Update From the Blog Slacker

I realize it's been awhile. In fact it's been so long that today's post comes from pretty much the same standpoint as the last post. Only the location, the in-between events, and the lights on the horizon are different.

See, last post came on a day of preparation for departure from Kasigluk-Akula. Today I am on the eve of departure from Atmautluak (home of the Falcons). I guess it bears repeating that time does fly.

I came out here right after Kasigluk and got classes going. After the first week, I had to head to Bethel for an inservice. I stayed around for the week, off contract. I needed some time to get re-energized, and I had hopes to get out and harvest a caribou. The first was a success, the latter was a bust. I had no luck finding anyone to go with. There's still plenty of season left though.

I also got to put a few fun miles on the new machine which I'm liking. It's not the sportiest by any means, but it's been airborn a couple times now. I thought about riding it out here, but am sure glad I decided not to. All the snow is gone, thanks to a warm rainy weekend a couple weeks back. It's pretty interesting watching people in the village continuing to ride their snowmachines around.

And of course, there was thanksgiving dinner, where I joined the old crew over at the Tundra Oasis for an outstanding meal. Lee made a heck of a bird, including a homemade bratwurst stuffing that was unreal.

Back at Atmautluak, classes resumed after Thanksgiving weekend. We've been at it ever since, and even with some small and dwindling class sizes we made some headway. My welding class refurbished a bike rack for the school so that the kids won't need to dump their bikes on the boardwalk or else in the mud anymore.

We've had some beautiful weather as of late...clear, crisp, and lots of frost on everything. Gorgeous, really. I didn't take any pictures, because I just knew there was no doing it justice. As soon as you put a boarder around these sunrises they cease to be. I felt pretty lucky, also, to have clear nights the last couple nights, since it coincided with the Geminids meteor shower. Sunday night I went out and saw plenty of meteors. Last night I was out and only saw 5, but it was nice just to be out, all bundled up, hiking across the river and laying on the bank to gaze at the billions of stars.

Obscure candy available at Store here: Chick-O-Stick. Once in a while you find the darnedest things at village stores. I had forgotten all about the crunchy peanut butter coconut goodness of Chick-O-Stick. I don't think I've seen one in 20 years. Still taste darn good, by the way.

Tomorrow I head to Bethel, and on Saturday I begin the journey to Wisconsin. I decided to treat myself to a nice hotel in Anchorage for Saturday night. I'm looking forward to getting some good chow, soaking in a tub big enough to drown a calf in, and sleeping in a comfy king size bed. Even more, looking forward to the next day, arriving in Wisconsin. I can't wait to see family and friends.

Oh, and speaking of family... Happy Birthday Mom!!

Thursday Pre-Flight

So this morning is the beginning of my last full day here at Kasigluk-Akula. In a little while I will use the break in my daily-changing class schedule to start carefully packing delicate hi-tech gear in foam lined boxes so as to alleviate stresses from the shocks and vibrations that are part of the fun of being transported in small planes and the backs of pickup trucks. Like anything in life, this procedure begins with a good hot cup of black coffee. Beyond that, I thought I'd try something different this morning, and reflect a little on my on my time and place here, and in doing so, hopefully get "into" the dull ritual that lies ahead.

My plane is scheduled to arrive at 1:00 tomorrow. This means I need to be ready by noon, and not surprised if it shows up late or never. That doesn't mean I have to like it though. Regular readers might remember from last spring when I was leaving Donkey Kong, I waited for hours. The company I use is kind and friendly, so I stayed loyal. Screw me again and watch my business go next door though. But that's tomorrow's concern. What about Kasigluk?

