8 Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Greater Houston+

(This entry combines animal related passages that are scattered amongst prior blog entries (like Kayaking Happy Hour), with additional information and pictures of some of my favorite birds, weasels, voles, bear and moose in my yard)

Although I think of the pike in the lake as food, other fish, birds, and animals I tend to regard as neighbors.  And because the rapidly changing seasons rotate in and out several sets of migrating birds, I think of them as seasonal tourists.  Some I am delighted to see again, like long lost friends.  Others are more like loud, obnoxious travelers, arriving en masse and making sure that no one in the vicinity doesn't notice their arrival!   I am still unsure of many bird identifications, but let me tell you about "the regulars."  

Seabirds

The seagulls are obnoxious tourists.  They always nest in the stunted black spruce trees that grow in one particular location where the bog meets the far corner of the lake. They are noisy and territorial.  When the eggs are in the nest or the chicks are just learning to swim, the parents will dive bomb us like something in a Tippi Hedren movie, in which case, we maneuver the kayak out of their defended range. They aren't afraid of anything! I have even seen them work in formation to successfully, and noisily, push predatory eagles away from "their" lake. 
ommon loon with chickI am far fonder of loons, and always delighted when, in most years, a pair returns to the lake to breed and raise their babies. I love everything about those birds- their elegant black and white coloration, their haunting cry, and the way they dive and fly. They seem to play "Marco Polo" with us. They always win, since they tease us to follow them in our kayak and then dive with their strong feet, appearing a surprising distance away. I understand that their feet are so far back on their bodies that their evolutionary trade off is a gain in diving propulsion at the expense of flight take off. They are extremely noisy as their wings flap and flap against the water in a long, shallow departure. Watching the parents teach their chicks how to fly before the end of summer is nature's version of a Keystone Cops comedy.  We count the chicks as the summer progresses and mourn the losses of the slower and smaller ones.  When very small, they are vulnerable from below, to the large, predatory pike in the lake.  Beyond a certain size, they are more vulnerable from above, to eagles and other raptors that survey the lake from tall, strong white spruce trees on our property.   


Two Sandhill CranesIn the mornings, I wake up by taking coffee out to the front porch to say hello to all my "neighbors" - the serene loons and the noisy gulls and all their babies.  I look around for the eagles, which come and go as they please.  I particularly look forward to the latter half of the summer when the Sandhill cranes  leave their nest near the bog and travel to and fro in family formations.  Their stealthy silence, as they fly low past me, just below eye level (when I am in the cabin or on the deck), is astonishing given their 5-7 foot wing span.  According to Wikipedia, these birds apparently have the oldest unequivocal bird fossil on record: 2.5 mm years (which is 2.5 x older than the fossils of other birds). I wonder why?    

We also have a returning pair of trumpeter swans.  I have never seen them fly - which would be impressive at such close distance (10 foot wing span).  They arrive in the mornings before I awaken, gliding along the water slowly enough to be duplicated in reflection, and then they depart for somewhere else during the hottest part of the days. 

Small Yard Neighbors

Three spruce grouse in the yardMy most entertaining "yard neighbors" are spruce grouse and weasels. (Bears and moose are down below).  This summer, we had two families of spruce hens, each with its own set of personalities.  When I first came here, I was surprised to see birds nesting on the ground instead of in the tree branches. But because there are no snakes or rats in Alaska, the birds are presumably more vulnerable to all the raptors above than to anything below. The spruce hens are about 15-20 inches long, and as their name suggests, nest at the foot of spruce trees. After their babies are born, the mothers coo the brood of little ones toward the open, disturbed earth around our cabin,  to safe places to eat grass seeds or fluff their feathers in a sunny dusty spot.  Once she has found the right location, she jumps up on a tree stump or one of my raised gardens to have a slightly higher vantage point from which to watch her 4-7 children, reminding me of a teacher at recess.  One mother seemed young and skitterish, and made the alarm call (to scatter) more often, but the other was calmer, and perhaps for this reason, both her young and she seemed fatter. If I needed to, I could walk amongst this family to get to something or other in the yard. They are so tame in this regard, they are sometimes referred to as "fool hens."  As the summer progresses, the babies grow rapidly and expand to other areas of the property, too.  The males leave first, while the females remain longer with their mother.  Not so different from humans, perhaps.     
A Least Weasel
Weasel antics are extremely diverting.  Related to mink, ermine, and stoats, the Least Weasels in our yard are about 8 - 12 inches long. A family starts out the spring in tunnels under the spruce trees but then moves into our "Alaska sized"  woodpile. The adults are so brave! They will stick their heads out and chitter at us when we walk by. They keep Bryan company when he chops wood nearby, apparently commenting to each other on his form or speed with a variety of vocalizations.  In the fall, when we moved a ten day portion of wood to the back porch, one of the weasels was displeased. He (or she) moved into that satellite pile and started pushing out pieces of wood, as though to dismantle the whole structure and move it back where it belonged!  They are very active creatures whose metabolism requires that they are frequent eaters.  We are delighted to have them, not only because they are entertaining but also because they are fantastic hunters, who keep down the vole population (little furry meadow mice) that breed five times a year, in warm, cozy places... like human cabins. We have found three voles in our cabin (one startled me from the sink when I went to wash my face in the morning!). I worry each year that one will get in and repopulate the place. So far, though, between the weasels and good construction, my fears are unfounded. Several times a day, we see the weasels trotting across the yard with voles in their mouths.  I have read that they can kill hares many times their size.  Weasels are regarded as a good omen in Greek mythology and emblematic of bravery and wisdom in various Native American stories.  I believe it!

Bears

We are highly aware of our bear neighbors, both black and brown (grizzlies) although we see their scat and trails more often than they let us see them. The best fishing spots along the creek, for example, are often those criscrossed by bear tracks.  Every time we engage in some noisy construction project on our property, a day or two later, a big pile of scat has marked the spot, indicating that a curious bear neighbor was near enough to surreptitiously check it out when we weren't looking.   One pile appeared on the newly poured cement for the supports of the power tower (See blog entry about Building a Power Tower).  Another was on the floor of the new outhouse (Read entry about Building a Cabin 40 miles from the Nearest Road).  The two behaviors that have made quite an impression on me have been their absolute silence in transit and their astonishing speed and agility in climbing trees (black bears, not brown/grizzlies). Several bear hunters tell of bears climbing up their bear stands!  

The interaction with humans that surprise me relate to their omnivorous nature. Bears will chew on plastic gas lines and eat snow machine seats. The two hunting/fishing cabins on our lake see much more bear activity than we do, as their motion detector cameras attest.  Perhaps that is because they are closer to the creek (with its food source of salmon, trout, and grayling), whereas we are between the lake and a ridge. Both owners are very careful about burning or carting away trash, dumping water far away and covering up windows with bear shutters (plywood) to leave few inducements to bears, which are curious and clever creatures that have learned that cabins often have food. If you have ever had campsites raided by clever raccoons that were able to open your coolers and tents, picture that, but 100 times bigger. 

One summer morning after arriving at our cabin, we awoke to find bear prints all over a marine cooler we had left on the back porch (with food in it). One evening we heard the bear bells ring on the burn barrel lids. I had put garbage out that morning but it failed to burn well when it started to rain. A black bear was rooting around in it. I learned that lesson! On Alaska cabins, you can see tooth marks on the porches, scratches high on the posts, and occasional snatches of bear hair where they scratched their backs against a corner. I have seen pictures of one cabin totally trashed when a bear got in through a window. In fact, when our friend landed (his plane) and walked up the path to his cabin, carting his gear, the bear poked his head out the window to see who was coming! On another occasion, a group of tired hunters was sitting around a fire after having butchered and wrapped the meat when another bear wandered into camp, probably attracted by the smell of the blood. Bam. For many remote homesteaders, the watch word is "a fed bear is a dead bear."   This is because a bear's life goal is "maximum calories with minimal exertion."  A full garbage can or an accessible cabin is a source of free food worthy of repeat visits. (By the end of the summer they are eating an estimated 20,000 calories to gain enough fat to keep them warm through the long winter's hibernation, when they will lose approximately 1/3 of their body weight).    

Perhaps you read about or saw a PBS special on "Bear Haven."  A retired Anchorage science teacher named Charlie Vandergaw owns a cabin about 4 miles from us (as the crow flies).  His flying friends and he hauled out something like 10,000 lbs of dog food over the years, to feed black and brown (grizzly) bears, not as hunting bait, but to induce them to stay.  Pilots said when they flew over his property, they would see dozens of bears milling around the cabin - and around people.  Feeding wild animals, particularly big ones, is highly discouraged by the Department of Fish and Game because they can become habituated to people and and their habitations, which increases the incidents of dangerous altercations.  However, they left Charlie alone, perhaps because his cabin was so remote, until a British film maker made a documentary three years ago about what Bear Haven was like.  Once the videos were shown, including pictures of guests with beer and sometimes children, sitting around a campfire surrounded by 20 bears and pallets of dog food, and of Charlie swatting a bear that walked into his cabin in a very familiar manner, official and resident Alaskans were alarmed that some other nutcase would decide to do the same thing - in a more populated region.  The judiciary swung into action, charging him with feeding wild animals, a misdemeanor, and profiting from it (paid by the film maker) and endangering others.   My fear was that once they were no longer being fed by Charlie, scores of bears would sniff their way toward us.  Fortunately, though, the ensuing summers don't seem to have increased the number of bears in our vicinity. Presumably the terrain encouraged them to head in a different direction.   

I'm not particularly uncomfortable with the bears I do see. In fact, I regard those occasions as important for learning about their behavior, which I clearly need to do, so that I can modify mine appropriately.  It is the ones that I don't see that are disconcerting.  One time I was walking around a woodsy glen on our property, collecting fiddlehead ferns for dinner.  I was down by a shooting gallery we've set up of tin cans dangling from nylon fishing line, and we had shot there the day before.  I smelled fish.  Since there is no creek or lake back there, the only reason I could think of for the scent of fish was something very nearby that had recently eaten or rolled in them.  Oh-oh!  The hair rose on the back of my neck and I walked slowly and carefully up to the meadow and back to the cabin, planning in future to wear a whistle and a can of bear spray, even on my own property.


The presence of bears has encouraged me to learn more about them.  They are impressive, fascinating creatures.  Did you know that the females can get pregnant in the summer but the embryo floats, without implantation, until the female or nature determines that she'll have enough food to take her through gestation!  Maybe other mammals can do this too, but this was the first one I have learned about.  How about this:  The sow delivers, often twin cubs, in January, in the den, without really waking up out of hibernation!  Don't you love that!  The cubs weigh only about 5 oz when born (maybe that's why she doesn't wake up) and gain weight far more rapidly than most other mammals, thanks to the 24% fat in her milk, which is much higher than other mammals. The heart rate and temperature of hibernating bears do not drop as low as other creatures so the military and other medical scientists are studying these large animals, to ascertain whether there is anything useful we might learn, for example, to lower body temperatures of severely injured soldiers to transport them more safely from the field to a hospital.      
Moose seen through a window

Moose

We see moose (that's the plural, too) less often in the summer than in the winter, but we see their distinctive hoofprints and pellets throughout the area, sometimes even on our footpaths near my gardens.  In late May/early June, just after the calves are born, we sometimes see a cow and her gangly calf or calves drinking water at the lake.  Cute as these vignettes may be, a cow/calf (or sow/cub) combination is the most dangerous to a human because the mother will aggressively defend her young.  Adult moose in Alaska are HUGE - the legs alone can be 5 feet long, stand 7 feet at the shoulder, with antlers 5 feet across, weighing 800-1400 lbs.  These animals are much larger than other ungulates, like deer or even others you might think are big, like elk and caribou.  One unusual sighting (for us) was seeing a single moose swim gracefully across the lake about 9 pm one evening.  I'm not sure what prompted that.  Eluding a bear?  Usually they stay in the woods, nibbling on willow leaves.

Moose hunting season is in September.  Hunters bang trees to sound like rack banging bulls or make these nasal bleating sounds like cows in estrus.  One time my husband was making particularly provocative, come hither cow sounds and found that he was being followed by a bear, but no bulls.  After hours or days of boredom looking for a moose, imagine the anxiety after shooting one: taking several hours to butcher and then transport an animal this size ) in the middle of bear country, where those inhabitants, with their exceptional sense of smell, are attracted by the scent of blood to head toward you and a meal they want! 

In the winter, we see more moose because they want to travel on the packed snow machine trails for the same reason we do - ease of movement.  So far, the sound of our arriving snow machine has prompted them to quit the trail.  They lumber through the soft powder all the way up to their torso, looking back at us to determine how safe they are and how soon they can return to the path. Each winter, though, there are stories of hungry moose defending "their path" against snow machiners or dog mushers or even "their parking lot" against incoming cars or returning shoppers, stomping the dogs, people or vehicles with their strong legs. The males shed and regrow their large antlers (paddles) each year, providing calcium to the woodland creatures who happen upon them or the ubiquitous above-door decoration for one cabin or another.  Despite their enormous size and bodies that look like they were built by some unaligned committee compromise, they can be amazingly quiet and difficult to see in the woods.  On one hike, we startled one not 30 feet from us, while we were studying the very fresh tracks and pellets that should have been a clue that she was very nearby.       

One result of our switch from an urban to a rural existence is that, instead of talking about this or that person we know, we will talk about this or that animal "neighbor."  The former sometimes seemed like insignificant gossip.  Somehow the latter seems like an exercise in appreciation and discovery.   

(I welcome your thoughts, signed or anonymous, in the comment section below any blog entry)

Life is full of surprises, which is why adaptability and preparation go hand in hand to successfully navigate some of those twists and turns.  Most events do not surprise us BECAUSE they occur but rather because of when, where, how they inconveniently transpire. Below are three recommendations pertinent to anyone, anywhere: an identification notebook and “to go” bags at home and in the car. I’ve also described our emergency supplies for our snow machine, since that is our mode of transportation to the nearest town (42 miles) to buy food and supplies during the winter.    


The potential for natural disasters varies across the country, but virtually every region offers something catastrophic: Rapid departures or an inability to get home for unknown lengths of time can be caused by tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, or rain or snow storms that cause extensive damage and loss of power.  


When we lived in TX, the following preparations came in handy not only during hurricanes, but also during less obvious intrusions, like street flooding and a fire in our high-rise.  My son, who never would have made such plans, has benefited from the car supplies several times when he had car trouble. Friends and relatives around the country, on the other hand, have been stranded without supplies by various catastrophes or inconveniences.  A bit of forethought can ensure greater comfort and self-sufficiency when the immediate surroundings are in turmoil.  

ID notebook

During Hurricane Katrina, about 250,000 people evacuated the flooded areas of Louisiana and Mississippi and moved to Houston, TX.  As one of the many volunteers helping to feed and shelter them, the biggest preparedness lesson I learned was the importance of keeping identification papers in an easily retrievable location.  Many people fled without clothing, food, or medicine of course, but without identification, they could not even prove who they were, to get healthcare or bank wires or start the insurance process once they reached a safe destination.  What ID might you need that you can grab in a panic situation?


Like most people I had previously stored documents in separate places in my purse, car, and home.  Do you do the same?   However, in a time sensitive emergency, how likely is it that you would go through your file cabinet's many files, in poor light, to pull out what you might need in a situation you had not planned for, as you leave your home or maybe even your city?     

Now, my husband and I copy important documents into a binder that we update from time to time.  It is the same prudent practice of international travelers, who keep a copy of their passport and itinerary somewhere in addition to the originals. Our binder is stored in the "to-go" bag we keep at home, so in case of a rapid departure, we can grab it and go.  The binder includes copies of the following documents:

Our driver’s licenses, voter registration cards, passports, social security cards, birth certificates, banker’s contact information, emergency contacts (relatives, doctors, dentists), vaccine records, organ donor forms, physicians directives, voter registration, household inventory, wills, and various types of insurance.   
“To-go” bags    

My husband and I have each packed a “to go” backpack that we keep in a closet with the identity binder.  In addition, we have a lockable bin in our car.  Some items are duplicated, in case we can access the car but not the home or vice versa.  Our rather arbitrary goal is to be able to clothe, feed, and transport ourselves for three days.  You might pack other items than I suggest below, but the following categories will help you organize your list: clothing, cash, toiletries, food, entertainment, communications, and transportation. We found these organized supplies helpful even when we have “sheltered in place” during a hurricane, ice storm, and subsequent losses of power.  Meanwhile, procrastinators who dashed to stores, ATMs, and gas station behind their neighbors often found shelves emptied by prior shoppers and ATMs and gas stations depleted of cash and fuel, respectively.  After the storm damaged electricity delivery systems, some stores reopened for customers with cash but they could not process credit card payments further stranding those who were unprepared.  So think ahead of the crowd!
   
Clothing:  3 days’ worth of comfortable, versatile, seasonally appropriate clothing that can be layered, including a rain poncho and cap. 
Toiletries: (in addition to normal weekender products, we include soap, toilet paper, a small super absorbent towel, bug spray, sun lotion, a small selection of medicines and bandages, and Chapstick)

Cash:  You can determine an appropriate amount, but our logic when we lived in Houston was to have the amount of money it would cost to drive to a relative in a region of the country unaffected by Gulf Coast hurricanes, (and the amount of food in the car if it took us three times as long as usual to get there). Recent East and West Coast power outages, hurricanes, tornadoes and Midwestern flooding have affected hundreds of square miles, and news reports have depicted huge traffic jams as thousands (or millions in the case of Hurricane Rita) headed out of town at the same time, often in the same direction, looking for the same sets of services along the way. So the issue is not just "getting out of town." It is getting far beyond all the other people getting out of town, too. Hurricane Ike, for example, was an enormous storm, 500 miles in diameter.  It caused extensive damage, even beyond this range, by spinning off tornadoes and causing flooding farther inland than one might expect from a hurricane.  Many communities, both inland and along the coast, lost power for several weeks.  If evacuation is your goal, you need to not only plan but to plan ahead of all the other planners.        


Cooking/eating supplies:  a one flame camp stove, propane canisters, pot, dehydrated meals, food bars, peanut butter, raisins, tea bags, flatware, cups, matches, lighter, multi-plex knife, a case of water bottles, a few garbage bags, handy wipes, and a plastic bin that can double as a sink or storage container.


Temperature and light:  chemical foot/hand warmers, battery powered portable fan, two flash lights, extra batteries, matches and lighters


Entertainment:   Having to evacuate or just being stranded involves a lot of boredom. A deck of cards, two paperback books, and a pad of paper and pen are handy, in both the car and the to-go bag. A hand cranked, battery powered radio at home is helpful to know what is going on beyond your windows.

A well prepared car

Our car is stocked with inexpensive but important items in preparation for travel glitches we may need to address by ourselves in remote areas or, if we are lucky, with the help of a passing stranger.  These include a tire gauge, air pump, Fix-a-flat, a good spare tire, battery jumpers, a tow strap, bungie cords, duct tape, an empty gas can, a funnel, water, a jack, a blanket (to sleep under, lie on when changing a tire, picnic on, and cover up items in the car), two camp chairs, flares, current regional maps and an atlas.  We also include a compass, a pair of binoculars, a digital camera, a GPS, a small sewing kit, and a whistle.  In Alaska, we keep warm clothing and a sleeping bag in the car year round.

For communications, we installed a device that enables us to charge several computers, cell phones and other devices simultaneously while the car is running (we keep extra recharging cords in the car) and a ham radio (my husband has the licenses to operate one).  Since we have experienced periods when electric gasoline pumps did not work and stations ran out of inventory, we bought a bike trailer wide enough to accommodate two bikes and five gas cans.  Thus, we may be able to fill gas cans to extend our driving range past dysfunctional gas stations or ride bicycles if our car runs out of gas.Storage in silver box and under the driver
A well prepared snow machine    

In Alaska, we keep a car in a nearby city since there is no road near our home.  In the winter, we rely on the snow machine (same as a snowmobile) to get to the town, about 42 miles away, usually to haul bulky supplies on our 14 foot snow machine trailer (like construction supplies and drums of gasoline). 
Because the route crosses lakes, creeks, bogs, and rivers, as well as woods, and because most of the way one is unlikely to encounter another person, we carefully maintain our emergency supplies.  Some are stored in gear boxes on the machine, but some are very important to wear the whole time, in a backpack or on one’s person, in case, for example, the machine and the driver separate in an emergency. We try to anticipate a variety of likely scenarios, such as breaking through thin ice or driving through overflow (water seeping up over the ice from some opening), tipping over or getting stuck in deep snow, being blocked by an over turned tree or an ornery moose, getting lost, getting hurt, suffering machine damage, and running out of gas.

I used to worry about my husband getting lost or stranded.  I don’t anymore.  He knows his routes and perhaps more importantly, he recognizes landmarks that indicate how far he is to the nearest likely place to find people or shelter, like a cabin or a frequented ice fishing spot, or one of the rivers that serves as a transportation artery in the region.  As a backup, he also bought a Garmin 62s handheld GPS with a topographical map, particularly useful in a disorienting snowstorm.  If the machine broke down or he got hurt along the normal route, we figure that the farthest point he would be from likely shelter or a person is 10 miles. If he had an accident but could walk, he would be able to reach help on snow shoes in several hours.  Alternatively, we hope that the supplies would enable him to stay warm and safe until someone found him (if he stayed on his normal route).         

