Poetic paths — Writer finds inspiration, philosophy in traveling life’s divergent trails

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. William Matchett works on his journal at Veronica’s in Old Town Kenai. He writes poetry and records observations in a larger, master journal that has grown so fat it’s secured with a belt.

Redoubt Reporter

“Is freedom a path, or just a view?”

For William Matchett, who starts his handmade books of poetry with that rumination, it’s both — or maybe neither. Freedom is the way in which he wants to live his life, yet it’s an evolving route to get there, with “there” being as indefinite a concept as “someday” or “somewhere.”

Is freedom looking out to sea from the southern tip of South America? Is it the view of Homer after a weeklong walk there along the Cook Inlet shoreline from Kenai? Is it staring down logging trucks in Oregon? Or is it the lifestyle he’s chosen, that allows him to be in those places and take in those views?

Free from what, is the first question. Money, or reliance on it? Prejudices and preconceptions? Conformity? Answering it is a necessity of dichotomy — there’s no black without white, good without evil, supersized without the dollar menu.

Such is the sort of circular thinking to which Matchett’s books invite readers. Down one contemplative rabbit hole and up another, along meandering routes of conjecture that aren’t new to philosophers, poets and passers through a what’s-it-all-mean phase of examination, but that “productive” people — as the term is usually taken to mean, with careers, to-do list responsibilities — don’t typically invest much time and thought on.

That’s probably about the best description of freedom for Matchett — the space removed from deciding cell phone carriers and calling the satellite TV repairman; the state of neither this nor that, neither here nor there, moving but with the stillness to consider where he’s been.

“My favorite place is someplace new,” he writes. “… The path of least resistance is avoidance of experience. The beaten path is for the broken spirited. The ability to see life as an adventure is the key to living life as it should be lived.”

Civil right to be a state — Alaska statehood tied to rights movement

By Naomi Klouda

Photo by Naomi Klouda, Homer Tribune. University of Alaska professor Terrance Cole speaks about civil rights and Alaska statehood during a presentation Jan. 17.

Homer Tribune

Alaska’s quest for statehood grew tangled in the American civil rights movement of the late 1950s, but a man from the South determined to become president broke the gridlock.

In a talk, “Alaska and Civil Rights in America: Impertinent questions and the shimmering wake of the discontented,” one of Alaska’s foremost historians, Terrance Cole, delivered an address Monday evening at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kachemak Bay Campus. The event commemorated both Martin Luther King Day and Alaska’s civil rights day.

The man who wanted to be president was the ambitious Lyndon B. Johnson, far from Alaska’s politics and unmoved by the territory’s desire to achieve statehood, Cole said. A twist of fate tied to Johnson’s motives helped bring Alaska into the union.

“I had been teaching Alaska history for years, and I finally figured out the  statehood story in a way no one had figured it out before. Why did it take so long to become a state?” Cole said. “Someone asked that question and I didn’t have any good answer. I worked on it for six years. It was the giant elephant in the room.”

The question was posed backward, he found. The real inquiry should focus on the people who opposed statehood. “What was opposition based on?” Cole asked.

Hairy donation — Nonprofit ponders protocol for Fur Rondy pins

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story about a collection of Alaska memorabilia. Part one discusses the collection’s recent re-emergence. Next week, part two will reveal how the collection came to be and its probable fate.

By Clark Fair

A Fur Rondy pin from 1972

Redoubt Reporter

Last summer, Josselyn O’Connor, the development director for the Kenai Watershed Forum, fielded a telephone call that set off an unexpected chain of events.

O’Connor, who works to raise funds for her 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was accustomed to hearing from people interested in giving to the cause, but this turned out to be no ordinary donation.

The phone call resulted in a meeting with the donors, which led to some quick intraoffice discussions, which prompted a flurry of research, which led to a number of surprises, including a rare item dating back to 1941.

