In so many words: Redoubt Reporter on hiatus

By Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter

When your career involves quoting other people, it can be difficult to come up with noteworthy witticisms of your own. Why would you? That, and cat videos, is why we have the Internet.

Two of my favorites are appropriate this week:

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” (Frank Herbert)

“Ends and beginnings — there are no such things. There are only middles.” (Robert Frost)

OK, one more, not because it’s particularly relevant, but it’s one by which I try to live my life:

“From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.” (Winston Churchill)

Preach, W.C. In terms of famous quotations about punctuation (bet you never knew there were such things), it’s right up there with Kurt Vonnegut’s, “Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing exactly nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.”

I find myself pondering endings and punctuation this week, as the Redoubt Reporter ceases publication with this issue.

It’s a comma, rather than a period. One of those middles about which Herbert and Frost spoke.

In its current format, the paper has struggled to attain sustainability beyond the one-man (or woman)-band approach, and this drummer needs to go beat on some other things. Unfortunately, that means putting the Redoubt Reporter to rest for the time being. (Unless anyone out there wants to take over a newspaper for a while? Anybody? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the din of the crickets.)

The goal is to re-evaluate, reorganize and come back bigger and better. As John Wooden said, “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” Or Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

In the seven and a half years of producing this newspaper, I’ve racked up well over 10,000 ways that don’t work. (Notably, ever agreeing to do inserts. They were never worth the money. But I now possess the thoroughly useless knowledge of how long it takes to stuff 4,000 sheets of paper into as many newspapers. Pro tips — wear latex gloves to maximize grip and minimize ink stainage, an ironing board is great for setting the perfect height at elbow level, and your cat absolutely must be kept away from your completed stacks.)

At best, each and every error has been a learning experience. At worst, they are mistakes I don’t have to repeat. But even though we’re on hiatus for a while, I don’t consider that a failure. It’s a failure to continue to print regularly, perhaps, but that doesn’t negate the success we’ve had along the way.

If something you read in the paper informed, entertained or touched you in some way, it’s been a success. If we have added to community knowledge, dialogue and record, it’s been worthwhile. If any clippings found their way onto refrigerators, into scrapbooks or the mail to or from a grandmother, it will live on.

Fishing for cool learning — Aquatic Education Program puts kids in touch with salmon

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Lacey Mathes, from Soldotna Elementary School, concentrates on catching a fish during an ice-fishing event on Sport Lake, which took place Feb 17 and18 as part of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Aquatic Education Program.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

The morning sun still hung low on the horizon, not yet giving off much warmth but casting an orange glow on the blue armor of ice still encasing the 70 acres of Sport Lake in Soldotna. In the 24-degree air, plumes of warm air swirled around the mass of excited kids, but their breath, visible as it was, didn’t hold their attention, even though, on occasion, excitement caused them to hold it entirely.

Clutched in their mitten-clad hands, tiny rods dropped lines beaded with ice into holes augured through the ice. In the water below, a small cocktail shrimp on a hook was bobbed just off the lake bottom. This stationary, repetitive, no-guarantees activity held the full attention of the students — all 750 of them from 19 schools and home-schooled programs.

The annual ice fishing event, held Feb. 17 and 18 this year, was part of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Aquatic Education Program. It also serves as a seasonal bookend to the much broader Salmon in the Classroom program, which began in the fall when these same kids stood streamside at the Anchor River to learn how the life of some salmon ends and begins for others.

“They learned about the salmon life cycle, spawning and were exposed to how we do egg takes. They then took those eggs back to their classrooms to watch and study them as they develop and grow,” said Jenny Cope, a fisheries biologist from the Soldotna Fish and Game office.

For the last month and a half, Cope has been visiting participating schools and conducting salmon dissections to continue with the ichthyological education.

“This teaches them about the anatomy of fish and the different functions of their organs,” she said.

Budget cuts will hit classes — School district expects to learn to do with less

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Years of budget cutting and deficit spending have left the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District with no easy answers for how to avoid impacting instruction next year.

Behind door No. 1 — hope for a little more, or at least the same level of funding from the Legislature as last year, which is not a sure bet, given the state’s increasingly dismal budget prospects in the face of low oil revenues.

