think I’ll stick around for a while”. If you’re in Kotzebue it’s because you meant to come here, you came on purpose. So it’s no surprise to me that people want to know how I went from this...


to this........


Kotzebue is predominantly an Alaska native community. Roughly 80% of the people who live here are some form of Alaska Native, mostly Inupiat Eskimo. The rest of us come from somewhere else. In my opinion (and remember opinions are like…well you know…) of the people from “Outside”, there are two kinds of people who come to Kotzebue….people looking for money, and people looking for adventure. Most of the people who come looking for money don’t stick around. They make their money and leave to spend it elsewhere. They can’t hack it. The people who come looking for adventure….many of them are still around.

I grew up in Peyton Place. No really, I did. I grew up in Gilmanton, a small town in central New Hampshire whose reluctant claim fame is being the hometown of Peyton Place Author Grace Metalious and the alleged source of material for her book. It’s a nice place as far as small towns go, lots of hills and trees, friendly neighbors, unlocked doors. Typical New England.

I had a relatively normal childhood. I wasn’t particularly fond of school. I usually found myself on the fringes. Not totally an outcast, but not “cool” either. High
school sucked. I hated that place. My graduating class had a 16th reunion last year (yeah weird time to have it). An old friend from high school was organizing it. She asked me if I was going to go and I think I said something like “No offense, but I would rather lick rusty razor blades than see those people again.” I can think of maybe 7 people I wouldn’t mind seeing out of a class of over 135 people.

So after high school I did pretty much nothing. I bummed around in odd jobs, did some college, had some bad relationships, wasted time. I can’t remember when I first started day dreaming about moving to Alaska, but I know I had been doing it for a long time. The idea of Alaska fascinated me. It seemed like such a big wild place, so different than anything I had ever known. I didn’t know much about Alaska, but I knew I wanted to live there. Fast forward to whenever, I happened to run into the sister of an old friend. We got to talking about what we had been doing and what we wanted to do in the future. I happened to mention that I had always wanted to move to Alaska. She said “Really? I have an old roommate that is from Alaska, I should give her your phone number”. I though sure, why not, I handed her my phone number and forgot all about it. A week later I got a phone call. “You should come to Kotzebue, we always like new people around here”. I said to them, “I don’t know if I would be able to find a Job. Where would I live?” They said “Don’t worry, we have a job for you and you could stay with us til you find your own place.” I left the next month with one way tickets.

10 years later I’m still here. This is my home now. I am tied to this land and these people. When I am gone from here it leaves an empty place in me. So while I love New England I don’t really miss it. I miss my family and it is nice to visit them when I can, but at the end of each visit I am relieved to return to Alaska. I like to say that Alaska isn’t just a place, it’s a state of mind.

Wordless (almost) Wednesday- Mt. Memelak (again)

Mt. Memelak, Noatak River, Northwest Arctic Alaska

Disaster Area

That would describe my desk at work. I think that maybe it would have been eligible for some kind of governmental clean up assistance, like maybe a Super Fund site. Anyway, after much procrastination I decided that perhaps my desk needed an touch of tidying.


Here is my desk before. Now, those of you who know me know that this is a complete abberation. I am NEVER this messy! I am always neat and well organized. There's a place for everything and everything in it's place don't you know. Uh-huh, yuh. ANYWAY, as I said it was time to tidy up a bit.


WAH_LAH! Much better don't you think. It only took me a few hou....ummm I mean minutes. At least I accomplished something today.

Who Are You?

When I started this blog the main reason was so I had a place to show my family pictures. It seemed like the best way for them to ave easy access to pictures and information.I have never been a very good blogger. I have a tendency to go weeks between posts. As time went on I stuck a stat counter on here so I could see what the traffic on my blog looked like. Over the past month the visits have increased and diversified. That got me to thinking.....who ARE these people?

Some of you are family, my dad, and my aunt, etc. Some are people who just wander through never to return. But some of you.....some of you keep coming back and I wonder who you are......how did you get here.....what keeps you coming back??? I get hits from regulars that I don't even know. I find that fascinating. I never really thought of my life as all that interesting so the fact that people I don't even know keep coming back is really, well....neat. I think that is the reason that I have been posting more often. I know that there are people that are waiting for me to post something new and I don't want them to come here and find nothing new. I don't want to disappoint you all.