Tools: The toolbox includes:  a collapsible cable winch, a collapsible shovel, a geologist type hammer (to tap components that have become iced up), a nylon ratchet strap, a pocket chainsaw, bailing wire, a carabiner, spare parts for the snow machine, a multi-function tool, needle nose pliers, miniature scissors, bungie cords, nylon rope, duct tape, a flashlight with spare batteries and an extra can each of gas and oil.    
Warmth:  In separate dry bags are stored clothes, fire starters, food supplies and camping equipment.  A full extra set of clothes, including socks and gloves is imperative in case one gets wet.  Chemical hand and foot warmer packets are handy, small, and effective.  We generally pack three different ways to start a fire, such as waterproof matches, a lighter, one baggy with birch bark and another with a Vaseline soaked cotton ball), a 9 volt battery and steel wool or a magnesium bar with flint attached.  To shelter in place, we carry a silver, reflecting emergency blanket and a tarp, a bivy sack, a sleeping bag, a portable, one person propane backpacking stove, with a metal cup or pot, tea bags, and dehydrated food packs.  
Communications:  Like any camper who prudently informs someone of where he is going and when he expects to return, Bryan calls me from town when he is ready to leave, so I know to expect him in 3 hours. He also carries his cell phone and charger and one of our two way radios since the phone and/or radio sometimes work at a few points along the route.    



Other: A pair of snowshoes and ski poles, toilet paper, plastic bags, a gun, a flare, a  compass, permanent marker, paper, identification, cash, a timepiece. 



Food:  three meals worth of food, like sandwiches or snack bars and raisins.  A bottle of water or a camelback is stored inside one’s jacket to keep the water from freezing.

Conclusion:
I know that we can’t plan for every eventuality, but perhaps the tools assembled to preserve Maslow’s hierarchy of water, food, warmth, shelter, etc may be useful for adapting to other, unforeseen circumstances.  After all, isn’t duct tape good for just about anything?  We have adjusted our inventories over time as we have heard other ideas or found lighter or more versatile products.  Another benefit of thinking ahead like this is that it forces one to be more aware of our vulnerabilities which, in turn, makes us less likely to take things for granted, like "a short trip" or "I'll get it later," or "that only happens to the other guy."   This awareness is a good life lesson that pays dividends in many other aspects of life, too.  I recommend it.      

  

Whether you are planning to visit Alaska or are an armchair traveler, the following are books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction that I commend to your attention, in no particular order.  I will add to this blog over time.  

FICTION
Poetry:                        Robert Service
Sample titles: books:  Songs of a Sourdough (1907) with “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee” and The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses.
Service is such a well known poet in Alaska that schools are named after him, but the fact is that he lived in Canada (Dawson City, Whitehorse, Vancouver), never Alaska.  Even so, Alaskan school children used to (maybe they still do, some places) have to memorize one of his ballads to deliver to the class or on, paper, to the teacher.  I highly recommend one of his slim books of verse to anyone interested in immersing himself or herself in the sights, sounds, and smells of the Gold Rush era.  His poems, with a driving rhythm that cries out to be read aloud (even to yourself) capture the loneliness and risks braved by men and women confronted by conniving men and women, as well as by weather, animals, topography, greed and hubris.  Each poem is a well told story with plot twists and emotional recoil – shifting between humor and pathos. Service was the most commercially successful poet of his age, derided by “high-brow” writers for writing doggerel and verse, rather than poetry.  That was fine by him.  And by me.
 
Touching fiction:         Eowyn Ivey:   
Sample title:    The Snow Child
Ivey’s first novel is one that has attracted attention and translations faster than you can say “October snowfall.”  I have recommended it to many of my friends because this is one of the few books about Alaska that that describe the arctic winter, not as a danger to be overcome (like Jack London’s tales), but as stunningly beautiful – a privilege to behold.  Her depiction of a yellow birch leaf flowing below the clear, icy surface of a creek is one such image early in the novel, followed by many others.  Her marvelous sense of place grounds a story that is also graced by a compelling plot populated by believable characters (married homesteaders in the 1920s and their nearest neighbors) who transition through experiences, over time.   This book describes some of the challenges and joys I have discovered in my little log cabin in the middle of nowhere in ways that I hope my friends can appreciate through this author’s skill. 



Dour fiction:    Jack London:
Sample titles:  White Fang, Call of the Wild, short stories such as “To Build a Fire.”
If you asked anyone the name of an author who writes/wrote about Alaska, my guess is that Jack London would be the most frequently named.  He did go up to the Klondike and climbed Chilkoot Pass but didn’t stay long. Over the winter he developed scurvy and started losing his teeth. He headed south less than a year and a half later, in 1898.  By 1900, he was a well compensated author, compellingly depicting difficult experiences up north.  London’s stories and novels are so vivid that images and feelings linger long after.  It is my impression (not having read all of them) that his depictions of Alaska and Canada are uniformly dark.  The terrain and weather are forces to be fought, against which humans can rarely win, and in that fight, people discover the worst or the weaknesses in themselves and one another.  Partners turn on one another, and those partners can include hungry dogs against vicious masters.  His is a harrowing, dystopian world.


MYSTERIES:

Sue Henry and Dana Stabenow:
Both authors are prolific, with some books about Alaska and others not.  The three Alaska series all feature a repeated cast of rough and tumble and often quirky characters in out-of-the-way places.  Each book is a stand-alone mystery, but like many series, it may be worth reading them in order to appreciate the developing relationships among some of the main characters. 


Sue Henry’s main character is Jessie Arnold, a competitive dog musher.  Two of the mysteries occur during the most famous annual races:  Murder on the Iditarod Trail (book 1) and Murder on the Yukon Quest (book 6).   This series would be particularly appealing to dog lovers as the dogs, particularly, Tank, are endearing characters, and the author’s descriptions of dog training and racing are integral to the plots. 


Dana Stabenow has two Alaska based series, the main characters of which are Kate Shugak and Liam Campbell, respectively. 
Shugak is an Aleut private investigator who lives on a homestead in an unnamed national park in Alaska.  Among the 19 books are titles like A Cold Day for Murder (book 1) and A Fine and Bitter Snow ( Book 12) Campbell is an Alaska trooper, working primarily around Bristol Bay.  Among the four titles in this series are Fire and Ice and So Sure of Death (Books 1 and 2).  Because these books, particularly the first series, do a good job of describing native cultures, tribal management, and conflicts with Caucasian law enforcement, they may strike some readers as akin to an Alaskan version of Tony Hillerman’s novels about the tribes of the American Southwest.     


NON-FICTION:

Pictures:  Outhouses of Alaska and Log Cabins of Alaska by Harry Walker.  These are small, slim books, with color photographs and commentary about some unusual outhouses and picturesque cabins in the state.  Some of the buildings are stately, while others are created out of cleverly repurposed materials, like a boat or shapely branches. I myself have an outhouse with stained glass windows and a pretty log cabin.  Perhaps a second volume is in order!


Ada BlackJack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic, by Jennifer Niven
This is a harrowing story of an ill conceived and poorly executed Arctic expedition in 1923 organized by a self-promoter who doesn’t even accompany the naïve men he recruits.  Ada is an Inuit woman who accompanies the men as a seamstress and, it turns out, the only one with any knowledge pertinent to survival. 


If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, by Heather Lende
The author lives in the coastal town Haines, AK, which her book describes so lovingly that the reader will want to go there and be her friend.  Many of the chapters are based on the obituaries she wrote for the town newspaper, but those articles and this book are a celebration of life in a town where the neighbors like each other and appreciate every day joys of their lovely setting.


Race Across Alaska by Libby Riddles and Tim Jones
Riddles was the first woman to win the grueling, 1000 mile long Iditerod dog race.  Her co-author crafts a compelling story filled with the details that inquiring minds want to know, about the care and feeding of the dogs, the racer, and the mind games that occur from sleeplessness, competition, and challenging conditions. 


Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man by Doug Fine    
This is a hilarious, autobiographical book by and about a travel writer who rents a cabin just outside of Homer, AK and endeavors to learn about such basics as food, warmth, shelter and, well, manliness.  His description of trying to use a chainsaw is laugh-out-loud funny, and his turns of phrase, like “remedial indigenousness” are right on target.  I read this as I, too, was starting on our adventures and misadventures carving a home site out of the woods, so while I laughed at and with the author, I also saw myself (and certainly my husband) in many of his anecdotes.   


One Man’s Wilderness by Sam Keith
The author describes the life lead by a loner who shed a traditional life of towns and jobs to live alone in a log cabin he built near Lake Clark, Alaska.  The photos,  alone, are worth the price of the book, but Keith’s straight forward narration about how Richard Proenneke built the tools he needed to construct the structures he required offer a fascinating glimpse into a life of minimal consumerism and social interaction that yielded a very contented life.    


Into the Wild by John Krakauer
The story of illusive Christopher McCandless and his post college odyssey  through the Southwest that ended in Alaska, where he died of starvation is best read as the short story the author first wrote for Outside Magazine in 1993.  He subsequently lengthened the story into a book (1996) by padding it with narratives about other people who took off for remote places and did or didn’t make it, but to me, that version was not as satisfying a read.  This was made into a movie, directed by Sean Penn, around 2007. 


Walking My Dog, Jane by Ned Rozell
The author is a contributing science and nature writer to Alaska newspapers and magazines, and for one he wrote a series of articles, depicted in this book, as he and his dog walked 800 miles along the Alaska pipeline.  Rozell describes well both the land he crosses and the people he meets, who range from corporate PR people at oil company offices to old homesteaders out in the bush.


Wager with the Wind:  the Don Sheldon Story, by James Griener
Planes are indispensable to such a large state with so few roads, and bush pilots are to Alaska what pony express riders were to the “wild west”:  brave and resilient individualists with tales of danger and near escapes.  There are many worthy books about impressive bush pilots, but certainly Don Sheldon is among the most famous, and this book devotes separate chapters to individual adventures.   The one about landing in the Devil’s Canyon to retrieve stranded rafters was the most amazing to me. 


 

(Laura welcomes responses in the comment field beneath each blog entry).



During 2000-2008, virtually every private company’s investment oriented PowerPoint or Private Placement Memorandum  I saw (as Compliance Officer of a boutique investment bank), concluded with a “hockey stick” graph of escalating profitability, with a liquidity event in two years.   The magic number was always 2 years, regardless of likelihood, because this is what companies thought investors wanted to hear.  I cringe when I still hear that.  The liquidity event was usually posited as an IPO (initial public offering) with an occasional alternative of being bought out by a large public company.  

To outline all the reasons I have long thought that going public early is a bad idea and an expensive mistake for small companies is another article for another day.  But here, I will outline why and how  small private companies are shut out from public capital, and what I think the liquidity options are in the near future for companies worth less than $50 mm.  
Initial Public Offerings  (IPOs)The number of IPOs and their funding totals have declined as both the age and value of the companies has risen, raising the bars for companies considering this access to capital.  Statistics vary in frustrating ways for something that should seem so easily measurable, so consider the two following scenarios that follow the same trend line, but with different numbers. 

The first is documented in an informative RR Donnelly speech in March, 2012:  One long standing bar is that since 2003, the majority of those that launched IPOs were previously funded by more than $10 mm of venture capital. (So companies that haven’t already raised any outside capital might refocus their attention to growth first). Another is that the age of companies going public has risen from the rather ridiculous youth of 3-4 years in 2000-2002 to a more sensible 6-9 years of records, as was the norm in prior decades. The number of IPOs in each of the past three years has been about 100 – 150, raising $41-44 billion, far below the frothy years epitomized by 2000, with 446 deals raising $108 billion.  But even with this reduction in the number of deals, to companies presumably older and “field tested,” from 2004 to date, a sobering 22- 39% have not hit their offering price, despite heavy and expensive lifting by those companies’ marketing, PR, IR staffs and hired investment bankers.  They didn't mention the ones that withdrew after starting the process.
  
The second scenario, here gleaned from the excellent charts and graphs of  www.renaissancecapital.com of Greenwich CT, but that I have read elsewhere, too, shows much less volume. They count a measly 53 US IPOs in 2011, a precipitous plunge not only from 125 the prior year, but from a high of 486 in 1999. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the number of IPO withdrawals has increased in the past three years, from 48 to 52 to 67 last year.  (Did RR Donnelly use the start-out-the gate number?) The Jan-April withdrawals in 2012 are even with those in 2011.  The dollar volume raised by the IPOs differs, too.  These sources cite $97 billion in 2000 declining to $36 billion last year.  Both sources agree that the average age of companies making an initial public offering have aged, but the Renaissance numbers are MUCH OLDER than the others.  They identify the average age as 10 years in 2000, 15 last year, and 27 years old for those so far this year. 

GrowThink points out that the number of US IPOs since 2001 remain lower than the 1980s.    
The final barrier to entry is the value of the companies.  This is tough to assess, because pre-money valuations are usually described by those wanting to attract the money to prove the valuations!  Not a very virtuous circle.  But it appears that the market is not particularly interested in companies worth less than $50 mm and certainly not those less than $20 mm.  

Entrepreneurs who want to say, "we should go public" should instead do their homework to research and analyze the trend line and the differences cited here, before being swept into enthusiasm by service providers who will be paid no matter what happens once the bell rings. This summary doesn't even address the costs of going public and staying compliant, year after year, which is another topic to scrutinize carefully. 

My black and white recommendation is that if your company is pre-revenue, pre-breakeven, or even pre-$20 mm valuation, don't even think about an IPO. Doing so derails far too many companies from focusing on legitimate expenditures of time and money to grow market share, customer base, or profit margin. 
Reverse Mergers The alternative route for small companies was, since 2000, a fad called reverse mergers.  This is no longer an option for many companies either.   “Reverse merger” means that a private company buys a public one, often a “shell” company that has no operating business.  Reverse mergers are faster than going public the old fashioned way and have been used by some sneaky firms and their service providers to go public without fulfilling the investor disclosure obligations of firms that file for IPOs, such as audits and SEC filings. However, even with such attractions, 2011 saw the fewest number of reverse mergers in US since 2004, 166, well down from even the prior year’s 258.  Currently, there is a glut of 1900 shell companies for sale, up from 1200 last year. 


The reverse merger doldrums are likely to remain.  Why?   Financial regulators have caught up with the “end run” many of these firms were undertaking to get access to investors.  Rules have been put in place to protect investors after a series of fraud allegations and SEC enforcement actions.  The “poster boy” for bad behavior has been the 43% of Chinese companies listed on US exchanges via reverse mergers, many with poor managerial oversight and little attention to American financial disclosure laws.  29 of these companies were delisted last year.   Investors lost an estimated  $34 bn due to misrepresentations by Chinese reverse merger companies.  The companies themselves, lost, too:  Chinese Reverse Mergers Index fell 62% in 2011 compared to flat S&P 500.  The only people who seem to have benefitted from this fad were the service providers, who encouraged private company management to pay them to find shells and then take them through the steps to become public.  Might this money have been better spent by legitimate companies to generate additional sales or product development?  You be the judge.  In any case, the SEC has taken to task a number of these service firms, among them NY Global, whose leader, Benjamin Wey (Wei), is under investigation by both the FBI and SEC.   Since 2009, several companies that gave optimistic speeches at reverse merger conferences have quietly left that business altogether, and clearly by the stark decline in activity, others have, too.   


Going forward, companies that choose to be listed on any tradable American exchange (this does not include the notorious pink sheets) by any method have to perform better than in the past before they can move up to more prestigious exchanges or they will be delisted.  For example, they will  have to fulfill some of the same financial disclosures as the “big boys” like annual audits, an annual report, and all quarterly reports, whereas before, many languished with penny stocks and nary a quarterly statement for years at a time.  What a concept for firms trying to attract capital from investors or for CEOs bragging about heading up some tiny public company!  Are there really that many people with disposable income in their pockets ready to be spent on a company that doesn’t even pay to audit its financials?  Hey, have I got a deal for you!

Foreign ExchangesSome American companies eschewed American exchanges altogether in favor of going public on European or Canadian exchanges.  Like the reverse merger approach, these exchanges offered fewer regulatory hurdles than NYSE and AMEX, but fewer investors, too, so, understandably, the number of foreign companies on the TSX (Canada) and AIM (UK) has declined.  As of March 31, 2012, there are only 89 US companies listed on the TSX and most of these are in oil, gas, and mining, primarily mining.   Why this paucity of American companies?  The TSX attracts many more listings (about 3800 altogether) than LSE/AIM, NYSE/AMEX or NASDAQ (each lists between 2200 and 2900).  But the aggregate value is much less (the TSX company values, altogether, are 1/10 the value of those on NYSE/AMEX, and ½ those on LSE/AIM and NSASDAQ.  (TSX:  US $1.9 trillion, LSE/AIM: $3.2 trillion, NYSE/AMEX: a whopping 11.8 trillion, and NASDAQ: $3.8 trillion).  So small businesses find a lot of comparable company there, but they are likely to get lost in the weeds created by companies that spend more to attract investor attention.


AIM is the small company branch of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).  It has such a low threshold of due diligence and disclosure that respected observers conclude that only a quarter of its companies would qualify to be on the NYSE and AMEX.  Started in 1995, it reached its peak number of companies in 2007, from which it has declined to a current number of only 1118 listings, of which about ¼ are foreign.  In one report it estimates its daily average number of shares traded in 2011 at 704 mm, but its excellent monthly reports reveal that most of those firms newly issued in March, 2012 raised no money in their inaugural month whatsoever. 


The lesson for American companies that listed abroad was taught by the absolute dearth of interest in them.  The costs they evaded in regulatory requirements in America they made up for in having to hire IR/PR firms to hawk their languishing stocks until many of them delisted themselves.   The other lesson I hope they learned is that investors are cautious about companies that so obviously choose to evade regulations designed to inform and protect investors in an inherently “caveat emptor” environment.  For an American company to list itself on these exchanges always smacked of the short kid who couldn’t make it on the team but wanted to be on the field any way he could, even as a water boy, paying for the privilege.  


Mergers & Acquisitions Despite reports of cash rich companies ready to snap up undervalued companies around the globe, mergers and acquisition activity remains at a 5 year low, in terms of both money and number of deals.  In 2011, 725 global M&A deals were consummated.  The annual number has remained below 800 since 2008.  The value of the 2011 deals totaled $1.1 trillion, half as much as the 1184 deals concluded in 2007 ($2.2 trillion). This, too, is unlikely to change in the near term.  Why?  For one thing,  the UK passed a new Takeover Code in Sept, 2011 that protects target companies in various ways from hostile take overs that would otherwise be more popular in a market of undervalued companies and cash rich acquirers.  For another, European banks are rarely lending more than $50 mm, and there is a paucity of consortium lending of, say $250 mm by five banks to support larger deals.  Across the pond, in America, debt financing virtually shut down the second half of 2011 and banks are keeping their coffers locked up at the Fed this year, too. All this inertia remains despite the fact that large global corporations do appear to be sitting on cash reserves – the 100 biggest companies in the world appear to have 32% more cash on hand than in prior years.  Those with the largest reserves appear to be not in the US but in Brazil, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  Smaller firms are shoring up their own balance sheets, buying back stock, cutting staff or hiring younger cheaper ones, investing in efficiencies to make themselves leaner and meaner but not out buying other companies (except as mentioned below).  In the US market, M&A deals indicate prolonged due diligence phases which may reflect a game of chicken as both parties stare across a broad gulf between buyer and seller valuations.  Who will blink first?  We worked on one project for a small company in which the buyer verbally offered an attractive price for 20% of the company.  When the deal was papered, just about everything was the same except the portion of the company.  They now wanted 50% of it... for the same price.   The seller regarded this as an egregious bait and switch.  The potential acquirer explained it as the result of extensive due diligence.  The seller walked away from the table.



What About… What is an optimistic entrepreneur of a small private company to do?  Hunker down and grow the business organically, the old fashioned way?  With cost controls and steady growth in customers?  Well, in a word, yes.  The funding frenzy from the late 1980s on fueled a generation’s expectation of easy cash and creative financing that was largely as illusive as unraided pension funds.  Industry journals highlighted the occasional brilliant success story and published unexamined press releases about pending fundings far more often than the slow and steady bootstrapping or “whatever happened to” stories (when the first tranche was paid but none of the rest).  Many sources of government funding have dried up, too, as municipalities, states, and the federal government take in less money from their tax base.  Sources like CAPCos (state credits to insurance companies that invested in businesses) are all but closed.     



The entrepreneur can also profitably spend time in self-examination as well as exploring relationships (before they are needed) with banks, investment bankers, factoring firms, suppliers, customers, competitors and larger, synergistic firms.  The financing and acquisitions I have seen in the past several years are ALL with smart money experts in a given industry, often with resources the acquired company lacked, usually a sales channel to outlets like governments, schools, hospitals or the military that would otherwise take years to develop.  Here are three examples:  One company that developed a hospital inventory management system was bought by a company that sold, guess what – hospital inventory.   Another was a small fish farming company that wanted to get into big box stores but lacked the connections.  It was acquired by a large conglomerate with other subsidiaries selling into those stores, as well as the transportation and logistics arm to facilitate delivery of such time sensitive products.  Here is an example for service providers:  A successful investment banker I know takes only back end fees, never retainers, but he only takes on clients for whom he already knows a few competing money sources interested in what the client company has to offer.  He is able to do this because he is an expert in a narrow geographic/industry niche.  He knows everyone and has an excellent reputation for honesty.  It helps, too, that since he is an expert, he can offer rapid due diligence before saying yes or no to a potential project and can thus conclude a deal faster than generalists who have to climb a learning curve on each transaction they stumble across.  The point of these examples is that a scatter shot approach is unlikely to be successful.  A company that desires to be acquired or funded needs to seek out smart money or hire industry experts who know those who need to be known, first to get a reality check on valuation and then to approach potential buyers or investors with realistic expectations.   