Behind door No. 2 — pull more money from its savings to cover shortfalls. But after four years of deficit spending, the district’s general fund account is not as robust as it once was, and there doesn’t appear to be any immediate turnaround of the state’s fiscal fortune on the horizon.

Door No. 3 is more budget cuts. After cutting over $1.2 million two years ago and over $1.3 million last year, there are no more relatively easy cuts to make.

“This isn’t the first year we’ve seen problems coming,” said Dave Jones, assistant superintendent of instructional support. “We’ve tried to make cuts as far from the classroom as we can to try to protect instruction. We’ve been at it now for two years, this will be the third year, so the things that are away from classrooms that we can cut are pretty much gone and unfortunately we’re going to have to cut in the classroom.”

In November, the school board decided to pull no more than $1.3 million from savings for next year’s budget and set a preliminary budget that cuts just about $4.6 million, leaving itself some wiggle room in case state and local funding are reduced.

The biggest chunk of that is 25.65 full-time-equivalent teachers, one counselor and two school administrator positions, to the tune of $2.5 million. Jones said that 12 of those teacher positions were already slated for reduction. They were added last year thinking school enrollments would be higher than they ended up being. The rest are coming from reductions in pupil-teacher ratios, meaning bigger classes. Kindergarten classes won’t be affected, but pupil-teacher ratio changes will be applied across all other grade levels and schools across the district.

Supplies, travel, technical, software and equipment at the district office level are reduced $415,000. District office is also taking a cut of 5.26 positions. Jones said they hope to achieve those reductions by not filling vacancies from retirements and people moving.

“They’ve looked at what departments were added to, if the things that were added can go back away,” Jones said. “A lot of people looking at, ‘OK, here’s what we have, here’s what they do, what can we do without? Can we not replace that position and consolidate duties?”

Low oil prices heighten uncertainty — Governor, producers light on details about AK LNG changes

Redoubt Reporter file photo, Contractors for the AK LNG project conduct fieldwork taking ground samples in Nikiski in October 2014. The project hasn’t yet started up its expected fieldwork this season.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Gov. Walker’s announcement last week that changes are coming to state plans for a liquefied natural gas pipeline leaves the curious speculating how substantial a shift might be in the works.

The governor held a press conference with representatives of BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil on Feb. 17 to announce that the partners will be “looking at different options” for how to advance the project given the economic challenges posed by persisting low oil and gas prices.

Gov. Walker did not give any further information on what the changes might be, saying discussions are currently being held and those details would come in a month or so. But he and the producers did speak about the need to reduce costs and make the project as economical and competitive as possible.

With the gas line terminus and LNG export plant planned for Nikiski, that means a big part of the project’s construction budget would be spent on the Kenai Peninsula. But Larry Persily, the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s oil and gas specialist, doesn’t think the announcement means any substantive changes in the scope of the project, or the peninsula’s role in it.

“I don’t believe any of the vague, squishy description of changes in structure affects the footprint, the route, the fact that Nikiski is the site,” he said.

Persily said the issues seem to be more about financial wrangling, partnership negotiations and finding efficiencies than modifying any large component of the plan.

“Is there a different way to finance this? Have we really figured out the most cost-effective way to move 115,000, 40-foot sections of steel pipe to the state and around the state? If you can shave 10 percent off the construction cost, that’s $5 billion,” he said.

The producers have been stalled on hashing out the Gas Balancing Agreement, which would provide a framework for how the companies pull their gas from the North Slope gas fields. Gov. Walker has been hoping to get the agreement to the Legislature for consideration before the end of the regular session. That timeline now seems unlikely, but it isn’t yet known what that will mean for the overall timeline of the project.

Walker said the prefront-end engineering and design phase is still expected to be complete next fall. AK LNG has budgeted about $200 million to finish the pre-FEED phase this year, including continued testing and engineering work on the Kenai Peninsula. Persily said last week that the work hasn’t yet started this year.

