I wrote this book to share with you some of the things I have learned over the years. If I were to teach you in person, we wouldn’t follow the format of this book, but this is the best I can do from here.

I have lived in the Alaska bush since 1966. My wife, Helen, is from Lime Village, a small place with only forty to forty-five people.

We are both over fifty now and have five children, Anna, Elizabeth, William, Rachel and Wayne. You might know them, or your older brothers or sisters might have played basketball with them. They played their high school years in McGrath. We have eight grandchildren, the oldest is ten and the youngest is almost one. We have lived mostly on the Kuskokwim River from Bethel and Aniak upriver to Sleetmute, Red Devil, Lime Village, McGrath, and Telida.

I have always loved science because it has made the world less threatening. While the world is certainly filled with mysteries that I will never fathom, the basic physical principles by which it works have remained the same for thousands of years. The same principles that keep the earth in orbit around the sun operate in the clutch of a chainsaw. I like that. It makes the physical world more predictable. Understanding science has kept me from being stuck in out in the woods lots of times. I can figure things out.

I have shared my ideas in this book as simply as possible. In my next book, I will show you the thinking skills I used along the way. This book is mainly facts and activities. I hope you enjoy reading and doing it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Thanks for using my book.

Sincerely,

Alan Dick