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Boys will bite as will bears, and I hope to experience neither but see both. And so it is that I continue in my studies of The Last Frontier, whose landscape I intend to take inspiration from. [...]

[Today is the 4-year anniversary of this blog! Read the inaugural entry at: http://kateyschultz.livejournal.com/2005/07/29/] Hardly a minute to write, as my flight leaves in nine hours. But a few [...]

More advice, this time from Lis (the black belt from our dojo who had to move away). She grew up in the Alaska bush because her parents were white teachers hired to teach Native children. That’s [...]

Packing, unpacking, and repacking. Down vest? Zero degree back or my 40 degree bag? Long sleeved cotton shirts for mosquito protection: one or two? Can I mail the wedding clothes from Walla Walla [...]

In anticipation of the Alaska trip, I read Nancy Lord’s Green Alaska last month. July hit at about the same time I cracked upon John McPhee’s 438-page opus on the last frontier, titled Into the [...]

I passed my purple belt test and earned the rank of Yonkyu tonight but it was the hardest physical challenge I’ve ever had. The fact that I took the Pine Tree test 48 hours prior paid no small [...]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have officially earned my Okinawan Shuri-Ryu Pine Tree patch, having passed the physical and written exams this afternoon. I completed the physical test in 51 min 34 sec [...]

Binoculars. Stuffable down pillow. Memory card for digital camera. Headlamp. Bug dope. Tracfone minutes. All day long, lists of what to pack and what to take care of before I leave ring through [...]

I meet with Bill and Susan, friends from the community who lived in Alaska for 25 years and are moving back next summer. I come prepared with notepad and pen, they have the maps and a VHS titled [...]

Well folks, it’s official. I will take my Shuri Pine Tree test on Tuesday evening and I will test for purple belt on Thursday evening. “We’re sending you to Alaska with a different grade,” Hanshi [...]