Happy Halloween!

Autumn.  That is when the leaves turn their beautiful shades of orange and yellow and the skies are so blue in contrast.  In Bethel this year, the autumn has provided us the color of brown.  Brown mud, brown grass, brown trees.  The skies were the most beautiful blue for about 5 days and have been overcast and gray since.  Even with the dreary weather, Bethel is still a great place to be.

The first snow fell yesterday and even though there is permafrost here, the snow melted.  I heard a rumor that we will have a lot of snow this year because the grass grew tall.  I also heard another rumor (I actually read an article in the paper) that we will have an abnormally warm winter thanks to “the blob” which will cause great angst for those living in the continental United States.  I am hopeful for 20 feet so we can get out and go winter camping.  I have thoughts of killing a moose, but I don’t know if I could.

Alex bought a new boat which is a Kuskokwim appropriate boat.  The C-Dory is currently being barged to Seattle so Alex can try to sell it.  That boat was great, but is not meant to handle the muddy waters of southwest Alaska.  Our new Wooldridge is fast and has a heater!!!  We can fish with a net a lot easier and it doesn't matter as much if we hit a gravel bar.  It also maneuvers in shallow water like a charm.

You can look up our coordinates and see where we are.

Our summer was cool and rainy, but we had fruitful fishing.  The first time we went out with the gill net, we took one of my co-workers and her husband (who hail from North Dakota) along for the ride.  They are not yet residents and could only watch.  The net was in the water for about 7.4 minutes and we caught 62 fish.  We had a heck of a time pulling it in and getting all the fish out because they were fighting and twisting and just being rambunctious.  I don’t remember if the tide was going out or coming in, but there weren’t very many places on shore to pull up to try to get the fish out of the net.  The place we stopped looked great until I got out of the boat and promptly got stuck in the muck.  I stood in mud up to the ankles of my boots trying to hang onto a net full of fish.  I actually got stuck and was unable to get my boot out of the mud and Alex had to trudge over to me and pull my boot out.  It was not fun at the time, but I easily laugh now.  We yielded 82 ½ pints of canned salmon and I spent 2 days running the pressure cooker while Alex filleted and smoked the fish.  It’s all about teamwork.

Summer brought art camp and another dumpster painting.  This year Brad did a self portrait with a Picasso theme.  He also got to catch smelt with a dip net.  He went with his friend Elias and they were responsible for cleaning the fish.  The guts were on the porch until they were washed away by the rain.

This blog is long over due and a lot has happened since my last posting.  Brad has started another school year and has finished his cross-country season.  He vastly improved and I think took about 4 minutes off his time over the 5-week season.  Wrestling has started and he has won a few matches.  It’s nice to watch him improve, but it’s terrifying to see his neck being torqued and twisted.    He is also on the Lego Robotics team (practices start at 0700!) and is participating in archery (practices end at 1830!).  Needless to say, he is very busy and I sometimes can’t remember if I’m coming or going.  

July 4 brought us to Girdwood for a conference.  We had the opportunity to hike in the afternoons and take in the view.  We took the 26 glacier tour out of Whitter on July 4th.  I thought it was going to be pretty hoaky, but it was a really great boat ride and we saw some awesome glaciers.  One had receded about 1/4 mile in 2 years.  No global warming???  We also had the pleasure to take a summer trip with my brother and his family.  We ventured to Denali National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Girdwood, and Seward.  We caught rockfish, kayaked up to a glacier (and saw the glacier calving), hiked on a glacier, and saw some grizzly bears.  

Crow Pass Trail

 

Big Brother Tad blending in with the rocks of Byron Glacier

Byron Glacier

Aialik Glacier

Rockfish.

Brad spent 2 1/2 weeks in Wisconsin with my family while Alex and I worked.  We did have the opportunity to head way up the Kisaralik River and camp.  The farther you go, the clearer the water.  We fished in a little stream and just enjoyed the weather and the views.  As we motor up the river, all you see is vast wilderness.  We caught glimpses of the mountains when we rounded the curves of the river, but mostly we saw water and tundra.  Who would have thought that we would see our neighbors 100 miles up river in the middle of no where??  They had set up camp on a big gravel bar and invited us to share their space.  People are quite friendly here.

That would be a grizzly bear paw print on a gravel bar we considered camping on.

Norway Creek off the Kisaralik River

Grayling

Rainbow Trout (as if you couldn't tell!)

Pulling the boat to shore against the current.

