Skijoring and Iron Dog

The past few weeks have been very eventful. I have a new hobby. I love cross country skiing. It all started a few weeks ago when I asked a friend to take me skijoring. I had never been before and she goes every weekend to give her dogs some exercise. She runs dogs and works every winter to take her dogs on a mushing trip to Salmon Lake.

Naturally my attempt at skijoring was terrible but so much fun! I had a lot of problems trying to stand up on my skis. The harness that went around my waste had a dog attached on my right hip, giving me a weird center of gravity. While on a pair of cross country skis, I had a teather attached to the dog and my harness. My problem came not only from the harness but my lack of skills with cross country skiing. I have skiied many times before but it was always downhill skiing on groomed paths. Skiijoring or even cross country skiing is about as far away from that as you can get! It was a great experience never the less. I have included a picture of my friend skiijoring with both both dogs because the dog was getting tired of me falling. Ever since then, I've been skiing to get the practice, its a good workout, and it's a lot of fun!

The city has been busy the past week with Iron Dog activities. KNOM has regular updates on the Iron Dog. We go on the air at 9am, 12pm, 5pm, and 10pm with updates. It is been a great experience so far. The first racers came in on Tuesday night. Laureli was reporting live from the half-way finish, Leah was on the board, and D was spotting the racers before they got to Nome. The next day was busy preparing for the banquet at the mini convention center. We also reported live on the red lantern team, a female team, who came in that night. Thursday was the best day of the Iron Dog. I was sent to the restart line to report on the teams who left. Eventful doesn't begin to describe the restart. We had 2 teams come back to Nome after they left for Fairbanks. The first team came back for potential mechanical reasons. The other team had one of the team members, break a leg about 13 miles outside of town. The part that still boggles my mind is the intensity of the entire trip. People ducktape their faces to prevent windburn. It is so cold that anyone would be out of their mind to be outside longer than 30 minutes. It was minus 8 degrees this afternoon, with a wind chill that might have lowered the temperature to about 20 below. I can't imagine how cold the interior is compared to here. Not to mention, it takes a lot of strength to be on a snowmachine for an extended period of time, fix a machine, and pull these machines over snowdrifts. I have a strong admiration for everyone who participates in Iron Dog.

Christmas, New Years, and Dogs!

During the winter months there are many blizzards, as one can imagine. Here is a during and semi after picture of a blizzard to give an idea the visability of the streets outside our front door.

The City of Nome changed the lyrics of a Christmas song and I have to say I strongly agree with it. There really is no place like Nome for the holidays. Christmas is a great time in Western Alaska. The town really wakes up, not that it was sleeping but Christmas certainly brings excitement. All of the Christmas parties leading up to Christmas day really helps build up the holiday. In addition, I was given the project to write and produce a Christmas play for the radio station. It was the best project I have ever done! It was so much fun not only doing the project but seeing a large production from begining to end.

Personally, I couldn't have asked for a better first Christmas from home. We woke up on Christmas morning and had all of the roomates get together for a family breakfest. After a large pancake and muffin breakfest, we exchanged presents. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking to family and going to work. All of the volunteers went to Ric's house for dinner. As always, Lynette made a fabulous meal. There was somewhere between 15-20 people celebrating Christmas at the Schmidt house. We did a Pink Elephant gift exchange where we all received some interesting items. After all the celebrating was over, the Schmidt kids and the KNOM volunteers played broom ball.

As opposed to Christmas's family environment, New years was more of a friend celebration. We went to Nikki's house were many friends were there for a formal dinner party. As many great Nome parties go, several people brought their instruments and we had a jam session!

One thing I am very proud of, I got the nerve to walk out on the sea ice. Granted the only walking I did was on a previously made trail, left behind from snowmachines wo go out to catch crab. I figured walking on that ice had to be safe. If it can hold a snowmachine, it can hold me. Here is a picture of one of the trails I followed.

Since it is January, dog racing season has started. Our first race was last weekend. As my first race, I didn't know what to expect. The K300 started on Friday, January 15th and it was a 3 day long event. Since the event was in Bethel, we had to rely on alot of outside information. This was more of a practice race to prepare us for the Iditarod. We had updates at 9am, noon, 5pm, and 10pm. During these updates, there was a first mic individual who gave the update on where all the racers are and evaluated their strategy. The second mic individual created color in the report and gave weather updates and background information on the musher. It was a blast learning about this tradition. I can't wait til Iditarod!

