.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
My Smarty Boy
Uyaana made high honor roll again this last semester. There was an awards ceremony today at school...unfortunately he was at home in bed with strep throat and didn't get to go. I told him that if he got all A's next quarter he could pick out 2 new Wii games. For his prize this quarter he picked out some Pokemon toys. He was very excited about that.
Uyaana has also been eating up the chapter books lately. He just started My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. After that I think he is planning on starting the Inkspell series. He's already read the whole Edgar and Ellen series since thanksgiving along with a few others. I'm glad he loves to read. I have always loved reading too, but I am terrible at math. Hopefully he won't have that problem.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Polar Bear Rumors
Some of you may remember last January when I wrote about a Polar Bear that was shot my a hunter near the village of Noorvik. It seems that we have another polar bear wandering around well inland of their usual stomping grounds. This time there are reports of people seeing one on the Noatak Flats at the treeline near the village of Noatak. There have also been rumors of people seeing it near where the Eli enters the Noatak River.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
That's "Your Majesty" to You
.
My Auntie C in New Hampshire sent me this email today. In a fit genealogical fervor, fueled by Susie Q's and Peeps, she made a monumental discovery...
"I have just traced our Sisson ancestors back TO THE TIME OF William the Conqueror (b. 1027, d. 1087), going back through the Richard Warren (1585-1628) line. I say " TO THE TIME OF" because we are related, through Richard Warren, to the STEP-daughter of William the Conqueror. Her name was Gundred (1053-1085), Princess of England of Flanders, and because she married William Earl of Surrey de Warren (1036-1088), we can trace forward to Richard Warren, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, one of our Mayflower ancestors. Richard Warren's daughter Sarah Warren and her husband John Cooke had a daughter, Sarah Cooke, who married Arthur Hathaway. Sarah & Arthur had a daughter, Lydia Hathaway, who married James Sisson, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather.
Being crashingly disappointed that we were not directly related to William the Conqueror, I went back to Gundred (1053-1085); her mother Matilda (1031-1083); to Adelaide (Alix Adele) (1009-1077), Princess of France; to Robert the 2nd (972-1031), King of France; to Hugh Capet (956-996), King of France; to Hugh "The Great" (900-956), Count of Paris of France; to Robert the 1st (died in 923), King of France, who married Adelaide (Adelheid), Princess of the Franks (born circa 824) whose father was Louis the 1st (778-840) of the Franks, whose father was Charlemagne (742-814), Holy Roman Emperor.
So-o-o-o-o . . . although we're not related to William the Conqueror, we're related to Charlemagne!"
I always felt like I should have been royalty...who screwed me out of my birthright!?!
.
My Auntie C in New Hampshire sent me this email today. In a fit genealogical fervor, fueled by Susie Q's and Peeps, she made a monumental discovery...
"I have just traced our Sisson ancestors back TO THE TIME OF William the Conqueror (b. 1027, d. 1087), going back through the Richard Warren (1585-1628) line. I say " TO THE TIME OF" because we are related, through Richard Warren, to the STEP-daughter of William the Conqueror. Her name was Gundred (1053-1085), Princess of England of Flanders, and because she married William Earl of Surrey de Warren (1036-1088), we can trace forward to Richard Warren, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, one of our Mayflower ancestors. Richard Warren's daughter Sarah Warren and her husband John Cooke had a daughter, Sarah Cooke, who married Arthur Hathaway. Sarah & Arthur had a daughter, Lydia Hathaway, who married James Sisson, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather.
Being crashingly disappointed that we were not directly related to William the Conqueror, I went back to Gundred (1053-1085); her mother Matilda (1031-1083); to Adelaide (Alix Adele) (1009-1077), Princess of France; to Robert the 2nd (972-1031), King of France; to Hugh Capet (956-996), King of France; to Hugh "The Great" (900-956), Count of Paris of France; to Robert the 1st (died in 923), King of France, who married Adelaide (Adelheid), Princess of the Franks (born circa 824) whose father was Louis the 1st (778-840) of the Franks, whose father was Charlemagne (742-814), Holy Roman Emperor.
So-o-o-o-o . . . although we're not related to William the Conqueror, we're related to Charlemagne!"
I always felt like I should have been royalty...who screwed me out of my birthright!?!
.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The village of Emmonak in Crisis
Last summer I wrote a blog post about what I believe is the uncertain future of rural Alaska. It seems that what I fear is becoming a reality in Emmonak, as it is, I'm sure, in many other isolated Alaskan villages. Emmonak is the first to be raising a cry for help.
Emmonak man seeks food airlift to combat economic crisis
ALASKA NEWSPAPER STAFF
editor@alaskanewspapers.com
January 12, 2009 at 1:42PM AKST
A combination of extreme cold and high fuel prices has created a humanitarian crisis for the village of Emmonak, according to resident Nicholas Tucker.
In a letter sent out as a cry for help, Tucker describes economic conditions in which families are rationing food and warmth for themselves and their children in the Southwest Alaska village of 800.
The situation could easily worsen — extreme cold that arrived early this winter and stuck around means heating fuel must soon be flown in, which residents fear will push the price from $7.83 per gallon to $9 a gallon or more.
Click here to read the article.
Alaskan bloggers have been trying to raise awareness of the situations are are calling into question the lack of response, or even acknowledgment of the situation by state officials. Here are a few posts from other AK bloggers...
The Mud Flats (I suggest reading the comments on this blog)
Alaska Real
Progressive Alaska
Kodiak Konfidential
A grassroots effort has been started to raise awareness of the situation and to help the village. If anyone is interested in helping they can call:
.