With profit margins and disposable income being squeezed as oil prices and regulations rise, it is only the smart money with deep knowledge that is willing to take a risk on small companies.   Small smart companies will already know who those companies and investors are in their space, whether they are looking for acquisitions, and whether the company has met the milestones those money sources want to see. Some angels may be willing to take a flyer with a portion of their money, but I'm not seeing the activity level or the enthusiasm of the past.  It seems to me that many angels are really service providers in disguise.  This is a buyer’s market.  Small companies looking for financing better put their best foot forward, and that foot should be shod in profitability with a sole of sound market (and self) analysis tied with the bow of cost containment.  



  

(Laura welcomes comments through the comment field below each blog entry)

Whenever we travel, I love reading the local newspapers.  Each town and region has its own points of pride and subjects of division and derision from which a visitor or new resident can learn a great deal. Note the organization, relative coverage and topics featured repeatedly in its newspapers.  Such news can help to entrench or eclipse assumptions about the place. Clearly, Alaska thinks of itself as different from the rest of the US, as reference to “Outside” and “the Lower 48” indicate.  In several ways, this is very true.   



 What do the Alaska newspapers reveal about life up here?  To me, the primary impression from the Anchorage Daily News is one of a fully embraced outdoor lifestyle.  By way of example, consider this:  the “Outdoors” section of the on-line version (www.adn.com) includes the following permanent sections:  Bears, Excursions, Fishing, Iditarod, Mushing, Skiing, Snowmachining,  and Wildlife.  Readers are invited to submit photographs and there are whole galleries devoted to cabins, the aurora borealis, and “around Alaska.” By contrast, the Houston (Texas) Chronicle (www.chron.com) doesn’t even have an Outdoors section.  The only regular outdoor activity addressed is gardening).    


Two years ago, somebody or other surveyed Anchorigians regarding their satisfaction in living there.  Over 90% said that the setting contributed to their satisfaction.  Aside from the obvious fact that Anchorage’s setting, between the Chugach Mountains and the Cook Inlet, is one of the most visually stunning in America, the paper makes clear that residents enjoy its terrain, resources, and weather.  Everyone I meet in Alaska is happy to be here.   (By contrast, what might the percentage be in many other places?  Most people I know in Houston, TX, for example, say they live there “for the job” and plan to leave.  Complaining about some aspect of the city is a ‘warm up topic” at just about any gathering.)    I must say, it is nice to get away from the whiners!     


 The business section of the Anchorage Daily News gives a good snapshot of the state’s economic priorities.  The permanent sections of the on-line newspaper are:   Gas pipeline, oil, aviation, commercial fishing, markets (meaning financial markets), mining, native corporations, tourism, business people, and “inside business.”   The only topic that might be unfamiliar to Outsiders is “native corporations.”  This term reflects the greatest peacetime transfer of wealth in the US, and maybe the world.  It is a rather fascinating story that I encourage you to look up on line, but below is a summary.

When abundant oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, the federal government negotiated the Alaska Native Claims Act of 1971, signed into law by President Nixon, before negotiating oil leases and the construction of the oil pipeline (an engineering marvel you might research, too).   80,000 Alaska natives (at least ¼ native) , in tribes such as the Yupic, Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, and Athabaskan, organized into 12 (now 13) tribal corporations and 200 communities.  These entities divided up 149 million acres of land (1/9 of the state), surface rights to 44 million acres, and $462 million.   (The  tribal land set aside for each group was associated with traditionally occupied locations.  Obviously these set-asides more easily designate land for settled tribes than migratory ones.  In any case, the map of Alaska is an irregular patchwork quilt of state, federal, native, and private land ownership.  Private ownership is a very small minority of parcels).  Some tribes occupied and thus received more resource rich tribal lands than others, and some tribal corporations parlayed the 1971 rights into more lucrative businesses than others, but in any case, the native corporations form a highly visible economic presence in Alaska that one doesn’t see in the Lower 48, except in the narrow case of casino businesses.  Members of the tribes are shareholders in the tribes’ public corporations, with stockholder rights and provisions, since these businesses abide by the same rules of disclosure as other corporations.       


Moving from the South, where segregated hospitals are a shameful past history, I am startled every time I drive past the self-proclaimed “Native Hospital” in Anchorage which provides healthcare to Native Alaskans and other American Indians, only.  According to its annual report, this non-profit hospital, established in 1997, is funded partly by the native corporations, and partly by federal subsidies, grants, and insurance.  I don’t understand why federal funding of a segregated hospital is OK in Alaska.         


In several ways, Alaska values are similar to other low density, outdoorsy states.  One shared theme is interest in low government involvement in private affairs.   By various measures, Alaska is a more hands-off government than other states.  It collects no income tax and most communities charge no sales tax.  (Instead, Alaska taps tourists with high bed, cruise, and rental car taxes and high out-of-state fishing and hunting license fees).  Up to 24 marijuana plants can be grown at home for personal consumption.  Gun laws are liberal.  For example, in Alaska, one does not need a license to carry a concealed weapon.   Alaska is one of the few states (Texas being another) that has refused to embrace national education standards. 


On the other hand, despite the “hands-off” language, Alaska is not a “right to work” state.  It also benefits from enormous federal funding.  Under Senator Ted Stevens, (now deceased) who sat on the Senate  Appropriations Committee, the state was the number one per capita recipient of funding earmarks for many years in a row (other than Washington DC itself).  The amount in 2008 was about $360 million.  In 2010, the amount Alaska received was twice the per capita national average (we are a low population state).  A state with few highways, it doesn’t capitalize on those gazillion dollars doled out to other states, but it isn’t squeamish about other pork barrel contributions.  I imagine that our “take” will diminish now that “Uncle Ted” has gone to the Great Beyond and our current senators are more junior.


Despite a strong sense of individualism per person, I also sense an unattractive “payback” mentality among some groups of Alaskans.  This may contribute to the contradictory “us vs. them” messages I read in the paper, among letters to the editor.    For example, some remote, native villages advocate for advantageous subsistence hunting and fishing rights in one article right next to another about the need for subsidized fuel oil, gasoline and power for an aging, diminishing, and “stuck” population while they hemorrhage the young people to the cities.   One village, perched along an eroding bluff, wants the government to pay to move the whole town to a safer location.  A number of Alaskans working in fishing, logging, and oil exploration complain that businesses headquartered in Seattle, Japan, and elsewhere pillage the state like a latter day “banana republic.”  They seek governmental supports, tariffs and pork barrel receipts while extolling “small government” at the same time.   Like Hawaii, Alaska is highly dependent upon shipments of remote goods that it doesn’t produce itself, making it an expensive place to live.  Both pride of place and competition prompt a number of businesses to encourage shoppers to "buy Alaskan."  


The combination of whiners and “takers” worries me in any part of the country.  I wonder whether people “who blame the other guy” while accepting his money may fail to take charge of their own destiny.  As they indulge in the facile pleasure of resenting the one who funds their current lifestyle, do they suffer from an eroding sense of self-worth or do they just laugh all the way to the bank?  Either way, what will happen when the taps dry up?  Alaska is the only state I see publicly discussing a future with lower oil throughput, foretelling both lower employment and state revenues.  Government officials are already negotiating with oil companies for changes in corporate taxes.  On the other hand, Alaska’s biggest trading partner for its natural resources, such as lumber, seafood, and natural gas is Asia, not the lower 48, so it is following the financial fortunes in the East, too. So in many ways, different though it may be from other states, alert Alaskans may be ahead of the curve in terms of anticipating declining government financing, watching balance of trade payments with the East, and enjoying a life that embraces the natural setting and the skills that such a life entails.     

Alaska is a fascinating state, encompassing the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows, financially, topographically, and by many other measures.   Check out your own newspapers with the eyes of an outsider.  What do the articles and lack of articles reveal about the knowledge and priorities of your home town?  Do they reflect your interests and priorities?   

     


 


 

Although the temperature outside this March is below + 10F degrees in the morning, and above that  in the afternoon, the sun is so extravagantly reflected from the snow into the cabin that by late morning through afternoon (on sunny days) the interior is comfortable without a fire.  So every second or third day, after breakfast/dishes/spit baths, we let the fire die out (if we have enough melted snow for water).  Once the stove is cool, we clear out the ashes and use the embers to burn trash in a snow pit in the back yard.  About once in the spring, fall, and winter, we sweep out the chimney too.   What a dirty job that is!  But we don’t want any uncontrollable creosote based chimney fire in a log cabin in the middle of the woods.  


We tend to have hearty breakfasts and lunches (followed by light dinners). For example, today we had ham and spinach omelets for breakfast.  For lunch, we had salmon salad and crispy cabbage wrapped in a tortilla, browned on the grill, served with stewed apples, followed by  peanut butter cookes topped with Reeces bites and tea.     <><><><> <><><><> Chicken coop & snow machine commute<><><><>
After a morning working on business emails and phone calls, Bryan is eager for outdoor energetic projects.  Sometimes he said that he gets into the "zen" of the work, particularly something repetitive like shoveling. Other times he "processes" some business goofball he talked with earlier in the day.  Yesterday, he chopped down a huge birch bough that had crashed into and was hung up in an adjacent tree ( a "widow maker").  Wearing a helmet and Kevlar chaps protected him from most chainsaw depredations, but the snow was so powdery that maneuvering in snow shoes on unstable snow while hefting his Husqvarna 455 seemed less and less prudent so he gave that up (without my having to haul out my widow's weeds). 
Last week he built a chicken coop which we hope to populate next summer with the fluffiest, cold hardy chickens you could ever hope to see.  But I wonder, why am I the only one concerned that the building will fall at a damaging tilt when the 8 feet of ground snow melts in April? 

Building this was a multi-step process.  First, Bryan and I huffed and puffed as we stomped around the chosen meadow in snow shoes to harden a snow crust for a construction site.  That lowered the surface about four - six inches.  The next day, Bryan drove his snow machine over that area, to further toughen the surface.  Despite the weight, that endeavor lowered it fewer inches, maybe three more.  But with two good freezing nights, we felt confident about the building site for something as light as what we intended.  The third day he left at 6 in the morning with his snow machine and sled to commute cross country and down river to a boat launch area where Home Depot agreed to deliver one set of construction supplies at 9 am and the carpenter agreed to meet him with the prebuilt/and disassembled chicken coop to rebuild on site. Fortunately, everyone arrived on time; otherwise, it would have been a long, cold wait in the parking lot by the river.  Both vendors had well wrapped pallets of materials that they transferred easily by forklift and tilt trailer respectively onto the snow trailers. 


 The intrepid carpenter commuted to work by hauling his tools and  supplies on his own snow machine trailer.  The two of them arrived at the cabin about noon, just as I pulled out some fresh buns for a hot lunch to fortify them before a sunny afternoon of work.

I sent photos to my in-laws who independently pronounced the coop as pretty as a guest cabin.  So maybe we can have our shorter guests stay there if feathered friends don't work out (it is insulated)! 

We need to roof the chicken run as protection from eagles and ravens.  Bryan had to  find the 8 x 4 foot metal roof panels he had stored and tarped on a pallet of other construction supplies last fall... after this winter's record snow fall.   This required treasure hunt like digging over several days.  From the depths of a pit about 6 feet deep and 9 feet long (a cubic foot of snow weighs about 20 lbs!) he found and freed the panels that we then dragged over to the construction site.   Locals have advised us that traditional chicken wire is too flimsy for the predators here, so we will use metal hardware mesh and Bryan will dig a trench a foot or more deep to sink the fence in order to deter weasels and other wily carnivores.  I love watching the eagles and weasels here, but I like to eat chicken eggs, too, so I guess we’ll see whether Bryan’s construction can foul an ancient evolutionary chain.    


For non-project based exercise, we have been learning to cross country ski.  We primarily follow packed snow machine trails.  My husband is more naturally athletic so in contrast, I looked pretty ridiculous at first, like a comedic marionette, careening wildly with both arms akimbo as I overcompensated to balance.   Especially when you are new and your movements are so inefficient, it is terrific, all-body exercise!  We'd return to the cabin and even at +20 degrees, we'd strip off several layers and sit out on the sunny porch to cool down.  Over three weeks of afternoon jaunts, though, I became smoother and longer in my movements and more confident on the down hills.   I am starting to look forward to it, starting to regard it as fun, and maybe starting to sense an affinity for it.  As the afternoons warmed up, the trails started to get icy, and since skinny cross country skis have no metal edges, we slid hither and yon.  I thought that would be the end of my practice but one afternoon and evening it snowed to an accumulation of 8 - 14 inches in various sections of our property.  We decided to try cross country ski in that.  It was eerie!  Our skis sank through the powder and proceded forward without breaking the snow. Looking down was like watching Claude Rains in "The Invisible Man."   I could see my pants to middle calf, and below that nothing, even as I moved forward.  Every once in a while, top snow would suffuse downward, as though pulled, as it was, by the unseen skis.  (Creepy musical passage plays now).  
Yesterday, when we returned from skiing, we saw three military helicopters appear at barely treetop level, flying very slowly in some training maneuver, presumably (Elmendorf Air Force Base is in Anchorage).   I don't imagine that such is the case in populated areas, but a retired pilot friend told us that up here, trainers will sometimes devise “scavenger hunts” for new pilots learning heat seeking equipment by looking for occupied winter cabins in remote areas.  I guess they earned points that day by finding us!
  
Later during happy hour, we saw six or more dog mushers race by on a 120 mile amateur race.  What a contrast in human locomotion from the helicopters to the dog sleds!  The animals are consistently smaller than I expected, and all muscle, heart, and enthusiasm.  When we skied the next day, we came across a few of the little booties the dogs wear (who knew!) to keep ice from forming between their toes (I gather).  

Energized by our outing (and the thawed food choices), for cocktails that day I made up a new appetizer.  Since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I served it with a favorite of Bryan’s (since that was all I was planning for dinner).  The favorite is almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and roasted.  Hot, sweet, salty, and greasy.  What’s not to like?  The new one was intended to be a major contrast on all counts. I sliced and cooked potatoes on which I layered garlicky spinach topped with salmon, served with a dollop of yogurt sprinkled with lemon zest, salt and pepper.  Rather pretty.   The rule during cocktail hour is that each of us is supposed to raise a topic of interest to the other person, but sometimes, we lapse into silence.  We take in the serene silent beauty of the mountains and snow.  We sniff the birch smoke, sip our wine, and smile.  I'm not sure what my husband thinks at the moment, but I know I felt well satisfied in such a pretty place, with a not yet topsy turvy chicken coop, a kevlar protected, chain saw toting husband, and I didn't fall or falter as I skied.  It was a good day.           

If you are a “glass half-full” person.  Read this carefully.  Dishonest people can be charming, or evasive, or manipulative, but all of them will waste your time or money.  “Trust but verify.”



If you are a “glass half-empty” person, you know to check out potential employees, service providers, investors, clients.  (I've even had friends who are utilizing dating websites ask me to check out people before they get too involved.)  The following list of liars and sources will save you time and reinforce what you naturally do to protect your business and wallet.                             

Below are two lists.  One is a list of lies learned from less than three hours due diligence of potential service providers, clients, investors and employees.  The other is a list of free or low cost public websites you can check to save you time, money, and “face.”  If you get a business card, a resume and take notes during conversations, you can ascertain a great deal in less than 3 hours of research, otherwise wasted by “big talkers.”   Some have been shameless liars who have, presumably, gotten away with this before, indicating that a lot of people DON’T do background checks. Think how much time you can save by learning this information early on. 

Preliminary due diligence is like a game.  The goal is to look for anything the person has told you (verbally or in writing, such as a resume) that is invalidated or contradicted in public sources.  If the person lied about something so easily discovered, what else might s/he lie about?  Red flag.  By asking for background information, the message you convey to the person is that it is “time to get serious.”   This can cut time wasted with big talkers.  Your time is worth money.


·         Degrees from schools that don’t exist

·         Degrees from on-line “degree mills”
·         Degrees from real school s that the people never earned
·         Titles and experience from companies that have no Internet validation.  (If they say the companies were their own, see if they were ever even registered in the state and wonder if a company with such a low profile could really have accomplished all the person claimed). 
·         Puffed up resumes and dates/duties/companies that contradict other documents
·         “Cease and desist” order from the state securities board and/or from the SEC for fraud (One guy was actually a case study for a law school!.  Two others were banned from the securities industry).
·         Citations on blogs against management for various things, from indignations to litigation to losing investors’ money.
·         Felony records and indictments with cases pending (white collar crimes, for people seeking investors!).
·         FBI reports
·         BBB complaints
·         A confusing variety of inter-related companies and sweetheart supplier deals that compromise the integrity of what potential investors would be investing in (possible shell game).
·         Prior employers who fired the person for cause, and were willing to say so verbally when we made due diligence calls, but not in public disclosure documents
·         References that were dead ends – no company, person, or recollection.  
·         Investors, entrepreneurs, and finance professionals who were behind in their taxes, had filed bankruptcy, had been foreclosed upon, had liens against them or their companies or assets.  (Why would you trust them with your money or handling money for others?)
·         Litigation pending, for debt, breach of contract, fraud, etc.
·         References that indicate no relevant past experience to back up assertions, such as people whose real jobs were very junior at a company, or were in an unrelated department, or whose spouse was the only one in the family with relevant experience  ·         No SEC filings indicative of the private placement (or public) deals he/she claimed
·         Entrepreneur whose “use of funds” statement raises questions in light of a series of prior public filings (of pink sheet/OTC companies) indicating inflated salaries and overhead for companies that never turned a profit.
·         Press releases by prior companies that sounded like things had transpired (not validated anywhere else) or that promised imminent actions that never occurred
·         OTC or pink sheet company history that keeps changing names (to avoid a sustained history of poor performance?) Very common.
·         Public filings with “going concern” statements by accountants, or worse, no audited financials for a year or more or continued delays in public filings.
·         Broker Check disclosures of licenses that don’t match experience described, sanctions, questionable outside businesses, repeated short stints at Broker Dealers, long stints at BDs that have been sanctioned or closed for alarming, repeat behaviors.
·         Entrepreneurs who have previously hired Broker Dealers with a public record for skirting rules or financiers whose resumes indicate a preference for such companies.
·         Alleged investors  (and middlemen) whose references for investment don’t check out
·         People who cite “doing business with” references who turn out to be personal references only
·         Companies and individuals listed on various “walls of shame” such as the SEC’s “PAUSE” page, and public enforcement reports by FINRA and state fraud investigation department websites
Easy and Free Internet  Resources for Preliminary Due Diligence


PHONE ADDRESS VERIFICATION:
www.whitepages.com
            Check name and reverse check for phone and address to see if they coincide, or if another name/address connection is revealed.  The website often lists “others in household” such as a spouse and children, and ages. Does this information fit what you know?   If someone has no record for an address and phone number, does that  indicate an intention to maintain a very low profile.  Is that fine or a question mark?  Look for other properties in his/her name.  Relevant?  

EDUCATION VERIFICATION:
From job applicants, we request a background check authorization. The information provided enables me to verify degrees earned through www.degreeverify.org.  Short of that personal information, you can ask friends who have attended a school to look the person up through the alumni directory.  If the name appears, you have confirmation.  If the name does not appear, the person may not have signed up with the alumni network or may not have attended.  Go to the school’s website.  Does it offer the degree cited on resumes?  Does the location make sense?  Does the school exist?
TAX RECORDS:
Visit the county property tax accounting website to ascertain whether the person owns his/her home, office, or other property and the value and has/hasn’t paid taxes on time.  You don’t want an investor or entrepreneur or other client who hasn’t even paid taxes! To find out the name of the county, Google city name, state + county.   In Harris County, TX, the website is www.hcad.org.  You can usually search by name or by address.  Some states, like FL have searchable public lists of people listing the amounts and dates of liens and judgments by government and companies.   CA has higher barriers to entry for personal information than many states. 

COUNTY COURTS:
Visit the county clerk’s office and search the data base of civil (or criminal) court cases.  You can enter the person’s and the company name as either/or plaintiff/defendant.  Do you see debt cases?  Foreclosure?  Breach of contract?  Recently?  Frequently?  Should you be leery of taking a client with a history of litigiousness?  Websites vary greatly, and states vary, too, in the amount of private information they will disclose.  CA is pretty oblique.  TX and AK are pretty open with their court and tax records.   

SEC and Edgar SEARCHES FOR PUBLIC COMPANIES/PRESS RELEASES/SANCTIONS:
Visit www.sec.gov.  Someone affiliated with a public company is easy to check out.  On this website or any Edgar filings in any financial website, one can search by company name and person’s name in various sections, such as company filings and enforcement (in SEC).  Be meticulous in your search strings of “all these words” or “exact phrase” and how a legal name might be entered (with or without middle initial or Jr, for example).  You may have to try a variety of terms.   Was the person an officer, director, or investor, insider?  Were there sweetheart deals with any of his or her other companies? Was the company in the black or the red?  Did the accountants issue a “going concern” statement? How much did your contact get paid?  Is the person affiliated with other securities in the past?  What’s the track record? Are private placements registered?   Do you ascertain any lies in information the person recorded in documents filed with the SEC?  Serious problem.
STATE SECURITIES BOARDS:
Find this by Googling state + website + Securities.  You can search to see if someone is a registered investment advisor (more info than on Broker Check, like percent of business with individuals vs institutions) or Broker-Dealer, and whether there are any enforcement actions against him/her, his/her company.  You can review the state’s definition of “securities” – useful if a potential financial service provider or entrepreneur says “I don’t need a Broker-Dealer for this.”  In Texas, the website is:   http://www.ssb.state.tx.us.  Similar listing with another state’s abbreviation might give a useful starting point for other state securities boards. 