“AK LNG hasn’t issued the contracts, set their work plans, what needs to be done to fill in the gaps in their reports for federal regulators,” Persily said. “So they haven’t started work yet. They’re still planning on doing work, some onshore, some offshore, some on the Kenai Peninsula, some elsewhere along the route. They have not yet publicly said, ‘Here’s our work list and our sites.’”

Weaving a heritage — Native artistic mastery lives on through Ravenstail revival

“Moon Woman Tunic” by Kay Field Parker

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

The development of collaborative and complex forms of art is an indication of a thriving, high-functioning culture, one in which not every moment of the day is consumed with the bare necessities of survival. So don’t even think about calling the indigenous people of Southeast Alaska 200 years ago “primitive.” Yes, they lacked written language and the technologies that would come with Western contact, but they wore their creativity, ingenuity and diligence on their sleeves — or, rather, as their sleeves.

To put it simply, they could weave circles around you. Literally. And civilization today nearly forgot all about it.

The Chilkat weaving technique of the Tlingit, Haida and other Northwest Coast populations is one of the most complex in the world, unique in its ability to create curvilinear and circular forms in the weave itself. And within that style are echoes of an even older tradition, from the mid-1700s and earlier, with even more complexity, yet even less examples still in existence — just 15 known to exist in the world.

That is until the 1980s, when fiber artist and researcher Cheryl Samuel went in search for the perfect woven circle, and found it in the totemic designs of Chilkat robes.

“Chilkats are the only people in the world who wove a perfect circle. They learned how to pull weft strands onto the surface and catch them only with other weft strands so that instead of being a stair step, like circles are in weaving, it was actually a perfect circle,” said Kay Field Parker, who learned about Ravenstail from Samuel.

Samuel was captivated and delved into the button blanket robes bearing the Raven, Eagle and other clan symbols. The more Samuel studied, the more she uncovered references to the earlier weaving practice from which Chilkat developed. It was more geometric, with strong, linear patterns, whereas Chilkat designs are cuviliniar and totemic. Known until then as the Northern Geometric weaving style, Samuel coined the term Ravenstail and obtained grants to travel the world to study the few known examples left in existance. She worked out how to duplicate the patterns by teasing out the secrets of the techniques and began producing the style to other weavers.

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Kay Field Parker demonstrates Ravenstail techniques at the opening reception for her art show, “Traditional and Contemporary Ravenstail Weavings,” at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center last month.

Since then, Ravenstail has seen a resurgence, particularly in Alaska, but including a weaving guild that boasts over 100 members around the world. Parker, of Juneau, is one of the most noted practitioners in the state, and a display of her work is the spring art exhibit at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center.

She gave a presentation to open the show last month, complete with a weaving demonstration. Teaching is central to the Ravenstail revival, after all, since it was Samuel’s curiosity that saved the technique from obscurity.

Parker first learned of Ravenstail in 1987, while taking a class in spruce root basketry at the University of Alaska Southeast. She’s a lifelong crafter, but found the basketry difficult and, well, increasingly unappealing.

“I started noticing the class across the hall was a Ravenstail class, and as the weeks went by my basket got uglier and their weaving got more beautiful and I was hooked,” she said.

Fermenting a social scene — Secret brewing society heavy on the society

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell. Homebrewing can be as much about social interaction as chemical interactions, especially in small towns.

Author’s note: Except for the swimming part, the following is true, but some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent, plus several other people who are nearly innocent.

By Clark Fair, for the Redoubt Reporter

About 70 years ago — when today’s cities of the central Kenai Peninsula were no more than villages or scattered clusters of buildings along a new and sometimes barely drivable Sterling Highway — goods and services could be scarce. Winter mail had only recently been arriving by dog team. Fresh fruits were rare, and expensive. And a nice, cold beer might be found only many bumpy, uncomfortable miles away.

So it’s no wonder that those who enjoyed a sudsy adult beverage now and then began making their own and sharing their product with friends.

In Bush Alaska today, where a liquor store may charge more than $40 for a case of Budweiser and nearly $20 for a six-pack of IPA, it’s also no wonder that residents have taken to producing their own.

In retrospect, then, it should have been no great surprise to discover a thriving beer-making culture in place when I moved to Southwest Alaska.

