In honor of Alaska Day...

I thought I'd write a post about what it's really like to live in rural Alaska. If you have any burning questions, post them to the comments and you know I'll answer them there. ☺

FYI, from what I understand, Alaska Day is the day that the paperwork got back to Alaska informing the locals that the land had been purchased by the USA. (The purchase was made in the spring--April I think--but it took them 6 months to get all the way out here to let us know!)

Ferries or seaplanes are the only way in or out of Pelican (the ferry that comes out here is actually about 1/4 the size of the one shown here, but I didn't have a photo of our ferry handy). The seaplane comes daily (weather permitting)--it comes 2-3 times a day in summer, but we may go as long as 2-3 weeks without a plane in winter weather. The ferry comes once a month Sep-Apr, and twice a month in summer.

I love living in Alaska, but you have to understand that there is more than one Alaska...the larger cities (Juneau, Anchorage, even Sitka and Ketchikan and Kenai) have ferries and jet airplanes on a daily or nearly-daily basis. They have paved roads, grocery stores, banks, libraries, restaurants, and even craft shops and movie theaters. Living in the bush is completely different.

we live over the firehall in a little apartment that was clearly an afterthought

the third picture here is the view out my front window...not quite as snazzy as the one from my bedroom (which can be seen here)!

Pelican has a population of around 70 people--and we are 4 of them. This is the kind of place where they would change the number on the sign ("Welcome to Pelican, pop: ___") for each birth or death...except there is no sign.

We have two bars (one of which is only open in summer), one cafe (also only open in summer, and then only for breakfast and lunch), and a general store which is one step up from a gas-station quick-mart. They carry a variety of canned goods and junk food, but very little produce. There is meat in the freezer but it's usually freezerburned, because almost everyone here catches their own meat (fish, crab, shrimp, and sitka deer).

We have a library which is open about 10 hours a week, alternating afternoons and evenings. All circulation is done by hand, and the librarian rarely has to ask names because she knows everyone. She counts every single person who enters the library in her statistics, and if you leave and come back again, she'll count you twice. If I read a book to my kiddo she counts it as a storytime. She has to justify to the state why they are funding us.

When we want groceries, we have four options: 1--go catch or shoot something. 2--travel into Juneau ($165 one way on the seaplane, or $50 on the ferry). 3--call up the grocery store and pay them $7 to pack our order into a box and have it shipped out on seaplanes for 60cents/lb. 4--call the stores and make orders, then pay Greg $15 plus 20cents/lb to bring it out to us on the ferry. We usually take a trip into Juneau in the summer and really stock up, then 4 or 5 months later have Greg bring a big load or two... We periodically will order some perishables via method 3, but as you can imagine this is really expensive.

I do all my baking with powdered milk and powdered eggs (one upside of this is that I have no guilt about letting my kids eat the cookie dough!) We can't go out to eat even if we want to, so there are no cop out dinners here. I do get a bit burned out, but Hubby is sweet enough to cook once a week or so, and on weekends I usually just tell everyone to fend for themselves in the leftovers in the fridge.

This is a temporate rainforest. Yup, over 100inches of precipitation a year. I had a bag of brown sugar that had gotten really dried out...I left it open in the cupboard and within a week it was as soft as could be. If I don't keep my white sugar in a sealed container, it gets clumpy from the moisture. If you leave a mat on the front porch, it grows things.

We pay extra shipping on almost everything we mailorder (even the people that offer free shipping for certain size orders still give us the $7 surcharge to get it to AK). Obviously very little is available in town, so here again it's either go into Juneau/Sitka, or else mail order. We are blessed to have daily mail delivery (via the seaplane)...unless of course the seaplane can't get out that day. If the plane is full they'll bring the letters but not the packages. My mother lives in Washington state--sometimes she sends something which gets here in three days...and sometimes it takes three weeks. I have given up trying to predict when something will arrive. FedEx, DHL, and those folks don't deliver out here--although they say they do. If you send us something via FedEx, for example, they will mail it to Anchorage and then drop it in the regular mail down to Pelican. UPS puts it on the seaplane (so we get hit with extra freight charges).

There are no paved roads--there is a boardwalk, and about a half mile of gravel (though it scarcely qualifies as a 'road'). We walk everywhere (a bike is speedy travel here). A few folks have electric golf carts which they drive...this has its downside as they move fast yet are silent, and can really sneak up on you.

Three people/vehicles within 20 feet of each other constitutes a traffic jam. After living here for a mere 3 months, I took a trip into Juneau. I was borrowing my cousin's car, and as I drove along I noticed that everyone was passing me--I thought I was going pretty fast until I looked down and noticed the speedometer at 35mph (in a 45mph zone). Um, well, it felt fast!!

If you go beyond the edge of town, you get this:

hiking (bushwhacking?) in the mighty Tongass National Forest (yes we are literally nestled in the edge of it)

There are two kinds of people who live in the wilderness like this: one kind is extremely friendly and hospital, realizing that we've got to take care of each other or we'll all freeze and starve--thankfully this is the majority. However there is also a distinct other population: people who live out here because they don't like people. They are more or less hermits and, well, it's best to just leave them alone.

For those who find Pelican too large a metropolis, the community of Sunnyside is a mile or so up the inlet--accessible only via boat--and has no services at all; just a few houses. For those who don't want even that, Phonograph is a mile beyond Sunnyside. (Sunnyside got its name because apparently it is sunnier than Pelican...uhhhh...)

Wolf with our boat--it's a lot more practical than having a car out here. In the background you can see the boardwalk...the light brown building on the left is the library.

this is my little sister with a fish she caught here this summer...it's a 'yelloweye' aka red snapper. It's half head, and quite an ugly fellow really. Gorgeous color though. (I prefer halibut anyday, but hey, ya eat what ya catch!)

Happy Alaska Day!!