On the other end of the phone that first day was Jean Brockel, of Soldotna, who, along with her husband, Clayton, had long supported the Kenai Watershed Forum, whose mission is maintaining the health of watersheds throughout the Kenai Peninsula through education, restoration and research. Jean told O’Connor that she and Clayton wanted to make an appointment to come in and discuss a donation to the Watershed Forum.

“At the time, we were in the middle of a very big capital campaign, raising money for the renovation of the old Soberg house, to move our headquarters in,” O’Connor said. “I guess I anticipated a cash donation. I just wasn’t sure. When someone says that, they usually want to come in and donate cash. Every dollar is very important to an organization like us.”

But the Brockels were not offering cash — at least not directly.

Instead, they were offering a collection of Alaska memorabilia that had belonged to their son, John, who had died in January 2008. The collection consisted largely of Fur Rendezvous collectors pins, including most of the pins made and sold throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

Master splashers — Adult swim program widens pool of achievement

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Patty Moran concentrates on her form while performing the backstroke during an Alaska Masters Swim Club session.

Redoubt Reporter

Patty Moran, of Kasilof, kicked hard off the wall and then dug deep into the clear water of the Skyview High School swimming pool. The muscles of her back and arms constricted with each draw. She moved up the lane with precision and speed.

Her strokes changed every few laps, but her determination never waned. From the butterfly to the backstroke to the breaststroke, she controlled her breathing, concentrated and kept on going. It’s almost hard for her to imagine that less than a year ago, none of this was known to her.

“I just learned to swim this summer,” she said “After putting my kids in swimming lessons, I thought I should learn if I was making them do it.”

She took to the pool like a salmon takes to the Kenai River. Each day she wanted to go farther, but swimming on one’s own doesn’t always provide much motivation or support. Then she heard about the Alaska Masters Swim Club’s Top of the World Swimming group.

“I was hesitant because I am a beginner,” Moran said, but she said she has learned a lot in the few months she has been a member.

“I’ve learned that there is so much more to swimming than I ever thought. There is a lot of technique involved in the different strokes, and technique in general to improve your overall performance, such as streamlining off the wall, not taking a breath on the breakout stroke. Things I would have never done if I were just going to the pool and swimming some laps,” she said.

Eyeballing motivation — better safe than gory

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Motivation comes in many forms, few more visceral than viscera.

This is why I will no longer be reluctant to wear a bike helmet. I will also no longer cover my mouth when I sneeze. Here’s why:

I caught a few minutes of a reality TV show recently. I forget what the premise was. Does it matter? The plot of any of those shows share the same preface: “For some reason …”

… people agree to be marooned in the wilderness, drag heavy things through sand, eat bugs and otherwise willingly subject themselves to treatment that would be considered cruel in a prisoner of war camp;

… bored, Botoxed rich women want to demonstrate how shallow their lives really are;

… singles agree to seek romance through the whims of a matchmaker, a B-list celebrity or a TV-watching audience that they wouldn’t ordinarily trust to rotate their tires.

Whatever this one was about, no one seemed to be in danger of getting eliminated, it didn’t seem to be set in New Jersey and no one was cooking or being criticized for poor choices in style, housekeeping or grooming habits. I’m not sure if that helps you guess the show, but that’s all I gathered.

Old Duck Hunter: Fishing for a winner — Derby takes dedication

By Steve Meyer, for the Redoubt Reporter

Seems like the winter is going by way too fast this year. We’ve barely gotten started predator hunting and now it is time to gear up for ice fishing.

No matter what the weather — and this winter has been weird — ice fishing still requires preparation and allowing for the eventualities. Especially when your fishing partner is a rabid Trustworthy Hardware Ice Fishing Derby participant.

Little did I know that encouraging her to enter the derby four years ago would result in my Februaries (and most of January) becoming basically exclusively dedicated to ice fishing. If I am going to hunt predators in February, I pretty much have to do it at night.

