Common Myths about Alaska

 

I’ve heard a lot of myths and misconceptions about Alaska and Alaskans from the “Outside” since I moved back to the lower 48.  I thought I’d take this moment to debunk a few…

 

“Alaska is a vast wilderness”.  Ok!  Well, in addition to it’s natural beauty, Alaska has a thriving and abundant cosmopolitan side as well.  Most of the state’s 600,000 residents are concentrated around the main trade hubs of Anchorage and Fairbanks.   Alaskans are far from cut off from the world!  On any given evening, we can take in a Broadway musical, have dinner at a 5 star restaurant or go to Walmart.

“Alaskans live in snow year round”  Um, no!  Actually, it gets quite warm.  Our summers average 70 degrees with it getting much hotter in the Interior by Fairbanks.  It’s been known to be 90 degrees here.   And with almost 24 hour sunshine in the summer by May, that snow melts off rather quickly!

“Alaskans live in Igloos”  No, we don’t.  See the above statement.  We have modern houses just like the rest of the US.  An igloo wouldn’t be practical here.  It gets too warm in the summer and the snow does melt.  Besides, we like the comfort and convience of modernization.  Like plumbing, electricity and the internet.  None of that is practical living in an igloo!

“You can’t drive to Alaska”  Oooh!  One of my favorites!  Yes, you can drive up the Alcan highway through Canada to get here.  And, for the most part, it’s paved now.  Many, many tourists come to Alaska every summer via the Alcan.  Don’t confuse us with Hawaii.  We all live in igloos here, not grass huts on the beach, remember?

“Alaskan mode of travel is dog-team”  While that is true in some parts of the bush where driving your average sedan is not only unreasonable, but impossible, most of us get around via car, truck, snowmachine and for those in Anchorage, we have the city bus as well.  We don’t just “mush” everywhere or have to wear snowshoes when we go for a stroll.  Refer to the above myth as well.

“You can see penguins walking down the street”  Penguins are indiginous to the Southern Hemisphere.  There aren’t any penguins living in Alaska.  However, it’s not unusual to find moose mosey-ing down the road…

“Alaskan women are hairy mongrels.  Alaskan women tend to be pretty ‘butch’, rather manly”  Oooh!  Another good one!  I can assure you that most of us do shower and shave our legs regularly.  And we do have day spas here and access to such things and upscale perfume and makeup!  While a good number of women here aren’t hothouse flowers (we can and do go play outside when it’s cold), most of us are equipped to shovel snow, break ice and chop wood.  However, most of us don’t!!!  We simply don’t have to.  We have modern conviences like gas heat, garages and snow plows.

And now for my very favorite…

“Alaskans don’t use American money”  Nah, we still use beads and shells for currency!  I do realize that Alaska is kinda isolated from the rest of the country.  But, we still use American currency, speak english, have the right to vote and go to school.  We Alaskans aren’t some odd ball breed.  We’re still normal, red blooded Americans like the rest of you! 

Got an Alaskan myth you want debunked??

Anthropomorphism: Are animal emotions valid or not?

In the past, I’ve been an In-home Basic Obedience Instructor.  I taught people to train their dogs.  In the past year, I’ve been working towards getting my Certified Pet Dog Trainer certificate through the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.   This has involved a reading list that seems to grow and change every year.  The focus of the APDT is on positive training methods, which I agree with for the most part.  

However, there is one subject that seems taboo amongst all the animal training and animal science community.  Anthropomorphism.  

American Heritage Dictionary defines this as:

an·thro·po·mor·phism      (ān’thrə-pə-môr’fĭz’əm) 
n.   Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. 

Do animals experience emotions like we humans do?  Are animals capable of feeling love, loss, happiness and a myriad of other emotions?  Or are we humans just trying to delegate our own emotions to other creatures?  And if so, why?

It’s not unusual for a trainer to hear that an owner can’t get Little Fluffykins to do such-and-such because it hurts Little Fluffykin’s feelings or Mr. Twinkles peed on it’s owner’s brand new comforter out of anger at being left home alone all day.  Or that Lightening the horse didn’t perform well at a show today because he was unhappy that his owner forgot his favorite treats or didn’t scratch him in the right spots, or whatever the magic button might have been.  

It’s also not unusual for a pet owner to say that their pet loves them.  Haven’t we all heard that Brutus loves his person?  Is this really prescribing human emotions to our pets?  Or are they capable of displaying emotions of love on their own?