STATE CORPORATIONS:
Visit the secretary of state website to see if the company has been incorporated, if it is in good standing, and if the contact person you know is listed as the registered agent (of this and any other companies).  If the person has registered a surprising number of companies particularly with similar names, does that raise a question?  Could there be any sort of “shell game” with funds?  What’s the status of the prior ones?  Cross reference with company website searches. The website for Texas is: http://www.sos.state.tx.us

AGGREGATION SITES:
www.zoominfo.com can be helpful because it compiles a list of links to public info about a person or company, for free, and isn’t changeable by the person (compared to Linked In).

FACEBOOK etc:
www.linkedin.com, www.facebook.com, etc.  and other self-written sites are useful for seeing what the person says about himself.  How does that compare to a resume or other sources of information?  Some people regard their Linked In Profile as less official than a resume and update it less often, so the differences can be revealing.  Some websites list a number of contacts visible to other members.  Are there any that you know, whom you could contact regarding the person?  Do you expect to find a Facebook or Linked in account but do not?  For example, why might someone who says he is well connected in sales NOT appear on any of the public networking sites you check?

FINRA:
www.finra.org Broker Check.  The website includes profiles of people who have been registered within the last ten years and “bad guys” with arbitration and enforcement sanctions who may have left FINRA/NASD even before that.  When reviewing someone’s profile, first check to see if he/she has any disclosures (at the end of the report).  Some of those are no brainer deal closers, like misuse of funds.  Others may simply warrant a conversation for clarification. Then note duration at prior Broker-Dealers (BD), licenses, and state registrations.  Did s/he have an insurance license but told you s/he knows private placements?  Does s/he have a 24 license (supervisory level)?  Check the records of the prior BDs.  Do they have eye opening disclosures for egregious financial shenanigans or poor supervision of wild card employees?  Do you see a series of short stints at numerous BDs?  How successful could the person have been if he kept being let go? Once someone actually applies to our firm, we can run a background check for more information not publicly disclosed, but before that, this public information can increase or decrease our enthusiasm.

COMPANIES:
Visit the websites of companies on the resume.  Do they exist?  If you don’t find the website, Google the company name to see if there is any record of it in the past.  If a search reveals the company name only associated with your contact’s reference and no other, s/he may have made it up.  It is pretty hard for a business to have NO Internet record, post 1995. Red flag.   

INTERNET SEARCHES:
General information Google searches:The person’s name + City, or + County or + industry, or + SEC or + FINRA, or + companies, or + school, or + suit (as in law suit) or + fraud or scam.  Try logical variations like Jim or James.   Sometimes, you will find confirmation, such as a member of a professional organization, or a relevant speech given.  Other times, we have found out location, education or personal information about people from references in a marathon or neighborhood list, or an alumni organization.  If people keep a low profile on the Internet, and claim achievements in a city or industry, see if you know anyone in those cities or industries likely to be in a position to know them, and if they don't, consider what that may mean.  Sometimes we got an earful and sometimes the prospect was entirely unknown.  Check out www.sec.gov’s PAUSE section of bad guys in finance, read websites like www.ripoffreport.org.  Check out lawyers and accountants with their professional organizations.  Look for red flags.

In summary:  One to three hours early on can help you assess your opportunity costs with a potential client, employee, service provider or investor.  Ask better questions in order to shed the time wasters and liars in order to allocate more time to fruitful people who may actually reward your time with lucrative contracts.  Learn to discern between the two.   After the first few checks, the process will become easier and your sense of people will become better honed for evasions or over-promises.   


(I welcome your comments and additional suggestions through the comment field,  Laura )

      

Bryan was probably as excited about his snow machine (same as a snowmobile in the Lower 48) as with his first tricycle at age 3.  (What is it with guys and powers of locomotion?  Residual memories of being ambulatory hunter gatherers?) When we returned home at 11 degrees outside to a 50 degree cabin and crawled, exhausted into bed with mugs of tea, he said with a sigh of great contentment, “That was a GREAT day.”  Noticing my stony silence, he put on his “attentive husband” voice and asked, as if winding up for a punch line in a comedy, “So which part of you was the coldest?” 
Snowmachine sled with building supplies
for future chicken coop
While Bryan felt like Nanook of the North, Man Merged with Nature, or Whatever, I felt like the Michelin Man on a bad hair day with a runny nose. Even with four layers of socks, pants, tops, and three layers of gloves, I got so cold that I shivered, teeth chattering for many minutes when we stopped at the only restaurant on the river for a mediocre hamburger (after 5 hours of being outside).  When we returned to the vehicle, maybe 30 minutes later, the wheels and tread had frozen up, and Bryan had to lie on the snow with a hammer and tap pertinent points on both sides before we could move.  Altogether, our round trip outing of 84 miles to get 750 lbs of gasoline (about 90 gallons) took 7.5 hours, about the time it takes to fly from Houston, TX to Anchorage, AK. 

I don’t know what heaven looks like, but I know what it feels like:  it feels exactly like the heated bathrooms at Deshka Landing after 3 hours on a snow machine across windy, bumpy terrain.

On the machine, Bryan derived warmth from the hand warmers on the handles and from the engine itself.  Unfortunately, I was sitting behind him without those amenities, and unlike walking or snowshoeing, I wasn’t generating any warmth myself sitting there for hours on end, except for lame isometric exercises when I started getting bored and cold. 


Two Bobble Head DollsThe full head helmets we wore were so heavy I felt like a bobble head doll.  The rebreather was great for keeping one’s face warm without fogging up the interior face plate, but it also meant that I smelled the bad breath of my prior toasted cheese sandwich for about three hours.  Notes to self:  Don’t burp.  Avoid cheese. 
Multiple discomforts aside, it was a lovely excursion.  We left our remote cabin about 1 pm, following the Anchorage area friends who had hauled the machine by truck trailer to the river and then snow machined out the same route we would now traverse in reverse.  We passed a few cute, isolated cabins like ours on lakes, and some ice fishermen with their warming tents and four foot augers (sp?) – (a sport (?) I cannot envision choosing to do).  The wind was highest, buffeting our helmets and bodies, as we crossed open lakes or bogs down wind from mountains, and lower in the sheltered river valleys and woods. 

My favorite section was a narrow winding trail through a confectionery wonderland.  It was straight out of Grimm’s fairy tales, all menacing trees and biomorphic snow shapes that looked like they could come alive and grab Hansel and Gretel at any moment.        
The rivers were less populated by recreational or functional snow machiners than I expected on a sunny Sunday in March.  We passed one family hauling a huge pile of fluffy pink insulation out to their Bush cabin, and a few groups on small, speedy machines enjoying a day's outing.  Altogether, over the 3+ hour one way excursion, we passed maybe 20 cabins, mostly looking unoccupied until summer boating and fishing season.  A trail of markers outlined the thickest, safest path down river, but it was often precariously close to holes of open water or thin, green ice, marked by a warning pair of crossed branches.  Particularly downstream of obstructions and confluences of two or more streams, and particularly on the bigger and more turbulent river, the frozen surface was really bumpy.  It reminded me of skiing down mogul fields.

Heading home, which was primarily west, we drove toward the sun setting over the Beluga Mountains.  It was a beautiful sight – purples and pinks, but that started the countdown toward traveling in the dark, through moose country, on a route new to us, marked by occasional skinny stakes with a square inch of reflector tape stapled to them.   (I think it would be very easy to get lost on the flat areas in a snowstorm.)
We passed two moose, the first at a distance, across a wide lake, but the second we startled just ahead of us in a wooded section, so Bryan slowed to a stop and got his gun out in case he needed to fire a warning shot.  Moose want to be on the packed snow machine tracks for the same reason we do – the deep powder is really tough to walk through.  Each winter features stories of hungry, irritable moose charging and stomping sled dogs and snow machiners with their 5-6  foot long legs.  We waited while the moose moved of its own accord off the packed track and into the deep snow.  It did not want to be there, lumbering up to its torso with each arduous step.  It kept looking back at us to gauge how far it needed to move for safety and perhaps how soon it could return to the easier trail.  As if I needed another reason to get home before the sun set on an incredibly dark world, this moose at close quarters was a good one.

It was fully dark by the time we arrived home.  Bowlegged and stiff, I creaked my way toward the cabin and down the make shift snow steps to the back porch.  Once inside, I felt around for the matches and lit the propane light so I could see well enough to light a fire.  The stove had gone out during the day, of course, and the interior temperature had sunk to 50 degrees F.  I thought of trappers, on their multi-day sojourns along their traplines, returning multiple times per winter to cabins far colder and a pot of frozen stew.  Once my fire appeared stable, I made us some welcome cups of tea to warm us up inside before the cabin would.
Tomorrow I plan to stay home.  The next day, too.   Then, maybe I'll take a short excursion by myself and try out those hand warmers. Ah, the things we look forward to...

Solar storms have been active this winter, and we were alert to the possibility of seeing the aurora borealis.  At 5:45 am, Bryan awakened me to see them.  I was surprised to see how much sky they covered and how quickly they moved across it.  We bundled on jackets and hats as we shifted from the front porch to the back, and then peered up and out from the side windows, too.   The color was a pale green with an inner light.  The closest analogy I can think of, and one that seems like an unlikely oxymoron, is of a grass, hula skirt.  The biomorphic shape did indeed seem to dance, and its general shape changed as it “turned.”  But as I watched more closely, I noticed sinuous lines within the larger shape moving too.  Well worth the wakeup call (and I don't say that very often).

Our first night back that winter, the temperature dropped to +3 degrees F, but the woodstove slowly warmed the cabin, and with it, started to thaw a motley array of water containers we had partially filled with filtered lake water the previous summer.  With smaller bottles, we ensured some drinking water for the second day.  Larger jugs of frozen potable (iced) water would take a few days to melt and since (exterior) snow melts at a 10:1 ratio, it would take me several days to accumulate enough water to clean the cabin, laundry or ourselves very well.  So, I got a head start on cooking.  I made two loaves of bread and whipped up some onion dip, hummus, and sundried tomato-olive tapenade for handy snacks, which I stored with the eggs in the cool corner by the door, since we have no refrigerator or accessible cold-hole in the winter.  The frozen meats and juices we just store on the shaded back porch, in a cooler in the snow.  Then we took some time out to survey the property by a snow shoe hike.  Fortunately, this winter had not been nearly as windy as last year, so we found no 40 foot birch treetops snapped off, just a few long dead “widow makers” that had finally given up and fallen over.  Easy firewood source next spring.  Given the snow damage to unshoveled commercial buildings in Anchorage with less snow than here, we were mostly concerned about our roofs.  Perhaps because of the desire to heat limited space during a long winter, bush cabins have numerous unheated outbuildings rather than combining them into one unit.  So whereas a city/suburban house would have bathrooms and pantries and store rooms inside, we have a small heated cabin and have those "service areas" in other buildings, outside and unheated.  In general, we build all with steep roofs, but still the snow load varied, depending on tree protections, proximity to open areas (like the frozen lake) and the "saddle" in the mountains across the lake.  At an abandoned lodge on the lake, the long neglected guest cabins, smoke house, and outhouses with flatter or gambrel roofs supported 6 or more feet of snow.  They looked like square cup cakes with a disproportionate ratio of icing to cake.  I will be curious, come spring, to see which ones remain upright once the sky snow turns to icy rain and the roof snow absorbs the water and turns to heavy ice before it slips off.  I’m betting that some of the rickety smaller buildings with the shallowest roofs will be leaning even more if they haven’t caved in.  Banisters, porches, and docks, and picnic tables have all broken down from inexorable weathering.  Sisyphus: The window is 10 feet highAmong our buildings and structures, some were completely buried.  The fuel shed, burn barrels, wood pile and wood corral are evident only from suggestive hummocks in the snow, or are those alder thickets?  Maybe next year we should flag them with 10 foot poles.  In the meantime, we just dug a hole in the snow and dropped a bag of trash below wind line, lit a match to Kleenex and paper plates within, and let it burn itself out, while simultaneously deepening the newly declared trash pit toward the frozen ground.   Snow completely envelopes the little 8 x 12 power shed, whose apex is about 12 feet high.  The 8 feet of ground snow rises above the eaves, meeting the roof snow that slipped down to meet it, supporting additional snow above.  It looks like a white babushka wrapping a wooden brown face. 
Of all our buildings, the shower house is the closest building to the lake, and therefore, the most exposed to wind driven snow.  The south facing roof, though pitched at a good angle, bore four- five feet of snow. From our cabin windows, you can see the layers of various thicknesses, like tree rings, indicating the major snow falls of the season.  Bryan decided on the third day to climb up on a ladder and shovel off the snow.  This proved too difficult with an unwieldy shovel, so he switched to a narrower and more maneuverable ice spade.  Over several hours, he poked and cut and sliced and swept the dozens of cubic feet of snow that he could reach.  If he didn’t fall off the ladder onto the wooden banister that poked above the ground snow, I guess he’d survive what appeared to me to be a somewhat perilous endeavor.  As I watched him from inside a cozy and increasingly clean cabin, it occurred to me that if the Greeks had envisioned Hades in a cold climate, this would have been exactly the sort of ordeal allocated to Sisyphus:  shoveling snow off roofs in Alaska for all of eternity with nothing but a rickety ladder and a skinny spade.
Afterwards, he came inside, happy from the exertion, peeling off sweaty clothes for a spit bath at the sink followed by happy hour.  Tonight’s appetizer was stuffed mushrooms, a special treat right after a trip to from the city since I cannot yet discern safe from poisonous ones that grow here in the summer.  I stuffed them with two mixtures, one group with homemade onion dip and the other with halibut I had overcooked the night before, but resurrected for a second life with mayonnaise, lemon juice and zest, onions, celery and spices.   It is starting to feel like home.  A toast to my husband who cleared half a roof without slipping and arrived home with a big appetite and a sense of infectious contentment.

Pretend that you are a detective.  Pick your favorite: Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple.  Think about how they think; how they gather and sift information.  Now plunk that person down in a year around 30 CE.  


Now imagine that grieving family and friends of Jesus appeal to you with the startling news that his newly dead body, that of a convict, executed by the Romans - is missing from its tomb.  They want your help in figuring out what happened.  What questions will you ask?  What conclusions will you draw from what you do hear and what you don't hear, from the consistencies and the discrepancies of your sources and the evidence? Bear in mind, that as a contemporary witness, you know nothing about the later theologies of the Resurrection or the Trinity.  You just know that an itinerant Jewish teacher, seen by some authorities as a rabble-rouser, was arrested and rapidly condemned to a particularly ignominious death, and now his family and friends say his body is missing.  Hmmmmm!

Now, fast forward 2000 years.  You are still a detective, but this time, a sociological, religious detective.  You sift through the early Christian documents (the canonical gospels and the apocryphal ones and various letters that were circulating then as well), and Jewish documents and political ones.  These writers had choices about what to include and what to leave out.  What do you notice about the choices that the writers made?  What conclusions do you draw about the documents, the writers, and the believers? 

We will play both of these roles, first as contemporary detective and then as literary/historical detective. We will look at many of the same passages, first in one light and then in the other.  What do you conclude?  What questions remain?  Do they matter to you?  

The format for this detection relies on "who, what, when, where, why" questions.

The first question is likely to be "when." Detectives like to know if a client's mystery is an old one with a dead trail or a fresh one?  "When did you discover that the body was missing?"  Part I:

When-historic:  the mystery is new.  Jesus was crucified on Friday and was discovered on Sunday or Monday, depending on different sources, which in the Canonical Gospels, variably say "on the third day" and "after three days." 
That number of days could be cited to reasonably prove that Jesus was dead as opposed to comatose, fainted, or concussed.   
When- mythic:  "Three days later" is obviously symbolic and not to be taken literally.  Three is a highly significant, religious number. Peter denies Jesus three times, Jonah remained for three days in the belly of the fish, angelic announcements occur in threes. There are numerous examples.  In addition, this language was written at least one and possibly two generations after Jesus's death in order to reinforce a Christian Sabbath day that would distinguish it from the Jewish Sabbath, when the Christians and Jews decided that they were different religions (officially observed by Rome).

Who discovered the empty tomb- historic?  This answer is remarkably consistent.  All sources say that the women close to Jesus discovered the empty tomb, and in those sources that name women, which are most of them, Mary Magdalene is ALWAYS among them, or among various sources, sometimes with another Mary, or with Salome or Drusiana.  John, the last gospel written, mentions two men, too: Peter and "the beloved disciple," interpreted but unnamed, as John. This consistency is important to a detective of 30 CE.  First of all, it is sensible that the women would have gone to the tomb, as it was the female family members who attended to both birth and death events.  In Jewish families, it would have been the wife and mother and sisters and aunts who would have washed and wrapped the body for burial.  The fact that Mary Magdalene is so prominently associated with this role is one of the strongest indications that she was, in fact, Jesus' wife.  Let's face it.  The man was 30 years old and Jewish in a period when the life expectancy was 40.  Celibacy was rare.  Those Jews, like the Essenes, who may have practiced celibacy, although recent archeology disputes it, did so away from society, whereas Jesus was clearly ministering to people in situ.  It would have been normal for him to have been married and  unusual for him to have been single at that age, in that culture.

Who - mythic:  In myths and religious stories, it is often the "little" people, the underappreciated, like elves and children and hunchbacked old crones who bear significant news, only to be disbelieved.  Although there is historical merit for women first approaching the tomb, it is also mythically and literarily consistent that women would bear the news to those who would become the leaders of the institutional church.  In the resurrection stories, it is repeatedly less important who first heard the news at the tomb than who first believed it among the disciples. The gospels were written between 70 – 100 CE.  By that time, and particularly since Jerusalem was destroyed in the 60s CE, the first AND second generation of Jesus’ followers could no longer be validated.  The importance was in the hearing and believing, not in the seeing any longer.  And this remains so, among the faithful centuries later.

It is sadly interesting that the early writings mention Mary Magdalene's key role without apology or explanation as if it is implicit, but it is later versions and church tradition that describe her more derogatorily, particularly to align her with the unnamed prostitute in one  Gospel.  Where did that connection come from?    These efforts to explain away a wife in a culture that prized family is a far cry from the Jewish culture in which Jesus lived, and possibly one of the saddest elements in Christian theology, which attempts to segregate Jesus from the culture in which he likely lived.  
Two Where Questions:  Where was the tomb and where were his followers?

Where was the tomb:  The answers to this are highly problematic.  Mark, the least romantic and fantastic gospel, refers simply to a "rock tomb."  Matthew and Luke identify the tomb as that of Joseph of Arimethea.  John puts the tomb in a garden, which would be a pretty snazzy location, indeed, particularly startling for a convict.  These are three very different versions.  One is anonymous, another named, and a third in the best burial ground in town.  Where was this tomb?  Whose tomb was it?  And why can't anyone point to it later on?

Another “where" question is this:  Where were the men and women of Jesus' group when he died?  The women are reported to be watching the crucifixion from "afar."  The men are reported to have scattered, afraid for themselves after Jesus was arrested and convicted.  Despite heart wrenching paintings of Mary and John at the foot of the cross, most of the written documents indicate that Jesus died alone, abandoned by his family and followers.      

Where - mythic:  We know where Grant's tomb is.  We know where Mohammed ascended to heaven.  We have traditions about the location of Abraham's tomb.  Do you think that if ANYONE knew where Jesus was buried there wouldn't be a parking lot and a hotel there?  Wouldn't Christians be lining up to be healed at the site of the man who "beat death" instead of at Lourdes or other places?  No one knows where Jesus was buried.  This is very significant.  From a Protestant symbolic standpoint, this indicates that it is not his death, but his resurrection that is important -  witness the empty cross in Protestant churches.  However, for Catholics, it is the suffering and dying on the cross as a sacrifice to us that is significant.  Hence the often grisly depictions of a writhing, suffering Jesus on that cross.  Catholics have built a Church of the Holy Sepulcher on a site outside the old walls of Jerusalem in a location associated with convict executions and mass graves.  However, it doesn't attract the attention of the sites for Mohammed in Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina that are accorded historical significance.   Now consider two "what" questions.
1) What were they going to do at the tomb?   The answer to this is rather troublesome, on several counts.  First of all, several versions contend that the women were going to the tomb to anoint a body three days dead.  This is a little late in a warm climate.  Second, one of the gospels indicates that the body wrappings were lying in the tomb and another that Joseph and Nicodemus took care of the body.  Too many inconsistencies. Third,Jesus is reported to have died much earlier in the day than anyone expected.  There was plenty of time to claim the body and prepare it for burial before sundown and Sabbath, as one version said.  But fourth and most importantly, crucified convicts’ bodies were routinely left on the crosses for the flies and the vultures as a warning to the rest of the city.  This horrific image was part of the humiliation of that punishment, designated for a certain segment of prisoners found guilty of crimes against Rome.   This was particularly heinous for a culture that honored family burials. Fifth, it is true that Jews often appealed to authorities to claim and bury their relatives, but in the story of Jesus, it is significantly reported that NO FAMILY members did so.  Some writings say "the Jews" pleaded for the body and others say that Joseph of Arimathea did so, for burial in his own or his family's tomb.  But the latter would be highly unusual for a non-family member - either to be able to claim a body or to bury it in a family tomb.  (Imagine going to a state penitentiary and trying to claim a death row convict unrelated to you.)  Furthermore, Joseph's role, like the angels’, varies and grows in various documents, from that of a "Jew," to a "good Jew" to a "rich Jew" to a member of the Sanhedrin (which condemned Jesus to death) who became a Christian convert.  Another Gospel identifies him as a secret follower.  The whole story of Joseph sounds spurious.


