Keep the Crazies Out!

I’m so glad that I live in rural Alaska. Sure, we don’t have a theater, mall, McDonalds, Costco, or other major shopping centers, but what we do have is far better. We have subsistence in our backyards: a river, ocean, and tundra that fills our freezers each year. We also have protection from crazies that live in bigger cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks because we are cut off from highways and freeways. The only way to get to Unalakleet is by airplanes or boats in the summer. In the winter people from surrounding villages drive their snow-machines between villages. I highly doubt crazy people from big cities are going to drive snow-machines up to my town to commit murder.

Besboro Island Sunset

I remember living in Anchorage when my sons were toddlers and I would not let them play out in my backyard without watching them like hawks. In Unalakleet our kids play out freely all the time because we don’t have to worry about strangers kidnapping our kids nor do we have to worry about serial killers or drive-by shootings.

Reading the news just depresses me nowadays. Every single day, there are shootings and stabbings in Anchorage. I don’t know if the increase in crime rates is connected to the legalization of marijuana or the introduction of synthetic marijuana, but it really scares me. People are dying left and right and there just seems to be no end to all this crime.

The link below is a news article from the Alaska Dispatch that talks about the jump in crime rates in Anchorage. In the article, it states that there were 11 shootings just in the month of January and nearly half of them were drug related.

http://www.adn.com/article/20150129/spike-violent-crime-be-met-police-shakedowns

I keep reading about prison deaths and people dying from synthetic marijuana. Many of the stories in the newspaper seem so surreal. I’m hoping and praying that synthetic marijuana stays out of my town. I don’t want to worry about my relatives or friends losing their lives to drugs that should not be here.

My town is far from perfect. People bring in alcohol and marijuana, but they keep things civil; for the most part. The fact that everybody knows everybody keeps people in line. In bigger cities, individuals can get away with murder because they are not known, but in villages a killer will be found right away and prosecuted. They can be identified by witnesses or neighbors. On top of that, the whole village knows the individuals who are a bit kooky so it narrows down the suspects.

For now, I am grateful to live in a small town, secluded from big cities. It may be more expensive to live here, but our future generations have the luxury of safety and subsistence. I’d like to keep it that way.

Modern Ice Fishing

On Sunday, my family and I took a ride upriver. We didn’t take a snow-machine or four-wheeler like most people would. Because the river ice was frozen over and there was no over-flow, we decided to take the Jeep up. I know, it sounds a bit scary, but it’s a pretty common thing to do around here in the winter. With the temps being so low for weeks now, the river is frozen solid.

It was a beautiful day to go upriver. The temperature was about 24 degrees Fahrenheit and there was no wind to speak of, which says a lot because we have been having windy days almost everyday this winter. Everybody and their grandmas were upriver fishing. People drove up by snow-machine, dog team, four-wheelers, trucks, and SUVs. On our way up, one local man was towing several tall logs behind his Ford F-150.

Cassidy ice fishing for her first time

My husband drove my mom, niece, daughter, and I upriver in our Jeep. It was nice to go upriver and stay warm. I still bundled up because we were planning on jigging for trout. If we hadn't taken the Jeep, I wouldn't have been able to bring my six-month old daughter with us. I would worry that she would get too cold and sick; plus a baby on a snow-machine just isn't a great idea overall.

Ayuu trying her best to catch some trout

 We forgot to bring bait so we didn't have any luck catching trout. I told Ayuu that we would go upriver again next weekend, but would bring bait so we could catch. She and I are both avid fisher-women. She caught her first cohos this summer and she is hooked on fishing! :) My mom hasn't been upriver in years so she was excited to tag along. Although we didn't catch any fish, we all enjoyed the outing. My mom said if anyone asks what we caught to say, "fresh air". As long as we didn't catch a cold, all is well.

My beautiful mother enjoying the great outdoors

I Choose Not to Vaccinate

I’m part of this secret Facebook group, which consists of mothers around the world who had babies in August of 2015. Anyways, we discuss all kinds of things such as when our babies say their first word, their first time sitting up unassisted, their first time rolling over, rants about family members, questions about vaccines, whether or not our babies sleep through the night, how much breast milk our little ones eat, how much breast milk we pump, when we or our babies get sick, and so forth.

Being part of this secret group makes me realize how lucky I am that my baby, Cassidy is so healthy. I’m always reading about babies getting sick because he/she got shots that day or came home sick from daycare. Coming from rural Alaska, I don’t really have to worry about my baby coming home sick from daycare because our town doesn’t have a daycare center.