Savoonga and Anchorage

Over the past month, I was fortunate enough to go on two trip. First I went to Savoonga and the next week I went to Anchorage.

Savoonga is a village located on St. Lawerence Island, between Alaska and Russia. This trip was one of my favorite village trips to date. I went to Savoonga to cover a story about the first ASIST workshope in a village. ASIST stands for Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. It is a two day workshop that was brought to Savoonga through a grant. I was unable to go to all of the training but I did go most of the second day. It was amazing to see how many high school students attended the training and wanted to help. The village was going to start a youth council for suicide prevention because the need to get involved among the students. I did get a profile and 2 news stories from that trip. Since a group of friends from Nome were in town to conduct this workshop, we explored Nome. We decided to go on a walk along the beach and we couldn't have had a better adventure. As we were walking, I found a big piece of baleen laying on the beach. Of course we took lots of pictures but as we walked further along, we found a bunch of them neatly lying in a row (the picture above). We decided to continue our walk. A little bit further, we saw a large skeleton. Loren decided to try and pick it up but he could had a hard time. Turns out the skeleton was from a walrus. The spin was alonger than any of us and about as wide as my head. The skull was missing it's ivory, for obvious reasons (natives carve stuff out of them). After realizing we couldn't move it, we decided to continue our journey. Jason looked out to the water and discovered there were a bunch of whales within sight. We stood there and watch the whales come up for breath. There was a bunch of them. Apparently, this is was whale migration season. As we continued our journey down the beach, we saw a bunch of kids running. We asked them what the rush was and they said they wanted to make beef jerkey. Sure enough, there was a whale that was catch and brought onto shore only hours ago and the kids went to slice up their share for afternoon snacks. The name beef jerkey made me laugh, it seemed more like whale jerky to me. The following is a picture of one of the kids getting his jerkey

After that great adventure, we decided to head back to town to go to Eskimo Dancing and a potluck. It was a contempory potluck with Subway and Airport Pizza but fun none the less. I personally was forced to dance by some of the kids who went to the workshop. Another great think about Savoonga, there are many ivory carving artists in that village and they make some beautiful work! I only had $30 on me which was enough to get an old ivory charm for a necklace. I found out that old ivory is found in camps across the St. Lawrence Island. The island used to be covered with camps but a famine and flu struck the island killing about 4/5ths of the population. The remaining population moved to Gambell and then Savoonga. So there are camps from before 1918 with thousands of ivory burried around the camps.

The other great trip I went on was to Anchorage. I had the opportunity to go there through an organization that I volunteer for, Relay for Life. During college, I have always been a huge supporter of it and found they are trying to start one in Nome. As a volunteer, the relay staff decided to send me and 2 other ladies to Anchorage for a training session. The training itself was very educational but the city was a complete culture shock! I've been a city girl so long and then I moved to Nome and grew accustomed to that lifestyle. Once I was in a heavily populated area, I grew nervous and couldn't get over how strange it was to see so many cars on a road.... or stop lights... or skyscrapers... or just about everything. It was interesting to walk around the hospital to go the training and see people in business suits. That is not something I don't think anyone in Nome owns. I never thought it would affect me because I was a business major in college and was no stranger to the professional "looking" world but it really is another world to me now. The city of Anchorage is a lot different than I thought. It was clearly planned out so the city is extremely spaced out. You have to have a car to get anywhere.

It wasn't a bad type of culture shock (if there is such a thing) but it was definately a reality check that there are so many different lifestyles within the World, US, and even the state of Alaska.

