Icewind's Ramblings

In the continuing saga of a cool family living in the wilds of Alaska where the Alaskan Pipeline parallels the haul road as it makes its way from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez , Alaska in a little village called Livengood. Many families living in a rural area face many challenges and ours is no different from those found in our area. We live a subsistence lifestyle living mainly off the land seeking out berries, fruit, and the abundant fish around. Taking time out of our day for play time and the occasional trip into Fairbanks to stock up on food we enjoy time spent together with family. I spend some much needed quiet time with the baby . . . While the children do their work home schooling . . . While Icy washes the car . . . And there is always laundry to do . . . ...

Happy New Year everyone and to start off with something slightly different I present a family living in the far northern reaches of Alaska, out in the middle of nowhere and a figment of my imagination upon seeing some pictures in the Anchorage Daily News . My mind kept thinking of these pictures all night awaiting the approaching New Year. About 2 am under a clear sky and cold night I remembered a small spot on the road on my drive to the Arctic Circle a few years ago to see the Arctic Ocean . I drove from Anchorage to Deadhorse where the oil companies have their camps for the ‘slopers’ who work in the oil industry. As you can see I have too much time on my hands during my one day off to celebrate the New Year. Enjoy. Welcome to Livengood Alaska , population 26 in the summer and the 6 of us in the wintertime. It’s a quiet place where you can let your kids play with no worries unless the abundant moose and the occasional bear wander too close to the house. ...

Yes, the bizarre story lines keep spilling from our 49th and largest state. When I first reported on this Alaska happening in December 2005 I said: “He’s been in all the papers and on TV all last week. From Florida , to Europe , in web blogs all over the internet, and brought up on weather forecast’s on television he’s becoming a star. He’s the cool dude here in Anchorage that has the neighborhood buzzing and people from all over stopping by. Snowzilla , the 16 foot tall snowman built when there was not a lot of snow on the ground. The kids in the neighborhood brought sleds full of snow from their own yards to help bring this character to life.” Last year Snowzilla grew in both size and popularity again bringing some protests from the neighbors. Funny thing that seems to happen is the spread of his story and again the world took notice. This year the MOA ( Municipality of Anchorage ) decided that enough was enough. Municipal c...