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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First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. Uyaana is in third grade this year. Here he is, doesn't he look bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8am this morning??? Funny, he looks exactly the same as last year, same sweatshirt and all....I promise that he has new nice school clothes on underneath that old hoody.




Third grade is the beginning of big kid school. More homework, bigger books, harder stuff. He even has a three ring binder that he takes home with him. Here is Kotzebue ALL school supplies are provided by the school district so he has a binder and a notebook with some folders, but he wants to change it over to the way cool Power Rangers binder I got him. Even though he wasn't thrilled to get up early this morning he seemed happy to be back at school.


Can I just tell you that it is HOT out today. Walking over to the school it just felt hot. Everyone was talking about how warm it was. I went back to the office and checked the temperature outside and it was a whopping 63 degrees.

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Moonrise

Taken at 11:44pm 8/16/08

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Too Stinkin' Cute

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Salmon

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Evolution of an Akpiq

The cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus), is a slow-growing alpine or sub-Arctic species of Rubus (related to Raspberries, blackberries), producing reddish peach colored edible berry. In Alaska they are often mistakenly called "salmonberries. It is easy to tell the difference bcause salmonberries grow on a bush and cloudberries don't. In the northwest Arctic region of Alaska we call them Akpiqs (ahk-pik).




It all starts out with a little white flower.




After pollination, the white flowers begin to form a berry that is somewhat similar to a raspberry.




The akpiq spends the summer slowly developing inside the protection of it's tightly closed petals.




As the berry gets bigger the petals begin to split open and show the berry inside. The still unripe berry is reddish orange in color.




As the akpiq ripens the petals open all the way and fold back and the berry starts to turn amper in color. The berry has a texture similar to raspberries and a taste similar to apricots.

Excess Baggage

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Sunset

I took these last night at around midnight




The sun will set at around 11:30pm.




We are losing about 8 minutes of sunlight each day.




It is quite dark by about 3am and the starts are starting to be visible for the first time since mid april.

Portland Rose Gardens

Yeah I know, I'm not very prompt in getting pictures up sometimes, but better late than never.



While I was in Portland I had the oppertunity to visit my friend Melinda for a couple days. One of those days she took me to Portland’s International Rose Test Garden.




It is the oldest official, continuously operated public rose test garden in the United States.




The main purpose of the garden is to serve as a testing ground for new rose varieties.




The gardens are very beautiful and certain areas offer beautiful views of the city.




This is Melinda's daughter Sequoia. She had a great time looking at all the roses.




Isn't she cute? She is 3years old and is quite the little singer. She sang me Somewhere over the Rainbow with very good pitch.




Here is Melinda's son Tristan. He is a great storyteller. He loves to tell me long stories about tornados and all sorts of things.




So as much as I was whining aboutbeing stuck in Portland I did have a good time for a couple of days.

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Sterilite Tote vs. Galvanized Tub

For wordless Wednesday I posted a photo of Uyaana taking a bath in a Sterilite Tote (the best bush luggage ever)at Iten's camp. Fellow Alaskan blogger, Ishmael, over at Kodiak Konfidential said..."That is so great. Times sure have changed.... when I was a kid in the village it was a galvanized metal tub that we bathed in, just like the kind you'd see hanging on a barn down south or something. What a hoot."



Well, funny thing is there was a galvanized tub available, see it hanging on the porch post?

Wordless (almost) Wednesday- Camp Bath

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Fishin'

The humpies are spawning in the creek behind the Iten's camp. Uyaana wanted to try and catch one with a net. These humpies were almost all spawned out.



For being half dead they could still muster up some spunk.



Finally he caught one. It was a slowpoke. We didn't eat it, we threw it back. By the time they get this far up the creek they are yucky.

Pony Boy

The Iten's have 4 Icelandic ponies.



During the summer they range free on the tundra, but in the evening they come back to camp and hang out in the yard or over by their pen.



The other night the ponies were following Uyaana around the camp like puppies.

This Place

Happiness...not in another place but this place, not for another hour but this hour.
-Walt Whitman

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Fried Porcupine

Ok, so after working 24 hours a day for 8 days in Portland I decided I needed some R&R (No, not the beverage). So on Friday we headed out to Kobuk Lake (Hotham Inlet). We will be gone until Tuesday evening. Right now we are at Iten's dogsitting for Ed and Ruth. The Iten's sattelite internet is way slower than mine so I am having a bit of trouble uploading photos. Instead of using photobucket for my pictures I am going to have to upload them straight to blogger so the photos will be smaller.


First stop was Auntie Allie's camp. Allie and Buddoo are year round camp folks out on Kotbuk Lake. By the time we got there we were plenty hungry and Allie was cooking up some porcupine.







I have had baked porcupine with barbecue sauce before. It was an old pokie fella so he tasted a bit piney. According to Allie this was a nice fat young one and he wasn't piney at all, he was delicious. She fried her's in Crisco with flour onion and garlic salt and pepper. Mmmmm!




