Strumming heartstrings — Musicians, schools weave a tune of support for Ivy

By Jenny Neyman

Photo courtesy of the Howland family. 14-year-old Ivy Howland is at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital undergoing treatment for brain cancer.

Redoubt Reporter

Friday night music at Veronica’s is generally a miscellaneous affair, as open-mic nights tend to be. A parade of people flowing on and off the stage, bringing different instruments and varying styles of music to share with the transient audience.

But this Friday night was a variation from the usual variety. There were still an assortment of people, instruments and sounds involved, but all were singing the same tune, with everyone united to support one of their own musical family members — 14-year-old Ivy Howland.

Veronica’s traditional, Friday open-mic night was given over to a fundraiser for Ivy, who has been struggling with illness for the better part of a year and was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. Not only is she a community kid in need, but she’s a blossoming member of a bedrock musical family in the community, which resonates even more loudly throughout the local music scene.

“Veronica’s, there’s like a whole kind of tribe of musicians who go in there and play on a regular basis, and Ivy was one of them. She started to sing with a couple other kids and had a band that would go to Veronica’s and play,” said Matt Boyle, one of the musicians at the fundraiser.

Ivy is the daughter of John and Danette Howland, sister to younger brother, Max, and performers Devin Boyle, of the band Uglyfish, and Keeley Boyle, of The Old Believers. Her extended family includes local musicians Matt and Dave Boyle.

“It was kind of a special thing,” Matt Boyle said of the Friday night event at Veronica’s. “I don’t think anybody there just happened to be there, they came for the fundraiser and to listen to music and donate money. Especially when a kid needs help, there seems to be a lot of people who always seem to do something, to try and raise money for them, but this one has a real musical aspect to it.”

History on the move — Kasilof Historical Society to look after 127-year-old Watchman’s Cabin

By Clark Fair

Photo courtesy of Bud Crawford. Billy Hill, of Oilfield Hot Shot Service, begins to pull the Watchman’s Cabin onto Kalifornsky Beach Road.

Redoubt Reporter

A deteriorating but historically important building that has stood for 127 years near the mouth of the Kasilof River has a new home and is now in the process of getting a facelift. The Superintendent’s Cabin — more popularly known as the Watchman’s Cabin — was the last on-site structure from the peninsula’s first salmon cannery, which was constructed in 1882. Constructed mainly from spruce logs, it also features a framed-lumber arctic entryway, all under a single roof span.

In recent decades, the building had been ravaged by vandals, who smashed its windows, removed its doors, and littered its interior with graffiti and garbage. Now, however, it sits 5.5 road miles away, on a specially prepared gravel pad at the Kasilof Regional Historical Association museum grounds on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

The original cannery, which operated from 1882 until 1923, had been kept intact until 1938 with the help of hired watchmen. After 1938, most of the buildings were dismantled or sold. KRHA’s McLane Center, for example, was one of those original buildings; it was moved and used temporarily as a Kasilof schoolhouse.

Moving the Watchman’s Cabin was, more or less, an action of last resort for KRHA, which had worked for nearly 20 years to save the structure in its original location. After numerous attempts to maneuver through a tangle of state regulations, KRHA decided that it could not protect the cabin where it was, so it successfully negotiated to have it moved.

Freezing support — Winter recreation organizations regroup to stay in their games

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Clark Fair, Redoubt Reporter. High school skiers test out new snow at Tsalteshi Trails Association’s kickoff event Friday at Skyview High School. Tsalteshi is still successful in finding funding and volunteer support, but even Tsalteshi is looking at new ways of doing business in today’s changing economic climate.

Redoubt Reporter

The Kenai Peninsula is just as much of a playground in the winter as it is in the summer, with skiing, mushing, skijoring, snowmachining and all the other activities available when temperatures drop and snow flies. Enthusiasm for all these pursuits doesn’t seem to be waning, but organizations geared to facilitate those activities are having to rethink how they organize themselves in order to keep their lines of support from freezing up.

The Kenai Peninsula’s economic landscape is changing. That affects the business community as well as all the groups, clubs, nonprofits and fundraisers that have relied on their donations. With Agrium leaving the area, Chevron downsizing and the car sales industry not being as large as it once was, for example, landing a “big fish” of charitable support in the central peninsula community isn’t as easy as it used to be. To complicate matters, as economies constrict, hardships increase, resulting in even greater need and competition for charitable support.

Recreational groups are dealing with these challenges in different ways.

T-200 blazes new routes to sponsors

Photo courtesy of Tami Murray, T-200. A musher and dog team pull away from the road in last year’s Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race. The organization has lowered donor levels in order to attract more sponsors.

The Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race is adapting by trying to attract an increased number of supporters at a lower rate, rather than relying on just a few high-dollar supporters.