I made the decision to not vaccinate my baby because I noticed how sick my boys would get each time they were vaccinated: Brian especially. I looked over his health records and noticed that he got sick up to 16 times in his first year. He had upper respiratory infections, ear infections, was always wheezing, runny noses, fevers, vomiting, etc. It seemed that once he finished his antibiotics, he got sick all over again. Within the same month of getting his vaccines (2, 4, 6 month) he would get an upper respiratory infection. It was tiresome and frustrating because I couldn’t figure out why he kept getting sick. Not only did he have respiratory issues, but he also had skin problems (eczema and diaper rashes) and digestion issues (chronic constipation).

I admit I was young and naïve when I had my first two boys. I received pain medications during my labors without reading up on potential side effects they might have on them. I let my boys get vaccinated without reading the ingredients in each vaccine. I just went with what the health “professionals” said to do. They were so pushy about me getting the flu shot while I was pregnant. They were pushy about giving my boys vaccines too. They handed me papers with information about each disease the vaccines protected against, but these papers did not disclose serious side effects or potentially lifelong problems they would cause them.

It didn’t take more than a day before my boys would get sick after getting their seven-in-one-day vaccines at 2, 4, and 6 months of age. They would always get fevers, become increasingly fussy, get runny noses, wheeze, lose their appetites, and sometimes vomit.

My daughter, who is now 6 months old, has not had the same experiences as her brothers. Even when I had strep throat, she did not get sick. There was a day when her nose was runny and I thought she was getting sick, but by the next day she was perfectly healthy all over again. This last week, everyone in the house, but her caught a bad cold. The only time she had a low fever was when her first teeth were coming in, but she responded well to Tylenol. I strongly believe that my choice in not vaccinating her plays a huge role in her not getting sick. She is a happy, healthy, amazing baby girl. If I could go back in time with the knowledge I have now, I would in a heartbeat. I would protect my sons the same way I am protecting their baby sister. 

If my choice offends you, I urge you to look up the CDC website and read what they put in each vaccine. You’d be surprised to see and maybe, just maybe you would change your mind about vaccines as well. 

Baby Cassidy as healthy as can be <3

Excuse Me While I Hibernate

Wintertime is really hard for me. I don't know about you, but this cold weather really bogs me down. If it's not 10 degrees out, it's blowing 40 mph. Also, there isn't enough snow to really do any kind of normal winter activities like sledding and snow-machining. Our ocean is not frozen over. Our tundra is brown and bumpy. The kids want to stay inside and play video games. Times sure are changing.

I really cannot wait until summer. At least then I can go out boating, fishing, berry picking, and take in some Vitamin D. I've been feeling really tired lately. I wonder if it's the lack of sunlight.

A typical winter day for me consists of: waking up at 6:40 am, expressing milk for the baby, getting ready, getting baby ready, packing her diaper bag, dropping off baby to the sitter's, get to work, get off work, check mail, pick up groceries if we need any, go home, cook, wash dishes, express milk, eat dinner, drop off Keane to basketball practice, go home, have a snack, express milk, put baby to bed, watch Gilmore Girls, go to sleep. If I have any extra time I bake. Some days, it feels like there is not enough time in the day to get things done. Maybe I need two of me. Then my house would be extra clean! :)

On Sunday, I actually took a snow-machine ride upriver with my husband. This was my first ride of the winter so I was extra sore for the next two days. Anyways, we took a ride to Chirosky and just to the side of the trail there was a dead moose caught in an old snare. It was really sad to see such a large animal caught in a snare: left to die a slow, painful death. Who leaves snares and doesn't check on them? It's downright disrespectful and that moose is most likely going to go to waste: a cow moose at that. Just think that cow could have had offspring and provided our locals with meat in the years to come. 

On a happier note, it's caribou hunting season. Hopefully we get some caribou. Freezer could use some filling up on healthy meat. I'm tired of cow and pig. Anyways, it's about time to head to bed. I have work in the a.m. More another time.

50 Horse-Power Motors

When I start to feel overwhelmed by how stressful life can be, I think about how much harder my grandma had it when she was growing up. While we have the luxury of electricity, running water, internet, satellite tv, heat, higher education, 50 horse-power motors, boats, cars, trucks, four-wheelers, and good-paying job opportunities, we often forget to show gratitude for how good we have it.

