Sunrise on the Noatak River

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12 Things To Do While NOT Reading About Sarah Palin

1. Admire the view.




2. Roast hotdogs.




3. Eat hotdogs with dirty hands.




4. Take a nap.




5. Admire the view some more.




6. More napping.




7. Roast marshmallows.




8. Perfect the art of roasting the perfect marshmallow.




9. Even more napping.




10. Get dirty.




11. Read a book.




12. Chase rainbows.

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I Got a Headache THIS BIG and It's Got Sarah Palin Written All Over It

No matter how hard I try I just can't wrap my mind around this. Trying gives me a headache, that damn spotlight is too bright. I still think that Sarah's place is here in Alaska. We voted her in as Governor to do a job, not to go traipsing around the USA on a presidential campaign.

I still have not made up my mind on who I am going to vote for. I am one of those pesky middle of the road voters who sits on the fence until the day before the election.....but I am soooooo happy that there are all kinds of people giving me really great reasons not to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

-I never thought that Palin talked funny. I have been reading all over the place that she has an accent and a squeeky voice. Really, I never noticed. Well there's a good reason not to vote for McCain.

-Oh and lets not forget that she has a SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD. Good grief. That must mean that there is no possible way that she could get anything done cause Lord knows that parents of special needs children are completely useless and special needs children are DEFINATELY something that need to be hidden away from the public eye.

-She likes mooseburgers. Weirdo.

The days of Alaskan anonimity are over.

Well I am going to go immerse myself in the wilds of the Noatak River (my Excedrin) and pretend none of this is happening until Monday night. My satelite internet will remain idle.
I will not sign into Google Reader
I will not read ADN.com or the Miner
I will not even peek at the wonkette.
I will not read msnbc.com or cnn.com

Yeah Right.

The World is at Sixes and Sevens...Well at Least Alaska Is

It seems Alaska has been dragged into the spotlight and the reaction is mixed. I have spoken to a few people this morning and opinions have ranged from "Good Grief" to "Go Palin". The ADN.com forum is popping like firecrackers, Alaska blogs have gone crazy. Ish over at Kodiak Konfidential reported 5 figure hits at only 7am this morning. Even my humble little hovel on the Internet is getting bombarded with hits.


I think that some people are less concerned with what this means for America and more concerned with what this means for Alaska. I Like Sarah and (although there are many who I am sure would disagree) felt that she was getting things done in this state and I was looking forward to seeing what else she would do.

I have some other feelings....and that's what they are, more feelings than opinions.

-I have a feeling that Palin is gonna get raked through the coals with the trooper thing. CNN is already mumbling about it.

-I have a feeling that Sarah's debate skills are not up to par with Biden's and he is going to chew her up and spit her out like a piece of bad muktuk. I'd hate to see that cause like I said, I like Sarah.

-I have a feeling that we are going to hear all about how much money we are getting in the PFD and the extra $1,200 on top of that and people are going to start wagging their tongues without fully understanding where that money comes from and why. I mean really, most of the United States hasn't half a CLUE about Alaska. ("Sorry we don't ship outside of the continental United States." Well geez, last time I checked I did live in North America. It's not my fault people don't know the difference between "continental" and "contiguous") Now there are going to be millions of people with half a clue making half ass presumptions about the place that I call home. Maybe that is what is causing my unease...the spotlight. Is that dumb? Probably.

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Say It Ain't So Sarah

So I wake up this morning and I see that Sarah Palin is going to be McCain's pick for vice president. I like Sarah, but for some reason that didn't wash down well with my coffee. I am not the most politcal person in the world so it is hard for me to explain why I feel that way. It is not necessarily that I think it is a terrible choice, although I was expecting Romney....but Sarah? She was the mayor of Wasilla for a while and Governor of Alaska for a couple years...not exactly what you would call experience. And then there's Statetroopergate? She's gonna get raked through the national media coals on that. Can she survive a debate against Biden?

I thought she told Alaskans that she wasn't interested in being VP. Probably doesn't matter. I don't see a McCain/Palin ticket making it to the white house.

DSL? What DSL??

I remember reading not long ago that Alaska has the slowest internet speeds in the United States. I bet that Kotzebue has the slowest internet in Alaska. For 256K Download Speed I pay $65 per month. I went over to speedtest.net and tested my connection. It said that my download speed was 231k (I think it must be a good day) but my upload speed was a measly rotten 61k...which brings me to the whole purpose of this post. I was TRYING to upload pics to post to the blog but I couldn't get anything to upload...so I give up. I will give it a try tomorrow at work where the internet is 5 times faster than the crap I buy from otz.net.

Caribou Time

Looks like it is caribou time on the lower Noatak River.




There are lots of caribou moving around between Hugo Mountain and the lower canyon.