So far, scientists from the animal community say that these things are simply not true.  Animals don’t display emotions like people do.  That Mr. Twinkles isn’t capable of enough higher thought to say “I’m going to pee on your comforter because you did ‘x’ and I’m mad at you”.  Science explains the behavior as a dominance issue and that Mr. Twinkles is trying to say he’s top dog (or cat).  And that Brutus isn’t really showing love to his owner, just that he is attempting to seek attention.

And then you have your extremes.  The owner who swears that Mr. Twinkles was mad at her and that’s why it happened.  And the trainers and behaviorists who say that animals don’t feel emotions, that people are the ones putting whatever emotion they are feeling off onto their animal.

How many of you have gone to the zoo and witness what appeared to be sad animals?  The big cats that pace and pace?  The orangutans that seem to be withdrawn and dejected?  The ravens that are constantly searching for a way out?  Are they or are they not experiencing real emotions?

In his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin speculated that dogs in their old age might remember a particularly pleasurable chase and reflect on it.  Or that a group of cows might just feel the loss of a herd member.  

Jane Goodall was criticized for using human-like terms to describe chimps.  She used the words “childhood”, “excitement”, “motivation” and “mood”.  And as she says, “Even worse was my crime of suggesting that chimpanzees had ‘personalities’.  I was ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman animals and was thus guilty of the worst of ethological sins-anthropomorphism.”  None of these thoughts were popular.  They still aren’t popular with the scientific community today.  

To some extent, humanizing an animal is still considered a great insult to mankind.  Humans are at the top of the food chain.  Religion and science say that humans are the only species capable of higher thought.  But is that really true?  How much do we really know about all the forms of animal communication and how the animal brain(s) work?  

Do animals really feel such emotions as love?  Why or why not?  

What do you think?

Poll

So, for my last couple of horses, green has been our color.  The last equine family member associated with that color left a bad taste in my mouth.  It wasn’t good.  (The Giant Flaming Jackass tried to kill me basically).

I would dearly like to start with a new color all Casey’s own.  The thought is also that eventually we’ll show in this color and that I like to have my stuff match.

Your opinion counts!

Family update

We took Kitty and Dude to the coast this weekend to celebrate Kitty’s 14th birthday.  We also went to Tillamook and toured the cheese factory as that was Kitty’s greatest wish.  We all had a great time, stuffed ourselves with ice cream and got windburned.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the pics from CP tonight to share with all of you!  Our trip was a whole ‘nother blog on it’s own, which will be coming soon.

Dude is home with pink eye today.  Apparently, he had it yesterday and no one caught it either here at home, or at school until late last night when we were at the barn.  He’s a bit bored and he doesn’t want to do “homework” at all.  Doctor can’t fit him in until tomorrow afternoon.  I’m wondering if he caught it when we went to the coast on Saturday?  There was a lot of wind and blowing sand…

Doodle and Disney Princess will be moving back to Oregon next month.  Doodle is flying to us and Disney Princess and her mother, Doodle’s Grammy, will be taking a leisurely 2 week drive back from New York.  We’re just so excited that Doodle will be here with us!  We’ve missed her so much in the 3 months she’s been back east.  

Kitty is grounded for the time being.  Her progress report wasn’t great for 2 of her classes.  She seems to be having a problem turning in her homework.  So, no riding lessons with her Auntie until her grades come up!

CP is quite the romantic.  There need to be more of his type in the world.  We had chocolate dipped strawberries that he made and real champagne a couple weeks ago.  And just last night he brought home a dozen roses and a card.  And at least a couple times a week, he cooks dinner and gets up with the dogs on the weekends!  I think I should do something really nice for him so he knows just how much I appreciate him.  I’ll have to think on that a while.  

So ladies, when was the last time you did something nice or romantic for your man?  If it’s been a while, might I suggest surprising your guy in the near future?  On a random Thursday, maybe?  Mind sharing your ideas with the rest of us?

Have fun and do something nice for someone today!

Equus Libris/ Miscellaneous thoughts

I’ve been asked what I plan to do with Casey.  I have no idea.  I’ve never really delved into the Quarter Horse world.  Casey has Zippo Pine Bar bloodlines.  I know Zippo won World once or twice or something like that.  I have no idea what his get excel at.  So, I have no idea what I should really do with Casey.  Any suggestions?  Can anyone fill me in on the Zippo horses without me trying to wade through a lot of boring stuff just to find the basics? 

Got Casey an olive green sleezy hood recently.  What was I thinking?   I really, really hate dislike that color after too many freaking years washing it! having been married to The Marine.  I vowed I’d never own anything that color, would never wash that color again and would gleefully light anything that color on fire and dance around it.  But, I deferred to CP in color choice because my horse is black and I find the basic color choices boring!  I guess we’ll see how he does having that put on tonight with his headshy-ness.

Two more weeks until the farrier!  Casey’s last people trimmed his hooves themselves.  That really leaves me uncomfortable.  And, I wonder if that’s why Casey seems to be a bit ouchie, or if he really does need shoes.  I’ve decided to forgo the barn farrier in favor of the farrier that took care of CP and Disney Princess’s Arab a few years ago.  If non-horsey CP can rave about what a great farrier someone is, then I think that’s good enough for me.

Oh!  So, headshy-ness…  Casey is getting better by leaps and bounds.  I need to get the brush out and try brushing his face again.  I can stick my finger in his ear without issue and he’s getting better about haltering instead of backing himself into a corner.  (That has always worried me.  I worry that he’ll feel trapped and react.  I want him to feel like he has an escape route if needed.)

And I need to take a milk jug to the barn.  Casey is still in more than out.  (Limited turn out areas at the barn.  It gets really frustrating.)  Anyways, he likes to dump his bucket and bang it around.  The BO’s say he’s going through 3-4 buckets a day and they think he’s drinking it.  (I say he’s dumping it because I’ve found the bucket tipped over with the top facing the wall)  I switched out the hook thing for a carabiner, which might help, but we’ll have to see.  Too bad I gave the jolly ball we recently got to Copper the puppy instead of to Casey.  Might have to get another one.

And now for a little poll:

 

Just looking for input!

Monday Morning Meme

 

1.What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have any funny/odd memories of the library?

The library is some of my earliest memories.  I think I was about 2 actually.  I used to go to the Tumwater Library with my mom.  They had this wooden rocking horse I loved to sit on with whatever book I picked.  And wooden blocks to stack!  And books in something that looked like those cube style wine racks with the “X” cross members.  I really loved that place!  

2. What two things are at the top of your to-do list? When do you think you’ll get around to doing those things? How good are you at crossing things off your to-do list?

Dishes and ???  I don’t really make a to-do list as then I feel too regimented and constricted.  I might have a mental list in my head, but it’s in no particular order.  

I’ll probably do dishes this afternoon.  And I never cross things off my list because I don’t make a list if I can help it.

Now, the Hubs has an ongoing list.  It drives me up the wall because he adds to it more than he accomplishes and I swear he never gets rid of the list!  And he’ll re=prioritize the list each time he adds something.

3. Where do you come in the family? Are you the oldest? Youngest? Only child? Or smack in the middle? How do you think this has affected the way you grew up? Would you agree with your birth order personality? Are you happy with your birth order, or do you wish you had been the oldest/youngest, etc.

I have been lucky enough to have been all the birth orders at some time or another.  (We’re quite spread out in age).  I am the 3rd of 4 children, but my sister moved out before my youngest brother was born.  At that point, I was the youngest.  Then came younger brother, so middle child.  Then my older brother went off to the Navy, so oldest child.  And lastly, when my parents split, I became the only child at home with my mom.  I think it gives me a different perspective.

4. If it wasn’t for ________ , I would ________.

If it wasn’t for coffee, I would sleep life away.  Coffee is a good motivator to get me out of bed.  It’s life’s blood.  That warm, smokey brew makes life so much better!

Canine Chronicles/ Copper

My puppy smells like barbeque.  I’m a little worried…

Equus Libris/ Casey

 

Just thought I’d share a not so great picture.

Not a whole lot happening.  Casey is doing well.  We aren’t doing much until the farrier comes out on the 24th.  Well, except for maybe another bath this weekend!  He had just rolled right before I snapped this shot so he looks more bay than his gleaming blue-black self.

We’re waiting until closer to Halloween to decorate our stall so that we can take the competition by surprise.

I’ll try to get CP to take some more pics of Casey this weekend.  His camera is much better than mine anyways!

Hope you’re all having a great week!

Something Old Made New Again

I got this long ago from people who no longer blog to my knowledge.  I won’t list them all here.   However, if you want to play too, here are the rules: leave me a comment here and I’ll give you a letter. Then you’ll post the results (and these instructions) in your blog.