2)            What did they find there:According to various sources, either one or two angels or the unrecognized Christ greeted the women at the tomb and announced that Jesus had risen.  Sometimes he appeared as a ghost or a light; in other versions he appeared more solid.  In all cases, the heavenly visitor(s) told people to tell others that Christ would appear to them. In all cases, the women were amazed, often afraid.  When they did tell the other disciples of their experience, they were not believed until Jesus appeared to them himself.

Let’s now turn to two questions key to the question of Easter:  Why did Jesus die and how did he rise from the dead or disappear from his tomb.  Remember, these are the questions of a detective at that time and place. 

What did they find at the tomb? I have no difficulties with the inconsistencies of who announced the risen Christ:  one or two angels, or a "young man in white" (clearly an angelic messenger in Mark) or an unrecognized Christ, or a Jesus appearing directly to Mary. This was an astonishing moment.  Details get fuzzy in the face of strong experiences and emotions! How many of us remember every factual event when our children were born or when we married or when we were in a car accident or witnessed a crime!  Although criminal attorneys love eye-witnesses, they are apparently highly over-rated. So even if these events were historically, journalistically true, the variances at this point wouldn't bother me.

However, I don't happen to believe them.   I agree with most scholars who believe they were written generations later according to religious and literary conventions.  What happens when miracles occur?  Angels show up!  Of course! They say "Do not be afraid," and they announce things.  We should be no more surprised by this convention than if I started a story with, "Once upon a time…"  or “I was so poor that…”  or “the storm was so bad that…”  These literary devices and the similes and metaphors that follow reinforce the message; they aren’t the meat.   --------------------------------------------------------
Why did Jesus die? - historic  The answers are not helpful.  They don’t make sense.  Although the arrest/trial/conviction stories are quite consistent across the gospels, no Jesus supporters were in attendance; none could have witnessed anything beyond Judas’s betrayal.  Second, the Romans had different levels of punishment, including different kinds of death penalties, for various crimes and the social status of the criminal.  Lower echelon criminals were crucified.  Thieves, rabble-rousers, rebelling slaves.  Perhaps Jesus and his followers were blamed for behaviors that have been purged from the Christian records.  Perhaps the name, Iscariot, which is so similar to the term for assassins (iscarii), reflects other roles for him or those with whom he was associated, at least according to the Romans. Any family with a hanged horse thief in the background may have shaded history and relationships, too. In any case, it certainly wasn’t for many of his religious messages that Jesus was killed.  The great Rabbi Hillel with some similar "golden rule messaging" is a near contemporary who died of natural causes, in bed, at an advanced age.  Whatever the reasons for Jesus's conviction, they have been obscured. 


Why - mythic: Let's cut the chase.  Historicity is never going to be satisfied.  So, the WHY question is not so much “why did it happen” as “why do Christians want to believe in a risen Christ?"  Why is important to differentiate Hillel, as a great rabbi who died in bed, from Jesus, who was crucified, died, buried, and rose to heaven to sit on the right hand of God?  This is the crux of Easter.  This is a question that defines Christianity and that Unitarians in a Christian culture can fruitfully consider. 

 Believing that Christ rose to heaven meant that his believers would, too.  In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, "if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead.  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised."  Paul saw the resurrection of Christ directly connected to our future, to an afterlife in heaven.  Paul’s description, which predates the Gospels by a generation, seeded the Christian communities outside of Jerusalem.  Their numbers swelled.

Whereas Judaism implied that success reflected God's favor, people knew from evidence all around them that this couldn’t be so.  Some people bore greater sorrow than they warranted and others enjoyed material success despite despicable moral character.  Life isn't fair.  Romans and Greeks dealt with this obvious inequity through stories of meddlesome, often petulant gods favoring some humans and hindering others.  Christianity admits that life isn't fair and offers a parting salvo:  it isn’t fair but that is because God has a plan:  He separates the wheat from the chaff in heaven.  This was hugely comforting!  Life might stink down here, but it will all even out up there. That is where the good are rewarded.  People loved this!

This Christian world view matched people's perceptions of reality in a way that found resonance with those disconnected from Judaism and other religions of the Roman Empire.  In addition, it offered the same attractive, ethical monotheism of Judaism and was easier to join.  Christianity imposed fewer rules and prohibitions and no circumcision, so it seemed much more inclusive.  A second distinction of Christianity was its democracy.  Judaism was a home grown religion that did not particularly encourage converts.  Christianity proclaimed, "Have we got good news for all of you – any of you, Jews or Zoroastrians or Romans or Egyptians!  There is more to life than you think and you are going to be OK!  Come join us and we will tell you more!"    Rather than exterminate or exclude unbelievers, they wanted to invite converts. 
How did he rise from the dead?

This was not inconceivable to that era.  Medical knowledge was not a science. Jesus himself was described as a faith healer. He supposedly raised Lazarus from the dead after three days.  In Jewish tradition, some very holy people were exalted - taken up to God rather than having an earthly tomb: Enoch and Elijah were two.  The Romans had a similar conception:  Augustinian coins show Julius Caesar's spirit ascending toward heaven as a shooting star.  Heracles was taken up to Mount Olympus by his father, Zeus, after he burned to death.  So the language and imagery was familiar.  From the various witnesses’ accounts, Jesus was a body, a spirit, or an unrecognized man when seen after his death, suggesting various interpretations of this “how” question.

As a detective, you have gathered a lot of data.  What conclusions do you draw?

One or two generations after the fact, stories have family members claiming that the body is missing from the tomb, but it appears unlikely that they know where the tomb was.  Despite Jesus's subsequent fame, NOBODY identifies a location.   According to Roman regulations for crime and punishment, it is likely that Jesus and other crucified criminals were left on their crosses as a warning to others and then tossed into a mass grave.  It is highly unlikely that the body of a convict was claimed by a non-family member to be buried in his own family’s tomb.  The conviction, the ignominious death, and the humble burial or awful spectacle of no burial would have been horrible to any friends and family, especially those who had believed that Jesus was a new leader of a new order now cut short.  Undoubtedly, they felt emotions ranging from guilt to grief, rejection to bitter disillusionment, fear to anger.  What might such people do?  What is psychologically feasible?  Afterwards might they pretend that they took care of his body, that they weren’t hiding under a bed somewhere?  Or since they couldn’t find the body anyway, claim that he rose from the dead?  Think of people who claim to have been close to Martin Luther King or other charismatic leaders… and made a career of that alleged association. 


An unlikely alternative is that Jesus's followers purposely stole the body in order to foment this story of a risen Christ.  Frankly, this seems pretty remote given the way convicts’ bodies were handled, and the repeated story in the Gospels themselves that no one believed the women’s stories that he was gone.  Maybe, as the detective, you would conclude that the followers really don’t know what happened to the body, feel guilty about that, and desperately want some closure that renders his life and death meaningful. Part II: 


Now let's take on the role as detective of history, literature, and religion, instead of as a contemporary detective.  Let's review the same set of questions, but from the perspective that these documents were written by writers who selected what to include and what to exclude, not so much for history as for a faith story.   This distinction is important. For example,  I would not discount any of you who claimed to have the most beautiful or brilliant grandchild in the country.  Nor would I argue with anyone who said that his wife was better than the sun and the moon and the stars. Language is most limited when it is used to describe intense emotions.  Easter is THE faith story of Christianity.  Although we have questioned historical details, none of them is likely to concern a person with this faith, any more than you would be concerned if I showed you photos of five cuter children or ten other husbands who claimed that their wives were more wonderful than the sun, the moon, and the stars. Faith is NOT in the details of the wife, the grandchild or the God.  Faith is in our own feelings and how we try, often feebly, to express it.        

What: So after all of this discussion, what happened to Jesus?  Here's my perspective: I don’t think that question is all that important.  Much more important are the questions, “What happened to his followers?” and "Why is a particular belief important to those believers?"  

I think that Jesus's death terrified his followers.  The Christian documents (and those are the only sources we have - no 'dispassionate" contemporary accounts) indicate that they hid in locked rooms for fear of their own deaths.  We have already indicated that there is a credibility gap between what we know about Jesus’s teachings and the kinds of people who were crucified.  Either they were guilty of behavior purged from Christian documents, causing them to hide, or they were gathering together for literary reasons. If historical, picture the wake, which is rather what those hidden dinners must have been like. They are described in eucharistic terms because they were written so much later, by believers. But cull them down to the bare essentials: they were dinners, maybe Sabbath dinners, shared by reunited followers.  Can’t you imagine the conversations that transpired, having been in such gatherings?  They remember Jesus.  They miss him or are angry. They argue about what he said and what he meant as a leader and as a teacher. Some of his teachings have more poignancy because he is now dead.   These followers argue about who among them was more and less loyal.  They jockey for positions of blame and gain and leadership. 

 They share dreams and visions about him.  I don’t know if any of you have had visions of dearly beloveds after death.  I haven’t, but I know very grounded people who have had such experiences. They sound very compelling and often transforming – sometimes comforting, other times galvanizing life changes.  

Clearly some of Jesus’s followers were inspired and later, inspirational in their own right. Just as the grief stricken of any era will often talk and talk about the deceased, the disciples began to preach Jesus’s message, and to expand their own understanding of his teachings in light of his death and the changes that generated in his followers.  How much their interpretation of his life and teachings was influenced by guilt, and how that feeling of guilt and unworthiness permeates Christian theology is a ripe topic for another day. But clearly the  compelling Christian message is something along this line, “a vote for Jesus is a vote for yourself.” He doesn’t ask for a temple tax, he doesn’t require 636 rules of good behavior, doesn’t require circumcision.   He taught that ones innate goodness on this earth will be rewarded in heaven.  And so the early Christians developed social structures to put those good works in action, developing one of the earliest welfare systems in the Mediterranean world, after the Jews. No wonder the religion attracted adherents.

So whether Jesus’s appearances were ghost stories or hallucinations or dreams of his followers or metaphorical stories told by subsequent generations to convey the faith story is open to interpretation.

I don't think it really matters if Jesus was thrown into a mass grave, and if his followers were so embarrassed by their failure of spirit that they obscured that fact with a little heroic embellishment.  What is important is that Jesus's view of humanity and life and death gave comfort to millions who had lacked it before, by granting dignity to those toiling for good without ever realizing any earthly gain.  If his followers wanted to characterize him as a hero, in the heroic terms of their era, so be it.  Maybe there are a few lessons here for us, believers or unbelievers, worth considering. 

While the lower 48 experienced a mild winter, the 2011-12 season brought record snows to much of Alaska.  Valdez and Cordova made national news with over 300 inches, but even Anchorage, which usually only gets about 5 feet of snow per winter, had double that amount by early March and expects to eclipse an historic record with the anticipated late season dumps of additional inches.  Several older commercial and church roofs have collapsed.  (I look askance at the number of flat and gambrel roofs, neither of which seems sensible in snowy country here.)   The snow berms around parking lots top building door height, and now that the afternoons are warming and the daylight lengthening, so too are the icicles, which from many eaves drip precariously two to six feet long, pointing toward unwary walkers on the sidewalks below.   Talk about the sword(s) of Damocles! 


We flew out to our cabin about 10 am, seeing four moose along the way.  Our goal was to make use of all the remaining daylight hours before sunset at 6:30 pm to get settled and to warm up the ice cold cabin before bedtime.  A cabin in the Bush is certainly not a turnkey operation.  Onto the frozen lake we unloaded weeks’ worth of supplies and a new piece of furniture, stationing them beyond the wingspan of the Cessna 206 ski plane’s turn radius.  The day was overcast but bright, and from repeated, recent snow falls, the snow was pillowy soft not only on the ground but also, since it was so still, in little bubbles of white remaining on the spruce and birch branches.  Once the plane took off, Bryan pulled on his snow shoes to tramp up to the cabin to retrieve the little plastic sled we use for hauling groceries et al.   


It has snowed so frequently this winter, and at such optimal temperatures for powder, that even in big, flat snow shoes Bryan sank 12-16 inches with every step.  When he couldn’t find my snow shoes, I knew I’d have a tough time traversing the snow in the boots I was wearing, but it had to be done.  Besides, at 15 degrees, my feet were getting cold so I was motivated to get to the cabin and start a fire.  Bryan carefully retraced his footsteps, stomping down with each foot to compress the snow further so I could follow more easily, but even so, the smaller footstep of regular boots caused me to sink below my knees with most steps.  Halfway to the cabin, huffing and puffing, I decided to crawl, in order to disperse the weight better across four limbs than two.  That helped.  Welcome home.              
 Once I stepped carefully across the spiky bear mat into the dark cabin, I was able to light a fire quickly in the woodstove, and feed it for about an hour with tinder and kindling to get a good bed of coals so larger chunks of birch wouldn’t suck up the heat and put it out.  In two hours, the cabin had warmed up from +15 to +40 degrees F,  but there the temperature sat for the next several hours.  I shed my gloves, parka, and hat, but retained three layers of socks and tops and two layers of pants as I went about my interior tasks. Someone told me that the log walls have to warm up before the air within can do so.  Perhaps that is the reason that it took the next five hours (!) for the temperature to inch up from 40 to 53.  Meanwhile, I started a ham and pea soup (with water brought from town) in a cast iron pot on the woodstove. My theory is that half of staying warm is smelling warm scents – like smoke from the chimney and cooking and the cider I offered my thirsty husband when he rested occasionally between a dozen round-trip sled deliveries.  Fortunately, he was able to retrieve all of the food before it started to snow.  We left the new furniture on the iced lake until the next day. 

All needs and wants are clearly triaged out here, and groceries are no exception.  First, Bryan hauled the foods most vulnerable to freezing, like fresh produce and eggs.  Once those priorities were completed, he left the products that could freeze and shifted to cabin projects.  As he unscrewed the bear shutters from all the windows, he brought in welcome light and the illusion of warmth. Packed down under its own weight, the fourteen feet of snow that had fallen in this vicinity reached about 8 feet high along the sides of the cabin.  Since this height is about even with the bottom of the first floor windows, Bryan was able to walk from window to window with a screwdriver -  making the task much easier than in the summer!    The lovely views of the frozen lake and the mountains beyond helped remind me of why I was enduring this chilly homecoming. 


Next, Bryan carved makeshift steps through the snow down to the back porch.  His goal was to clear away enough snow from the back door to remove the bear bar and mat and open the door to reach the ten days of wood we had piled next to it.  (The main woodpile is buried- a task for another day). Then he chopped steps down to the doors of the outhouse and the power shed.   He was relieved to find that the battery bank, which stores power from the solar panels and wind turbine, was fully charged.  In the outhouse, the toilet seat and top were frozen together and to the wooden bench below by a three inch deep circle of frost.  I eased up the seats, knocked off the frost and installed a two inch thick ring of Styrofoam, which we use instead of the wooden seat in the winter.  (The air pockets keep it from getting cold).   
   Needless to say, we were tuckered out by early evening.  After a meal of Manchego cheese and easy homemade dishes of ham and pea soup, coleslaw, and bananas with a chocolate rum sauce, we tumbled into a very comfortable bed under a very thick comforter and a sound night’s sleep.  Tomorrow is another day. 

Easter is the high holy day of Christianity and deservedly so.  It defines the relationship between humanity and the divine, life and death, sin and redemption in a complicated faith story.  Believers hold that God sacrificed his only Son, to take away the sins of the world, as the ultimate scapegoat, who then ascended to heaven in his human form.  By doing so, he enabled humans to follow, and participate in everlasting life.

 Naturally, other religions don’t share this view, and, more to the point, are puzzled by it.  Maybe you are, too. Monotheists, like Jews and Muslims, see a vast, impassable chasm between God and humanity.  God is other.  The combination of man and God in one being is incomprehensible.  

Polytheistic traditions, however, are very familiar with gods popping down to earth in human form, procreating, fighting, blessing, miracle making.  Think of Zeus fathering most of the heroes, like Perseus, Theseus, and Heracles, by young virgins, like Alcmene and Danae. They don’t see anything particularly unusual about these trips back and forth between heaven and earth, or of Jesus being both god and man. 

 What may interest you, and you have surely inferred this from the readings of the Canonical and non-Canonical Gospels and the title of today’s service, is that for hundreds of years, people who considered themselves Christians didn’t believe the Easter story as we currently know it, either.  The range of interpretations of Jesus’s death and resurrection stories encompasses the full range of monotheistic and polytheistic views – not unlike the range of beliefs represented by Unitarian Universalists in this or any congregation. 




Some believe that he was a wholly human teacher who died, and whose lessons live on.  Others believe that he was wholly human, was never crucified (or was crucified and survived) and went on to live a long life, traveling as far away as India to preach.  Still others believe that Jesus was never human, but a spirit (this is called Docetism) in human form, and that this spiritual form watched as someone else was crucified, laughing at the deception (which I think is rather awful).   Some of these views are expressed in the Gnostic Gospels, which I’ll talk about later. 

 If you recall the Canonical Gospel accounts of the Resurrection (in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), they vary widely.  Jesus eats fish and bread and appears human in one, is a spirit one cannot touch in another, is unrecognized but seemingly human in a third.  He appears to people for various lengths of time, from a day to a week to several months after his death, and in different cities around Palestine.  The names of the people who see him vary from story to story. 

 But the crucifixion and resurrection is a faith story, so I am not personally concerned with these inconsistencies, or truth or falsehood, history or metaphor.  Language inevitably falls short when it attempts to convey deep emotions or beliefs.  I would not challenge you as a liar if you told me that you had the most beautiful grandchild in the world any more than if you told me that your husband or wife meant more to you than the sun and the moon and the stars.  I’d get the idea that love had transformed your life.

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What interests me, though, is WHY people believe what they do, because we have choices.  We adopt or adapt interpretations.  Why is it so important to some people that Jesus suffered and died like a man?  Why was it equally important for others to believe that he was a spirit, never human at all?  Considering that question establishes the context of that faith.  And we can extrapolate those questions to ourselves.  At Easter, I want you to contemplate not simply whether you do or don’t believe it, but rather what YOU believe about the relationship between humanity and the divine, between life and death, and between the body and spirit.  Those are the issues that Christianity attempts to answer with its Easter theology.  In fact, those are the questions that all religions wrestle with.   

 Let’s look at just two points of view – first the contemporary view, that Jesus seamlessly combined all the elements of humanity and divinity in one being, so he suffered and died like a man even though he was God.  And second, that he suffered not at all. 

The suffering of Christ and the idea of a sacrificial death were compelling themes for many Christians for two historically grounded reasons: Roman persecution and Jewish history.  I want to talk about these points a bit because if you grew up in a Christian household, you may have focused on the theology of the resurrection and not the history of those who wrote those resurrection stories. 

 Roman persecution.  Although the term martyr originally meant simply “witness,” Christians  were being tortured and killed when they witnessed for their faith during the second and third centuries.  They were allegedly blamed as scapegoats for the fire of Rome during Nero’s reign, were accused of cannibalism (probably because of the body and blood Eucharist language) immorality, and all sorts of socially despicable behaviors.  For these martyrs, the Gnostic idea that Jesus would have escaped the cross and laugh at the experience was understandably abhorrent.     Familiar with that belief, Bishop Irenaeus argued several times around the year 200 CE that Christ never would have exhorted His disciples to take up the cross if He in fact had not suffered on it Himself, but flown away from it.   

  We still hear this argument ourselves,about presidents who did or didn’t serve in the armed service.  The logic grants greater credibility to a commander in chief who experienced the same sacrifice he asks of other men and women.  

For Christian believers enduring all sorts of atrocities, a historical, human Jesus, suffering like them was very comforting and validating.  Naturally, though, Christian theology goes further than simply saying that the man suffered and died.  It teaches that Jesus died as a sacrifice.   Now many religious traditions involve the sacrifice of pure, young men and women to an angry god.  But the Christian concept is very different, and grounded in a significant Jewish historical change. 

You may recall that until 70 CE, or some forty years after Jesus is supposed to have died, Jews traveled to Jerusalem to sacrifice animals at the Temple of Solomon, which must have smelled like a huge barbeque.  Jews weren’t even allowed to slaughter and eat meat elsewhere in the country if they could travel to Jerusalem.  Jewish men bathed in a large public bath in a ritual ablution for purification, and sacrificed an unblemished animal, which varied depending on their affluence.  The scent wafted into the air, pleasing God, and the priests were paid, in part, with some of the meat.  This ended in 70 CE, when the Romans suppressed a Jewish rebellion in Jerusalem.  They razed the temple and large parts of the city, and took so many Jews (and Jewish Christians) into slavery that, according to the histories of Josephus, the cost of a Jewish slave fell below that for a horse.  Not only did the businesses associated with the temple, like animal husbandry, currency trading, travelers’ services cease, but the centralized Jewish faith, located in that temple and city shattered.  It would be as though the Vatican or Mecca were blown up.

 The Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John are widely presumed by scholars to have been written after the fall of Jerusalem (and Mark possibly, too).  This timing is important to an historic understanding of the language of Easter, because it explains the faith story of Jesus as a sacrifice. 

   After 70 CE, Jewish Christians interpreted Jesus’s death as a replacement for the animal sacrifices no longer feasible in Jerusalem. This turned upside down the concept of sacrifice.    Instead of people enabling the killing of pure animals to bridge the gap to God, God enabled the killing of his pure son to bridge a gap to humans.  It is like that odd offertory reading I shared. I can’t think of a similar act or concept in other religions.  Naturally, for humans, sacrifice involved pain, blood, death.  So, too, Jesus’s death. 

