August 12, End of Our Second Week: We May Have a Place! See end of post.

Yea, Kelli and Jared and Brady and Faithanne and Henry called me today, on speakerphone!  It’s so good to hear all of their voices, all together on Jenny Ave.  Henry pipes up occasionally:  he loves to join in, always ready to join the conversation.  Brady and Faithanne are down to pick up the Volvo, which they bought from us, another easy piece of our move to Alaska.  Faithanne starts her new job on Monday, at a small firm in Berkeley.  They have hired her to help them grow their business.  It’s good to have new challenges!

It’s so nice to be on one place for awhile, not getting up and packing to go to the next place.  We were at FFF for several days, but it, well, lacked something.   This place, A Place to Stay, is in a great location, on the end of a street, only blocks away from the grocery store and post office, and five minutes from Kathy’s work.  It’s really well-equipped, too. Click on the link for pictures.  See the link to the Fireweed Lodge, where we also stayed, and had dinner last night. 

Kathy took the car today, for the first time.  She had to visit Hydaburg, 50 miles to the south.  She is settling in to her new position.  The SEARHC newsletter came out today, and had welcome introduction for her. 

The forest is very dense on Prince of Wales Island.  Yellow Cedar is the key tree, as far as logging goes, and makes up a big component.  Western Hemlock is the next most common tree.  Western Redcedar is another major tree.  Both of the later range down into California, and into the Rockies in Montana, and I’m familiar with them.  Yellow Cedar’s range begins in the south in Washington, does not extend into Montana.  Mountain Hemlock also grows in the forest here.  Lodgepole Pine is a forest component too, and is known as the major forest tree in Yellowstone, and extends north up the Rockies.

I found an email list that will alert me when high Aurora Borealis activity is predicted, and signed up.  It should be spectacular up at this latitude.  Speaking of latitude, you know you are way, way up north when all of the satellite TV dishes are pointed virtually parallel with the ground!  I thought the first several I saw were broken, then realized they are all this way.  It’s still strange to see.

We bought our Alaska-mobile one month ago today, and it now has 3,660 miles on it, not too surprisingly.  We left San Diego three weeks ago yesterday, seems like it was at least six weeks ago!

We may have found a place to stay!  It’s a newer duplex, not too big, not too small, with a little fenced yard, and accepts pets!  It just became available, so we have a great chance to get it.  We’ll have to wait until the end of the month to move in, but that will be a minor inconvenience to get something this nice.  Stay tuned! 

So nice to be staying in one place for a week!

Thursday, August 11, my 59^th birthday!  I’ve had birthday celebrations in Scottsdale AZ, Glacier National Park in Montana, while I worked there the summer of 1975, in Grand Tetons National Park when most of the West Coast Wescotts were on a Rocky Mountain vacation in 1992, Zion National Park in 1998 with Brady and Faithanne, Coronado in 2002 at Kelli’s awesome wedding, my 50^th, and now in Alaska, my last one as a 50-something.  Maybe we can arrange to celebrate my 60^th birthday in northern Canada somewhere. 

Kathy took me to a scrumptious dinner at the Fireweed Lodge tonight for my birthday.  My halibut was delicious, as was the peach pie.  She had filet mignon and pecan pie, wish was also delicious.  During dinner, other diners spotted two black bears across the Klawock River, making for my first look at a black bear in Alaska, very cool.

It rained virtually all last night, but it was sunny most of the day.  We were snug in our cabin all night, loving this spacious, clean, well-equipped temporary housing.  We had a nice, home-made dinner last night.  We are now about six minutes from the Klawock SEARHC Clinic where Kathy works.  The only drawback to this place is the super-slow wi-fi.  Downloading and uploading pictures is impossible.    

Wednesday, August 10, Moving Again

Wednesday, enjoying the morning on the deck.  I drive Kathy to work, and return.  I do some computer work, on my excellent bed, in front of my nice TV, finish packing, and off to the next lodging.  I drive farther out the Port Saint Nicholas Road.  This is a really well-maintained gravel road, paralleling the shoreline, through the forest.  It’s beautiful, with homes spaced out along the road, mostly on the shore side.  I turn around, time to check out of the Lodge.

