Good Friends & Pets

During the Thanksgiving break Steve, Justin, Jenny and I had dinner with Tim and Maria. Tim and Maria have a Chihuahua named Chiquita who we thought would be good for Oscar to play with. It turns out Oscar got tired pretty quickly and Chiquita and Felix ended up playing more.

Tim is a nurse and SEARHC and Maria is an awesome seamstress. In fact she made the outfit Oscar is wearing and the one Chiquita is wearing too. Tim and Maria are from Tok, AK (originally Maria is from Mexico and Tim is from CA), but they have a house in Tok and are currently living on a boat in Sitka.

Justin's got crabs

I'll let these pics speak for themselves.

More pics from the boat

Justin's Crab



A nice snowy ride on the boat.

Fishing on Thanksgiving Day

On Thanksgiving morning we all went fishing. Justin and Jenny caught 3 rock fish each. It was a beautiful sunny day but was very cold. The ropes we used to tie up our boat were frozen. Here are some pics. Enjoy

Happy Thanksgiving

Wednesday evening when Steve and I went to pick up Justin and Jenny from the Sitka Airport, we witnessed the 3rd biggest crowd in Sitka. 3rd behind the Alaska Day parade and the Stardust Ball. There at the one and only gate was a group of Sitkans gathered to welcome friends and family for the Thanksgiving holiday.

It felt so good to be able to see our son and daughter-in-law and to finally have the first visitors here with us in Alaska. Sitka had some tremendous amounts of snow the previous few days and although the air was rather crisp and cold it was the warmest I have felt since moving here.

For Thanksgiving we all celebrated with our good friends and neighbors, John, Jenn, Collin and Dominic. The day was clear and cold and that evening was one of the most beautiful sunsets we've seen yet.

Hope your holidays were special as well.

You know you live in Alaska when...

Warning: Today's pic may be disturbing to young viewers, vegans and members of PETA!


This morning I sat at the kitchen table while talking to my mom in Florida. As I gazed out the window at the falling snow, I witnessed what I thought was a rare sight. Slowly descending from the deck above our home was a deer carcass hanging from a rope. It edged lower and lower until it stopped just a couple of feet from the ground. There it hung, dangling between the basketball hoop and the edge of the deck. A surreal landscape just outside my kitchen window. Now I knew John and Steve had been hunting the day before, and I knew they came home with 3 deer, but this sight just caught me off guard.

After the shock wore off I had to laugh. I filled my mom in on the event I had just witnessed and she laughed too. After all, this was Alaska. The fact is, there are no cows in Sitka. I don't even know if there are cows anywhere in the state of Alaska. But there are deer, and they are a staple in most Sitkan's diets. I mean, man cannot live on fish alone. Throughout history people have eaten what is abundant in their surroundings and deer are abundant here.

So my mom and I continued our conversation and I just accepted the fact that wild game is part of the landscape of Sitka, whether in the forest or on your plate.

Wellbriety Kooteeyaa

A while back I posted pics of a Wellbriety Totem Pole that master carver Wayne Price was working on. On October 14 the pole was raised in front of SEARHC's (South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium) community health building. The pole stands as a visual sign to all who pass that healing will happen.

To raise the pole people are stationed in front of the pole with ropes attached to the pole. Once instructed to do so, they pull the ropes to raise the pole upright. Simultaneously people are behind the pole with guy wires, keeping the pole from leaning too far to either side. It's a huge pole and I'm sure it weights quite a bit, yet it is raised with only human power. Once the pole is upright and straight, several with shovels begin to throw dirt into the hole where the pole stands. The carver, Wayne Price, then gives an explanation of the pole.

Attending a pole raising is an awesome and spiritual event. I'm reminded of a spiritual event where God is truly present. Through out history symbols and imagery have always been a part of man's spiritual path. That evening we attended a celebration dinner. The dinner opened with Veterans bringing in the flag and leading the sacred hoop (symbol of the native peoples). Then an opening prayer was said followed by welcome and thank you speeches. The food (Salmon and rice) was blessed with a eloquent prayer thanking the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I was amazed at how present God was within all the festivities. This is the 2nd pole raising celebration I had attended since being in Sitka and both times God was a part of it. At the previous pole raising celebration an elder of one of the tribes (she was either Tlinglit or Haida) sang How Great Thou Art in her native tongue. I remember my grandmother singing this song when I was little and it sent a chill down my spine to hear it in this native language. I was reminded of the verse in Revelation where we are told that through the blood of the Lamb men are redeemed for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev. 5:9)

Enjoy the pics.