I've had some pretty darned nice students this year, and the trend has held up here. Teaching has been pretty fun. One trouble, though, is that of sticking with a commitment. For example, I teach a driver's ed class in the evening. There were 18 on my roster the first day, 11 of which showed up. The next day we were down to 9. This remaining 1/2 has stuck it through, although a couple with not enough regularity to get school credit. Predictable is this scenario during the last week of class: I'm approached by somebody who signed up but never showed up, and later heard good things about the class from a friend. Now they want in. They'll approach me in the hall and ask, with a day or two remaining if it's too late to be in the class. I know what you're thinking, but the problem is, it's ILLEGAL to smack people upside the head. Opportunities sometimes knock. "When will you be back to do this again?" "Probably in about 2 years." Realities set in.

Glaringly missing from my stay here, as well as last month's in Kwigillingok, was a real social life. It happens that way once in a while, but usually not. Never had it twice in a row before. Just not many young, un-married people around who do things besides work or sleep. That, and all the night classes make it hard too, as in Kwig, where night classes thwarted hunting plans.

Well sheesh. This is really not the direction I had in mind for this post. It sounds pretty down and out, and it shouldn't. Ahead of me lies a 2 day-that's right-a TWO DAY weekend in Bethel. I don't know what exactly I'll do with it. Have some good meals, for sure. Pick up my snow machine. Sadly, rains ruined the snow we had, so riding will have to wait. Hopefully things freeze up good and solid by Thanksgiving, so I can set out on my chainsaw-with-a-seat in search of some game. There's some photo exhibit I'll go check out. Watch some Sunday NFL. By the way, it killed me to miss the Favre-Bowl, and I'm happy for the outcome. I hope Teddy the Rat is squirming and nervous. One last thing on sports: yankees win the world series and nobody cares. yankees fans, you don't count. Anybody who does not or has not lived in New York and is a yankee fan is a poseur.

This is getting off topic and rambling, so you know that cup of coffee is finished and my body is caffeinated. Breakfast of half a can of corned beef hash has been ingested. I'm ready for what's ahead, ready to move on. Time to go pack up the stuff and take it all down, the circus is leaving town.

Count Akula in the Spooky Bingo Parlor

Doesn't that sound like it would make a great title for one of the old Scooby Doo cartoons? I spent the 2009 All Hallow's Eve at the Akula Halloween Carnival here in Kasigluk. What a carnival it was.

My plan was to go as a character I thought up named Count Akula. (ha ha ain't that clever) But, I left my cape and fangs in Bethel, and besides, I think vampires are really pretty lame. Nevertheless, for the evening I decided to mentally be Count Akula. A Halloween costume is really a state of mind anyways.

Speaking of costumes, there were some good, non-mental costumes at the carnival. We had a parade where the contestants all walked laps in the gym to the rhythm of various tunes. My personal favorite came when some youngsters put on a costumed dance show to Alvin and the Chipmunks singing the Achy Breaky Heart song. It was one of those things of which few, and certainly not I, could have possibly dreamed.




After the parade there was some judging, and prizes awarded for different costumes. After that, a full blown CARNIVAL broke out in the Tundra Fox Gymnasium!! There was a cake walk, a slush-puppy machine, a free-throw shoot, skill crane, chuck a baseball at some metal bottles, balloon animals, face painting, eat an apple on a string (best deal of the night in my opinion), fishing for goodies over a wall, men's bingo and women's bingo.

I was busy teaching Saturday class when the carnival was organized, so I had no designated post. Therefore I assumed a roving helping and laughing role in the carnival. Count Akula was there to help should anyone need it. I sold some slushies. I tied some apples to strings. Then, the Count was beckoned to an emergency situation. I followed along, and was led smack dab into the middle of (do I really even need to say it or did you guess already?) women's bingo. They were shorthanded in there, with only a caller and a checker/ticket taker. But there needed to be a ticket seller. Enter Count Akula. But what the heck...I've never had so many women wave tens and twenties at me in my life. I didn't even have to dance, and the only clothing I took off was my flannel shirt because the room was so hot. The prizes for bingo were things like T-shirts, yarn, Gladware, coffee creamer and other assorted goodies. No huge prizes.