So we had quite the spread, fried porcupine, sourdough hotcakes, blackmeat and seal oil with beluga muktuk and leftover roast caribou. You can always count on Allie to feed you up right.

Thanks Dr. Phil!

Last night there was a surprise potluck to Honor Dr. Phil Meyer from Wasilla Veterinary clinic.




For the last 20 years Dr. Phil have been coming up to Kotzebue to provide us with veterinary service. We do not have a resident vet here in Kotz so his services are essential. For many years he has also been the official vet of the Kobuk 440 sled dog race.




While we may not have a vet who lives here in Kotzebue, we do have an unofficial vet tech, Judy. She is often known as "The Dog Lady". She will do vaccinations and has certain things such as antibiotics on hand for emergencies. She works with Dr. Phil so that we have access to certain necessities in between his visits.




There was a great spread of dishes and desserts and everyone ate and had a good time.




Some people got together and made a collage of picks from over the years. They also had people make scrapbook pages of their pets and put them in an album for Dr. Phil.




So once again, thank you Dr. Phil for all that you do for the animals of Kotzebue.

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Rush

This is "Rush".




He's Uyaana's new puppy.




Rush is a "Kotzebue Special". Mom is a black mutt and the father is whatever was roaming the neighborhood that week.




I think he looks like his dad was one of those Alaskan Huskies mixed with German Shorthaired Pointer. Look at that red nose and freckles.




When I asked Uyaana why he named the puppy Rush he said, "Cause when he grows up he might be fast".




Kaija keeps wanting to bite his collar off.

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Wordless (almost) Wednesday

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Three More Nights

This is my 6th night in Portland, my 5th at Shriner's. The days are long and the nights longer. Hospitals are usually not a place that one wants to pass their time. I am weary of this place. I lay awake at night listening to the occasional beeps and pings of monitors. Now an again a thundering helicopter landing on the roof of OHSU next door announces someone's bad day.

I went downtown today, dragged reluctantly by my co-worker "Come on...watch a movie." Like anyone else I enjoy a movie every now and then, but usually only when it is something that I really want to watch. Evan on the other hand has been devouring a movie a day since we got here. He finally convinced me to go downtown and watch one. We caught the bus outside Shriner's and rode the twenty minutes to the mall. Downtown Portland was bustling. The buildings were tall, the city unfamiliar, people everywhere, the whole scene made my skin itch.

The streets is clogged and the bus driver is frustrated. He tells everyone who gets on "the roads are gridlocked, it may be faster to walk". We are in no hurry so we ride. I amuse myself by watching people while David Gray sings in my ears. The bus moves five feet and stops. Five feet and stops. I watch people in their cars. A woman in a black Audi pulls along side the bus. She has a tattoo down her left arm, a soft black and white portrait of a lady of roaring twenties style. Looking at Audi lady's arm I see that her wrist is pierced with numerous colored barbells.

We get off the bus at 4th and something and walk the block and a half to Pioneer Place. The sidewalks are awash with people and I feel like flotsam. I have this overwhelming urge to run and hide. Pioneer Place is out of my league. It is the stomping grounds of the beautiful people, four floors of Saks, a place that sells frilly strapless mini dresses, a shop that sells handbags that cost more than my 4 wheeler. What the heck am I doing in here? The darkness of the theatre is a relief.

As we leave the theatre at the end of the movie I hear a girl say "Too bad the last movie Heath Ledger was in he played a bad guy." I think to myself that it doesn't matter if he was a bad guy or a good guy. For an actor I would think that the the only thing that really matters is that people remember in your last movie you were brilliant. Ledger was dark, disturbing. Never for a second did you doubt. I watched every twitch of his face and every flick of his tongue and I believed.

The bus ride back was long and the road winds along Terwilliger around corners that make me dizzy. Up and up past the V.A. and into OHSU, Oregon Health Sciences University. Never have I seen a hospital complex so big. Not just regular big, I mean hulking, massively big. The place is a fortress perched on the side of Marquam Hill. It's a wonder there's no moat. It's all winding roads, precipitous terraces, towering concrete and glass windows. The Shrine Hospital sits at the edge of campus where Sam Jackson Park Rd continues it's terrifying tilt-a-whirl decent down the hill. I am grateful when the bus spits me onto the curb.

Three more nights. I miss my boy. I miss my dog. I miss my bed.

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Lens Envy

If you squint.....


...and look really, really, hard....




...you will see that this is a short eared owl.




Too bad the Nikon 300mm f2.8 AF-S VR costs $4,499.

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Still in PDX

Well, I'm still here at Shriner's here in PDX. We were originally supposed to head home tomorrow but were told we won't be leaving until TUESDAY. *sigh*

My friend Melinda lives here in Portland so I was able to spend some time with her. We went to the Rose Gardens and a bookstore in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland called The Looking Glass Bookstore. It was a small store but it had great character and an excellent selection of books. I bought The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I am halfway through Time Traveler's Wife and it is different but good. It was nice to spend time with my friend but now she is off on a camping trip to Crater Lake.