Somethings really bake your noodle

This is one of them.  This video is of the ice floes going by as the mighty Yukon starts to freeze.  By the end of the week, the surface will be frozen over though it will take a few more weeks to freeze deep enough to drive on.

Temperatures have fallen below freezing and are not likely to rise above that mark for 5-6 months.  There's a light dusting of snow and it will be built upon layer by layer until the ground disappears until sometime in April or early May. 

Island Time

[Note: this was originally written on the 11th -Jack]

Three weeks into the bush, I’m beginning to get a grasp of what it means to me.  Everyone harps on the isolation, but honestly for me that was not it.  It’s true that we are 310 air miles and a $500 round trip ticket from shopping in Fairbanks, but really that isn’t a whole lot different than being 70 miles and $25 in gas from Tulsa when we were dead broke.  No, the big difference is how the lack of roads affects people’s mentalities.  There’s a distinct lack of urgency here, which I think is a bit of a sanity survival trait.  There’s no use in getting worked up about a significant issue when you can’t deal with it immediately. 

A boiler goes out in rural Oklahoma and you bring in a repairman from a nearby city and odds are they have the parts you need on their truck and they fix the issue the same day or worst case, order parts and come back to finish the job within a few days.  Here, you have to fly in the repairmen and they are constrained to only humping in about 50 lbs of tools and spares because their other checked bag and carry on have to carry their clothes, bedding and food in case they get stranded by the weather.  If they need parts, then they have to schedule those in which can take anywhere from a day (if you are extremely lucky and Fairbanks or Anchorage has the part in stock and there’s time/space available to fit it on the next cargo flight) to potentially months if it has to come in on a barge.  Once the parts get in, you then call the repairman back in when they can fit it in their schedule (remember because of the travel they are typically only able to service, at best, one call a day), and they’ll come back out, weather permitting. 

It took some getting used to, but I am starting to get adjusted to that “manana” mentality.  Which is one of the reasons why this blog entry is about 2.5 weeks later than I intended.  With very spotty internet, “tomorrow” always seemed like a better day to work on OKintheAK.

Anyway, let’s condense the last three weeks into the Reader’s Digest form:

WEEK 1:  I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore Toto. 

Met the really awesome people of Nulato, which was the saving grace because nothing else was going our way. 

1. We forgot the video camera in the car at Fairbanks, but that wasn’t a huge issue because it was rainy and dank here all week.  Seriously, this place can make Portland look like a desert, but all’s forgiven when the sun shines here because it is truly glorious.  

2. We arrived to a home with no heat, hot water and only one bed for 4 people.  On the bright side, an electric space heater form the school combined with the home’s decent insulation kept the inside temp bearable and neighbors were gracious enough to lend us pans to heat water in. 

3.  Only 7 of 35 totes had arrived.  Unfortunately none of the seven had things we immediately needed like bedding or food.  Again, our neighbors came to the rescue, lending us food and other critical items.

4.  The classroom was a disaster.  The former teacher wasn’t known for his organizational skills. Additionally, key curriculum materials were AWOL as were basic classroom supplies.  We decided to compensate by printing stuff from the net only to be foiled by the spotty internet connection and lack of working printer/copier in the school.

5.  All three girls were going through some serious adjustment shock.  Fortunately, we were too broke to buy tickets back to Fairbanks, much less buy gas for the trip back down the Alaska Highway.  So like the ancient settlers who would burn their ships upon reaching the shores of their new homes, we were committed.  Also very fortunately for me, none of the three females in the household decided to murder me even though I, being the sensation-seeker I am, was totally obnoxious with my enrapturement with the new locale.

WEEK 2:  Well, on second thought…

The week picked up with desperately needed totes and airfreight finally rolling in.  Ellie’s morale was boosted by the arrival of a specialist from the District Office sent to help her cope with the daunting task of teaching to strict standards without the mandated curriculum.  Aurora was feeling better because she was starting to get into the groove of kindergarten and a new school and Kai was thrilled because two of the freshly arrived totes contained her toys.  For me however, the new had worn off and I was worried by my lack of a job and the fact that I was starting to go through serious internet withdrawal.  Plus, with the arrival of our first paycheck, we mail ordered some desperately needed things, and like any self-respecting adult afflicted with ADHD, I begin to gnash my teeth as “2^nd day delivery” was parsed into Bush format as “Sometime in the next 5 to 15 days, maybe.”   On the plus side by the end of the week, I at least knew that I had a job.

