Snow Snow SNOW!!! And SHOES!

Oh the woes of living in Alaska during the unforgiving winter!

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, you leave the relative safety, warmth and coziness of your home, to go outside and brave the cold, ice, and snow!  Occasionally, you feel the overwhelming urge to put on wool underwear, an extra shirt, two pairs of socks, a pair of snow pants, and a coat that consists of not just one, but two coats, put together to form a heavy, water-proof, and altogether much too sweat-inducing shell for which there sometimes seems to be no escape!  Then, to make things worse, you put on a stocking hat, a pair of gloves AND a pair of mittens, and some boots that would be better suited to kicking down doors than walking anywhere for any extended period of time.

Then you get in your truck, fully-equipped with studded snow tires, 4-wheel drive, and 300 pounds of traction sand in the bed, and drive up the "highway", which is basically a typical highway but with the added bonus of a layer of ice over the entire top surface, delicately frosted with snow that has been packed into a sort of shifting, ice-like substance that can give way suddenly and with no warning, and drive to a place where obviously no one else has parked since the last time it snowed (probably last night), making you think, "Hmmmm, I wonder if we will be able to get going again once we stop."  But, for some reason you stop anyway, and then for some silly and altogether unfathomable reason, you get out of the truck.

At this point, you decide the best course of action would be to put on a pair of "shoes".  These shoes consist of a big piece of plastic with a hole cut in the middle, hinges, and then another piece of plastic with some metal spikes on it, and straps to hold your feet atop these medieval-seeming contraptions, in the middles of the holes.  Then, you just head off into the woods!  "Why, oh why, oh why, would anyone do this for fun?!?" you ask.


You let the dogs out, who move more like deer bouncing through the snow with all of their unspent energy, and wonder, "How will we ever get them back in the truck???"  You follow them down a hill that you would probably think twice about descending on foot, much less when it is coated with a foot of snow and you are wearing plastic and metal death-devices on your feet.  You walk along through the woods, if trying unsuccessfully not to trip over small trees, downed logs and brush covered in 6 inches to 2 feet of snow can be called "walking".  You zig-zag through the forest, trying to make it to the shores of a river, all the while wondering whether or not you will make it, or die first of acute heat exhaustion due to all of the clothing you are wearing, or be stomped into jelly by the moose that the dogs randomly flushed out of the woods and lead straight back to you to deal with.

But, against all odds, you finally make it as far as you are going to go.  It's not the river...its a giant half-frozen marsh!  You know that it's "half-frozen" because where the dogs ran around on it even way out in the middle, you fall through at the edges of the water, filling your water-proof boots with cold water that smells like it came out of the wrong end of an elephant.  So, you take a couple of pictures with your spouse, sit down in the freezing snow, and watch the dogs run around on the ice that failed to hold you.

Finally, you trudge back through the snow, eventually making it to your car as the temperature begins to drop, and the snow begins to come down hard and in large flakes.  You are elated to make it back to the vehicle, loading the dogs up, and heading toward your all-together much too small home.  The dogs sleep for, basically, the rest of the day, evening, and night, and you are filled with a sense of nice contentment as you sit on the couch sipping hot apple cider and hot chocolate.

What a great day in cold, snowy, wintery Alaska...

Fall: A Time of Changes

Fall is a truly beautiful time in Alaska.  Well, to be fair, we haven't found any times in Alaska that aren't beautiful.  As suddenly as the leaves appeared in the light of the 20 hour days, they have turned yellow and offer still another breathtaking view of the Alaskan mountains and forest.  The fireweed has "burned up", red flames strewn sporadically all over the forest floor, licking the bottoms of the the birch trees which have torched into huge living bursts of yellow flame.




As the leaves are blown from the trees by occasional winds, the bare trees are revealing a sight forgotten in the explosion of green leaves and insane tourists: the austere and massive mountains towering to incredible heights above the rivers and lakes that have been the main focus of our enjoyment for the last few months.  It's like unwrapping a huge awesome present at Christmas!  To make it even better, as they do throughout a summer, the mountains have gradually become an earthy green, brown, and gray.  But, with startling abruptness, they have become white again, and not a slowly downward crawling, but an overnight white, surprising you every morning...until you realize that in less than a month it has crept more than halfway down the mountain.  Until today...

