Hey yall,
Well my email and website are up again-for now. Our web server has been going down for one to two days at a time for the last couple of weeks. There is no phone number to contact them of course, so all we can do is send them a notice online. They informed me they were having a problem with the system our site was on and they were taking it down for six hours last Tuesday to make repairs. The site was up that afternoon, and then I was unable to access it until Monday 8/4. Of course, conveniently, the contact portion of their site was down during this same period. To make matters worse in the communication department our DSL went down during this time and the local geek said it was a problem with our computer. Not two hours after I spent 30 minutes on the phone with the geek my telephone service went down. This was a Friday afternoon SOOOOO....as this town religiously shuts down from about 11:45 AM until 1:10 PM for an HOUR lunch break; it has also been my experience that it also shuts down around noon on Friday in preparation for the BIG DRUNK, until some time Monday afternoon to allow for recovery. The moral of my venting frustrations is we were incommunicado for almost a week either via internet, or phone, or both. So, my apologies if anyone was trying to contact us or access the website at this time and thanks for indulging me by listening to my tirade. We will be looking for another web server if this continues. The site was updated with new pictures last Sunday in between downtimes so check it out www.samsicles.net (if it is up and running).
Fall and winter are rapidly approaching. The darkness has returned. We have been getting longer and longer periods of darkness, right now from about 2:30 AM until about 5:30 AM. The mosquitoes went away about two weeks ago and the temps have been getting colder. Daily temps are in the mid 50's to low 40's. We are having intermittent sunny, rainy, windy days, sometimes all in the same day. One indicator of fall's approach is the Giant Fireweed. This is an Alaskan flower that blooms from the bottom to the top. The buds are all there when blooming begins and the saying is that when the top buds open, summer is over. Well, the buds are open almost to the top. Another indicator is the people up on the tundra-all of them stooped over with a bowl or bucket in front of them. They are picking berries, an annual ritual and not so long ago, a part of survival. Right now the salmonberry and blueberries are ripe. We picked a bunch of blueberries yesterday and added them to a cobbler. You have to realize that this is tundra. The local flora has only a brief growing period, terrible soil, and harsh living conditions. So to adapt, most plants are very close to the ground. They do not waste energy growing lots of leaves or branches. They place most of their precious resources into reproduction-hence the flowers and now the fruit of their labors (pardon the pun). So to get at them we have to bend and search close to the ground, literally painful work, but worth the reward, right?
Speaking of food, Friday I called a number I got from the TV. Channel three is a local advertisement channel and a commercial fisherman was advertising that he is selling salmon. He told me to meet him at a place on the beach at a certain time. When I arrived, an old open hulled wooden boat with the paint chipping, about 25 feet long was there with a middle aged weather beaten blond headed couple unloading it along with a teenager. They were up to their ankles in blood, unloading Chum Salmon and Artic Char into a giant metal shipping container. Each fish was about three feet long and probably averaged 10-15 pounds. I told him I wanted three Salmon and two Char (or trout as they call them). The cost for about 50 or more pound of uncleaned, can't get much fresher fish: $20.00. That's right, $4.00 a fish. And now the rest of the story: Now I had to clean these big fish. I went back to the apartment and pulled my 4 wheeler up to our storage shed, pulled out a sheet of nylon board that was left there, put it on top of the 4 wheeler and proceeded to clean them. Each fish filled a gallon Ziploc with nothing but meat. Five one gallon Ziploc's full of fresh caught fish. The Char is a light pink meat, mild tasting fish. So Sunday we got together a few friends and bbq'd some of the salmon and breaded and baked some Char. We made a pot of gumbo, sans seafood, (chicken, okra, and sausage, gotta make do in the primitive wilds) and corn bread. We also had a blackberry and blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It's not easy existing here in the wilds you know, but some intrepid souls have to do it.
Last week Cathy had Hope, a friend from New Orleans visit. She stayed with us two days and then the two of them went to Anchorage for wild parties, booze, and most important, fast food. While our visitor was here, Cathy took her down the beach for a ride the first day where they stopped and roasted sausages and made smores over a driftwood fire. That evening Patty joined them and did the tourist thing. They dug a hole in the tundra and about 12 inches down stuck a solid sheet of ice. Hope was tickled by this. The next day I went with them for another ride as the weather cleared a bit. About 6-8 miles outside of town we came across two sets of tracks on the beach. The first were hoof prints, probably caribou or reindeer. Yes they are different; reindeer are smaller and are an import. The second were obviously bear. The prints came out onto the beach from the tundra at the same place. They went about 3-400 yards down the beach and back up onto the tundra at the same place. Obviously the bear doing a little grocery shopping and the caribou was doing its best to give it a no vote. Hope seemed to have a good time and was pleased she didn't get eaten. There is a caribou herd not far from town right now. They are migrating of course. It is hard to see them though as they are up on the tundra and although the 4 wheelers can negotiate this terrain, it is rough going. Also visibility on the tundra is for miles as there is almost no high brush or bushes, so they can see you coming.
The barges have been arriving frequently with supplies for the last month. We get all our fuel in the two to three months the barges are able to get here. The fuel is stored and used all winter. Our power is supplied by diesel generators with an assist by a small wind farm outside of town. We are awaiting a barge arrival with groceries we ordered in June. We spent a little over one thousand dollars on these supplies and hope they last us about a year. The barge comes from Seattle and a lot of what we can get from it is much less expensive than the prices here. I'll talk about prices in another email.
Hope to hear from some of you folks and hope everything is going good there. More later.
Take care.
Carlo
For problems or questions regarding this web contact carlo@samsicles.net
Last updated: 08/29/05