Militia leader on the ballot — Ray Southwell challenges Mike Chenault for District 34

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

The Alaskan Independence Party offers a banner for candidates and voters with divergent views from the more mainstream platforms of Republicans and Democrats, and has fielded a candidate for House District 34 that certainly fits that bill.

Ray Southwell, of Nikiski, co-founder of the Michigan Militia and Alaska Citizens Militia, speaks out vehemently against current governmental policies and is having his wages confiscated by the Internal Revenue Service for failure to file tax returns for the last 19 years. He has filed to challenge current Speaker of the House Mike Chenault, of Nikiski.

Southwell focuses on issues of nationwide and worldwide scale, as well as on the local, borough level, yet has chosen the Alaska Legislature as the level of government from which he’d like to effect change.

“I think that there’s so many economic issues facing the nation and I want to challenge the current economic model as a nation because it has led us down a path of destruction,” Southwell said in explanation of why he chose to run for elected office. “On the national level, I think it’s too late. I’ve been quoted as saying both Democrats and Republicans have sold us out, and that’s at a federal level. I think at the state level, currently, most of these legislators are ignorant of the economic model that the federal government has really followed that has led us to this economic collapse that we’re going through.”

Southwell rails against the role of corporations and their power in today’s economy.

“I think that the current economic model is based on, ‘The corporation can’t do anything wrong.’ When you go back and look at our original Constitution and economic plan, there were always checks and balances, and for quite some time the economic mode is, ‘What’s good for corporations is what’s good for America,’” Southwell said. “It’s failed, it’s wrong, that’s why we’re disintegrating right now economically, globally, because of that behavior.”

Southwell has several examples of how this laissez-faire, free-market capitalist attitude has played out, including the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act in 1999 that deregulated the banking industry and led to the nation’s financial collapse, he said.

The corporate structure that’s developed is one that prizes profits more than safety or compliance with regulations, Southwell said, which leads to incidents like the deadly mining explosion West Virginia in April, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, BP’s oil spills on the North Slope and the current Gulf of Mexico spill, he said.

“The economic model says that the corporation has two objectives — one is to pay the biggest dividend that can be established, and also for growth. So what happens with these large corporations is that economic model of growth and expansion and dividends is what the driving faction is. So you end up with a corporation that will ignore the rules and pay the fines because it’s cheaper to pay the fines than to go by the rules,” Southwell said.

A position in the Alaska Legislature wouldn’t give Southwell say on national issues, but he said he could apply his views to state issues. One of the platforms of the Alaskan Independence Party is that the Alaska statehood vote should be taken again, this time with all options on the table — remain a territory, become a separate and independent nation, accept commonwealth status or become a state. Southwell said he agrees with the AIP’s view that Alaska is a colony, rather than a full-fledged state with rights on par with the original 13 colonies. He’d like to see Alaska demand its authority and follow the nullification movement, whereby Alaska simply does not follow federal government dictates that it does not feel it should be subject to. If that had happened in the 1970s, Southwell said, when the state Legislature passed incentives for double hulls on oil tankers coming to and leaving Alaska, which was tossed out in 1978 in federal court, it might have prevented the Exxon Valdez spill.

“I wonder what would have happened or how many lives would have been economically saved if those had been double-hulled. Now (the federal government) is going to require it by 2015 — 40 years after the Alaska state Legislature took a stand and tried to do what’s right,” he said.

Southwell said he doesn’t believe the state Legislature is doing what’s right in most cases these days. He cites continuing negotiations over construction of a natural gas line from the North Slope as an example. Southwell favors an all-Alaska route with a liquefied natural gas plant in Valdez, as favored by 62 percent of voters in 2002 and as supported by the Alaska Port Authority, established in 1999.

“What happened to that vision of that pipeline? What happened with Alaska jobs? What did the people want and what did the borough want and what did the cities want? Why aren’t these politicians listening to the people?” Southwell said.

He said he believes a portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund could be invested to develop an in-state gas line infrastructure, rather than investing it wherever fund managers think the biggest dollar signs may be found — be they in Greece, Exxon or other investments of dubious moral standing, he said.

“You have to look at the corporate mind-set. They’re going to put our money into whatever corporations make the most money,” he said. “Why aren’t we taking that money, a percentage of it, and investing it in Alaska? We have got the mind-set of we only care about that permanent fund interest on stock markets and ventures outside of Alaska. Isn’t it time we do it ourselves? We look to corporations, we look to stock markets, we look to Washington. We need to look to Alaskans. We’re billionaires. We need to start acting like billionaires and investing in our own home.”

Southwell said he has concerns about the state’s too-lax relationship with resource extraction companies, such as the Pebble Mine Partnership, and is concerned that legislation like Senate Bill 309, which encourages expanded oil and gas exploration and development, doesn’t do enough to enforce safety.

“It’s more the big picture of the corporate xxmind-set. We’re at a pivotal time in history that if we as a state don’t step up to the plate and start looking at things differently, we’re going down with the rest of the country and the globe, or at least a large percentage of the globe. We cannot sustain $1.5 trillion worth of deficit spending,” Southwell said. “My hope is that Alaskans will rally and start talking about an economic system that is sustainable regardless of what happens in the rest of the country, and that is infrastructure and that is checks and balances on corporations.”

