Only in Alaska!

[Ron Thorne]

We're hoping for word on our house and the cabin today or tomorrow.

[Ron Thorne]

Our house is fine, and we're making the assumption that Darren's cabin is also OK. His neighbor would have called, otherwise. Our little cottage survived the 1964 quake so we were pretty confident that it made it through without damage. One wine glass fell off a counter and rolled into the living room ... unbroken.

[ValerieB]

[Jimmy Cantiello]

[pig pen]

[Ron Thorne]

[Ron Thorne]

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Incredibly cool stuff, Ron. I have a brother-in-law who has done wood carving over the years. He recently retired so I would assume that he would renew his interest in full force, hopefully.

[Ron Thorne]

Planes warned to avoid airspace near
erupting Alaska volcano


Courtesy Carol Damberg

Associated Press in Alaska
Saturday 15 November 2014 17.15 EST

Planes are being warned to avoid airspace near an erupting Alaska volcano as it spews ash 30,000ft above sea level.

The National Weather Service said on Saturday ash was being blown to the west and northwest of Pavlof Volcano.

Pavlof began erupting three days ago, pushing lava out from a vent near its summit. On Friday, the ash cloud reached 16,000ft.

Alaska Volcano Observatory geophysicist Dave Schneider said the eruption intensified at 6am on Saturday, sending the ash cloud higher. Schneider said it was not clear how long the eruption will last, as Pavlof’s eruptions may last for weeks or months with varying levels of intensity.

Pavlof is Alaska’s most active volcano. It sits along international air routes connecting Europe, North America and Asia.


link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/n ... ka-volcano

[Ron Thorne]

Mat-Su adopts new rules for dog mushers



Vern Halter poses with his sled dog Pencil in his dog lot in Willow, Alaska, on Wednesday, November 19, 2014.
Bob Hallinen / Alaska Dispatch News

Zaz Hollander
November 20, 2014

PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough has become the first place in Alaska, maybe anywhere, to enact an ordinance just for sled dog mushers.

The borough Assembly on Wednesday night unanimously adopted a new ordinance that adds mushing-friendly provisions to the animal care code, including eased noise restrictions for barking sled dogs, but also requires proper feeding and other care.

The Valley, with its large lots tucked into trees, is home to dozens of professional distance and sprint mushers as well as countless recreational sled dog kennels. Twenty-three of the 73 mushers signed up for the 2015 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race hail from the Valley, particularly Willow, Knik and Big Lake.

But the borough’s steady growth can put mushers in conflict with traffic, trail users and residents fed up with loud dog teams next door.

Assembly member Vern Halter, an Iditarod veteran with a tourist-drawing dog kennel in Willow, created what even he admits are “self-serving” regulations to protect mushing from development.

“As the population of the Mat-Su Borough grows, there is pressure on dog kennels ... they’ve been pushed out of the Meadow Lakes area and the more populated areas,” Halter said Wednesday morning, before running his dogs with a four-wheeler. “It’s a better way to license. It’s the first in the nation that even defines a sled dog. We couldn’t find another one.”

[Ron Thorne]

[bluenoter]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A village on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Sea has been without a regular mail delivery service since the community's only postal worker quit last month because of pregnancy.

Residents of the Yup'ik Eskimo community of Savoonga say the U.S. Postal Service has flown in intermittent help to fill in when it can, but for days at a time there has been no one to distribute mail and packages arriving by plane. That lack of regular service has slowed the delivery of checks to residents and cash to the village store, the closest thing to a bank in the community of about 700.

"So that's a problem," Savoonga Mayor Myron Kingeekuk said.

Kingeekuk said his daughter, Natasha, was 7 months pregnant when she resigned in mid-November because she couldn't afford to lift heavy boxes. He said his daughter had been asking for backup help.

A Postal Service worker from the western Alaska village of Teller just arrived Wednesday and will stay through the end of next week to help out. Efforts are underway to fill the vacancy permanently, according to Postal Service spokeswoman Dawn Peppinger in the Alaska district.