I turn in the key, and head for lunch.  Next, to the Craig Public Library, where I can use a computer to update my resume, write a cover letter, and print both out, so I can apply for the Environmental Planner II position with the Craig Tribal Association.  It’s a longshot, but opportunities are not growing on trees here!  The connection is very, very slow, and it takes about two hours to accomplish this task.  By now, the Tribal office is closed, so I head to a new park I found in Klawock.  It’s deserted, except for the large flock of robins I scare off, so we have it to ourselves.  It’s a mystery to me why I am not seeing more birds. 

The dogs love these parks. This one is forest with picnic tables scattered, and also on the water. We explore the forest, then head down to the shore, and walk along, seeing lots of shells, seaweed. I have to keep my eye on the dogs so they don’t go for a swim: I don’t need wet dogs right now.

We walk for 45 minutes, stretching our legs, sniffing the bushes, enjoying the cedar and hemlock trees, and the chattering of the ravens. I keep scanning the water, hoping for a whale blow, but no luck today. It still seems odd to me to see so many seagulls near the forest.

We need an address, and it seems everyone has a PO box, so I go to the Post Office to find out about doing so.  The Postmistress explains that there is no home delivery of mail anywhere on the island, hence everyone gets a PO box for free.  Cool, but you only get it in the town where you live, and we don’t have a town where we live yet.  Since Kathy is working in Klawock, the Postmistress says we can simply use General Delivery at her place, so at least we have that. 

We head for A Place to Stay, check in, unload, and relax.  We are here for the next six days, thankfully.  I go get Kathy, and she, too, is very happy to be landed here.

Tuesday, continued: 

I go to our new place, A Place to Stay, only to find out I got my dates wrong:  there was a two-day gap between lodging, not one.  This is very frustrating, especially since I wrote this all down, on a post-it note, which is missing.  Geez, will this ever end?  It’s getting embarrassing.  I/we really don’t want to go back to FishFurFeathers, even though I’m sure they have an opening.  It’s now time to pick up Kathy, and she is not going to be happy.  I pick her up, and let her know.  She starts suggesting places, but I don’t want to show my face at the places we’ve been, so I start calling instead, which is anonymous at least.  Our second call is a hit, and it’s our favorite place!  Once again, we get lucky, at the Alaska Pacific Lodge facility of Shelter Cove Inn, out the Port Saint Nicholas Road.  It’s a beautiful evening, clear skies, quiet as can be, with some whitecaps on the water.  It’s so nice to be in this place.  It’s the complete opposite of the FFF place, from the luxurious beds to the bigger TV, to the deck and view.  We are very happy to be moved.

Tuesday, a Gorgeous Day, and Monday

Tuesday is another beautiful day!  The sky is cloudless, the temperature climbing toward 70 degrees.  I take Kathy to work, then wait for 9 AM, when I can walk in and be seen for my shoulder, finally.  The PA is very helpful, from Vermont originally, does a thorough exam, makes a diagnosis, and then gives me a painless shot of cortisone.  This has worked on my before, so hopefully will work again.  I’m just so happy to finally get it looked at and fixed.

Back to Fish Fur Feathers B&B, and run into Ron and Edna, the owners.  Ron explains he rents out the rooms of his other house individually, and since we want at least two rooms, we’ll have to pass.  Too bad, it’s a nice place, not too big, not too small. 

I finish packing up, pay by check, and we are off.  Oh, forgot, Ron told me I was welcome to use the hose and carwash brush, so I take him up on it and wash the Ru.  It get’s dirty so fast, not sure if it’s the color, or the gravel roads, or the shape of the car, most likely all three.  Maybe mudflaps would help.

It’s too hot to leave the dogs in the car while I use the Internet, so we head to Cemetery Island, where I let them off the leash while I have lunch, and read the 14-page Ketchikan News.  J  They roam around the picnic table and forest edge for an hour while I take my time and enjoy the sun. 