Southwell addresses a few specific pieces of legislation, such as being in support of House Bill 50, which would limit overtime for nurses — he’s an emergency room nurse at Central Peninsula Hospital. He also voices concern over the possible sale of CPH to a private entity, which would remove local control over health care management in the area, he said.

But overall, Southwell said he isn’t running with a list of specific bills he’d like to address or propose. He’s more out to bring attention to his causes.

“There’s multiple issues that need to be addressed. I think the biggest thing is we need have to start having a dialogue of what’s an economic plan for success for Alaska? I think that if I have a true platform or true opportunity to discuss it at the state level, I can stir the pot up and get this discussion and get people having dialogue, because it’s logical. So I don’t have to generate a bill. You know what happens when you have dialogue is people who are smarter than me come along and say, ‘I understand what you’re saying, and can’t we do this and can’t we do that?’”

Southwell said this is a crucial time to make Alaska economically sound, given the economic climate of the rest of the country and world. He said he doesn’t support secession from the U.S., but said he thinks Alaska will be standing on its own soon enough, by the state’s choosing or not.

“I would prefer staying in the union as a state with equal footing to those original 13 states,” he said. “I personally don’t support secession … but what I do recognize today is that with the economic disintegration going on, Alaska is going to be thrown into independence. Just like when the Soviet Union disintegrated, all of a sudden there were all these independent states that were thrown into their independence.”

He said he would not use a seat in the Legislature to push for support of the militia movement. It’s not necessary, he said, because the rights and existence of the militia are “self-evident,” he said.

“The people are armed and the people will stand up for and protect their communities. I don’t have to preach that, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that. (James) Madison acknowledged that, our founders acknowledged that,” he said.

Birds + bees = Too many puppies

Shelter seeks foster homes for excess animal litters

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Brett Reid, chief animal control officer at the Kenai Animal Shelter, holds up two wet puppies, soaked after playing in their water bowl. The shelter has recently received an influx in puppies, not yet weaned, which require 24-hour care. The shelter has turned to placing the pups in foster homes.

Redoubt Reporter

Spring is time for a return of the birds and bees, literally and figuratively, yet the results aren’t always coming up roses. Experiencing heightened levels of hormones as a result of the longer days, reproduction levels rise in the animal kingdom, and domestic species are no exception.

This can become a problem for people whose pets aren’t spayed or neutered, especially those who let their pets wander. This time of year, some owners find that their canine companion or feline friend is ready to give birth to a litter that is as unwelcome as it was unplanned. As a result, local animal shelters can become inundated with drop-offs.

“Lots are born and lots go to the pound,” said Caelin Maxwell, of Sterling. “It’s called the spring dump.”

Maxwell speaks from firsthand knowledge. She is currently fostering two puppies, part of several litters, all 4 to 5 weeks old, which recently arrived at the Kenai Animal Shelter. At least one of the litters was brought in after the pups were found dumped and still squirming in a garbage bag alongside the road in Nikiski, she said.

“Pups usually stay with their moms until they’re 8 to 9 weeks old,” said Brett Reid, chief animal control officer at the Kenai shelter. “With these underaged ones, they need a little extra TLC throughout the day and night, and we can’t do that.”

These tiny pups can’t quite eat on their own yet, and they need food almost around the clock. Sometimes they need to be bottle-fed or, as is the current situation, given gruel of kibble, water and a dog milk replacement.

”The Kenai shelter’s small staff already has its hands full responding to calls and attending to the care of other dogs and cats awaiting adoption,” Reid said.

“At 5 weeks old they need constant care,” Maxwell said. “They’re like babies. They’ll sleep for an hour, then cry to eat, then need to be stimulated to poop, then they sleep for an hour and do it all over again, throughout the day and night. They just don’t have the means to do that at the shelter.”

Maxwell has taken on the care of two pups for a few weeks. Molly is a black-and-white female who looks like she has some pit bull in her. Lucy is a black-and-brown female who looks like either a husky-Rottweiler mix or a terrier-Doberman mix.

“I only took two because I already have three dogs of my own, and live in a small cabin,” Maxwell said. “I would take more if I could, though. I love dogs and all animals. I even stop on the side of the road when I see what I think is a blown tire, just to make sure it’s not a hurt dog.”

In addition to paying for the basics, such as food and veterinary expenses as all fosters are expected to do, Maxwell said her two tiny pups get treated like royalty while they’re with her.

Almanac: Popsicle plane rises again — Pilots turned engineers free aircraft from frozen bounds

Editor’s note: This is the third part of a three-part story about an unfortunate incident with an airplane, an ingenious plan to make things better and a battle with the elements throughout the whole adventure. Part one described the problem with the plane. Part two addressed the attempted solution and the associated environmental challenges. This week, part three reveals how it all turned out.

By Clark Fair

Photos courtesy of Herman Stenga and Jerry Near. When the members of the rescue team returned to Bradley Lake, they discovered that snow, subzero temperatures and 100-mile-per-hour winds had destroyed nearly a week of earlier work. Here, in mid-January 1972, Bob Robinson and Dr. Elaine Riegle engage in the arduous process of re-removing the snow and ice from the submerged Super Cub.