Life is changing for us as well.  Rachel has been working at the middle school for about a month now, and it has been a trying experience in a number of ways.  As with most jobs with the schools (especially support positions), many things are less than desirable...and we'll leave it at that.  However, she is in the schools and meeting people, gaining experience and establishing a reputation with the people in the school.  Ben has one more week with the Forest Service and then will be on a work hiatus for two weeks until he goes through the substitute teacher training.  He is really looking forward to a little time off.

We're really curious to see how this winter is going to go.  There will be a number of new things, the least of which is certainly not the sunlight (or lack thereof).  Even now with the mountains surrounding us the sun doesn't come up until after 8 AM, but at least we get nearly 11 hours of light.  Rachel is not too keen on driving to work in the dark though.  We will also have to purchase some studded tires for the first time in our lives.  We thought, "Oh no, we're from Montana, we can handle the roads."  Pictures to follow on what we've been told about some of the roads in the winter.

Despite the change in seasons, we're really looking forward to the winter and all of the changes and surprises that it will bring!

Ben and Rachel

A Fish Eye's View

Sly The Silver Salmon

I have finally finished out my 1 year in salt water and it is time for me to begin my journey back to fresh water where I will then have the opportunity to spawn and complete my life cycle.  I am so pumped!  It has been a great 5 years.  I began my life as a fertilized egg in fresh water where my mother laid me.  She left me with my nutrient filled egg sack, which I ate as I developed into an alevin.  Once my egg sack was gone I could finally be called a fry.  What an exciting time in my life!  I grew for about 4 years in the fresh water, but then one day I just had a wild itch to see the world, so I headed downstream, and ended up in the ocean.  What a change!  The predators were as big as whales!  Zipping in and around the Pacific Ocean I had the time of my life.  Aside from those Kings I was the biggest Salmon around.  Then one day something changed.  Maybe it was just hormones, or some really irrational nostalgia, but I had the intense urge to go swim up the river where I was born, even though it would kill me.  My milt was ready to fertilize some eggs :)  As I made my way to the estuary I found many other silver salmon experiencing the same hormonal insanity.  Before entering the fresh water I decided it was time for one last meal.  After 5 years I can definitely say that it was the biggest mistake of my life.  In front of me I saw a piece of something twirling and dangling and thought about how lucky I was to have that lovely meal dropped right in front of me.  I dove towards it, pushing other salmon out of the way as I grabbed it.  I grabbed the perfect section of meat but then I immediately felt something tug on my mouth.  I tried to retreat and take back the meal that I had just swallowed, but it was not letting go of me.  As I was pulled toward the surface I began to see the outline of what appeared to be a boat.  As I surfaced I saw four people upon the boat jumping around, grabbing nets, and stretching out towards me.  I resisted even more and watched the human on the other side of the line struggle to keep a hold of me.  I was strong, but the humans were stronger and I was eventually hauled into the boat and indignantly thrown below with others who had suffered the same fate as I.  However, it was gratifying knowing that I would be able to provide meat for those in need throughout the cold winter above the water.  My life was complete and although I would not be able to complete it the way I had thought, I knew that I now had an even higher calling and I am thankful for that opportunity.


Harriet the Halibut

What a life I lead on the bottom of the ocean.  265 feet down and I would go further if I could, but I am a little halibut and I am trying to stick close to others of my kind.  It is dark and cold down here, and both of my eyes are on one side of my body, that is how much I love staring upward.  Being as I am a lucky halibut a tasty, stinky fish has just landed in front of me.  I am not one to snap and grab it though. I think I'll just nibble a little bit and take a minute to let it all go down.  As I'm swallowing the tasty, stinky fish, I feel a tug deep in my throat and feel myself being lifted off of my comfy ocean bottom bed.  I don't want to go up to the surface!  It's too bright up there!  I fight with all 20 pounds the whole 265 feet.  The hook is imbedded so deep within me that the human on the other end of the line finally wins out.  However, in my last few minutes of life I take in the funniest scene that my eyes have ever beheld.  I am hauled into a boat where the human on the other end of the line is almost passed out from the exertion of the fight.  Take that!  I am glad that although I may not have been the winner of this fight, I do not have to deal with the next week of sore muscles that the human is going to have to deal with.  What a wonderful life!  I'm glad to know that I made the human work for those tasty fillets that will later come off of me after I've passed. 