The prizes in the gym were even smaller. BUT, everybody had a nice time. I was really impressed by the maturity and cooperative effort put forth by the high school students here, who did most of the organization and work.

At the end of the evening, sleepy after having taught class all day, been to a carnival and worked at bingo, Count Akula retired to the dark Akula attic.

No News is Good News, Mostly

So here I have been quiet on the blog for too long again. Sometimes it can be hard to find the time and ambition to get around to putting a post on here. The next thing you know a few weeks trickled through our fingers and I've been riding around in more airplanes. Generally speaking though, the better life is, the less frequently I find myself blogging. (Better to be living than talking about living, wouldn't you say?)

Kwigillingok is but a memory and life goes on. It was an interesting departure there back on the 16th. The plane showed up about 1/2 hour earlier than what would seem possible. Consider that it is about a 1 hour flight. Now consider that I called the airline to check on the flight, and they said they would send the plane right away. I set out in search of a man with a 4 wheeler and trailer who could help me with all the gear, and found him. The next thing you know, somebody finds us and says my plane will be here in 7 minutes. Better early than hours late. I had to high speed gimp around loading and moving all the heavy stuff, but got it done and airborne.

You heard me right, gimp around. Let's have that bad news now, shall we?

My knees are going bad on me. I played ball with some students one night and the next day my knee was stiff, sore, swollen, and noisy in motion. I went to the doctor and after a checking over, they gave me some motrin and some steroids. The 'roids seemed to help for a few days, cutting down on the inflamation and what not. We shall see how things progress. I probably only had 5 or 6 seasons left in the NBA anyways, before I would have had to go play in Europe.

As long as we're taking a quick ride in the waambulance I'll give you my other piece of bad news. I may have wrecked my computer in what will forever be known as the 2009 Kwig Tea Debacle.

So, my body is getting old and I'm no good at liquids, basically is the gist of it. But I've got lots of good news to offset it.

Like...

I had a great week in Bethel. I got to see some football on the TV. I was a judge for LKSD's junior high speech competition, which was tons of fun. I had a good productive week in town, made some good professional in-roads, and feel pleased with the way things went. Aside from that little computer thing of course.

I had some wonderful friends come and visit this past weekend. We went to a really neat fundraiser called Just Desserts, where nothing but dessert was served, and enjoyed the musical and dancing variety show that went along with it. We have some really talented people in and around Bethel. Add to that fun, even more fun gatherings, fellowship with friends new and old, and, well...I guess what I'm blathering about is that it was a great weekend that ended way too soon for me.

Monday I flew to where I am now: Kasigluk-Akula. Kasigluk is a village aquatically divided into two parts, each with their own school. I am teaching at Akula, home of the Tundra Foxes. The other side, Akiuk, will be pretty hard to get to until there is enough ice, unless the bit that there is melts away for a little while.

So far it seems fine here. It is early, but my morning classes went well.

Oh, and yesterday before leaving Bethel I bought this:


So, bring on the winter. Life is good.

Martha Stewart Was Here

More on that title in a bit.

The week has been somewhat long and decent overall. I mean, it is long, and there isn't much opportunity for leisure or fun activities. We didn't make it out bird hunting last weekend afterall. There was a conflict of obligations for the people, and Sundays are out. Hunting is illegal on Sundays here. But I do have really nice students, and that makes work not seem so worky sometimes. One more week down, one more to go here, and then it's onward and forward.

I just got back in from my walk to Store. Despite high winds it was a nice little stroll. Last post I mentioned how I get to craving salad and the like when in villages. The other thing I really crave is eggs. So when I found a cooler full of eggs at Store you could have knocked me over with a dried salmon. Eggs over hard, fried hard for Sunday breakfast in the bush tomorrow. Or maybe huevos rancheros. We'll see.

I'm making good on the photos I said I'd post. Do you care about the photos? Here are a few I snapped here in Kwigillingok over the past few days. Nothing too special but I kind of liked them, so why not make them viewable to people all over the universe I figured.


