Winter on Diomede Part 2

  Little Diomede is located in the middle of the ocean between Alaska and Russia, about a half mile from the International Date Line and a couple miles from Big Diomede.  It is surrounded by water.

In the fall and spring, before the ocean freezes solid between the two islands, we see chunks of ice float down from the north where they broke off of the larger sheets of ice.  Occasionally, you see Polar Bears on the ice as it floats by, heading south.

I've seen something similar to the scene in the photo but the polar bear was running along sheets of ice, jumping to another one as he ran out of ice.  I don't think this one made it because the ice was flowing south between the two islands and the ice was slowly melting.  It might have if it jumped off the moving ice to head for King Island, about half way to Nome. By this time, King Island was completely abandoned.  I don't think anyone had lived there in 30 or 40 years.

Although polar bears look so cute and adorable, they are not in person which is why the call went out one long weekend that a polar bear had landed.  The day after Thanksgiving the word spread throughout the village that an adult polar bear was lumbering around the school.  Several men, threw on their coats and boots, grabbed guns, before running out the door.  Everyone knows polar bears can be as nasty as any other type of bear. 

One man just threw his coat over his pajamas because his concern was for the safety of the children.  They tracked the bear to the narrow crevice between the school and the hillside.  They said the bear had come to the island to die because it was old and starving. One man said the claws were the wrong color for a healthy bear.    I am just thankful, I didn't hear about it till it was over.

In the three years I worked on the island, only one polar bear landed on the island and I routinely saw another two to three floating by on sheets of ice.  It is awesome to observe them at a distance but I would never ever want to be close to one unless they were in a zoo on the other side of a fence.  

One of few times I saw a polar bear was on a windy day, where the snow swirled across the landscape.  The only reason, I knew there was a polar bear was the yellowish blob was moving across the landscape, otherwise, it would have blended in with the surroundings.

I hope you never come face to face with a polar bear.  Have a good day and let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear from you.

Winter on Diomede Island Part 1

  Years ago, I spend three years living on the Island of Little Diomede, about 1.5 miles from Big Diomede which is owned by the Russians.  Little Diomede isn't very big, only about 2 square miles but it is high enough that on a good day, you can see mainland Russia or mainland Alaska near Wales, north west of Nome.

Originally, everyone lived on Big Diomede and used little Diomede for the grave yard and for trash but somewhere along the way, some of the population moved over to Little Diomede.  Somewhere in the late 40's or early 50's Russia moved all the inhabitants to mainland Russia and replaced the population with a military garrison.

I know this because one day I cleaned out a file cabinet filled with cards with neat handwritten names, birth dates, and dates of entry to the United States.  From what I pieced together, these people were here to visit relatives.   This stopped the day people left for Russia.  There are a few houses still left from the original village because one man got lost in a snow storm and spent the night there.  He came back telling everyone about his luck.

The only way to visit Little Diomede is via the once a week helicopter trips to convey mail and bypass to the island.  Mail is ferried to Wales by plane and stored in a connex in between helicopter trips.  The helicopter flies out of Nome with a load of mail and goes straight to Diomede.  After unloading the mail, the pilot flies over to Wales to load up with more mail and passengers.  He continues back and forth most of the day, fueling up in Wales as needed.  When it gets late enough, he'll head back to Nome, to wait till the next week.

If you check things out, this mail run is the most expensive in the state and possibly for the country.  When winter arrives, it means the ocean water starts to freeze.  Once the ice is about three feet thick, planes are able to land safely, discharge and collect passengers, and drop off and pick up mail.  Unfortunately, this ice runway does not last more than 6 weeks or so.   The great thing about this time of the year is that flights arrive at least once a day weather permitting, making it so much easier to get in and out.

The whole time I was on Little Diomede, I lucked out.  I never had to fly to Wales to wait to connect to a regular flight from Nome on a small plane.  I always ended up on the direct flight too and from Nome.  Anyone who flew via Wales, had to wait outside by a connex.  You had to hope the weather wasn't super cold otherwise it was horrid.  If you were lucky, you wouldn't have to wait long or if you knew someone you could visit while you waited for your flight.

