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.