The View From Below Zero

Nothing warmer (or more stylish) than a sheared beaver Elmer Fudd hat!

Since I posted last Christmas and New Year's have come and gone and nary a Christmas card was sent by me!  I have no excuse--I just didn't get it done.  I was here in Naknek through Christmas holding down the medical fort until the one-nurse-practitioner cavalry (Gayle Claus) arrived on the 28th to allow me to leave for the outside on the 29th.  I did sing with a somewhat impromptu choir performance of Christmas music to a packed house on December 23.  It was a very different kind of music than I have ever sung before--it was all parts, and everyone but me could read music.  There are some amazing musicians out here and I was pretty intimidated.  I learned my parts by listening to recordings of the alto parts, and then had to listen closely to the other altos next to me so as to not stray into the soprano or bass parts!  It was a lot of fun, and I think we really sounded pretty good.

 I sorely missed my family at Christmas time, but we all got together at Blake and Kristin's house for a late Christmas and had a wonderful time! 

Daughter in law extraordinaire Kristin, granddog Sadie Lynn, son Blake, dad Jay, Mom Rusty at Blake and Kristin's house

I was able to have Sammy for the whole weekend after New Year's, and for a couple of visits other days while I was there. 

Sam in her new Christmas cowboy boots

I didn't get to Priest River for very long, and ended up having to deal with the well pump being out at my house, which is rented out.  Thank goddess for friends!  Bob Elliott stepped in and saved the day (as usual).  I really wasn't ready quite to come back to Alaska, but by the time I got here after a 12 hour day of airports, I was ready to be here.

I experienced my first fatality a few weeks ago when a man was hit by a car that hit black ice on the highway and slid into him as he rode his 4-wheeler on the trail alongside the highway.  It was a heroic effort by our volunteer ambulance crew, who stayed at the clinic with Gayle and me as we worked desperately to keep him alive long enough for the medevac plane to take him to Anchorage.  Unfortunately, he was hurt too badly to hang on, and despite all of us taking turns doing CPR after his heart stopped, we were not able to save him.  The medevac plane landed about 10 minutes after he died.  It's particularly hard in a small community like this, where most of the EMT crew knew him well and some were related to him.  His 80+ year old mom buried him and then died a couple of weeks later.  A tough couple of months for the community.  It was heart warming to see how the community took care of the families, both the family of the man who was killed, and also the man who, through no fault of his own, hit him.  I think we all know and accept the risks of living out here, and it doesn't make death any easier, but the life here is worth the risks for most of us.

I have been doing water aerobics (yes, we have an Olympic sized indoor salt water pool) on a pretty sporadic basis, same with yoga, but I am going to try my best to be able to run a 5K by my birthday in June.  I didn't think the lack of light was bothering me since I have my happy light and my Aero Gardens and it's frequently sunny here.  But I have gained a lot of weight and  lost a lot of my fitness, so it's way past time for me to make my health a bigger priority.  It's hard to get outside and exercise when the wind chill makes it minus 24 degrees, but I can't make that an excuse since there are plenty of other ways to get exercise.  And the weather is certainly not the cause of my overeating!  I'm making a new start.  Please send good vibes my way, as I need all the divine intervention and help I can get!

January 22 marked one year since I came to Alaska to make my home.  I am still completely smitten with this place!  I am hoping to take a skin-sewing class to make some mittens in February, and also a net-making class to make a subsistence net for salmon, since I will be able to get a subsistence permit this year.  Tomorrow I'm going to try out my new smoker and smoke some of the salmon I have in the freezer from last summer.  There is always so much going on that I have a hard time choosing among all the things I could do!  Today I could have gone to a Longaberger party with a chocolate tasting afterward, yoga class, music jam at the Park Service visitor center, over to a friend's for dinner....and the list goes on.  Next week is the big winter festival--Winterfest!

This is how you mush when there isn't enough snow for a sled

Two of Ann Shankle's Greenland Huskies

Co-worker and friend Brenda King and Ann Shankle with part of her team

I will be going to Park City Utah the beginning of March for an emergency medicine conference, and then I hope to be able to spend the majority of April with my family in Idaho and going to my nephew's wedding in California.  Then it will be nose to the grindstone getting ready for fishing season and then fishing season itself.

I have to show you some pictures of my beloved beautiful rocks, coated with freezing rain.  I have found some of the most beautiful rocks I've ever seen up here.  Sammy has always been my rock hound companion, and one day when I asked if she wanted to go to the gravel pit and look for rocks, she said, "My dad says I have enough rocks already."  We both laughed heartily at such a silly statement and went out searching for keepers.

When Gayle gets here February 4th, I will finally get a break from being on call 24/7.  I haven't really had too many night and weekend calls, but after 24 days straight I'm ready to take a break from being glued to my phone.

Here's a few gems from the Unalaska police report:

Disorderly Conduct:  Officers contacted a customer who had created a disturbance inside the bank when his fishing license was not accepted as a form of identification.

Assault:  An intoxicated young adult man reported that his mother, who as officers discovered was quite annoyed with her son's drunken antics, had thrown a bottle of lotion at him, striking him in the genitals and causing a rather considerable amount of pain.  The young man, who wished for neither medical care nor charges to be pressed, asked simply that his mother be told not to throw things at him anymore.

Suspicious Person/Activity:  Drunken brother reported being concerned because his drunken sibling had grabbed five beers and departed their house in a taxi.  The responding officer found nothing unusual about this incident.

Suspicious Person/Activity:  Officer advised an inebriate urinating between two cars that restrooms were the facility of choice for said activity.

Are you seeing a theme here?

I will close with a few pictures from the frozen north, right here from my neighborhood.

Boat waiting for spring on the bank of the frozen Naknek River

Frozen Eskimo Creek in King Salmon where it runs into the Naknek River

My goofy Sam dog walking on water on one of the ponds by my house

The frozen Naknek River looking south/southwest at the volcanoes of the Aleutian Range