The bigger surprise came in learning of the quasi-covert nature of this solo, yet highly social endeavor.

I first heard about the Dillingham International Swim Club a few days after I’d moved to town.

“Swim club?” I asked. “Dillingham has a pool?”

“No, it doesn’t,” said Jim, one of my pre-Dillingham contacts and a former college classmate of my brother. He smiled and leaned forward. “That’s the whole point. It’s code. It’s the official name of our homebrewing group.”

Night Lights: Spring coming in like a lion — March yourself outside to catch the highlights of stargazing

Photo courtesy of Andy Veh. A lunar eclipse is coming up March 23, but don’t get too excited —it won’t be as spectacular as this one from October 2014.

By Andy Veh, for the Redoubt Reporter

The constellation that always catches my eye in March is Leo, its shape quite closely resembling that of a male lion lying leisurely, watching the savannah, looking west, in the direction that it will move toward during the next couple of months. Its right front paw is the bright star Regulus.

While Leo should move across the sky as gingerly as any constellation week after week, it seems to be much speedier than others. What aids this perception is that sunset occurs later and later, about 20 minutes each week. Thus, with it getting darker later every evening, it seems that Leo keeps progressing across the sky faster (because we look at it later when it already has moved farther west).

As a result, I perceive Leo as the harbinger of spring —when it appears in the east, winter’s end will soon be here, and when it reaches the western horizon, flowers are in full bloom and deciduous trees will have regained their leaves.

Leo with Regulus follows the bright stars of winter (perhaps chasing them off). Sirius is low in the south and quite prominent, but even being the brightest star in the sky, as seen from our solar system, it’s no match for the brightness of Jupiter and Venus. Ahead of Sirius are Betelgeuse, Rigel, Pollux, Castor, Capella, Aldebaran and Procyon, all of them appearing above the southern horizon.

Bright stars in the remaining sky are Deneb and Vega in the north and Arcturus and Spica rising in the east in the late evening, the latter close to Mars. The waning third-quarter moon is near Mars on Feb. 29. Saturn is following on their heels with the same third-quarter moon nearby on March 2.

Plugged In: Parting shots — smart use beats new gear

By Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

As the Redoubt Reporter embarks upon a well-deserved vacation, it’s a fitting occasion for summing up our nearly eight years exploring technology and photography.

Originally, Plugged In was a weekly computing and networking technology feature. As those technologies matured, they became quite reliable, affordable and slow to change, reducing the need to frequently upgrade hardware and software. The maturing of those computing technologies is excellent news for all of us who rely on them daily, but yields few new topics, certainly not enough to sustain a fresh weekly feature for eight years.

Enter digital photography, a combination of art and science that appeals broadly, is more accessible for most people, and still surging forward with few indications that its steady technical improvement is slowing. Even though new digital imaging products cannot break the iron laws of physics, increasingly clever electronics now produce technically superior results, sidestepping former limitations. Even though camera makers don’t seem to turn much profit, each quarter brings new and better products.

While out of state a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see a number of vintage prints made by Ansel Adams and other famous master photographers. It was evident that, judged solely on final printed image quality, digital photography is a superior technology, capable of readily producing reliably higher quality results, even when printed very large.

Used carefully with good lenses, even midlevel digital cameras using Micro Four-Thirds, APS-C and full-frame sensors have the potential to produce higher quality images than formerly made with bulky film cameras. Compared with larger format film cameras used by now-famed masters, careful digital imaging shows better controllability, higher sharpness, reduced graininess and better dynamic and tonal range. Oh, and you can have color images with no greater difficulty, and image stabilization enables quality handheld photography even in dim light.

So, if you bemoan the passing of easily scratched silver films processed with toxic chemicals in the dark, producing potentially uncertain results, then you’ll bemoan without me, and I’ve processed film for more than 40 years.

So, as this column rides off into an oversaturated digital sunset, I’d like to reflect on a few broad, enduring fundamentals:

Refuge for all — Activity celebrates variety in observing 75th anniversary

Photo courtesy of Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. A dad and daughter enjoy the view of the Kenai Mountains from the shore of Skilak Lake during a hike in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is preparing to turn 75 in December. That’s a momentous occasion, one that warrants a way to not only celebrate the anniversary, but all the wildlife and wild places that the 1.92-million acre preserve encompasses.