I remember my grandma telling me about how she used to have to walk upriver in the winter, towing a sled behind her, to haul large ice chunks that would be thawed out for fresh water for her family. When they would go out to partake in subsistence activities in the summer, they wouldn't go out for just a few hours like we do now. Instead they would spend the whole summer at Egavik (12 miles north of Unalakleet) gathering berries and fish that would last them the whole year.

Lomen's Egavik Store, storage and living quarters about to fall into the Norton Sound-Photo taken summer 2015

Some families were lucky enough to have 9-horse-power motors, while others had to pull their boats upriver. As you can imagine, it took all day just to get to the fishing holes. Now, we can use our fast, high-tech boats to get upriver in an hour or less so we can fish for just a few hours and get home in time to cook dinner. 

Kids these days don't know the struggle and would rather stay home and play video games and check their Facebook instead of doing subsistence with their families. My grandma's generation didn't have the option to not do subsistence activities. It really was a way of life: the ONLY way of life. They didn't have AC shelves stocked with all the western foods that we do now. They relied on salmon, caribou, moose, seal, various birds, and other local animals to fulfill their nutritional needs. I asked my grandma what she did for fun as a kid. She said they didn't have time to play. All her time was spent helping out around the house and doing subsistence activities with her family.

My grandma's generation didn't have the healthcare that we have today. They didn't get sent to bigger cities to deliver their babies. Many women in her day delivered babies in their own homes. In my grandma's case, she delivered one of her sons all by herself, when my grandpa ran to get help and didn't return in time. Women endured the pain that came with childbirth naturally. Epidurals, IV drugs, and labor inductions were not an option to women back then. Now, women are so quick to opt for labor pain drugs without even reading up on the negative side effects. This may be a reason for all the new disorders that keep showing up (ADHD, autism, etc). 

My grandma didn't get to finish high school because there wasn't a local high school in our village. Her family didn't have the money to send her to boarding school so she stayed behind and helped her parents with subsistence. She may only have an 8th grade education, but she is one of the smartest and hardest working women I know. 

I have to remind myself that my life is so easy compared to my grandma's and her generations and the generations before her. I have to remember to be grateful for how simple my life is. My washer, dryer, heat, electricity, television that records all the episodes of Gilmore Girls and Seahawks games, my job, antibiotics, Amazon, my truck, my Jeep, running water, daily airplanes that deliver mail and bring us to bigger cities, our regional clinic, health aides, our physician, two well-stocked grocery stores, our 50-horse-powered Lund, the refrigerator, the internet, and the list goes on. Next time I feel overwhelmed about how hard life is, I will remind myself that my life today doesn't even come close to what my grandmother went through.

Furnace problems!

My family and I came back to Unalakleet only to find that our house froze. Not sure how or why, but the house thermostat read 40 degrees. It doesn’t help that it’s January and it’s freezing outside and gusting 22 mph outside. Today it’s a little warmer; 23 degrees Fahrenheit. My husband is working on getting the furnace fired back up. I really hope his “Mr. Fix-it” powers work because I’d like to move back into my own home. I hate living out of my luggage. We stayed at my in-laws last night. They are traveling down states, so we had the house to ourselves.

Other than a freezing house, everything else is fine. We got our grocery shopping done and everything shipped home. I brought some fried chicken and broccoli salad home from Anchorage, so it was a lazy dinner night.

The city water is bad again so people have been going up, left and right, to our house to get fresh well water. That is how we found out our house froze. Reuben’s friend called while he was getting water. He told Reuben that the garage was freezing and so was the house. He started a fire in the garage, which was nice. I just wish we knew what was wrong with the furnace. Wish us luck on getting heat back! 

My only favorite thing about winter... The beauty of Mother Nature

Our world was shaken!

Two nights ago, January 24th at 1:34 am Southcentral Alaska experienced a pretty tough quake. My husband, daughter and I were in Anchorage for the weekend getting some grocery shopping done. We were all sleeping at Fairfield Inn when the quake started. Half-asleep, I thought I was at home because when it's windy (and Unalakleet is windy all too often) our house shakes. I opened my eyes and realized we were not at home, but in a hotel in Anchorage. The whole hotel was swaying side-to-side, like it was a tree being blown around by 60 mile-an-hour winds. It felt like the hotel could uplift from it's foundation and crumble to the ground. I didn't know how to react because I've never experienced an earthquake of that magnitude. My husband and baby slept right through it! I couldn't believe it. Maybe they thought they were being rocked to sleep and it was soothing. The quake lasted about 45 seconds.