So thank you to all of you who take the time out of your lives to visit me, a perfect stranger, and give me the inspiration to keep this thing going. Give me a shout, let me know where you come from, how you ended up here, and why you come back. Let me know what you want to see, or any questions you want to ask. I'll do my best to give it to you. And to those of you who have asked questions in the past, I'm working on it, I haven't forgotten you.

View of the Spit

Welcome to the gravel spit. Kotzebue is located in northwest arctic Alaska approximately 33 miles above the Arctic Circle. It is situated on a gravel spit at the end of the Baldwin Peninsula. Here are some aerial shots (I took on 7-25-07)for your viewing pleasure.

Forgotten Photos #1

I haven't been taking too many pictures lately. This time of year the days are getting shorter and the sun stays lower in the sky. That makes for challenging light issues when taking photos with a regular point and shoot camera. I haven't been out much cause I have been busy with other stuff too....other stuff that unfortunately doesn't include as much homework as I should be doing. I have definitely been spending too much time online reading about photography and lenses and whatever.

Since the traffic has increased on my blog over the last 30 days or so I feel that I need to post something even though there is nothing particularly new or interesting going on around here. I feel guilty that I haven't posted anything since Wednesday. I figured that during these times when I can't think of anything to write or don't have any new pics to post maybe I should go back through my files and see if there was something I should have shared. I'll call them Forgotten Photos. Here are some photos from July 4th 2007, Independence Day.

The Fourth of July is a big deal around here. Not much goes on in this town so we try to make the most of our Holidays and the 4th is a big one. There are activities all day but we start out with the parade. It's not a very big parade, there are no marching bands, but it is colorful, and noisy and fun. All the fire trucks are hauled out and have lights and sirens going. There is the National Guard guys with their uniforms and flags. Local churches and businesses decorate parade floats and everyone throws candy at the kids along the street. I have a few cute videos of the parade but I have a terrible time trying to upload videos because our DSL in this town is the slowest DSL you have EVER seen. Takes 20 seconds just to upload a 56kb photo so you can imagine how long a video takes. So anyway, here are a few parade pics.


This is the Maniilaq Association float.


Here it is again.


This is the DOT fire truck. It is stationed out at the airport for emergencies.


This is Uyaana and Kaija sitting on the four wheeler watching the parade.


Here is Kaija sitting on my four wheeler as the parade goes by. That Arctic Cat 300 has been my main mode of transportation (besides my snowmachine) for the last 4 years. I just retired it. It was starting to nickle and dime me to death. It will be replaced in a couple of months by this.....


A Honda TRX420. I can't wait to ride around on my new Honda and take pics with my new Nikon.

Wordless Wednesday: Mt. Memelak, Noatak River, Northwest Arctic Alaska

Never Say Never

I have always been a firm believer in point and shoot technology. I always used to say that I would NEVER get a digital SLR camera. They were too big, too bulky, but most of all to SCARY. Well, after much reading and searching and agonizing I have decided on what camera I am going to get. A Nikon D40! That's right, you heard me, I am buying a DSLR, Lord help me. I am going to take the plunge into the SLR world. I am terrified yet excited.

I came to realize that maybe the kind of photos I want to take have gone beyond what a regular point and click camera can provide.Even the super zooms like the Canon S5, nice as they are, don't have the versatility I need. The photos I have been taking are pretty good, considering that they were taken on a little HP photosmart stick in your pocket special. I have just gotten lucky. I think I could do better though, but I have found that means I need to turn in a different direction. It's time to stop being stubborn. It's time to stop being a whiny wuss. It's time I take the plunge into the DSLR world. It should be an adventure......a very expensive adventure, but and adventure none the less.

So, that being decided, I have also decided that I am going to start selling some of my prints. There are some craft fairs here in Kotzebue around Christmas time. I am going to get some 8x10 and 5x7 prints made and mat them. If they sell they sell...if they don't they don't. I figure if they do sell maybe it can support my potential lens habit. That way I don't have to sell one of my kidneys.

Point Hope

During the 2nd week in June of this year I took a trip to Point Hope to go to the Whaling Feast. Point Hope, also known by the Inupiat name Tikigaq, is located 180 miles northwest of Kotzebue on the the Chukchi Sea. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the Western Hemisphere. This is still a whaling community that hunts the bowhead whale in the spring and fall. Landing a whale is one of the most important community events of the year. If they are successful, the whaling captains hold a Whaling Feast in June to share and celebrate their success.