“We do a lot of special events and they’re great to do, but sometimes we miss the mark for what we’re trying to impart on people. So rather than us telling the public what is great about the refuge, we wanted to give people the means to explore the refuge and tell us what they think is great about it,” said Matt Conner, head of visitor services at the KNWR.

To that end, Conner and fellow refuge staff Leah Eskelin, Candace Ward and Michelle Ostrowski came up with a checklist of 75 things to see and do in the refuge.

“We tried to come up with ‘all-user’ activities, and things that were both consumptive and nonconsumptive. This list will also be a good starting point for people who haven’t spent much time in the refuge and found it daunting trying to figure out where to start. And for those who do use the refuge regularly, this will hopefully give them ideas for branching out,” Conner said.

Many of the items are season specific, such as skiing the trails around Refuge Headquarters, seeing the northern lights from Engineer Lake and ice fishing at Hidden Lake, so those interested in attempting all of the 75 may want to get cracking. For those who shoot for the minimum of 25 activities, there also are spring, summer and fall events, such as bear hunting at Mystery Creek, catching a Kenai River salmon or hiking Skyline Trail.

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. A hike up Skyline Trail is one of the activities included in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge’s 75th anniversary activity list. So is seeing a sunset on the refuge, such as this one above Skilak Lake, seen from Skyline Trail.

“We love the diversity of the refuge and wanted to collect that up and share it with the public in a meaningful way. There is diversity through the year and through the different habitats, so we tried to roll that into the list,” said Eskelin, a visitor services ranger.

Eskelin added that some of the activities on the checklist require prior planning, possibly even a boat, and getting deep into the backcountry.

“We understand that some of the things will be hard to do or get to, like seeing bears at Clear or Bear Creek on Tustumena Lake, but I know from personal experience that seeing them there is a very memorable moment,” Eskelin said.

Other items on the checklist were selected to take mere minutes and be things that almost anyone could do.

“We didn’t want to make them all hard, so we have backcountry and front-country fun. Things like, ‘See a sunrise or sunset from the refuge.’ That’s something that people working in Soldotna can almost walk to come and see, and taking one in from the refuge is a beautiful sight, not an experience to be taken lightly,” Eskelin said.

Trapping setbacks snap back into focus — Bill would set 200-ft distance from rec areas

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

If a new bill submitted by Anchorage Rep. Andy Josephson is passed, trapping will be banned within 200 feet of public trails and facilities on state-managed lands in Alaska.

This could have a big impact in Cooper Landing, where conflicts between dog owners and trappers have roiled for years, with dogs getting caught in traps set near popular hiking trails, campsites and along recreation spots on Kenai Lake.

“I hope this bill passes. I think it’s pretty reasonable,” said Ken Green, of the Committee for Safe Public Trails and Lands in Cooper Landing. “And I think it’s about time the Legislature got involved with it because private citizens have been trying for years and been unable to break through this barrier where, for some reason, the Board of Game is able to just say ‘No’ and turn their backs on this.”

Green submitted proposals to the Alaska Board of Game seeking to ban trapping within 250 feet of private land, recreation sites along Kenai Lake, and public trails, roads and campgrounds in Cooper Landing and Moose Pass. The measures did not pass.

On the federally managed Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, trapping is prohibited within a mile of public roads, campgrounds, road-accessible trailheads and within the entirety of the Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area to the west of Cooper Landing, and refuge headquarters in Soldotna.

But there are no setback requirements for traps on state lands. State trapping regulations advise trappers to check their sets “regularly” and to “avoid situations where you might catch a domestic animal.”

Proposed tax hike leaves bad taste for alcohol industry

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Gov. Walker’s proposal to double excise tax rates on alcoholic beverages in Alaska will be up for another round of public testimony in front of the House Labor and Commerce Committee on Monday.

The committee heard testimony on HB 248 Saturday, as well, mostly in opposition to the increase.

