Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sunday

As one sibling says, Sundays are for resting, reflecting, and relaxing! It's nice to be home after a hectic week of work and treacherous driving. We have about three feet of snow on the ground people are reporting and the plows have not been able to keep up with it, creating icy, slippery conditions. The lad shovelled paths in the back yard first for the cat, but now for the dog as well!

There is a watery sun shining on the white snow this afternoon. I am making the peel for the Christmas Cake, desiging the Thanksgiving menu, and putting together the ingredients for hash made out of leftover beef, onions, and potato. The lad made a pork pie; it came out really well.

There was a huge storm out in the Bering Sea this week which coincided with the full moon, creating huge tides. There was a lot of damage in Nome. Unalakleet was fine, but most people evacuated to their cabins or to the school which is on higher ground. It could have been much much worse.
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/high_resolution/885_AlaskaStormNov08.jpg

HP; Deathly Hallows, Part 2 was released Friday. We tried twice to find it at Fred Meyer and Carr's. It is advertised in today's paper as being available at both places, but I do not want to drive today and the lad is sleeping.

Am preparing for recital Dec 4. It will be a big one with about 25 performers and I think some guitar students as well. I take it as a point of pride that not one child is singing classical music, although every one of them is being trained classically! The pedagogy is Italian with a German spin on it. Thank you Mrs. Phinney! I do not think there will be room/time for me to sing although I will be playing quite a few pieces, some very, very challenging. Defying Gravity from Wicked; Lithium by Evanescence; Rolling in the Deep, sung by Adele; You Held MeUp, sung by Jennifer Hudson; God on High from Les Mis (yes, I know that's not the title but that's how I think of all songs); plus all the usual other favorites.

My hands and fingers have a touch of arthur-itis not to be confused with author-itis from years playing piano and transcribing. It's hereditary and was especially bothersome this past week with the full moon and low barometric pressure.

Ariadne auf Naxos is going well. I am building up my stamina and managed to sing it through yesterday once. It is over ten minutes long with a very high tessitura and it was my 6th day of work. I have not done much with Four Last Songs yet except to run through it a couple of times. I have to translate it soon and I won't listen to any interpretation of it now that I am working on it. That's the biggest problem I find with many of my students: they learn the piece by playing the recording over and over again and unconsciously imitate up the recording artist's interpretation. I read an interview with Tony Bennett last week and remember he was told to make the song his own, otherwise he would just be a member of the choir. Amen!

Not my choir of course. In three short weeks both choirs have learned solfegge, made up their own songs, performed them, and yesterday I had them give them to their neighbor to practice this week and perform next Saturday. They are singing Dona nobis pacem, Rockin' Around the Xmas Tree in two parts, and The Little Drummer Boy. I think I am going to have them open and close the recital.

So lots going on with no time to spare to think that 11/11 was our one-year anniversary arriving in ANC. And the lad and I do not share any days off at all. Looking forward to the four-day weekend at Thanksgiving.

Pictures to follow.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Strauss

Four Last Songs has arrived. I have been carrying the score in my pack from one job to another as if I will learn it by osmosis as I have had little (actually no) time to sing through it. I hope my voice is heavy enough.

I also sang through Zerbinetta's glittering take on her philosophy of love from Ariadne auf Naxos four or five times. Boy, could he (Strauss) write for the soprano voice. Wow! I can't wait to perform it. Zerbinetta attempts to raise Ariadne's spirits by singing and dancing. I wonder if my voice is light and agile enough and high enough. At the end of the week I don't have my High F's or E's.

It is time to find a professional accompanist. I miss Michael Dewart.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Headlines in the News

Sunrise: 9:24 a.m. Sunset: 6:00 p.m.

Strong quake hits remote area of Aleutians

Associated Press

Published: October 31st, 2011 07:43 AM
Last Modified: October 31st, 2011 07:43 AM

A strong earthquake hit in a remote region of the Aleutian Islands but officials say there are no reports of any damage.

The Alaska Earthquake Information Center says the 6.0 temblor struck around midnight Sunday in the middle of the Bering Sea, about 100 miles beneath the seabed.

Officials say there is no danger of a tsunami.

The quake was centered about 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage and about 800 miles east of Russia.

Both the Earthquake Center and the dispatch office for Alaska's Emergency Coordination Center say they've received no reports of any damage.

Christmas Cake

**The above ingredients don't go in the cake; I couldn't resist the exotic look of the pineapple flavouring essence from New Sagaya.
This cookbook Jane Grigson's English Food was given to me by my dear friend Camilla. We made Christmas cakes together before I moved to VT. The Brits say that the less flour you use, the more authentic it is.

Here is what Jane says about the recipe:

This is the recipe I always use these days for Christmas and special birthday cakes. Even if you make it just beforehand and cannot leave it to mature, it tastes good. Unless you like seeding and chopping raisins, and washing and drying the other fruit, I suggest you buy those bags of mixed fruit and peel sold by the chain groceries. No one could tell the difference.

Christmas Cake

1 1/2 lb mixed dried fruit*
4 oz blanched, slivered almonds
4 oz chopped peel
4 oz glace cherries, well-rinsed then quartered
10 oz. plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
grated rind of a lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence
8 oz lightly salted butter
8 oz soft brown sugar, light or dark
1 T black treacle
4 eggs
1/2 t bicarbonate of soda
1 T milk
Brandy

Mix fruit, almonds, peel, and cherries in a huge bowl. Turn them well and add the flour, spices, and lemon rind. Cream the butter and sugar thoroughly, then add the vanilla essence and treacle. Still beating, incorporate the eggs, and stir in the fruit, and flour. Finally, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk, and stir in thoroughly. Add brandy by the spoonful, until you have a soft dropping consistency.

Turn into an 8" cake tin lined with a double layer of brown paper (brown bag), then a layer of Bakewell paper. Hollow out the top slightly. Bake at Mark 1 - 140 C (275 F) for 3 1/2 hours, then test with a larding needle or a skewer. Remove the cake from the oven when it is done, and leave to cool in its tin. Next day peel off the Bakewell and brown paper. Wrap in fresh greaseproof paper, then put it into an airtight tine (or in foil). The usual thing is to keep the cake for at least a month before icing it, and to sprinkle it occasionally with more brandy.

To finish off the cake for Christmas, you will need marzipan and icing. Do not buy the marzipan ready made - your own may not look so yellow as it does in the shop, but it will taste much better. Moreover, you can reduce the sweetness by putting in less sugar.

* The first year we were in VT I used dried blueberries in honor of the lovely, wild blues that cover the northern part of the state.