“For us, financial sponsorships aren’t what they used to be. We’ve lost a few but gained a few, as well,” said Tami Murray, executive director of the annual Iditarod qualifier, in its 26th year. “It definitely has been an issue.”

The race costs about $50,000 to put on, Murray said, including the pre-race registration banquet, the post-race banquet, the cost of the race itself and the race purse, which is $25,000 this year. And the T-200 hasn’t raised its entry fee in as long as Murray can remember, she said.

“We need to raise a bit of money, but we try not to spend money. We don’t spend any if we don’t have it, and it all goes back to the race,” she said.

Biggest Exxon payout set to go — Hundreds of Kenai Peninsula fishermen may see ‘green’ Christmas

By Naomi Klouda

Photo by Homer Tribune. Frank Mullen, of Homer, is one of the plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill case.

Homer Tribune

In the next few weeks, fishermen harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill should start receiving their biggest settlement payout yet.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs have worked since December through a cumbersome process to distribute $383 million in punitive damages. Now the lawyers are preparing to distribute an even bigger sum — $470 million — in the next several weeks.

The money is interest Exxon Mobil Corp. paid July 1 on the punitive damages award the U.S. Supreme Court ordered last year.

“The $470 million that we hoped for in September was delayed because Judge (Russel) Holland had a number of different questions about the payout structure and the computation of interest,” said Frank Mullen, one of the plaintiffs and a local investment planner in Homer. “The money is not flowing yet, but in the next few weeks, the results of that $470 million distribution will begin to appear for fishermen on the clean claims list.”

Traveling melody — Kenai Central High School choir students sing praises of Henderson Europe tours

By Clark Fair

Photo courtesy of Renee Henderson. KCHS senior Will Jahrig, left, hams it up for the camera with choir director Renee Henderson and junior Alan Bahr in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

Redoubt Reporter

In March 1975 in St. Peter’s Basilica, the choirs were rehearsing as part of the International Choral Festival when Renee Henderson, the choir director at Kenai Central High School, noticed something unusual about a man sitting alone.

“He was sitting there with this box, and he had a power cord going for what seemed like forever because there’s no places to plug in like we have today. And the building is just so, so big.”

St. Peter’s Basilica is, in fact, the largest Christian church in the world and is capable of holding 60,000 people at once.

“So I said to him, ‘What is that?’ And he said, ‘It’s called a cassette recorder.’ I said, ‘Oh, really? I’ve never seen one.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m hoping it works.’”

In applying to the festival, Henderson had submitted a reel-to-reel audio tape of her choir, so she was understandably curious about the man’s device.

“I said, ‘Well, I’ll give you my address, and if it does work, would you see if you could sometime have a copy made? I’d love to see what it sounds like.’ And he said, ‘I will.’” About six months later, Henderson received in the mail a standard white envelope containing a single cassette.

“It was so incredible! On one song, the person who was conducting the festival cut off the piece before the ending, and the sound carried. It just carried and carried and carried. And the guy didn’t think about it when he hit the STOP on the tape recorder, but it was 16½ seconds in, and the sound was still going. It was incredible. It just gave you tingles up and down your spine.”

Palin’s orders — Libraries, bookstore stock up on new releases to meet rush

By Jenny Neyman

Publisher HarperCollin. Sarah Palin’s new book “Going Rogue,” was released Tuesday and is on order at the Kenai and Soldotna libraries, as well as River City Books.

Redoubt Reporter

Sarah Palin, once at the center of book-banning controversy while mayor of Wasilla, is causing a bit of a headache for libraries this week, as they decide how much shelf space and budget to devote to her new book and to the multiple other titles being released about her.

“Going Rogue: An American Life,” Palin’s story of herself as Alaska’s governor tapped to be the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and running mate for presidential candidate John McCain, was set to be released by HarperCollins on Tuesday.

In 1996, when Palin was voted mayor of Wasilla, she allegedly asked the city librarian about censoring books in the library. The librarian said she wouldn’t do it, and a few months later the librarian got a letter from Palin saying she was going to be fired. The letter did not mention the conversation about censoring books, the librarian ended up keeping her job and the books in question stayed on the shelves, but the controversy reared its head in the 2008 national campaign.

Now libraries are deciding how many books about Palin to stock on their shelves. It can be a tricky question. For one thing, libraries have

Publisher OR Books. “Going Rouge,” a collection of essays about Palin, will be available locally, as well, in early December.

limited budgets for ordering new materials and limited space to shelve them. But on the other hand, libraries want to meet readers’ demands.

Terri Burdick, director of the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Library in Soldotna, said the library got an inquiry about Palin’s book on Friday. Burdick said she’s ordering two copies of “Going Rogue,” and is considering ordering a few other Palin books, as well.