WEEK 3:  Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

The week began with a nice 5 day Labor Day weekend where we got some time to at least partially square the house away as well as attend our first potlatch where I discovered that while I like the berry version of Eskimo Ice Cream, I’m not a huge fan of the fish version.  I also confirmed that I still don’t like caviar, no matter how fresh or well-prepared it is.  And trust me it was well-prepared, the Athabascans sure can fix up a mean fish or moose dish. 

The kids in our class are doing awesome and are doing a great job adjusting to our teaching styles.  One of the things the elders of the community have touched upon is how they really wished the youngest generation would be a little more respectful and courteous and that desire really meshes well with Ellie and my southern upbringing.  The elders are really getting a kick out of seeing the Kindergartners and 1^st graders regularly saying please and thank you. 

Week 4: On the horizon

Going into this week, we’re feeling good.  Kai starts Headstart tomorrow, and that will be a minor change as I will adjust my work hours to accommodate Headstart’s slightly later starting time.  The ever-dwindling protein supply in our fridge/pantry was replenished by a delivery from Omaha Steaks (which if you don’t actually order the steaks has very competitive prices for meat delivered to the Bush) that arrived this afternoon.  Also arriving today was the last part of an Amazon.com order that got us our mop plus shampoo and conditioner.  The shopping list for Fairbanks grows ever onward, but with only 2.5 weeks until both Ellie and I travel there on district business (and therefore their dime), I think we’re actually sitting pretty.

With a little luck, someone will travel in from the District Office this week with our video camera.  If so, I’ll post up the trip vids asap, if not, well there’s always tomorrow.             

We are: OK in the AK

Just a quick placeholder to let everyone know that we are safely in Nulato.  In the last second rush to get baggage and air cargo out of the car at Fairbanks, I inadvertently left our vid cam in the car so no video for now.  Fortunately though, we have a friend with the school district that is flying in next week and she can get into where our car is parked at Fairbanks, so I'll get some video up of the trip up and then here in Nulato.

Departure T -5

Well we must be nearing the end of this process because we're shipping the shelves that stuff used to be on.  We've got at most 3 totes of stuff that can ship after us plus the stuff that will be riding in the car with us to Fairbanks.

Other milestones we've achieved are finally getting ahold of utilities to get the phone and water scheduled for disconnect and purchasing The Milepost which is among other things is an in-depth guide to the Alaska highway.  Ellie has also got the dead tree version of her contract mailed back and has taken her pre-employment physical.  also, earlier this afternoon Ellie was able to get ahold of the school custodian and make arrangements to begin transferring totes from the Nulato post office to our duplex.  So far we've shipped out 39 parcels and and 13 of them have arrived with another third arriving in the next two weeks.  With luck a big chunk of the last third will arrive before the 20th so we'll only have approximately 5 totes arriving after us.  

The house is also getting emptier and emptier as junk is trashed and other things moved to long term storage.  Tomorrow morning, there will be another major improvement as the a room and a half of stuff goes to our final garage sale this Fri and Saturday.  Tomorrow will also see our car being dropped off for a day visit to the mechanic so he can mount the block and oil pan heater.  Trying to decide if I will have him mount the battery heater or not.  It will only take him like five minutes but that's $5 on an already tight budget, but on the other hand, we're shaving the deadline so close, it just might be worth the money.

This weeks challenges include: my mother being air'evaced to Faytteville with  Broken heart Syndrome, Ellie catching a nasty virus last evening and me recovering from what appears to be a third degree burn on my chest from where I was foolishly melting holes, for zip ties, in a plastic tote bare chested and managed to get molten plastic on myself.  Silly me, I never thought that the wound might have stopped hurting because I burned it so badly, so I never took care of it until I noticed the two days ago that it was infected.  As for working with molten plastic bare chested, yes it was stupid, but it does illustrate the biggest hindrance we've had on this move.  We do not have electricity, or rather we do not have electricity from the grid.  Instead we make do with a 4 kw gas generator which can not handle our homes central AC unit.  It's not all bad as it can handle two window units which allows us to cool the bedrooms, but the rest of the house is usually in the high 90's, and as I type this at 5:30 pm the living room thermometer is showing a room temp of 102 degrees.    

Today's chores are more packing, booking the tickets for the girls and myself that will get us from Fairbanks to Nulato and  filling out the enrollment paperwork to get Kailani into head start at Nulato.  if we're really lucky, we'll also be able to squeeze in a phone call to district headquarters to beg them to allow us to have some items temporarily delivered to the district warehouse as for some reason Wal-mart will ship directly to a Fairbanks address but will not ship it to the Fairbanks Wal-mart.  go figure.