Yvonne the Yellow-Eyed

I am a Rockfish, but of a different color.  My eyes are buggy and yellow and my skin is the color of sherbert.  I swim around with a look of constant surprise on my face.  Of course, I am a fish, and with my short memory it's befitting because I am constantly surprised.  Just like any other day I was trying to find a meal wherever I could get one and it just so happened that today was my lucky day.  Right in front of me a squid landed and he was way to slow for my quick reflexes.  I snapped so quick that I took the whole squid in at once.  The only problem was that when I swallowed the squid I had an immediate case of heart burn that began to force me to rise to the surface.  I tried to dispel this unpleasant feeling by throwing up my air bladder.  I was not the only one surprised by the sudden change of events.  As I was pulled aboard what I assume was a boat, the surprise and wonder from the female human on the other side of the boat almost equaled my own.  Once on board I knew the next course of action that would take place.  I would be grabbed and my air bladder that had been used just seconds before to protect would be popped and my juices would squirt all over whoever took on that calling.  The surprise on their faces was classic!  As I am filleted my ear bones will be cut out for their ivory and made into jewelery for the beautiful female who pulled me aboard.  It was a good life and I enjoyed what I can remember of it.


We had a great time fishing with Paul and Chris.  Waking up at 3:30 in the morning, on the water by 5:30, fishing until 4:00 in the afternoon, and processing fish until about 9:30 at night, it has taken us all week to catch up from the exhaustion.  But, our freezer is full of fish at the moment, and we are looking forward to eating it throughout the course of the winter.  Paul and Chris could not have made the trip more fun, especially Chris's excitement over every single thing that was hooked, whether we ended up hauling it into the boat or not.  We are so thankful for their hospitality, and Ben is really looking forward to going out again.  It was not without it's punishment though, since every time we closed our eyes or got into the shower for the next two days we felt like we were back on the waves being tossed about like one of those Magic 8-Balls.

Thank you Paul and Chris!
Ben and Rachel

Clammin' to Prevent Famine

Rachel: Ok...
Ben:  Yeah that was pretty bad.
Rachel:  Clamming is dirty business.  You get up really early in the morning, on your day off...
Ben:  That sounds dirty already...
Rachel:  Pile into a small truck with your husband and two other boys, with two dogs in the back...
Ben:  Gettin' dirtier (and more smelly) already...
Rachel:  Travel two hours and wind up on a muddy, sandy beach with dead fish all over the place.
Ben:  Hmmmmmm, sounds like fun so far.
Rachel:  You put on your rubber boots...
Ben:  Oh goodness, it's going downhill...
Rachel:  Grab your shovel, or if you are rich enough, clamming gun...
Ben:  We aren't rich enough.
Rachel:  ...and head out into the mud.  You walk around for about half an hour staring at nothing but mud...
Ben: ...and looking for mystical clam divots in the sand...that you have no clue what they look like.
Rachel:  You take the opportunity to speak with other clammers that know what they are doing, and getting clams...
Ben:  ...but it doesn't help you at all for the most part.  You are still like a lost puppy looking for a puppy chow factory.
Rachel:  Then, miracle upon miracle, you discover one of these mystical divots.
Ben:  How did we miss those again?
Rachel.  And the annihilation begins.
Ben:  You work your butt off trying to dig each clam out before it can escape.
Rachel:  Those things are fast.  We're talking, like a mole-with-its-butt-on-fire-burrowing-toward-water-after-chugging-a-case-of-Five-Hour-Energies fast.
Ben:  So you dig in as fast as you possibly can, and end up on your knees in the mud, digging with your hands, trying to get the thing out, and hoping that you haven't lost it already.
Rachel:  As you dig like a dog in the mud, you realize that once again you have broken the clam shell, and therefore the clam, into millions of pieces with your shovel, because, once again, you aren't rich enough to afford the clamming gun.
Ben:  Remember all those times we thought we lost it and then realized that we had hucked the pieces of clam out with the first couple of shovel fulls?  That was embarrassing...
Rachel:  Let's reiterate that we are clamming for "razor clams".
Ben:  "Razor"...like those sharp things that I never use?
Rachel:  Exactly.
Ben:  Right, so when you totally smash the clam to pieces...the pieces are really sharp!  Hence, the super thick rubber gloves!
Rachel:  The excitement of pulling out your first clam, demolished or not, is comparable to finding a thick, meaty piece of pirate treasure...in the shape of a clam.
Ben:  The hoots, hollars, whooping, and exuberance were abundant after that.  We struck, literally, all kinds of meaty clam treasure.
Rachel:  One must keep in mind that you go clamming when the tide is low.  And as the moon shifts, so does the tide.
Ben:  Oh, so that's why the ocean nearly swallowed our cooler and bucket of flounders from the salmon fishermen!
Rachel:  Yes.  We raced the tide back to shore...
Ben:  But of course, we searched out mystical divots as we went.
Rachel:  Although we did not capture the 240 clams that had been our goal...
Ben:  That 240 would include each of our 4 individual limits of 60...
Rachel:  The 2 pounds that we DID get, and the dead flounder that we received, made for some pretty good clam chowder and fried flounder.
Ben:  Wait, what about the "dirty" part?
Rachel:  Even though you may try to protect yourself, the mud and sand find a way into everything.
Ben:  Boots, gloves, hats, pants, socks, bags, mouths...it's maddening...
Rachel:  But worth it...
Ben:  I can't wait to go clamming again...do you think we'll be rich enough for the clamming gun?

