In small house with a dog up front, milk jugs, gas barrels, and many more objects scattered on the front porch lives a man who inspires. Pigs, ducks, geese, chickens, and rabbits roam the back yard; cats wander around with names of Gray Kitty and Kitty. Two of the biggest pigs that I have ever seen are out front.  Inside of the house is cozy, warm, and welcoming. A baby chick squawks by the bed/ couch.
    David and Helen West tell us their stories of living in Alaska. Waking up, getting out of bed, and taking care of the animals isn’t particularly easy for Mr. West. He says his farm is like therapy. It makes him get out of bed even when he hurts. David has a problem with his brain stem.  The doctors say the cyst could be from an accident – he had fallen off  a horse trying to impress a girl -- or he was born with it and it took this long to kick in. He told us a story of how he could have possibly gotten his cyst.
    He has had three surgeries in the past five years on his brain stem. Everyday he is in constant pain. If there was a herb that could help with his cyst he would choose it over his medication. But just by looking at him he seems like a healthy, but active fifty-two year old man.
    Normal brain stem has pores but David’s has spider like legs coming out of them and pushing on his spine making him ache with horrible pain.  He hardly shows that he is in pain, because he laughs and smiles a lot.

Mr. West is an inspiration because he is living subsistence life, raising seven different animals, and he picks berries, mushrooms, and herbs. He also hunts moose whenever he can plus works a fish wheel.  He has been unemployed ever since his injury. David and Helen are making it out okay. Thanks to David and Helen West for telling us your stories and answering our questions. You are truly an inspiration.

    “Why would you dress a cat?”  This is a question you may ask when you read the title of this blog. Imagine sitting on the couch with nothing to do. You turn your head and see the cat. You then come up with the idea and say, “I think I’ll dress the cat.” Well, you have probably never dressed a cat before and want to do it right so you look and see if there is anything on the internet.  But, there is nothing so you go off on your own.
    Before you can dress a cat, you have to catch it. You could just pick it up, but if the cat runs away you can trap it; you will need the following: a box, a string, a stick, and a toy or food. After you collect all of the equipment there are only seven steps. First you tie the string to the stick, then you have to balance the box on the stick.  Put food or a toy under the box; after that you need to hide. Next, wait for the cat to take the bait. When the cat comes, you pull the string. Finally, you grab the cat.
    You need to embrace the cat properly to dress it. So you clench its back legs with one hand. Use your elbows to hold the cat still. You will most likely get scatted or bit when holding the cat so, be careful.
    If (When) you get bit you will want to clean the wound. Use water to get most of the bacteria out. Add Neosporin and a bandage to help it heal and keep clean. Later on (talk to parents if 18 or younger) take paper towel and put Iodine on it. Then add more Neosporin and another bandage to the wound.
    I tell you this for your safety: when the cat’s ears go back, and eyes get small, its tail twitches , hisses, and its body starts to wiggle, run. If you do not run, the cat will flip around and treat you like a dog up in its face. This is a warning.
    There are many different outfits to put on a cat, but the quickest and easiest is a dress. Make sure the dress is small and will fit the cat. You do not have to dress the cat in clothing; you can use accessories like jewelry, scarves, hats, make -up, etc.

    Everyone says that Cupid is a boy and HE spreads love around.  Well actually, Cupid is a girl and SHE spreads love around. She doesn’t wear a diaper. And she doesn’t use a long bow. She is not what you would think Cupid would look like.
    Cupid has rosy cheeks, red lips, and her nails are red with pink hearts. On her right cheek there is a small red and pink heart. Her hair is hot pink; it hangs low and loose; when the wind blows, it flows in its direction; it is never tangled and she wears a headband with a red heart on the left side.
    She wears fish net leggings of red under a hot pink dress that comes mid-thigh, a red belt of hearts that slips down on her right hip and, her red leather high heel boots stretch up to her knees.  Instead of white her wings are pink.  To shoot her love arrows to the right person, she has a crossbow equipped with a scope to make every shot count.
    She is tall and means business. “Love isn’t a fun little game; it needs to be watched. That’s where I come in,” is Cupid’s catch phrase.

    Cupid’s job isn’t a bundle of joy. She watches love bloom and fall apart. She watches two hearts love and care about each other, and then it all breaks into an argument. Cupid sees hearts break at a loved one’s death. And love being made fun of.  Also, Cupid watches love bloom from the age of sixteen to ninety- five. The best sight to her is when she hears “to death do you part as long as you may live,?” and “I do,” from the bride and groom. Then seventy years later the couple is still in love; that’s why Cupid still does her job.

