FOOD CACHE IN ALASKA

Food storage is important if you want to eat after the growing season ends. Most people in the developed world have freezers and refrigerators. Their food is kept for them in warehouses until they do their weekly shopping. In less developed areas, like bush Alaska, people must store their own food and so they rely on a food cache.
These are often built on stilts and some sport sod roofs which help keep them cool in the shoulder months before and after winter. The stilts make these structures more difficult for bears to get at the doors. For the most part the cache is used to store caribou or moose meat over the long winter months.
This post card image of a cache near a body of water is not specifically identified. The photo was taken by Mel Anderson for Alaska Imp Prints, which does not have a web presence. It was distributed by J&H Sales of Anchorage. My best guess is this card was produced in the 1970-80s.

Grist(for the)Mill

The summer season is a busy one for most Alaskans, especially with those of us who make their living seasonally from fishing, hunting, construction or tourism. If you work in remote areas, far from computer access, there are few opportunities to post on this or any other blogs.

The image on the postcard above is of a gristmill in Appalachia. These big water wheels were used in the U.S. to grind wheat and corn before oil-based machines came to prominence in the early 20th-century. Most were retired after World War II but some, like Tom Walker's Grist Mill in Michigan, lasted into the late 1960's.

This card was produced by W. M. Cline Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee. This giant 9x6.5 inches card was added to my collection on a childhood road trip along the Skyline Drive in the Appalachian Mountains.