Peppinger said the resignation was not done with enough advance notice to prepare someone to quickly fill the position. The Postal Service tries to have at least two relief workers at every rural community to fill in if necessary.

There was no second worker available in Savoonga, located on Saint Lawrence Island 675 miles northwest of Anchorage and just 90 miles from Russia's Cape Chukotskiy.

The vacancy has been posted as available and three people have expressed interest in it, according to Peppinger, who said the goal is to hire two people.

But until the positions are filled, the Postal Service has had the difficult task of finding relief workers from other communities who are willing to go to an isolated village with limited amenities, Peppinger said. It's a challenge to find people willing to travel to "the middle of nowhere, Alaska," she said.

"They have to be prepared to, you know, be out of their comfort zone a little," she said. "We have to make arrangements and find somebody willing and get them in there."

Francis Waghiyi, manager the village store, said even with regular post office staffing, getting cash to Savoonga from Anchorage can take more than a week. Without regular staffing, the store has run low on money and people have had to wait before they can obtain their checks to cash them or use their debit cards to shop.

"It hurts the village community-wise," Waghiyi said. "We're on a remote island. The only cash we can get is through an airplane."

[Ron Thorne]

[Ron Thorne]

Anchorage Completes NASA Orion Mission


Orion crew module is in the well deck of the amphib-
ious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23).
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen/Released)

Navy News | Dec 08, 2014 | by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Christopher A. Veloicaza

PACIFIC OCEAN -- San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage (LPD 23) successfully completed recovery operations of the NASA Orion crew module, forward bay cover, and parachutes, Dec 5.

The Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) recovery is part of a U.S. government interagency effort to safely retrieve the Orion crew module that is capable of carrying humans into deep space.

"Today the USS Anchorage/NASA team safely retrieved the Orion space capsule after its successful launch and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.," said Anchorage Commanding Officer, Capt. Michael McKenna. "Anchorage and NASA worked very closely during the second and third Underway Recovery Tests (URT) earlier this year in preparation for our mission today. This mission exemplifies the U.S. Navy commitment to the research and development of technologies and techniques to ensure the safety of human space flight support. I could not be more proud of my crew."

EFT-1 is the fifth at-sea testing for the module using a Navy well deck recovery method. There were four tests conducted prior to EFT-1 to prepare the recovery team.

[Ron Thorne]

[bluenoter]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he's removing more than
52,000 square miles of waters off Alaska's coast from consideration for oil and gas exploration or drilling.

The president said in a video announcement that Bristol Bay and nearby waters, covering an area roughly
the size of Florida, would be withdrawn from consideration for petroleum leases. He called Bristol Bay one
of the country's great natural resources and a massive economic engine.

"It's something that's too precious for us to be putting out to the highest bidder," Obama said.

Bristol Bay has supported Native Americans in the Alaska region for centuries, he said.

"It supports about $2 billion in the commercial fishing industry," Obama said. "It supplies America with 40
percent of its wild-caught seafood."

The bay is north of the Alaska Peninsula, which juts out west from mainland Alaska at the start of the
Aleutian Islands chain.

Petroleum leases sold there in the mid-1980s were bought back in 1995 at taxpayer expense for $95 million
after the Exxon Valdez spill, said Marilyn Heiman, U.S. Arctic director for Pew Charitable Trusts. Fisheries
around the world are in decline, but Bristol Bay's well-managed fisheries are some of the most productive
in the world and worthy of protection, she said.

"This is one of the most important ocean protection decisions this president or any president has ever made,"
Heiman said.

Gov. Bill Walker said the waters of Bristol Bay feed world-premier fisheries.

"I look forward to working cooperatively, in Alaska's clear interest, with the federal government to safely
and economically develop regions of our state and offshore waters for oil and gas," Walker said in a statement.
"Bristol Bay, however, is not that place."

