Trip to Bethel, Alaska

We, Beth, Niki and myself, left for a fun weekend in the village of Bethel, AK.  You may remember our friend, George, whom you saw snowshoeing with us last month, and he was on our Bear Adventure last June.  We went to visit him in Bethel where he teaches Physics and Economics at the High School level.  Bethel is located on the tundra and in the Yupik territory.The town was established by the Moravian in 1885.  People in Anchorage call Bethel a village but let me tell you it is a BIG village.  The population is 3500 and the town is 48 square miles with only 10 miles of paved roads.  You can only get to Bethel by boat or plane. 

These signs are at the Bethel Airport.  These are Yupik words identifying the restrooms.  The poster is to help you know what you can and can not do with Walrus Ivory.  There is definitely rules for Natives versus non-Natives. Bethel is the hub for about 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.  It is the largest village in Western Alaska.  What is tundra?  Tundra is the flat, treeless wet land of Alaska.  Because the tundra is wet, swamp-like the earth moves a lot so you will see most of the houses are on stilts to allow for movement.

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Bethel is where the Kuskokwam 300 Dog Sled race takes place in February. These are Dog Sled sprints.  Can you image 300 miles a sprint?  It is a good training for the Iditarod.  These are some of the houses, churches, buildings and resturants around Bethel.

The house above is very typical.  This subdivision does not have city water or sewer.  This is a 1000 gallon water holding tank outside the house with insulation.  It is filled every week.  They must conserve water when they have this limitation.  Think how your life would change if you had only limited water each day.  Water cost about $400 a month.  Yikes! The big house is where George lived with 4 other teachers last year.  It is on lthe Kuskokwam River and very expensive. Since George doesn't have a car it made it difficult to get around town.

This is the Bethel harbor.  It is one of the largest harbor in the Western coast of Alaska.  Don't you just love the Winnebago on top of the containers?

Chief Eddie Hoffman was a famous Native who helped the Natives settle the Land Grant Agreement when Alaska became a State.
BABS, as the locals call it, is the Boarding School for Native students who need an alternative Middle School or High School experience.  Most of these students have a some alcohol or drug problem.  Chris, another camper with us, teaches here.  He shares a lot of the success stories of the students with us over the weekend.

The school grounds for the Boarding School.

This is the only grocery store in Bethel.  The Value Center (George and Beth, entering) is a store where you can buy groceries, amunition and guns, clothing, and winter gear.  One stop shopping.








Just a few food price items for you.  Now you can appreciate your grocery store prices!



Generic Peanut Butter $12.55.

 A bag or crate of Cuties for $15.29!!

 The fruit section looks lovely.  George told us to look closer at the produce.  After closer inspection, almost all the oranges had spoiled spots, apples were bruised, bananas were almost brown on one side.  So they do get fresh fruit, it arrives once a week by plane, pay a lot and get not the quality you and I are used to paying for.

 This is the sign that leads us to George's house.  I don't speak Yupik but they all do.  This is George's house.  It is 438 B City sub.  They give their address by street address and which subdivision they live in.  Bethel has 5 subdivisions.  Now what is really pecular is how they receive the mail. It is sent to the Bethel Post Office but they don't pick up their mail at the Post Office.  The Post Office is located near the airport. That makes sense. But since many people do not have cars they can not get to the Post Office. So a gentleman in the City Subdivision owns a Post Office mini post in the City Sub.  So George and everyone in his subdivision has to go to this man's house to pick up his mail.  It is hit or miss a lot as to whether the man is home so you may not get your mail for a few days.  Unique but it works for Bethel.

 George's house has city water and sewer so this is the old holding tanks since they gained city water 4 years ago.

 This is George and Sarah.  George and his friends use the hides they catch or purchase and make their own hats, gloves, mukluks (boots), and head bands.  They really live the subsistance life. They hunt almost every weekend and eat caribou, moose, ptarmigan, fox, etc. and use the meat and furs.

 Typical inside of City Sub housing.

 Remember, I told you the tundra is on permafrost so it is frozen most of the year.  Here is the city water pipes (in the foreground) throughout the subdivision.  It has to be above ground because they can not bury the pipes.  And because it is tundra and difficult to walk on there are many board walks to help cross over the tusik. Tusik are are large clumps of grass and make it difficult to walk from point A to point B.