There bears are out and moving around eating whatever is available. They are in a big hurry to fatten up for the winter.




I think that the land along the river is the most beautiful this time of year.




It is getting colder and starting to frost at night. The frost starts to change the color of the tundra to rich reds and rusts.




There were brief periods of rain here and there...




... but mostly the weather was beautiful, clean and crisp. Fall is my favorite time of year.




And the caribou were plentiful, running up the bluffs...




...running along the river...




...or calmly munching as they went along their way.

Wordless Wednesday- Falltime on the Tundra

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Sharks and Minnows

Here are the elementery kids playing sharks and minnows during cross country practice....

Busy Busy

I have a friend visiting from upstate NY and we have been busy. We have been cutting and putting away fish and meat all day today. I didn't take any pictures today because my hand were too messy. Hopefully we will be heading out in the country tomorrow and will take some pics out there. Til then you all can look at this picture of a rose I took while I was in Portland earlier this month.

Rebroadcast of Clean Water Debate

TODAY- at 5:30pm KOTZ Radio here in Kotzebue will be rebroadcasting the debate that was held on wedneday on the upcoming state ballot measures on mining regulations and clean water here in Alaska. This is a really big issue for all Alaskans regardless of what side you are on.


Present at the debate were representitives from Alaskans For Clean Water , Alaskans Against the Mining Shutdown , and Teck Cominco

The radio station tried hard to keep the discussion civil but despite their best efforts there was quite a bit of arguing going on....some of it quite snarky.

Once again, you can listen to a rebroadcast of the debate on the upcoming ballot measure 4, today, at 5:30pm, on Kotz radio. You can listen LIVE online HERE.

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Saqaugiin Creek

Here's some more pics that should have been posted a long time ago. They are of Uyaana and the dogs playing in Saqaugiin Creek behind the Iten's.

Yuk!

I've never been one to complain about the quality of the drinking water in Kotzebue. As a matter of fact Kotzebue's water taste great in comparisons to water I have drank in a lot of other municipal water systems.....BUT........is it just me or has the water really been tasting like tundra pond for the last week or two?

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Alaska Clean Water Debate- *TODAY!*

TODAY- Wednesday August 20th at 10am KOTZ Radio here in Kotzebue will be hosting a debate on the upcoming state ballot measures on mining regulations and clean water here in Alaska. This is a really big issue for all Alaskans regardless of what side you are on. I hear that there will be representatives from Alaskans For Clean Water , Alaskans Against the Mining Shutdown , and Teck Cominco There will be an opportunity for people to call in live and voice their concerns an opinions.

Once again, there will be a debate on the upcoming ballot measure 4, at 10am Wednesday August 20th on Kotz radio. You can listen LIVE online HERE.

Wordless Wednesday- Tundra Blueberries

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Cutting Fish

Yesterday, right after work I headed down to my friend, LaVonne Hendricks fish camp. Her camp is located on Kotzebue Sound about 6 miles south of Kotzebue. LaVonne worked 14 years as a public health nurse in Alaska serving many rural villages around Nome and Kotzebue. LaVonne started fishing and camping on the Kotzebue beach in 1973 as a way to be outside during the summer, to get away from the office and as a break from her public health nursing work. LaVonne lives in Anchorage but after 25 years she still comes up to her fish camp every summer to fish and spend time with friends old and new.

For many years LaVonne has also hosted sessions for Elderhostel. You can read an old article about it in the New York Times
This year LaVonne hosted an Elderhostel session for Grandparents and grandchildren. She has plans to do the same next year.

Another thing LaVonne has been doing for a few years now is donating filleted salmon to Jensen Arctic Museum located at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. Every year they have a salmon bake as a fundraiser for the museum. LaVonne will set net and a group of locals volunteer to help cut Salmon and package 300 lbs of salmon to be shipped down for the fundraiser....which brings me to the following pictures.




We didn't get a lot of fish in the net yesterday, but the catch was remarkable because not only did we get about 12 salmon, but there were also 11 Arctic Char (a kind of trout) in the net. It is not unusual to catch char but you don't usually catch that many at once while fishing for salmon. Here is Clara holding up one of the big ones.





Here is Clara cutting a salmon with an ulu, a traditional Inupiaq woman's knife. I learned how to cut fish with an ulu, and I'm quite pro at it now. If I try to fillet with a knife it's not a pretty sight.





We cut the fillets with the tail still attached so we can hang them up to dry an hour or two to make vacuuming packing less messy.





Here is my friend Kathy. She is gabbing away at someone outside of the picture while she cuts. We go to LaVonne's more for the gab than the fish.





This is another one of the arctic char. This is a smaller one than the fish in the other picture.





Here is the cache where we hang the fish til we are ready to package them.





More of Clara and her ulu.





Kathy and her ulu.






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