Redoubt Reporter

The weather was so bad over the weekend of Jan. 15 and 16, 1972, that returning to the aircraft buried in ice out on Bradley Lake was out of the question. Over the weekend, temperatures plummeted to about minus 50 degrees, and wind gauges in the area registered gusts of nearly 100 miles per hour.

Dr. Elaine Riegle, owner of the entombed plane, Herman Stenga and their friends had spent the previous week working to free the plane, but the weather, fuel shortages and equipment problems had forced them home to Soldotna for the weekend as they contemplated their next move.

Already — operating on the principle that moving water doesn’t freeze and will actually melt nearby ice — they had employed the prop action of three three-horse Johnson outboard motors to melt ice around the plane’s nose, tail and right wing. They had attached cables to the crankshaft behind the plane’s propeller and to the tail wheel, and they had erected an A-framelike boom that they hoped would allow them to support and lift the plane.

They had also suspended a weighted tarp through the ice hole between the outboards and the A-frame to prevent the water action from undercutting the A-frame’s supports.

When the weather turned nasty on Saturday morning, they pulled up the outboards and stored them in a large green canvas tent they had erected on the ice to give them a workplace out of the wind and brutal cold. A few days earlier, they had established quarters in a Forest Service cabin about a mile from the frozen plane, and they were using a 10-horse Ski-Doo to travel back and forth.

Prior to returning on Monday, Jan. 17, to continue the job, they decided to upgrade their equipment. They borrowed two larger outboards — 18 horsepower — hoping that the stronger prop action would allow them to melt ice and expose the plane much more quickly.

When they arrived in Dr. Paul Isaak’s Cessna 180, however, they were dismayed to see that they had more work ahead of them than they had expected.

Supported by the homemade boom and freed by the action of outboard motors, the sunken Super Cub begins to emerge from Bradley Lake. The aircraft is connected to the boom by its skyhook atop the fuselage. Bob Robinson stands with an ice chipper near the tail of the plane. In the left background is Jerry Near’s Cessna 170B.

“Six inches of overflow had covered everything and had erased all our work from the previous week,” Riegle said. “We spent the entire day moving the tents and campsite.”

Also flying in Monday was Jerry Near, who had helped extensively during the first week. Although Near did not stay this time, he did drop off Bob Robinson, whose wife, Jeanne, worked as a nurse in Isaak and Riegle’s clinic. Robinson planned to help complete the rescue.

On Tuesday, with the weather improving (no wind, minus 20 degrees and sunny), they reset the three-horse Johnsons near the prop and tail and placed one 18-horse motor at each wingtip. As the outboards chugged along, the rescuers used shovels to clear the snow that had drifted over their work area. For the first time since they began this mission on Friday, Jan. 7, Riegle said, “Everything worked great.”

On Wednesday, their good fortune continued. Although the skies remained clear, the temperature warmed to zero degrees and the day remained windless.

Around the plane, as the ice thinned, they used a steel chipping tool to break it apart. Standing on boards to more evenly distribute their weight, they chipped away, scooping the ice from the water whenever possible. Then, much to their surprise, at about 3 p.m. the left wing of the Super Cub suddenly bobbed to the surface of the water.

Catching on — Fishing springing into action in Kasilof, lower peninsula rivers

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. A hopeful fisherman slowly drifts through the People Hole at the confluence of the Kasilof River and Crooked Creek. The location is a popular spot for hooking king salmon, though fishing is slow so far this season.

Redoubt Reporter

As dawn broke at Crooked Creek State Recreation Area on Saturday, the first pink- and peach-colored rays of the day’s light came through the trees, illuminating the cool morning fog still hugging the smooth stones that line the banks of the Kasilof River. The aquamarine water was running slow and low, and the dozen or so gulls and small shorebirds hopping around outnumbered anglers by more than two to one.

“It’s still early,” said Eric Dahl, of Soldotna, who fished for two hours Saturday morning.

He was working the water with a flashy corkie and a piece of flesh-colored yarn in hope of enticing a king salmon to take a bite.

“I didn’t get anything,” Dahl said. “No bites, and I didn’t see any of the other five or six guys fishing getting bites, either. The closest anyone has come was a guy got a hookup last night, but he didn’t get it to shore.”

Those not targeting kings are faring slightly better, according to Ray Allen, campground host at Crooked Creek.

“I haven’t seen anyone with a salmon,” he said. “But they’re definitely catching steelhead. I’ve seen a few people catching them, and releasing them, naturally.”

Retention of rainbow trout or steelhead is not allowed, the latter of which are migrating back to the salt water after overwintering in the fresh water. Not being able to keep them doesn’t stop fly-fishermen from trying to catch them, though. Armed with chest waders, long rods and light, floating lines, the handful of fly-fishermen were the only ones catching on Saturday.

Andrew Corbin, of Anchorage, smiled as his rod tip bent and he saw a splash at the surface of the water roughly 20 yards away. After a brief battle, he pulled a silver-bodied, pink-cheeked steelhead into the shallow water, which was small by his standards.

“It’s just a little 25- to 26-incher,” he said, while using a multitool to release the fish without removing it from the water. He then put his fly, an egg-sucking leech, back on the menu with another cast.

