Chapter 11

Thursday:

The next morning, I was up when Tommy arrived. During breakfast, I saw Junior, who introduced me to his friend Suluk (Sul) Akkituyok who was a Journeyman Electrician. Sul had been working on the same project as Junior. Apparently the builder had shut down his housing project when he realized that he would not be able to afford the material to complete it.

This caused me some concern when I first heard this. My face must have shown it, but both Tommy and Jenn caught on. Jenn said, "Do not to worry, we have finished purchasing everything we need, which is why I have returned."

A discussion followed about the current affairs of the world. Both China and Russia had reached a stand still in their ground war. Now they were threatening each other with nuclear war. I just hoped that didn't take place because we could be in the prevailing wind pattern from Russia which would be very unhealthy for us.

I immediately turned the job of wiring Art's cabin over to the two of them. Jenn joined Nukka and wasted no time in telling Junior and Sul how the cabin was to be wired. Sul did offer a couple of ideas which were readily accepted and seem to settle Nukka down a bit.

The men were already working on the interior of Arts cabin when the chopper arrived with its morning load of logs. These were placed on Rob's cabin and by noon they were in place. I started the wiring in Rob's cabin while Junior and Sul went to finish Art's wiring. My wiring was interrupted for a short time while a load of lumber was lowered into Rob's cabin.

At dinner, Nukka informed me she was going to move into her new cabin at least to sleep. I told her to sleep in the loft on the west end only and we would try to get the floor in and finished tomorrow along with installing the stove. Art grumbled a bit, "You are giving in to easy to her demands."

To which Nukka replied, "You are welcome to sleep in the tent by yourself, but Jenn, Junior and I are sleeping indoors."

Mary confided to me later, this was the first home that had been built just for Nukka and, although she was not saying anything about it, she was extremely pleased and proud of it. I asked her what she thought of her new home and she smiled saying, "It will be good to have a permanent place to get old in."

I had forgotten that most of her husband's people tended to be nomadic, traveling with the seasons. This gave me pause to wonder if we would be able to support ourselves here if we became isolated. The answer was I didn't know but I damned sure hoped so.

Friday:

Shortly after breakfast the next morning, the chopper arrived with the last five logs for Rob's cabin. By noon they had been installed. The chopper returned during the afternoon with a load of metal roofing material. Rob had picked a heavy 29 gauge metal roof, painted Denali Green. Everybody stood around talking about the color and seemed very pleased with the choice. Soon we hear a plane approaching and someone recognized it as Tommy's, so we headed to the plane basin.

Tommy had Art Sr. and Rob with him. Tommy said that this was his last flight for a while since the cost of fuel had risen more than 5 times what it had been. Art Sr. of course was welcomed by his family but put a damper on it when he said that he wanted to live in the small Quonset hut or he would leave.

Rob took me aside and said that was the condition, he had to agree to, in order to get his father to return. Then he added, "I talked with your Dad yesterday. He had stopped to see some old friends on the way home. Both Dad and I talked to him and he said that while he enjoyed the visit, he would stay where he was, because he did not look forward to a long cold Alaskan winter."

That sounded like my Dad. Coupled with the fact, like Art Sr., he did not want to be a burden to his family. I had not really expected him to return. I did hope that he would visit me again next summer if the opportunity presented itself. Somehow with the current state of the world, I did not hold out much hope.

Rob then, became the center of attention. Many were commenting on the color of the roofing material to Rob. Rob explained, "I tried to pick a color that would blend in. We need to make this camp as hidden as possible. We may want to think about shutters for the windows so that it will be harder to spot from the air."

"What's going on?" asked Art.

"There have been reports of armed men taking over remote cabins. Some of these have lead to the outright killing of the previous owners." explained Rob.

"What has the State done about this?" I asked.

"The governor has declared martial law where these incidents have occurred. The perpetrators have been tried by a military tribunal and if found guilty, been jailed or executed depending on their crime. The executions were carried out within 48 hours of the trial. This action seems to have slowed things down, but there is now a recall petition being passed around in the major cities of Alaska. Most native Alaskans (those born and raised in Alaska) refuse to sign the petition." concluded Rob.

Dinner that evening seemed to be more somber than before. Rob said that "Monday we could expect at least four chopper loads. One would be the logs to start my cabin, lumber for my cabin, wood flooring for all the cabins and the ceramic tile."

Sul said, "We are running a little low on electrical supplies." and Junior added "We will need more flue pipe and plumbing fixtures too."

"Are we really ready for all that?" asked Rob.

This lead to taking Rob on a tour of the two cabins. In Art's cabin, they had been installing the insulation and started with the paneling. Rob was very impressed and said, "I guess we need to have the stove flown in also."

Next we visited his cabin. Mary was right beside him explaining everything about the cabin whether it required an explanation or not. Rob just nodded his head and would hug Mary ever so often. At the end he said, "This is better than we ever expected. Thank you very much!" as he shock my hand. Art then came forward and offered his hands and similar comments. Jenn had somehow materialized at my side and was hanging onto my left arm.

Sunday:

The day turned out to be a clear day and fairly warm for our part of Alaska. The men stripped down to their waists and put the metal roof on both cabins. I commented to Tommy, "We don't have to worry about the cabins being seen because all the white bodies would attract more attention." Several men and women who overheard me burst out in laughter.

After that Rob and Art threaten to rip my shirt off if I didn't remove it. They then accused me of having paste white skin that would sunburn within ten minutes. I proved them wrong! It took a half hour before Jenn suggested I put my shirt back on, because I was turning red. No one made a comment about the reappearance of my shirt.

By the time dinner was ready, Art's cabin with the exception of the stove, cabinets and flooring was done. Rob's cabin had the lofts finished, the electrical in and part of the insulation in place but was missing the paneling. It would not take a lot of time tomorrow to bring it to the same completion level as Art's. Mary told me Rob and she would move into the east loft tonight.

Although today was Sunday, we had worked, but not as hard as normal. I should state that was true except for the crew that was working the mine. That crew had been given breaks throughout the day though, but had still worked a hard all day. Art and I shut the mine down just before dinner so everyone could have a night off. One of the miners suggested all the equipment could use an oil change and lube job. Both Art and Rob agreed, so I told them to take care of that tomorrow before they started working the mine again.

Rob called the pilots on the radio to see if they could airlift the extra equipment in tomorrow. Roy Ferguson was upset because someone had just tried to steal one of their choppers. Rob told them while they were flying supplies into us they could keep them here overnight with no problem. Roy told Rob he would talk it over with his brother and let us know.

They let us know alright! It was just after nine, when we heard the choppers approaching. When Rob contacted them on the radio, they said they each had a stove and miscellaneous flue pipe and other parts. We raced up to the cabins and had them lower the loads in front of the cabins. Then we covered the stoves with tarps before heading back to the large Quonset hut.

The two choppers had landed and the women were talking to Bob and Roy by the time we arrived. Rob took care of the introduction and soon we were all in the dining area having a cup of coffee. Bob said that they had been approached to sell their choppers twice and had refused outright both times. They had offered instead, to fly the loads to wherever the customer would like. The men told them, the destination had to be kept secret and that was why they wanted to buy the choppers instead of their services.