For three years running my fishing partner has entered the “flush” division of the derby. Lake trout, kokanee, rainbow trout, Arctic char and northern pike must all be entered to compete in this division. She was the first woman to ever enter this division and remains the only woman to ever do it.

But no, that isn’t good enough. Now she has to compete in the “Royal Flush” division. To the aforementioned five species, add whitefish, burbot and Arctic grayling. Yeah, great, all I have to do is haul ice-fishing equipment 12 miles into the mountains to the only legitimate burbot lake on the peninsula, and the same up some mountain to catch a grayling in the middle of winter.

With that kind of pressure, one certainly doesn’t want equipment issues during the course of business. A thorough shakedown is necessary prior to the start, hence most of January being a full ice-fishing schedule, as well. At least I don’t have to worry about what lure to use. I don’t enter the derby but I fish right along with her. We use just two lures. Hers is a 5/8-ounce Mepps Syclops, while mine is a 1-ounce Mepps Syclops. Yep, that’s it.

No bait, no tiny jigs, no tip ups, just ordinary jigging with these two lures is all we have ever needed to catch probably more than our share of fish. That isn’t to say that the small jigs, single eggs, shrimp and herring don’t work. Of course they do, but my hands don’t do well in the cold and messing around baiting hooks and the like when it’s minus 20 just doesn’t do it for me. And why bother when you can snap one of these on a swivel and go right to fishing, and catch fish?

New take on old text — Actor brings biblical ‘Prophets’ to 2011

By Jenny Neyman

Brad Sherrill will perform "Prophets" on Monday in Soldotna.

Redoubt Reporter

Brad Sherrill’s new one-man theatrical show is something of a courtroom drama, using ripped-from-the-headlines issues of war, poverty, pollution and corruption as its backdrop to explore contemporary themes of judgment, forgiveness, restoration, homecoming and hope for the future.

But the script is not new. Far from it. About 2,500 years from it, in fact.

Sherrill is presenting “Prophets,” a show taken from the texts of the Old Testament of the Bible. Even though the words were written by people of a different culture, in an era far removed from today’s Western-dominated world, Sherrill hopes to demonstrate how they still relate to society today.

“Audiences are really going to go, ‘Wow, that’s in the Bible? Wow, these words sound timely, like they’re coming out of the newspaper.’ No matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, it’s still relevant today,” Sherrill said. “Rulers chasing after bribes and they love gifts — well, that hasn’t changed. There are ecological issues in the text in the Old Testament, like taking care of the land and not polluting it. These prophets talk about immigration — these are burning headline issues. They’re going to say, ‘Wow, this is pretty incredible. These are things that we’re concerned about today.’”

Sherrill is using revised translations of the Old Testament that renders the texts in more contemporary English, and he dresses in contemporary clothes. Staging is minimal, although the 95-minute play does include a multimedia slide show of images. He acts and voices all the characters himself — including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Amos. He also did the research for the show himself, combing through the Old Testament to select passages that would flow together into a coherent narrative representing the overall theme of the prophets in a length and format that would be suitable for a theatrical presentation.

“I think I’ve been theologically sound about it,” Sherrill said. “It’s very freeing and fun to do this, because I really feel these texts resonate today. They challenge us and give us hope in a lot of ways. This work is much more fulfilling than doing Shakespeare plays or modern plays, although I love that, too. But this is really rich stuff.”

Art Seen: Brought to light — ‘Rarefied Light’ showcases fine photography

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Listing Church, Rancho De Taos” by Barry McWayne is part of the annual “Rarefied Light” statewide juried photo exhibit, on display this month at the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus.

Rarified Light, a statewide, juried, photograph-based exhibit that travels around Alaska each year, has gotten less mixed-media laden and much more accessible each time it comes around again. Put on by the Alaska Photographic Center in Anchorage for at least the last couple decades, it’s been one of those juried shows that holds a reputation for being difficult to get into.

