House Sitting

Last week I house-sat for Kanakanak Hospital’s nursing director. She lives in a peaceful little house on the woods. The tour included generators, a wood-burning stove, and an outbuilding with deep freezer. “There is plenty of moose, reindeer, and salmon meat in the freezer. Help yourself.” Reindeer?

I went to sleep the first night alone in a spare bedroom; and awoke with a large cat to one side, a little dog on the other, a medium sized dog at my feet, and an even larger cat on my chest. Feel the love☺ We had a blizzard the next day. When the snow and wind died down I wanted to take the dogs for a walk. Sinking up to my waist off the porch it was clear that the snowshoes and ski poles next to the backdoor are not decorative.

So the week passed peacefully with snow-shoeing, bread making, and a trip to town in Susan’s big, diesel truck. The trip was to pick up the Dunson family’s weekly box of vegetables flown in by an organic farm co-op in Washington State.

The Dunson’s freezer is typical for the area. Most bush communities are partially supported by subsistence activities. In the summer, families move up the river setting up fish camps where the women and children live for four months. The practice affects local school funding, which is based on attendance days. The time, however, is essential to many Yupik family’s survival through winter. It is also ingrained in their culture. The winning entry in this year's Togiak Refuge Poetry Contest was by a 4th grade student at the Koliganek village school:

Haiku
Mallard

Colorful mallard
Delicious yummy mallard
Grandma is smiling


I should not have been surprised that getting to the moose meat in the freezer involved wrestling the moose antlers out of the way.