Bill Howell, of Sterling, who teaches a beer appreciation class at Kenai Peninsula College and writes books on the history of brewing in Alaska, noted that Alaska already has the highest excise taxes on wine, and second highest on spirits and beer in the country, generating nearly $40 million per year.

Alaska’s current rate is $2.50 per gallon tax on wine, compared to the national average of $0.83. For spirits, it’s $12.80 per gallon, compared to $4.45. For beer, it’s $1.07 per gallon, compared to $0.28. Though, to be fair, many other states have a statewide sales tax, whereas Alaska does not.

“The producers, distributors and retailers of beer, wine and spirits have no choice but to pass this tax, just like any other tax, right along to the end consumers,” Howell said. “They may still go out of business, but they’ll have to pass it along to us. That’s who Gov. Walker is directly targeting with this tax — me and every other Alaskan who might like a glass of wine with their meal or a nice beer after a hard day’s work.”

Don Grasse, of Anchorage and president of K&M distributors, noted that none of the governor’s other proposed taxes involve such an extreme hike.

“The fishing tax was proposed to go up 1 percent,” Grasse said. “The mining tax was proposed to go up 2 percent. Cigarette taxes will move us to No. 8 in the nation. It appears to us that the alcohol tax is out of step with all other proposals that the governor and his staff have promoted.”

Gary Superman, who owns the Hunger Hut bar and liquor store in Nikiski, said the industry took a hit when tax rates were doubled in 2002.

“We will be stuck in the stratosphere as far as taxation on alcohol is concerned in this state. And that will no doubt have a stifling effect,” Superman said. “… I don’t think that the industry could really absorb this outrageous increase that’s being proposed and remain viable.”

Almanac: Stamp of approval — 1st postmaster fondly recalls Soldotna life

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part story about two of Soldotna’s earliest settlers — Howard and Maxine Lee. Last week, Part One followed the Lees from their World War II naval involvement to their earliest homesteading efforts in the first half of 1948. Part Two begins later in 1948 and reveals how the Lees integrated into fledgling Soldotna society, and how their adventure in Alaska abruptly ended. The documents used for the Lees’ quotes in this story were provided by the Soldotna Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the KPC Historical Photo Archive. Howard and Maxine Lee pose with their children, Karen and Michael, next to their Soldotna homestead cabin in 1950.

By Clark Fair

Redoubt Reporter

Although much of early homesteading life required more sweat equity than capital, most residents near the highway junction that would later be called Soldotna sought ways to bring in extra income. The Lancashire family raised chickens and began clearing land for farming. The Mullen family also raised chickens and created a large garden so they could sell vegetables. Many locals tried their hand at commercial fishing.

In 1948, Howard and Maxine Lee opened a general store in the back of their 60-by-30-foot Quonset hut on their Soldotna homestead.

“My childhood was involved to a large extent in my family’s grocery business,” Howard said. “I wrote a wholesaler in Seattle and put in an order.”

He erected shelves in the back half of the Quonset and found a trucker in Seward who would haul his first load of merchandise to Soldotna.

“We marked prices very low since we had no overhead and we were ignorant,” said Maxine, who was pregnant at the time with their son, Michael. “We sold out in no time, so we reordered. This time there was a huge storm and the barge sank.”

The merchandise had been insured, but they had to pay new shipping costs when they reordered. Later, the wholesaler informed the Lees that they needed a business license, which could not be acquired locally. Almost as quickly as they had begun, the Lees were out of the grocery business.

They stayed plenty busy, however.

Most days, Howard walked two miles to the Lancashire homestead to work with Larry on his portable sawmill, trimming local timber for house logs, first to replace the Lancashires’ wall tent and then the Lees’ Quonset hut.

In 1949, as Howard and Maxine’s new home neared completion, the Lees dug their own well. As usual, their memoirs vary on the details.

Maxine remembered the effort this way:

“Howard dug a well. It was either 18 or 20 feet deep — I forget. After it was about six feet deep, he rigged up a pulley system. He filled a bucket with dirt and gravel, yelled at me, then raised it up. I got it and dumped it around new cabin to serve as ground insulation. We were finally emancipated (from hauling water) when the well pump arrived from Seward and we pumped up real water from our own well.”

Howard recalled it differently: