8 Weeks

After a skyping session with some of my family and friends today, I feel the need to clarify a few misconceptions about life in rural Alaska. 1) Contrary to popular belief, we do not live in an igloo, or know of anyone, for that matter, that does either. While some houses and other habitated structures within the village do not have typical plumbing or electrical wiring, most do. Our house is one of them that does. 2) Due to the Department of Natural Resources, you must acquire a hunting and/or fishing license in order to kill wildlife that is not charging or attacking you. Being nonresidents until July, these licenses are expensive and the tags are outrageous. Brandon is not a mountain man quite yet, but upon receiving all of the aforementioned licenses and tags, you can bet he'll be out hunting and fishing like the rest of the village. 3) We do not have a "snow machine rental" business in town. While there's a good chance we could barter for transportation, it'd most likely be during the "off-season" as most people are on their snow-gos chopping wood or riding to "town" to purchase groceries and other necessities. 4) If you hear me say I was in town the other day, I'm referring to Dillingham. If you hear me say, "the village," I could be referring to any of the following: Togiak; Ekwok; Koliganek; Manakotak; Aleknagik; Twin Hills; Clark's Point; or New Stuyahok. However, I should probably mention that I've only really been off of the runway and into the villages of Togiak and New Stuyahok. 5) When discussing grocery shopping, it's probably safe to avoid all conversation regarding the words "fresh" and "produce" in the same sentence, unless we're in the lower 48. It is also very common for us to go through pounds upon pounds of baking goods such as flour, sugar, eggs and spices. To date, we've used approximately 50 pounds of flour, not because we antiqued the neighbor, but because we've made all of our crusts, some of our noodles, desserts and quite a few loaves of bread, from scratch. 6) Whether you believe that vitamin D and sunlight are essential to maintaining stable mental and emotional health or not, I can tell you from experiencing it firsthand, that from about January 18th until March 1st, I was lacking both and in dire need of anything that would stabilize my mood. 7) In reference to number 6, I have become very good at writing compound-borderline run-on-sentences. 8) I've never met Sarah Palin, nor have I been on any of the shows referencing Alaska. I also will never have any interest in being followed by a camera crew, especially during the months referred to in number 6. 9) Making plans out here is about as realistic as tight-roping the Grand Canyon on cooked spaghetti. If we tell you we don't know when we'll be where, it's likely that we truly don't know. Waiting on weather, planes and pilots are very good reminders that we're just along for the ride and really have very little control beyond what goes in our mouths and what comes out. 10) "This is Alaska" is the most commonly used phrase to date to describe or resolve anything that is inexplicable or requires thought for resolution. It essentially means nothing and everything at the same time. Anyway, in addition to these top ten items, I'd also like to mention that we are doing fine. We do, on occasion, bicker and fight like most married couples, but we're shocked at how much more we love each other on a daily basis, despite the close corridors and stress that living where we work might bring. We love our dogs like they are our children and don't really care when people laugh at us for it, as they will remain our children until we're blessed with human ones. And despite some of your cruel senses of humor to tag us in pictures of awesome weather, perfect produce, or charcoal for grilling, we still look forward to seeing and spending time with you turds this summer. :) Love you all and see you in less than 8 weeks. Brie