Working Hard

Time seemed to be flying by lately. I've been continuing my regular duties at the radio station and been taking on a few new ones as well. For example, the Sounding Board season started in September. Sounding board is our version of a talk show. Once a week, an employee heads up an hour long talk show about a topic of their choice, preferably one that would encourage people to pick up the phone. This show can be as controversal as the state putting limits on the subsistance license salmon catch or as fun as people's names. The last few weeks I had the honor of holding 2 of my own talk shows. Since I am still learning about Alaska and the people, I decided to take the fun approach to Sounding Board. My first show was about TV in Western Alaska and the changes it has taken. Since TV still doesn't have a strong presence in Bush Alaska(in comparison to the Lower 48) I thought it would be an interesting subject to hear how tv first came to villages and how it has changed. News Director Paul Korchin was my cohost. To fill up time between calls (we were a talk show but we were a talk show for Western Alaska to call and express concerns, opinions, or experiences about the topic) we aired audio clips. I got a clips from a man who is the station manager at the only Bush Alaska tv network and a man who works for an Alaskan Media network. The second Sounding Board I hosted was Potlucks. Leah Radde was my cohost and I got audio clips from the individual who was in charge of the Nome Community Thanksgiving Dinner and from a local pastor who has regular potlucks at their church. I didn't need most of my audio clips because there were so many calls and emails. It was a huge success.
Outside of Sounding Board, I've created a few profiles, been on some village trips, and have been writing the stations annual Christmas Play. The play is a production that is done every year and is aired on Christmas day after the 12:15 and 5:15 hotlines. It should be exciting... more on that later!
Besides all of these wonderful projects, on top of my daily duties, I have changed air shifts. I am now the 12 to 2 Lunchtime Deejay. All shifts have music that is placed into your air shift but the noon deejay creates their own shows. Each day has it's own guidelines to follow for example Monday is Monday Limelight where I feature an artist of my choice. Twofer Tuesdays have two songs back to back by the same artist. Tuesdays could also be Decades where I play songs for a chosen decade. Wednesdays are the hardest day. Music genres are wednesday's theme. Not only do I have to think of a new music genre that hasn't been done before, but I have to make sure we have music for it. Thursdays are my last and favorite day. Theme park Thursday is what they are called. I love them because I can be more creative. For example, Thanksgiving's theme was Thursday of Thanks. Next weeks theme will be either songs written for a famous person or songs that will give you good directions (drivin directions not life directions).
After thinking of all the wonderful things I've been able to do and the flexability my job has, I couldn't be more thankful for all the experiences I have and have the resources to learn.

2nd Village Trip to Teller

I was able to go on my second village trip a few weeks ago. It was an amazing experience. Teller is one of the few villages that you can drive to from Nome. It is a 2 hour drive northwest of Nome. The picture above is a view of the village from the landing strip.

The trip was to cover the 5th Annual Teller Cultural Festival for the station. The festival was a 2 day long event. I flew in on a Friday morning. Since the event didn't start until Friday evening so I had to figure out things to do until then. Walking around town, I tried to find out other story ideas to bring back to the station. I came across the story of a man who created a class that taught the tradition of building a utility dog sled made of traditional elements. Joe Garney, a thought to be a sort of local hero, is well-known for his racing days in the Iditarod. He now trains dogs for others to run. He is a wealth of knowledge of traditions pertaining to building. He felt obligated to create this class so I interviewed him and created a KNOM profile on the class he created that is still in the works because they received the wrong materials.

After talking with Joe, I went on a walk with his daughter. She was a few years older than myself and is a councilor in town. She talks works with a wellness group in town to encourage people to express their feelings, particularly towards depression. Depression and pressure is a huge issue in the villages. Villages typically have a few suicides every year. This year was particularly hard for Teller. The village already had a suicide during the fall and had someone hang themself earlier that week. Ages of those who commit suicide are typically in the early to mid 20s. This girl was telling me the effect that this has on her 8 year old child. She says the high amount of suicides are getting the younger generation used to it, thinking that suicides are common. It was a very eye opening conversation.

After insight, I went to my room (i slept in a book closet at the school) and waited til the funeral was over for the recently deceased. I couldn't believe how right after the funeral reception, these people had the festival. It was indescribable. Since people were morning, and understandably so, the festival started with some inspirational singing. After the introduction, some prayers, and singing, the Eskimo dancing started. Cultural festivals are basically a great way to get local villages and "tribes" together to perform and share their culture through dance. There were four groups, King Island Dancers (from Nome), Golovin Dancers, Brevig Mission Dancers, and Teller Dancers.

During the second day of the festival, there were workshops and a potluck, in addition to more dancing. The workshops include Eskimo games (like the Seal hop), beading, and a wellness video. The potluck was interesting. Typical food found at the potluck includes: salmon eggs, dried fish, balooga, reindeer soup, tundra berries, fried bread, and other food that I could not identify. There were some food that I could identify, such as salad, Pilot Bread, and pasta salad. One of the elders saw my plate and saidI had too much "White People food." After the potluck, we had more Eskimo Dancing. That lasted til about 2:30 am.

I got some good stories and good experiences from this trip. I wrote 5 news stories and created a KNOM profile from the trip. Over all, I think it was successful. In addition, I have some crazy memories. For example, I was walking along the harbor side of the village and I saw a boat with red stuff streaming to the water. I walked closer to see what it was.... it was blood. Someone killed a seal and left it laying right next to the boat. Naturally my first reaction was to take a picture, so the picture is below!

