Our New Home

We had always planned to stay at our first rental home for two years and then move to another place in Fairbanks. Our first home was in the "hills", about 20 miles from town and, as we got busier and busier, we realized that it was too far out to navigate easily with one car. We were always debating whether to stay in town if we had something at night or make the long drive home and back just to have dinner. And then there was the issue of Fred, who had to be fed and walked. And even though I had Emily, who was our wonderful dog sitter, there were always issues late at night.

So we started looking for a place either in town or near the University. We were handicapped by the dog since many places did not allow pets, and we were very particular about where we lived since it had to be close to work or town. So, we ended up in the dread DRY CABIN, within walking distance of the University. The shower thing is not too bad since I always took showers either at my gym, or in my building where there is a shower. And now David takes a shower at work too. Many folks have dry cabins so many offices accommodate them by providing showers.

It is a 20 x 20 full log cabin with a full upstairs and a balcony and a greenhouse!

The outhouse thing isn't so bad yet since there is only a little snow on the ground and at the coldest it is about 19. Wonder what it will be like when it is 50 or 60 degrees colder. Does pee freeze?

Our kitchen is nicely equipped with a 40 gallon holding tank under the sink so every week I go to the natural springs in Fox, about 15 miles from us to get water in 7 gallon jugs that we empty into the holding tank and then use a foot pump to pump water out a spout to use in the sink. HOWEVER, it drains into a 5 gallon bucket under the sink that has a tendency to overflow if we are not careful. David is in charge of toting it outside to the disposal area.

The cabin is fully equipped with all the essentials...internet and a wood burning stove!

All in all, we are quite happy here. Even Fred.



Upstairs



View from our front window



View from the balcony

A Visit to the Bush

I was lucky enough to be able to go to Nome and Kotzebue right after Sage left AK and right before we moved into our cabin. I went to both the Northweat campus in Nome and the Chukchi campus in Kotzebue to recruit Native students for the Resilience and Adaptation Program, of which I am coordinator. I went with one of our students who had lived and married in Kotzebue and knew everyone!

Nome is known as the end point for the Iditerod Sled Dog race, famous for the burled arch that all mushers ride under to finish.  Nome is not a Native village and seemed quite established.  It is about as far west as you can go in AK.

Here is the main street.





Nome was a major gold mining town  

Wyatt Earp actually came to Nome and started a business supplying miners.  We visited the remains of his house way out in the "country"! 



 

My favorite restaurant in town was a combination laundramat and Mexican restaurant.  We did not eat there since it was a bit funky!

 Notice the washers and tables!

We were lucky enough to go with someone who lives in Nome to pick blueberries.  There are fields and fields of blueberries. Yummy!  AND...there are  musk ox among the blueberries.  The woman we were with loves to gather quiviat, the underhair of the musk ox that is highly prized as very, very soft and very, very warm hair which is very, very expensive).  She is allergic to the stuff so she gave it to me!  How lucky am I.  I will spin it and make it into a scarf for David. 

Nome is part of theDEW Line, not necessarily needed at this point, but still active. There are also remnants of bunkers from World War II!!!

Nome had  great wooden statues looking out onto the sea!

And some quirky ways! 

Only Barge Fresh Beer for me!



A reasonably short plane ride away was Kotzebue, a Native village which was quite different from Nome. 

Notice the prehistoric bone just parked in someone's front yard.

 The weather is usually cold and cloudy and the one main street is right at the sea!  Kotz. is on a spit in the Arctic Ocean.  and is quite poor.

 



 This is the new nurses' home at the hospital.  Notice that it is made of ATCO trailers with frame over them!!

  

 





 These are the traditional fish camps that folks go to in the summer to prepare for winter by fishing and then drying the salmon.

 

 

It certainly is not cheap to live in Kotzebue.  

 

 





 

The people in both Nome and Kotzebue were wonderfully friendly and made us feel quite welcome.  We met many students who were interested in continuing a discussion about enrolling in RAP and and I started learning about bush life.  I was certainly glad I went.