I meant to post these pictures a long time ago but keep forgetting, so here they are.


This is a small canyon on the Noatak River. On the way to Point Hope we flew to the village of Noatak first.


Here is an aerial of the Village of Noatak.


This is an aerial of the village of Point Hope. The village was relocated to this site in the 1970's. The previous site (a couple miles away) was having erosion problems.


Here's a picture of some guy's mukluks.


This is where the whaling feast is held. People sit along the wind break on the left. In the middle there are pieces of plywood layed out. On the plywood are piles of bowhead whale meat and muktuk, beluga muktuk, ducks and geese, whale kidney and intestines,walrus and seal meat. Attending to these delicacies are an army of women. The pieces meat and things are cut up into chunks and boiled in huge pots over wood fires or camp stoves.


Here is a closer view of a couple of the ladies preparing the food. For those of you who I know are going to ask...yes I love eskimo food.....well a lot of it anyway. I like seal meat, and whale meat, both beluga and bowhead muktuk. I don't like whale kidney, but then again I don't like ANY kidney, that goes for liver too. Walrus is ok, but it's pretty strong. I like boiled intestines, whale or seal. Come on now, don't knock it til you try it


Here are six drummers drumming. Lots of eskimo dancing going on. I have some videos that I will try to upload to youtube, but no promises. My super slow arctic internet has a heart attack almost everytime I try and upload videos.


This is a photo of the blanket toss...AKA the eskimo's favorite way to break an ankle. During the blaket toss a large peice of walrus (i think) skin is used to toss people up in the air. You get three tries. The object seems to be to go as high as you can and land on the skin on your feet. Gently up and down, one, two, three, and then one big heave up in the air. If you land on your feet all three times everybody starts tossing you up and down as fast as they can til you fall down. During another part of the blanket toss they throw things. The whaling captains buy things like candy, skeins of yarn, pieces of sewing cloth. A girl holding some of these goodies is put on the blanket and then thrown in the air. While in the air she throws the stuff at a group of women over the age of 65. They do this over and over again. It's lots of fun to watch these little old ahna's scramble around trying to get the most loot. They really get scrappy when the girls start throwing wolf and wolverine skins at them.




These are photos of the old Point Hope village, the one that was abandoned/moved during the 1970's.


This is Purple Mountain Saxifrage. It is all over the place in Point Hope in the spring.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa, I hope it is not too soon to be writing. I promise that I have been a good girl this year. Well at least as good as possible. For Christmas I really want one of these...a Canon PowerShot S5 IS. This is about as good as you can get withour getting a digital SLR, and Santa we both know I have neither the patience nor the attention span for an SLR.
Sincerely,
Cathy

Karelian Bear Dogs

Somebody asked me why I got a Karelian Bear Dog as the breed, compared to others, is rather obscure.When I decided that I wanted to have a dog again I put a lot of thought into the kind of dog I wanted to get. There were a few qualities that I knew that I was looking for. First I needed a dog that wasn't a wimp. I could have just gone to any number of places in town and picked up a local Alaskan husky....you know, the kind you see in the Iditarod.
Kotzebue is full of them. Unfortunately thousands of years of self preservation instincts have produced a dog that when faced with danger runs and hides under the cabin. I needed a dog with a little more guts than that. Second, needed a dog that was nimble and not to heavy. It would need to be able to jump in and out of a boat on it's own and jump on and off Snow amchines and ATVs. And third, I needed a dog that could handle cold weather, preferably a nordic breed. I like Alaskan Malemutes. They are beautiful dogs, but they are HUGE and it's hard to be nimble when you weigh as much as a small pony.
I decided that maybe a Siberian Huskey might do so I started looking around for one of those. Then I remembered Karelian Bear Dogs. I had heard about them in an article about the management of problem bears in areas of high bear populations. I started looking for more information. KBD's don't attack bears, they harrass them. They bark and lunge and run away and lunge some more. They also like to do that with just about any animal, moose caribou etc. I also found that these dogs come with a lot of warnings. Responsible breeders want you to know what you are getting into. Karelians are aloof with strangers, they are wanderers, they are challenging to train, etc. I decided that these dogs had the qualities I was looking for and that I was up for the challenge, now I just had to find a breeder.
My search led me to a breeder in Soldotna, Alaska, Bearunoff Kennels . I contacted them to see if they had any pups available. They didn't, but someone who had a dog from them did have puppies and they referred me to her. Kaija was sent to Kotzebue in a cargo jet on March 31st 2007. She was 10 weeks old. She really is a great dog, but a lot of what they say about Karelian Bear Dogs is true. They are challenging to train....that's not to say that they are untrainable. You just have to work consistently with them. KBD's are aloof with strangers. The older Kaija gets the more aloof and suspicious she becomes, and this is even after consistent socialization from an early age. I take her to work with me so she is around people all the time. Still, she likes who she knows and the rest can jump in a lake as far as she is concerned.
Kaija also needs a LOT of exercise. A walk around the block is not enough for her. She can run for MILES, needs to run for miles. I take her out on the four wheeler (atv) and run her next to it on her leash. When we get outside of town I set her loose to run around and hunt squirrels and bugs and whatever else she can find. They want to hunt....need to hunt. She's very alert. She sees, hears and smells everything. There isn't much that gets past her. She has never seen a bear yet, but I'm sure that when she does she will think it is great fun to chase and bark.