  In contrast to this view, Gnostic Christians did not exploit sacrificial imagery.  In fact, their writings demonstrate a singular disinterest in the events of the crucifixion and resurrection.   Some Gnostic Gospels, like Thomas, focus wholly on Jesus’s teachings while he was alive.  114 sayings.  Very little biographical information, and nothing about his death.  Others dismiss the crucifixion and even mock it, as we heard.  The First Apocalypse of James says, “    "Never have I suffered in any way, nor have I been distressed. And these people have done me no harm."19   The Gospel of Truth "sees the crucifixion as death to one’s physical self and an occasion for discovering the divine self within."   A resurrection is enthusiastically affirmed in the Treatise on the Resurrection: "Do not think the resurrection is an illusion. It is no illusion, but it is truth! Indeed, it is more fitting to say that the world is an illusion rather than the resurrection."24  The Testimony of Truth actually ridicules the whole emphasis on sacrificial suffering and martyrdom.  “Is God a cannibal?  Martyrs destroy only themselves, ignorantly believing that if they “hold fast to the name of a dead man” as they describe Jesus, “they will become pure.”  Self-sacrifice is not the price for salvation. Even the nature of the post-resurrection appearances differs from the biblical accounts. Jesus is disclosed through spiritualvisions rather than physical or historical circumstances.  If you think about it, this was Paul’s experience on the road to Emmaus, several years after Jesus’s death.

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Just as we considered why it was important for some Christians to believe that Jesus suffered just as they suffered, and so as God, could sympathize with them, why was it so important for the Gnostics to not dwell on the crucifixion and resurrection?

To them the Orthodox stories stress way too much the importance of the body.  We have two aspects – a physical self and a spiritual one, but they are not co-equal.  Gnostics tend to be rather dismissive of the value of the material world.  We all suffer in life, but there is no salvation effect from that.  In fact, we tend to suffer BECAUSE we focus too much on the body (many Buddhists agree).  For this reason, they don’t belabor the suffering or the death of Jesus.  In fact, the whole concept of resurrecting the body after death struck Gnostics as bizarre and distasteful, like reanimating Frankenstein’s monster.  The Gnostic faith story is that God IS SPIRIT and is within all of us and everything else. He/she/it is not locked in the body of one man or one set of believers.   What is locked in any body is one’s potential spiritual self.  Each of us can become born anew, and according to the Gnostic texts, while we are alive, not after death.  While orthodox Christians applaud, “Hallelujah, Christ has Risen,” Gnostics might say, “Hallelujah, I have Risen.”  Evangelical Christians who describe being born again are using this very imagery.  But whereas born again Christians often describe the transformation as happening TO them, as though from without, the Gnostics would say it can occur to any of us, by an active, intentional process of going within.      

Many Unitarians reject the man/God duality as unique in Jesus.  Yet, those who describe themselves as theistic invariably express beliefs in a soul or a spark of divine within, often connected with all that is.  The language of Ralph Waldo Emerson on this topic, and other mystics share concepts with Buddhists and the Gnostics.  Easter is an opportunity to assess our own individual theologies.  Do you believe in a body-soul unity or a body/soul division? Your opinion can dictate steps you can take to better explore your views.  If the Gnostic concept of potential/actual spirit resonates with you, then find opportunities to withdraw from the distractions of the body and mind and world, to listen to that quiet voice within and around you.  Make time for silence, meditation, reflection.  Cenacle Retreat House in Memorial, offers weekend retreats for women or men, often in silence, but also with instruction.  Buddhist Meditation Retreat Centers are springing up all over Texas, as are meditation classes sponsored by secular and religious organizations. 

If the other Christians ideas of more unified body and spirit ring true for you, the view that both aspects are important and interconnected and neither should be undervalued, then seek out physical opportunities to connect with your spirit, through movement or action.  Some people meditate through dance or movement. Others don’t meditate at all but pay attention to what their bodies tell them about their emotions and spirit. Even suffering has merit as a teacher.  Many people believe that faith without action is meager indeed – put the body to work in order to express the spirit within.  I like the Unitarian description that we believe in deeds, not creeds. 


Easter is an annual reminder of our potential to be spiritually resurrected.  The Gnostics believed that this occurs when we work at it.  As Unitarian Universalists we have the right and responsibility to initiate that process ourselves. 

     







 

Well, we have sold our home in the Lower 48 and will move to our little cabin in the woods of Alaska as a full time home in six weeks.  The sale prompts me to consider two historical analogies.  One is Cortez burning his ships in Latin America, to ensure that his men would commit to their new venture, no looking back.  The other, which more likely occurred to you, too, is Henry David Thoreau. But he only lived in his cabin on Walden Pond (land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, by the way) for two years, after which he moved back into town.  My husband’s goal is to live at our off-the-grid cabin F-O-R-E-V-E-R, but we both realize that health and other matters (like wanting a real bathroom) may trigger a future change.  Now, while we are both healthy, is a good time to embark on this adventure, and never say never or forever. 

Certainly we have been working toward this step over several years of learning and actions and increasing periods of time, both summer and winter.  The cabin and outbuildings and some raised gardens have been constructed and furnished and used and tweaked.  The power systems of solar, wind, and lake pumps have been tested and adjusted.  We’ve taken classes in welding, master gardening, flying, shooting, ham radio, and first aid.  We’ve bought books on relevant “how-to” subjects.  We’ve built up our inventories of supplies with a healthy set of redundancies for every breakdown of communication, power, heat, potable water, and food we could think of.  Perhaps most importantly, we’ve read lots of stories of naïve people moving up to Alaska to do exactly what we plan to do.  I hope we have learned something from their hubris and mistakes as well as their perseverance.  Perhaps most usefully, we have also developed a network of friends and service resources in South Central Alaska who are knowledgeable, resourceful, and have a good sense of humor in general, and about us!   

So pretty soon it is time to leave.  Since I have moved 16 times in my life, I don’t mind moving, and since I am not a packrat, I don’t mind paring down, but this time is more daunting.  It involves moving a great distance, of course, 5000 miles between two very different settings and life experiences.  It also involves getting rid of just about everything we own in a TX high-rise to move into a two room log cabin where our prior furnishings and even clothing won’t fit or won’t be suitable. The only things we are taking have to fit in the car that my husband plans to drive to Alaska, and are largely practical in nature, like bikes and herbs and spices and camping gear.  Some suit bags of “Lower 48” clothes (business suits, summer dresses and sandals, evening wear) will be sent to our relatives, since they are the likely destinations and company for such attire.  Having paid thousands of dollars to store a relative’s furniture for several years that neither she nor my husband wanted, we determined that long term storage is just an expensive way to postpone inevitable decision making about products which, if you liked them, you would be using!  For some, the pain of monthly storage payments advances such decisions!  In our case, we already know – we are parting with most everything. 

About 1/3 of our furniture and art and household goods have been selected by my grown son, 1/3 by my sister-in-law and 1/3 will go to a charity for foster care children.  Items I had saved by or about the children I gave to them. Genealogical files we scanned onto CDs before shipping the paper records to  relatives in each family who loves to store stuff.  Last week, I also hosted a “regifting” party for 8 friends.  All of us laid out items like belts, jewelry, hats, scarves, books, vases, games, unused make-up etc, that others could have for the taking.  It was fun.  For those of us who are not packrats, it was something of a relief to give to a friend items that are intrinsically attractive but that had bad associations for the giver, like gifts from “bad karma” relatives or past boyfriends.  Some things, like holiday china my children don’t want to inherit, we are selling or consigning.
This process has engendered mixed feelings, as you may imagine.  One is, of course, the memories and pleasures associated with various items.  The other reaction is of how silly I was to keep certain clothes or items or files as long as I did or to accumulate so much stuff that I didn’t use very often or didn’t like very long.  Those self-justifications of “someday I’ll fit back into those jeans” or "someday I’ll use this or that" did not happen, or when they did, they didn’t justify packing, moving, and storing those items as long as I did. I feel rather sheepishly selfish to have held on to items I haven’t used in several years that someone else might be able to use right now and with more pleasure than I derived from them.

It was more difficult for me to go through old papers – health records, complete and partial sermons and business articles I had written, writings by others that I’d saved for future reference.  However, the advent of the Internet and the back up services for our computers mean that most of what I need is available electronically, even “out in the boonies,” so we have pared down 10 wide filing cabinet drawers to two, in a short cabinet we will take with us.   We’ve stored music on our computers and I have many favorite books on a Kindle.  This process has encouraged me to focus on what is special and what isn't, what is necessary and what is ancillary. 

     One of the joys of selling the home and moving out to the woods was calculating all of the bills, fees, insurance, and taxes that we have shed and deciding what to do with those savings.  Since these are costs most city people take for granted, I encourage readers to do this calculation, too.  How much does it cost you each month to live where you do, and do you get the safety or pleasure you want from those expenditures? Do you use the pool you own? Spend time in the yard? Use those back bedrooms? If you really only live in four rooms of your home, what would you do with any time/money you freed up if you chose a different living situations, like downsizing or renting?   In our case, we decided that with the money we will no longer spend owning a home in TX, we will leave our cabin for 3 months during the coldest and darkest months of winter to travel throughout the Lower 48, Hawaii, and Latin America.  Thus we hope to enjoy the best of off-grid and on-grid experiences at attractive times of year in lovely and interesting parts of the world.  Having known a number of vital people whose traveling days were suddenly and irrevocably interrupted by health woes, I look forward to embarking on this bifurcated existence for as long as we can, after which we will make other decisions.

The concomitant step to parting with things is saying goodbye to friends.  Since quite a number of our very favorite people are elderly, these are bittersweet partings from people I value immensely and may not see again.  Thank goodness for Internet and phone communications.  Other goodbyes are to intrepid travelers whom we hope to see when our respective travels can intersect each other.

In the big scheme of things, life is all about saying goodbye, to youth, illusions, money, expectations, loved ones, health, etc.  I’ve said goodbye before, but not often to so much all in one fell swoop.  I think I am grieving a little.   

In the past several years, probably since Sarah Palin jumped to the attention of folks in the Lower 48,  numerous movies and TV shows have been set in Alaska.  Below, I won’t critique them or give away any plot elements, but I thought I would address some of the questions that may have occurred to viewers of two recent movies, The Grey, with Liam Neeson and Big Miracle, with Drew Barrymore, and mention an upcoming one still being filmed, Frozen Ground, with John Cusack. 

1)    The Grey 2012, Liam Neeson. 
Plot: A southbound plane from the North Slope crashes somewhere in remote Alaska.  The motley group of survivors is menaced by an aggressive pack of wolves as well as inclement weather and topography.
Information about wolves:  The wolf is the largest canine, but not enormous.  Female wolves rarely top 110 lbs and males tend to weigh about 115 but some can reach 140 lbs.  By comparison to dogs, that means that wolves rarely reach the weight of a Rottweiler, and are certainly smaller than big dogs like St. Bernards and Great Danes. Some are mostly black, and others mostly white ones, but in general, their coats are multi-colored: black, gray, white, beige, like the first one the viewer sees. Wolves are opportunistic carnivores.  Depending on what is available in their vicinity, they hunt caribou, moose, deer, sheep, goats, beavers and share them with the pack, generally hunting every 2-3 days, according to tagged, observed wolves.  They also eat small mammals, birds and fish.  Generally they pursue the youngest, oldest, weakest animals available, and when they can find no live food, they will scavenge.             


Wolves tend to move at a trot but, when hunting, can speed up to 20-40 mph for ten or more minutes.  They hunt in packs, the size of which depends on how much food is available and how many wolves one alpha male can sire and “supervise.” An average pack is 6-7 animals, although packs up to 20-30 have occasionally been observed.  Groups of wolves rarely overlap hunting ranges which vary in size depending on the fecundity of the area.  One scientist gave an average of 600 square miles per pack.   The wolves routinely travel 10 – 30 miles on a winter day and generally bring back food to their den.  They will defend their territory against intruders.

Like the dens of bears and foxes, wolf dens are not open “camp sites” but are invariably protected from the elements, such as natural or created caves under a fallen tree or within or under a rock wall.  They will stash food under the snow or other ground cover. (Even people dig snow caves to get out of a blizzard!) 

For communication with friends and foes, they use howling and other vocalizations as well as scent markings.  Their sense of smell is supposed to be exceptionally acute – 100 times more so than a human.

People do not eat wolf because they taste really bad, and apparently they smell really bad too because they tend to roll in the packs’ excreted liquids and solids that help identify them to others.  However, wolf pelts are really lovely, and the outer layer of hair is quite long.
The estimated number of wolves in Alaska is around 10,000.  Incidents of wolf attacks on humans are very rare, and in fact, they are not often seen up close. Since 2000, the only reports in North America were these: in 2010, a teacher in a remote Alaskan village was attacked and killed by two wolves when she was jogging.  In 2005, a man in Saskatchewan was killed while hiking.     
Because wolves hunt big game desired by human hunters, too, like caribou and moose, Alaska occasionally implements predator control programs to reduce populations.  Since 2000, about 1000 wolves have been killed, mostly in the Interior (around Fairbanks).  Some of these programs, particularly aerial shooting (from fixed wing planes and helicopters) are controversial partly because aerial hunting is perceived as "unfair" and partly because it is difficult for the hunter to get a clean kill shot.  In addition, the causes of population declines in various animal populations include a number of factors, such as weather, food availability, and disease, and groups against intensive management of wolves say that these canines are overly blamed.  

We hear wolves and coyotes at our cabin, but have never seen them in person.  Our one long term, full time neighbor says he has only seen one wolf trot by in 12 years.    

2)  Big Miracle  2011.  Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski

Plot:  Three whales are stranded at a small breathing opening in the ice near Barrow, AK.  A fictionalized account of a true story in 1988, the film depicts the havoc caused in tiny Barrow by a major influx of news, military, Greenpeace, and oil interests, and how everyone, from locals to visitors, want to get something out of this whale of a story.  

While the characters may be fictitious, the broad outlines of the story are true, including the elements that seem most unlikely, like the Russians coming to help, as well as military and politicians and oil magnates.   For whatever reason, the story did indeed capture a lot of attention in the news the month before a national election!  Below is information about Barrow and gray whales.

Information about grey whales:   Gray whales are a mottled gray and white and range from 16 feet (newborns) to 50 feet (adults) and up to 40 tons in weight.   They can live a lifespan comparable to many humans – 50 – 70 years.   They are baleen whales (eating krill) and have two blow holes.  Generally,  they leave Alaskan waters in October, heading south to the warmer oceans and bays off Southern California and Baja, where they bear young in January.  The mothers nurse for seven months, even as they travel north again for the summer. 

Gray whales are extinct in the North Atlantic and nearly so in the western Pacific, near Korea and Japan.  They have been protected from large scale hunting since 1949, but limited, subsistence hunting is allowed.
An interesting question that scientists are exploring is one that lay whale watchers have pondered, too.  Why do whales breach (break the surface)?   One theory being studied in Alaska is whether whales breach to sniff the air through their blow holes.  In this way, can they smell krill, for example?  If you notice how whales turn as they breach, are they turning into the wind for this reason?  Inquiring minds want to know.  

If you wanted to see the annual migration of 20,000 gray whales in an Alaskan setting, courtesy of various cruise ships and tour operators in Seward and elsewhere, a good time of year is April-May.  If you wanted to see belugas chasing salmon or orcas chasing belugas, an easy spot is along the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Girdwood.  This is one of the country's loveliest drives, along the Turnagain Arm (of Cook Inlet).   (Isn't that an evocative name?)  There is a well named Beluga Point.  This is a rather narrow waterway, so the view of the whales is spectacular.  I don't think I have ever seen any animal so white, even more so than the curls of the waves.     

What is Barrow like?   It is the northernmost city in North America (latitude 71), on the Chukchi Sea, a three hour flight north of Anchorage, AK (latitude 61).  Today, the population (majority Inupiat) is about 4400. Subsistence hunting and fishing remain a high priority for remote communities, but subsistence includes snow machines, nylon nets, and other modern accoutrements.   
The story in the film took place in October, when the average temperatures are +13 - +22 degrees F.
Overall, Barrow experiences an average of 324 days per year below 32 degrees F.  The area can be quite windy, all year round for two reasons.  (1) The landscape is flat and surrounded by the sea on three sides, and (2) it is tundra over permafrost, which supports no trees or other natural windbreaks. 
Within town, roads are unpaved because of permafrost/ice heave issues.  Outside, no roads connect to Barrow at all.  Transportation relies on snow machines, boats, and planes.  As a result, visitors should not be surprised to find its 4 hotels and 8 restaurants unimpressive and expensive.  All supplies have to arrive by plane or boat.  When a shop or restaurant owner says he or she is out of something, that means out until the next shipment from far away!  Currently, Barrow is a dry town.  Like many native or majority native communities in Alaska, the residents voted to outlaw the sale and/or public consumption of alcohol because of the high incidence of alcoholism and related crimes, diseases, tragedies in many native communities).
The movie made a point about prices rising as Outsiders pressed into the tiny town.  It is certainly true that there are distinct price points throughout Alaska for tourist vs. non-tourist seasons, and for tourists vs. locals (true in Hawaii, too).  I can’t speak to Barrow, but I can give examples, from personal experience, that the cost of a rental car in Anchorage is $100/day during the summer and $30/day during the winter.  Similarly, a motel room in that city is $200 in summer and $119 in winter.   Many remote fishing and hunting lodges charge $1000 for a weekend because they have had to provide/build food, lodging, power, supplies, guides, at great expense and difficulty).    
 (We have to pay $0.50/lb to fly in supplies to our cabin, which is a 30 minute flight from Anchorage, or deliver by snow machine trailer cross country in the winter, or charter and fill an entire small plane (See blog on “How we get stuff” and “Float and Ski Planes”).

3)  Frozen Ground is a movie is currently being filmed, in part in Anchorage with John Cusack.  It is about an infamous serial killer in Anchorage in the early 80’s, Robert Hansen, depicted in a book called Butcher, Baker.  The heinous villain appeared to others as a mild mannered, married man who owned and ran a local bakery.  However, another aspect of his personality was that he was an excellent, award winning hunter, and when that got old, he picked up prostitutes, flew them out (in his private plane) to remote locations where he hunted and killed them.  The movie is about how he was identified, impressions to the contrary, and the evidence amassed for a conviction.           

#2:  How Religious Were Our Founding Fathers? The First Four Presidents and Ben Franklin

Listen to the entire sermon here.

George Washington, 1795:  “In politics, as in religion, my tenets are few and simple; the leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves, and to exact it from others; meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved.  If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap-hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.” 
John Adams 1812:  “There is no special Providence for us.  We are not a chosen people that I know of.  Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill and increase good; but never presume to comprehend.”   
Thomas Jefferson, 1819:  Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apriarians, and after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect.”   ----------------------------------In this half of this sermon I’ll cite quotes indicating the religiosity of our first four presidents, (and Ben Franklin) but first I want to say something about the use of language and cultural references in any public discourse.

The main point of Protestantism was that each believer could and should read the Bible for himself or herself instead of relying on the interpretation of a priest.  So the religion walked hand in hand with literacy training.  I am sure that the illiteracy rate in America today is higher than it was in 1780. So while books were expensive, every home that could afford even one book owned a Bible.

Wealthier, educated people also studied and owned classic works of historians and philosophers.  So if you wanted to make a point in metaphorical language to a rich person, you might cite Cicero or Thucydides, but if you wanted to speak to a broad demographic, what was the one repository of cultural reference that the entire population recognized? The Bible. 
What might this be comparable to today?  It seems to me to be sports and media references.  How many of you have attended meetings where the speaker said something like, “Let’s get that ball down the field,” or “let’s try to get this one to first base.”  Companies don’t even have employees anymore; they have teams with teammates.   Similarly, we pepper conversations with phrases from ad campaigns or movies, like “Where’s the Beef” or “May the Force be with you.”  The point is that people within a cultural group get that sort of short hand, which is very useful to a writer or speaker.   So I’m not being dismissive when I say that I do not regard public speeches thanking God for success in battle as evidence of great piety (any more than you should envision me as a great athlete if I make some sports reference).  Rather, such public pronouncements offered a dose of gravitas.  So, it is useful to look at other writings by leaders to ascertain how religious they were.  The writings of our first four presidents and the unelected but influential Ben Franklin, indicate that they were more religiously liberal and intellectually egalitarian than many of their contemporaries.  And that, for me, is certainly something I celebrate this Presidents’ Day weekend.
 
George Washington’s religious behaviors set the tone for subsequent national leaders.  He was hugely respected, not just as the first president, obviously, but also as the leader of the first truly national entity (in the highly regionalized colonies) – the Revolutionary Army. 

Like all Virginians, he was Anglican, but not a very good one.  This very tall, very famous man routinely left services (and his wife) before Communion.  This is significant as Communion is the central sacramental act of the denomination.  And he refused to kneel during prayers.  Several of his priests in Virginia commented on this in their writings.  Other ministers noticed that although he often thanked God after battles or in his presidential speeches, he only mentioned Christianity in generalities, such as for his men to conduct themselves as “good Christian soldiers.”  One minister asked how he could as “a true Christian, in the full exercise of his mental faculties, die without one expression of distinctive belief or Christian hope.”  Maybe it is because Washington expressed such views as these:  “the bosom of America was open to receive the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.”
As General and later as President, he never pushed his Anglicanism on others, nor was his religious leadership just by omission.  Instead, he was actively pluralistic:  he recruited chaplains from all regions, and hence all denominations, largely allowing his units to nominate chaplains from the communities they knew.  When some chaplains tried to get him to evict others from denominations they considered illegitimate, like Quakers, Baptists, and Universalists, Washington refused, in writing, several times.  His egalitarianism was personal as well as political.  His second in command and perhaps his best friend was Catholic at a time when Catholics still lacked civil rights in 11 colonies. 

My general impression is that like Adams and Franklin, he regarded religion as a practical good for people if it comforted them and instilled virtue, but he was probably not particularly religious or spiritual inclined himself.  When it came time for the states to ratify the national Constitution, many were astonished by the secularity of it and asked the President to intervene.  President Washington responded quietly but pointedly, that perhaps citizens should look to their religious leaders rather than to government for spiritual inspiration and teaching.  