Almond Paste or Marzipan

8 oz icing sugar**
1 lb ground almonds
1 large egg
3-4 t lemon juice

Glaze
1 T apricot jam
1 T water

Sift the icing sugar and mix it with the almonds. Beat the egg thoroughly, then add the lemon juice and the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to beat everything to a firm paste, then knead it on a board ot formica surface, which has been sprinkled with icing sugar. (Incidentally, if you do not agree with me that most almond paste is too sweet, add another 1/2 lb of sugar and use two medium eggs instead of one large one.)

Slice the top from the cake to make it even, then turn it upside down and put on a wire rack. Boil the hame and water in a small pan, sieve it into a bowl and while still hot, brush it over the top of the cake (that is, over what was the bottom).

Set aside a third of the almond paste, and roll out the rest to a circle just a little larger than the cake - do this on a sheet of clean greaseproof paper and use the cake tin as a guide. Press the glazed side of the cake down on to the circle of almond marzipan; reverse it so that you now have the greaseproof paper on top, then the marzipan and then the cake - remove the paper and smooth the marzipan down over the sides. Measure the depth of the cake and its circumference. Roll out the remaining marzipan to these measurements, again on a sheet of greeasproof paper. Brush the cake sides with apricot glaze and roll it slowly along the strip of marzipan. Pat everything into place, closing the cracks and so on, and replace the cake on its rack. Leave for two days before icing it.

Royal Icing

2 sm egg whites
2 t lemon juice
1 lb icing sugar**

Whisk the eggs until they are white and foamy, but not stiff. Stir in the lemon juice, then the sugar, which should first be sieved. Do this bit by bit, using a wooden spoon. When everything is mixed together, continue to beat the mixture until it is a dazzling white. Cover the basin and leave it for an hour or two before using it.

To ice the cake, put a bowl of hot water beside it. Put about half the icing on the cake and spread it about with a palette knife which you have dipped in the water. It should be hot and wet, but not wet enough to soak the cake and ruin the icing. Cover the cake all over, then put on the remaining icing, either roughly to make a snowy effect, or in an elegant design with the aid of a forcing bag and nozzles.

**confectioner's sugar

Craft Fairs 2011

Last year two of the sibs and I attended the Crafts Fair at the Dena'ina Center downtown. There were many many vendors and we had a wonderful time browsing and Christmas shopping. Some of my favorites were the honey guy, the rock booth, the qiviut lady's products although she was rude, and the painter Ken Lisbourne.
I bought a print depicting what would happen if thermo-nuclear bombs were detonated near Point Hope to build a deep water port. This was the plan, conceived by the inventor of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller.

This plot was recorded in the book below. I am hoping Ken will be there and this time, the Irish will be able to come and meet him as well.

The Firecracker Boys is back; movie "in development"

An interview with the author, Dan O'Neill

By Susan B. Andrews and John Creed - Originally published in 1994 by St. Martin's Press, The Firecracker Boys was recently reissued by Basic Books (New York).
www.firecrackerboys.com