After the quake stopped, I heard car alarms going off outside. Luckily there was no damage to our hotel room. It just didn't feel real. I was glad we were only on the second floor of the hotel. I can just imagine people up on the 15th floor freaking out and wanting to rush downstairs. The only damage I've heard about so far was a road in the Kenai area. The news stated that 4,800 homes were without power in the Kenai Peninsula. If I never have to experience another earthquake, that would be fine by me. Thank God nobody was hurt!

Native Lifestyle While Pregnant

Being pregnant is tough when you are Alaska Native. You are told by so many people not to do this and not to do that. In the winter, people kept telling me, "You shouldn't be riding a snowmachine. You might crash and have a miscarriage." In the summer, when my family and I went boating and fishing, people kept telling me I might go into labor upriver. I was told not to go out the ocean to check the crab pot because it was too rough. I was told not to go on long road trips because I might get caught in traffic and have my baby in the car. 

I didn't heed what others said. Instead, I went ahead and went boating, fishing, checking the crab pot, and took long car rides. I knew my body. I had two kids before this pregnancy so I threw out all those suggestions and went with what my body told me. I didn't have any pregnancy complications besides nausea and fatigue early on. I wasn't going to let my pregnancy stop me from living the traditional lifestyle. 

I was boating, fishing, and berry picking until I was 8 1/2 months pregnant.  

Fishing at main river by my in-law's cabin

Because we live in rural Alaska, our healthcare is limited to health aides and one physician. We aren't given the option to give birth in our hometown in case of emergencies. Pregnant women from our region are sent via airplane to Nome a month prior to their due dates because that is the only way to and from most rural Alaskan villages (besides snowmachine in winter time). I told our clinic I was not going to waste a month of my summer away from home when I can be out in the country and filling our freezer with fish and berries. We decided that we would fly into Anchorage, rather than Nome, to deliver our baby, but we wouldn't leave until the week before her due date. Turns out we didn't make a bad decision. 

Our baby doll 7 lbs 13 oz, 21 in long

Cassidy was born August 5th at 2:54 am. She turned out perfectly fine, regardless of the fact that I went snowmachining, boating, road tripping, and staying in my village longer than suggested. 

Cassidy at 5 months old

We love fishing!

Summer is my favorite time of the year. Not only is it warmer, but it's time to come out of hibernation. I'm not talking about the bears. I'm talking about me! I spend a lot of time indoors in the wintertime, because I get cold so easily. Sure it's nice to breath fresh, crisp, cold air, but I like to go out without having to throw on my whole closet of winter clothes.

I love summer time because I get to go out boating again and fishing and berry picking. If I could I would fish all day everyday.

My favorite kind of fish: Silver Salmon!

My husband cutting some salmon for fillets

My husband gets tired after a couple hours of fishing so I'm forced to go home. Plus putting away fish so they don't spoil takes a couple hours in itself. You gotta gut, fillet, clean, and vacuum-pack fish that you will cook throughout the year. If you're going to can fish, that's another long process. For that you might put your fish on ice overnight and cut them early morning.

Our first batch of pink salmon drying on the fish rack

I love the feeling of the first tug on my fishing pole line. I try to guess what kind of salmon is at the end of the line when reeling it in. Silvers and chum (dog salmon) are sometimes hard to distinguish between. They are about the same size, but many locals are not big on chum. Chum is only good for dried fish or dog food. Silvers, on the other hand, are delicious any way you prepare them (strips, fried, baked, canned, half-dried and half boiled).

My family is good at filling our freezer. So much delicious looking silvers.

My boys, Keane (9) and Brian (7) enjoy fishing. Two summers ago, Keane caught his first of many silvers. He was really quiet about it so my husband and I didn't even know he had something on his line. We were fishing from the boat and we all had our lines out. I looked over at Keane and noticed his fishing pole was drooped over and he was using all his might to reel in whatever was at the end of his line. I quickly reeled in my line so I could grab the dipnet. I was so excited to see what kind of fish he had. 

This would be his very first silver! Keane kept reeling and at one point the silver tugged so hard that Keane almost flew out of the side of the boat. This didn't scare him. I think he was too excited to think about anything other than getting that fish into the boat. Finally he got the fish close enough for me to collect it with the dipnet. 

When we got the fish in the boat, Keane let out a big sigh and smiled really hard. Right away he asked, "Mom is that a silver?!?" He knew how much I loved silvers so I could tell he was proud of himself. I told him, "Yes! Way to go! Your very first silver!" I had him pose with his silver and he quickly went back to fishing. That day he caught two more silvers! Fishing for silvers is not an easy task for a 50 lb 7-year-old so I was pretty proud. I think he became addicted to fishing like his mom. That's something to be proud of.