The trend toward less funky and more approachable works being included must be indicative of the successive juror choices, but perhaps it says a little something about our culture at large, as well. At least in our little neck of the woods, not very many artists are making big statements. Lots and lots of them are taking digital photographs, however, and Celia Anderson had the difficult task of hanging this year’s show, owing to the large number of pieces and the apparent lack of any cohesiveness inherent in the grouping.

Anderson was able to masterfully find a decent niche for every work, and it is a solid and lovely show that will be on view at the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s River City Campus until Feb. 4.

Plugged In: For good photos, knowledge trumps cash

By Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

There’s far more to consistently good photo-graphy than buying the “right camera” and lenses.

High-quality cameras and lenses are merely tools that allow you to more easily overcome technical problems, like dim light, fast action or resolving finely detailed subjects.

As the time-worn saying notes, the “nut holding the steering wheel” is a car’s single most important safety device. That’s also true with any sort of serious photography.

Consistently good photography results from the balanced development of your personal skill, technical knowledge, aesthetic insight and practiced eye.

More than 400 billion digital photographs are taken every year in the U.S. alone. Unlike traditional arts, like painting, drawing or sculpture, digital photography is more tolerant of minimal technical skill, at least under ordinary conditions. In the digital era of Photoshop and automatic-everything cameras, it’s not difficult to produce photographs that are minimally adequate, technically.

There is, thus, a widespread belief among amateur photographers that everyone who buys a decent camera can do just as well as highly knowledgeable and experienced professionals. That’s usually true only for an inexperienced individual’s personal evaluation and appreciation of their own photographs.

We take pictures of what’s meaningful and pleasing to us. That doesn’t mean, though, that what’s personally pleasing to us, in the immediate glow of pressing the shutter button, will resonate with anyone else or elicit any sort of considered artistic appreciation by others.

Harried diners — Peak of food cycle creates bump in road for bald eagles

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. While eagles are one of the species benefiting from the abundance of snowshoe hares, those scavenging on road kill have not been so fortunate.

Redoubt Reporter

The snowshoe hare population is once again at its peak, and it’s fairly common knowledge that when hare numbers go up, so, too, do the numbers of lynx and other animals that see hares as food. But not all species are benefiting from trying to get an easy meal.

“We’re getting multiple bald eagle casualties a week,” said Todd Eskelin, a biological technician at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. “We’ve had 14 hit in the last three weeks, and some of the people who called in a casualty said they saw six other eagles sitting right there.”

Alpine ambition — Soldotna runners mount attempt at grueling, trans-Alps challenge

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story about two former Soldotna High School athletes who tested themselves last fall in one of the world’s most rigorous running competitions. Part one covers the background for their participation and some aspects of the beginning of the race. Next week, part two will reveal how it all turned out.

By Clark Fair

Photos courtesy of Brent Knight. Brent Knight, left, and Brandon Newbould pose for the camera on the morning of Sept. 4, 2010, prior to the start of Stage One of the Gore-Tex Transalpine-Run.

Redoubt Reporter

Cattle were a problem on Stage Two of the race.

Alaska runners Brent Knight and Brandon Newbould tried to make the best of the situation, but the bovine issue was difficult to ignore. There they were, high in the Austrian Alps, running as a team for a second day in the arduous Gore-Tex Transalpine-Run, and even above tree line they were running by cattle.

Cattle on grazing land, cattle behind fences, and cattle on hillsides. Cattle nearly everywhere, on ranches and ranges up to nearly 6,000 feet in elevation in some of Western Europe’s most beautiful alpine country.

It was almost pastoral, except for the associated drawbacks.

“Much of the course ran through cow pasture, which had been tramped down into ankle-deep muddy excrement,” wrote Newbould in a race update to friends and family later that day.

On the first of their two descents that day, Newbould, who was leading Knight, skidded to a stop into a three-line barbed wire fence that was blocking the trail. Cut only slightly, Newbould collected himself and continued downhill through more manure, once more leading Knight, and again encountered a cattle fence across the trail.