Next, it's the Wheelhouse Coffeehouse, to use the Internet at their hotspot, catch up on Facebook, and my blog.  For the hassle the dogs are causing us, they are magnets for nice people:  I'm inside, with them tied up outside, and see a guy come by and introduce himself to the dogs and start petting them.  I go out and introduce myself.  Turns out he owns the coffeeshop and is trying to buy the entire building, and loves dogs.  He'll keep his eyes and ears open for us, too.  :-)  There are a lot of very nice people in these two towns. 

Monday, August 08, 2011 – Kathy starts her second week of work for SEARHC.  We do some laundry during her lunch hour.  I’ve caught a cold:  between this and my hurting shoulder, I’m sick of being sick. 

Picture this, two radio stations, that’s it.  One is from Ketchikan, and plays an odd mix of NPR, blues, and classical music, the other is country.  From Bellingham north, we traveled a great deal through farmland, and found much of the radio band covered by either religious programming or country music, neither of which we care for.  It’s a pain only having two radio stations, and none with current music.  I’m also a news junky, and am missing my daily newspaper, a lot!  Politics, planning, community, and a little sports, all missing from my diet for going on three weeks, ugh.  There is a Ketchikan weekly, but it’s very slim.  I think I’m going to subscribe to the electronic edition of the U-T. 

The DJIA lost over 600 points today!  Time to buy stocks!

Kathy gets our health insurance coverage established.  Now I can do find out what is wrong with my shoulder, and get it fixed, thank God. 

We finally find the house that Ron Pierce, our current landlord, has for rent.  It’s pretty nice, second floor about a tall ‘basement,’ really a first floor, newer, but surrounded by construction debris/material/equipment.  It’s in the housing development we like, behind the Kwalock grocery store and so very close to work. 

Kathy takes the dogs for a walk, while I stay home and keep warm.  So far this cold is confined to my nose only, a very good thing.

Sunday and Saturday and Friday

Sunday dawns bright and early, a cloudless sunny day, for only the second time since we arrived on the Island.  Kathy has an all-day board retreat to attend, at HOPE.  I take her to the Public Health building at 9, then come back and get the dogs.  We go to the coffee shop with the HotSpot, and I do some work on the Internet. Then we go to Cemetery Island Park, and walk out to the point. It’s just a beautiful day, high 60’s.The island trail is virtually empty, and I let the dogs off their leashes.

View from the tip of Cemetery Island

Lacokat and Quinlan, the Great Blonde Hunters

I have seen and heard very few birds since we arrived on the island, which surprises me.  Lots and lots of seagulls, which we don’t see in the forests in California because there are few on the coast.  Kingfisher, ocean birds, hummingbirds, not much else.  Kathy saw our first black bear today, but I missed it, and it was gone by the time we turned around and went back.  No whales either, besides that one I saw last Sunday.Kathy's seminar went well.  We drive by G Street to see the Pierce’s place, can’t find it.  I go to church, meet Michael, who Kathy has talked with about a house.  The word is getting out about us and our dogs.  Talk with Brady; send pictures to Brady and Kelli from Cemetery Island; Kelli sends pictures of Henry.
  

Saturday, a day of relaxing.  I had major trouble sleeping, despite taking two naproxen.  It was my worst night of sleep in a couple of weeks.  My shoulder is killing me.  I get up at 6, get dressed, and go in search of Internet access.  The Wheelhouse Bakery and Coffeehouse has APT HotSpot, but it doesn’t open until 8 am, so I take a drive down the road to Kwalock, stopping at a pullout.  It’s a cool, cloudy morning.  I walk up the road to see a couple of waterfalls close up.  I enjoy the cool, clean air. 

  

I take a little nap in the car.  I go back to the café, get a hot chocolate and muffin, and order a months worth of Internet access.  Ahhh, finally!  I’m back on Facebook, I’m back on my email, I’m on Wikipedia!  I check out our credit union accounts, and all is good.  I meet Shiloh and Leland, who are down from Pt Something, 40 people on an island off Coffman Cove.  Shiloh is living in her Dad’s place, he having passed away recently; Leland lives on a houseboat.  They are both young, fun to talk to. 