O'Neill is also the author of The Last Giant of Beringia and A Land Gone Lonesome. He was interviewed recently by Susan Andrews and John Creed, who are journalism/humanities professors at the University of Alaska's Kotzebue-based Chukchi College in Northwest Alaska. The subject of The Firecracker Boys is Project Chariot, a nuclear blast that was to take place on Alaska's Northwest Arctic coast in the early 1960s.
The Firecracker Boys is one of the most discussed books in Alaska history. It's on everybody's list of the most important books ever published on our state. Did you know when you started it would have such an impact?
I did think it was a great story and a generally unknown one, even among long-time Alaskans. It looked to me like a story that had been, in a sense, deliberately buried, which further sparked my interest to dig it out and shine some light on it. I assumed that if I did a good job, people would find it as interesting as I had.
Briefly, what is The Firecracker Boys all about?
It's about Project Chariot, a scheme by the federal government to create a deep-water harbor on Alaska's Northwest Arctic coast in the late 1950s and early 1960s by detonating up to six thermonuclear bombs. In 1958, Edward Teller-the Father of the H-bomb-came up to Alaska and proposed to excavate an instant harbor up near Point Hope by burying a string of H-bombs and touching them off. Almost the whole state signed on. With enthusiasm! Except the people of Point Hope and a few scientists and conservationists. To put it glibly, the firecracker boys came up here with nuclear bombs in their back pockets, and they were faced down by guys with harpoons. To be serious, the story illustrates pretty well the dangers of secret and unaccountable science when it is abetted by a historically sycophantic press and self-serving business interests. But it also shows the power of a dedicated grassroots protest armed with facts.
Was it easy to sell to a New York publisher?
Actually, it was easy to sell it in New York. But that is far from the usual case. When the author is an Alaskan and he is writing about Alaska, it always seems to raise a cautionary flag labeled "regional interest." A national publisher will tend to think such a book must be more suited to a "regional publisher."
That's why so many books on Alaska are conceived and written by people freshly up from Outside. They're here briefly on assignment. You know, it's, "Fly low, I'm writing a book." I was very lucky. The first literary agent I approached took me on, and the first publisher to see the book proposal made an offer.
The book is a sort of historical expos�, as you suggest. To what extent were you motivated to expose "evil doers," to use a current term? And why stir up and inflame old controversies long since put to rest?
First of all, I think everybody is a mixture of wonderful qualities and silly foibles. So it's more honest to render people who may have done foolish things as also possessing admirable traits, and to render people who showed better judgment as not wholly perfect. It's not only true, it makes for better drama. I tried to do that. So, nobody is all "evil doer."
But I also had a guideline that I followed. It was this. If the thing I uncovered was, let's say, highly unflattering to a person or an institution, but met three criteria, I put it in the book. The three criteria were: it had to be true, important, and unknown. "True" meant that I had to have good, solid evidence. "Important" meant that publicizing it should have value to society-should help us learn a lesson and take us farther. Its value as a lesson simply overrode any embarrassment to the perpetrator. And finally, it had to be news. I mean, if the thing was A) true and B) important, but already widely known, then why bother?
Also-and to the core of your question-I happen to think that history and journalism are important work. And both enterprises are premised on discovering and publicizing the truth about what happened. I don't apologize for doing that.
We estimate the book has something like 1,500 footnotes. How long did it take you to do the research and writing, and how did you eat in the meanwhile?
Seven years, actually. Well, let's see, over the course of seven years I probably spent-rough guess-four full-time years at work on it. I had a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum, so I got paid for some of the research. It was a nice grant, but the work took so long that minimum wage would have been a raise.
The publishing contract brought an advance-which was $10,000, minus the agent's 15 percent, so $8,500. That covered the next year-and-a-half while I did the actual writing. On the one hand the finances I just described are absurd. On the other, that's the nature of this kind of work. I shot moose and grew potatoes. I'd built my own house-no debt.
We noticed you made a lot of use of oral history in your research. Is there a reason for that?
Yeah. For one thing, you know, not everybody is going to write their memoirs. But most people will talk about their lives into a tape recorder, even for a couple of hours. So, it allows historians and writers to include people who otherwise aren't given much attention in formal historical writing. In that way, it democratizes history, opens it up to more perspectives.
Also, oral history accounts are often much more obtainable than the paper record. Government agencies that deal with defense, intelligence, and nuclear matters operate in a profound culture of secrecy. Much of our historical record is needlessly classified-hidden from scholars and writers and filmmakers-and not for legitimate national security reasons. Occasionally, you can prove that the agencies classify to protect their public image-and their budget-by concealing from the public the more embarrassing or incriminating episodes in their history. And this has gotten much, much worse under Bush, of course.
You have a new subtitle ("H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement") and a new cover. What else is new? Have you added much to the original text?
Yes, there's new material; things have happened. The decision to deploy National Missile Defense interceptors in Alaska, for example, happened after the book came out in 1994. It, like Project Chariot, is a Teller-inspired, Alaska-based, nuclear-bomb-related, hugely expensive, high-tech boondoggle. It fit right in, so wrote a section on it.
People died since the book first came out: Teller, William Wood. Other things, like the Amchitka workers' successful plea for government compensation.
And I wrote a bit in the methodology section about the increased secrecy under Bush. It's unprecedented in our history. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was lucky to have been writing during the Clinton administration. Clinton was instructing his people to declassify documents. I'm not sure I could have written this book during the current administration.
Also, I think that if you do anything steadily for thirteen years you get better at it. I've become a better writer. So, I went through the whole thing and tweaked the prose. And I got the benefit of a good edit from my new publisher. And then a copy edit after that. Every stage improved it further.
Oh, one more big thing. The footnotes were originally done in such a way that they were very difficult to use. Now that's fixed.
We understand there is some interest in Hollywood. A feature Film? Leonardo DiCaprio?
Yeah, it's "in development," as they say. At HBO in association with Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appien Way. I understand they have a script that the moguls like and are showing to directors. Also, they've attached an actress who is both a Native and has deep Alaskan roots-Q'Orianka Kilcher. She played Pocahontas in the movie The New World. Part of the Kilcher clan from down Kachemak Bay. Cousin to Jewel.
Do you think the chances are good the movie will get made?
I don't know but I have this daydream: One day my neighbors see a white stretch-limo coming up my gravel road, and there's three or four certified Hollywood bimbos hanging out the skylight-hanging out of everything-raucous, spilling champagne. And there's this scruffy, gray-bearded guy in there in a ratty flannel shirt. That'll be me.
Meanwhile, you're going to launch the reissue with some speaking engagements around the state?
Yes, I was at Gulliver's in Fairbanks on Oct. 26, then Title Wave in Anchorage on October 30th, at Old Inlet Books in Homer on November 1st, and at Fireside Books in Palmer on the 2nd. Then I'm going to Nome and Kotzebue on Nov. 5, 6 & 7. The National Park Service and the University of Alaska are bringing me out. I'm very excited about that. The last time I was in Nome was 25 years ago, and I went there by dog sled with my wife Sarah from Fairbanks. It will be good to talk to the people out there.
Published on AlaskaReport.com on November 3, 2007

Susan B. Andrews and John Creed are humanities professors at the University of Alaska's branch campus in Kotzebue.

Susan B. Andrews

http://alaskareport.com/news1107/z46889_firecracker_boys.htm

H-bomb inventor Edward Teller dies

Controversial life in nuclear-weapons research and policy ends at 95.

Philip Ball

Edward Teller: 1908 - 2003.© Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Edward Teller, the 'father of the H-bomb', has died aged 95.
Teller was one of the most controversial figures to emerge from the US nuclear-weapons programme instigated during the Second World War. He worked alongside scientists such as Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Richard Feynman on the Manhattan Project, which developed the US atom bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But whereas some of these figures, notably Oppenheimer, subsequently called for international collaboration on nuclear-arms control, Teller strongly supported a policy of unilateral weapons research. In the 1980s, during Ronald Reagan's administration, he advocated the Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as Star Wars, for intercepting nuclear missiles.
The first atomic bombs, such those used against Japan, exploited the energy released by the splitting or fission of the heavy elements uranium and plutonium. Teller realized that even more explosive power would be released by the nuclear fusion of light elements such as hydrogen - the process that powers the Sun.
His research and championing of this notion led directly to the creation of the hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb, first tested on the Pacific atoll of Eniwetok in 1952.

Early years

Born in Budapest in 1908, Teller was a Jewish Hungarian émigré. In the 1930s he studied physics in Germany alongside Werner Heisenberg, who later worked on Hitler's failed attempt to develop an atom bomb. Teller fled the Nazi regime in 1934 along with other scientific luminaries such as John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner.
Teller's experiences of fascism in pre-war Hungary and Germany gave him a lifelong dread of totalitarianism, which motivated his Cold War stance. He once said: "No one could have had a greater influence on me than Hitler, who made it entirely clear to me that one could not ignore politics, and very particularly one could not ignore the worst evils in politics."
Strikingly, Teller's counterpart Andrei Sakharov, who developed an H-bomb for the Soviet Union, became a campaigner against nuclear weapons and called for reconciliation of East and West.
Teller influenced the defence policies of several US presidents. In the 1950s he testified against his former colleague and boss Oppenheimer in the McCarthy trials, causing Oppenheimer to lose his security clearance.
Teller died on Tuesday, following a stroke at his home in Stanford, California.

Butchering the Bowhead Whale

Blanket Toss

Duck Hunting

Summer Camp

An Inupiaq artist from Point Hope, Ken Lisbourne is married to Iva Lisbourne, a respected doll maker.

In the 1890s, Eskimos in northwestern Alaska were introduced to paper, watercolors, crayons and pencils by teachers from mission and government schools. The drawings produced as a consequence of this cultural fusion derive from the aboriginal traditions of pictographs, petroglyphs ("rock art") and scrimshaw.

In the 20th century many native artists who, in centuries past, would have drawn in snow or incised hunt tallies or calendars on bone, have adopted mediums such as reindeer skin, paper and canvas.

