sleetmute

Robbin and Chris's Alaska

Sleetmute
(1998-99 school year)

our front yard

Russian Orthodox Church     For the first time in nearly two years of marriage, we lived in a large house. We had a separate bedroom! There were rooms! It was huge. It was heaven. It was drafty. It was rotten. It came very dirty with a dead, rotting dog under it. It was hell. When the weather got cold, down into 40 below for three weeks, I hauled a whole tree everyday to burn up in the wood stove. Without a snow machine or a functioning chainsaw, cutting down and hauling trees was time-consuming and fatiguing work, though satisfying. Even when I fixed the chainsaw by ripping out the chain brake, I didn't use it out in the woods. It was too peaceful out there, steadily sawing, cutting the tree into manageable pieces, pausing to ward off frostbite. The sky is never so big and blue as it is at 40 below.
    Sleetmute is on the Kuskokwim River, one of Alaska's biggest secrets. No one seems to have heard of it before, though it is second in size only to the Yukon. Salmon spawn up it. Moose feed on the willows that grow on its banks. Beaver close off its sloughs. It is a wild place, and stereotypically Alaskan beautiful. Caribou migrate through once in a while.
    Sleetmute was my first real teaching job. I taught a classroom of students in grades 5-12, all subjects. Try to imagine making that work. I'm not sure how it happened myself. I often think of myself as a juggler, with 80 balls in the air, or a composer, directing an orchestra as I read the score for the first time. It is quite a challenge and quite fun. There is no better job than this!
    As I write this, we are actually still in Sleetmute, but things are looking grim. As I mentioned before, our house is rotten. Did I mention the roof leaks? Robbin is certain it will crumble this summer. I'm not so certain, but I am not willing to bet my life on it. There doesn't seem to be an alternative yet. Without housing, we're not staying. Onward...?

Link to Crescent Lake Lodge, a hunting lodge owned by the only other teacher in Sleetmute.

Our Attack Dog

Our lovely house

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site designed February 1999 by Robbin Garber-Slaght

Russian Orthodox Church	For the first time in nearly two years of marriage, we lived in a large house. We had a separate bedroom! There were rooms! It was huge. It was heaven. It was drafty. It was rotten. It came very dirty with a dead, rotting dog under it. It was hell. When the weather got cold, down into 40 below for three weeks, I hauled a whole tree everyday to burn up in the wood stove. Without a snow machine or a functioning chainsaw, cutting down and hauling trees was time-consuming and fatiguing work, though satisfying. Even when I fixed the chainsaw by ripping out the chain brake, I didn't use it out in the woods. It was too peaceful out there, steadily sawing, cutting the tree into manageable pieces, pausing to ward off frostbite. The sky is never so big and blue as it is at 40 below. Sleetmute is on the Kuskokwim River, one of Alaska's biggest secrets. No one seems to have heard of it before, though it is second in size only to the Yukon. Salmon spawn up it. Moose feed on the willows that grow on its banks. Beaver close off its sloughs. It is a wild place, and stereotypically Alaskan beautiful. Caribou migrate through once in a while. Sleetmute was my first real teaching job. I taught a classroom of students in grades 5-12, all subjects. Try to imagine making that work. I'm not sure how it happened myself. I often think of myself as a juggler, with 80 balls in the air, or a composer, directing an orchestra as I read the score for the first time. It is quite a challenge and quite fun. There is no better job than this! As I write this, we are actually still in Sleetmute, but things are looking grim. As I mentioned before, our house is rotten. Did I mention the roof leaks? Robbin is certain it will crumble this summer. I'm not so certain, but I am not willing to bet my life on it. There doesn't seem to be an alternative yet. Without housing, we're not staying. Onward...? Link to Crescent Lake Lodge, a hunting lodge owned by the only other teacher in Sleetmute.
Our Attack Dog
Our lovely house