“I’ve got two other titles of Sarah Palin on order that have pretty good reviews of them. They should be here in the next week or so,” Burdick said.

She was planning to order “Sarah from Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar,” by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, and “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star,” by Matthew Continetti. Burdick said she’s also considering ordering a copy of “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare,” a response to Palin’s book from the editors of The Nation magazine, published by OR Books. It’s a collection of essays about Palin, including from two Alaska writers.

Art Seen: Brush with success — Watercolors paint big impression

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“She’s Come Undone,” best in show, by Georg-Ann Phillips.

Although the annual Kenai Peninsula Juried Watercolor Exhibition at the Kenai Fine Arts Center this year holds no large surprises, it certainly is an enjoyable foray into hydrocreated imagery. The Watercolor Group that meets every second and third Saturday of each month seems to keep each other going, productionwise, and I think they have a lovely social time of it, as well.

Although I am unaware of any workshop they have had recently, in years past the group has been an active community in that regard. Watercolor is a difficult medium, and this exhibit clearly shows that these folks have been practicing. Of the 33 on exhibit, there are basically no entirely abstract pieces, with all works being mostly representational in nature. The one chosen for best of show was created by Georg-Anne Phillips and is one of the more abstract. Titled “She’s Come Undone,” it is obvious the shapes refer to musical instruments, and the varying shapes are controlled and systematically placed.

Fishing with the stars — Solar lunar charts key to out-of-this world fishing

By Mark Conway, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Mark Conway. Bruce King fly-fishes on the Kenai River in October.

Many years ago, back in the “olden days” when I was a young fisherman, I would see a guy every now and again near where I liked to fly-fish for steelhead on the Hanford Reach area of the Columbia River in Eastern Washington. From the time he stepped into the water, it usually didn’t take more than five minutes for him to hook up with his first steelhead rainbow of the day. I would see him showing up to fish at different times during the day.

Finally, I got up the nerve to talk to this fellow fly-fisherman, other than just saying “hi” to him. We generally fished the same holes, so we were destined to talk about fishing strategies.

As we talked, he shared his favorite flies with me and I with him. We talked about how long our leaders were and what kind of fly line we each used the most. Then I asked, “Why is it that you seem to catch more fish than I do every time I see you?”

He said to me, “You fish whenever you want to. I fish according to the solar lunar fishing charts.”

I had heard of solar lunar fishing charts, but thought it was more of a hoax than scientific.

“No,” he swore, the solar lunar charts are fixed on the position of the sun and moon and how they affect the ocean tides and when wild animals feed and don’t feed.

“So that’s why I only see you occasionally and at different times of the day fishing?”

Science of the Seasons: Otta get a snack — River otters mussel in on freshwater mollusks

By David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of David Watrinbee. A river otter swims in the Kenai River. Otters find many tasty snacks in area streams, including freshwater mussels.

Several years ago I was poking along a stream in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge when I spotted something that stood out. It looked like a spot along a creek where a person had cleaned his or her razor clams after a successful day digging on the beach. Things just didn’t fit together, since I was pretty far inland and the empty shells were not the right shape. Were these freshwater mussels?

Upon closer inspection, I had come upon an area where a river otter had leisurely enjoyed a meal of five or six freshwater mussels. There was a small slide down the bank into a rounded pool and a spraint area a few feet farther along the bank.

Spraint areas are spots where river otters will defecate frequently as an indication of a prominent area within the territory. The scat contained small pieces of shell, which indicated the otter, or otters, had enjoyed a meal of mussels on at least a couple other occasions. While I am always thrilled when I get to see river otters frolicking and hunting in streams, I was only seeing signs that they frequented this stretch of stream.

What was most interesting to me was finding freshwater mussels. I kind of knew they should be here in Alaska, but had never seen them. Besides, we usually think about clams and mussels as being marine organisms. Ask anyone about where to go clamming and they’ll surely talk about Clam Gulch, Ninilchik or a beach they flew into during low tide. It turns out that there are freshwater clams in streams and lakes all across the continent and way out into the Aleutians, too. There have been some recent surveys and they are found all over the Kenai Peninsula.

Think positive, act positive in school — Positive Behavioral Support tips for parents

By Terese Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

Positive Behavioral Support helps parents and schools create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment, encourages positive life skills and reduces negative behavior.

PBS focuses both upon the interaction of a student’s disruptive or counterproductive behavior and upon the learning environment. Except in situations where the safety of others is directly threatened, PBS has proven generally more effective than punitive discipline strategies such as suspension and expulsion. PBS programs can effectively address issues, such as preventing bullying, developing social skills, improving emotional resiliency, and building self-discipline.

What is PBS?

