I’ve neglected the blog for the past couple of years – I think I just didn’t feel like I had anything new to say. Or maybe I had a lot to say, but these days it’s often better not to say too much. I’m sticking with nature, travel, and life in a somewhat unconventional place, and I’m posting a little over on Instagram, too – mostly just photos and very few words.

Today I’m going to talk about electrical power.

It’s so easy to take electrical power for granted.  In our homes, we plug things into the 110v wall socket and they work.  On the boat, we’ve learned never to take electric power for granted, and we’re always aware of the power we need versus the source of that power.  In some cases, we’re running on our battery bank (an array of 8 batteries providing over 1800 amp-hours), and we need to constantly monitor the state of our batteries to make sure we don’t discharge them too far.  If we’re plugged into shore power – do we have 50 amps and 220v, or are we using an adapter where we may only have 30 amps and 110v, or even less?  In that case, we may not be able to run everything on the boat, and we have to choose what to prioritize.  Or are we running the generator (providing 220v) and charging our batteries?  The boat has taught us to think about power ALL the time.

Living on an island, we also have to think about electrical power.  Southeast Alaska is an archipelago – a collection of 1,100 islands about 300 miles long, covering almost 17 million acres (mostly the Tongass National Forest). Even the mainland is isolated by mountains, and almost all of it is not connected to the road system – including the state capitol Juneau.  The only way to get around is by boat or by plane.  Much like the small island settlements we visited in the Bahamas, most communities need to run big diesel generators to make electrical power for their town.  Fuel is expensive to purchase, it’s expensive to transport, and running a huge town-sized generator 24/7 isn’t the best for the environment. 

Mitkof Island (where we live) is lucky since we get our power from hydro-electric generators, and Petersburg has been doing that since 1924!  Our mountains have many lakes at altitude, so our town’s early settlers built a dam up on Crystal Lake (1300’ above sea level), and added a 4652’ pipe (penstock) down the steep mountainside to a turbine.  It’s a pretty ambitious feat, and it’s sobering to look up the mountain, imagining the work just to clear a swath of the dense forest in order to work on the very steep slope. 

The original turbine was replaced in 1955, and this year the turbine and penstock were replaced with all new equipment, just in time for the hydro plant’s 100^th birthday.  This hydro system provides about 25% of the power needed for our community of 3000 people (and a couple of fish processing plants), and the remainder of the power comes from hydro-electric dams on nearby islands that serve ours and two other communities.  Not only is our hydro environmentally friendly, it’s also very cheap power. We do have some big diesel generators right in town to supply power just in case something in the hydro system fails. The photo below is the 1955 hydro generator that was just replaced.

Here is a photo of part of the new system, which will hopefully last us for another 100 years! The big block in the lower left is the massive counterweight for the valve that controls water flow to the generator. When that valve is closed and the water is bypassing the generator, the ground vibrates and the sound is a loud roar.

Big equipment needs big tools!

For geeky readers, our town’s power needs are over 13 megawatts in the winter, 8 megawatts in the summer (we have two fish processing plants running hard then), and about 6 megawatts in the spring and fall.

It has been a COLD spring and early summer, and pretty rainy so far.  Here it is June 3, and it’s barely over 50F.  We’re in hoodies and jackets, and we can’t wrap our brains around sweltering summer temps in other parts of the country.

We’re less than three weeks away from the summer solstice, when the daylight is the longest – about 18.5 hours.  Right now, the light is increasing by only about a minute per day, but for much of the year we gain or lose daylight at a rate of 5 minutes a day – 35 minutes per week! 

The Winter Solstice will occur here around 6:30pm this evening, signaling the moment when the Northern Hemisphere will begin to tilt towards the sun once again. Our days are pretty short right now – about six and a half hours of daylight, officially. We’ve had a lot of rain and heavy overcast these past few weeks, and that adds to the gloom, but our spirits are pretty Merry and Bright around here, in Alaska’s Little Norway.

A few mornings ago I was out walking and the clouds broke enough to see the first light from the rising sun kiss Bearclaw and Petersburg mountains to the west – just before 9am.

Sometimes people say “why would anyone want to live in cold Alaska in the winter?”, but this is an example of why we do, and we just love it. I don’t mind the short days – we cozy up with lots of hot tea, good books, gatherings with friends, projects and crafts, and it’s my best opportunity to try and catch up on all the photos and video that needs to be sorted and edited.

Trumpeter swans spend the winter here in Petersburg, and we were delighted to see them so close to town recently – two adults and two cygnets. We keep binoculars by all the windows, since we never know what interesting wildlife or boats pass by.

Winter is a time when our thoughts often focus on light – we savor it when we have it, we appreciate it when it’s particularly beautiful, and we surround ourselves with lots of sparkly lights in the mornings and evenings to chase away the darkness.

It’s normal to leave Holiday lights up well into January, and no one would complain if there’s still some sparkly lights around into February.

The run-up to Christmas is now at full speed, with the Sons of Norway holiday dinner last Sunday, complete with a visit from Santa Lucia (a Swedish tradition) and the big man himself – Santa!

Julebukking is getting underway, with a handful of businesses hosting the community with treats earlier this week: tamales from the Mexican restaurant, and airplane-shaped cookies from Alaska Airlines at the airport.

Tomorrow the Julebukking schedule picks up with quite a few places to check out. We all don our Norwegian sweaters or holiday-ish garb, and visit with people we know around the town. You can be sure that by Sunday afternoon, no one wants to look at another cookie! The offerings generously provided by our local businesses range from smoked salmon (in quite a few places), shrimp, chili, cookies, fruit, deli trays, and even a whole pastrami sandwich! Beverages are usually pretty low-key, except for the hardware store’s famous Moose Milk described in past blogs. It involves a 5-gallon paint bucket, vanilla ice cream, and White Christmas liquor shaken together in the big paint mixer. It’s decanted into a big silver punchbowl, and served with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Julebukking is about more than fabulous food – it’s a time for the community to set aside differences and just enjoy the fellowship of the holidays. It’s also a time for everyone to hide their bathroom scales.

We are grateful for the light, and we know that the days of long darkness will eventually become the days of long light once again. Like the tide, you know it’s always coming back. The change in daylight hours will be imperceptible at first, but it will get to about five minutes a day by February, and the constantly shifting daylight makes it hard to ever figure out when to fix dinner and when to go to bed!

We wish you and your families a warm, peaceful, and joyous holiday. Savor the light, especially the light that comes from within.