This time, Knight and one member of a Russian team slid into the fence, discovering to their misfortune that it was electrified.

The Russian seemed to be briefly entangled in the fence, but Newbould said he was unable to render him any assistance because Newbould himself was busy “wiping out in a foot of wet manure,” gashing one of his hands in the process.

What’s the USAD? Residential natural gas hookups less affordable than in past

Editor’s note: This is part two in a series of stories examining the challenges of extending natural gas service on the Kenai Peninsula.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Sometimes, saving money isn’t cheap.

That’s the case when it comes to accessing natural gas service on much of the Kenai Peninsula. Even with Enstar rates increasing, natural gas still is a desirable way to heat homes and power appliances, being cheaper than electricity, fuel oil or propane, and cleaner and more convenient than wood stoves.

For those who live in residences already hooked up to natural gas, enjoying those savings is as easy as setting the thermostat, and requires as much thought or effort as tossing a load of laundry in the dryer and pushing the “on” button.

As with many things in real estate, natural gas service on the Kenai Peninsula comes down to location, location, location. Some have it — primarily in cities, with some other subdivisions sprinkled here and there in more rural areas — while many in rural areas don’t. Going from the latter category to the former can involve a long, time-consuming and expensive process that gets increasingly more costly as time goes on.

For the sake of utility, an existing homeowner wanting natural gas service, or a builder or buyer in an area not already hooked up to gas, might do better to just move to where service already exists, rather than trying to extend natural gas to their location. But for those determined, monthly bill-watching souls who want the same access to cost-saving heating that urban residents enjoy, they can roll up their sleeves, dip into their pocketbooks and get to work. They’ll need:

• Patience.
• Persistence.
• Persuasiveness.
• An aptitude for paperwork, hoop jumping, “i” dotting, “t” crossing and navigating governmental channels.
• A positive relationship with many, many neighbors (keep this in mind the next time Fido from down the street digs in the garden, or the area snowmachiners decide that others’ driveways make great thoroughfares).
• While they’re at it, they should get to know their political representatives, both on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly and in the Legislature.
• Money. Potentially lots and lots of it.
• Luck to be in the right place, at the right time (that time would be four or five years ago, so a time machine wouldn’t hurt).

There are a few basic ground rules to keep in mind when considering natural gas service extensions. One is that the projects aren’t cheap, and the costs of materials and labor increase over time. An average price for installing a natural gas service line to a subdivision about 15 years ago was around $9 or $10 per foot. In 2009, Enstar’s construction rate for 2-inch pipe was $14.81 per foot, and the price for 4-inch pipe was $21.24 per foot.

“The cost of business has gone up and our price is adjusted annually,” said Charlie Pierce, southern division manager with Enstar.

The farther away a project is, the higher the construction cost, and the higher the risk of other factors getting in the way that will increase costs even more — such as crossing roads and wetlands. If a project involves other agencies and entities — such as the Environmental Protection Agency requiring a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, or Enstar needing to negotiate with pipeline owners to tap their lines, which then has to be approved by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. All that takes additional work and time, which, as the saying goes, is money.

Proximity to a gas line doesn’t necessarily mean a service extension project won’t involve great distances and be cheap. What matters more is living near a pipeline access point. The natural gas distribution system on the Kenai Peninsula consists primarily of high-pressure transmission lines, requiring a pressure-reducing station to be able to take natural gas out of the lines for residential use.

A reg station, as it’s called, costs $250,000 to $300,000. In areas where Enstar expects future growth to result in a significant increase in customers, like Girdwood, the company has installed pressure-reducing stations of its own accord.

“Some of them are borne by the company, some borne by consumers. Some areas we would install one based on future load, in areas like Kasilof, though, you don’t have significant growth,” said John Sims, manager of corporate communications for Enstar.