Progress: Storage, SUVs, Apartments and a Rifle!

We're getting closer.

The big hurdle for me is the Kentucky bar exam. My bar review class ends today, and then I have two weeks to buckle down and study hard. The bar exam is July 29th and 30th in Louisville. Samara's classes end soon as well, sometime around the end of July, and then she'll have her Master's Degree in Public Health.

Besides those major distractions, there's a lot to do. We need to pack up our entire house. We did make a small start on that procedure. We've rented a 10x20 storage space at Storage Center in Lexington. It should be big enough to store my 1978 Toyota Corona project along with anything else that we want to keep but can't immediately take with us to Alaska.

It's fair to say that Alaska is a rugged place. With this in mind, we decided (with a fair amount of influence from my parents) that we needed a newer, more reliable vehicle, with four-wheel drive. Since gas prices are rising, now is a good time to buy an SUV. Everyone is trying to get rid of them, which is good for us. So far, we looked at a 2000 Nissan Xterra. It was a nice one, but it was priced well above the Blue Book value. We offered less, explaining the mistake to the seller. Unfortunately, she had someone offer her more than we did. We also looked at a 1995 Land Rover Discovery today. It was an awesome vehicle. Well, assuming you want to do some hardcore offroading. It had a 9500 lb. winch, giant driving lights, GPS, Satellite Radio, a 1.75 inch lift, full-time 4wd, big knobby tires, and a heavy-duty suspension. Unfortunately, it also seems to be slightly more leaky than I would have liked. That's the nice thing about looking at four-wheel drive SUVs... it's easy to crawl underneath and take a good look. Everything that could leak on this vehicle was leaking, and the exhaust had a pretty big hole. I could have welded up the exhaust, but the leaks were just too much for comfort.

Never fear, though. There are a few more good-looking SUVs listed on the local craigslist. We'll find something comfortable and reliable that will get us to the boat in Seattle and through the long Alaska winters.

Once we get there, we'll need a place to live. We've been working on that as well. So far, the best option seems to be a 2 bedroom apartment in downtown Dillingham. The rent is $1200 a month, which includes heat, water, sewer and snowplowing. That first thing, heat, is a big one. Heating in Dillingham is done with fuel oil, and that stuff is getting expensive! We could rent a nice little 3 bedroom house for closer to $800 a month, but we'd have to pay for our own heating oil. That could bankrupt us, with rising oil prices and a cold winter coming.

One of the best parts of talking to folks in Dillingham about apartments (besides the considerable delay on the phone line) is that they can't give you an address for the property. See, no one really uses addresses in Dillingham. You have a P.O. Box for mail, and while there ARE street names and street addresses, no one uses them. The apartment we're most interested in is past the Moravian Church and the GCI Communications satellite dish, at the end of the street. But hey, it's got a view of the bay!

We still need to buy ourselves some parkas for the cold weather, but I'm already prepared for another possible Alaska-related problem. I'm talking about bears. Dillingham, you see, was once the Salmon Capitol of the World. So the grizzly bears around those parts eat plenty of salmon, and they get BIG. We're talking 1500 lb animals. Hopefully they stay out of town, but it's not a guarantee. Sometimes they come sauntering into inhabited areas, and they're not always friendly. That leaves open the possibility that you might surprise a bear one day. What's a guy to do?

Buy a rifle, of course.

Now, in all seriousness, I hope I never have to shoot a bear. They're much prettier when they're alive, and I'd rather take pictures than shoot them.

Residents of Alaska must take care not to create nuisance situations, such as unsecured garbage, that might attract bears. However, one may legally shoot a bear in self-defense as long as he or she didn't create the nuisance that attracted the bear. There are plenty of other good reasons for a rifle, as well. Hunting is a huge past-time in Alaska. In fact, a fair amount of Dillingham's income comes from hunting and fishing. Some Dillingham residents make a subsistence living from salmon and caribou, while others run bed-and-breakfast and guide operations for hunters and fishermen. So it's possible that I'll get invited on a hunting trip.

Well, now I'm ready. I bought a rifle. I don't have a lot of experience in this area, so I relied on the advice of my friend Gary, who is a tattoo artist and big game hunter. (He took a bison with a bow and arrow!) He recommended a "scout" type rifle. Being the sort of guy who likes a do-it-yourself project, I decided on "sporterizing" a surplus rifle. I bought a Russian M44 bolt-action rifle, manufactured in the second World War, and stored in grease for the last 50 years or more. To spruce it up for hunting use, I replaced the wood stock with a fiberglass stock, installed a scope, installed an aftermarket trigger, installed a sling and shortened the barrel. It came out looking pretty nice. With the 7.62 x 54R cartridge, this is a rifle that will handle almost any game in North America. It might not be the best rifle for moose or large bear, but it's better than throwing rocks!

The best part, of course, is the price. $90 for a surplus rifle, and a few hundred for all the accessories I needed to transform it into a modern hunting rifle. Now I just need to catch Gary on a day off so that we can sight it in and do some practice. That should give me a good break from all-day bar review study sessions.

Oh, and I guess I should mention that we have an escape plan in case we don't really like Alaska... we can come home after a year! We are keeping our house here in Lexington, for now. Our friend Ann is going house-sit for us. Of course, that means that we have to help her move in addition to moving ourselves. Dad's old pickup truck is going to get quite a workout!

Stay tuned for more Alaska updates!