  

I spend the next three hours there, while Kathy gets some sleep and reads.  I bring her a muffin.  Kelli calls me around 11 and we have a nice conversation.  We sure miss them all.  I return to the room, and we take the dogs for a long walk around town.  It’s fun to live in a walking community, to explore the neighborhood and look at houses.

  

When we return, I have a conversation with Ron, our landlord, about his ’36 Ford pickup, the ’72 Harley-Davidson built to compete with crotch rockets, and he tells me about the owner, who hit a deer and kept the bike up, but the front wheel is mangled, sends the bike into high speed wobbles, and flips, through him to the pavement.  He’s wearing leathers and comes out fine; the bike skids along the right side, but escapes major damage. 

  

Ron spent a couple of decades as a logger, in and around Prince of Wales Island.  Today, he owns a dump truck and skip loader, and does work around the island.  He also owns some timber, and cuts it himself and sells it for firewood.  Yellow-cedar is the preferred firewood here. 

  

Friday, Kathy works half day; then we go to Thorne Bay for the first time, then up to Coffman Cove, run into Chad at the fish-counting weir.  His sister is married to Ron and Edna Pierce’s son, and he helped Wayne and Donna build the cabins at A Place to Stay!  He’s very connected.  He lives across the street from A Place to Stay.  He told us the house for sale behind him, on the D Street cul de sac, is a really nice house.  We haven’t been able to find a listing for it, or contact info.  The elder woman died, and the niece, a Native, is staying there while they try to sell it.

Thursday. Raising a New Totem Pole!

Thursday morning.  I slept even better last night:  Kathy found some naproxen, and it really took care of my shoulder.  Not only did I sleep better, but the shoulder was much better when I woke up, thankfully.

It rained most of last night, a nice gentle rain.  We are in the habit of sleeping with our windows wide open, for fresh air, and the moderate overnight temperatures up here mean we’ve kept that habit, enjoying much fresher air, especially nice with the overnight rain. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 302 pints, 2.5%, not good.  It looks like Wall Street is not happy with the so-called Washington Compromise passed this week. 

Kathy got today off:  today begins the traditional totem pole raising ceremonies, which will go on over the next three days, and includes other events throughout the day, and should be fun. 

Many hands make light work.

Walking the first totem from the carving lot to the park.

Native singers cheer on the pole-carriers.

We get up and pack up, yet again.  We run into a crowd coming north as we leave the Fireweed Lodge, spread out across the entire street.  We grab a parking place, secure the car, and join the crowd surrounding the teams of people carrying the Raven-Whale totem pole.  There are about 200 people, old and young, Natives and whites, men and women.  The totem is about 25 feet long, with an orca tail for the top, very cool.  They use about eight 4 by 4’s crossways under the totem, with three to four people on each side of the totem, holding it up.  They march forward about an eighth of a mile, then stop, sturdy sawhorse-type braces are unloaded from a trailer and placed under from and back, and all carriers lower the 4 x 4’s to the ground, while the totem rests on the horses.  This totem is being carried the furthest; the next four, two on each day, will be carried much less distance. 

I suspected this was an annual event, but it isn’t:  it occurs only when an existing totem at the Totem Park decays to the point it has to be replaced.  There is grand ceremony around the whole project.  The last time there were new totem poles were places was in 2005.

Traffic stacks up behind the procession, then follows it closely as it proceeds across the causeway bridge, which is closed down to one lane due to construction.  The carriers make it across the long bridge in one stretch, amazing!  This pole is western red cedar, I think, a good 15 inches in diameter, very heavy. 

It’s drizzling on and off, gets heavier, then lighter.  The weather doesn’t bother anyone; the temperature is about 55. 

There is two ceremonial blessings, several ropes attached to help with the raising, and then a forklift lifts it upright, as teams of people guide it straight with the attached ropes.  It will be attached somehow to a what looks just like a telephone pole, which is sunk in concrete and sticks above ground about 12 feet.  What a great opportunity we stumbled upon! 

We haven’t had breakfast, and it’s now noon, so we head back to the car, move it to Betty’s Diner, and have some lunch.  I’ve got pictures that I will get uploaded one of these days. 

