Hi again,
I know I just sent a letter yesterday but I figured I would write again. How about ya'll, I hear from some folks but some of you have been awfully quiet, you still out there? As I just recently wrote to someone, I don't want to be like the guy who breaks out the home movies whenever someone comes over-just a different media. So if you want me to stop just let me know. Ok, so much for the commercial break and me whining, on with the show.
The beautiful and fun time of year has arrived. It is warming up, the fish are moving in, and daylight lasts from around 5AM until past 11PM. Recently I realized that on the shortest days of the year in December, the sun would peek over the tundra behind town, travel a short distance, and then go back down. All this was visible from our back windows. A couple of weeks ago the rays from the sunrise were coming through the side window in the dining room. Now the sun is coming up more towards town reflecting off Patty's dresser mirror as it shines in through the bedroom window. This process will continue until the sun just circles the horizon and we have 24 hours of continuous daylight. We get off every night at 5PM and with the extended daylight we have been outside most nights either riding, or fishing, or working on our machines and equipment-all things we have neglected while the extreme cold was here. Like most Alaskans who have been huddled inside for the last few months, venturing out only on the most necessary of errands, we are now full of energy. Chores and responsibilities just do not seem as important right now. Heck, just two weeks ago the temp was in the minus 20's with the wind chill approaching minus 50. So now it is time to have fun! Yea, winter probably still has something up it's sleeve but it will be a last gasp (I hope, fingers crossed).
I had mentioned in a past letter that I was scheduled to go to a village a couple of weeks ago but we had ice fog for two days that kept the planes grounded. I did not get to go. Someone reminded me later that week that there was a service for an elder that had just passed away and was buried over the weekend. He reminded me we had the requisite two days of bad weather before it cleared and became beautiful out. Makes me think, we have not had ice fog for months before the occurrence or since. Just thought I would mention this.
My boss of course did get out to a village the next week when I was not scheduled, and arrived back at the office on Thursday April first. She said she had heard on the VHF (the communication system in the villages) that there was going to be a power shut down at that village and maybe we should check to make sure they had a way to store their vaccines safely (they need refrigeration). I contacted the village and was told laughingly that this was the power man's April fools joke. That would land you in jail in a big city but we all had a good laugh.
Last week I did get a chance to spend some time at the elementary school doing some TB tests. It was fun working with the kids and I may like this job yet, although the jury is still out right now. I did not realize there were so many kids in town, almost all with big grins on their faces (until I produced the needles of course). Just like the commuters I have written about in the past, parents drop their kids at school in and on all types of conveyances-snowmachines, 4 wheelers, sleds, etc. Also like most people this time of year, a lot of them smell of burned oil. This is from the snowmachine exhaust; they are two cycle machines and burn oil with the fuel. Come to think of it, we smell that way sometimes to.
The temps have been unseasonably warm this week causing the snow to melt then glaze over which creates an extremely slippery surface. When I arrived at school Thursday to read the TB tests, I was doing what is called the Kotzebue Shuffle-taking baby steps without lifting the feet to high to keep from slipping. Just as I finally reached a firm surface, about 100 kids came boiling out the doors, running all over the territory I had just gingerly negotiated. How the HE... can these kids run around on this stuff? All I could do was shake my head and thank god I did not break a leg (or my a..).
As I mentioned, the weather has been unseasonably warm since about Tuesday, going up into the mid to upper 40's some days. Now this is good and bad. While I am looking forward to getting down the beach and warmer weather, there is supposed to be about a month to a month and a half where the temps remain above zero, below or around freezing, and sunny. This is the time of year to get on the snowgo's as some folks refer to them and RIDE! It is also the time of year when the sheefish, (a white meat fish that looks like a cross between a salmon and a tarpon and averages around I guess 10-15 lbs) comes out of the rivers and moves closer to town. Yea, it's the opposite of salmon which goes from salt to fresh. (The sheefish live in both and I am not clear on the whole picture.) Anyway the reports of catches usually start up the river and way out, then move closer to town until eventually you can go no more than a couple of hundred yards out and catch them. With the warm weather though, the snow has melted off a good portion of the sound and although the ice is still many feet thick, it can develop pressure ridges and overflow. (A pressure ridge is when the ice cracks and one piece surges up creating a ridge. Overflow is where water flows through cracks up onto the top of the ice.) We are concerned that the ice may become to unstable when the fishing is getting good. Of course this is good for the medical business as folks will inevitably tempt fate and loose.
