Sunday, February 15, 2015

 Of the two stores in town this is the one I go to the most.  The Alaska Commercial Company claims to have been around since Alaska was bought from Russia but it has changed names and hands so much it doesn't even resemble the original business.  The people who run the store are a family from Virginia.  They agree to stay in the village and run the store for a certain length of time then they move on.  The last family was from New York state.  They moved to a bigger village after leaving here.  Locals are hired to stock and run cash registers while the husband and wife team are the managers.  They live in a house connected to the store. 
Prices are a little higher than they would be in the lower 48, but think of the transportation costs. 


The entire produce section.



Sunday, February 1, 2015









 

 ARCTIC MIRAGE


     The only land features visible anywhere around here are the Nulato hills far off to our east and southeast.  The other day however when I looked to the south there had sprung up immense skyscrapers, wide flat plateaus and buttes.  Even an enormous pagoda with it's characteristic flared roof line.  It was incredible!  Miles away on the horizon an entire city had sprung up literally overnight.  I was out on the tundra with Hobart so I let him wander and I sat and watched.  It was mesmorizing to watch the building slowly shift and morph, becoming wider, then taller then fading away entirely.
    What I was looking at is an arctic mirage, also called a superior mirage or fata morgana.  Density differences between cold air and warmer air are the cause of this phenomenon.  As you look toward the horizon you are actualy seeing objects and land that are below the horizon from your perspective.  Google pictures of this and you will find some good ones.  I didn't have my camera that day so I didn't get any.  They would not have done it justice anyway. 

Here's a link to this and other arctic phenomenon
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/phenomena.html

And then of course there is Wikipedia which has some good articles on the subject.
Also look up Croker Land.  It's an interesting story about how an expedition went looking for a land that was really a mirage.