each day an adventure in alaska: bear sighting...

i had just finished my walk. the dogs, luckily, had jumped right into the back of the car. sometimes Ivy wanders off not wanting to get in. i was putzing around changing out their water in their car bowl when suddenly a black bear with two cubs popped out of the woods.

they were about 100 yards away. i quickly closed the back hatch so i didn't have dogs and bears getting all mixed together. my dogs really haven't seen bears. sightings of late have been at a distance or from the car. i was locked out of the car, just a button push to fix that and at least i was on the opposite side of where the bears were.

that white car pulled up, which distracted the bears. i drove around a bit once i was in the car and saw the bears cruising down the road later.

these shots are from last summer. drive across Denali Highway and above is powerline

went to powerline the other day. yesterday i decided to brave the bear potential at North Bivouac. oh, well, see how that went. not many mushrooms spotted out there.

debating a run to Valdez this weekend. i'm on a staycation. no plans made. i have felt pretty lazy since i've returned home.

travel/family...whatever, it sapped me. i'm a wimp clearly.

need to stop by the tile store and see what the damage would be for the tile i want.

was also doing some online research the other evening. the polygamy stuff and the church. it does seem funny to me that so many church members flip out over trans folks when they have this crazy history of polygamy and even child brides taken.

when i was in the church liked to whitewash the history of polygamy. it seemed to all be put on young and the fact that it was started by smith and that he practiced polygamy was pretty understated. they also seemed to act like this was more of a revelation of need as the pioneers suffered so much during their travels that many men died and the men left over kindly took over the care of these families and widowed women.

of course, if times were that difficult and you had to take on an extra wife or two...why the hell would you want to have sex with them and risk having more mouths to feed? i can see kindly taking in a relative and her children but then adding them to your sex regime? as i said in the last post. taking in one or two women can maybe be made into some act of valiance but taking on 30+ wives...that is perversion. especially when many are kids.

of course, a look into the actual statistics of the time doesn't support these tales...one study was done by byu. the pioneer death rates were really not much higher than the death rates of the national average of the time. 3.5% of the 56,000 pioneers died. the average nationally was 2.5-2.9%

i also looked at male vs female. they indicate that there were many women in need of care. in truth women had a slightly larger mortality rate. 3.3 was male while 3.6% female. kids seemed to do better than i would have expected. under age of 20 was only a 1.75% rate of death.

the largest losses came with those who traveled by handcarts. despite the big push to make this appear the more common form of travel only about 3000 of the pioneers of the over 56,000 pioneers traveled this way. they were poorer and less prepared at base.

this tale of the wives being taken in as a need is further disproved by the fact that so many were single when they married into these multi situations. youngs wives....21 had never married, 17 were widowed (some were widows of smith actually). 6 of his wives were divorced from others and 6 actually still had living spouses...there were a few others who their status was unknown. about 7 of the wives were 18 years or less when they married him. smith had up to 40 wives.

less females than males crossed over...

the handcart stuff in the modern church began after i left. i never participated in those.

there were many things about the church that didn't interest me or that i questioned all those years ago. generally i don't do any research at this point. there are these ces letters, which i haven't bothered with. i don't need any further facts. i'm quite happy with the decision i made all those years ago. haven't really had a regret about leaving.

aside from the basic polygamy, gay rights, racism and misogyny, the finances and social issues in general were not appealing to me.

i found being mormon very stressful and difficult on my sense of worth. there was this drive to be perfect or act perfect. felt like a lot of comparisons that were never going to go my way. there was a type and i never fit that type.

i didn't like the money and power combination. it seemed to go hand in hand. like if you had money it was clearly a sign of your goodness and worth and God was blessing you. pay your tithing and you will be rewarded.

i think in general i would rather live this life now than be so stressed about everything i do and how it will impact my eternal life. far too many waste their time on earth on their future in heaven or hell i guess. i read all the books. Jesus had very simple messages. i really felt that we are not meant to all be theologians. we are just meant to try and be kind and decent people. love one another and do not judge.

Christianity in general is having some major issues at this time. they seem to have lost the message of Jesus. this victimhood culture is pretty ridiculous especially in this nation where we have so much really. i recall one sibling was happy trump was elected as now they could practice their religion freely. when i called them out on it, asking what exactly had changed in their practice during the 8 years Obama was in office...well they came up blank.

it reminds me of those who bastardized islam and made it more of a terrorist enterprise than a religion. you watch as they all join together. the extremists will play nice with all the rest of these christians only to deem them not extreme enough in the end. most christians are not that keen on mormons at baseline so i suspect mormons will be one of the first to be deemed non christian enough.

going to head out to hatchers pass with a friend for a walk. perhaps i'll head off on a little drive after i drop my friend off.

hoping no bear encounters out there today. i'm always good not seeing them. from the car or a boat is fine.

i also need to get a little clean up on the house and make some solid plans for fun stuff when my brother is here.

i have lots of rocks for painting this winter. summer is starting to feel like it's winding down.

possible early winter. this winter i really need to get on the computer and plan some vacation fun for next year.

stop being such a lazy homebody.

i ended up binge watching some of the Alone series. always fun to watch people figure out ways to survive in the woods. they are watched so not that much danger though lots of bears and you can push a button for help and be dead before help arrives.