Random appeals to my readers: We still need good homes for our two dogs, Miss and Chris.  We also invite you to come out to our garage sale from 8:30 to 6:30 tomorrow and Saturday at the Lowery Freewill Baptist Church and last but not least, since I will be hunting Moose and Caribou to provide for my family up there, I really need a decent bolt action .308 or higher calibre rifle.  If anyone has one and is willing to accept a post-dated check for when we first get paid at the end of September, drop me a message on facebook.

The March of the Totes Continues

A picture of the totes that went out at the end of last week.  Today was a mostly down-time day as we took the kids for a promised visit to the water park at Muskogee as a final part of the girls' birthday presents. 

And despite doing fairly decent on our yard sale over the weekend, we still have a ton of stuff to deal with.  I think we'll be squeezing in another yard sale this weekend and we have another half dozen totes going out tomorrow with more to follow on Wednesday and Thursday.  This week will be the last week we can ship stuff out with any hope of it beating us to Nulato.  Or that's the theory anyway.  Of the dozen plus packages we shipped out three weeks ago, we have had no update on their tracking since 12 days ago when they left Seattle.  The estimated delivery time is supposed to be this Wednesday.  We'll see.  

Inception: T +19 days

21 days ago my wife Ellie interviewed with the Yukon-Koyukuk School District in Alaska for a teaching position at the Andrew K. Demoski School in Nulato, Alaska. She interviewed, but we really didn't expect anything to come of it, so imagine our surprise, two days later when we returned from a field trip with our eldest daughter to discover an email and phone message offering her the position. With the level of relief that only comes with deliverance from a truly desperate situation, she accepted. I probably should have created this blog at that point rather than 19 days later, but there was a bit of a rub...

For those who've never tried to MapQuest or Google Maps to figure out how to get to Nulato, let me save you a step.  To borrow one of my dad's favorite sayings, "you can't get there from here." Or more correctly, you can't drive to there from here, well unless you're willing to both wait for the Yukon to freeze solid and then cast yourself as an Ice Road trucker for the ~400 miles between Fairbanks and Nulato. Unfortunately, the Yukon doesn't freeze solid till late September or early October and school starts in August. So obviously U-Haul was out. If it gets in to Nulato, it arrives via river barge or airplane. You can charter the barge or plane yourself, or you can simply mail stuff via the Post Office; however, the transit time is 3-4 weeks and the packages must weigh no more than 70 pounds and have combined height and length dimensions of no more than 108 inches.

Thus what was supposed to be 5 weeks to take our time packing up and getting things squared away, instead turned into a 2 week frenzy of separating our material possessions into two categories. Category A was things from our house that we knew we would need to be waiting for us in Nulato when we arrived and would fit within the shipping constraints. Category B was everything else. 

Category B was split into four sub groups: stuff that could arrive after us, stuff to be sold, stuff to be given away or discarded and finally, sentimental stuff that would go to long term storage. 

Now, 19 days later, we've got (almost) all of Category A on the way and are moving on to Category B. As our pace goes from frenzied to hurried, I wanted to take the time to set up this blog so that friends and family could follow along vicariously.  

Looking forward, we have just over two weeks till departure. Tomorrow, we'll be mailing out half a dozen large Rubbermaid totes containing several hundred pounds of stuff we'll not need until we've had a few days to get settled into the new place. The old hands in the AK teaching profession tell you to bring what makes you happy to help deal with the long winters. The totes going up tomorrow are full of various happy things for the whole family. After that, all we'll have left to mail is a few items that have to be broken down a bit to comply with the Post Office's size/weight restrictions.

Ellie's District is hubbed out of Fairbanks, so at least one of us will be back into there every 6 weeks or so. Renting a car in Fairbanks isn't cheap, so we've decided to make the 3700 mile drive up there. It's an approximately week long drive and we don't want to subject our kids to that, so my wife and I will make it and use the time as an ad-hoc couple's retreat. Before we do that though we have to get the car ready. I've ordered engine block, battery and oil pan heaters and am waiting for them to arrive before a day trip to the mechanic.  

We also need to get a spare tire. For some idiotic reason Hyundai decided that 1 free use per year of Road Side Assistance is equivalent to a spare tire and jack. Obviously, the brilliant strategist who came up with this idea has never lived in rural OK, much less the wilds of Canada or Alaska. So, some time this week, I've got to hit a salvage yard and then a tire shop to correct their stupidity.  

Last but not least, we need to finish sorting through both our house and mini-storage. We've got a garage sale for Friday and Saturday, but I suspect we'll need another one the following week to finish it all off.


It's all coming together, but man it's going to be close.