While the trout fishing was fair, the king fishing being slow this early isn’t out of the ordinary. Mid-May is only the beginning of the run, according to Robert Begich, area sport fish manager with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“It starts at a crawl, with a fish or two getting picked up, but then it picks up closer to Memorial Day,” he said.

Part of the pokey fishing on Saturday also could have been attributed to tackle. Regulations required anglers to make the most of an unbaited, single-hook artificial lure, but on Sunday the regulations on the Kasilof changed to allow regular tackle — including bait — below the Sterling Highway bridge.

“The bait opening tends to help out,” Begich said. “Until bait opens it’s mostly corkies, Spin-N-Glos and a little bit of fly-fishing from shore, and jet planers and Kwikfish from drift boats. After bait it turns to eggs and a sardine wrapped on a Kwikfish.”

Water woes — Boat ownership not to be taken lightly, cheaply

By Steve Meyer, for the Redoubt Reporter

Boats have been a part of life for me since childhood.

The first boat I ever “captained” was a homemade, flat-bottom wooden duck boat. Built by my uncle as a school project, it eventually migrated to a slough about a half mile from my farm home in North Dakota. I used that boat as often as humanly possible the few years I hunted ducks before coming to Alaska.

Boating was simple back then, at least as far as I knew. I could swim and the slough was no more than 300 yards wide, so concern for falling overboard was not a concern at all. I knew I could swim to shore and thus it never occurred to me a life jacket should be used. Most of the ducks I shot as a kid were shot out of that boat, and to this day I miss those uncomplicated days paddling around that old slough.

On to Alaska and boats all of a sudden became a serious matter. You either had one or knew someone who did if you wanted to access good fishing on the Kenai Peninsula. My first boat was a canoe, a blue, plastic, 12-foot model that weighed about 75 pounds. I probably hit every rock there is floating the Swanson and Kasilof rivers, with no evidence of breakage. I hated that canoe. It was too heavy for its size and hard to carry on a portage, but it was tough.

One winter day at about minus 10 degrees a buddy and I thought it would be a great idea to launch that canoe down the Soldotna Ski Hill. Oh, it was a great idea, except for the steering, which we had not thought of as we plowed into a tree at what seemed like 60 miles per hour and shattered that canoe into about a thousand pieces.

I was fortunate to know people who had boats suitable for the Kenai River and Cook Inlet and so spent most of my time on the water as a passenger. I spent a bit of time commercial driftnet fishing on a boat that had a blistering maximum speed of about five miles per hour. Leaving the harbor three hours ahead of everyone else was the norm, and the return trip was no better. I had a friend who had a 24-foot jet boat that we regularly used in the inlet for halibut fishing and the river for salmon fishing. It was fast and comfortable and the only drawback was having to launch at the Deep Creek boat launch on the incoming tide, get out and fish, and get back in before the tide was too low to get back up the ramp. That was long before the days of tractor launching, although that never stopped some from attempting to launch from the beach. Many an hour was spent just watching folks try to launch from the beach, into huge surf swells with no real chance of success. Great entertainment.

As a passenger for many years, I never really appreciated all the details that boat ownership entailed. My first real powerboat was a 14-foot, flat-bottomed Jon boat that was going to be a small lake/fall river boat with specific intentions of heading up the Moose River for duck hunting. As I am sure all new boat owners find, the purchase of the boat was just the start. Seats, anchors and line, life jackets, rod holders, paddles or oars are all part of the necessary accessories. Of course, none of those items are free.

With the purpose of navigating the Moose River in mind, I kept the horsepower below 10 so as to be legal on this waterway. Among a lot of other things, I found navigating the Moose with a powerboat is an exercise in futility. The water is just too shallow and full of weeds. Oh you can get up river, but the amount of time and work just isn’t worth it.

Since there was no more issue with horsepower, I upgraded a bit to make running upstream on the Kenai in the fall for silvers and ducks more feasible — another expense.

One summer day several years ago my fishing partner and I were on Hidden Lake in this little boat when the wind came up. After some time of battling the waves trying to get back to the boat launch, we ended up pulling into a sheltered cove and waiting out the wind, which took several hours and even then was marginal. That’s when I made the decision to get a “real boat,” one in which you could fish the inlet and big lakes with a margin of safety. Most folks around here who want a multipurpose boat go for something with a 50- horsepower motor and under 20 feet to make it legal for the Kenai River. Having no interest in fishing the Kenai in the summer and having my other boat for fall when the river is settled, I decided to go with something I could use to fish the inlet, cruise big lakes and go up rivers in the Interior. A 24-foot Duckworth with a 425-horsepower, 8.1-liter inboard engine mounted to a Hamilton 212 jet pump was what I ultimately purchased as an all-around boat.

Within months of purchasing this boat, fuel went to over $4 a gallon, and that was just the start of the myriad additional costs I had not fully considered. I had purchased the boat from a fella who used it for running the rivers in the Interior, with an occasional trip to Prince William Sound or out of Homer for halibut. In his description, and in my mind, the boat was basically ready to go when I bought it.