The second president, for one term, was John Adams.  He never had an opinion he did not put in writing, and so, over his lifetime, you can find changing views on many subjects.  He was, at least before his time in France, rabidly anti-Catholic. 

Religiously, he started out Congregationalist and then his congregation voted to become Unitarian, so of course he found the idea of the Trinity illogical.  He did not believe in Original Sin.  Though he believed that the Bible was based on revelations from God, it got mixed up with “millions of fables, tales, and legends” to create “the most bloody religion that ever existed.”  He absolutely rejected the idea that salvation resulted from faith in Christ rather than from good deeds because he thought the purpose and value of religion was practical – to create “good men, good magistrates and good subjects, good husbands and good wives, good parents and good children, good masters and good servants.”  He was in favor of tax supported local churches as an effective way of instilling “morals and decency” because he thought that Christianity offered a more effective carrot and stick for behavior, in the form of heaven and hell, than any civil institution could offer.”   In a treaty signed by President Adams with Tripoli, the language read:  “The Govt of the USA is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion… it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Musselmen… the said states never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation.”    In his dotage he wrote, “Ye will say I am no Christian:  I say Ye are no Christians.  There the Account is balanced.  Yet I believe all the honest men among you are Christians in my sense of the Word
His successor was Thomas Jefferson, for two terms.  Jefferson is often identified as a Unitarian, and many UU congregations and an entire regional district are named for him, but he never actually belonged to a Unitarian congregation.  There were none in Virginia that I know of during his lifetime.  Like all other Virginians of his era, he was raised Anglican, but like Washington, he was not much of a church goer.  A New Englander seeking to demonize him as an atheist during his election campaign observed: “It is a well-established fact that Mr. Jefferson never has attended public worship during a residence of several years in NY and Phila.”
Of all the Founding Fathers, he is the most ferocious critic not only of organized religion but of the Bible itself, with the most startling quotations on the subject.  Unlike Adams and Franklin, who saw practical benefits to religion, Jefferson thought organized religion, particularly if required, was not only unnecessary but utterly dangerous.  It was he who wrote the phrase about “a wall of separation between Church and State.” He regarded the New England clergy as “a formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man” and throughout history “the priest has been hostile to liberty.”  Like the others, he believed that, “Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven.” 
In  Jefferson's Bill for Religious Freedom, which became law for the state of Virginia in 1780, he wrote the following words.  Listen to the extent of it, given the religious climate of the time described in the first part of this sermon:
“No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” In other words, he disallowed religious tests for any civic office in the state.   Of all the things that this impressive man accomplished, he referred to only three on his epitaph, and one was this law (the others were the Declaration of Independence and the Univ of VA).
Listen to some of his stinging indictments of the Bible. Regarding the New Testament he wrote: “A short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind and aggrandizing their oppressors in church and state. “  He castigated the authors of the Gospels as “ignorant, unlettered men” who laid “a  groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications.”   “Of this band of dupes and imposters, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus”.   Jefferson had no faith in the Trinity: “It is mere abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus” and the “hocus-pocus phantasm of a god like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads.” 
Initially, he didn’t even want theology taught at the Univ. of VA he founded.
I hope that you have a copy of the Jefferson Bible in your library.  This is based on his cut and pasted revision of the Gospels.  Like Franklin, who cut the virgin birth and resurrection out of the Nicene Creed, Jefferson cut whole passages out of the Gospels that sounded like fairy tales.  The angels, miracles, resurrection all ended up in the trash.  Naturally, he came up with a very slim book indeed, one that is remarkably similar to what the 20thand 21st c. theologians have done in the Historical Jesus Project.     As a result of these quotes and actions, we know a lot about what he did not believe; what did he believe?  He seems to have been a Deist who believed in a distant creator god, although, as he neared his death, he wrote about heaven.  Whether he believed in it or used the concept metaphorically is open to interpretation.  But perhaps what is more to the point, he allocated time throughout decades of his life to ask religious questions and think deeply about them.  Of all the founding fathers, I think he was most interested in the philosophy of religion.
James Madison was the fourth president, for two terms.  He is considered the “Father of the Constitution” because of his leading role in writing it, advocating for its passage, and then championing the Bill of Rights.  Like Adams, he was a voluminous writer, but we don’t have many private letters unless they were advancing policy issues.  However 40 of those letters stress the importance of separating church and government powers. He wasn’t as critical of religion per se as Jefferson or Adams.  I haven’t found any writings in which he commented on particular creeds or beliefs.  His issue was this.  He believed that religion and government, if segregated, could be benign or useful, but, like glycerine and nitrogen, if combined, they were doomed to be an explosive danger.  He went further than any of the other Founding Fathers to try to limit religious interference by government, not just nationally, but in states, as well.  

He, too, was a Virginia Anglican, but he had more pluralizing experiences than most people of his era.  He attended Princeton in NJ, which was at the time a Presbyterian college and seminary, and his wife, Dolly Madison, was Quaker.  As a young attorney, he defended the Baptists who sought to congregate in peace in VA and ensure licenses for their ministers.  He wrote early and often statements such as “religion has been much oftener a motive to oppression than a restraint from it.” He expressed confidence that the diversity of religious and non-religious belief is exactly what would preserve religious liberty and enhance the religious climate.  In this, as in many things, he was right.  The percentage of Americans belonging to churches was much higher after the 1830s, when tax support of regional religions ceased.  Before he worked with Jefferson on writing and passing the Religious Freedom bill for VA, he solicited from a Pennsylvania minister friend the history of that state’s religious toleration.   Like Jefferson, he fought not just for the right of multiple denominations and religions but also for the right of people to embrace NO religion whatsoever.  Listen to how graciously he made his point to an audience of churchgoers:  “Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us.” 

Madison’s preserved writings document not just governing and legal battles he won, but those he negotiated and lost.  For example, he was against having the government appoint and pay congressional and military chaplains.  He voted against donations of land to churches.  His proposed freedom of religion language for the Constitution was rejected as too expansive.  Here is what he wanted: “the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.”  He also wrote a clause allowing people the right not to bear arms in war if their religion or conscience forbade it.   

Such language was watered down or excluded, but Article VI does read that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”  Based on the Virginia law that Madison and Jefferson wrote, this statement is far more liberal than those of 11 other states which still DID have restrictions against public service by people of various religions (or lack of one). 

Benjamin Franklin was never president, but since he is the only non-president pictured on a currency bill, let me shoehorn him in here since he is my favorite of the Founding Fathers. He grew up in a restrictive, Puritan home but spent his adulthood in Quaker Philadelphia, Catholic France, and in a highly eclectic social and intellectual sphere.  He described himself as a “thorough Deist” but elsewhere expressed views of a more personal deity (and even deities) which may be metaphorical or not.    He rewrote the Nicene Creed, stripping it of the miraculous birth and resurrection.  About Jesus he wrote, “I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity.”   He did not believe that the Bible was written by God.

Among his writings on religion, my favorites are those in which he skewers hypocrisy.  “Serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier service and therefore is more generally chosen.” He wrote a whole series of newspaper articles about a minister he couldn’t stand.  He dubbed the minister “Reverend Asses,” whom he described as reciting scripture to avoid rational thought.    Franklin often attended the lectures and worship services of various ministers and even collaborated on a subscription series with at least one very popular English minister who gave a lecture tour in America advocating a practical use of Christianity. He built the first non-denominational hall in which any minister of any denomination could speak. 

Franklin was a man who worked at developing personal virtues and encouraging them in others, but by reason and effort and action rather than by prayer.   He certainly agreed with Adams that religion should demonstrate practical gains but it wasn’t the only route to achieving them.  “Morality or Virtue is the End, Faith only a Means to obtain that End; And if the end be obtained, it is no matter by what Means.”   As the publisher in the largest city of the colonies, and a man of prestige among politicians, scientists and the hoi polloi, his logic and wit wielded enormous influence. 


I really enjoyed researching this sermon for you.  I learned so much.  It made me aware of many things I take for granted, including the influence of individual, charismatic leaders.  Look at us, gathered here today.  Think of all the people throughout the country this morning, gathered to worship in other churches, of various denominations – or not – out on the golf course or in bed – with no fear of physical, legal, or financial reprisals. I approach this President’s Day with terrific respect for the brilliant men I’ve mentioned this morning.  Without them, I am absolutely sure that our country’s history of religion and politics would be markedly different, and for their roles, I am truly thankful.    ---------------------------------------------
(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)  

How Religious were our Founding Fathers?
Part 1:  The Colonies and States Themselves  (this posting)

Part 2:  The First Four Presidents and Benjamin Franklin ( a separate posting)

Listen to the entire sermon here.
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In public discourse and private conversations, I hear people bandy about opinions like, “we were founded as a Christian country” to justify Christmas trees in front of City Hall and prayers at the beginning of each legislative season or “a Judeo-Christian country” to warrant the Ten Commandments in front of courthouses.  On the other hand, we also proclaim a heritage of “separation of church and state” and point out that our national Constitution is a wholly secular document, even more so than many state constitutions.   How do we reconcile the two? 

How religious were our Founding Fathers?  How religious did they want our national or state institutions to be?  Those are two separate questions, and I’ll take them in reverse order, first talking about the religious context of the colonies, and then give some quotes and context for each of our first four presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, along with Ben Franklin.  

The first point to note is that, of course the government was founded by Christians --the immigrants came from Europe, not Timbuktu.  More than Christian, though, our state and national governments were founded by Protestants.  99% of the immigrants were Protestant. 

As for “Judeo-Christian founding", though, this was no homogenious "kumbaya" Protestantism.  The dominant Protestant denominations of the time, Puritans in the north and Anglicans in the south, vigorously and sometimes violently restricted the rights of Catholics and Jews and Protestants they did not recognize as legitimate denominations, like the Quakers, Baptists, Universalists, as well as those who professed no religion at all.   Catholics and Jews and non-theists or non-Trinitarians were refused the right to public office, to vote, and in some places, to own real estate or businesses for more than a century in 11/13 colonies and early states. 

Virginia, for a while, had a law that it would execute any Jesuit!

Baptist and Universalist ministers were not granted licenses in many colonies and states which meant that the weddings they performed were not legally valid.  The widows could not inherit and the children were illegitimate.   Many of the early faithful who were not Anglican or Puritan were beaten, imprisoned, banished, and executed in both northern and southern colonies.  Did you ever hear this in 11th grade history?  Me either.
That is the sad answer to the first point.   

The second point to make is that just as we say that “all politics is local”, certainly all religion was too.  The immigrants arrived on little boats in groups of regional and religious affiliations. They settled together and cast glances of doubt or derision toward other settlers, elsewhere. 

The southern states were settled as English trading ventures that got charters from the Crown, so Virginians, Carolinians, and Georgians were overwhelmingly Anglican. 

The New England states, except for Rhode Island were settled by Puritans.  Have you ever wondered what denominations descended from them?  It was the Congregationalists.  Today, that denomination is considered a bastion of liberal Christianity, but it certainly wasn’t then!  Salem, of the infamous witch trials, was Congregationalist.

The most liberal states, religiously, were Rhode Island, PA, NY, and MD.  You may remember from American history that RI was founded by a man who was banished from MA for heresy, Roger Williams.  He became Baptist, a religion that grew rapidly in the US, and urged toleration for Catholics and Jews, as well as other Protestant beliefs, a radical idea.  (By the way: at its founding, Rhode Island really was just one of the islands of that now larger state).

PA was established by Quakers, and since that denomination is inherently pluralistic, because it believes that one encounters God through one’s own heart, and not through external creeds or sacraments, it was in Philadelphia, the largest city on the eastern seaboard (and the second largest English speaking city in the world, after London), that you would encounter more churches for other denominations than any other place.  Many people, even at the time, attributed part of the city’s commercial success to its broad religious toleration. 

NY, which at the time included NJ and DE, was settled by the Dutch, not the English.  You probably recall that New York was originally New Amsterdam.  The "old" Amsterdam was THE international trading center of the 17th c, with broad religious toleration for its investors, merchants, and seamen.  The leaders in the Netherlands imposed this same expectation on its NY civic leaders, requiring that the colony accept Catholics and Jews as residents and statesmen. This lapsed once the Netherlands relinquished this colony to the English. 

Maryland was established as a haven for Catholics by Lord Baltimore.  He, too, required toleration of others, like Protestants, but that good deed was the colony’s own undoing.  The population swelled with Protestant heretics evicted from other places, and when their percentage exceeded that of the Catholics, they changed the laws to disenfranchise the very people who had welcomed them!

This patchwork quilt of religious regionalism meant that if you lived anywhere except Philadelphia, NYC or Newport, you probably did not know people with other religious views but you held them in great contempt anyway!   Yankee churches had names like The Community Church or First Church of Boston.  There was no need to differentiate it by denomination because within those towns, only one denomination was represented.  What a lot of Americans forget or don’t know is that 11/13 colonies and states supported these local religious institutions with taxes.  These required payments were used to build the buildings and to pay the ministers.  There was no separation of church and state in the colonies.

Starting in the 1780s, legislation and law suits, including one by John Murray, called the father of American Universalism, sought to change this.  The first state to end tax support for religion was VA because of Jefferson and Madison’s staunch antagonism to tax support of religion. The last was MA, in 1833, 50 years after National Constitution.

Despite having just one church or denomination per town, not everyone belonged even if they wanted to.  The priorities of the Puritans, for example, were not to grow the ranks of membership but to keep it pure, hence their name.  They were vigorous about purging evil doers from their midst.  As a result, even in Salem MA during the time of the witch trials, scholars estimate that only 1/3 of the community belonged to a church.  Various scholars estimate that throughout the colonies, only 12-17% of residents belonged to churches, less than today.

The impact of these regional religious monopolies and segregation was that when early representative leaders from each colony assembled to develop the Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution, they representing a variety of Protestant denominations, none of which trusted the others and no one of which represented more than 20% of the country’s population. Nobody wanted anyone else’s denomination to become the national church, as was the norm in  European countries.  

Their regional loyalties contributed to several clever compromises.  One was a bicameral congress, which gave small states parity with big ones in the Senate and large state populations the advantage over small states in the House of Representatives.  Another is the secularity of the Constitution. 

Although any of you who likes mysteries knows that it can be difficult to prove a point by absence rather than presence, the fact is that our National Constitution is wholly secular, without a single reference to God, Providence, the Almighty, Jesus, or Christianity.  This aspect is VERY distinctive at a time when most other countries and the US colonies themselves included explicit religious language in their Constitutions.   The absense of religious language seems to be a compromise that allows local jurisdictions to retain their religious statements, tax support, and prejudices but to exclude any similar provisions in the national Constitution. (See Part 2 sections on Madison and Washington)

This radical secularity astonished the states when they reviewed it during the ratification process, but ultimately, they approved a document that not only stood out amongst its models but stood the test of time.  

What do you conclude from this brief history of colonial religiosity?  How much were you taught?  How much is new to you?  What do you conclude about contemporary comments about the religion our country was founded upon?  I encourage you to look into this subject yourselves.  You will likely find scholars (and opinion spinners) with different points of view, but I bet that the process of your own inquiries will give you a greater appreciation of what religious faith meant to early Americans and what was meant by those who talked about religious freedom.  Perhaps this will enable you to consider anew both your religious faith and your knowledge of pivotal shifts in American history. 
(Part 2 is about the religiosity of the first four presidents and Ben Franklin)
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(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)   

(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)

My strongest visual impression of a rural Alaskan winter is the narrow color palate.  It is a black and white world. Deciduous birch and willow, and black and white spruce trees stand still and strong in a landscape of white snow and mountains against a thin blue sky.  Even in snowy cities and suburbs, the color range is expanded exponentially by brick and painted houses, cars in parking lots, colorful billboards and shop signage, and the colored lights of stoplights, seasonal decorations, and flashing “open” beacons.   Out in the bush, we have none of those things.  The only color, really, is our laundry.


The impact of this view is a greater awareness of shapes - the triangle of a bleached out sky outlined by bent branches, shadows cast by an icicle or a corner of the cabin, or shallow or deep animal tracks puncturing the snow.  The landscape is so still, that movement startles, as when the wind blows snow.   We can track animals more easily than in the refulgent summer: snow shoe hares tracks dive under the snow, martins tracks skitter among and up trees, river otters slide along the banks of water courses not yet frozen.  One day we came across a mass of dark blood at the base of a tree.  As detectives, we looked for predatory footprints and found none, concluding that an owl or other raptor had swooped down and impaled a hare with its sharp claws and beak before the furry fellow could dive into its warren below the tree.  The long, straight lines of diagonal trapping poles and horizontal supports of hunting stations catch our eyes as foreign objects we do not see the rest of the year, when they remain hidden in the woods.
    At night, the stars are breathtaking, a treat I don’t see in the Alaska summer or in the ambient light of a southern city.   I haven’t seen a colorful aurora borealis yet (Fairbanks offers better viewing), but my husband has awakened me to see white ones.  They looked like some unseen hand is shaking out a lacy tablecloth across the sky.


The scents of winter are limited to wood smoke and food, and perhaps damp clothing.  Since we burn birch logs to heat the cabin, the scent of the smoke is a delicious welcome home after a hike through the woods.  Because the woodstove is so efficient, we don’t really smell the wood inside the cabin.  There, the scent is of some ubiquitous pot of stew or soup or rice and beans bubbling on top of the hot wood stove, and perhaps of damp clothes drying on a line that hangs the full length of the upstairs room, to capture the rising heat from below. 

Speaking of fires, a lot of our Alaska friends excavate a sort of topless igloo around their outdoor fire pits for delightful bonfires.   Depending how deep the snow is that year, the snow forms an effective windbreak.  When the heat of the fire and the distance to the snow wall are right, the interior melts just enough to harden an ice layer cut for benches (you sit on a sheet of cardboard).  Eventually, though, the interior snow melts back, widening the circle enough for chairs or standing. We’ve enjoyed many a wonderful party in such a setting, everyone bundled up, holding hot dog sticks over the fire with mittened hands, cups of beer and wine “coastered” in the surrounding snow.  Downing first a cold drink and then some hot food parallels inside one’s warm front and cold back outside.  If it gets too cold out there, we lumber back to the cabin, peeling off layers in the Arctic Entry to enter a cabin that seems far too warm and crowded by comparison.
See Denali and Mt. Foraker behind me?The sounds of our winters differ, too, because it is so quiet. Since we have no roads or cars, we don’t hear (or smell) any neighbors’ cars idling until they warm up or snow blowers clearing driveways, or snowplows clearing roads or cars slipping and sliding on ice.  I’m glad! 

As a southerner who moved to Alaska, I realized that the tropical South, even the country, is never truly silent.  There is always some insect or creature scratching, gnawing, flying, mating, moving.  Because of its narrower eco-system, Alaska’s silence can be eerie, even in the summer (between migrations of various birds).  I have played a game to see if I could hold my breath until some bird or animal would break the silence.  Often I lost the round.   In the winter, we hear even less.  Just ravens, those scavenging tricksters, and magpies, both looking ungainly in their enormously fluffy winter coats.  On hikes we have startled moose that we did not see in adjacent thickets of trees.  How silent and graceful they are, even though they look like they were built by committee!  The gist of the matter is that we are the loudest things in the ecosystem.  The sounds we make as we walk depend on the condition of the snow and the appropriate footwear – a crunch of boots on crisp snow or a whoosh - click crossing powder in snow shoes, or a slam, “damn” on an icy patch between the back porch and the outhouse.   
On weekends, we hear leisure snow machiners riding through the woods past our lake to climb the nearby mountains for a winter picnic with a view or leaving the frozen river some miles away to careen through the woods and hills.  Since we are about a three hour ride from the closest towns, across lakes and rivers and bogs that are not traversable in summer, many treksters do not know that anyone lives out where we do.   Every winter, groups are startled to see us hiking, or resting somewhere, peeling an orange.  They invariably stop their machines to ask us if we are ok, or if our machines broke down somewhere and they can help.  Nice.    

I’ve commented on the sights, sounds, and smells, but of course the dominant impression is the cold. 

That took some getting used to.  The coldest I have been is -30 F, and a sharp NW wind-chill can make “warmer” temperatures feel just as inhospitable. That’s too much for me.
I have gained terrific respect for early explorers like Shackleton and Amundson who braved the Poles with wool and oiled canvas to keep them warm and dry. Thank goodness for vendors like Cabellas and REI and Lands End, that conveniently sell light weight, easy wash UnderArmour long underwear and polyester fleeces, gloves, and hats. Appropriate clothing makes a tremendous difference. In contrast to ski boots, my feet have NEVER been cold in those Ronald McDonald looking bunny boots (2 or 3 layers of rubber with air bladders in between). 

Still, with the snow blowing horizontally into my face, it can be painful to slog forward, leaning into the wind.  My eyes tear up, nose runs, cheeks sting, and ears hurt.  Each step seems to cover less ground and the boots seem heavier.  Far better to make a batch of popcorn and read a mystery snuggled under a blanket on the couch, accompanied by the sound of logs fall into red embers, the pot of melting snow hissing, and the metal stove creaking as it expands.  If the sun warms one side of the roof, interior noises are occasionally joined by a “shhhhh-thud” as a roof load of snow slides off and adds to the berm surrounding our cabin.    I’ll wish my hardy family and friends a good outing and bake them something to warm and welcome them when they return. 