Teacher housing is what's at the end of the rainbow. It depends on perspective though. A few weeks ago I saw a rainbow circle from up in the plane. It's been a rainbowy fall.

The arctic pipe heads off into the sunset.

The game goes on as kids play basketball past dark.

Now for the Martha Stewart thing. When I'm traveling I try to not rely too much on canned foods, but it's pretty unavoidable. Ya know how soup cans love to put recipes on the side of themselves, giving you new innovative ways to use their contents. Usually it's a passable sacrifice on something you could make better yourself, but good to keep in mind for when you're in a pinch. Well I noticed one this week that is just absolutely brilliant. This recipe is for the Ultimate Roast Beef Sandwich, and it appears on the side of a can of some kind of meat/gravy/potato/carrot product made by a company whose name rhymes with minty door. The recipe has an ingredients list and a step by step process, of how to open up the can and spoon this crap onto a hotdog bun. It comes with a finished photo so you know what it looks like. Somebody better call Arby's and tell them to watch out.
Next week, Oscar Mayer's recipe for the ultimate stew. Ahh, who can wait that long. What you do is, you throw two hotdogs in a bowl with two biscuits and eat it with a fork.

Bon Apetit.

How About a Nice Hot Cup of Kwigillingok?

HI

First off, sorry for the delayed post. It's been over a month, I know. Life has been busy, and there have been a couple of technical issues on top of it. If you've checked in you may have noticed some unintelligible notice saying this blog has been flagged for some type of objectionable content, waa waa. The first time I thought maybe Blogger had discovered that fish video I posted from Copper Center. Alas, it's just a problem with the site itself. In any case I couldn't log in until one of my computer geek friends taught me about another secret entrance. And then I had to remember to use it...

The other issue is that I don't have internet at the NEW PLACE IN BETHEL. That's right. We moved into a new place, one big enough for the three of us. The mark I leave there is: a stack of rubbermaid bins in a closet, a red truck out front which moves around for the week I am in town, and...I don't know I guess that's probably it. But still it feels like a home when I'm there.

I returned from Goodnews on the 18th of September with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. It was nice to be back and see my friends again. At the same time, I was missing the people, the river, the coast and the mountains out in GNU. Hopefully I will make it back sometime in the not too distant future. In retrospect though it was probably good to give my arm a break from reeling in all those salmon. I was beginning to consider switching my reel to a lefty just to even out the burden.

In Bethel I had quite a busy week at work topped with an inservice on Saturday. I consumed many fresh salads and vegetables I had been craving when away in the village. After 3 or 4 weeks in the bush, few things are as mouthwatering a thought as a spinach salad. It's true.

This past Monday I flew through the fog and mist and landed in the village of Kwigillingok (KWK), Kwig for short. Home of the Eagles, by the way. Actual pronunciation is more like gwee-hee-yeeng-hawk. But that's not really right either. I'm told that in Yup'ik it means "place with no rivers." One of my community member students in Drivers Ed is going to tell me the story behind the name sometime, as she noticed the look on my face when she told me the meaning. (right now I can see the river out the window, and there is a barge in it being unloaded with a crane, so the look on my face was one of puzzlement I'm sure)

Things here are going fine. I work an odd schedule. The students are pretty nice. The little kids all know me, and for some reason they often would ask me for pepsi which I couldn't figure out until just yesterday. My coffee cup has a pepsi logo on it, so naturally I would therefore have pepsi in my backpack. That is the rationale of a first grader... Myself and a couple of my welding students are planning on going bird hunting this evening.

Other than that, it's been rainy, autumn has come, the tundra is browning, we've had some frosts, the bugs are dead, the Brewers are 78-82 with two to go. Send in the clowns.

I'll try to pull out my camera and push some buttons before the next post.

Enjoy Monday Night Football this week. It should be memorable.