While most native artists learned primarily from relatives, Ken Lisbourne thinks to be technically schooled in fine arts and Native arts was also vital to his profession as a Native artist. Ken works in both watercolor and colored pencil on paper.

http://www.artshopgallery.com/Ken%20Lisbourne.htm

Unfortunately I could not find a copy of the painting depicting all life forms dead on the beach of Point Hope, but it was chilling.

Loverne Bercee

One of the perks of working at a utility company is that you talk to all kinds of people, either on the phone or in person in the Lobby. I met this authoress with a kind heart and gentle speech by accident at the Cashier station after helping her out on the phone. I spoke to her a third time weeks later and found out a bit more and the long and short of it is, we are going to have tea when she returns to Girdwood in March.

The Irish was especially thrilled to hear about this as he is interested in history and has been inhaling books about his new resident state.

I remember the widening of the road to Girdwood from Anchorage 30 or so years ago. Traffic was stopped for so long when the construction crews were dynamiting, we used to get out of our vehicles and meet other drivers.

I also remember the old days working for Wien Air Alaska, WC, sadly no longer in business when James Flood, president, decided to go into the oil business.


Volume Twelve, No 21 November 5, 2009	Serving Bird, Indian, Bird, Girdwood, Whittier, Hope, Copper Landing & Moose Pass

Peaks and Valleys

The early days of Girdwood and Alyeska

By Chris von Imhoff and Loverne Bercee
Special to the Turnagain Times

The development of Mt. Alyeska as a major ski resort is an intriguing story. Who better to relate some of the peaks and valleys encountered over the many years of development than Chris von Imhof, whose tenure at Alyeska Resort started in 1967 when he was appointed manager by the owner of the resort at the time—Alaska Airlines.

We hope you will find these articles in upcoming issues informative and interesting, and that, as Chris would say, “You will enjoy it.”

Introduction

By Loverne Bercee

I vividly remember the first time I met Chris von Imhof. At that time, I was working for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in the quaint old Anchorage Airport terminal. One morning, in 1963, I was sitting at the counter in the Northwest Airlines Coffee Shop with a couple airline gals. Jennifer, the waitress was pouring, and I almost got coffee on my lap when one of the gals asked, “who's that handsome guy walking in the door?”

Chris walked over and introduced himself. He had been transferred from California as District Sales Manager for Scandinavian Airlines System, as the airline was granted traffic rights between Anchorage and Copenhagen. With the new Polar Route, Anchorage was now at the “Airline Crossroads of the World.”

Various International carriers such as Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Air France, S.A.S. and others acquired traffic rights, stopping in Anchorage several times weekly en route to Europe and Tokyo. The flight from Tokyo to Anchorage was about seven hours and another nine hours to Europe, making it necessary for airline crewmembers to change crews, and thus spend two to three days in Anchorage on layovers.

With the many airline personnel stationed in Anchorage, along with crew layovers, the airline personnel became a great support for the new ski resort at Mt. Alyeska. An avid skier from early childhood, raised in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Chris immediately discovered and fell in love with the terrain and beauty of Mt. Alyeska.

In 1965, Chris was appointed Director of Tourism for the State of Alaska under Governor William A. Egan. He soon met Nina Whaley, former Miss Alaska born in Nome and flight attendant for Wien Airlines.

Shortly after their marriage in 1967, the young couple moved to Girdwood. At this time, Alaska Airlines entered into a purchase agreement with the Alyeska Ski Corporation, and Chris accepted the appointment as Alyeska Resort Manager for Alaska Airlines.

Chris had his work cut out for him, as the fledgling ski resort along with a proposed new hotel would prove to be a great challenge.

The First 200 Years

By Chris von Imhoff

When Turnagain Times publisher Ken Smith suggested the idea of writing a series about Alyeska's history for the newspaper my first reaction was ‘no.' I am neither a historian nor a journalist. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt attracted by the idea of sharing the many stories surrounding the development of Girdwood and Alyeska.

These are stories of wonderful people with great pioneer spirit, of courage and passion, of challenges and opportunities, of joy and disappointment, of laughter and tears.

I feel very proud and privileged having been involved in Alyeska's development for decades and being part of a wonderful team of people who made Alyeska what is today.

Finally my wife Brigitte urged me to do the series. She has heard some interesting stories, but she suspects that I will hold back many more anecdotes and expects me to release others, well, maybe, if it's fit to print.

I came to Alaska in 1963, and I must admit there has been life before my time, before the beautiful Glacier Valley became the center of my life and my dreams. But before I bring many more personal stories back to memory, let me start with a chronicle summary of the first 200 years.

In the beginning a few adventurous explorers came to Alaska including naval explorers Vitus Bering in 1741 and Captain James Cook who explored the Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm in 1778. In 1784 Russia establishes it's first major settlement in Kodiak, Alaska and in 1848 the Russians discover Gold along the Kenai River. In 1867 Russia sells Alaska to the United States for $7.2 Million Dollars.

In 1896 Irish immigrant James Girdwood arrives in the Cook Inlet area. At the same time 1897 to 1900 the gold rush was in full progress in the Yukon Territory and some miners came north to Alaska and filed the first claims on Crow Creek. In 1900 James Girdwood files four claims at the head of Crow Creek started a large hydraulic operation in the valley. His gold mining closed in 1908, but the Crow Creek mine continued to operate later under the new owner Arne Erikson, who turned it into a tourist attraction when it was no longer profitable as a commercial goldmine.

A small community called Glacier Valley got its first start where Glacier Creek flows into Turnagain Arm and later was renamed Girdwood. The little town became a recreation center for the miners and later for railway crews. Five of the 16 buildings in 1917 were saloons. The towns setting was so scenic and beautiful that it served as a backdrop for the first movie filmed in Alaska.

The first Post office opened in Girdwood in 1907. That same year, President Roosevelt created the Chugach National Forrest.

In 1914 President Wilson authorized the construction of the Alaska Railroad and in 1916 the Alaska Engineering Commission laid out a street plan for Girdwood with names such as Dawson Street, Gold Street and Easy Street and on weekend s the population grew to 300.

In 1923 President Harding drove the spike completing the Alaska Railroad, which connected Alaska's larger cities with Girdwood and Seward.

The mines closed as World War II broke out, and Girdwood was a sleepy village until construction of Seward Highway began connecting the Seaport of Seward with the new Railroad town of Anchorage.

In 1939 Joe Danich an immigrant from Yugoslavia buys a Girdwood Roadhouse and names it the “Little Dipper.”

