There's a wild, wild whisper blowing in the wind

I guess now is qualified as springtime.  But its still bloody cold most of the time.  The wind is a huge factor in this.  Unalakleet is just a windy place.  So it doesn't feel incredibly springy to me.  The pussy willows are out which is lightening the country side up a teensy bit, but there is still so much brown.  I can't wait till there are true leaves on the trees and the tundra starts to grow and blossom.  It will definitely make my runs more enjoyable.  Running outside is infinitely more enjoyable than running inside.  I'm glad I finally got over my embarrassment of running where people can see me.  People have actually been wonderfully encouraging about it.  Byron Bruckner rolled down his window and cheered me on saying "Way to go Sissy!" as I was running up the first little hill.  Ariel Tweto gave me a massive thumbs up as she cruised by me in a vehicle.  These little things make an individual feel good.

I never know what to do with my face when I take a picture

Best socks ever from my Mom.

I definitely don't fit the norm of what people wear around these parts.  I got my favorite plaid top from ebay because it has the snap buttons.  You can't really tell but I had to add a strip of fabric down each side in order for it to fit me.  The arms and shoulders fit but it was a fitted style of shirt so my tummy didn't quite fit in it right.  (I just used the word fit a lot in that sentence.)  Luckily I know my way around tearing out a seam and adding a piece of fabric in.  Altering is such a handy skill to have.  My cut offs used to be full on jeans, but the bottoms wore out due to me stepping on them all the time so I chopped em up and patched the holes.  They're super soft and comfy now.  The socks were an Easter/birthday gift from my mother.  Come to think of it, I think she bought my shoes too.  I'm a spoiled girl and I think it's great.

Pants that were meant to be a skirt.

I had a pair of pants that I thrifted that I adored because of the stitching down the sides, but they fit was just horrible.  I have no idea who designed the pants, but they were not meant for any body type.  I swear.  They however had enough material for me to make them into a skirt.  Pants really shouldn't have that much material.  Normally you'd have to add material in strategic places.  Anyways... shitty pictures, but this is the result.

I look like an idiot

The skirt that was once pants

I love this top, just not my tummy.  :)

Yesterday the office was in the 50's when I came in. My light long sleeved shirt didn't cut it. So today in preperation for perhaps another freezing day in the office, I donned an uber warm and fuzzy long sleeved base layer shirt and added a hat to keep that extra 5% of my body heat in. Turns out it was almost 90 degrees in my bloody office. A wave of heat slapped my face as soon as I opened the door. Ridiculous. So needless to say, I could have worn a tank top or dress to work and would have been fine. Oh yeah, except for the buckets of snow it's been dumping since 9:30 this morning. *grumble*

Wasabi peas

Bandana

A few weeks ago my brother and his girlfriend visited from Nome. The weather was beautiful and there was still snow on the ground so we took a snow machine ride up to Egavik. Egavik is an old building between Shaktoolik and Unalakleet that was part of a reindeer herding operation. My grandfather was the last reindeer herder in this area. My family lived there until it was time for us kids to start school. The weather was still chilly enough that warm clothing and some form of protective face gear was required. Being the practical individual that I am I opted to go with a fleece neckwarmer. My brother being the stylin' awesome dude that he is, used a bandana to cover his face and ears, bandit style. When we weren't riding however it hung somewhat losely around his neck. I freaking loved it. A few weeks later as fate would have it, I was gifted with a bandana, pictured above, for my birthday. How sweet fate was to me. Needless to say I've adopted the wearing style that my brother introduced me to, albeit with a bit more color. It allows me to add some color to my typical fall/spring outfit, when it's still 30 degrees out but warm enough in the office building that a scarf or nachaq is no longer warranted. What fun these new things that I would never think to do.

Pink and purple

Love this top

This is a top I bought a while back from the Pyramid Collection. It's super flattering to my boobs and to my tummy. I have a few rolls that I'm always looking to disguise. It's made of a jersey type knit material and is super comfortable. I almost feel like I have a waist when I wear this top. Fantastic.

I attempt to lose them fairly regularly and usually end up failing quite regularly. Such is life. I'll keep trying and eventually I will succeed. I just need to figure out the proper motivation.

Spring is sprunging and I have a limited time period now when it's warm enough to wear some cute clothes and I'm not in the field in work clothes or in a tyvek suit. I just need the mud to disappear and dry up a bit more. And maybe 5 more degrees temperature wise.

Average day

My favorite jeans

On an average day, this is usually what you'll find me wearing. My hair is inordinately bright right now because I dyed it last night. Give it some time and it'll look faded and more scruffy. I'm a t-shirt and jeans girl when I'm in the vil. Anything else is usually inconvenient for my job and village life. It's hard to dig a snowmachine or shed out of a snow bank in a dress and tights. Not to mention wearing a dress and tights in 4 below weather is just damn cold. I do miss skirts and being able to leave the house with out a jacket. Someday I'll move back to a milder climate. Someday...