Patty and I went out on the ice twice this last week to fish without success. This I mentioned in my last letter. While out there Wednesday a local man rode up with two kids, one boy about four, and a girl about three. They were seated in front of him on his snowmachine facing him. The little girl was asleep but woke up fast as she became aware of the opportunity to fish. I had to feel sorry for the man as he hustled about trying to keep up with the kids. (The little girl even attempted to fall head first into the hole making my heart stop-Eskimo stress test). Darned they were cute. I gotta say that being from the south, we do not realize what it takes to not only outfit but to dress these kids. Hats, long shirts, sweat type shirts, jackets, gloves, glove liners, pants, snow pants, double socks, pack boots..... Just watching him put their gloves and hats back on wore me out. As fast as kids grow and with the cost of clothes here I imagine hand me downs are a big thing.
We did ride across the sound to camp yesterday to the "North Shore" (a term you New Orleaneans are familiar with), a round trip of over 25 miles. We followed the marked trails I have mentioned before we now call the Arctic highway. Patty and I ride double as we still cannot get the used machine we bought to run right, and Cathy rides her machine. We pack our fishing gear and food in plastic bins we bungee to our sled. We carry emergency supplies in a bag on the machine and some in our pockets including my .44 in my jacket pocket. Never know when you might run into a man eating caribou. Hey, those hoofs are sharp (and the meat tasty). Actually I do carry it on me on the off hand chance of harvesting a caribou, or running into a foul tempered moose which is a real possibility (not to mention an insomniac bear). We went to the camp and helped clean up a bit as there was a fire and the dry chemical extinguisher made a heck of a mess. I did notice outside the camp there were a number of fossil bones they had found out on the tundra and I am envious of this. While cleaning Patty and Cathy had to drag outside and shake off a Musk Ox hide. The face had a flattened nose and mustache type whiskers with the skin sporting long black hair. Skinned and lying there I could have sworn they had killed and skinned Bigfoot. (Who knows, maybe they taste good.)
Later in the day Patty and I went out on the sound to fish while Cathy and Aucha went up on the tundra to look for caribou. The reason I did not go with them is due to the warm weather, the snow is very porous and does not support weight, something of which I have in ample supply. Believe me when I tell you the snow is many feet deep in many places. Our snowmachine is a large, heavy, two person machine that is heck to get out when stuck in soft snow. I stuck it myself early in the season when out by myself and it was no fun. The path to the camp is up a ridge and after negotiating it without any trouble, I turned towards the camp. Patty, myself, the machine, and the sled, turned on our side just a pretty as you please. Patty and I just lay there in the snow laughing like loons. Everyone else laughed like loons watching us try to get up while wearing multiple layers of clothes with the snow around us three feet deep and porous. Nothing hurt but our pride. We righted ourselves and the machine and left it right there while we visited.
We fished for about two and a half hours catching only bullheads and an occasional diamond shaped little flounder. The holes we fished had inedible parts of previous caught fish around them so we knew they were recently productive. A man and woman came by who had been fishing about five miles further out. They caught around 25 apiece in about an hour before the fish stopped biting. These are a schooling fish and when you catch them you can really clean up. From where we were fishing and earlier from the camp, we could see a huge pressure ridge in the distance and someone told us there was some overflow out there. On the way back we did cross a couple of large cracks. I am hoping the temps will fall back below freezing soon or the fishing will go out the window until the breakup.
Well today is Easter Sunday and Patty and I took a ride on the 4 wheelers behind town trying to see if we could get onto the beach. Not yet, maybe by the end of the week though. We took it easy the rest of the day as the aging muscles are still sore from the pounding yesterday. We made carrot cake from scratch and there is a marinated pork roast in the rotisserie. Patty is calling as she is sautéing asparagus in a touch of olive oil and dinner is almost ready. Our Easter candy is arrayed on the counter as the bunny made it in last night without ending up on someone's dinner table. Again its tough living in the wilds but someone has to do it right?
Happy Easter!
The Sam's
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Last updated:
08/29/05