In 1951, the Seward Highway opened, linking Seward with Girdwood on the way to Anchorage. Girdwood's population at the time was only 79 residents.

In 1955, Joe Danich built the Girdwood Airstrip on the Turnagain side of the Highway and later opened the first gas station on the corner of the Seward and Alyeska Highways, now occupied by the Tesoro gas station.

1955 marked the year when the early promoter of the Mt. Alyeska ski area, Ernie Baumann, filed the paperwork to secure land for the Alyeska resort base.

The next column will continue with the early days of the development of the Alyeska Ski area.

Two primary reference books are used for the this column: “Alaska's Perfect Mountain “ and “True Tales of the Top of Mt. Alyeska “ and it's authors Lana Johnson and Loverne Bercee and photographer Randy Brandon.

Vol. Twelve, No. 21November 5, 2009

‘Great Wall of Nina’ will be starting point for weeding and planting session

A plaque to be added to the rock garden celebrating the life of long-time Girdwood resident Nina von Imhof

Ken Smith/Turnagain Times
Nina's wall, located on the bike path next to Moose Meadows, is a rock wall garden dedicated to the life of Nina von Imhof. A plaque will be donated by Loverne Bercee this weekend, providing a short narrative of Ninaâ€™s life and the meaning behind the ballerina statue and rock garden.

By Loverne Bercee
Special to the Turnagain Times

The Great Wall of Nina, overlooking Moose Meadows in the heart of Glacier Valley, is the site for a weeding and planting session to be held on Saturday, July 18.
In August 2003, this site was dedicated in honor of Nina von Imhof, who passed away of cancer in 2002. The ceremony was officiated by Chris von Imhof and Methodist Minister James Doepken.
Girdwood residents, friends and family planted hundreds of flowers, trees and shrubs on and around the rock retaining wall to continue the planting project which Nina had begun several years before her passing.
In honor of Nina’s love of ballet, a copper ballerina statue was placed at the site in 2003, designed by local artist Jules Wolfe. The ballerina stands on a jade base, donated by Marie Heinrichs of The Jade Shop.
At the upcoming Saturday event, Nina’s close friend, Loverne Bercee plans to donate a plaque to be placed near the ballerina statue.
The waterfall was designed and built by Andy Hehnlin of Girdwood. Chris von Imhof placed the Madonna statue above the waterfall.
Glacier Valley had been Nina’s home since 1967. Throughout the years, she devoted countless hours in summer planting thousands of flowers around the area.
After completion of the highway leading up to the new hotel, Nina began a beautification project along the new walking trail, planting many kinds of flowers adjacent to the path and in the ponds and woods leading to the hotel. One could see bright flashes of red, orange and yellow peeking through the woods, which turned out to be colorful begonias that Nina had placed in hollowed out tree stumps.
Nina felt this location overlooking Moose Meadows was special. Her dream was to make the drab retaining wall into a beautiful rock garden—to create a peaceful atmosphere, where people could relax, meditate and enjoy the beauty of the area.
Over the years, Robbie Frankovitch has been instrumental in maintaining the integrity and upkeep of the site.
Susan Opalka organizes the planting projects and is keeper of the beautiful flowers and plants. Every year, Girdwood residents, friends and family put their green thumbs to work and participate in planting favorite perennials, fulfilling our dear friend Nina’s dream.
Everyone who wants to come and help on Saturday is welcome.
Chief Chef Chris plans a special treat for the Saturday event, and, as he loves to say, “You vill enjoy it!”

Web Design and Development by OTC

First Snow Fall-Out

There were 103 accidents as of 5 pm Sunday including nine with minor injuries and another 53 reported Foster Villa, a manger at Vulcan Towing & Recovery, wrangles a Ford Bronco that slid off 15th Avenue and came to rest in Sitka Street Park in Anchorage during the first snow fall of the season on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. The driver of the SUV was uninjured in the crash.

Foster Villa, a manger at Vulcan Towing & Recovery, wrangles a Ford Bronco that slid off 15th Avenue and came to rest in Sitka Street Park in Anchorage during the first snow fall of the season on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. The driver of the SUV was uninjured in the crash.

"Vehicles in distress".

Budget cuts have hit Anchorage as sanding and snow removal appear to be non-existent. The whole town is a skating rink!

******Update 11/4/11. There were something like 189 accidents including three fatalities when a mother and her two children slid off the Glenn Highway into a lake.

I guess we are so used to living in a very very small place (Island Pond, VT) that when they do plow, they get it all done in one shot. This city is so big, they can't do it all in one go. It takes several days to get all the sections plowed, usually just in time for the second storm which is today. Still seems kinda funny...

Mien people

At my day job, there are people in Member Services from all over the world. I love being in the West where Polynesians and Asians are prolific. There are small pockets of Italians, Poles, Russians, Brits, and Irish, but they as are the Native Alaskans, are far outnumbered. I can't recognize dialect or features yet, but I am working on it.
I work with one young lady who is of Mien descent. They are country-less like the Jews, and far less is known about their culture.

Originally the Mien people were from China, but emigrated to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Mai's family went to Laos and then to Los Angeles, then Anchorage. She is a beauty with a wide, flat face and big almond-shaped eyes. She is bubbly and bright with those she knows, but it took a while for her to open up.

She has a large, extended family and practices Animism and Taoism, ancient religions that believe in propitiating and pacifying the spirits. As with many Polynesians and Asians, family comes first. For their New Year celebration which does not coincide with China's Mai says, the family slaughters a pig and a cow in the traditional way because they do not like to buy pre-packaged meat.

I can't imagine my race being known as 'insect', like the Han called the Mien. We always here about the isolated races in deepest Africa but not these people.

Iu Mien, Hunan of China

Photo source: Operation China, Paul Hattaway

People Name:	Iu Mien, Hunan
Country:	China
Language:	Iu Mien
Population:	204,000
Unreached:	Yes
People Cluster:	Yao-Mien
Primary Religion:	Ethnic Religions
% Adherents:	0.00 %
% Evangelical:	0.00 %
Progress Status:	1.1

Statistics Source: Joshua Project

Profile provided by:

Joshua Project
PO Box 62614
Colorado Springs, CO 80962 USA
719.886.4000
www.joshuaproject.net

Map source: Joshua Project / Global Mapping International

Identity
Although they are part of the great Yao nationality in China, the Iu Mien living in Hunan Province have been found to speak a dialect that differs and is considered mutually unintelligible with Iu Mien varieties elsewhere.