Positive Behavior Support focuses on making problem behaviors less attractive to students. Teachers, parents and student observations are used in designing a plan that helps improve a student’s behavior. Data about the student’s behavior is then collected.  This helps parents and teachers evaluate whether the student’s behavior has improved or whether further adjustments to the behavior improvement plan are needed.

Reeling in new home, pursuits — Couple caters to fishermen, diners with sweet teeth, health concerns

By AdriAnna Newberry

Photo by AdriAnna Newberry, Redoubt Reporter. Pam and Ray Estes and employee Catherine West show off some of the goodies they serve at AK Reel Café in Soldotna.

Redoubt Reporter

Ray and Pam Estes were reeled into retiring in Soldotna by the prime fishing and friendly atmosphere. But instead of filling their days with idle time enjoying that atmosphere, they’ve headed back to work with the goal of feeding the characteristics of Soldotna that brought them here in the first place.

To that end, the Esteses opened AK Reel Café at the corner of Funny River Road and the Sterling Highway.

Ray Estes has about 50 years experience working with food. He’s owned seven restaurants Outside, been a regional chef with American Airlines and executive chef for Sea Galley in Anchorage prior to retirement. Pam Estes has worked with food a long time, as well, being a manager of nutrition in the Fred Meyer chain Outside for a number of years.

Once retirement set in, they decided to keep working with what they loved: good food. Soldotna caught their eye, with the prime fishing spots, friendly people and neighborly atmosphere, they said. It was just what they wanted for their new restaurant.

“We retired down here and leased the building, to do what we like to do best: That’s serve good food at a good value for your dollar, and spoil our guests,” said Pam Estes.

On June 2, the Esteses opened AK Reel Café with a barista, a variety of ice cream and a gourmet lunchbox for fishermen.

The barista has 88 espresso flavors, with the goal of 101 in sight. The Esteses chose what they felt would appeal most to customers, making sugar-free and low-calorie choices available, and choosing favored brands such as David Rio and Da Vinci.

The fishermen’s lunchbox consists of a made-to-order sandwich, chips, fruit/veggies, cookie, candy, drink and a snack. The café offers die-hard fishermen other key ingredients to a good day’s play — breakfast, fishing license, ice, tackle and spare reels. Starting next summer, that will all be available at 3 a.m.

For those who prefer their meals lactose- or gluten-free, that is easily arranged, the Esteses said. Fresh fruit is served alongside many orders and nutritional kids’ meals are part of the menu.

Plugged In: Budget prices, aka: Cameras for the rest of us

By Joseph Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

We interrupt our articles on higher-end cameras and lenses to bring you “cameras for the rest of us,” just in time for the “Black Friday” shopping spree the day after Thanksgiving.

Here’s why that happened.

The Soldotna Rotary Club imposes a $1 fine upon any member whose name appears in print during the preceding week. As two of the Redoubt Reporter’s columnists, Dr. Dave Wartinbee and I were being fined the other day at a Rotary meeting for our selfless contributions to this fine community journal, when a current Soldotna city manager who wishes to remain anonymous shouted out, “Why don’t you write about cameras for the rest of us?”

So, here are “cameras for the rest of us.”

Ninety-two percent of all cameras sold in the U.S. are lower-end consumer models. Since January 2009, over 150 new or updated, lower-end digital cameras have been put on the market. It’s pretty hard to stand out in that kind of crowd and, honestly, few do.

Although there are some excellent, consumer-grade digital cameras on the market, most lower-end cameras are shiny, me-too models that are little changed from last year. The majority do not produce photos that can be enlarged to any significant degree. Many lower-end cameras are being “dumbed down,” which forces quality-conscious consumers into more expensive models. Oddly, consumer cameras are becoming more expensive even as prices for better-built, top-end cameras are dropping.

Most lower-end cameras are more than good enough if you’re shooting family snapshots under ideal conditions, posting photos to a Web photo album or making smaller prints. Nearly any camera will do just fine, and whether a new model catches your eye depends more upon marketing than precision engineering. That may explain the current emphasis on styling and bright exterior colors like purple, pink and bright blue.

There are far too many lower-end cameras to discuss here. Instead, we’ll make some recommendations about consumer cameras that seem to give you the best quality and value. All prices are taken from the www.amazon.com Web site, which seems to be among the best-stocked and least-expensive sites.

Unless otherwise noted, all listed cameras are capable of both good-quality still images and high-definition video. Don’t expect dSLR quality from any of the cameras listed here, but they should prove more than adequate for good-quality snapshots and family photos.

Zoom magnifications are expressed as the equivalent of traditional 35 mm full-frame film cameras. A 50 mm would be the equivalent of a normal magnification lens. A 28 mm or less would provide a very wide angle view, while 200 mm to 300 mm or more would equate to a high-magnification telephoto lens.