Misadventures of a Midlife Married Couple

October 7, 2023

OK, it’s been more than a little  while since I’ve caught everyone up! The truth is that I have been working insane hours and when I’m not working I want to hang out with my fine ass husband! (And said fine ass husband has ZERO interest in keeping the blog updated…) But here ya go, fair warning: it is a long one!

Work is great. I mean we have two elementary teachers who are in the Philippines and awaiting their Visas, (they were supposed to be here last month), we have a long term sub in our 2/3 class and are just juggling for 5/6 at the moment. We have some stability in our MS/HS with a community member who has stepped in to act as a facilitator for our science courses.  It’s super frustrating and unfair to the kids but the nationwide teacher shortage has hit everywhere and we are no exception.  If any of you reading this are interested in experiencing the beauty and culture of this amazing place next year, and teaching in a small school, with great benefits, an embracing community, good housing, and great teacher pay please hit me up.  Seriously.  

It is safe to say that we are experiencing sights and adventures we never expected.  Our community has welcomed us, they are a tight knit group who believe in taking care of one another, and luckily for us, that includes us.  I have had community members ask to be sure we have plenty of meat (they have brought caribou more than once and the BEST fresh salmon).  They are always giving tips and suggestions for where to find berries etc.  The people of the village mostly practice subsistence living still, spending the spring, summers, and early fall months fishing and hunting, preserving meats and berries in traditional ways; it’s a hard life, full of physical labor and constantly at the whims of the weather and migratory patterns.  This year seems to have been a plentiful year for meat harvests.  From what I’m told the past several years have been really challenging for caribou hunting, with most families only getting two or three animals.  This year I have one student whose family got 14 over a one week period.  While that sounds like it might be excessive it is important to recognize that the practice of the community is to give to those who are without.  Some of the other communities in the region have not had the kind of success our village has, so last week several people packed up boxes of caribou to send to the elders of the other villages.  As a whole the community is centered around their traditional practices and their deep faith.  We have one community member, Ahka (which means mother, and that is what the entire village calls her… although her name is Rachel) who is up at the school most mornings before I am, driving her four wheeler around the school and praying for the students and teachers; and she is not the only one who does it.  Every community event starts with a prayer of thanks by an elder… frequently the aforementioned Akha.  

The tundra has turned from a lush pasture of green to a field of brown… it is deceiving by the way, it looks like a beautiful pasture but when you walk out into it it is treacherous for a short girl.  The land is not even, it is pocked with almost knee deep holes, but that does not prevent people from scouring for berries. Since we got here we have been through Salmonberry, blue berry, black berry, and cranberry seasons.  (Marty picked a bunch of blueberries right before they were ripe and we DID have fresh blueberry pancakes that were ammmmazeballs if I do say so myself.. And I just did). 

We took the four wheeler down to the river last weekend, we figured it was the last weekend we would have the weather for it.  It was up in the 30’s but we were projected to have snow by this weekend.  We went down to an area known as “the pit”, drove around a bit and saw fairly fresh bear tracks.  We do know that a mama bear and cub tend to stay in the area so we weren’t shocked.   A couple of miles upriver from there a 7th grade student of mine and his dad killed a brown bear (and we had bear meatballs from it… honestly… not a fan).  

This morning we went ‘downtown’ (the older part of the village, we live uptown 😀), to make our weekend pilgrimage to the village store (we get sandwich stuff on the weekends…and Marty gets to get CHIPS!), and we looked at the river.  It was spectacular.  The ice flows have started coming down and the river had huge chunks of ice all along the surface.  It’s incredible really, the river itself is fairly wide and pretty fast flowing.  To see it starting to fill with ice and to know that it is going to freeze solid to a depth that can support a truck driving on it in the coming months is yet another reminder of the power of nature and how absolutely vulnerable we are to the elements in this place  (I recognize the irony that I say this as I sit in my chair in front of my artificial fireplace/heater while watching football on Dish TV).