The biggest problem with the ice runway is basically that you never knew when the flights would start or end.  It was more like one day, the planes would start flying in. It was so neat watching them fly in and land.  We always knew if it was someone's first time out there because they'd give us the flight number, time it was due in, and ask us to meet them at the gate.  The reality is that the plane landed about a quarter mile out, you disembarked and walked in to the village while the agent threw the luggage on a sled before hauling it into town and you claimed it there.

Then in the spring, the planes flew one day but not the next.  I remember one time when a doctor was out visiting.  He checked one of the expectant girls and said she'd be fine to head in the next day.  Women who are expecting are sent into the large towns about a month before their due date just in case.  The doctor got on the flight that evening and the next day, the ice was too thin so no more planes.  The girl went into labor and delivered over night.  She had to go in on the helicopter when it made its first run of the season.

Enough for today.  Tomorrow, I want to explain about seeing a polar bear floating by the island, just like in the picture from Sunday.  Have a good day and let me know what you think.

I've Seen This

Did You Know?

Juicing or the Fruit? Which is Better?

  I love fruit juice, especially the kind I make myself.  I especially love carrot and apple with a touch of ginger just to spice it up.  I even have several juicer cookbooks for ideas.

The other day I remembered a comment made by a doctor to another one about how its better to eat the fruit rather than the juice.  I don't remember where I saw this.  I don't know if I read it or saw it on the television.  The idea stuck with me.

So it does bring up an interesting question.  Is juicing better than the fruit?  In general juicing removes the juice so you get all the vitamins, minerals, and plant chemicals found in fruit or vegetables but most juicers separate the plant fiber out so you are only left with the juice. 

It is said that drinking pure fruit juice allows your body to better extract the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients and it gives your body a break from absorbing the associated fiber.  In addition, juices can help your body stay healthier by protecting you from certain diseases and boosting your immune system.  Juices also help remove toxins from your body, help digestion, and help you loose weight. At the moment, there is no scientific evidence to support this position. 

There are a few studies out there indicating that eating the fruit and vegetables straight can lower your chance of developing type 2 diabetes while drinking the juice can increase your chances of getting it.  It is also noted that juice often has more calories than the equivalent fruit.  For instance, n eight ounce glass of orange juice has the same number of calories as two oranges and does not fill you up because its missing the fiber.

There is another aspect of this.  The fiber binds to the sugar in the fruit, making it slower for the body to absorb it but the sugar in the juice without the fiber is absorbed faster, making blood sugar levels spike.  The body automatically releases enough insulin to convert the sugar to fat and glycogen. Furthermore, the fiber from fruit also supports digestion, helps lower cholesterol, and helps control blood sugar levels.

If you are not a fruit or vegetable eater, it is acceptable to include them as juice occasionally but not to completely replace them in your diet.  If you want to go this way, it is suggested one blend the whole fruit or vegetable because the fiber is included this way. It is recommended a person should make up only enough to consume on the spot.

Just to let you know, when I make my own juice, I save the pulp and skins to use in my baking because they are where much of the fiber is located.  I hate wasting anything. 

Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear from people.  Have a great day.

Shingles

  This particular post is about a disease that supposedly only strikes those over the age of 60 but it turns out, that is not quite true.  I say not quite true is because I got shingles a few years ago and so did my niece when she was 23.  Both of us are under that magic number.

When I got it, the first thing I felt was a pain in the side of my lower back.  It felt as if I pulled a muscle but it didn't go away.  Pretty soon, I developed a rash, so I used everything I could to get rid of it.  The only thing that worked was baby diaper rash cream. 

I wasn't able to get to the doctor for a couple of weeks.  By then, it started to heal and felt much better.  I only mentioned it to my doctor because I was in for my annual physical. He looked at the healing rash and said "shingles".  That surprised me because I thought only old people got it.  I actually had to read up on it since i didn't know anything about it.

Apparently, shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox.  If you've had chickenpox, the virus is left in your body, specifically in your nerve endings where it remains until something causes it to become active.  It manifests itself as a rash in the are of the nerve endings.  Basically if you have had chickenpox, you could have shingles and age does not matter.

In addition, if you've never had chickenpox, it is possible to get it from someone who has a current outbreak of shingles if they come in contact with the fluid in shingle blisters.  The early symptoms include headaches, sensitivity to light, and symptoms similar to getting the flu but without the flu.  Later on, the rash breaks out, usually on one side of the body, after itching, tingling, or pain.

