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When The Boy Becomes A Man

Alaska, alaska salmon, Alaskan, backwoods, backwoodsmom, beach, boat, cook inlet, fishing, Fishing in Alaska, job, ninilchik, salmon fishing No Responses »

Jul 192011

Share It’s just after midnight and if you’d driven by my house a few moments ago, you’d have seen me in my pajamas, blood up to my elbows, chasing a salmon head around the grass in the dark. Even as I sit and type, scales are still attached to my forearms and two bandaids stop the flow of blood where I punctured my finger tips with vertebrae. Such is the life…of the mother of an Alaskan fishermen. Billy started his day at 4 a.m. and just walked in, twenty hours later, proudly displaying six giant Sockeye Salmon he’d brought for [READ MORE]

I Sit To Save Lives

Alaska, backwoods, backwoodsmom, bears, diet, exercise No Responses »

Jul 182011

Share I’ve spent the past twenty years wishing I was one of those perky, pony-tailed, runner-chicks I see on the side of the road. You know the ones that your steering wheel tugs towards as you pass and you have to fight yourself not to flatten their tiny sweats-clad ass with your bumper? Yah, those chicks. Just seeing them bouncing along like it doesn’t hurt every fiber of their being, makes me wonder if we are made of the same materials. Cause when I try that … it hurts. Everywhere. Yet they always look like they have never felt better. [READ MORE]

Just Another Scenic Sunday 7/17/11

Alaska, alaska smoked salmon, backwoods, backwoodsmom, eagle, eagles, homer alaska, ninilchik beach, salty dawg, smoked salmon, tractor launch No Responses »

Jul 172011

Share This week in my life I…. Watched my billionth Ninilchik sunset… Enjoyed Summer… Went to the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer with friends… Was thankful this toothy guy was dead… Watched the tractor launch take up some boats… Smoked a bunch of salmon… Was glad I wasn’t THAT guy… Found some beach treasures…again… Told Sam I wanted to see the tractor get wet….so he did… Watched how Ninilchik TEENS know how to work… BOUGHT40 acres with THIS view…(this is my corner marker…!!) Watched my kids freeze near to death… Thought, “So this guy claims he’s Eskimo? He’s freezing!” Watched [READ MORE]

Dear Alaska Tourist

Alaska, alaska tourism, alaska tourist, backwoods, backwoodsmom, moose, motor home, motorhome, tourist No Responses »

Jul 162011

Share Welcome to Alaska! I’m so glad you were able to drive all this way in your motor home to enjoy this fabulous state. We love it here and hope you do also. It doesn’t bother me at all to be behind your motor home. Especially when you slow way down so you don’t miss anything. I don’t mind when you fluctuate between 35 and 50 miles per hour on the wide open road and I can totally understand why, when there is a long stretch of highway with no cars coming, you throttle up to try to make up [READ MORE]

Remember When My Eye Fell Out?

Alaska, backwoods mom, destini riley, eye infection No Responses »

Jul 132011

Share When Destini was six years old, her eye fell out. No, really. Okay, let me back up a bit. It was a Sunday evening and we were in town, parked at McDonalds. It was late, we were getting some food, and then heading home. Destini complained she didn’t feel well. Then she puked in the McDonals parking lot. She’s probably not the first person to do that, so I didn’t think much of it. We got home and she continued to feel sick. I tucked her into the couch cushions and I joined her on the other half of [READ MORE]

What’s One More?

adoption, Alaska, backwoods, backwoods mom, backwoodsmom, foster parent, parenting No Responses »

Jul 122011

Share This afternoon, as Dan woke for his night shift 800 miles away, he received my text that we were taking in a seven year old boy for a few days. “He’s cute,” I said. “I want to keep him.” I like to harass Dan with such statements from afar. I can imagine his hair falling out with each word. It freaks him out when I say these things…he can never tell when I’m serious. Usually, I’m serious…and he knows this. But when I texted the circumstances surrounding the boys placement, Dan responded with, “Spoil him rotten. Give him a [READ MORE]

Fishin’ At Midnight

Alaska, alaska fishing, alaska salmon, Alaskan, backwoods mom, fishing, king salmon No Responses »

Jul 102011

Share Gotta love that Billy just came in from work at midnight carrying this guy…guess who’s cleaning fish?

The Unfixable

adoption, Alaska, backwoods mom, foster care, lost boy No Responses »

Jul 082011

Share He was fifteen when he came to me. And even on the first day I knew he couldn’t stay. I knew it wasn’t the right fit… he was broken beyond repair and a danger to the other children. I could see it in his eyes…he was ruined. I know that sounds callous…but it’s the reality. He was a throw away…lost in a system that seemed determined to destroy the child he’d once been. What’s his story, I asked the caseworker who dropped him off. His story, said the man, is he’s been abused by every adult he’s ever come [READ MORE]

The Downfall Of Duct Tape

Alaska, Alaskan, backwoods mom, duck tape, duct tape No Responses »

Jul 072011

Share Today I laid down 99 cents each for those balsa wood airplanes for my three youngest boys. I don’t know why…an impulse buy at the register. Because, aside from being incredibly flimsy, physically incapable of flight and a total waste of a dollar, they are also the only thing in the world that duct tape cannot fix…we tried. It’s just too heavy. I’m a big believer in the miracle of duct tape. It is by far the most useful of all tools. I once used duct tape to fasten the bumper on a Subaru Brat and it held for [READ MORE]

Role Reversal

Alaska, backwoods mom, dad, fatherhood, stay at home dad No Responses »

Jul 062011

Share A few years ago Dan left his job and stayed home with the kids for five months so I could finish college. We had 8 kids at home. Five of them had some kind of special needs, two severely handicapped, intensive needs. They attended five different schools in two different towns. I was taking 25 credits, at two different colleges, to graduate on time (in the top fifteen percent, thank you very much) from a top private college; our house was on the market; and we were fixing to move back to Alaska that June. To top it off, [READ MORE]

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