Next we drive up to A Place to Stay, and find out they do have cabins available for next week, from Tuesday through Sunday, hurray!  This is one of our favorite places to stay, so far, and the owners are really nice. 

Next it’s back to Craig, to the phone company and we pick up the second cell phone.  It’s here that Kathy gets sick, apparently from something she had at lunch.  This isn’t good, and she feels bad the rest of the day.  We head for our next lodging, a Bed and Breakfast called Fur, Fish and Feathers, located in a residential area right across the street from a bay.  Thankfully, it isn’t the one I’d thought it was:  I had the wrong address.  There doesn’t seem to be anyone home, besides the two dachsunds barking their heads off, and an older gentleman doing some welding in the back garage.  I wait for him to break, and get his attention.  He explains he isn’t working, but playing, repairing the rear end of the ‘36 Ford pickup standing next to him.  He’s already installed a Ford 302 engine, nice!  Also in the garage are two cherry Harley-Davidson’s, and another inside the house, just outside our room.  The B and B is an older house:  we are in a single room down under, but it’s warm, secure, and it’ll be fine for a few days.  At least it has a private bath, always a good thing.  Kathy falls asleep soon after we get moved in.

It’s no longer raining, and I need a walk, Kathy needs her rest, so I take the dogs and take off with no particular destination in mind, just to explore the neighborhood and enjoy the fresh air. 

After meandering through the neighborhood, we end up on the main street through Craig.  We follow directions to the public indoor pool and check out the hours, continue back to the main drag,  to the Post Office where I buy some postcard stamps:  I have a very strong urge to send postcards to someone who can't even read, and who, it occurs to me, I haven't mentioned in a long time, Henry, of course!  I guess it's the picture-nature of postcards that has me wanting to send these to him.  I have vivid mental pictures of Kelli and Jared pointing out the animals and other scenes on the postcards, and reading to him.  I miss them all very much. 

Across the street to the store, to get some sick supplies for Kathy:  ginger ale, yogurt, and cheese, and 7 Up and cookies for me.  The dogs behave themselves, tied to posts, while I do my shopping.  

Now I have two bags to handle, two dogs, and my not-yet-right shoulder, a little better, and we are now 12 blocks from home, great.  Oh well, we aren’t in a hurry, take our time, and despite losing my way, we make it home in good shape, the dogs, exhausted, that objective nicely achieved!

I wonder why there are no fir trees this far north.  Spruce are fine, evergreen and all, but they have very hard and prickly needles.  Fir trees, on the other hand, are soft to the touch, and have nicer cones, to my mind.  Fir grow to the upper elevations of the Sierra and Cascade mountains, so it can’t be the cold that’s the determining factor.  I’m guessing it must be the rain:  maybe fir can’t handle so much water.  Another common tree here is the Western Hemlock, which has always been one of my favorite trees.  It grew at most elevations in Washington State, must have a higher tolerance for rain, if my theory is correct.  It’s cousin, the Mountain Hemlock, also grows here.  More on these in a future post.  Wish I had the Internet, darn it! 

Yesterday on our long walk I saw my first Alaska hummingbirds.  There were two, chasing each other, looking a bit smaller than the Anna’s I’m used to, but I didn’t get much of a look, and so don’t know their name.  I’ve also seen only one kind of butterfly, the common white cabbage kind, and looking forward to seeing more kinds. 

Sorry for the long post!  I hope these are still entertaining, despite being long and a few days late.  :-)

Wednesday, A Little Behind, and Life on Prince of Wales Island

It’s Wednesday, August 03, 2011, another beautiful, warm day in Klawock, Alaska.  That is very strange to type, Alaska, Alaska, Alaska!  Maybe it won't completely sink in until we have our own place.  If you have been reading my blog, you might be getting tired of reading about our lack of permanent housing.  Who moves anywhere, let alone 2500 miles away, without having permanent housing arranged?  In our defense, someone who gets an excellent job offer, one that will do wonders for their new career; one who is asked to start that job in just one month; two who, apparently, think positively and have faith that things will all work out in good time. 

Here’s what you have that we don’t that you should appreciate a lot more! 