So that is how I ended up with a Karelian Bear Dog. They are great dogs, and I will probably never own any other breed of dog than a Karelian, but they are definately not for everyone.

Wordless Wednesday- Black & White

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More of the Same

I actually got 5 comments on my birthday. Wow. I was impressed. It was nice to see some evidence of the people who filter in and out of the blog. Don't get me wrong....I know your there. I see the hits on the site meter and wonder, New Zealand! Who the heck in New Zealand would be reading this??? I've gotten hits from all over.Texas, Utah, Illinois, NY, Japan and various assorted Canadian Provinces just to name a few. Rio De Janeiro??? Holy cow. I guess I just never thought I was all that interesting. I know it's the pictures. It's hard to take a bad picture of Alaska. One lady who stops by said that although I am charming and witty,

she doubts she would stop by as much if I was posting pics of downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Hahaha...you gotta love honesty like that! This photo of Des Moines is for you, coffeedog. I can't take credit for the photography though because even though I think I have driven through Des Moines, I'm pretty sure I slept through it.

So for the sake of those of you who come here for the pictures and not because you feel obligated out of family duty, here is more of the same.


It was a nice evening so I decided to take the dog out on the 4 wheeler so that she could run around out on the tundra.


On our way out behind town we stopped by the lagoon to check out the people jigging for tomcods. I thought I would walk out to them and take their picture and a couple pictures of a tomcod for all of you who might not have any idea what kind of fish that is. You see those holes they are fishing in. As I was walking toward them I could see the water sloshing up and down in the hole. The ice was bouncing! Suddenly I remembered my rule about bouncy ice and decided that if you all wanted to know what a tomcod looked like you could look it up on google.


It turned out to be another beautiful evening for a sunset. We took a ride up to cemetery hill which has the best view of town. I know it doesn't look much like a sunset but turn a bit to your left and....


Wa-lah! The sun is starting to set.


I took some pictures at the cemetery but this was the only one that was half decent. I sat and watched the sunset while Kaija ran around.....


until it was time to go home

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes sireee....today is my birthday. This day, 28 years ago, I was born to goodly parents. No Really! I am 28.......ok....so maybe I'm 28+7....but who's counting. I think this is the first year that I haven't had something resembling a birthday party.....not because no one tried to give me one....it was offered. I just wasn't into it this year I guess. Presents are great....I love presents....party? Nahhh. I got good loot though, thanks a bunch. Anyway.....I know that at least one or two people read this drivel I type, so on the occasion of my birthday leave me a comment. Let me know that I'm not talking to myself.

Over the last couple weeks I have been neglecting this blog....something I have a tendency to do (see previous post on procrastination). I apologize for my lack of diligence. I know that the few people who do come here come for the pictures (as much as I would like to believe it is for my wit, charm and pithy comments) so here are some pics from the last couple weeks.




Sunrise at camp on the Noatak River. This was taken October 1st. It was a chilly morning.


The first day of snow was actually September 28th. I meant to take a picture but I got busy at work and by the time I remembered again it was all melted. This pic was taken at the start of out first mini blizzard on October 8th. Here is Kaija the Karelian Bear Dog posing in the snow.



These next three pics I took today. This is looking out over the ice and open water of Kotzebue Sound. As you can see we are almost freezing up.


This was the view down front street this evening.


And of course the old Lincoln cabin, probably the most photographed house in Kotzebue.

Well that's all for now.