November 2025

The darkest days of winter are upon Alaska, and with that comes some extreme weather to make things interesting.  Most recently that included a powerful windstorm that lasted a few days in downtown Anchorage, causing some damage and lots of inconvenience.  Trash blew around, trees toppled and foot travel was challenging.  Anchorage has experienced icy conditions frequently in recent years with gradually warming conditions, and the current ice, combined with 40 mph winds made walking a challenge, especially for an elderly lawyer walking 5 miles a day.  Here is an example of the damage caused by the wind at a public airstrip in Anchorage near the international airport.

Higher winds in the Wasilla area north of Anchorage caused more damage, including local stores and houses losing their roofs. Damaging winds with longer durations are more common in recent years worldwide and the damage caused is sometimes catastrophic. Already there are areas of the country where insurance for wind damage is hard to obtain, or else painfully expensive.  It will only get worse, as the U.S. is one of the few nations worldwide that is scaling back climate initiatives.

Angstman Family History

Growing up on the farm in Minnesota there was a steady stream of relatives nearby because the original Angstman farm had produced 13 children and many still lived in the area. Uncle Warren still lived on the farm with his nieces and nephews, and Uncle Jack had an adjoining farm.  Aunt Laura, a widow with no children, was the matriarch of the Angstman family, and she had a small cabin on Jack’s farm.  From there she helped Jack raise his kids and also helped with the five kids nearby where her favorite nephew Myron lived. Attaining favored status was easy because Laura had a raft of nieces and nephews, all quite a bit older and no one else was interested in listening to her stories from the old days, which Laura loved to tell. Among the tales she told were of her youthful years living with her family in a sod hut near Aberdeen, South Dakota. She was next to oldest and was put in charge of managing her brothers, which she described as quite a chore.  The idea of a gang of lively young boys living in a one room sod house is hard to fathom.  She said one of her jobs was to walk on the prairie and gather buffalo chips (dried dung) to burn for heat. This was about 1890 after the buffalo were mainly wiped out, but because millions had roamed the prairie earlier, there was still plenty of evidence of their presence. She described the hut as comfortable enough in decent weather but remembers it as having a leaky roof which turned the floor to mud in rainy weather.

Laura of course was a hardy woman. As a family caretaker she was stern and practical.  She was especially hard on sisters Harriet and Carol who according to Laura were not diligent enough doing chores. Harriet even made the mistake of talking back to Laura which was never ended well. She made old fashioned meals, including her famous mincemeat pie and tapioca pudding. One memorable event from that era is when Laura took a summer job as cook at the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. She was assigned to a summer camp for the Indian kids and decided to invite her favorite nephew for a visit.  The arrival at that camp is still a vivid memory.   It was about 1954 and Princeton, Minnesota was hardly an example of cordial race relations. What a grade school kid knew then about Indians would consist mainly of bows, arrows, tomahawks and scalps.  Upon arrival at the camp, a gang of about 8-10 Native kids raced by the car and headed into the woods, and the only word that immediately came to mind was "warpath". Laura eased her little nephew into the camp, and within hours the same gang had a new white member.  Having grown up quite solitary on the farm, it is hard to describe the revelation that these were not young savages but instead the most fun loving, energetic, outdoorsy kids ever.  This camp had few of the trappings of a typical summer camp, but the kids were great at improvising.  Years later that same trait was observed in rural Alaska with the Native folks who became part of the Angstman life.

Laura lived past 100 as did her only sister.  At her 100^th birthday party she was still sharp as a tack, capable of pithy comments as needed.  She was never shy about expressing herself.  She got a good laugh out of her favorite nephew’s speech at the party which included this line. “To show how old Laura is, please consider I met her 35 years ago, and she was already old the first time I saw her.”  Here is a newspaper clipping about Aunt Laura.

Mandatory Moose and Other Characters

This month’s Mandatory Moose is a large cow munching by the trail in the dog park, unconcerned by Jack walking by.

Two coyotes triggered the trail camera at the farm recently.

There are healthy populations of most critters who live on the farm and that includes predators.

ALO Update 

ALO settled a case involving a serious injury suffered by a student at an Anchorage school who slipped on untreated ice on a walkway in front of the school.  Having handled numerous such cases, it is apparent that walking areas at public facilities need to be sanded in Alaska, especially recently because of numerous freeze-thaw cycles that have become so common.   A well-maintained walking area has an abundant supply of very small gravel which improves traction dramatically.  Insurance companies recognize this fact and are willing to pay for injuries suffered when falls happen on untreated ice.

Cold Cash & Hot Trails 

Speaking of ice, the Kuskokwim 300 is back conducting races on icy trails in the Bethel area. The first race, called the Season Opener, attracted 15 teams and paid out a total purse of $25,000. Every racer got paid prize money, with $3,200 to the winner.  The K300 must be doing something right because there is a waiting list for the upcoming race in January. The 30-team limit was filled in November.  Here is the mass start of the Season Opener.

Kobuk River Wisdom

Seth Kantner has published another article in the Anchorage paper worth reading. Like Aunt Laura, Seth grew up in a very humble location along the Kobuk River.  His childhood home was a partially subterranean hut on the bank of the river which he still uses in the summer months as he practices subsistence in the Kotzebue area.

Sinking Ships & Rising Premiums 

And now some politics.  This space often posts quotes or videos from prominent Republican individuals., on the theory that hard core Trump supporters should see how current Trump supporters once viewed him.  Here is a prime example.

One currently divisive issue is the sinking of suspected drug carrying boats by the military.  Anyone with a modest understanding of American law understands that the government cannot execute people suspected of running drugs without due process.  Trump justifies the executions by suggesting these boats are driven by terrorists, without identifying them. The government went further by doing a second strike on one boat to kill two survivors who were clinging to the boat after the first strike.  Even in wartime, such an action is not allowed and is properly called a war crime. Here is what Trump had to say on the subject of releasing the tape of that second strike.

For those unsure how to classify that second comment, it is correctly called a bald face lie. And as to the question of whether Trump has a consistent position regarding illegal drugs, consider this fact.

Trump’s pardons are for sale, and that will become clear in the future when these matters are fully investigated, which may happen after the next Congress is seated a little over a year from now. 

Another problem area right now is medical coverage.  At the end of the year millions will see the cost of their medical insurance spike very high as government subsidies expire. Many more millions will lose their coverage entirely.  The outcry will be loud, and widespread.   It will not just affect those who directly benefit from the subsidy.  The medical insurance industry bases its rates on the amount is collects in premiums compared to the amount it must pay out for medical care.  If the amount coming in drops substantially, that loss must be borne by those still in the program, so rates for all other insured people will go up.  This article by an insurance executive explains that concept in detail.

The health insurance situation clearly identifies the issue with medical care in America.  A system that pays billions of dollars each year to the for-profit insurance industry is set up for failure.  Those billions should be properly paid directly to the medical providers without a very expensive middleman.  This chart explains how America could save money by providing Medicare for all, as is done in most every other country on earth.

Here are some more quotes on the subject of medical care that are revealing. 

The fact is there is no Republican plan for medical coverage.  People with modest incomes are already struggling to survive financially and this next period of time promises to bankrupt many of them.

Trump’s popular support continues to slide, and his recent comments about the death of Rob Reiner and his wife will certainly push those poll numbers lower.  Republicans are more readily criticizing him, with good reason.  Election results around the country have many Republicans running scared, and nothing Trump has done recently is changing that.

And finally, a bit of British humor.