June 2025

Summer is half over as the June news is written in Anchorage, after a couple weeks at the Angstman cabin and Tikchik Narrows Lodge.  The highlight of the most recent visit was entertaining Rich and Max Gannon from Cut Bank, Montana.  Bethel folks will remember Rich as a former resident, who was K300 race manager for a few years. He also was the volunteer website boss on this site for many years. He and his wife Jen played softball and camped with the Angstman crew every fall during hunting season.  This trip was a graduation present for Max, and he caught a lot of fish.

Max was delighted to learn some new facts about his parents that emerged during extended boat trips with the elderly guide that hosted them for a couple of days. That particular guide takes special joy in recalling long ago events that parents forget to tell their children about their youthful escapades.  Max was all ears for that stuff. One he really enjoyed was the time Jen prepared a special set of tee shirts to honor a game warden who bothered the crew at hunting camp.  His name was Dobson and he was convinced that there was not enough caribou meat in camp and therefore there must be some wasted meat nearby. When he was shown the kill site, he suggested the birds had consumed the meat that had been left on the carcass. That was proven to be wrong a couple weeks later when the photos were developed that showed the meatless carcass while the hunters were still at the site. The following season Jen showed up at camp with several shirts that had some well designed art work and a commonly used two word phrase that started with a verb and ended with Dobson that could not be mistaken for a compliment.  Everyone wore the shirts in camp in hopes he would show up but unfortunately he didn’t. During that era,  Don Lehmann gifted the camp a device known as a Daiquiri Whacker, a gas operated small engine attached to a blender for making frozen drinks in the wilderness. The engine was derived from a weed whacker, and had controls like a motor bike for revving. The favorite drink was a wild blueberry Slammer, made with fresh picked berries and almost anything else. Ice was gathered from the nearest snow field and the type of booze was not important.  

Old Farm Life

A review of ancient photos turned up this excellent shot of the old one room school a half mile from the Angstman farm.  This was the water source, which required a kid to hand pump whenever water was needed inside.

The school had an inside outhouse, meaning a small room that was attached to the school but was actually a gravity feed hole in the ground.  There was no running water, and the place was cold in the winter with either wood or coal supplying heat from a single stove.  The Angstmans sent their youngest boy there for first grade at age 5.  Now it seems that a kid can’t start kindergarten until age 6.  There was no kindergarten in this school, and there was no one to look after the five year old during the school year, so first grade was a good option.  A couple years  later, in third grade, age 7, a twenty two rifle was provided, and the following year a 20 gauge shotgun.  The use of those single shot weapons was not supervised, which of course would result in social services intervention in the current era.  Guns were common around the farm.  This photo shows that same kid aiming an old.44 rifle  found in a shed which became a favorite plaything. It was inoperative and had no stock, but plenty of imaginary targets fell to this deadly aim. Note the bib overalls which were standard attire on the farm.

What a different era that was.  A typical day involved wandering the neighborhood with a  dog or two often a mile or more from home just to see what was happening in the woods and fields. Today that would be grounds for a criminal neglect charge against a parent. But 70 years ago it was not only ok, it was praised as an appropriate way for a farm kid to grow up.  That farm background resulted in this event about 1980 in Bethel. This pig was imported from Aniak in a Cessna 207 that required substantial cleaning after the trip. Piglets were born shortly thereafter.

Echos of D-Day

June is the month that D-Day memories pop up on the internet. The events of that day are  becoming less and less known by Americans as living participants become scarce.  Andy Rooney was always one of the best at commenting on events, and this D-Day essay is short but powerful. For those who don’t know, D-Day was a major historical event that started the eventual downfall of a fascist leader who wanted to purify the white race by eliminating undesirable people from Germany and other areas that were overrun by his army.  He did so by consolidating power in his office and  using all of those powers to eliminate dissent  and intimidate opponents. (Sound vaguely familiar?)  It finally took a massive military effort to overcome his reign. Please watch this short video.

ALO Update

ALO settled a lawsuit recently against a cab driver in Bethel who failed to honor the flashing amber light on the main highway near the hospital which is activated by any pedestrian wishing to cross there. The driver hit a woman in the crosswalk and threw her a great distance before she landed on the shoulder. The case settled for policy limits.  Another policy limits settlement involved a Palmer family of five that was victimized by a driver who  lost control of his vehicle and crossed the centerline on the Parks highway, crashing nearly head-on.

Mandatory Moose & Other Characters 

This month’s mandatory moose is a  calf having a good time with its mother.

Skip Ackerson took this photo of a family of swans on the Minnesota farm.

Raising that many youngsters is not all that common for swans. In almost fifty years of flying over swan habitat in Western Alaska, it was rare to see more than 3-4 cygnets in a family by mid summer.  More than that are often hatched but predators consume some.  Common predators on the farm are snapping turtles, eagles, coyotes and mink. These two shots show some moose that performed in front of a trail cam at the Angstman cabin.  It’s not clear if they were fighting or playing, but there was clearly some action.

It’s not clear of they were fighting or playing, but there was certainly some action.

Here is a smooth water shot from the cabin.

And the last lake shot involves a good size Dolly Varden caught by Ada with a little help from Bubba.

Billionaires & Bad Behavior

And then on to Trump.  What a mess.  He was able  to ram through a bill adding wealth for the richest Americans, and depriving services to the poorest.  How does that work?  Maybe this clip helps explain it.

The ultra rich control our system and historically the results have always been disastrous.  Bernie Sanders, as usual, has the best comment on the situation. 

But there is a glimmer of hope. Some of the strongest Trump supporters are now questioning the Epstein saga. For years they have wanted that information made public, even though there was strong evidence that Trump was part of the scandal.  Now that seems to be blowing up. Trump wants the file hidden despite promises to make it all public. Clearly he is afraid of what the facts would show. This statement by Trump should make it obvious that he was part of the Epstein scene, which included trafficking young women for sex purposes.

The fact that a young girl earlier filed a suit against Trump for raping her during a Epstein party seems to solidify that belief but she dropped her claim after death threats. At this point, anyone who thinks Trump was not deeply involved  in sexual activity through Epstein is incredibly blinded by political loyalty. And because there are heavy hitters on the right determined to expose the whole Epstein story it just might happen. Don’t forget, about 20 women have publicly stated that Trump engaged in improper sex contact with them.  And also remember that he bragged about such conduct on a tape recording that was made public. And one jury decided he sexually assaulted a woman. But as long as he cuts taxes for the rich and deports non-white people all that is ok with many of his supporters.