Science of the Seasons: Seeds of healing — Ecological succession a slow process

By Dr. David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Dr. David Wartinbee. Dandelions are a pioneer plant — one of the first to thrive in a disturbed area. Areas damaged by fire, oil spills or other factors go through a process of ecological succession.

The concept of ecological succession is in the news again because of a large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil is heading to various beaches in the southern states, just like the Exxon Valdez oil did 20 years ago in Alaska.

However, very few reports actually identify succession as being part of the impending problem. At the time of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and now, everyone wanted to know what damage will be caused and how long will the impact be felt? Quite simply, everyone wants to know, when will things be back to normal?

Let’s first figure out what normal is. A working definition of ecological succession is this: An orderly and somewhat predictable change of one community into another until the local climax community is achieved. That climax community is what we are thinking about when we describe normal.

For most high ground of the Kenai Peninsula, the climax community might be a birch and white spruce forest. In areas that are wet and boggy, a black spruce-Labrador tea forest might be the climax community. When we get closer to the oceans, we might find Sitka spruce and Western hemlock forests as the climax community. Note how simple changes in moisture or temperature regimes cause noticeable plant community changes and thus a change in what is “normal.”

The process of succession occurs when there is some type of change in a particular climax community, like a forest fire, landslide or maybe a bulldozer scraping off all the vegetation. Imagine what happens to an area that has been completely denuded by a bulldozer as someone clears their land and then decides to just let it grow back.

The soil is exposed and there are no seeds remaining from the previous community of plants. The first seeds to arrive are going to be those with the ability to disperse readily. Three local examples of such plants are the seeds of dandelions, fireweed and cottonwood. With miniature parachutes, they are wind-blown all over the place and are able to survive in dry, brightly lit areas. Plants that are the first to arrive and survive in a disturbed area are known as pioneer plants.

Bursting into spring — Seizing the moment, good mood, inspiration or new bird sighting

Winging it, by Sean Ulman, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo by Joseph Robertia. Weekend gone to the birds. The Kenai Birding Festival is Friday through Sunday. Highlights include a birding float trip on the Kenai River on Friday, a birding walk around Skilak Loop Road on Friday, and a kids’ birding program on Saturday. For more information and complete schedule, visit http://www.kenaiwatershed.org.

April 27 — A three-day wind broke just after noon while we were setting up a 12-foot portable tripod. The sun came out. A brown bear sow and two cubs emerged from the forest one kilometer away. We curtly glassed the humps of mocha fur as the bears, laxly plodding west, pawed for marsh snacks. We moved oppositely (east and at an escape pace). The alarming view was equally arresting, so while backpedaling I snuck glances at the cubs ambling after their mother, gracefully gliding past ghost spruce trees. The bears are ghostlike in their ability to inspire awe yet ingrained into the landscape, explicitly belonging.

On the way back to the cabin we flushed our least sandpiper. While I followed its twitching flight, Sadie spotted a coyote. We got out the scope and I panned from the trotting canine to the three distant bears, stretched tall as bison in the heat wave trembling below Point Possession. In that lively hour the season seemed to switch to spring.

That afternoon we heard our first short-billed dowitcher, as well as the premier outpouring of northern vernal sound — cranky, clacking arctic terns, robins’ teary whistles and rattling sandhill cranes echoing the Jurassic Park soundtrack. A brief view of a short-eared owl shooting behind twilit timber provided an apt capper to our most diverse day — 29 species.

April 28 — I woke before the sun to a sound like a rotary telephone. Who is it? Our first varied thrush. After a flood tide inundated plot one, we enjoyed a close-up view of a beaver cruising temporary sluicing chutes that an hour later would drain back to muddy marshland.

April 29-May 2 — I’m beginning to think that my descriptions of our “idyllic” life out here last season were a tad acrylic, sweetened by the trickery of selective memory. Fieldwork is tough. It’s a sloppy 45-minute walk to either plot, so even getting to work is hard. I alluded to being in our element out here alongside the birds, but failed to mention the elements. The wind has asserted itself. It whips us.

These hour-interval pond surveys have rocked my erratic rocklike patience. Locked behind a wobbly scope with watering eyes and freezing hands and feet while waiting for birds that never appear is not an easy seat in which to stay.

The day the geese flew north (April 30), the realization that we are here to stay walloped me. Unable to fly away, we have more in common with the stickleback I watched flicking back and forth in a sink-sized tide pool, failing to flee from my shadow.

The extent to which this marsh abides by the tide is a daily puzzle. The ’64 earthquake muddled the dynamics of this region, made up of mostly mud. It dropped the land 2.5 feet on the west edge, tilting down eastward to 4.5 feet. Several nights of jagged sleep and jarring dreams have made the daily physical demands and mental riddles a steeper climb.

On a light workday we did dishes, fetched water and washed clothes. My first creek dip invigorated me momentarily. Similarly, sitting in the sun listening to the Boston Celtics game on the radio was a short-lived diversion. My boss’ constant contentment has not been contagious. When she’d point out duck flocks, I found myself letting them flap by without lifting my binoculars. I dared to brood, “Am I bored with birding?”

Investigating my crabby mood’s incongruence with nature’s robust climate — full moon, high tides, long and gaining sunlight, emerging beasts of fur and feather — I unveiled a telling fact. This is my second season as a field technician. The curiosity and challenge that motivated me last year is missing. So the incentive load falls to the workload.

Working on my novel reiterated the familiar truth that subpar or bad writing still feels good. It also made me realize some similarities between this job and writing. Both are marathons that can be assisted by sporadic sprints. Trusting the daily toil is essential. Amassed data yields answers. Sentences make paragraphs make pages. When desperate for productivity there is busy work to turn to — cabin chores, survey paperwork, reading, editing the previous day’s paragraphs and looking up words in the dictionary. During the arduous stretches, radiant moments do occur. A pair of canvasbacks, our fourth new 2010 species, swung over our heads, their pale wings flapping above the flooded field.

On a day when mediocre words dripped, I could smirk at this dream-themed series — “A potbellied troll cloying on ashy clay cakes sprinkled with sunlight, an anthill volcano burping purple cloudlets, a fairy with tigerlily eyelets mending her clipped pumice wings with a toothpick and gold fleece thread.”

But we wouldn’t have seen the passing canvasbacks if we hadn’t headed out to sit through another frigid pond survey. I can’t pen a pleasing sentence without sitting down to write. I keep at it, day by day, step by squishy step. There will be breakthroughs, perhaps bursts.

Striking a chord — Singer takes message on the road

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Angie and Shannon Bren, of Sterling, perform at Veronica’s in Kenai on Saturday. Angie Bren recently recorded a CD, “Field of Fire: The Testament,” and is planning a tour through Washington and Oregon this summer.

Redoubt Reporter

The feel of Angie Bren’s new CD echoes the way in which she wants the music to reach people. It’s clear, uncomplicated, straight from the heart to hearts that may be yearning for the message she wants to convey:

“We go through, as a human being, lots of stuff in our lives. We can either let it eat us up and beat us down or let it build us to be a stronger person,” she said. “I wanted that to be out there for someone to hear. Someone who is going through what I went through to hear, ‘Someone does understand what I feel.’ It’s a giving hope sort of thing.”

Bren and her husband, Shannon, are regular performers at coffee shops, worship services and similar venues on the central peninsula. But Bren’s new seven-song CD, “Field of Fire: The Testament,” is a departure from what regular listeners may expect from her. Tucked in a corner of Veronica’s coffee shop in Kenai on Saturday, the Brens’ set meandered through a blend of musical styles — particularly acoustic folk, with some rock rhythms and contemporary gospel.

Left strictly to her own choosing, Bren enjoys singing rhythm and blues, jazz and soulful gospel music. Yet the songs on her CD didn’t end up coming across in any of those styles. She said the sound wasn’t even something she specifically set out to create — it just sort of came out that way.

“To me, it sounds kind of contemporary,” Bren said. “It doesn’t sound like any of the music I usually really listen to. My vocal style is very soulful when I’m not singing with my husband, not grungy or alternative or folk or whatever. This is more straightforward, with not as much vibrato. I guess you’d say my vocal style is more clear sound, piercing and crisp. If I’m by myself and not up on the church platform singing worship songs or singing with my husband, then it’s just there. There’s my voice — right there.”

Bren said she enjoys singing harmonies and leading group worship songs — blending with and supporting other musicians. Yet the songs on her CD are more direct. It’s her voice piercing through, loud and clear. On some tracks she’s supported on a bed of acoustic guitar, sometimes piano, occasionally with Shannon lending vocals, and on one track there’s a saxophone, but above and piercing through it all there’s her voice, loud and clear.

Scot Q. Merry, of Soldotna, recorded and produced the album, and Bren said she’s excited about how it turned out.

“He did a really good job. I felt that he instantly knew what I would like my style to be,” she said. “It’s not the normal type of music out there, not something you’d hear from me, anyways. I think it will take people by surprise.”

Angie Bren has been singing since high school. She and her husband, Shannon, have been active performers at coffee shops and church worship services in the area since moving to the central Kenai Peninsula four years ago.

The CDs are in production now and should be available on the central peninsula over the summer. In the meantime, Bren is preparing for a summer tour of Washington and Oregon. Her manager is setting her schedule now, and she plans to drive down with her family on May 25, and start the tour in June.

“I am very nervous, and excited. Kind of impatient. I’m just trying to take it a day at a time,” she said. “I’ll be playing at a lot of churches, just singing for them and at coffee shops, some festivals and farmers markets, which, in the bigger cities, get like thousands of people going through there. So I’m really scared. But my husband is my number-one supporter. He’s been encouraging me to go.”

Bren and her husband have been writing and performing music together since they met in college in 1996. Bren got started in music in high school, when a friend talked her into joining choir. She taught herself how to play piano, started directing the children’s choir at the church she attended and has been at it since.

The Brens moved to the central peninsula four years ago. They had been on the verge of moving to Mexico, but got the sense that God had plans for them in Alaska instead. Shannon now works for Hope Community Resources. Bren had worked at KeyBank, but recently finished her associate’s degree at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. They are members of the Peninsula Christian Center, and they and their four boys live in Sterling.

With so much going on in life, the thought of putting out a CD and doing a performance tour was daunting, but Bren said that she felt the experience would be good for her, to lend some perspective to her life. She hopes listeners find hope and support in the music, as well.