Robin Samuelson, chairman of Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. and a lifelong resident of Dillingham
at the head of the bay, said protection for the fishery has been a 25-year battle. The bay supports the largest
sockeye salmon fishery in the world, and the waters are nursing grounds for halibut and crab.

"I'm tickled pink," Samuelson said. "The president recognized our great fisheries out here and how important
they are to the people of Bristol Bay and the nation."

Obama and former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in March 2010 that a planned 2011
lease sale in what the Interior Department refers to as the North Aleutian Basin would be canceled.
Salazar cited a lack of infrastructure and the bay's valuable natural resources.

The temporary withdrawal was set to expire in 2017. Obama's decision Tuesday under authority of
the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 withdraws the area permanently.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she's not objecting to the president's decision at this time, given the
industry's lack of interest in the area and a public divide over allowing oil and gas exploration there.

"I think we all recognize that these are some of our state's richest fishing waters," she said. "What I do not
understand is why this decision could not be made within the context of the administration's upcoming plan for
offshore leasing — or at least announced at the same time."

According to the White House, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower was the first to use presidential authority
to withdraw acreage from offshore drilling consideration. Eisenhower in 1960 withdrew an area now included in
the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and presidents from both parties have withdrawn other areas.

[Ron Thorne]

[Ron Thorne]

Lt. Governor-elect Byron Mallott gets some help putting on a traditional Tlingit dress from Barbara Cadiente Nelson, shortly
before being sworn in at Centennial Hall in Juneau on Monday, December 1, 2014. Loren Holmes / ADN



Governor-elect Bill Walker, right, with his wife Donna, and Lt. Governor-elect Byron Mallott, at left with his wife Toni, leave
their green room for their inaugural ceremony at Juneau's Centennial Hall on Monday, December 1, 2014. Loren Holmes / ADN



Governor Bill Walker, left, and Lt. Governor Byron Mallott raise their hands to the crowd during their inaugural ceremony at
Juneau's Centennial Hall on Monday, December 1, 2014. Loren Holmes / ADN

[Ron Thorne]

Anne Coray grips a block of Lake Clark ice and slips it out of the hole. Steve Kahn and Anne Coray cut ice from Lake Clark
every year to give them some cool during the summer months. Steve Kahn and Anne Coray.

Steve Kahn
January 10, 2015


LAKE CLARK -- The chainsaw quakes in my grip as I line up that first, critical cut.

Moments later diamond particles spray past my elbow as the sharp teeth score the ice. My thoughts turn to basic geometric shapes and sawdust burials. I’m not an ice sculptor roughing out a whimsical dragon, a mad scientist answering cryogenic urges, or even a chainsaw carver suddenly weary of wood. No, I’m just an aging bush rat with a desire to capture a bit of winter for the long days of summer to come.


My wife, Anne, and I are cutting ice, and I’m afraid there’s no cure for it. This obsession has been going on for years; frozen souvenirs of Lake Clark collected and stored until the trickle-down-effect of summer temperatures consumes as much as we use. Ice is hard to resist. Our efforts echo the same hunter-gatherer spirit that summons us to harvest berries and salmon. But to say this is part of a connection to the land wouldn’t be quite right because — it’s frozen water.

It isn’t that ice is necessary for our survival. There is something magical and restorative about the Chigmit Mountains’ wintry reflection filtered through a martini on the rocks in the middle of summer, about homemade soda frosted to perfection, about homebrewed beer chilling in a bucket as we head across the lake for a picnic.



A glass of Lake Clark ice. Steve Kahn and Anne Coray.


Following tradition, following lines

My father tells stories of his early days in Wisconsin, how his family stored enormous amounts of ice for the summer. With no other option for refrigeration back then, the job was a huge undertaking. I carry on a similar tradition here in Alaska: a smaller enterprise on a much larger lake.

