At 62…Life on the island

Mike’s and my adventures in Alaska were the high point of our year. When we weren’t in Coffman Cove, we were planning to be here. Our months in Alaska were something we looked forward to all year long.

I still feel that way. I was nervous about being here alone this year. But I quickly found out that I wasn’t alone at all. I am blessed with friends here, and I never take that for granted.

Mike is also ever-present. I feel him more some days than others, but he’s here. It was his wish that I continue to spend half my year here, for as long as I possibly could. I’m praying that I will have many more years here in our cabin at Powells Place. We’ve built a home and a life here.

Here is a little of what it’s like to live on our island, day to day –

We are blessed in Coffman Cove. We have a small grocery, gas and fuel services, a bar, liquor store, church, post office, school and EMTs. There’s a great little restaurant with takeaway and cute picnic tables – the AK-49. We have boat repair and local saw mills. We have carpenters and general tradesmen, and we have a thriving tourist business in cabin rentals and boat charters. We have a farmer’s market at the school greenhouse. There are places to gather in groups, outdoor pavilions, and a good-sized, well-equipped harbor and docks. Pretty awesome for a town of about 200 year-round residents!

That said, for more services, we drive to Klawock and Craig. That’s about 75 – 90 minutes of highway-speed driving to the closest large grocery and full-service gas station. There’s also a market and hardware store in Thorne Bay, as well as a few other small shops. That’s about 1.5 hours away.

In “town”, as we call Craig, we find government services, the bank, hardware store, outdoor store, car mechanic, auto parts store, gift shop, pharmacy, bakery, several restaurants, medical clinic, liquor store, smoke shop, hair salon and much more. You save up your lists, and you make half a dozen stops every time you head for town. This is definitely a place you need to plan ahead!

We have a Facebook group of Coffman folks. Every time someone goes to town, we send out a note. We’re often shopping for each other on our trips – it’s all part of living and working together in a small community.

Grocery store prices are shocking. There’s just no other word. Anything that gets to this island has to be flown, barged or ferried. A carton of ice cream is $10.50. Kraft salad dressing is $4-5. The sandwich meat I buy at home is double the price here. A package of sliced cheese is $6-9, depending on the market. The seltzer water that’s $0.75 a bottle in Ketchikan is $2.89 here.

Yet, the rippled tin that Mike used for our ceilings is cheaper here on the island. The lumber we buy from our local miller is straighter, cheaper and better quality than anything we can get commercially. And oysters from the local oyster farm are affordable and delicious!

There aren’t any full-service clothing stores here except the thrift shop. No shoe stores. No dry cleaners. No restaurants save sandwiches, fried fish and pizza. Amazon brings most of what we need that we can’t find here, and some folks buy their groceries through the mail from Ketchikan. When we built our addition last year, a lot of the material was barged up from Lowes in Washington state or from the hardware store over in Ketchikan.

For someone who came from the 24/7 world of Houston, it was a shock. It took a minute, but I was fully adjusted to it at the end of my first visit. It’s island time. Nothing happens quickly, and that’s just fine.

I love parties here! They are always potlucks, and these ladies can COOK!! It’s creative cooking, because so many ingredients just aren’t found here. There is a lot of fish, venison, canned goods, homemade bread, jams and jellies. So much good food!

Medical is dicey. There’s a clinic here on the island, and we have an ambulance in Coffman Cove. Mike was part of the team his first year here. There is telemedicine from Seattle, and specialists come up from Seattle every 60 days. That’s how Mike saw his oncologist last summer. There’s a good hospital in Ketchikan, but serious or complicated medical and dental cases are sent to Bellingham or Seattle. Mike and I have air evacuation medical insurance here. It’s a necessity.

That’s just a tiny part of the everyday life here on our island. There’s a caring here, a spirit of community that I’ve never found anywhere else I’ve lived. It’s survival, camaraderie, a pioneer spirit. Kids grow up as kids, in an outdoor world, not at the mall. They learn how to sustain themselves at an early age – fishing, hunting, boating – and they are responsible enough to do most of that on their own as young teenagers. Your character, your sense of humor, and your friendships are what matter, not the price of your clothing or your possessions. It’s a life I love more than I can tell you…at 62.