Good News for People Who Like Good News about Goodnews

A few changes are afoot since the last post and life is fine. Work has been within spec, and so has the fishing. Back on the 16th, Erin, Macy, friends/coworkers from the District Office Iain and Bethany headed out in Erin's boat once again. Earlier in the day Erin and I took a ride down to her old home of Oscarville to visit and drop off/pick up things. I basically went for the fresh air, as the day was a real beauty.

When we pulled up in the Oscarville Slough, I busted out laughing. There were little kids all over the slough, swimming in the cool water and totally full of mud, head to toe. They were all so thrilled to see Erin and Macy both. So all these mud caked boys and girls are running and yelling along the shore as they see Erin's boat approaching. It was pretty cute, and after some hellos we headed inside Erin's old house for a bit.

While the girls chatted, Macy and I went and played with sticks and fed ourselves to the gnats.
After a while we got out of there to go pick up Iain and Bethany back up in Bethel on the way further up river to the Kwethluk River. This time Erin had some secret hole in the river that had yielded several big silvers on the day after my prior fruitless journey upriver.

This time I got on the salmon board. First Erin caught 2 or 3 fish. She was on fire and we all were just looking on in amazement. She seemed to know just where the fish were. My first rod-n-reel salmon of my life was pretty unspectacular. I set the hook, it thrashed for a couple seconds, and then a boat went by doing about 80 knots. The waves rinsed the fish right up on shore, where I subdued it in short order. The afternoon had a fair amount of fishing action, and I got this one on what I had mentally said would be my last cast of the day. (and it was)

Macy was acting like it was really cold on the ride home, but she's kind of a wuss.


Back to work on Monday I spent my week setting up schedules, planning, setting up gear and getting everything ready for the Fall '09 Tour. First gig:
Goodnews Bay
Rocky Mountain School
Home of the Bears
8/24-9/18

And here I am...

So far life here has been great. I made friends with most of the staff last year, as they stayed at the TO from time to time. Really really good people to be around.

Monday I did the usual: pack up, haul gear to Yute Air, sit around, fly out, unload the plane, haul all the gear to school, schedule classes, set up gear. I got that stuff down to a science last year.

In the evening, a couple friends here Chris and Amanda invited me on a hike up Rocky Mountain which is just behind the school. We picked and ate some berries on the way and I snapped a couple photos of the village from on top.


Tuesday I kicked off classes. They all seem to be going pretty well so far, by the way. But after class was even better. Chris (teacher here, great guy, husband of Amanda), Paul (teacher here, owner of a boat, all around good guy), John (itinerant worker, former TO housemate last year) and myself (you know me) piled into Paul's boat and shot up the Goodnews River a spell. The fishing was unreal. I got fish on each of my first 2 casts. We stacked up fish for a couple hours and then set about cleaning.

The rest of the week went smoothly by, and today we got out fishing some more. This time is was Paul, Ken (Paul's friend from back home), Amanda (teacher here, Chris's wife, all around good lady) and myself. Today the fishing was equally awesome, with a few real bigguns. The weather was pretty much perfect, and I was in short sleeves alot of the day.

The bears were pretty active today too. I was fishing on the bank when I heard a twig crack behind me, and I turned to see a big brown furry head looking at me. A lot of shouting got it to leave the area eventually. Getting snuck up on like that had me keeping a closer eye on the brush.

After a while of catching more fish we decided to head down river to clean the fish away from the good fishing hole and fix up some dinner. About a half hour into the cleaning we had another visitor. This one acted aggressively and it wasn't until Paul cracked off a warning shot that it got the picture and boogied. I think it wanted to run us off and take all our fish. It wasn't too long before the darned thing circled back from down river and started up towards us to feed on our fish carcasses as the current carried them away. It got yelled at plenty, and the agreement was that it could eat all the carcasses it wanted as long as it did so down away from us. Not that it much cared what we thought...

We finished our business, got back to the village and called it an absolutely awesome day. A person's gotta enjoy days like these for what they are.