                An address – I can’t apply for Alaska license plates, an AK driver’s license, even unemployment, or employment, for that matter!  I can't tell the movers where to deliver our furniture!  I can’t order anything from Amazon, or REi either!

                A reliable cell phone connection – despite opening an account with a local provider, coverage is still spotty, the connection uneven, and even worse for using the Internet. 

                Internet access!!!! -  I know, multiple exclamation points are bad form, but this case

merits an exception to the rule.  Not only is it a pain, being in a new city and wanting local information at my fingertips, I’m much more addicted to Facebook, my email, Wikipedia, CNN, even SignOnSanDiego, than I knew.  I need help!

A refrigerator and microwave – most places we’ve stayed have these, but not our current

home.  I’m starving for the time when we have our own refrigerator, fully stocked; I'm longing to get  back into my normal breakfast routine.  L

I slept much better last night.  I did something to my right shoulder about a week ago, woke up in pain as if I’d slept on it wrong, and it’s never that way since.  It gets a little better during the day, then, I wake up in the morning and it’s killing me.  I’ve tried Ben-Gay, naproxen, aspirin, some of which works a little.  I need to get the health insurance up ASAP and get this thing checked out. 

I took Kathy to work, came home, and walked the dogs.  They were a little reluctant, not liking the leashes much:  Kathy lets them off the leash, but they don’t respond to me as well as they do her, and I don't want them getting into trouble, or getting lost. 

I went to Kim’s Diner and had some breakfast.  Kathy had told me the bathroom light wasn’t working.  What she didn’t realize was that the power was out, not only in Klawock but Craig, too, six miles away.  I still got a good breakfast.  The power came back on before I finished my breakfast, didn’t hear what the problem was, or if this is a common occurrence.

Next, off to Craig.  I left the dogs in the room.  Yesterday I took them with me, and they ended up staying in the car on a warm day, not good.  My bet was solid:  the Craig Public Library does have free wi-fi, and the speed is decent, too. 

Ah, wonderful!  Back on Facebook, able to update my blog finally, and back on email, nice!  I see that a nephew and his family are in Yosemite, so have to tell them I am jealous, even though I was just there in June.  I update my blog, feel bad for not being able to do it daily.

Things are different here, and that’s good, even if inconvenient some times.  I don’t want everyplace to be the same.  How boring would that be?  There is no McDonald’s or Burger King or Wal-Mart, Safeway or Ralph’s, or Target,anywhere on the entire island.  There is no 7/11, or Chevron or Shell or Arco service station; there is no Barnes and Noble or Starbucks, which is good, but not what we are used to is all.  Traveling from place to place, even state to province, country to country, one can often fine the same stores.  Now, for us, it means taking a three hour ferry ride to Ketchikan, than a three hour ride back, to shop at any of these stores we are used to using.      

Picture thick forests of evergreens everywhere; picture mountains rising in all directions, all with dark green blankets of evergreens, too, with patches of snow even now, in August.  Picture bays and passages and rivers everywhere, along roads, deep blue on cloudless skies.  Picture little islands in the bays, or arms of islands, all covered with forest, nearly down to the waterline.  Picture patches of fireweed five and six feet tall, scattered up and down the road.  Picture people waving to you as you drive, people walking, people driving, people who have no idea who you are, with your new Subaru with the paper plates and license frames proclaiming Kearny Mesa Subaru, whereever that is!  This is Prince of Wales island, and the twin towns of Klawock and Craig. 

Picture bald eagles flying, common, screaming their half-cry.  Picture ravens, and hear their hoarse caws and other non-musical calls and communications.  They fly together here, unlike their solitary or paired meanderings in San Diego.  There are very, very few crows around, again unlike San Diego. 

Picture speed limits of 25 mph, on all city main streets, and 15 mph on side streets; picture 50 mph speed limit signs on all major roads, including that from east side to west side, 38 miles distance. 

Picture a grocery store with cases and cases of jars piled chest high on a pallet, ready for canning. J Picture a grocery store with a drive-up covered lobby area, much as you might find at a good hotel, but for loading groceries safely out of the rain. This is life on Prince of Wales Island.  J 

Kathy had a good day at work today.  She saw her first client, so a new milestone.