I started this blog on August 21, 2012, with the release of my first book, Titan Encounter. Most of those posts are now in what I call the “Early Blog.” I’m gradually updating their format and bringing them into this new journal. Back then the sole purpose of the blog was to promote my books, but gradually that changed.
That’s how it started but, over the years, I’ve mused about other things that are important to me, such as my family, my farm, rural life, and occasionally about politics and country. However, I try to limit the politics in this journal. If you want to know more about my political leaning go to The Conservative Alternative.
I called Eek home for seven years.
The Yup’ik Eskimo village of Eek is 415 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska, on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The delta is about the size of the state of Louisiana, but within that delta roads are rare and people are few.
Read MoreSchool is out now in Eek, Alaska, and the staff has departed.
Dirk, a longtime co-worker and friend from Eek, took the slow route home. Along with his dog Katja, he visited Anchorage and Kenai and then traveled north to Delta Junction and across into the Yukon, and south to British Columbia. Then he crossed the border into the United States and Washington State.
Read MoreBack to Eek School
Traveling to Eek School is an adventure.
My return to Eek started early in the morning of May 14th. Robert, my youngest son, drove me to the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Since the Alaska Airlines flight took off at 8:00 am, we both got up way too early. The flight to Anchorage, on a regular 737, took about three hours.
Read MoreEek is a Yup’ik, Eskimo, village 415 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska. Starting in 2007, I taught in the village school for seven years. Because it is a small village of 300 people, I quickly learned the name, and backgrounds, of nearly every student.
Read MoreKyle Pratt meets Kyle Pratt in Eek Alaska.
A week ago Loni, the Eek School secretary, said, “I just met someone with your name.”
“My first name, Kyle?”
“No your whole name, Kyle Pratt,” she replied.
Read MoreWhen you live in a rural Alaskan village the post office becomes a lifeline.
Eek is hundreds of miles off the Alaska road system. There is only one dirt road in the village. It runs from the airport through the village to an old airport on the other side. It doesn’t connect to any other road. This rough and often muddy lane is used by ATVs, snowmobiles, and as a walking path.
Read MoreOne definition of irony is an event that “seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.”
With that in mind, I submit this picture.
Read MoreA fan wants me to autograph Through Many Fires
Yesterday, after a long spring day of inattentive, restless, students the school secretary, Loni, brought me a torn cardboard mailer. It was addressed to my personal mailbox but delivered to the school. This often happens in the village, but this time I didn’t recognize the return address.
Read MoreGood teachers do many crazy stunts to get students interested in learning.
Our school in Eek, Alaska, is blessed with some fine teachers. Every March in conjunction with the Iditarod dog sled race our school does an Iditaread reading competition. The students get points moving them along the Iditarod trail for each page they read.
Read MoreI’m not sure who spoke first, but we were soon talking. She worked for the Lower Yukon School District, just north of my district, and like many others was trying to get home. She wanted to get to Seattle and then try and catch a flight east to Chicago. We talked off and on until the flight boarded and then were surprised to discover we were seated together. I was in 7C, she was in 7B.
Read MoreThe agent typed on the computer for a minute and then wrote my connecting flight information on a scrap of paper, tore it from the sheet, and handed it to me.
I stared at it for a second. “This is my ticket?” I asked holding the bit of paper.
Read MoreWe finally get to Bethel
After removing the freight from the plane loading our luggage was easy and quick.
Just before takeoff the pilot turned in his seat and gave the usual speech about seatbelts and, in case of a crash, where the emergency transponder was located, then he said, “If we get to Bethel and I start circling it’s because the visibility has gone down over the airport.”
Read MoreThe trip from Eek was like a trip across the river Styx.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement. As I’ve mentioned before, there are no roads in the region of Alaska where I work. Travel in winter is by snowmobile, bush plane, or dog team. I had chartered a plane for five teachers (including me), the principal, two children, and a dog.
Read MoreWinter has returned to western Alaska with a vengeance.
For several weeks the temperatures in and around the village of Eek have been extraordinarily mild with temperatures hovering in the mid to upper thirties.
Read MoreThe Pledge as you’ve never heard it before.
As regular readers of this blog know, I teach in the Yup’ik Eskimo village of Eek, Alaska. Every morning the students of our small school gather in the gym for announcements and to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Read More