The full, thick logs of our cabin offer great insulation, even with no chinking.  But the temperature varies dramatically throughout the interior.  It is warmest, of course, near the wood stove, and at the top of the stairwell.  The coldest and draftiest spot is around the front door, about 10-15 degrees cooler than the rest of the room, so that area becomes my "refrigerator" for eggs and vegetables.  To maintain a cozy temperature, we have learned to resist the temptation to load up the stove with wood before going to bed because, since heat rises up the center stairwell, our second floor bedroom would get so hot we would need to open a window, which just draws up the heat faster!  What a waste of hard earned wood – cut, aged, and stacked throughout the year by my husband.      

We have not yet spent the coldest, darkest winter months at our cabin.  I fear it would be too cold and claustrophobic for me.  So we fly out, once the sun shines more than 8 hours a day.  I think we thus enjoy the best of what winter has to offer – a warm log cabin from which to venture out into a beautiful, clean, quiet setting. Maslow’s hierarchy of water, heat, shelter, and food are all addressed.  City gripes and interests seem remote and rather frivolous.   Now it is time to pour a cup of mint tea and punch the rising dough.  I thought some warm bread with butter and honey would be nice upon my family’s return.  Don’t you?

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(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)
        

My strongestvisual impression of a rural Alaskan winter is the narrow color palate.  It is a black and white world. Deciduousbirch and willow, and black and white spruce trees stand as dark sentinels in a landscape of white snow and mountains against a thin blue sky.  Evenin snowy cities and suburbs, the color range is expanded exponentially by brickand painted houses, cars in parking lots, colorful billboards and shop signage,and the colored lights of stoplights, seasonal decorations, and flashing “open”beacons.   Out in the bush, we have none of those things. The only color, really, is our laundry.

The impact ofthis view is a greater awareness of shapes - the triangle of a bleached outsky outlined by bent branches, shadows cast by an icicle or a corner of thecabin, or shallow or deep animal tracks puncturing the snow.  The landscape is so still, that movementstartles, as when the wind blows snow.   We can track animals more easily than in therefulgent summer: snow shoe hares tracks dive under the snow, martins tracks skitteramong and up trees, river otters slide along the banks of water courses notyet frozen.  One day we came across a massof dark blood at the base of a tree.  As detectives,we looked for predatory footprints and found none, concluding that an owl orother raptor had swooped down and impaled a hare with its sharp claws and beak beforethe furry fellow could dive into its warren below the tree.  The long, straight lines of diagonal trappingpoles and horizontal supports of hunting stations catch our eyes.  The rest of the year they remain hidden inthe woods.    At night, thestars are breathtaking, a treat I don’t see in the Alaska summer or in theambient light of a southern city.   Ihaven’t seen a colorful aurora borealis yet (Fairbanks offers better viewing),but my husband has awakened me to see white ones.  They looked like some unseen hand is shakingout a lacy tablecloth across the sky.



The scents ofwinter are limited to wood smoke and food, and perhaps damp clothing.  Since we burn birch logs to heat the cabin, thescent of the smoke is a delicious welcome home after a hike through thewoods.  Because the woodstove is soefficient, we don’t really smell the wood inside the cabin.  There, the scent is of some ubiquitous pot ofstew or soup or rice and beans bubbling on top of the hot wood stove, andperhaps of damp clothes drying on a line that hangs the full length of theupstairs room, to capture the rising heat from below. 

Speaking offires, a lot of our Alaska friends excavate a sort of topless igloo aroundtheir outdoor fire pits for delightful bonfires.   Depending how deep the snow is that year, thesnow forms an effective windbreak.  Whenthe heat of the fire and the distance to the snow wall are right, the interiormelts just enough to harden an ice layer cut for benches (you sit on a sheet ofcardboard).  Eventually, though, theinterior snow melts back, widening the circle enough for chairs or standing. We’veenjoyed many a wonderful party in such a setting, everyone bundled up, holdinghot dog sticks over the fire with mittened hands, cups of beer and wine“coastered” in the surrounding snow.  Downingfirst a cold drink and then some hot food parallels inside one’s warm front andcold back outside.  If it gets too coldout there, we lumber back to the cabin, peeling off layers in the Arctic Entry toenter a cabin that seems far too warm and crowded by comparison.
See Denali and Mt. Foraker behind me?The sounds ofour winters differ, too, because it is so quiet. Since we have no roads orcars, we don’t hear (or smell) any neighbors’ cars idling until they warm up orsnow blowers clearing driveways, or snowplows clearing roads or cars slippingand sliding on ice.  I’m glad! 

As asoutherner who moved to Alaska, I realized that the tropical South, even thecountry, is never truly silent.  There isalways some insect or creature scratching, gnawing, flying, mating,moving.  Because of its narrowereco-system, Alaska’s silence can be eerie, even in the summer (betweenmigrations of various birds).  I have playeda game to see if I could hold my breath until some bird or animal would breakthe silence.  Often I lost theround.   In the winter, we hear evenless.  Just ravens, those scavenging tricksters,and magpies, both looking enormously fluffy in their winter coats.  On hikes we have startled moose that we didnot see in adjacent thickets of trees.  Howsilent and graceful they are, even though they look like they were built by committee!  The gist of the matter is that we are theloudest things in the ecosystem.  Thesounds we make as we walk depend on the condition of the snow and theappropriate footwear – a crunch on crisp snow or a whoosh crossing powder insnow shoes, or a slam, “damn” on an icy patch between the back porch and theouthouse.   

On weekends,we hear leisure snow machiners riding through the woods past our lake to climbthe nearby mountains for a winter picnic with a view or leaving the frozenriver some miles away to careen through the woods and hills.  Since we are about a three hour ride from theclosest towns, across lakes and rivers and bogs that are not traversable insummer, many treksters do not know that anyone lives out where we do).   Every winter, one or more groups arestartled to see us hiking, or resting somewhere, peeling an orange.  They invariably stop their machines to ask usif we are ok, or if our machines broke down somewhere and they can help.  Nice.    

 I’vecommented on the sights, sounds, and smells, but of course the dominantimpression is the cold. 
That tooksome getting used to.  The coldest I havebeen is -30 F, and a sharp NW wind-chill can make “warmer” temperatures feel justas inhospitable. That’s too much for me.  With the snow blowing horizontally into myface, it is painful to slog forward, leaning into the wind.  My eyes tear up, nose runs, cheeks sting, andears hurt.  Each step seems to cover lessground and the boots seem heavier.  Farbetter to make a batch of popcorn and read a mystery snuggled under a blanket onthe couch, accompanied by the sound of logs fall into red embers, the pot ofmelting snow hissing, and the metal stove creaking as it expands.  If the sun warms one side of the roof, interiornoises are occasionally joined by a “shhhhh-thud” as a roof load of snow slidesoff and adds to the berm surrounding our cabin.    I’ll wish my hardy family and friends agood outing and bake them something warm to eat when they return. 

I have gainedterrific respect for early explorers like Shackleton and Amundson who bravedthe Poles  with wool and oiled canvas tokeep them warm and dry .  Thank goodnessfor vendors like Cabellas and REI and Lands End, that conveniently sell lightweight, easy wash UnderArmour long underwear and polyester fleeces, gloves, andhats.  Appropriate clothing makes atremendous difference.  In contrast toski boots, my feet have NEVER been cold in those Ronald McDonald looking bunnyboots (2 or 3 layers of rubber with air bladders in between).  I now understand the point of those who say“You can always bundle up against the cold, but you can’t strip off enough tocool down in some heat.”   Over severalyears, I am still learning which purchases and layers work or don’t, for warmth,convenience, and longevity, particularly given our lack of washing machines andrunning water in the winter (see blog on life with and without plumbing).

        With thefull, thick logs of our cabin, the building is inherently well insulated, evenwith no chinking between the logs.  Butthe temperature varies dramatically throughout the interior.  It is warmest, of course, near the woodstove, and at the top of the stairwell. The coldest and draftiest spot is around the front door, about 10-15 degreescooler than the rest of the room, so I store boxes and shelves of eggs andvegetables there as my “refrigerator.” We have learned to resist the temptation to load up the stove with woodbefore going to bed because, since heat rises up the center stairwell, oursecond floor bedroom would get so hot we would need to open a window, whichjust draws up the heat faster!  What awaste of hard earned wood – cut, aged, and stacked throughout the year by myhusband.      


We have not yet spent the coldest, darkestwinter months at our cabin.  I fear itwould be too cold and claustrophobic for me. So we fly out, usually in late February to enjoy the best of what winterhas to offer – a warm log cabin from which to venture out into a beautiful,clean, quiet setting. Maslow’s hierarchy of water, heat, shelter, and food areall addressed.  City gripes and interestsseem remote and rather frivolous.   Nowit is time to pour a cup of mint tea and punch the rising dough.  I thought some warm bread with butter andhoney would be nice upon my family’s return. Don’t you?         

Storm coming in fast(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)


One joke I've heard about Alaska weather is the defensive line, "We do, too, have four seasons:  June, July, August, and winter!"  Read below to see if you think that is true or close to it.

Here in South Central Alaska, it is not as warm and rainy as South East Alaska (Juneau) and it lacks the extreme temperature fluctuations of the Interior (Fairbanks). Naturally, any place with as many mountains and bodies of water as Alaska has a huge variety of micro-climates. Anchorage, for example, is warmed by the Cook Inlet and gets only about 5 or 6 feet of snow per winter, and is protected from deep temperature drops.  Where we are, inland, summer temperatures range from 50 - 70 degrees and winter temperatures can sink to -40 (but the coldest I've ever felt was -30). It starts to snow in October and my impression, although we haven't yet spent a whole winter there, is that normal winter temperatures tend to range between -20 and +20. March is my favorite winter month, when it is sunny and the snow sparkles as it crystalizes when the afternoon temperatures rise above 32. Over the four winters we have partially spent there, snow depth has varied from 5 (winter of 2010-11) to 14 feet (winter of 2011-12), depending less on accumulation than on whether the snow warmed up enough times (or if it rained) to compact significantly. 

Spring is called Break Up, as the snow starts to melt in April and the lakes thaw.  During this period, the sunny areas are muddy while the shady spots on the north sides of obstructions retain pockets of snow.  Important to Bush residents like us is the duration of Break Up (and Freeze Up in the fall) when the lakes and rivers are not safe for planes to land (or snow machines or boats to cross).  In our experience, Break Up lasts for about six weeks.  One year, we waited until April 6 to leave.  As we walked through the snow on the lake out to the ski plane, our footfalls filled with water!  Mid-air, the pilot cranked the skis up in order to land on wheels in Anchorage, which warms earlier than we do, thanks to the Cook Inlet.  Had we not left that day, we surely would have been stranded for another five or six weeks, when the lake ice finally shrinks to a floating donut and then breaks up as the wind pushes it around the lake.  One cold spring, my husband was stuck in Anchorage for four days in mid-May, waiting for the lake to thaw enough to safely land.  But a stubborn ice island remained on the lake, moving enough to endanger a plane. Finally, one of the intrepid pilots decided to take a chance when the prevailing wind was likely to push the ice to the far end of the lake.  Unfortunately, by the time they circled the lake, the ice had floated back to block the dock!  Our full time neighbor got into his motor boat and harpooned the ice and hauled away a safe distance so the plane could land.  Clever, can-do Alaskan spirit! 

The adjacent mountains remain covered with snow in early June, with the level receding uphill until the last patches remain in shady, northern facing spots in August. Virtually every summer, our lake is too cold to swim in, but if it doesn't rain too much in July, it is a comfortable temperature for dangling one's feet from a fishing float, or a quick dunk after a hot afternoon's labor.  Normal summer temperatures range from low 50s to low 70s, but in the summer of 2011, we had several unseasonably warm days that topped 80 causing all my broccoli and bok choy to bolt (flower).
Autumn ViewAt spring and fall solstice, we have natural light about 12 hours per day. Mid-summer we have about 20 hours of daylight (the sun increasing or decreasing about 7 minutes a day on either side of that date). The sun doesn't travel in a straight line that far north.  Rather, it traces a "C" or "J" shape trajetory during the day, which makes me think of halibut (C) and salmon or pike (J) shaped fishing hooks.  Even the middle of the night is not totally dark, but rather a deep, dark blue. The sunsets, though late, are often spectacular, particularly if one of the state's active volcanoes has spewed some particulate matter into the air.  In the early morning, we'll often see an alpen glow effect on the trees across the lake that renders all the trees on the far shore an astonishing buttercup yellow.  (See photo on gardening blog)  In mid-winter, the duration of natural light is about 4-5 hours, but with the surrounding mountains, it can seem like less, and the Northern Lights are often visible. A lot of people in Alaska use those S.A.D. lights during the winter to stave off sun-starved depression, and every Alaskan I know is impressively accomplished at some winter hobby or sport and really appreiates what the winter offers, even if they also appreciate the cheap Alaska Air flights to Hawaii.
   
Many friends in the South have said that they would hate to live in a cold climate again.  But in many ways, I think our life in Bush Alaska gives us the best part of winter without the worst aspects.  In northern cities, I tend to be nervous about fishtaling on icy roads, or slipping and sliding in a parking lot or driveway.  The black, polluted snow piled up along roadsides in February/March is so unattractive.  Trying to start a car when the oil has thickened up was always an anxious couple of minutes.  Occasional periods of being stranded at home without power due to trees falling on power lines or strong winter storms can leave neighborhoods feeling hungry and vulnerable. 


At our cabin, we have none of that.  Since we aren't on a road system, the snow is pristine white, like a Christmas card photo. (The only travelers we see are occasional snow machiners and dog mushers.)  We maintain months worth of pantry supplies and weeks worth of perishables, so I don't worry about access to supermarkets during storms.  Because our heat and light and cooking are by woodstove and propane, for which we have years of inventory, and since we have no power lines or plumbing lines, we don't worry about home infrastructure breakage that concern city dwellers.  Certainly a warm home is welcome in any cold climate, city or country, but there is something viscerally satisfying about smelling the evocative birch smoke as as you walk home after an afternoon hike, crunching on the crisp snow, and pass the trees to see the smoke emanating from a little log cabin illuminated by yellow propane lights and a flickering woodstove.  Once inside, the cabin smells warm and inviting, with a pot of stew or soup or rice and beans on top of the woodstove.


Alaska is tectonically active.  When digging in the garden, but even more when digging deeper to bury cables or dig an outhouse or cold hole, we see layers of ash.  Although the really active volcanoes are in the Aleutian island chain, hundreds of miles away, recent eruptions by Mt. Spur and Mt. Redoubt on the mainland have contributed their ash to my garden.  I have felt earthquakes each of the past two summers.  Though neither caused any damage, they were startling.  One occurred about 6 pm.  Seven of us were sitting on the upper deck when the earth shook briefly and violently up and then down, like someone shaking the wrinkles out of wet laundry.  Last summer, I was awakened two mornings by a rolling side to side motion.  I'm told that log cabins are better suited to rolling through an earthquake than a building built of brick or siding. Certainly with all of our outbuildings containing seasonal clothes and food, should one building fall, we'd be able to create food, shelter, and warmth from the others.  Should all of them suffer, we'd start building again with the materials on hand and the skills we are slowly acquiring.


I love the rapid changes in weather here.  Each day, and each time of day, is special and worthy of note, bringing seasonal migrations of various yard and lake "neighbors" for company, sequences of plants for seasonal foods and medicines, and a "to-do" list of projects, challenges, delights. I've shed the "manana, manana" attitude I sometimes had in the South, where weather remained predictable for weeks and even months at a time and where a store was near at hand for something I could always do "later."   Living here has increased my appreciation for simple pleasures, and given me a bittersweet awareness of the passage of time and a humility about how small and brief a role I play in the broad scheme of things. 

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(I welcome your comments and questions through the "comments" option below any entry. --Laura)

One joke I've heard about Alaska weather is the defensive line, "We do, too, have four seasons:  June, July, August, and winter!"  Read below to see if you think that is true or close to it.

Here in South Central Alaska, it is not as warm and rainy as South East Alaska (Juneau) and it lacks the extreme temperature fluctuations of the Interior (Fairbanks). Naturally, any place with as many mountains and bodies of water as Alaska has a huge variety of micro-climates. Anchorage, for example, is warmed by the Cook Inlet and gets only about 5 or 6 feet of snow per winter, and is protected from deep temperature drops.  Where we are, inland, summer temperatures range from 50 - 70 degrees and winter temperatures can sink to -40 (but the coldest I've ever felt was -30). It starts to snow in October and my impression, although we haven't yet spent a whole winter there, is that normal winter temperatures tend to range between -20 and +20. March is my favorite winter month, when it is sunny and the snow sparkles as it crystalizes when the afternoon temperatures rise above 32. Over the four winters we have partially spent there, snow depth has varied from 5 to 11 feet, depending less on accumulation than on whether the snow warmed up enough times (or if it rained) to compact significantly. 

Spring is called Break Up, as the snow starts to melt in April and the lakes thaw.  During this period, the sunny areas are muddy while the shady spots on the north sides of obstructions retain pockets of snow.  Important to bush residents like us is the duration of Break Up (and Freeze Up in the fall) when the lakes and rivers are not safe for planes to land (or snow machines or boats to cross).  In our experience, Break Up lasts for about six weeks.  One year, we waited until April 6 to leave.  As we walked through the snow on the lake out to the ski plane, our footfalls filled with water!  Mid-air, the pilot cranked the skis up in order to land on wheels in Anchorage, which warms earlier than we do, thanks to the Cook Inlet.  Had we not left that day, we surely would have been stranded for another five or six weeks, when the lake ice finally shrinks to a floating donut and then breaks up as the wind pushes it around the lake.  One cold spring, my husband was stuck in Anchorage for four days in mid-May, waiting for the lake to thaw enough to safely land.  But a stubborn ice island remained on the lake, moving enough to endanger a plane. Finally, one of the intrepid pilots decided to take a chance when the prevailing wind was likely to push the ice to the far end of the lake.  Unfortunately, by the time they circled the lake, the ice had floated back to block the dock!  Our full time neighbor got into his motor boat and harpooned the ice and hauled away a safe distance so the plane could land.  Clever, can-do Alaskan spirit! 

The adjacent mountains remain covered with snow in early June, with the level receding uphill until the last patches remain in shady, northern facing spots in August. Virtually every summer, our lake is too cold to swim in, but if it doesn't rain too much in July, it is a comfortable temperature for dangling one's feet from a fishing float, or a quick dunk after a hot afternoon's labor. 

At spring and fall solstice, we have natural light about 12 hours per day. Mid-summer we have about 20 hours of daylight (the sun increasing or decreasing about 7 minutes a day on either side of that date). The sun doesn't travel in a straight line that far north.  Rather, it traces a "C" or "J" shape trajetory during the day, which makes me think of halibut (C) and salmon or pike (J) shaped fishing hooks.  Even the middle of the night is not totally dark, but rather a deep, dark blue. The sunsets, though late, are often spectacular. In the early morning, we'll often see an alpen glow effect on the trees across the lake.  (See photo on gardening blog)  In mid-winter, the duration of natural light is about 4-5 hours, but with the surrounding mountains, it can seem like less, and the Northern Lights are often visible. A lot of people in Alaska use those S.A.D. lights during the winter to stave off sun-starved depression, and every Alaskan I know is impressively accomplished at some winter hobby or sport and really appreiates what the winter offers, even if they also appreciate the cheap Alaska Air flights to Hawaii.
   
Many friends in the South have said that they would hate to live in a cold climate again.  But in many ways, I think our life in bush Alaska gives us the best part of winter without the worst aspects, which I associate with cities.  I used to be nervous about fishtaling on icy roads, or slipping and sliding in a parking lot or driveway.  The black, polluted snow piled up along roadsides in February/March is so unattractive.  Trying to start a car when the oil has thickened up was always an anxious couple of minutes.  Occasional periods of being stranded at home without power due to trees falling on power lines or strong winter storms left the family feeling hungry and vulnerable. 


At our cabin, we have none of that.  Since we aren't on a road system, the snow is pristine white, like a Christmas card photo. (The only travelers we see are occasional snow machiners and dog mushers.)  We maintain months worth of pantry supplies and weeks worth of perishables, so I don't worry about access to supermarkets during strong storms.  Because our heat and light and cooking are by woodstove and propane, for which we have years of inventory, and since we have no power lines or plumbing lines, we don't worry about home infrastructure breakage that concern city dwellers.  Certainly a warm home is welcome in any cold climate, city or country, but there is something viscerally satisfying about smelling the evocative birch smoke as as you walk home after an afternoon hike, crunching on the crisp snow, and pass the trees to see the smoke emanating from a little log cabin illuminated by yellow propane lights and a flickering woodstove.  Once inside, the cabin smells warm and inviting, with a pot of stew or soup or rice and beans on top of the woodstove.


Alaska is tectonically active.  When digging in the garden, but even more when digging deeper to bury cables or dig an outhouse or cold hole, we see layers of ash.  Although the really active volcanoes are in the Aleutian island chain, hundreds of miles away, recent eruptions by Mt. Spur and Mt. Redoubt on the mainland have contributed their ash to my garden, too.  I have felt earthquakes each of the past two summers.  Though neither caused any damage, they were startling.  One occurred about 6 pm.  Seven of us were sitting on the upper deck when the earth shook briefly and violently up and then down, like someone shaking the wrinkles out of wet laundry.  This last summer, I was awakened two mornings by a rolling side to side motion.  I'm told that log cabins are better suited to rolling through an earthquake than a building built of brick or siding. Certainly with all of our outbuildings containing seasonal clothes and food, should one building fall, we'd be able to create food, shelter, and warmth from the others.  Should all of them suffer, we'd start building again with the materials on hand.


All in all, I've concluded that there is no such thing as bad weather.  Just inappropriate clothes and inadequate supplies.