Rachel:  Ummmmm, let's see...

On Our Way

We've been in Alaska nearly three full months now, and it's great to say that we are on our way!  We are still putting things back in order from the chaos of relocation, BUT we are starting to have some fun too.

Forays into the Alaskan Wilderness (a.k.a. Hiking):
Although there is technically no "wilderness" here, it seems that if there is a decent chance of seeing a bear or moose in a place, then it should qualify as "wilderness"...which is everywhere around here.  There are SO MANY LAKES HERE!  Plus we have mountains, eat your heart out Minnesota. The only disappointment so far is that the trails don't tend to head upward into the mountains, but stay nestled mostly in the comfortable valleys and around the lakes and rivers (for more details about why this rocks, see "fishing").  However, the views are breathtaking, which is fine because the air is thicker down here and we feel like superheroes when we hike because we are used to Montana's high altitudes, so we don't get winded easily.  We've explored a lot of the trails in the area but there are still many more to see...and we want to see them all!


Acting Contrary to Most Modern Invention (a.k.a. Camping):
Unfortunately we've only made it out for one good camping trip so far.  It was a great time though and we had a blast.  We went car-camping along Palmer Creek, near Hope, which doesn't mean anything to most of you but if you wanted to find a place to drive to on the Kenai Peninsula that would inspire you to go back home and take a shower and maybe do some yard work, it would be Hope.  We sat by the fire, sang songs, ran the dogs until they were dead on their feet, ate some awesome good food (thereby clogging arteries in abundance), and donated large amounts of blood to the local mosquito and moose fly populations.  The next day we went for a hike up a nearby trail to a couple of lakes where we laughed in exuberant mirth as Lilly first ran away from us despite our calling her back, then upon realizing that we were leaving without her tried to cross one of the lakes on the sketchy ice that was still melting in the lake, then fell in the water and had to swim back to shore.  We are hoping to get out for some backpacking soon, but we've had so much going on that it has been tough finding a weekend for it.


Russian Names, Western Oceans, and-...um...Homer:
A few weeks ago Rachel decided to surprise Ben by asking his supervisor for a couple of days off and arranging a great little tour de Kenai.  We stayed in a lodge in Kasilof where we had some great time together, and did a little fishing but caught nothing.  The hostess Dot was really cool and was a lot of fun.  She was trying to convince us to bring our dogs next time...we told here that we didn't want to bring her beautiful lodge to ruin.  We went to Homer and had sushi and checked out the Homer spit, and had some great R & R time.  All around it was a great trip, even though we were actually both sick at the time.