You use the letter you are given and make 10 THINGS from it.

Mine is the letter: H 

So here goes : Oregon Sunshine as brought to you by the letter H

1. Hope

2. Healing

3. Happiness

4. Harmony

5. House

6. Health

7. Heart

8. Harm

9. Hurt

10. Hazards

I am going to use them in a blessing for all of you this evening…


 

May you be blessed with

Hope in every darkness,

Healing and Happiness for your Heart.

May you be blessed with 
Harmony and Health always.


May you turn from

Harm, Hurt or Hazards 


come into your life.

And may you always find the light

to guide you Home.


 

Monday Morning Meme

 

1.If your children are going trick-or-treating this year, what costumes are they wearing? Do you take them door-to-door or do you take them to a sponsored event?

My son is going as Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Little E has been Dude’s hero for years.  And, while Dude’s father isn’t in the picture, he and his family had said that Little E was his cousin.  It’s something I had told Dude once and something he has always held on to.  So, wearing the 88 costume on Halloween will be his “moment”.  We will be taking him door-to-door here in our neighborhood.  It’s quiet, there are some pretty nice kids and it’s a small neighborhood where pretty much everyone knows everyone.  Nice and safe for us.

Doodle is living in New York with her mom, Disney Princess.  Disney Princess and her new hubby aren’t into Halloween for religious reasons.  So, I don’t think that Doodle will be dressing up or trick-or-treating.  (Which I think is too bad!)  However, I’m sending her a cute skull and crossbones shirt.  The skull has a bow on it’s head.  And she’s getting a bag of treats from me.

Kitty is doing her own thing.  She already dresses up on school days.  Once a week she dresses “randomly” for “Random Day”, a creation of her own making.  She’s been known to wear purple fairy wings for the heck of it.  She’s likely to dress up, but she may be flying to The Marine’s for a visitation weekend.  So, I’m not really sure what she’ll decide to do yet.

Tell us about the last time you dressed up for Halloween.

The last time I dressed up for Halloween was when Dude was a year old.  So, it’s been 6 years.  I dressed up as a Fallen Angel, but all I did was answer the door for the 5 kids that were trick-or-treating where I lived in Alaska at that time.  There was already snow on the ground and it was actually a very quiet night.  I’d really love to dress up again.  I just haven’t had the chance for different reasons every year ranging from serious pneumonia to having to work on that night.

How do you feel about Halloween in general?

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!  I love fall!  The crispness in the air, back to school, first frosts, leaves changing colors…  I love the costumes and the chance to dress up and play pretend one night a year without feeling silly.

2. Do your friends and family read your blog? How does this knowledge affect your writing?

Once upon a time, I had a public blog and invited people from RL to read it.  Most didn’t.  And now I like my anonymity so I can talk about what I want without censoring myself.  Well, CP reads my blog, which I actually encourage.

Do you feel like you can totally be yourself on your blog?

Yes, I can definitely be myself on my blog. 

Where do you draw the line when it comes to disclosing too much about your life on your blog?

I have decided to not talk about recent things that directly impact my marriage in a negative way.  Or past things that negatively impact my marriage.  Or anything that I perceive might be hurtful to CP.

3. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

How about a mid-morning person?  That’s me!  With my fibromyalgia and arthritis, I don’t really get going until mid-morning.  That seems to be when my aches and pains are calming to a dull roar and when I have the most energy.

What do you like to do in the early morning hours or late at night?

In the past, when I worked at o’dark-thirty, I loved having that quiet morning cup of coffee.  Or watching the sunrise.  But, when I worked nights, I loved being able to sit out on my porch for a few minutes (even in -20!), looking at the night sky and enjoying the quiet of the night.

How do your sleeping patterns affect the rest of your family?

CP is a night owl.  I find that I try really hard to keep his schedule which can leave me feeling run down.  Otherwise, I’m finding a happy medium with waking about 7:30 in the morning.  Since I’m a SAHM, I don’t have to do much in the morning except get kids up and ready for school.  

4. Do you lie about your age? Why or why not?

No, I don’t lie about my age.  Most of the time, people don’t believe that I am as old as I am.  In fact, I’ve been passed over for a promotion in the past and someone who was 7 years younger than I got the position as it was believed she had more life experience than I.  (I was 28 and she was 21!)  The owners of the company actually thought I was 19 at that time.  So, if I looked 9 years younger than I was then, I sure hope I look 9 years younger than I am now!