I Remember When...

I remember when I was a young girl: about 10 or 11, I went out berry picking with my aunt Jolene, sister Katie, and cousins Melanie, Adam, and Kyle. We were at VOR and everyone was spread apart on the tundra. I picked for a good hour or so, then got bored so I went to sit in the back of the truck to wait. My aunt can spend all day on the tundra. As a kid, berry picking was fun... for about an hour. Anything longer was a chore. My aunt Jolene motivated us to fill our buckets by saying the first to fill their bucket would get a dollar or a can of soda. This worked for awhile. Other times we only liked ot follow berry picking because my grandma always packed the good snacks: snacks we didn't get on a daily basis. She always told us we were going on a picnic. "Picnic" meant berry picking and then taking a break to sit on the tundra with pilot crackers and cheese, fish strips, candy, soda, chips, and other goodies.

Anyways, back to this berry picking trip. My cousins Adam and Kyle were already sitting in the back of my gram's blue, F-150 pick-up. All three of us were talking and throwing berries at one another. The truck was parked next to a long row of bushes. We stopped talking when we heard something in the bushes. It wasn't windy out so we knew there had to be an animal nearby. My cousins and I looked in the direction where we heard the noise and to our surprise there was a big brown bear. We all freaked out and started yelling for my aunt to let her know about the bear.

My aunt and cousin Melanie came running back to the truck. When they got in, Jolene honked the horn over and over to get Katie's attention. Katie was picking near the bushes that the bear was hanging around. When we got Katie's attention, she started running back to the truck. I'm not sure if the bear noticed her or not, but as she was running to the truck she tripped and spilled her berry bucket. I can just imagine her pulse racing and her heart thumping with the bear so close to her. I wonder if she was more worried about her hard-earned, spilled berries. Anyways, we all got away unharmed. We didn't stop berry picking. Instead, my aunt took us to another one of her favorite berry-picking spots. I love that we grew up with traditional values such as subsistence and respect for others and the land.

Mouth-watering blueberries! Not the store-bought flavorless blueberries. These are the real deal!

It's not uncommon to bump into brown bears in the summer, especially when berry picking. My family and I live 4 miles on the outskirts of Unalakleet. This summer we had a mother brown bear and her two cubs visiting our backyard several times. Another couple of brown bears were spotted in the vacinity as well. I don't worry too much about them because our house is surrounded by heavy equipment and we don't leave food lying around. Also, my husband is pretty protective and has several rifles ready in case bears came too close.

Brown bear family that was spotted around our house this summer

Unalakleet...small town, but big living!

This is my town. It may be small, but it's all I know. In a town of 750 people, everyone knows everyone's business (who's pregnant, who's the dad of who, who recently got booze off of Everts, etc etc etc). Much of the town is related to one another. Everyone waves "Hi" to one another as they pass by so when us villagers go into the "big city" (Anchorage), we might catch ourselves accidentally waving to strangers that drive past us and give us funny looks like "do I know you?"

There are no time constraints. There is no traffic so we can get to work in a matter of minutes. Our kids can play outdoors anywhere in town without parents having to worry about them getting kidnapped. Everyone in town looks out for each others' kids.

Posing in front of Whaleback

I'm not saying life is perfect in the village. We pay the price... literally. Everything is so expensive. Last year a gallon of gas was $6.62. A gallon of milk costs about $13. A dozen eggs costs $5. Cereal costs between $6-$10 a box. Life isn't perfect, but it's a lifestyle that I've become accustomed to.

There is so much beauty to my town. We live right next to the ocean so we have great views of sunsets and the nearby island, Besboro.

Besboro Island enveloped by a beautiful sunset :)

Local smokehouse

We can walk out our front door and go berry picking for blueberries, salmonberries, cranberries, and blackberries.

Mmm!!! We are so blessed to have fresh fruit right out our front door!

Keane is a champ berry picker!

To the east and west of our village we have an abundance in seafood (salmon, trout, crab, beluga, and seal).

My son Keane (age 9) is such a good provider. One of his many silvers he caught last summer.

Our providers (husband) take their snowmachines up north to fill our freezers with caribou in the springtime. In the fall, many of us go out boating or drive up the road to look for bull moose. Much of our freezer space is filled with food that we subsist for locally. It's not only a matter of saving money, but it's a way of life.

Unalakleet is my hometown. It's where I grew up and it's where I will raise my kids and where they will raise their kids and so on.