City of Emmonak, (907) 949-1227/1249 (They will take donations by credit card. Please specify the donation is for heating oil!)
Emmonak Tribal Council, (907) 949-1720
or send a check to:
Emmonak Tribal Council
P.O. Box 126
Emmonak, AK 99581
Attn: Christine Alexie
.
Emmonak man seeks food airlift to combat economic crisis
ALASKA NEWSPAPER STAFF
editor@alaskanewspapers.com
January 12, 2009 at 1:42PM AKST
A combination of extreme cold and high fuel prices has created a humanitarian crisis for the village of Emmonak, according to resident Nicholas Tucker.
In a letter sent out as a cry for help, Tucker describes economic conditions in which families are rationing food and warmth for themselves and their children in the Southwest Alaska village of 800.
The situation could easily worsen — extreme cold that arrived early this winter and stuck around means heating fuel must soon be flown in, which residents fear will push the price from $7.83 per gallon to $9 a gallon or more.
Click here to read the article.
Alaskan bloggers have been trying to raise awareness of the situations are are calling into question the lack of response, or even acknowledgment of the situation by state officials. Here are a few posts from other AK bloggers...The Mud Flats (I suggest reading the comments on this blog)
Alaska Real
Progressive Alaska
Kodiak Konfidential
A grassroots effort has been started to raise awareness of the situation and to help the village. If anyone is interested in helping they can call:
.
City of Emmonak, (907) 949-1227/1249 (They will take donations by credit card. Please specify the donation is for heating oil!)
Emmonak Tribal Council, (907) 949-1720
or send a check to:
Emmonak Tribal Council
P.O. Box 126
Emmonak, AK 99581
Attn: Christine Alexie
.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
You can't get there from here ( RE-POST)
Last night I spent some time going back through previous posts. This is something that is very time consuming. Sometimes I forget just how much has gone into this blog. It is also interesting to me to go back through and read it all every now and then.
As I was reading, I came across this post that I wrote on October 31st 2007. It was about how I ended up in Kotzebue. This blog has evolved a lot since I wrote this post "How did you get there?" is a question that I still hear a lot. I though that I would recycle this post for those of you who haven't read it. It is an old post, but the sentiment is still the same.
------------------------------------------------------
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.
As I was reading, I came across this post that I wrote on October 31st 2007. It was about how I ended up in Kotzebue. This blog has evolved a lot since I wrote this post "How did you get there?" is a question that I still hear a lot. I though that I would recycle this post for those of you who haven't read it. It is an old post, but the sentiment is still the same.
------------------------------------------------------
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.
Monday, January 12, 2009
KDMA 8 Dog #1......part 2
Here are the photos of the racers coming in for the finish during yesterday's race. I am posting the pics in the order that they came in...remember this is not necessarily the order that they placed. I will post the places and times after the photos.
Buddoo Gallahorn.
Cyrus Harris.
Here comes paul Hansen with Ricky Wells behind him.
Paul coming into the finish.
Ricky Wells.
Joanne Harris.
John Goodwin.
Heath Caro.
1st Place: Buddo Gallahorn 38 minutes 9 seconds
2nd Place: Paul Hansen 38 minutes 54 seconds
3rd Place: Cyrus Harris 39 minutes 46 seconds
4th Place: Joanne Harris 42 minutes 11 seconds
5th Place: Ricky Wells 43 minutes 27 seconds
6th Place: John Goodwin 45 minutes 11 seconds
7th Place: Heath Caro 54 minutes 5 seconds
Buddoo Gallahorn.
Cyrus Harris.
Here comes paul Hansen with Ricky Wells behind him.
Paul coming into the finish.
Ricky Wells.
Joanne Harris.
John Goodwin.
Heath Caro.
1st Place: Buddo Gallahorn 38 minutes 9 seconds
2nd Place: Paul Hansen 38 minutes 54 seconds
3rd Place: Cyrus Harris 39 minutes 46 seconds
4th Place: Joanne Harris 42 minutes 11 seconds
5th Place: Ricky Wells 43 minutes 27 seconds
6th Place: John Goodwin 45 minutes 11 seconds
7th Place: Heath Caro 54 minutes 5 seconds
Sunday, January 11, 2009
KDMA 8 Dog #1.......part 1
Today was the Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association 8 Dog preliminary #1 was held today at 2pm.
The race was originally scheduled for yesterday, but it never got any warmer than -29F so the race marshall postponed until today. It warmed up to about -13F at race time.
This is a 12 miles race with an 8 dog limit. The mushers leave one at a time at two minute intervals. Whoever has the fastest time wins. Here is Paul Hansen (4) and Heath Caro (5) chatting before the race.
Here is John Goodwin with bib #7.
Here is Buddoo Gallahorn (bib #1) getting ready.
Buddoo again.
Heath Caro, bib #5. He is running 8 of John Baker's Dogs. He's running distance dogs with a distance sled in a sprint race. I never asked, but I figure he's just running this race for the experience. Standing behind with the blue hat is Robert Nelson, Uncle Louis Nelson's boy, who was an Iditarod rookie last year. He is entered in this year's Iditarod as well..
Buddoo taking off.
Ricky Wells taking off.
Cyrus Harris taking off.
Paul Hansen getting a hand into the chute.
Paul taking off.
Heath Caro getting a hand into the chute.
Heath taking off.
Joanne Harris taking off.
John Goodwin taking off.
I'm breaking this race into two blog posts because there are a lot of photos. Part two will post tomorrow morning.
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