          She makes sure that love is in control and that nothing goes wrong. Thanks to her some people find their match. Every heart is full. She makes sure that no matter what you look like you will find love. All it takes is a caring heart, hope, and a chance for love.

    I am opposed to Pebble Partnerships proposal because it will destroy wetlands and salmon. Thirty to 40 million sockeye salmon return to the headwaters of Bristol Bay every year. There are 25 communities in the Bristol Bay area; and they rely heavily on the salmon to survive their subsistence lifestyle, harvesting 2.4 million pounds of salmon a year. It is in this area that the Pebble Partnership proposes a pit mine up to two miles wide and 1,700 feet deep.
     The Bristol Bay tribal governments are against Pebble Mine because they are afraid that the State officials didn’t understand the hazards of Pebble Mine They asked the EPA to block the mine using the Clean Water Act. A mine at the head waters would violate that law. Now the  EPA is investigating the mine.
     The EPA stated in their draft assessment the following:  “Even under the best conditions, 55 to 86 miles of pristine streams would be destroyed, along with up to 2,500 acres of wetlands. “Most worrisome,” the EPA noted,” is the risk of catastrophic failure of one of the mines tailing ponds, where residue from the mill would be held. If a pond were to fail, it would release acidic water and heavy metals into spawning grounds, causing grave, irreversible damage.” 
    They also found that not only would the mine destroy streams and wetlands, but  it would require an 86-mile long haul road and pipelines that would cross spawning grounds. Also they would need to make the nearby port into a deep-water facility; causing major changes.
    When the Bristol Bay Tribes went to the federal government instead of to the State, it made Governor Sean Parnell became enraged. So, his attorney general wrote letters to the EPA, accusing it of overreach and threatening legal action.  The Pebble Partnership jumped on board with the state despite the 230,000 public comments the EPA received about the draft assessment showing that 98% opposed Pebble Partnership’s plan.
    The impact of such a large mine on the small communities and their rural lifestyles would be devastating; the influx of people and infrastructure needed to support the mine would change the very nature of the area forever.
    Should the salmon industry be irreversibly damaged, the ripple effect would spread far and deep.  Commercial fisherman would lose their jobs and need to find a new way of life. This would impact their families causing them to lose money. It would also impact trade, fish stocks in stores, exports, restaurants, the state and national economy, and visitors. The loss of fish could make the country go even further in debt, and Alaska will lose one of its biggest attractions. We will not be able to trade Sockeye salmon to other countries.  People will not be able to harvest or even buy as much fish as they need.  And the people that live off of the Sockeye salmon will have to break tradition or even move to find a new food source that will feed them year round, and that they can get at any time of year and their subsistence lifestyle would be gone, and thousands of years of traditions will be lost.
    The future generations will not be able to witness their history, and tales of life with salmon will feel like a story that never happened.  The 2.4 million pounds of fish a year would turn into 2.4 fish a day.
    Beauty is not measured in copper or gold; it is measured in wildlife, tradition, family, friends, history and love. Pebble can try and mine Bristol Bay, but if enough people stand up and speak out the land and the memories will still live on for generations to come. So join me to bring down Pebble mine, and let the land and its people live like their ancestors have for thousands of years.
“Alaska still has what most of America has lost” ~ Rick Halford, former state legislative leader.

    I wake up on a cold December morning and notice something is different. Then it hits me; it’s Christmas1 Suddenly there is a warm feeling in my hea
    I am up on my feet and running, then I stop. There is a pile of wrapped presents under the tree; the thought that some of them are for me gives me a chill from head to toe. I also see stockings over flowing with candies and other goods.
    The tree sparkles with the fallowing: lights, tinsel, and ornaments. It’s almost blinding. To top it all off, a star glitters and shines on the tippy top of the tree. It lights up like never before.
    Mom and Dad sit on the couch waiting to see the joy on our faces when we open the candy colored presents of blue, red, green, pink, and many more and the gift is revealed.
    Paper flies, screams of joy fill the room. From big to small and fat to skinny presents of all kinds are scattered among the room. Boxes and wrappers of candy are piled on the small wooden coffee table in the living room. Not a present is left unopened.
    We stop eating candy and start playing with our toys we have just received.  All day is spent eating candy, playing with our toys, admiring our gifts, eating real food, relaxing, and watching Christmas shows. The pictures are finally over. (Thank goodness!)
    The rest of our day is spent being happy and wishing we had not eaten so much candy, but I’m glad for this Christmas with my family. Tomorrow we will rest, eat, sleep, and play some more. Now we must wait 365 more days until next Christmas. I hope that yet again it will be full of joy and love.  Well, that’s my Christmas. I hope yours is also full of happiness.  Merry Christmas.

