Mosier Fire 2009

A hot time in our little town of Mosier, Or. We ended spending a couple of nights without power and Tankers and helicopters ent crazy dumping water on the fire. We expected much more damage and the town escaped with little structural damage. It was great to see the amount of volunteerism throughout the community! The Oregonian ran the fire front page!

Kill the Keg!

Since our move back to Oregon, specifically Mosier, Oregon. We have found a great group of people who meet every Wednesday at the "Thirsty Woman" to kill which ever keg the owner has selected. The beauty of the Thirsty Woman is it has a great lawn, geat sense of community. Last week the City of Mosier held it's Community Action meeting there with fresh cherries and beer for all! There is always someone playing the guitar or singing and the sun is always shining. Folks in Mosier pride ourselves on not being from Hood River. The best part of the Mosier scene is we have the very best scenery in the gorge!

Gorge, Work, Play!

We have arrived! We have finally relocated to one of the best places in the U.S., the Columbia River Gorge! We found a great home on 5 acres next to one of the best cycling routes around (old hwy 30) and we can't beat the wild turkey, quail and deer in our yard every day. Hank and I are raising a few pheasant to release and hunt too. The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) have proven to be the cutting edge of aviation. In many ways, INSITU is like Microsoft 30 yrs ago. The only thing that could make work and home better is if they move my office down by the water so I can paddleboard to work every day! If your looking for a good hike, ride, kite board, wind surf, hunt, mountaineer, ski, or snowboard you've got a place to stay in Mosier, Oregon!

ON THE MOVE!

Our time in Kotzebue has been interesting to say the least but now it's time to move on. We have opted to move to the land of sun, outdoor fun, and incredible friends! We are moving to one of the hottest outdoor adventure towns in the U.S. Hood river, Oregon...

With snow just up the road, plenty of exciting river sports to include kiteboarding, windsurfing, swimming, wakeboarding, mountain biking, bird hunting, fishing, camping hiking, the list goes on and on. It is by far one of the best central locations in the world! With three summits within eyesight there is plenty o' mountaineering to be had too.

Hank and I will be driving down and doing a little hiking, camping and mountain biking along the way. We are hoping to do a little snowboarding in White Horse and Whistler too. Last time we did the trek we saw buffalo, moose, black bear, caribou, mountain goats and one dead horse in the middle of the road...

Easter Snow in Kotzebue

Here is an article published by the Alaska Dispatch, http://www.alaskadispatch.com/index.php by one of the local Kotz residents.


Sunday, April 12, 2009

PHOTO ESSAY: Seth Kantner gives us a glimpse of the harsh winter in Kotzebue.
It's March now, how March should be-blue and sunny, twenty to thirty below in the morning with daytime highs rising to zero. Winter is slipping into memory, but we still have the drifts around Kotzebue to remind us.


January brought a longer-than-usual stretch of 30 and 40 below weather. We got restless, on the verge of cabin fever. We thought we deserved a break. Then the storms came, blizzards after blizzard--so often that we might as well have painted our windows white. Not that the paint would have stayed on.
Kotzebue is supposed to be stormy, but this year was more like drowning-we'd get a blow, and if we were lucky have a day to come up for air and shovel out, and then get hit with it again.

One night--the forth or fifth storm-it wailed all night from the northwest, so fierce and cold the school actually cancelled classes in the morning, a rare event here. By 10 a.m. it was sunny and bitter cold, and the kids were smiling at their amazing fortune. Twelve hours later it was 36 below and rising wind from the opposite direction. Twelve more and it was a full-on blizzard from the southeast. The radio was telling people to stay in their houses, and the town was shutdown yet again.
One morning I looked out at the nicest day in a week--two miles of gray, wind at 25mph (what we started calling "the new calm"). In the time it took to light a fire and make coffee, visibility dropped to a hundred yards and the wind doubled. Arctic Transportation Services was on approach in a Casa. It flew into the sudden whiteout. And crash-landed west of town on the ice.

Around the same time two snowmobilers left Kiana, traveling to Kotzebue. The men left the village during a rise in temperature. A 50-degree drop, combined with a whiteout on the trail lead to them becoming lost. It took five days for Search & Rescue to locate the men-just ten miles from Kotzebue--but not before they had succumbed to hypothermia.
By then folks were on edge, not just suffering from storm fever, but also from true concern. The winds had brought overflow out on Kotzebue Sound, and visibility remained so close to zero that few people ventured far on snowmobile. Half the roads in town were one lane, the rest buried.

The storms lined up-one the worst I've ever experienced. Everyone in Kotzebue has a story a story from that blizzard. I put my camera in the freezer to chill, then went out to take photos. You could see your hand in front of your face, no problem, further than that and things started getting fuzzy. People were trapped in their trucks, lost only yards from their doors, stuck spending the night at their workplace and the school floor. Another tragedy: a person was found frozen after the storm, on the sandbar in front of town. And again, we weren't finished-at the post office and stores people were telling their stories, and warning that another storm was coming.
Maybe now we are finished with storms for awhile, and hopefully April won't bring rain to ruin all this pretty white snow.

Working Out

Working out in Kotzebue has been more of a challenge than anticipated. With the lack of adequate facilities and temperatures failing to rise above the elusive "0 degrees" mark, my work outs have been lacking.

Here are a few altrernate workouts I have come up with.

1. Dig a hole! That's right, get out and dig a hole in the snow. It's a good work out, and if done during storm conditions you will be more proficient at digging a cave in survival situations.
2. Throw your shovel across the hole and do a few pull ups!
3. Travel via compass in white out conditions. The stormy weather will get your blood flowing and you will perfect your navigation skills during critical weather. I bundle up Molly (25 lbs.) and throw her on my back, and pack her to one end of town and back. She loves getting out but I have to ensure I have a few hotpacks thrown in with her or she freezes up pretty quick!
4. Crawl through the deep stuff. It's kind of wierd, but crawling through the deep snow for a long distance provides quite a bit of resistance.
5. Ab work out every day.
6. Push ups every day.
7. Push away the high cal food. It is really easy to eat the fatty stuff in cold climates. Keep in mind, you do burn more calories when in cold environments, so don't sell yourself short either.
8. Make love, not war ;) Hey!, it's damned cold up here...
9. Break into the gym! Not many people know how to get into the gymnasium. Spend some time and find out how. Invite a friend or friends and organize that regular secret pick up hoops game. Soon, everyone will rely on it like an old friend. Just make sure to turn out the lights when leaving the gym, you don't want to ruin a good thing.
10. Wrestle with your kids. I don't mean roll around tickle fight, I mean real wrestling. Fortunately, Hank is now 12 years old as is becoming a pretty good sparring partner!

-Pray for sun!

Sunny Snow Days

Kotzebue, Alaska Front Street in April

Yesterday it was a balmy -10 degrees. We took Molly out for a stroll via our normal mode of transportation. As you can see, she was loving the sun. Here is a photo of one of the homes on Front Street. Their Chuckchi Sea view isn't quite the same as the summer time view!