 Here is how fire hydrants look in the village of Bethel.  The metal container is full of insulation to keep the water flowing in case of an emergency.  Two houses down from George's house is another local who wants you to know he hunts moose.  This is a very typical Bethel home.

 This is an up close photo of the top moose antlers.  He has them decorated with Christmas lights all year round. He said it is a beacon for him to find his way home when he had too much to drink!  Honest guy.

This is a Bed and Breakfast ready for you to purchase in Bethel, Alaska.  It has 1 bedroom, on bath and comes with a boat. There is a wood shed in front of the the property.  The house is on stilts, no windows or doors and on the city water subdivision.  WOW! I have a deal for you.  

This property is for sale for $230 K.  Not bad .  You have to be willing to live up here in a village and probably can only rent to teachers or hospital workers.  

I hope you enjoyed learning about an Alaskan Village, Bethel.  My next post will be about our Arctic Camping adventure.  It was an awesome experience.

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend.  

Cali Gari (so long in Yupik)

Nanuq of the North

Sheryl

Snoe Shoeing at Alyeska Feb 2012

We are having a wonderful weekend doing some fun things.  Saturday we went to Wasilla to help Beth buy some Bunny boots.  We are heading to Bethel, a Bush village, and we will need to have warm feet.

 First we stopped at Napa Auto Store to check out their Bunny Boots.  Beth and Kara thought they were nice but the boots were only white and not the right size.  So we headed to Jerry's famous Bunny Boot trailer.

This is Jerry's Famous Bunny Boot Shop!!!!

After purchasing her Bunny Boots we had to check out another Wasilla hot spot.  The Mug-Shot Saloon.  In the Spring a gentleman will draw your picture and hang it on the Saloon walls as another Mug-Shot!  We will have to go back in a few months.  We met a gentleman,Coach, and he taught us how to play bar dice. We learned how to play Ship, Captain and Crew.  I won and when you win you get a wooden nickel for your next drink.  Beth lost at dice poker as well.

We finished all our school work and errands on Saturday and went snow shoeing in Girdwood at Alyeska.

 On our way to Girdwood (40 miles south of Anchorage) the Kinik Arm which is a river from the Artic Ocean is usually frozen over.  As you can see some of the water is not frozen and has lots of dirty silt on the frozen ice blocks.
I was greeted by the Grizzly as we entered the Alyeska Hotel.

 We started out on our path and were quickly met by a bicyclist in training for the Anchorage 50K ski event coming up in a few weeks.  You have seen pictures of his studded tires from a past blog.  These tires are very fat and the studs are really pointed.

 I had to take a quick phone call from Tyler as we started on the trail.  Tyler and Cara were in Vero Beach, Florida finalizing some of the wedding plans for October!!  Sounds like things are going well for them.

 Beth made an ice chair along the trail and Kara joined her on top of the snow pile.

 Even with all the snow we have had the temperate forest full of huge cedar trees with snow on one side and fungus growing on the other side.  Moose really enjoy eating cedar barks.  Lucky for us we didn't come across a moose today.  Good thing since I can't run in snow shoes!

 Kara and Niki took the lead to break the snow trail.  Niki did a great job until one step off the path.  Oops, that is a lot of snow.  We are glad they were not injured or injured each other as they fell.

 I thought this tree was showing how much snow Girdwood has had.  This branch was bent down so far from the trunk.  It was the only limb hanging low.

 Here is Beth practicing a Zumba move. In our Zumba class we stretch at the end of the hour and one of the goals is to stretch and put your elbows on the floor.  I am not even close!  Beth can put her elbow on the snow since it is almost thigh deep!!! Is this the truth or did she really fall?  She won't tell us the truth!

 We hiked about 2 1/2 hours up to the top of the tree line and then back down to the Ski lodge.  We had a few tense moments when we couldn't figure out which way to go so we can return to the car.  After about an extra 40 minutes of wondering, we found a trail marker.  Isn't it cute??

 After our strenuous workout we stopped at Chair 5 restaurant for lunch/dinner.  We ate a great burger to satisfy our hungry stomachs.  I had to take a picture of the Karaoke night coming up.   Who knows? Maybe the Midwest Vixens (Sheryl, Beth, Kara and Niki) might make a girl trip to sing and appear on stage!  Did you notice it said partial nudity?  Yikes, well, maybe the other Vixen's will make a stage appearance.

