Icewind's Ramblings

Fishing, as in every activity, is fun until you realize how much work it takes to prepare for and then clean up. However, the experience is what everyone loves and remembers. I miss fishing in the throes of winter . . . goes in search of his ice fishing gear. Ice

Welcome to "The Long Night Club" Recently the long running “Fly by Night Club” closed its doors and the wildly funny Mr. Whitekeys is doing other things now (Friday evening comical news segments on Channel 2). There is another ‘Club’ here that only comes around once a year and it is that time again. "The Long Night Club" is where all Alaskans are today. It was snowing all day so there was little additional light with the overcast skies. The one glimpse of the sun was just as it was setting around 3:15 pm AST this afternoon. It could be seen through the snowfall as an orange ball dropping below the horizon so as The Winter’s Solstice came at 4:22 pm Alaska time (7:22 pm EST) so began "The Long Night Club" in the northland. Alaska has been losing daylight since summertime and for a time about 7 minutes of sunlight a day was lost. It started slowly in June and after peaking awhile back we started slowing down on the number of minutes w...

People often ask me how we spend the Holidays in Alaska . I’ve given it some thought now and have a few observations I’d like to share with you. Well, to be honest, if you had a lick of a sense you’d leave. It’s going to be D.A.D. (dead assed dark) for twenty hours of the day and if the temperature manages to get up to –05 degrees, well, that’s your Holiday gift. So, it’s a cinch no friends in their right mind from “Outside” world are coming to visit. Yes, we have great skiing, snow machining, and ice fishing this time of year but you won’t see any relatives dropping in for a visit. Sure, they will come up in the summertime and stay for weeks or months at a time, mooching off of your hospitality, drinking all of your beer, and eating all of the salmon and halibut they can stuff down. Who wouldn’t? But December? Get real. If you spend the Holidays in Alaska , you have two options: You can get together with Cheechakos ( Alaska newcomers) and celebrate. What that mean...

As a lot of you know, I’m Southern by Birth, Alaskan by the grace of God. Checking in on the happenings in my former area I was surprised to find things shifting for the upcoming holiday. I found this letter forwarded by relatives from Atlanta , Georgia . To Whom It May Concern: Mrs. Claus and I regret to inform you that effective immediately, I will no longer be able to service the Southern United States on Christmas Eve. Due to the overwhelming current population of the earth, my contract was renegotiated by North American Fairies and Elves Local 209. I now serve only certain areas of Alaska , Washington , Montana , Canada , Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Wisconsin and Michigan . I will still also handle those states bordering these to the south but will stop my rounds at the Mason-Dickson line. As part of the new and better contract I also get longer breaks for milk and cookies so keep that in mind when you place that snack out for me. However, I'm ce...

The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for. ~ Homer Ice