“I’m kind of using that to encourage people and encourage myself. A lot has happened in my life, most of it in the last four years while living in Alaska, so I figured I’m going to use it to make me a better person, a stronger person,” Bren said. “For me, for the summer experience, it’s about spreading the message and networking with other ministers to get more involved in the Christian music scene with churches.”

The content of the songs is as varied as the inspirations for them. One is a poem Bren’s husband wrote for her and the two set to music. Another, “Mary’s Praise,” is based on the Virgin Mary’s reaction to being told she has been chosen to bear the Christ child. Another, “Reflect the Garden,” is about the experience of coming to know God.

“One song is about loss and grief — like, ‘Man this stinkin’ hurts, but I think I can make it through.’ And one song is about finding out who you are and not taking on the labels of the world,” Bren said.

Samples from the CD can be heard on Bren’s Reverbnation Web page, accessible through the Brens’ Facebook page, or directly at http://www.reverbnation.com/shannonandangiebren.

Fans can look for Bren on tour during the summer, or wait for her to come back to the central peninsula and pick up performing locally again, which she absolutely intends to do. There’s no expectations, or even interest, of using her CD and tour as a springboard to some kind of musical stardom.

“I’m not an ‘American Idol’ type of person,” Bren said. “I don’t think I could flourish like that. To me, it’s not about me. It’s about, ‘What can I give to other people?’ If I feel like it’s all about me at any point, then I would just stop. I don’t even know how I came this far, but since I have, I know I might as well use it for good.”

Mmmm Mexican — South-of-the-border flavor comes north

By Matt Tunseth

Photo by Matt Tunseth, for the Redoubt Reporter. Maria’s Mexican food has set up shop in a former coffee shop on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

Redoubt Reporter

Tony and Maria Hernandez had a pretty good reason to open a homemade Mexican food joint on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

“This is my last chance to stay in Alaska,” Tony Hernandez said Monday outside Maria’s Authentic Express Mexican Food at the corner of Poppy Lane and K-Beach Road.

Hernandez explained that a downturn in his chosen trade has made it hard to eke out a living. He’s lived and worked on the peninsula as a construction worker since he moved here from Chicago 25 years ago. Instead of struggling to find work, he and Maria decided to go into business for themselves in a former coffee train car at one of the area’s busiest intersections.

On March 10 they opened up shop, and the smell of authentic, central-Mexican dishes like carne asada, chorizo and birria began wafting over local commuters.

The word has already begun to spread, and judging by the traffic Monday afternoon, the Hernandezes shouldn’t begin packing up just yet.

“It’s been fair. So far it’s just local people, but I’m waiting for the tourists,” Tony said as a steady stream of vehicles pulled past the restaurant.

The Hernandezes’ menu is simple yet exotic. Dishes are served up on either taco shells or wrapped up as mission-style burritos cooked to a golden brown. The family makes its own salsas and dishes fresh each morning, including a couple of Tony’s favorites from his native Guadalajara, which he left nearly four decades ago for the United States.

One of those is birria, goat meat simmered in a blend of chili, tomatoes and spices.

“That’s a really traditional food in Guadaljara,” he said. “It’s like the Philly in Philadelphia.”

Though Tony and Maria split time in the kitchen, Tony was quick to point out the secret to the restaurant’s authentic taste.

“My wife is the chef,” he said, noting that Maria has cooked in local restaurants for much of the past two decades.

Walking past, Maria didn’t disagree, saying that when she’s cooking, diners are really in for a down-home meal.

Why?

“Better flavor,” she said with a laugh.

The Hernandezes’ food is served up within minutes of being ordered, for about the same price as a fast-food value meal. The couple plans to begin offering breakfast next month, including breakfast burritos and huevos rancheros, and also offers free delivery.

They can be reached at 262-6777.

Don’t pass on safety in summer driving

By Sally Cassano, for the Redoubt Reporter

Hey, I’ve got a good idea: Let’s get in a 2-ton hunk of metal and barrel down the road toward one another at a mile a minute, with nothing more than a thin strip of paint between us.

Sounds a little ridiculous, but that’s what we do every day when we strap ourselves in behind the wheel of a car. Sometimes we even strap our kids in there with us. My point is that summer is fast approaching, and we Alaskans will soon be sharing the road with thousands more who wish to see our majestic state. Yes, tourists stop on the side of the road to see a moose or a bear. It’s quite a sight for those who aren’t as lucky as we are to see these kinds of things regularly.

‘Tis the season to remember that summer driving is a lot like winter driving — everything slows down a bit. The important thing is to not become impatient. An impatient driver is a dangerous driver.

While Alaska rates No. 1 for a lot of great things, there is one area where being rated first isn’t something of which we should be proud. We Alaskans are the worst drivers in the nation. That’s right — we have more accidents and fatalities per capita than any other state. (North Dakota is the best, if anyone is interested.) As many of you remember, last summer was particularly deadly on the Kenai Peninsula and Turnagain Arm. Hopefully, we can work together to make this summer better.

One of the biggest problems on our roads is people passing where it isn’t safe, lawful or sensible. Following are a few tidbits about passing that you may or may not know.