 We arrived home and took a lovely picture of our sunset. 

I can't believe how quickly sunlight is returning to Anchorage.  We gain almost 9 minutes a day now.  The weather person on our News station said that we are gaining sunlight so fast that we will be nearing 9 hours by mid week and then 10 hours of sunlight by the end of the next week.  What does this mean for me?  More activities in the evening for me!!!

Watch for my next blog since it will be photos from our trip to Bethel.  We plan on winter camping using an Artic Oven.  We had to ask George, who teaches in Bethel, was that something we cook in or sleep in?  George giggled and said it is a heavy canvas with a stove inside.  We should be warm and have fun!

Have a wonderful Valentines Day!  This year is going by so quickly.  I will be home very soon.
Don't forget to give a stranger a smile today.  You never know how such a small gesture makes a difference in a person's life.

Life is Good!

The Nanuq of the North
Sheryl

Happy February 2012

Let it snow, let it snow,let it snow!  I know Alaska has been in the National news with all of our snow.  I am lovin' in!  We receive snow every other day and it is delightful.  This is a pick up truck parked on my street.  You can see how much snow we have by the piles of snow everywhere!  The weather people are just out of words when they present the weather report.  All they have to say is "Yes it is going to snow again." 

 Last Friday during school we received another 12 inches of  fresh beautiful white snow.  It was like a coffee clutch as all the teachers brushed off our cars before heading home for the weekend.

 This is what an Alaskan snowplow looks like.  They are so tall and very forceful.  This plow is parked in the street and you can see it reaches side to side. 

 Just before the school is our yield sign.  Can you see how much snow is piled up there?  This is wonderful having all this snow but it is getting a bit risky driving around.  The snow piles on the street are so high that you can't see cars on the street.  So as you pull out or try to turn you have to be extra cautious because your car can not be seen. 

This is my snow gauge outside my class room. It is really a cement pole to prevent cars from parking too close to the school building.  This is what 9 inches of snow looks like.  It continued snowing throughout the weekend.

Our landlord had to come and shovel snow so we could get into our garbage bins.

Can you spy something in the tree?  We go cross country skiing and we found this wonderful surprise.  I spy something in the tree can you?

I spy a blue Christmas ornament hanging in the tree.  Apparently, there was a scavenger hunt for kids over the weekend and this was one of the markers.  It looks so pretty hanging.  We told the Parks department they should continue hanging these ornaments throughout the ski season.

 This is our playground area.  The kids have to be reminded over and over again NOT to dig snow caves.  This is such a tempting past time.  We have had such warm weather (in the mid 20's) that cave ins and avalanches are very common.  Many of the homeowners are on the roof of their house shoveling off the snow.  Some are worried about the roof caving in but more concern should be for the ice blockage.  I have been listening to the news and the snow around the exhaust pipes of the roof need to be cleared so there isn't an ice build up.

I am taking several classes after school and weekends.  I am learning about how to improve the test scores of the Alaskan native boys.  They don't do as well as other groups and the school district is trying to present strategies to help the boys.  The instructor brought a fishing visor from the Southeastern area of Alaska.  Please note the decorations (beads and whiskers) which make this gentleman a great catch for any girl wanting to be married. 

In this picture you can see the whale bone and whiskers very well.

 Anchorage downtown has all the ice sculptures lit every night.  This is a Raven and it is about 15 feet high.

 This is to let you all know that a teachers job is never done.  I am collecting plastic water bottles so I can make a smoking machine for each of my fourth grade students.  My roommate, Beth, is so patient because I have all this stuff all over the apartment. 

Here we are at the bar to watch the Super Bowl.  Niki and Beth were not as lucky as I was. I won football money the first and second quarter! Yippee!

I hope you all are enjoying your warm winter.  I am enjoying our snowy and cold winter.  I only have 100 days left to enjoy Alaska.  I am excited to start a new chapter in life with David but I am going to miss Alaska so much.  I have the most wonderful job in the world and the most beautiful scenery.  Remember, smile at a stranger today because you never know how much a small gesture can change the moment. 

Hugs from

Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.