Of course, I use a chainsaw instead of a four-foot circular saw hooked to an old car engine. And my horsepower for hauling doesn’t consume oats and have a twitching tail; it drinks gas by the gallon and burps exhaust. The metal ice tongs my father used as a youth were passed on to me. They are rusty, repaired by welds but perfect for their purpose.

Marking out a grid is my first order of business. Bigger sizes mean less cutting but they also mean more weight; it’s good to remind myself that a cubic foot of ice can weigh just shy of 60 pounds. As I get older and my back gets stiffer, I’ve reduced the size more than once. Maybe someday I’ll get it through my thick skull that the blocks look small until the lifting begins.

After the grid is laid out, Anne and I take turns with the saw, following the lines and cutting down to within an inch or two of water. I carve out a wedge-shaped chunk to serve as a ramp. Then I wiggle into rain gear and finish the cuts while water streams behind the saw and hoses my Helly Hansens. My old metal ice chipper serves double duty as a pry bar.

Anne bobs the first block up and down with the chipper. I stand by with my ice tongs and wait. Up, down, UP! And I grab it. Together we muscle it up the ramp onto the surface. We bob, grab and slide, again and again, until we are surrounded by what looks like a glacial version of Stonehenge or a giant set of dominoes. Before grappling the heavy chunks into a sled or trailer, we cut spruce boughs and mark all sides of the open hole as a warning to travelers.


Changing conditions

One winter a storm broke up the ice and we simply collected irregular ice chunks from shore. Another year a huge pressure crack heaved up slabs of ice to head height, and we didn’t even need to bend to make our cuts. The raised ice fell beautifully into the sled we’d slipped underneath. Twice the upper end of the lake never formed enough ice to harvest. One year there was no ice at all.

But I remember the time the ice was so thick — deeper than our saw’s bar — that we didn’t even hit water. Once the first row was removed, Anne hopped into the hole to finish the cuts.

“How much ice is under me?” she asked before firing up the saw.

“Plenty,” I reassured her. I was standing above her, on more than two feet of solid ice.

The following day, the hole filled with water.

“Maybe next time you should wear a life vest,” I joked.

Anne didn’t smile.

“Maybe next time you do the cutting.”


Buried in sawdust

Years ago, I built a large wooden box with lumber milled from local trees and placed it near the shaded mountain stream that runs through our property. It has served us well. We pack the box’s sawdust-insulated walls to the brim with ice; each heavy load is slid and grunted up a temporary wooden ramp. Then we stuff sawdust into every crack and heap a thick layer on top — and wait for summer.

I’m not sure how long my fossilizing physique will allow me to keep up this indulgence. A few years ago I was ready to quit. The herniated disks in my back were pushed to the limit after butchering a winter moose, shoveling endless snow and cutting timber for a cabin restoration project.

Ice collecting had slid down to last on my priority list. But Anne didn’t want to rule it out.

Sure enough, as we pushed the “ice fishing” season to the brink, the kinks in my back eased somewhat and my posture straightened a bit — and I thought, well, maybe. So I popped some ibuprofen, slapped on my back brace and started for the tool shed. I recalled the soothing effects of ice applied to burns and sore muscles — muscles that ache more all the time. In a moment of inspiration, I convinced myself that the ice was for medicinal purposes and not just for cooling brew. Some might say those are the same thing, and who am I to argue?

Steve Kahn lives on the north shore of Lake Clark. He is the author of "The Hard Way Home: Alaska Stories of Adventure, Friendship and the Hunt."

[Ron Thorne]

For bedridden mushing legend George Attla, 81, the journey continues



Courtesy Maxine Vehlow

Beth Bragg | February 11, 2015

As one of Alaska's best and most beloved mushers rests in an Anchorage hospital bed, George Attla's journey continues.

Attla is 81 and has bone cancer. He tried one treatment, to which his body responded poorly, and he doesn't want to try more aggressive forms of chemotherapy. Fingers are crossed that this month he'll be able to watch racers in the Fur Rendezvous World Championship sled dog race cross the Tudor Road bridge, which is visible from the Alaska Native Medical Center's south-facing windows.