Convincing Something That You Want to Eat to Eat Something That It Doesn't Want to Eat So That You Can Eat It (a.k.a. Fishing):
Fishing trips, thus far, have been somewhat few...BUT we're working on changing that.  We tried a little fishing in Kasilof but were sadly skunked.  Ben went fishing in Ptarmigan Creek nearby and had a great time, catching 3 trout, losing 1, and keeping the best for some good eating.  He only had one small slip while down on the shore...swamping his waders with some of the good, frigid, glacial water.  Totally worth it though!  We tried fishing Salmon with some friends another day, but still no joyful Salmon adventures.  Tomorrow we will be getting up 'round the crack of dawn, 4AM, in order to go fishing down in Resurrection Bay for Halibut, Ling Cod, Salmon, and whatever else we can convince to bite onto something attached to some filament.


For the purpose of not getting too far into everything that we've been up to, for this is not the half of it and doesn't do the experience a lot of justice, we'll have to end this long-winded exhortation of revelation.  Last and not least, we want to say that even though we are having a great time, we really miss everyone, especially friends and family.  We just got hit with a wave of homesickness the last couple of weeks, and we really can't wait to see you all again!

We love you all and miss you dearly!
Ben and Rachel

Bears, Bears, and Bears, Oh My!

It was an interesting day in the forest...but that's what we get for going to a National Park instead of a National Forest (tongue in cheek, *wink*wink*).  We decided to go to Exit Glacier and do the 8.2 mile round trip to the Harding Ice Field.  Unfortunately we didn't make it for a number of reasons.  First, the mountains were mostly socked in, thus removing some of the point because we wouldn't be able to see a whole lot.  Second, after taking about two pictures my camera died, further removing some of the purpose for the hike (not saying that we NEED to take pictures to have fun, but how can we show you all what you are missing if we can't photograph it).  Finally, the hike wore us out in an unexpected way; we saw no less than 5 different black bears in the first 2 miles.  First we saw two first-summer bear cubs that were way up in a tree directly above the trail, and despite the fact that we did know where their mother was, we couldn't help but stop and check them out for a couple of minutes...and then go running back after we realized that we had Rachel's phone to take pictures with.  We continued up the trail and then ran into 3 black bears, fully grown this time, one of which gave us the "stomp and huff" because we got a little too close...while not even knowing it was there.  Fairly soon after that we came to the first "viewing area" of the glacier, where you get to look out over the whole of Exit Glacier...very cool!  We decided at that point that it was time to go back down, and after about five minutes wished that we had decided to head down sooner...we got stuck behind a huge group of people that were part of a guided group that went out onto the glacier.  Most of them didn't really seem like the type to be out doing something like that, but there they were, stopped in the middle of the trail because the guide did not want to go down the trail past the black bear cubs in the tree, because he didn't want to spook one of them back up the tree.  We totally understand until we have been standing between the 2 bear cubs in the tree and the 3 fully-grown black bears further up the mountain for 30 minutes...not to mention the fact that we are the only ones in what because a group of more than a dozen that had any form of bear deterrent.  But we finally got past and made it down.  IT WAS AWESOME!  Pictures of the bears to come...after we can find a way to get them off of Rachel's phone.

Take care everyone!
Rachel and Ben

The Beginning

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the lives of Ben and Rachel Herrington.  We are very excited that you have all been able to join us on this journey that we call “life”.  For those who have just begun following us and do not understand what all of the hullabaloo is about let us be the first to tell you.  Just two months ago we decided to leave our nice peaceful home in Livingston, Montana, and not just move to another state, but move to ALASKA!  Ben was the first one to get a job working for the Forest Service out of Kenai Lake Work Center and Rachel quickly followed with a job there as well.  Ben got to enjoy a nice and uneventful trip up via airplane three weeks before Rachel and her Mom began the rugged, rough, and strung-out journey up the AlCan Highway accompanied by two dogs and two cats.  Ben luckily found a home for the family of six the day that Rachel and her Mom arrived.  What a lucky boy that he did not have to experience the wrath of two women who had been on the road for four days with animals on drugs.  

