With Fall in full swing and Winter fast approaching, an enthusiastic extra spring in their hop is very apparent. While pet owners back in the lower 48 begin the seasonal preparations for the cold and double check the size of fee fee's winter sweater and snow booties, Alaskan dog owners are tuning up the racing sleds and perfecting their mixture of salmon and kibbles and bits. That's right, it's time once again to start the preparations for the Winter dog mushing season. What I once considered to be good material for Disney Movie's, Paul Walker film's and children bedtime stories is now my Bethel reality and livelihood. Over the past few weeks we have had a unique chance to help out with several dog teams in Bethel. In whole, there are about three main dog teams in Bethel: The Kaiser's, Klejka's and Anksman's. Between these three, they account for about 50-70 dogs. This weekend, I am taking care of 30 of those dogs and 4 puppies at the "Friendly Dog Farm." Thirty four dogs...not bad for a weekends work. I will be the first to admit, this is pretty awesome work (or a nightmare if you despise dogs) and without question is a complete 180 from ordinary city life. The whole ordeal is quite amusing and it makes it even better when I try to imagine how raising thirty four dogs would fair in my preppy hometown city of Greenwood Village, CO. My guess, it would not even last a day living next to our friendly neighbor Tom. Considering Tom calls the police on the two barking dogs next door, I can only presume that more drastic measures would have to be taken such as calling the Denver SWAT team to neutralize the threat. "...roger that, we have a code red K-9 alert!"
Responsibility is the name of the game with these dogs in the eyes of Cassie their trainer. Cassie, a Bethel resident and avid dog musher, works three jobs in order to create the flexibility to spend countless hours feeding and running the dogs. It was an awesome experience a few weeks back when a few of my roommates and I had a chance to help Cassie run the dogs. By far the most comical element of the setup process occurs when we pick the dogs up by the collars, kind of like you're trying to strangle them, and they hop like rabbits over to the six wheeler where they get hooked up to the lines. Due to passenger constraint limits on the ATV I had to sit out the first run, but was shocked by the look of the dogs upon their return as they were covered in mud and foaming at the mouth. It literally looked like they took them behind the shed and beat em with a stick. One of the main reason for the fatigue is due in part to warm temperatures as Alaskan Huskies function best right around zero degrees.
Before leaving town yesterday for a K-300 meeting (the major dog sled race in Bethel), Cassie had mentioned she was going to leave a few dog directions in case of emergency or lapse of memory on the JV's end. Little did we know that she would have a whole sheet (single spaced typed) laminated for our convenience. Thanks! Directions include:
- Let buster, her personal house dog (because she doesn't have enough) out of the house, chain him up and give him a few handful of kibbles with water mixed in.
- Mix 2/3 bucket of kibbles among 3 buckets, mix with warm water, mix some liquid fat (from a restaurants grill) in with the food, add one whole scoop of salmon to each of the three buckets, mix up all three buckets contents and bon appetit...
- Give mother dog (with four very cute puppies) 1/2 cup of kibbles with piece of salmon on top.
- Scoop poop (meaning throw poop into bushes and neighbors yard)
- Check stitches of four female dogs who were spayed
- Give Rudy his antibiotic: you will have to open his mouth, push the pill down his throat and make sure he swallows (very fun f.y.i.)
- Make sure walk in freezer is between 0-10 degrees F (which we determined is full of hundreds of frozen salmon used to make the dogs stew)
- Put Buster back in house and turn off freezer.
Nice, all of a sudden I am a freezer technician, veterinarian and gourmet chef. Sounds like something for Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs. My only question is, do you think I should put some of this stuff on my resume?If there is one thing I have learned about Bethel thus far, it's that valuing the little things is what makes this place unique and is what gets you through the days. Unlike a big city, or even a relatively small city, Bethel has fewer things to do than I'm accustomed to. The first month or so was relatively tough and I constantly found myself looking ahead to what I was going to do next. Well, like anything the person adapts to their surroundings and makes the best out of every situation given enough time and the right support. Now instead of looking ahead I find myself much more content and cherishing the little things that make Bethel a diamond in the tundra. Take for instance this past Friday. I was driving my 1990 Toyota all-trac sports car back to the house after taking care of the sled dogs when a major traffic jam caught my attention. "What in God's name could be causing such a scene in Bethel" I thought. It either has to be Sarah Palin walking down the street or someone from Obama's cabinet coming into town to tout their new Golden Globe Award. Well...I was wrong with both. Turns out a pair of two baby moose and their mother were taking a Friday night stroll through Bethel. You would think Alaskans would not get this excited over a couple moose, but it looked like something out of a Denali National Park tourist commercial. Unlike the Japanese tourist and their fancy thousand dollar Nikon cameras, Bethel residents rushed to the scene, cell phones in hand, and shot away with their cell phone cameras still excited that Bethel now has cell reception. Seeing the moose was cool and indeed a tribute to the five year moose moratorium, but my highlight was not so much the moose as it was watching people abandon their running vehicles in the middle of the road. T.I.B.
Life is good on my end. I have a lot to look forward to in the next several weeks between my trip to Anchorage where I will be touring around pre JVC retreat, continuing my financial education classes and best of all getting my big cast off my left arm this Wednesday. I haven't quite decided what the first thing I will do with my left arm is yet, but regardless it will feel great to have more mobility in my life. Having one arm was definitely a challenge, but again I realized how amazing the body is to adapting to the circumstances it is placed under. Throughout my six week escapades as a one arm gimp I even managed to impress several fellow Saturday afternoon football players during our weekly football showdown with my one arm receptions and even several interceptions. Football season will most likely continue for another couple weeks until the weather turns cold and the focus shifts to broom ball. Note***there are no live stats or audio for Bethel intramural sports
.It is quite amazing to witness the fast changes in the days up here in the "North Pole" as my sister would call it. Between the time we arrived in mid August to now, Oct 10th, the days are much shorter and the temperatures are fading quickly. The most noticeable change is the sunrise which now does not grace our presence till after 9:00 a.m. Don't tell my mom, but I have yet to use sun screen yet in AK and don't see any changes in the near future mostly because it ALWAYS RAINS. In more exciting news, the last barge came into Bethel a few weeks back to drop of last minute supplies and provisions for the upcoming winter. Most residents have numerous supplies, cars and toilet paper on the barge due to the reduced price of not buying local. Watching the barge dock is widely considered to be immense Friday afternoon fun and is good for at least two hours off a work day. I don't even think you need to take vacation time, it just seems like it's built into most contracts here that "barge watching" is considered work. Until Next time enjoy and thanks again for all the support back home, cards and care packages.
Woof woof,
John