First of all, passing on the Kenai Peninsula is dangerous. We mostly have single-file, two-lane highways that have very few long, straight stretches. There are few miles between our cities, and once we enter city limits, our road opens up to four lanes. This is a much safer place to pass, because you do so traveling in the same direction.

For example, it’s only about a 10-minute drive from Kenai to Soldotna on the Kenai Spur Highway. There are numerous side roads from which people are entering or exiting the highway. This slows traffic, plain and simple, and creates an added danger for passers. Often, when I’m passed on the Kenai Spur, I pull up to the traffic signal at Marydale right next to the very vehicle that just passed me. Saving less than a minute is not worth the risk we take while passing on single-file, two-lane highways.

It’s also important to do the speed limit, folks. Traveling 45 mph in a 55 mph zone only encourages passing. Pay attention to your regulatory and warning signs for speed limit changes. If you have a tailgater, as obnoxious as that is, check your speed. Maybe you’re the goofy one who isn’t traveling at the designated speed.

One of the most commonly made passing mistakes is passing on the right or the left of someone turning off the highway. Solid lines (yellow OR white) are restrictive. You may not drive on them. The shoulder is there for bicyclists and pedestrians. If you habitually drive over the line, you not only increase the risk of mowing someone over, but you also increase your risk of losing control on a sandy shoulder, colliding with the car that is turning or with oncoming traffic, and essentially creating a three-lane space out of a two-lane space — reducing everyone’s lane space. Not cool.

If you are the one turning off the highway, there are a couple of things you can do to discourage people who are tempted to continue around you while you make your turn. Stay in the middle of your lane. Don’t drive on the shoulder before making a right-hand turn. Signal well in advance and stay in your lane. The same goes for those who are turning left. Don’t hug the center yellow line. This not only encourages people to pass you on the right (which is clearly illegal), but it puts you and your family all that much closer to oncoming traffic.

Signal well in advance, stay in the center of your lane, and keep your wheel straight and car straight until the coast is clear for you to turn left. Think about it: If your wheel is cranked to the left or your car is pointed to the left while you wait, you could be knocked into oncoming traffic if someone behind you isn’t paying attention and rear-ends you. Makes sense, right?

Although I teach my students how to pass, where to pass and how to do so correctly, safely and efficiently, I always say this: Don’t pass on the Kenai Peninsula while driving on a two-lane highway. It is extremely dangerous. If you’ve got slowpokes in front of you, it probably means they are looking for their turnoff and will soon be out of your way.

If not, wait until you have a four-lane section and you can pass going in the same direction. Being impatient doesn’t save time. Passing on the right or the left in a single-file lane doesn’t save time — especially in heavy traffic.

And folks, the center turn lane in town isn’t for passing, merging or waiting. It’s for left turns only. So if you’re not turning left, stay out of there.

If you have good driving habits, you’ll react with those good driving habits in the event of an emergency situation. If you have bad driving habits, that’s what you’ll react with. Be safe this summer. Let’s try to at least reduce that fatality rate, and hopefully eliminate it.

Sally Cassano is a driving instructor for Manny’s Driver Education.

Plugged In: Exposing the factors of well-lit, sharp images

By Joseph Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

The graphophobic police have confiscated our technical software for a few weeks so that readers with lingering headaches from my past few columns can fully recover.

In the meantime, let’s look at how to properly expose any image, even tricky ones like backlit situations where the bright light is behind your subject and shining directly toward your camera.

Exposure is the right combination of ISO sensitivity, lens aperture and shutter speed that results in the proper distribution of tones that we discussed oh-so-graphically last week. These control the amount of light that reaches the sensor and the extent that the camera amplifies the light to produce a photo file output. Although there may be several possible exposures, one specific combination of ISO, lens aperture and shutter speed will usually give the best results.

You can vary each parameter so long as the net result is ultimately the same exposure value (EV). For example, if you want to use a smaller lens aperture in order to increase depth of field, then you’ll need to use either a slower shutter speed or a higher ISO, or perhaps altering each somewhat. All of these values work as 2x changes. For consistency, a one-EV exposure change is defined a 2x total change in the amount of amplified light used to create the photo file. Thus, reducing the size of your lens aperture from f 4 to f 5.6 (a one-EV change) requires you to either double the amount of time that the shutter is open or double the ISO. That means you’ll either need to increase the shutter speed from 1/200 second to 1/100 second or double the ISO sensitivity setting from ISO 100 to ISO 200.

Personally, I prefer to set my camera to the Aperture Priority (A) mode so I can use the lens at its sharpest feasible aperture, and/or to control the image’s depth of field. I prefer to set the camera on base ISO, again whenever feasible, although the higher image quality of a large-sensor digital SLR camera allows a lot more high ISO flexibility than a small-sensor compact camera without losing too much dynamic range and image quality.

It’s usually best to use a camera’s base ISO setting whenever possible to minimize noise and graininess and to optimize dynamic range and you’ll typically get the sharpest images when you use a medium lens aperture, usually between f 2.8 to f 5 for compact cameras and f 5.6 to f 8 with digital SLR cameras. Regular readers will recall that we recently examined ISO, dynamic range, sharpest lens apertures and depth of field over the last several issues. You can find these recent columns in the archives at http://www.redoubtreporter.wordpress.com.