So Alaska is a wild place.  Thousands of acres of land that are hard to access and devoid of humans.  We try to get to those places when we can.  We have never been anywhere around here where we haven’t seen people, but the farther away we venture, the fewer people we see.  We summited the infamous Three Step Mountain in June.  It was a 2 ½ hour trip up the Kwethluk River.  As the crow files, I think it’s about 40 miles, but in the boat it was about 90 miles due to the oxbows and curves of the river.  One also has to factor in the motor change time.  We have a boat with an outboard prop on it that needs to be switched for a jet foot.  The jet foot makes it easier to maneuver in shallow (a.k.a. 16 inches) water and we can go fast! 

Three Step is the hill in the background. 

Kwethluk River in the background

Yup, that's a .357 on my hip and a shot gun in Brad's hand.  Bear protection!

Camping on the tundra.

The process of changing the lower unit on the motor is not difficult, but it’s time consuming.  We need to find a flat spot on the riverbank that is not too wet or swampy.  We also need to be very cautious not to drop any nuts or bolts into the water because it would be pretty unfortunate to be stuck 100 miles up river with a broken boat.  I’m sure I would have a few choice words if that would that ever occur.  I have become a great helper to the boat captain/mechanic that I’m married to.

My wonderful parents came for a visit in September.  We got out on the boat and picked berries.  We tried to fish, but were unlucky.  I did get my mom to eat salmon and moose, and that was quite a feat!  We were able to take a sight-seeing tour in a small plane over to the mountains about 60 miles from Bethel.  Our pilot was great and landed on the top of a mountain.  We saw moose, grizzly bears, caribou, and eagles.  I was able to see the windy, curvy rivers that we navigated in our boat from the air so I got a better sense of where we go.  The Northern Lights were out one morning and were not as bright as when my mom and dad were here last year.  It was nice to see them though (the aurora and my parents!)

Where else but bush Alaska would you send you kid off in a boat and then a plane for wrestling tournaments?  Brad boated to Napaskiak (6 miles down river) and flew on a charter plane to Quinahagak (60 miles down river on the coast of the Bering Sea).  He took 4^th place on the first trip and no place on the second trip.  The kids wrestle on Friday evening and then again on Saturday.  Brad had two matches on Friday night and he won one and lost one.  When I asked him if he pinned the other kid or won on points, he said, “I really don't remember”.  I’m not quite sure how one can’t remember how a 3-minute match was won.  Quinagagak is a coastal village, so it has been impacted by global warming.  There was an archeological dig that was ongoing for about 10 years.  They unearthed over 60,000 artifacts from the "Bow and Arrow" war in the 1600's.  The artifacts were sent to Scotland to be restored and returned here this summer (http://www.kyuk.org/post/quinhagak-s-nunalleq-dig-site-starts-new-chapter-community-based-archaeology).  We told Brad's coach that he should take the kids to the museum while they were there.  Brad said he was the only kid to find it interesting.

WINNER!

That's the water taxi off in the distance.

Life jacket and winter gear are required for travel.

Life jacket not required for air travel.

The last barge has come and gone and we won’t have one again until spring.  I didn’t know exactly how big those things were until we saw it from the water.  We speculate it was about 100 yards long and had things stacked 40 feet high.  The barge was eagerly anticipated by all of Bethel because the new school buses came on it.  The school district severed its ties with the local bus company and purchased their own, but they didn’t arrive until early October.  It was a little hectic getting kids to school without buses.  Sometimes we drove; sometimes they rode on school vans.  Lots of things come on the barge; Alex said most of Bethel was hauled in on barges.  Not milk though—we rely on planes to bring that for us, but when they delay cargo for people, we have no milk.  The grocery store was out of moo juice for 3 days last week.  And when I say out, I mean none.  No gallons and just a few half-gallons (which cost $6.99).  We didn't eat any cereal.

See the buses on top?

It’s official—we only own one house.  Our home in Norway sold in September.  It was a relief to have the signed paper work, and absolutely wonderful to have the check, but our old house is still missed.  It was where we started our family and where we gathered with extended family.  Both Bryne and Marie were able to call N1495 Forest Drive home as well.  But, a house is just a thing, and things don’t make us who we are.  Memories are easy to carry and don’t cost anything to ship.  Over the past 2 ½ years we have made Bethel our home and have created good memories too.

My office plants

I am always amazed at the things people bring to Bethel as checked baggage on Alaska Air.

Grilling burgers on the new boat!