The house that we live in is quaint and will definitely allow us to work more on our relationship and force us to face each other no matter what arises.  The only place we can hide from each other is the bathroom (the only room with a door on it that still does not latch) and as we all know, unless you have a bladder infection there really is no need to be in the bathroom longer than 15 minutes with the door closed.  We have two “rooms” that encompass the whole house that we live in.  The one room holds our bedroom and living room which has been dubbed the “LivingBedroom.”  The other room encompasses our laundry room and kitchen.  We then have the bathroom, one closet, and one pantry and that is our new home.  We would post pictures (and may possibly still) but pictures make our place actually look bigger!  

As for jobs, Ben is having a lot of fun with his job.  He is still working with Developed Recreation, the same job as he had with the Livingston District, and is still really enjoying it.  His boss is a lot of fun and we have never met somebody with more stories to tell.  In just the past week he had a bald eagle attack him and the fish that he had just caught, as well as having a dog break into his garage and kill five of his nine chickens.  The whole crew that Ben works with is a lot of fun and they really enjoy their time together.  Rachel is doing well with her job and enjoying the people that she works with as well.  We have had two other of her co-workers over to the house a lot and they have been very helpful in making us feel at home and helping us find our place in the last frontier.  We get to work together some days and those are always fun days.  It has been over a year of marriage and we are not tired of spending as much time with each other as possible yet.  

The church is very small, but we are finally starting to find a place there as well.  Ben was asked just last week how he would like to help out and participate in the service.  We will both be able to hopefully do some fishing with the preacher and his son-in-law in the weeks to come.  The son-in-law has a boat that we can take out and do some pretty intense fishing (yay, for Halibut).  We have been to the Russian River and checked out the fishing there.  They just opened up the season for Red Sockeye Salmon and they call it "combat fishing" because most of the fishermen are shoulder to shoulder with the bears on the other side of the river (or sometimes right behind them).  A lot of the salmon have to come up through that river to lay their eggs and then die so it is prime fishing grounds, although very crowded.  We get our own special parking spots when working with the Forest Service and we like to take advantage of those to just watch the madness and help keep people safe.  

The wildlife in the area is amazing.  There are bald eagles all over the place, moose, bear, beaver, arctic terns, mew gulls, mountain goat, dall sheep, otters, wolverines, caribou, porcupines, dogs, and the state bird...the mosquito.  They have what I like to call “special forces” for the animals that get hit on the road.  If an animal, such as a moose, is hit there is a group that will come out as fast as possible to pick up the animal and try to save as much of the meat as possible to give to shelters to help those in need.  It is a great service provided by the state of Alaska.

 

For those of you who live in Montana, especially close to Livingston, we live in a place in comparison to Mill Creek.  The town that we live near is called Moose Pass and the population is about 250.  It is a great little town.  Last weekend they hosted their Solstice Festival which we went to experience.  The whole town came out for it and they were so excited that most people prepared at least two days in advance by mowing their lawns, hanging flags, and decorating their houses.  It is the biggest event this little town has all year.  Our one post office lady (it only has one worker) was so excited about it that she encouraged us to join in the town celebration, which we were glad that we did afterwards.  

Well, this post so far is turning into a novel and we do not want to lose all of you who are going to be our faithful readers.  We are truly enjoying our time in the state known as the "last frontier" (Star Trek was wrong, it's not space) and look forward to making it our home more and more.  Our door (and our couch/floor) is always open to those who need a place while visiting the great north, and we look forward to being able to post more about our adventures and hearing from all of you as well.

P.S. In case you were wondering why we are "aspiring sourdoughs" let us explain.  A "Sourdough" is a nickname used in the North (Yukon/Alaska) for someone who has spent an entire winter north of the Arctic Circle and refers to their tradition of protecting their Sourdough during the coldest months by keeping it close to their body.  The sourdough tradition was carried into Alaska and the western Canadian territories during the Klondike Gold Rush.  For those of you who want, please feel free to follow us as we aspire to this great tradition (minus the actual Sourdough, because that's a little gross).