November 17, 1993

 Hi everyone

As you can see by the return address, we got the job at the youth hostel. Stefan and I are now house parents! We've been here since Friday the 12th and have as yet had no hostelers but we've been busy whipping the place into shape, so the lack of visitors is actually a plus. Looks a lot better, but there's still lots to do. We've become parents in another way too no worries there's no little Graceland oops! I mean Grayson -on the way. Jim, the last manager here- the guy from Maryland about whom I told had bought a puppy just a few weeks before he left and so we acquired him. Tiega is a beautiful Husky malamute wolf mix. The perfect sled dog and perfect for us. He's a mere 11 weeks old, growing rapidly I've been doing some reading about Alaska, and I'd like to recommend a book that's great if you want to learn about life in Alaska. It's called Coming into the Country by John McPhee. It covers everything from urban life to living in the bush - the Alaskan term for the middle of nowhere. Speaking of recommendations, we saw a movie in a really neat anchorage bookstore a couple of weeks ago and I think it's the best movie I've ever seen it's a Mexican movie with English subtitles and the translation of the title is “Like water for chocolate.” The whole two hours I was laughing through my tears as it was a genuinely touching and funny and very well-made film. Make sure you see it but be careful once you start crying you just can't stop. Since we've been here, We've bought two second-hand Winchester 3030 shotguns necessary for not only subsistent style living but also for protection. Our back yard is the Chuka National Forest the most beautiful mossy virgin forest I've ever seen and it's teeming with wildlife, bears, black and grizzly. In fact, Stefan saw a grizzly two days ago, moose wolf Caribou bald eagle minx tons of beavers. The Snow river runs right through the hostile property. We keep our bedroom window open at night and our lullaby to sleep every night by the sound of the river and then, of course, your normal forest animals rabbits squirrels, and lumberjack. Even though it's so late in the year and the bears should be no threat because of their prolonged winter naps This year is normally warm so there's still roaming around trying to fill their stomachs for the winter. I should explain what abnormally warm means yesterday the high was 20 degrees and today 24 degrees whereas normal we would be about 15 degrees below that there is amazingly still no snow on the ground here the fact that the highway a few miles north from here is often periodically closed because of avalanches tells you that large amounts of snow is normal then none like we have now I have a feeling that it's coming soon. We had a hitchhike to Soldontona today and rode with a trapper along the way we stopped where he had set some traps and he had caught two minxes. Boy, are they beautiful animals! They look like ferrets but with such soft, sleep fur that there are far more attractive. I learned a difference between a leg trap that logically clamps down on the animal’s leg and a conibear trap that snaps the animal's neck killing it instantly which is considered more humane. For that reason, the EC voted in 1991 not to import any furs from animals trapped in like trapped. That has enraged trappers here as the Europeans continue to sell their more conscientiously obtained verge to the states would you please tell me which Aleutian island Danny lived on? Now that I'm here it interests me more than ever. I was wondering if the photos from our wedding ever showed up. If so please send them to us please and if you have one we'd like to see a picture of Graceland. I would give you our phone number, but the lack of a phone makes that hard to do. We also have no television which is great except that I miss jeopardy too the invitation for a Christmas visit is still open let us know

love

Julie