History
There has been great conflict between the Iu Mien (Yao) and the Han for many centuries. Until this century the Chinese character for writing Yao used the radical for "insect" instead of the radical for "people." A series of rebellions occurred among the Iu Mien in Hunan, starting in 1836. The fight was over the control of the opium trade. Most drugs going from southern China to the northern provinces passed through Xinning County, just to the west of the Xiang River valley. The Iu Mien in this region were involved with the trade as well as several Chinese triad societies, including the Qinglian Jiao (Black Lotus Society) and the Bangbang Hui (Cudgel Society). In 1847 another revolt occurred in Xinning, led by an Iu Mien, Li Caihao. The Iu Mien were savagely defeated after fighting lasted for several months. Thousands of Iu Mien were killed.

Customs
Many of the Iu Mien in Hunan live in isolated villages at the summits of high mountains. Because of their location, the Iu Mien pipe fresh water to their villages through a skillfully constructed system of bamboo pipes.

Religion
The Hunan Iu Mien share three religious belief systems. They worship Pan Hu, the mythical progenitor of their race, they appease spirits and demons, and they also observe rituals borrowed from Daoism (which includes ancestor worship).

Christianity
The Iu Mien in Hunan are among China's most unreached people groups. There is very little Christian influence of any sort in Hunan, and few believers have ever dared to venture into the isolated mountains inhabited by the Iu Mien since time immemorial.

Iu Mien, Hunan of China

Treacle

Recently we went to New Sagaya grocery store. It is a good place to go for armchair travel as they specialize in stocking items from around the world for the large immigrant population here and maybe for adventurous locals. We enjoy seeing products that we can't find anyplace else and we always have fun trying to figure out what the products are that are wrapped in colorful packaging or frozen into shapeless balls. Some of it is quite alien to a Western stomach.

The lad was quite pleased to see whole pigs' heads in the frozen section. That reminds me of Little House on the Prairie and Farmer Boy, I think it was. Both books detail the dissection and use of each particle of meat/fat/bone/gristle, right down to the stomach which Laura's pa blew up and gave to the girls to play with. Anyway, if we ever feel like making head cheese, we know where to go although I know quite well the Irish would much rather raise and slaughter his own pig.

It is nearly time to bake the Christmas cake and this particular visit's list included black treacle which was out of stock. That tells us there are others in Anchorage who make Christmas cakes.

Treacle is any syrup made during the refining of sugar and is defined as "uncrystallized syrup produced in refining sugar". Treacle is used chiefly in cooking as a form of sweetener or condiment.
The most common forms of treacle are the pale syrup that is also known as golden syrup and the darker syrup that is usually referred to as dark treacle or black treacle. Dark treacle has a distinctively strong flavour, slightly bitter, and a richer colour than golden syrup, yet not as dark as molasses.
Treacle is made from syrups that remain after sugar is removed in its refining process. Raw sugars are first treated in a process called affination so that, when dissolved thereafter, the resulting liquor contains the minimum of dissolved non-sugars to be removed by treatment with activated carbon or bone char. The dark-coloured washings are treated separately, without carbon or bone char. They are boiled to grain (i.e. until sugar crystals precipitate out) in a vacuum pan, forming a low-grade massecuite (boiled mass) which is centrifuged, yielding a brown sugar and a liquid by-product—treacle.

The making of it sounds quite dark. Here are a few references to treacle; some unfamiliar. Funny, how I never thought about the meaning of the word before.
In chapter 7 of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Dormouse tells a story of Elsie, Lacie and Tillie living at the bottom of a well, which confuses Alice, who interrupts to ask. "The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then said, 'It was a treacle-well.'" When Alice remonstrated, she was stopped by the Mad Hatter's analogy: "You can draw water out of a water-well, so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well." Alice said very humbly, "I won't interrupt you again. I dare say there may be one." This is an allusion to the so-called "treacle well", the curative St. Margaret's Well at Binsey, Oxfordshire.

In Series 3 episode 6 of Jeeves and Wooster, Bertie Wooster attempts to use treacle and brown paper to muffle the sound of broken glass while trying to make off with an unsightly painting. He is foiled, however, by the treacle's stickiness.

Harry Potter often eats treacle tart in the Harry Potter book series by J.K Rowling.
Treacle tart is also mentioned in Agatha Christie's murder mystery novel, 4.50 from Paddington, as young Alexander Eastley's favourite dessert.

In the film Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film), Phileas Fogg tells the steward on the RMS Mongolia from Suez to India that his Thursday mid-day meal "has always been, and will always be, hot soup, fried sole, roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding, baked potato, suet pudding and treacle".

In the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the "Child Catcher" uses the promise of free Treacle Tarts as one of the lures to capture the Potts children. When Jeremy Potts hears "Treacle Tarts" among the list of treats promised, he exclaims "Treacle Tarts!"

In the Rev. W. Awdry's book Tramway Engines, part of The Railway Series, a harbor crane drops a crate of treacle and is "upset" all over Percy. This happens in the story Wooly Bear.

In Hugh Lofting's book The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle it was mentioned by Tommy Stubbins that treacle tart is one of Doctor John Dolittle's favourite dishes. They also took with them "20 pounds of treacle" on their voyage to Spider-Monkey Island.

A treacle mine features in the novels Reaper Man (1987) and Night Watch (2002) by Terry Pratchett.
In the fictional Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork there is a street named Treacle Mine Road, with the current watch house (analogous to a police station) found in the building formerly housing the entrance to a treacle mine.

The third verse of the children's nursery rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel refers to "Half a pound of treacle."

Treacle is mentioned in the second verse of the song 'Cups And Cakes', by the parody fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap: "The china's so dear and the treacle so clear."

'Treacle' is a term of endearment, from Cockney rhyming slang: sweetheart = treacle tart. In the BBC soap opera Eastenders, former character Pete Beale often addressed Sharon Watts as 'treacle'.

Arctic Monkeys, English indie rock band have a song named 'Black Treacle'. It is the second song, on their fourth studio album Suck It and See. During the song there are references to the properties of treacle. "Now its getting dark, and the sky looks sticky. More like black treacle than tar."

Somehow, dark karo syrup or molasses just won't be the same.

Friday, October 28, 2011

The Keyboard Cache

After more than 35 years, The Keyboard Cache, the only retail store w/sheet music in town, has closed. The owner's husband, long retired himself, has been begging his wife to retire for some time.

I myself shopped there while at UAA and remember it fondly. I am wondering what the folks in the Bush are doing for their sheet music. Probably the same as me: Googling sheet music companies.

I went in when they were closing and picked up quite a few books for myself and my students but of course could not totally anticipate what I would be needing.

