For warptman (Bethel: home, rent, travel)

[warptman]

Everyone use gillnets for subsistence and commercial fishing out here on the Kuskokwim. Thats how everyone catches their kings out here. We don't need a fishing license for residents for rod and reel fishing, thats considered subsistence out here. But every year I buy one anyways, lots of fun places to go on the highway system.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by warptman

Everyone use gillnets for subsistence and commercial fishing out here on the Kuskokwim. Thats how everyone catches their kings out here. We don't need a fishing license for residents for rod and reel fishing, thats considered subsistence out here. But every year I buy one anyways, lots of fun places to go on the highway system.

That makes sense.
How's your supply of salmon doing, by the way? Winter's just ending and the prospects in my freezer are looking a little grim. I had chicken for dinner tonight!

[warptman]

I went foraging the other day, found some strips, yum. Although they don't agree with my tummy at most times, I still love eating dried fish. The parents still have jarred salmon, made a salmon mix, like tuna minus the tuna the other day. Yum.

[warptman]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

That makes sense.
How's your supply of salmon doing, by the way? Winter's just ending and the prospects in my freezer are looking a little grim. I had chicken for dinner tonight!

Do you need some? Can goldstreak some on Alaska.

[Xa'at]

Haha, I think I'll survive. Every year, I think "how much salmon can one person eat, right?"
I know some people who have more if I really run out. There's always salmon jerky, right?

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Jeff Emler

Nice big fish too. What do they hit on? Do you use live bait or spinners? I suppose there is a lot of fly fishing as well.

In the Bethel area they are caught using gill nets. King Salmon do go for lures though (as do Silvers and Dog Salmon), but only in water where they can see them; and that means finding a clear stream that isn't full of mud (i.e., when it rains) or silt (i.e., drains a glacier like the Kuskokwim does). As Warptman mentioned that means a boat ride for some distance away from Bethel itself.

It's also true that each type of salmon is only there for a few weeks each summer. There are also rainbow trout (in all southern tributaries of the Kuskokwim), dolly varden (arctic char), several kinds of whitefish (ciscos), greyling, burbot (lush) and pike available at various points along the river. (I lived in Aniak, 150 river miles above Bethel, in the 60's and 70's, and we could catch all of those over the bank 150 feet from the front door, plus catch
5 different kinds of salmon.)

Bethel is civilization BTW, but it is surrounded by a vast area that is as pure wilderness as it gets. You can indeed just run down to the Johnson River or one of the other suitable tributaries, but if you go more than a mile or so out of town... it really is the wildest place you'll ever visit in all of your life. You need somebody along who knows what they are doing.

The hunting and fishing available over a year's time to an adult male are world class in every respect (take advantage of it, and you'll be spoiled for the rest of your life). But what is available for an 11 year old city girl in the first month or two may not be much, unless you pick up on one of those two commercial tours that Warptman mentioned. On the other hand, by the second summer you are living there, you'll know people who can keep even a city girl busy having fun for weeks!

As far as jobs go... A traveling nurse for YKHC gets a huge exposure! They cover about 60 villages, from the coast at least as far as Aniak and Chuathbaluk, 100 miles (as Raven flies) up the river. For whatever reason, the do have a high turnover rate. The same is true for traveling nurse jobs out of Barrow (with only a half a dozen villages, but spread over hundreds of miles). I don't know if the Kotzebue and Nome areas, or the interior (Tanana Chiefs) have the same high turnover or not. But regardless, they are all places where you might look for employment of the same type, and equally end up with the adventure of a lifetime. Just that each is a little different.

[warptman]

Hey Floyd, when did you live here last?

[Jeff Emler]

The hunting and fishing available over a year's time to an adult male are world class in every respect (take advantage of it, and you'll be spoiled for the rest of your life). But what is available for an 11 year old city girl in the first month or two may not be much, unless you pick up on one of those two commercial tours that Warptman mentioned. On the other hand, by the second summer you are living there, you'll know people who can keep even a city girl busy having fun for weeks!

Thank you Floyd!

As an adult I have a relatively realistic outlook and I try not to become too romanticized with my ideas.

I'll bet the work I'd find there as a nurse would be quite challenging what with the terrain, weather, cultural differences, perhaps even language.

When I said 'traveler' I only meant that I take temporary jobs in different places not that I'm necessarily a home visiting nurse. But that isn't to say I would always work in the hospital either.

These challenges can be overwhelming for an adult sometimes. An eleven year old could easily become discouraged. I worry most about what my daughter would do while I'm at work. I also worry she would get lonely for her friends at home.

The challenge would be to get her involved with some friends her own age, and make it a point to do something on my days off.

I'd want her to have a great time so she'll do it again next year!

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Jeff Emler

An eleven year old could easily become discouraged. I worry most about what my daughter would do while I'm at work. I also worry she would get lonely for her friends at home.

The challenge would be to get her involved with some friends her own age, and make it a point to do something on my days off.

I'd want her to have a great time so she'll do it again next year!

Have you talked to her about this at all? I would think that it would be a decision that she should be involved in.
Kids are made of tougher stuff than we give them credit. It might be hard for her at first, but she'll come out of the experience stronger for it.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by warptman

Hey Floyd, when did you live here last?

Me personally? 30 years ago. I've visited family fairly regularly though, but I'm way out of touch with much of how life is there now.

My eldest son, James, lives with his family in Kipnuk, and is now the only immediate family living in the area. Annie David, who passed away 4 years ago now, was my mother in law (she lived next door to Peter Jacob's house). After she was gone my wife and my daughter relocated to Anchorage (my daughter worked with YKHC in Bethel and now works for ANTHC in Anchorage).

Despite being spread all over the state, we all still consider Bethel to be "home".