I should write more... I'm outta practice

Victor "Duke" Kotongan

Victor “Duke” Kotongan was a sled dog musher. Duke grew up around dogs used by his dad to herd reindeer and for transportation. He was a seasonal worker and did not have a steady monetary income; however the land provided him with a lot of what was needed to run dogs. In addition to running the Iditarod, my dad’s dogs were a working dog team. Duke used his dogs to work his trap line.

For rural mushers, running the Iditarod was a 12 month job. Victor did not buy commercial dog food. He caught and dried fish and killed seals and put the meat away for his dogs. Often this is how it was for bush mushers that wanted to run the Iditarod because there was not a lot of year round employment.

In the old days mushers had to know how to treat and care for their dogs. Sled dogs were wormed by feeding them ptarmigan with the feathers and skin still on attached and seal oil. It cleaned the dogs out. In the bush there weren’t stores for medicine, but there was always something from the country that would remedy the problem.

During the long winter months, Victor would build dog sleds in an upstairs bedroom of his home. Puppies would be born in the kitchen because it wasn’t safe for them to be born in 40 below weather. The mom and pups would stay in the house until they could be outside. Other dogs that were let into the house were lead dogs. Two of Victor’s kids, Patrick and Victoria, enjoyed them as playmates when they were growing up.

To train for the Iditarod Victor ran his dogs back and forth from Egavik, where his father had a reindeer herd. Duke or fellow musher, Doug Katchatag, would sometimes run 18 or 20 dogs at a time. It was an impressive sight to see, like the string of dogs was endless, and took a skilled musher to control the dog team. He participated in the Kuskokwim 300; his best placing was 3rd in the 1984 race. Duke was involved in the Norton Sound Sled Dog Club which began putting on the Norton Sound Portage 200 in 1984, which he also ran.

There was a need for a race in the area to give local mushers a chance to qualify for the Iditarod. It was more affordable for locals than the Kusko 300. The Portage 200 became the Portage 250 and this drew bigger names to the race. The Portage 250 was a little longer than a qualifying race for the Iditarod. The popularity of the race grew and the Norton Sound Sled Dog Club became instrumental in the building of the tripod flats cabin.

When Duke ran the Iditarod, his mother Hazel Kotongan, would make fish agutak for him to take on the trail. Judie Kotongan would make caribou or moose patties baked in a crust that could be heated individually. Similarly when someone in a family chose to mush dogs or race in the Iditarod, the whole family pitched in. Family members or friends helped make booties, put away food for the dogs or make cold weather gear.

Without the help of Northern Air Cargo it wouldn’t have been possible for Victor or a lot of local mushers to race the Iditarod. The airline would fly the dogs for free from the bush to Anchorage.

On years that Victor didn’t run the Iditarod he was involved in other aspects of the race. The first year of the southern route, he was gone for weeks with his dogs and traps breaking trail. Duke had a knowledge of sled dogs. Mushers would come and talk to him about a specific dog that he or she was having trouble with. Twenty years ago there were a lot more people mushing dogs. They enjoyed chatting with each other about training schedules and what was being fed to the dogs.

Duke was particular about the breeding of his dogs. He tried to get new bloodlines from other mushers. Joe Redington Jr. was a good friend of his and there was some of the Redington line in his dogs. He was conscious of what traits to look for in a puppy in order for it to grow up to be a good sled dog.

In those earlier years of the Iditarod, families in the villages signed up to have mushers stay in their homes. It didn’t matter if the musher was a rookie or if the musher was a well known veteran in the mushing world, they were always welcomed into the home with a hot meal.

Homes were open to the families of the musher’s as well. If a wife or husband wanted to see the musher on the trail they could come a day or two before the musher was to arrive at the checkpoint and stay with the family.

Some big names stayed in the same neighborhood and kept an eye out for each other. Susan Butcher stayed at Tia and Larry Wilson’s. Rick Swenson stayed at Oscar and Mae Koutchak’s. Dick or Rick Mackey stayed at Elmer and Ruth Kotongan’s. And Don Honea or Joe Runyan stayed at Victor and Judie Kotongan’s. The mushers could see each other from the houses in the neighborhood and always kept one eye open to see who would leave first.

In the beginning of the Iditarod the race was a huge event for the villages. It was like the circus came to town. Locals took the opportunities of musher’s staying with families to wander around visiting. They stopped by to pet the dogs and mushers always took the time to say a few words to someone that came by to check out their team. There was a bond that the people in the villages felt with the runners of the Iditarod. People remember having tea or coffee with big name mushers like Susan Butcher, Dick Mackey, or other “famous” mushers and yet the last ten mushers were treated the same as the first ten mushers.

When the mushers could no longer stay in the homes, the race changed. It took something from the communities located along the Iditarod Trail.