It is a shame they are closed, because we teachers are forced to order from Outside and unable to look at scores and sheet music before purchasing. Since I am not a self-employed teacher, I am unable to pay wholesale prices and could not by in bulk anyway, having only 26 students and two small choirs.

I did just receive two piano/vocal books from JW Pepper: Taylor Swift and Adele, but didn't order Strauss' Four Last Songs like I wanted to and I am sorry, because the order came quite quickly. I just ordered them from Amazon. That collection is for me; I have been waiting to sing it all my life. Now I have the right experience and maturity to appreciate it. The cycle has been sung by all the greats: Lucia Popp, Renee Fleming, the current reigning diva; Jessye Norman; and Kirsten Flagstad and others.

Strauss did not live long enough to see the premiere. They are titled "Fruhling" (Spring), "September", "Beim Schlafengehen" (Going to Sleep), and "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset) and all deal with death.

Into the Dark

The year is flying by. This time last year the Irish lad and I and all our possessions were on our way to the great state of Alaska. We were probably struggling through the South Dakota nightmare storm at this moment, soon to be at the Great Falls KOA where the lad rested for four days. Pak and I went out and walked a part of the great prairie every day, stopping on the way back to harvest veggies for dinner.

The lad is a Sourdough having made it through a winter here. And he says, yes, he is sour and dough-like which of course, is not true.

In less than three weeks we went from morning and evening commuting light night to dark. The morning dark is especially unpleasant and well, black. I have a two-minute combat commute on Minnesota in the morning that forces one to be instantly awake and aggressive. Seems like other drivers are affected by the sudden dark as well...

At the day job we have to leave the blinds down until sunrise around 10, so customers can't read our computers. It's a fish bowl my friend Steve says. On the plus side, the sunrises and sets are glorious.

All family and spouses/others have been participating in the annual first snow/first stick snow guess. The lad and I guessed earlier and are no longer in the running, although we thought he had won as he witnessed snow at work. He was instantly disqualified by the judges though who all sent strict and to- the-point emails stating the snow must be seen in one's back yard!

The Chugach range, Sleeping Lady, and Denali all have a thick white covering that can't be called Termination Dust by even the most die-hard of ostriches. The Chugach Mountains lie East of Anchorage and every day that covering gets a little lower and a little thicker. Won't be long now. It was 23 yesterday morning.

We of course, are not completely prepared for winter as the tires need to be changed over. The lad did put up plastic on all the exterior house windows and that has helped this drafty, poorly-built, and poorly-maintained house quite a bit already. The lad and I have had an ongoing argument re getting a woodstove as I find the forced air heating to be ineffective for my arthritic joints, but I fear the lad will win as the only wood for burning is birch which he refuses to pay for. We did bring up the kerosene heater which he will install in the living room and we will pay $10/per gallon for fuel.

Right now we are thinking how to seat and entertain guests for Thanksgiving in this tiny and over-crowded house and are contemplating getting a storage unit. I hate to, but there is just no room for a gathering and I do love Thanksgiving. Not because of the settlers but because it combines family and friends and food! We hope to have both siblings and their spouses and a friend with no family here but not everybody has RSVP'd yet. One sib is designing a signature cocktail and I am thumbing through holiday recipes.

The PFD checks have arrived and been spent by now, but not for us until next year.

Then came the AK Federation of Native week-long gathering which flooded ANC with 5000 Natives and clogged the roads. This year's theme is "Strength in Unity" and the keynote speaker was John Baker, the Iditarod champion from OTZ. He raced 16 times I think, and won the 17th time. I would have liked to have been a part of this but work took priority. Maybe next year.

Halloween is nearly upon us, and boy, does this town love Halloween! Houses are decorated nearly as much as for Christmas with strings of lights and skeletons. We are not sure how many trick or treaters we will see. The lad will be trying to sleep before the night shift and I will be home at 5:30.

So, the point of the last three paragraphs is to illustrate how clogged and manic the roads are just now. I fear it will last til after the New Year and then folks will settle down for the last bit of winter. Combined with the dark, it does seem manic, chaotic, and unnecessary. But oh well, we are in a city now!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Harvest

The Irish lad brought in the hop, angelica, and Sorrel plants and they are already starting to grow again in the warmth of the house. We froze the blanched kale and bagged up the sorrel and froze it as well. It is delicate and the leaves are thin, so that is an experiment. The lad made a boiled dinner yesterday with the cabbage, which was delicious. I made a frittata with the sorrel, mushrooms, zucchini, and potatoes which was wonderful. Today is Spaghetti Bolognese day.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Resolution Park; Downtown Anchorage

Sticker Shock Update

We have been here nearly a year. The shocking price has mostly worn off, but a few things still stick in my mind:

Natural gas, which is an Alaskan product, has increased in price over 33% in the last ten years. I am still going to have the gas stove installed as I burn most everything I cook on the electric.

Kerosene is $10.00 per gallon, more than three times the price than VT. We have a lovely kerosene heater that we have not used up here yet.  The Irish lad has decided he will install it anyway this year, so maybe his sticker shock has worn off. (I know he is sorry he doesn't have any snow blowers anymore, but people up here just let the snow lie where it falls, mostly.) I hate the forced air heating. When it goes off, the heat stops immediately. I have been campaigning for a woodstove but the Irish is adamant that we will not have one as "the wood is no good up here". It is mostly birch.

Gasoline, by the way, is $3.85 here.

Red peppers are usually sold by the each in markets. I have seen them as high as $6.00 each in winter and sale prices are 2/$4. At Costco, they are usually a little more than a $1 a piece.

I have the Fred Meyer flier here. This week here are some sample sale prices:

Boneless Beef Cross Rib Roast 2.99/lb               Red, Green, or Black Grapes     1.48/lb
18 large, white Eggs                  2/4.00                Kellogg's cereal, regular size      2/6.00
Hunt's tomatoes 14 oz              4/5.00                 Silver salmon, whole                  6.00/lb
Organic milk, 1/2 gl.                  3.29                    Organic avocado                       2/5.00
Roma tomatoes                         1.48/lb                Ocean Spray Juice                    4.00
Ribeye steak                             9.00/lb                 Ben and Jerry's                          2/6.00

The lad has been buying lots of fruit which I have been craving all summer. This week was Honeycrisps, mandarin oranges, white peaches, bananas, and raspberries.   We are receiving Western sources now, which seems a bit funny to him. VT Honeycrisps are better than WA's. The maple syrup is mostly Canadian and we have not seen an Cabot (VT) cheese anywhere which is shameful! Every place else though.