Marty has become a fabulous house husband.  Honestly, I would be hard pressed to do this without him.  First, how lucky am I to have someone willing to embrace this adventure with me so that I can chase my dream job??  Second, he takes such good care of me.  He does my laundry (and I don’t even bitch when he folds stuff I would hang!), cooks 99.9 percent of our meals, keeps the house clean, feeds the dogs… he’s pretty exceptional.  

We have discussed him subbing or even full time working at the school… it’s on the table but not something that really interests him and that’s okay.  There is a snowmachine in front of the house that has basically been abandoned, he and my BPO have determined what needs to be repaired and he has been tinkering with that, hopefully it will be up and going by the time the snow gets deep enough to use it!   

We did have light snow early last week… it was beautiful.  The mountains in the distance are now covered in snow, it has been pretty cool to watch them become more and more snow covered from the peaks down over the last few weeks.  One of the great pleasures we get each day is to watch the sun set over the mountains.  Even tonight, at 8:00 pm, there is still “daylight”, but the sun is setting and the sky over the mountains is pink.  This morning, around 8:30 (which I never see because I don’t have outside windows in my office or the commons area of the school) the deep orange sun was rising over the mountains and they were washed in gold.  It sounds poetic, or sappy, but honestly it is just breathtaking.  We sometimes just sit and stare and the beauty and are both in awe that “we live here”.  

The dogs are doing great.  They have adjusted to the smaller play area, we have a 100 foot tie out to be sure they are able to run around when we (Marty) doesn’t want to walk them.  Without squirrels they have a new mortal enemy.  The Raven’s… and the raven’s are smart and love to torment them, especially her.  They will land JUST out of reach and just sit there while she barks.  And barks…. And barks…. Lol.   Honestly, she is physically probably doing better than she was before.  We know she has a damaged ACL… something has helped it…. Either less space to play or having to run up and down stairs to go outside.. She has stopped limping and seems much more mobile than before.  She is NOT typically a fan of the cold so she does enjoy laying on a blanket or by the floor heaters, and she will tell us when she is ready to come in.  Bosley LOVES being outside in the cool… he has always preferred it so he is loving it.  We are still fighting his belly turning red and being sort of inflamed… we thought we had it pegged as allergies but they still seem to be a problem so clearly that’s not it.  But it doesn’t seem to bother him so….it is what it is, we keep steroids and Benadryl on hand.  At the suggestion of my BPO, Marty brought Bosley up to the school so the kids could see him.  They are universally fascinated by the dogs and simultaneously they tend to fear them (a LOT of the people here fear dogs). But he was a huge hit!  They are both prepped for winter the same way we are, both have fleece jackets and booties and full on snow coats have been ordered, they are as ready as they can be. 

Deciding to embark on this venture was somewhat terrifying, we really took a blind leap of faith that we would land in a place that would enrich our lives, and it has beyond any expectation. For me, I have always had Alaska on my bucket list as a place I wanted to visit. Only in my wildest imagination would I ever have dreamed up this scenario, and never would I have thought it would be as wonderful as it has been so far. We know we have a long, and sometimes brutally cold, winter fast approaching, but we are as prepared for that as we can be. Sure there are things we miss about our old life. We miss being close to our family. I miss my big bathtub (hey, I’m being honest, not shallow (like the bathtub here is)), and we miss Angie! But neither one of us regret this choice, I am loving my job, this is what I was supposed to do and I honestly believe it is where I was supposed to do it. It feels right and I no longer dread going to work. Marty is loving the day to day as well although he IS 100 percent looking forward to when we are able to get the snowmachine up and running and when we are able to purchase our own four wheeler so he is not dependent upon me for transportation.

Sooooo, now you’re sorta caught up. Honestly, it’s difficult to put into words how incredible this place is, how amazing the people are, how awe inspiring the natural beauty is, and how happy we are to be doing this together. We hope our midlife adventure inspires you to take the leap and take your own adventure.