    Dear Reader,
    You have found this note I have written….. It must have been made for you then.  Hello. (I hope you can read this. Sorry if you can’t.)  I live in Alaska, the 49th state of the United States of America, in the middle of nowhere, 10 miles outside of a ghosttown called Chitina . I hope you will like this note and find meaning in it; I hope it inspires you to write \ a note yourself and send it off to let it find its reader. Like you are mine. Please read this carefully; this is what the note went through to find you.
    Through the crashing waves, the roaring winds I traveled. I had one hope, one wish, one dream. That someone would find me. Read me.  I wanted to find you. The Lord told me that he would help me find the right person. He told me stories and tales of you.  I have finally met you. You are better than I could have ever dreamed. Please tell me my meaning,  if you care. Don’t throw me away! Put me in a frame and share me.  Thank you.
    I hope you liked it. It was off the top of my head. Hopefully, someday I will get to meet you or find a note from you. Have a memorable life, and spend it with all that is good: goals, freedom, and adventure.  Till the next time I see you or read a note written by you, Farewell.

    You know the feeling when you wake up, look outside and see snow on the ground, how it feels well… magical? Well, hiding in the snow are little fairies in parkas, snow pants, hats, gloves, and boots. They are checking every snowflake to make sure they are all perfect. During the summer they cut out millions of tiny snowflakes and decide where they should go.
    There are so many different jobs for these tiny creatures, so they split up the jobs. Some of the jobs are snow flake cutters, checkers, deciders, fosters, droppers, and many more.
     Snow flake cutters need steady hands. All day long during the summer they are cutting snowflakes. Big ones, little ones, and medium ones. Without these guys there would be no snow! Not one flake; if one stops that means others will have to do more work. They have a lot of weight on their shoulders.
    Checkers make sure every snow flake is perfect. They won’t let any flake with a notch or speck of dirt go to the deciders. This is a very important job, if one bad flake drops more bad flakes drop and that makes the snow not sparkle, but melt. If they all stopped working the snow would look treacherous.
     Deciders look at every flake to see where it should go, and how much that place will get. They make sure that one place doesn’t get to little or too much. Say they all go away then there wouldn’t be the right amount of snow anywhere!
    Finally there are the frosters and droppers; they work together to make the snow fall and stay. They make sure snowballs, snowmen, and snow forts are possible. They are some of the most important fairies that turn the world into a winter wonder land. Where? Trees glitter with snow, ice shines when the sun hits it, and snowmen glitter and twinkle.
     All the fairies have important jobs and without them winter wouldn’t exist. So when you get a special feeling when you see snow, thank the fairies for all their hard work. You may be wondering why they do all of this; they do it to see the joy on the little ones faces, and to bring families back together.  So when you see the snow and smile you are making thousands of snow fairies happy.

    The willows are weeping like they did so long ago. Far away in a unknown meadow on a plateau. Over mountains and hills, through forests, and across lakes, rivers and streams.  A little girl lives close by and hears its sweet weep. She runs to it listening to the sound to guide her. She runs and runs as fast as she can and does not stop till she reaches her destination, then stops. The musical weeps make the girl sing a song of joy. She blinks her eyes and slowly starts to fall to the ground.  
    The soft green grass draws her close to the sound of the weeping. Suddenly she awakes. Walking up to the tree, she sees a strange leaf, not green, or yellow, not orange, but violet. It draws her near; on a branch there is a note that said:
    Dear reader,
If you have found me by following my song
Then I have chosen you to be my protector
If you accept please take one of my leaves
And place it on your arm

    She did as the note said. The leaf gave off a bright light, then disappeared. All that was left was an imprint of it on her arm that would never come off. She started to read the note again.
You have taken me into your heart, now I am
a part of you. You are my protector and I thank you.
Sincerely,
The willow
    The young girl shouted at the top of her lungs,  “I am Amy, protector of the Weeping Willow and will protect it till I die and even then my spirit will live in its roots!” And so she did, and they say when the cool peppermint wind of the north blows, you can hear her shout and the willows weeping like they did so long ago.