Gold Mining and Bath Tubs

There has been some pretty exciting events the past few weeks.

First of all, I discovered someone wrong with the radio station. Since I work solo on Sundays, I saw some readings that didn't seem right on the transmiter. We have to periodically record the numbers and one of the numbers that should have been around 50 was at 1. I immediately called Ric, the station manager. He came over right away. It turned out that we had a cable break on the transmiter and we had to turn the station off for almost 4 days. It was the longest we have ever been down. It was such a valuable experience because we received so many phone calls and emails from listeners who said they missed us. Bless their hearts, most of them thought their radios were old and they weren't getting the station so they called the station to see if it was us or them with problems.

Another eventful Nome activity that I participated in includes gold mining. One of my friends is a miner. His fellow miners were out of town and he needed a deck hand so I volunteered. It was certainly an experience. When we were launching the gold dredge, the waves were so high that I was splashed head to toe with water. Good thing I had a water proof outfit on! I tried to drive the boat but the motor was too much for me to understand. Andrew, the miner, added a tube to the motor to make it easier to steer. If you ask me, it was a little more complicated. Once we got to the location they were working on. Andrew jumped in the water with a large tube that served as a vacuum. It was made of metal to prevent it from floating up. While he got the gold, I was on the dredge pushing big rocks out of the sloose box. While on the water, the waves got so high that I got sea sick. After that, Andrew and I decided it was time to go back and the current was getting to much. Once we got back to land, we went through the sloose box and tooke out the gold carpet. Since gold is so heavy, it feel in the carpet and didn't get pushed out like all of the rocks. We emptied the gold and other stuff mixed with it into a container. We went to Andrews camp and filtered out the bigger pieces. I got to keep the flakes while Andrew go the gold dust. After going through the gold, I got to shoot a 44 Magnum gun. Andrew has the gun just in case a bear comes by. It was fun to shoot but I can't see myself ever owning a gun.

The final exciting event to report was the bath tub race. Every Labor Day, the town has a wacky tradition of having a team of 5 people race bath tubs down main street. KNOM was of course more than eager to participate. We strategically selected our team captain, a 6 year old girl who is extremely light. We threw here in the tub so it was lighter to push. The race has all kinds of rules. One of them is there has to be a bar of soap, wash cloth, towel, and bath mat with every team. Kind of unusual event. It was a lot of fun though! We came in last place and got a trophy for it. It was great! There is a picture above with our fabulous team and our tub!

Gold Mining and Pilgram

There is a gold mining camp just down the road from Nome. Unfortunately, you have to drive on the beach using a 4 wheeler or truck to get there because there are no

roads and you have to cross a river. The camp is by the mouth of the Penny River. GPAA is associated with this camp, which is a big gold mininging organziation. People all over the US come to mine here. It is a cute place in a beautiful location. The camp itself is modeled from the old west. As you can see from the picture, the saloon is a big common area for everyone. There is also a cafeteria, church, and trading post. The camp opens up to the public on Friday nights. They serve free spagetti to anyone who can get to the camp and the night ends with a night of karaokee in the saloon. It is pretty fun. I have been there twice. The campers also divide their gold that was found that week. It is interesting to see all of the gold they have gathered.

Another adventure that I recently had is my first trip to Pilgram Hot Springs. This little town is located about 90 miles away from Nome. It was created in the early 1900s to house children. During this time, many people were getting sick with the flu. They wanted to protect the children so they built an orphanage and a church near these hot springs. No one lives there now but it is a popular tourist destination. Walking into the church, the first floor is an annex and what can be assumed to be a kitchen and dinning area. The worship part of the church is on the second floor. Another house out in this abbandoned village is the old orphanage. This is a sad building to walk into. The building is empty except some small rooms and closets with school desks shoved into it. It is also condemed. The first half of the building is fine to walk into but the other half looks like it fell from the posts that it was standing on to protect it from permafrost. If you leave the little abandoned village, you come across a path that will take you to the springs. There is so much sulfer that it smells like rotten eggs. Apparently someone had the idea that these springs would make a great hot tub. Near the springs, they build large 3-4 foot deep tub and had the springs pour hot water into it. We tried to get in but the water was so hot that your foot would turn red after 5 second of being in the water. I'm sure the water would be wonderful in the fall.