I went in to an Italian market yesterday to check it out. The pasta was $30.00 a pound and it was a regular dry box, sold by the pound. Imported from Italy of course, but still...They had black truffles and probably wonderful olive oil and grana padana cheese.

I still like Costco. The part of me that prepares in advance for harsh weather likes to buy large quantities to stock up. We are just now finishing staple goods brought up from VT, all carefully packed in the trailer.

So, back to the red peppers. I love them and we used to purchase them at White's market in Lyndonville for $1.88/lb regularly, to eat raw or to roast. We have only seen small jars of roasted peppers here and not at all at Costco, which is weird as they carry pepperoncini, capers, marinated olives, and other similar items. Finally, recently at New Sagaya, we found a big jar for $12.00 and promptly purchased them. I have been enjoying red peppers mixed with Roma tomatoes and fresh mozzarella with balsamic vinegar and olive oil; red pepper sandwiches with garden arugula and salami; and red peppers on an hors d'oeuvres tray with kalamata olives, pepperoncini, and capers. And that jar is half gone! Life is good.

Anchorage water is unpleasant tasting with lots of chlorine smell in it. We have been using a Brita water filtration pitcher for years and have long been wanting a Big Berkey. We think it is a very good investment. Another family member has one and he is very happy with it. It would be nice to find it locally so we don't have to pay shipping.

http://www.berkeywaterfilters.com/bigbegrwafiw.html

BIG BERKEY gravity water filter with 2-9 inch British Berkefeld Super Sterasyl Candles

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Mid-Fall 2011

Well, it is fully mid to late fall here in Anchorage. Friends who live on Huffman in the shadow of the Chugach range have had a frost which decimated the garden, so I have been out taking pictures of the back yard. It is a sunny day which is a bonus!

There is a definite chill in the air even with sweatpants and a sweater on. Chicken with 50 Cloves of Garlic (Provencal Light, Martha Rose Shulman) is on the menu tonight with zucchini and fresh peaches for dessert.  I don't see the Irish lad much; we are ships passing in the night so I try to make Sunday dinner a little special. Either he is going to bed and I am getting up for work or I am going to bed and he is getting ready for work. We will see what the new month brings as the contract at the place he is is at is up and he will need to be placed elsewhere. I am hoping he will have Sunday off so we can spend some time together.

The rapidity of darkness was astonishing to me. This whole year has had a feeling of unreality time-wise. When we had the light in early June, I was thinking it was much later than it actually was even with the slow growth in the gardens.  It is fully dark now by 8 and dark still at 6 am. I read somewhere that we will lose another six hours between now and October. I started taking hypericum a few weeks ago for SAD.

The fall semester at AMDC coincided with the public school schedule. I have added Fridays and Saturdays to my schedule and it is filling up fast. I believe I will have near 30 students, but am trying not to think of that as it is almost overwhelming. I am going to conduct a choir for six-to-ten year olds on Saturday afternoons and possibly perform at the Make-A-Wish Foundation in December and also at the AMDC recital. I am sure there are other places we could perform; possibly ANMC for the elders at holiday-time. I also have several young adults who would enjoy performing karaoke but need a suitable venue for that. I have performance ideas percolating.

The other work is extremely busy just now also and will continue through next April. We are learning a new system which takes ten people off the phones, so callers are on hold for ten minutes or more during large parts of the day. For the most part, consumers are still friendly so it's always a shock to get the odd, incredibly rude one. It has been a long time since I have been involved in customer service on the front lines and people have gotten ruder. The prevalence of automated lines, instant gratification of the Internet, the anonymity of the rep, and the hectic pace of everyone's lives have all contributed to this. Those of us who choose are now working through lunch. I don't believe I am going to continue doing this. While the weather is still good (not snowing), I think I am going to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

October is National Energy Month. I have been encouraging almost every consumer who asks for Website assistance to go online and fill out the Energy Audit Analysis. Our new Energy Efficiency Expert developed this for consumers who have a half hour and the willingness to take the responsibility of their energy consumption into their own hands to input electrical devices. It is quite thorough separating incandescent, LED, and CFL bulbs and takes into consideration the age of appliances but doesn't include such things as the AeroGarden (Approx. $6 per month for the Space Saver.), fish tanks, or hot tubs.   I would include the website here but you have to be a Chugach customer to input. I am sure there are other websites out there with surveys.

I am part of a small group now testing Surge Protectors with on/off buttons. I remember Grandma going around unplugging all the electrical devices and it used to irk me. Lo and behold, they were right to do this as Phantom power consumption occur. I also have borrowed a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure consumption. The results have not really been surprising as this is an aging house that has not been cared for and was never well-built to begin with. The result is we are going to get On/Off surge protectors for all the major outlets in the house.

We are also slowly switching bulbs to the CFLs as we are able to. They are shockingly expensive but not when compared to the savings in the long run as they last far, far longer and use less energy. There is also an energy-efficient furnace fan we need to investigate as I believe the fan is going soon. Of course, we have always wanted an On-demand hot water heater, but that is going to wait. The Irish lad does a large number of laundry loads, but the clothesline will not be in use this winter, most likely.

I have applied for a new job within the company, more suited to my talents and experience. Although it came at an inconvenient time, I took a lot of time to survey my past work history (non-performing) and went through the bid qualifications one by one to prove my experience. I spent a lot of time on the cover letter and put together a nice little package. Even if I don't get it, I know I am fully capable and qualified for the position. 70 people applied for it. Over 90 applied for the two temporary customer service positions, so the economy has finally started to tank here. Of course all those who applied still have to pass the typing tests.  The qualifications are 35 wpm for cus.svc. and 60 for the Admin job. I should know by the end of the month.

Pak, who is now ancient at 13!

Papa-san chair

Arch, with struggling morning glories. In the background is the firepit wood pile and raspberry plants and 2nd shed.

Overtaking the walkway under the arch!

You can tell how big the plant is because the papa-san chair is dwarfed! You can see the fish-drying rack over near the shed.

Heavenly!

Best kale I have ever had, next to French sorrel.

Here are some more garden pictures. The one nasturtium plant has completely taken over a tomato plant, the morning glories on that side, the French tarragon, and the zucchini plant which has produced three zucchini. It is astonishingly beautiful with flowers as big as my hand and leaves that are many inches wide. The morning glories have reached the curve of the arch but I fear their days are numbered!

Post-script: The chicken with 50 garlic cloves was incredibly delicious but it did warm up substantially outside so it would have tasted better on a cooler day. It's a keeper!

North (and West)...to Alaska!

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