Hi Marcia:
Life in the Bush. Until I turned 40, I was always a city gal, involved in PTA, Little League, could shop with the best of them, Church activities etc and yet, my favorite times during those years was going camping or to the country. I was married for 26 years and we had gone on a 25,000 mile trip around the US in a travel trailer. When we got back, I had had enough and ran away to Alaska. After I met Joe, he invited me to come for a visit and when we got here, I felt like I had been on a long trip home and found my best friend waiting for me. It was amazing. I still get teased when I say that Joe is my very best gift to me.
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When I came, it was absolutely a bachelor's pad, altho he had 2 teen-aged kids. There was indoor/outdoor carpet on the floor and a carpet sweeper! Remember those? Bear hides on the walls. The PO was in a quarter of the downstairs and people would come at all times day or night. Groceries were ordered thru the mail but I never got the hang of that. Everything came by the case so I was spending a thousand dollars and had no variety of anything. I had never flown in a small bush plane but now I found myself flying into town and getting the groceries I wanted and using that time to visit. We had no running water except what Joe ran for out of the river, altho we had an indoor bathroom that worked, no electricity, propane lights, no refrigerator, a wringer washer and a clothesline. When I told my Dad we were getting married his comment was..."Why would you want to live such a hard life?" In time, we had all of the conveniences of town but generated our own power, had a well and running water, phones, Internet, Dish TV., etc.
I would go to town about 4 times a year and come home with 2 chartered plane loads of supplies. Sometimes I would have the "run-out-ofs" sent out on the mail plane when we got low on some items. We had no food that didn't have to be cooked or baked and I even was baking bread there for a while. I had all day and it made me happy to take care of my new family. Joe worked for the Post Office but the hours were only for 4 hours a day and he could go off in the woods when he wanted to. I was living the dream.
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To get medical help, we have to fly into town. Since I've been here we've only had one bad experience. Joe was cutting trees and his foot slipped. Chainsaw came down on his kneecap. I heard him outside yelling to bring him a band-aid. Unfortunately he was showing me his knee from the inside out! It was a dense fog day. Got him into the house and called a couple of neighbors to come sit with us while I tried to find a plane that would come pick him up. This was about 10:00 a.m. and when we finally got a plane in, it was 3:30. The Dr kept calling to see if it was bleeding but apparently the saw cauterized it so it wasn't. A Medivac finally came and good job there was a nurse on board. By the time Dave and Steve got him to the runway, he was bleeding badly and they were able to stabilize him. Was funny because the nurse was a friend of ours, who knew that as soon as they patched the knee up, Joe would want to head home. He told the Drs to get lost for a couple of days.
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Finally I called him one morning and his PT lady said Joe had been offering her money to get him out of there. I said I would double the amount to keep him until he safely could travel. We all got a laugh out of that!
This area is made up of fishing/hunting lodges and there are 3 paying positions now that the school is gone...weather reporter, runway maintenance and the PO. In summer, fish and garden produce is canned for a winter's supply, along with berries found locally. Moose, bear and beaver can be found for winter as well, so everyone takes advantage of the short summer season to prepare for the long dark winters. The women do a lot of knitting and sewing in the winter and some make fur items that they take in to sell at the Christmas fairs, and some of the men trap to get some much needed cash. The life is not easy...well, except for me. I don't do any of the above and my only claim to fame is hooking rugs. Of course, that made the ladies testy when they'd sit around the table knitting and I'd move their stuff to slap my rug up on it.
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No talent Norma.
Can't think of much else. Hope it gives you a sense of my life. Life here is at a much slower pace and I'm going to miss it when we move. Stress out here is at a minimum. Believe it or not, my last trip to town was in October, 2010. Thank God for kids who don't mind shopping for us!!
Norma