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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]

How I Found Me

2004, adult college student, backwoods, backwoodsmom, Chemeketa, college, foster, graduation, Linfield, Linfield college, McMinnville, non-traditional student No Responses »

Jul 142011

Share I found my self-worth on a hot May day in 2004 when I crossed the center stage and, holding my head high for perhaps the first time in my thirty-three years, was handed a piece of paper that said I’d finally arrived. And in that half sheet of fancy paper, marked with the seal of educational approval, I found value. I found esteem. I found me. I started college on a whim when I was twenty-nine years old. I’d never really done anything right. I’d certainly never finished anything. And I really didn’t think I’d make it very [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]

Sneaking Out …The Next Generation

Alaskan, backwoods, backwoods mom, teenage advice, teens No Responses »

Jul 112011

Share I spent half my teen years suspended over the frame of my daylight basement bedroom window, either sneaking out … or sneaking back in. So when I found my son’s bed empty at four a.m. the other night, I was only surprised by the fact that I’d not caught him before. We’ll not go into the details of where he was…what he was doing…or how I managed to hide the bruises when I finally got ahold of him…suffice to say his cell phone is but a distant memory and he’ll remember the summer of his sixteenth year as the [READ MORE]

Moose Attack!

Alaska, Alaskan, backwoods, backwoods mom, moose, moose attack No Responses »

Jun 292011

Share Object in this photo is closer than it appears… I first noticed her in the distance, blending in to the swampy foliage with her thick brown fur. She moved through the forest nearly silent, long legs fluid beneath her, as my dad and I crunched loudly through the mossy undergrowth. We stopped. Figured we’d stand, wait her out, as she crossed our path and weaved her way into the trees to disappear. She didn’t. She stopped. She stared. Eek. My dad had a gun on his hip, prepared in case we spooked a bear. He laid one hand across [READ MORE]

Just Another Scenic Sunday 6/26/11

Alaska, Alaskan, backwoods, backwoodsmom, girl time, moose, ninilchik, scenic, teens No Responses »

Jun 262011

Share This week I… Witnessed intense concentration… Nearly had a heart attack…but grabbed the camera first… Made a friend…then accidentally squished him and was sad… Visited a friend… Rafted on the Kenai River… Watched kids bond…and bounce… Took kids to the cabin… Let go and let God… Saw summer bloom… Watched this guy for a while… And wondered where boys get their energy…

Daddy, I Did Something Very Bad…

Alaska, backwoods, backwoodsmom, ninilchik No Responses »

Jun 242011

Share Every father’s worst nightmare happened this morning when Destini walked into the living room, tears brimming, and said, “Daddy, I did something very bad.” Immediately, his thoughts go to the worst. Pregnancy…drugs…pregnancy… are the words that pretty much resonate off the insides of the brain of a parent upon hearing such a sentence. His insides twist, perspiration erupts from the brow, gray hairs sprout on demand and then fall immediately to the floor. “What did you do?” he asks, teeth gritted, fists clenched. “I ran into your truck with mine.” A great sigh fills the silence. His shoulders fall, [READ MORE]

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