The rash usually spreads from the back around to the front in a band, following the pathway of the nerve.  It can also break out on the face or around the eye which can be extremely dangerous.  In addition more than one band can break out at once.  The blistery part of the rash can last 5 days but it can take from two to four weeks for the rash to completely heal.  It is possible the rash could leave scars.

What increases a person's risk for having an outbreak of shingles includes having had chickenpox, being older than 50, having a weakened immune system from some other disease such as diabetes, or HIV, being under stress or suffering some sort of trauma, or taking certain medications.  The only real risk I had at the time was being under a ton of stress and I was in both good shape and good health.  Even now, when I suffer from stress, I notice a bit of a pain in the same area my shingles started originally.

It is especially important to visit a doctor if shingles breaks out on your face especially near the eye because the rash could cause issues with your vision.  Although there is a vaccination to prevent shingles, it is not guaranteed to prevent a person from getting shingles.  It is said to reduce the symptoms a person gets and its effectiveness is uncertain after five years.

From what I can tell, I had a very mild case since the band of rash was quite narrow and I only had a few blisters.  It didn't cause me any real pain, nor did I require any time off but my niece indicated she had a more severe case.

Why am I sharing this with you?  To let you know that shingles can hit anyone regardless of age or health. The only thing is required is to have had chickenpox and be under stress or any of the other risks.

Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear from others, especially if you had an outbreak of shingles.  Have a great day.

Weekend Volleyball

  I left a poster over the weekend about Volleyball games at the school.  Out here it is a big event because another school from about 20 miles away flew in to play a couple of matches.

Friday night, the gym was about 3/4 filled with parents, relatives, and visitors.  There weren't as many visitors as usual due to the rivers not being frozen solid so people were unable to snow machine over and the river is just iced enough, you can't boat over.

The competition was fantastic.  The night started with a middle school vs the staff game.  The staff won all the games but the middle school put up a great defense.  When the actual games started,  the local school won the first two games, the visitors the next two so it came down to the fifth game due to winning best three out of five.  The final game is only 15 points and it came down to the end when the local school won 15 to 13.

All through the games, the sophomores were in and out trying to set up a haunted house in the high school wing as a fund raiser.  I think they were getting it ready for Sunday but they had already decorated the cafeteria for a dance on Saturday night.  No, I didn't chaperone it because I cannot stand loud music and they tend to play it so loud, the whole building shakes.

The evening ended around 9:00 and everyone went home till ten the next morning.  I showed up around 9:45 because I fill out the score sheets for all competition volleyball games. Few people showed up for this game since 10 am is a bit earlier than they like.  The game started off well and about 25 minutes into the game, we received notification the plane was about 2 hours early.

Out here, most flights for traveling teams are charters but the charters come when they do.  Unfortunately, they do not call ahead to notify you if they are early or late.  They just announce they are a few minutes out.  So the girls finished the game, the visitors scurried to change into their winter gear, pack, and hop in the back of a truck to get out to the runway.  They didn't have time to check the room for anything they left.

Next weekend, the school is hosting a huge wrestling tournament with teams from all over the area.  I expect something like 8 teams with both male and female members, requiring 12 to 16 rooms.  They will probably arrive Thursday and Friday morning so the event is able to start as soon as school ends.  There will be matches running on two different mats from about 4 pm on till late. 

The next morning, wresting will begin again bright and early and continue till late afternoon or early evening.  Some group will plan a dance for both the students and visitors so they can have a wonderful time to cap off a long day.  The next day, planes will arrive and leave with great regularity as teams head home.

It doesn't matter how well the tournament is planned because the weather might just refuse to cooperate by snowing or sending in a blizzard.  Its happened before.  An event has been scheduled, the weather has changed to something horrid and no one could fly in.  It happens. It also happens that everyone gets here and the weather changes so nothing flies for several days.

We've had teams that traveled and were gone for a week due to weather conditions.  At first, they couldn't return because we had a blizzard followed by high winds and when it cleared up here, they got hit by a storm.  Everyone had to wait for both ends to be clear.

I am looking forward to the tournament because I am one of the people who fills out the score sheets, so I'm there a long time and I usually get to do the score sheets for the final matches.  I have fun doing it. 

I hope you enjoyed this view into life in the 50th state.  Let me know what you think.  Have a good day.