{"id":131441,"date":"2024-11-29T15:13:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T08:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131441"},"modified":"2024-11-29T15:13:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T08:13:48","slug":"its-a-bird-its-a-plane-in-alaska-its-both-with-a-pilot-tossing-turkeys-to-rural-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131441","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It&#8217;s a bird! It&#8217;s a plane!&#8217; In Alaska, it&#8217;s both, with a pilot tossing turkeys to rural homes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) \u2014 In the remotest reaches of Alaska, there\u2019s no relying on DoorDash to have <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/projects\/thanksgiving-dinner-inflation-groceries-buying-power\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Thanksgiving dinner;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Thanksgiving dinner<\/a> \u2014 or any dinner \u2014 delivered. But some residents living well off the grid nevertheless have turkeys this holiday, thanks to the Alaska Turkey Bomb.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">For the third straight year, a resident named Esther Keim has been flying low and slow in a small plane over rural parts of south-central Alaska, dropping frozen turkeys to those who can&#8217;t simply run out to the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/thanksgiving-shopping-store-hours-open-closed-8288b43d2ff81038ae7715d9f218c73d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:grocery store;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">grocery store<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Alaska is mostly wilderness, with only about 20% of it accessible by road. In winter, many who live in remote areas rely on small planes or snowmobiles to travel any distance, and frozen rivers can act as makeshift roads.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-body md:hidden\">\n<div class=\"mx-auto mb-5 flex flex-col overflow-hidden rounded-xl pb-5 shadow-[0_0_1px_rgba(200,160,251,.63),0_2px_6px_1px_#F3E6FE]\">\n<h4 class=\"m-auto block px-4 pb-4 pt-2 text-lg font-bold leading-6\">Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox<\/h4>\n<p class=\"m-auto px-4 pb-4 text-sm font-normal\">See for yourself \u2014 The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">When Keim was growing up on an Alaska homestead, a family friend would airdrop turkeys to her family and others nearby for the holidays. Other times, the pilot would deliver newspapers, sometimes with a pack of gum inside for Keim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Her family moved to more urban Alaska nearly 25 years ago but still has the homestead. Using a small plane she had rebuilt with her father, Keim launched her turkey delivery mission a few years back after learning of a family living off the land nearby who had little for Thanksgiving dinner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cThey were telling me that a squirrel for dinner did not split very far between three people,\u201d Keim recalled. \u201cAt that moment, I thought &#8230; \u2018I\u2019m going to airdrop them a turkey.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">She decided not to stop there. Her effort has grown by word of mouth and by social media posts. This year, she&#8217;s delivering 32 frozen turkeys to people living year-round in cabins where there are no roads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">All but two had been delivered by Tuesday, with delivery plans for the last two birds thwarted by Alaska\u2019s unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Among the beneficiaries are Dave and Christina Luce, who live on the Yentna River about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage. They have stunning mountain views in every direction, including North America&#8217;s tallest mountain, Denali, directly to the north. But in the winter it&#8217;s a 90-minute snowmobile ride to the nearest town, which they do about once a month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cI\u2019m 80 years old now, so we make fewer and fewer trips,\u201d Dave Luce said. \u201cThe adventure has sort of gone out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">They&#8217;ve known Keim since she was little. The 12-pound (5.44-kilogram) turkey she delivered will provide more than enough for them and a few neighbors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cIt makes a great Thanksgiving,\u201d Dave Luce said. \u201cShe\u2019s been a real sweetheart, and she\u2019s been a real good friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Keim makes 30 to 40 turkey deliveries yearly, flying as far as 100 miles (161 kilometers) from her base north of Anchorage toward Denali&#8217;s foothills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Sometimes she enlists the help of a \u201cturkey dropper\u201d to ride along and toss the birds out. Other times, she\u2019s the one dropping turkeys while her friend Heidi Hastings pilots her own plane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Keim buys about 20 turkeys at a time, with the help of donations, usually by people reaching out to her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100087492746781\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:through Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">through Facebook<\/a>. She wraps them in plastic garbage bags and lets them sit in the bed of her pickup until she can arrange a flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cLuckily it\u2019s cold in Alaska, so I don\u2019t have to worry about freezers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">She contacts families on social media to let them know of impending deliveries, and then they buzz the house so the homeowners will come outside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cWe won\u2019t drop the turkey until we see them come out of the house or the cabin, because if they don\u2019t see it fall, they\u2019re not going to know where to look,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">It can be especially difficult to find the turkey if there\u2019s deep snow. A turkey was once missing for five days before it was found, but the only casualty so far has been a lost ham, Keim said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Keim prefers to drop the turkey on a frozen lake if possible so it&#8217;s easy to locate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cAs far as precision and hitting our target, I am definitely not the best aim,\u201d she joked. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten better, but I have never hit a house, a building, person or dog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Her reward is the great responses she gets from families, some who record her dropping the turkeys and send her videos and texts of appreciation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cThey just think it\u2019s so awesome that we throw these things out of the plane,\u201d Keim said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Ultimately, she hopes to set up a nonprofit organization to solicit more donations and reach people across a bigger swath of the state. And it doesn\u2019t have to stop at turkeys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">\u201cThere\u2019s so many kids out in the villages,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would be cool to maybe add a stuffed animal or something they can hold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/lifestyle\/bird-plane-alaska-both-pilot-050801402.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) \u2014 In the remotest reaches of Alaska, there\u2019s no relying on DoorDash to have Thanksgiving dinner \u2014 or any dinner \u2014 delivered. But some residents living well &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131441\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8629],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}