It's been a year since the Huslia Hustler was last on the runners of a sled. He drove an eight-dog team on two 12-mile runs at the Arctic Winter Games in Fairbanks, said partner Kathy Turco. When he finished the final run, "he stepped off his sled and he said, 'I can't do it anymore,' '' she said.

But in his mind, or in his dreams, Attla is still driving dogs.

"I needed to take one more trip, so I went around the world on a sled," Attla said. "It was a beautiful trip. Each tribe, they took me in, all around the world. It was almost like the history of what they call the beginning of the earth.

"I was thinking, wow. I never dreamt in my life that something like that would happen to me. It was the most amazing thing. It was a gift."

In a recent 90-minute interview, Attla was alert and engaged. One eye is blinded and clouded by glaucoma, but the other is bright and clear, and when Attla is amused by something, his eyes smile and so does he. As Attla spoke about the need to sell his sled dogs, he paused, smiled and explained why: "Because I think I'm retiring."

Attla's body might be almost done, but he is still very much with us.

[ValerieB]

what an incredible story, Ron. thank you so much for sharing it.

[Ron Thorne]

[Ron Thorne]

Photos: Connors Lake loon cam readied for birds arrival



From left, Donna Prewitt, Scott Christy and Linda White carry a shelter to the edge of Connors Lake in Anchorage on Wednesday,
April 22, 2015. The shelter will cover a small, man-made island that houses a webcam, with the hopes that a Pacific Loon will
nest there, as has happened almost every year since Jean Tam and her husband, Scott Christy, started the project in 2003.
Photo - Lauren Holmes | ADN

(And more)


Loren Holmes
April 23, 2015

On a beautiful spring afternoon, Jean Tam and a small group of volunteers set the stage for the 12th season of one of Alaska’s most unique reality television shows.

As she has done every year since 2003, Tam and her volunteers construct a floating "island," covered with burlap and grass, and lay down a bed of bulrush and moss. She secures the remote-controlled camera, and a canoe pulls the island out into the middle of Connors Lake.

The stage is set, but the stars of the show have yet to arrive in Alaska. They’re flying up from their winter home in the Lower 48, and are due to arrive in a few weeks. You wouldn’t recognize their names. In fact, they don’t even have names. The stars are Pacific loons.

For many years, the same banded female came back, made her nest and hatched her chicks on the island, under the watchful gaze of thousands of loon fanatics around the world.

Two years ago, the female, likely 20 years old and nearing the end of her reproductive life, came back but didn’t lay eggs. Last year a new female arrived and laid eggs, but they didn’t hatch. This year Tam has high hopes for a successful loon season.

According to Tam, the birds usually lay two eggs. If all goes well, the chicks will grow up on Connors Lake, learning how to feed, fly, takeoff and land.

Tam will flip the switch, taking the webcam live when the loons arrive, usually in mid-May. Alaska Dispatch News will host the live webcam this season, so check back for the link and updates all summer.

[Ron Thorne]

[Ron Thorne]

Sockeye Fire destroys at least 50 structures, appears human-caused



Chris Klint, Senior Digital Producer

POSTED: 05:34 AM AKDT Jun 16, 2015 | UPDATED: 02:44 PM AKDT Jun 16, 2015

Sockeye Fire, one of the most dangerous in U.S., in photos

2:10 P.M. TUESDAY UPDATE: The incident commander of the 7,500-acre Sockeye Fire said Tuesday afternoon that the fire appears to have been ignited by people.

"I think it's fair to say that this is a human-caused blaze," Tom Kurth told reporters at a Tuesday afternoon press conference. He estimated that 50 to 100 structures have been destroyed so far, with about 200 people evacuated from the area north of Willow.

Also:

1:45 P.M. TUESDAY UPDATE: The Sockeye Fire is now the nation’s No. 1 priority for firefighting assets, with coordinators overseeing the response saying more were already arriving Tuesday.