52 Lists: List Your Curret & Future Goals & Dreams

I was trying to update my blog Monday through Friday. Realistically that's just not going to happen in my life right now. I had a 9 hour tribal council meeting yesterday. I haven't gone out on the trap line in almost three weeks to the day.

Update: I had the opportunity to go out on the trap line today and it was seized, with both hands, in a death grip.

Back to what I had in my head for my original post.

It had been far too long since I had been out on the trap line. My head gets cleared out there. My heart fills up when I'm out in the country. Clearly I'm not prioritizing some things in my life. I've taken on a lot more at work recently and it's taking its toll. My hope is that the worse part is over and the climb will become less steep. While I'm still working on balancing out my life I think I'm letting go of trying to blog Monday through Friday. New goal: blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Consistently. I already feel better about things. Lookit that. A goal and I haven't even gotten to my list.

Yesterday's list. Moorea is such an inspiring and beautiful person. I hope that someone feels that way about me, whether its a stranger from afar or a friend right up close. Beautiful dream. My list started in the direction of self improvement goals and then went towards outward goals. Funny how that worked. I'm loving this project. Let's be honest, it's helping me write some consistent posts. I needed help there.

Sad Trapper, Happy Bunny Hunter

This winter has been brutal on trappers here in Unalakleet. We've been battling lack of snow, an unstable and really rough frozen river, winds gusting to 50 mph and 30 below weather. As soon as we get the line up and running some type of abominable weather takes it down again.

Last year we had 4 to 6 weeks of weather that ranged from -20 to -40 without a break. Even that was better than this because we had snow and were able to get around. Granted it wasn't the best trapping season but it was a slight improvement over this year. I think another factor in me longing for last year was time. I was working as the Environmental Specialist for my tribe, work considerably slowed down over the winter time and I was able to take off from work at 2 and 3 p.m. to go and run the trap line with my partner. This year I'm working as the Interim General Manager and Environmental Specialist and it's really just sucking all my time and all the life out of me. I don't even reliably get off work at 5 pm. Wahhh. Whine. Whine. Whine.

I'm not out on the line as much as I'd like but I'm still doing my share of skinning. It's kind of a weird thing to like doing but I'm a natural at it and it feels good to do something that comes so naturally. I am proud of the fact that I can skin a hide so clean it doesn't even need to be scraped.

This is a fox that we got today in a snare that I set. I didn't get to pull him out but I was able to skin him during my lunch break.

Bahaha.. My trapping partner looks sleepy.

I was down and out with some sort of plague from Wednesday through Friday last week. I finally started feeling human on Saturday, so I was able to check the snare set we have up the road. There were fox tracks but he sneakily avoided our snares. Rude. While I was cruising to check the traps I spotted two bunnies. They were delicious.

I've really got my bunny cooking down. I always use my crock pot because it gets them just super duper tender. I brined them in salt water over night for flava and to draw the blood out of the meat. Then I put them in my crock pot layered with onions. I mixed a can of chicken stock, a can of cream of celery soup, a can of water, a can of mushrooms (with the juice) and a can of diced tomatoes all together and poured it over the bunny. I cooked it on high all night and most of the morning until I was able to pick up a bone and have the meat just fell off. Oh! And I seasoned it with garlic powder, lawry's season salt, oregano, and basil. I didn't feel like gravy so I grabbed some noodles and tossed 'em in to soak up the broth and made it into a delicious hot dish instead of a soup. Yum. I ate two bowls after being out in the cold and it was perfect.

Red XIII (and Vincent Valentine)

In high school I was in love with Red XIII. I so wanted him to be my furry companion to cuddle and play with. Okay, so he was a bad ass battle cat-like creature but a girl can dream of having a pet like him. His non-testing science subject name is Nanaki. Regardless of what you call him, he's awesome.

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I can't find the link for this image! :( If you find it let me know.

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Oh yeah, I kind of also had a crush on this guy. Vincent Valentine. Okay so I was a weird kid. But I turned into a weird adult, so it's all good right?

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52 Lists: List the things you should be proud of

I struggled with writing this list. I guess I would rather think of comforting and happy things rather than try to write out what I feel pride in. I don't feel entirely certain and confident about my list. I am proud of who I am, but I feel more comfortable wearing it on my heart sleeve. However, a resolution is a resolution and here is my list

This list is about me. Now lets look at other things that I'm proud of. I'm proud of my brother. I'm proud of my rough and tough nephews and my little sweet niece. I'm proud of who they are becoming and their hearts. I'm infinitely proud of my mom, who has the most gentle spirit. She always thinks of others, defends her children, and gives freely. I'm proud of my friends. They have overcome drug addiction, abuse, marital problems, divorce, stage fright, alcohol addiction, weight loss, weight gain, loans, education, you name it and they've overcome it all the while supporting me and loving me during my bright days and my dark days.

Meeting outfit

This is how I roll when I'm in Washington, D.C. for meetings. Under armour, jeans, and a cardigan. I loved my hotel room. It was spacious, clean, the bed was super duper comfy and fluffy, and I had a pretty decent view. The area was great. Restaurants and bars were a short walk away and so was the transit system.

I landed on a Sunday and ventured out to a pizza place for dinner. The staff was super friendly and I was having a grand old time when I received some pretty devastating news. They went above and beyond and embraced me as a stranger in a strange city across an entire continent from my home. To this day it still warms my heart when I think of that restaurant. (The Arlington location)

Flying sideways

Eshagee (means scary in Inupiaq). I was on this plane yesterday. We flew in sideways pretty much just until we touched down. The flight circled two or three times and then pilots must have decided to go for it. We came in from the ocean heading towards across the river and then they turned the engines up on full and started turning. It was a toe curling, breath holding experience. We flew in sideways until we were over the Era building and then straightened out in time to touch down. I'm really happy to be home but I really don't want to experience that landing again. Ever.

Landing video 
taken by Scott Dickens

Run away! run away!

I'm running away to Anchorage for the weekend! Goodbye Unalakleet, see you on Sunday.

Photo taken by Bobby Evans

Advice

Cheesy, girly, and unnecessary. All things in this world that usually make me smile. And smiling is important. I wish I had read and realized the truth of this list when I was younger. Specifically two, four and eight. I do have number 3 down. And it's lead to a photo rich life. I try to print off pictures fairly often. The digital age is great because of the sheer volume of pictures you can store, but what's the use of having those pictures unless you get to look at them and cherish them?

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Currently

Inspired by Lariats and Lavender. 


Doing: Eating salt & vinegar chips for lunch.

Loving: Trapping, we finally got some snow! Maybe we'll be able to expand the line a lot further. The weather and snow conditions this year has made it impossible to have a great trapline. We've been doing okay but could do a lot better.

Thinking:That I should probably eat a little something else for lunch other than chips. Yep. That'd be a grand idea. Lately I've also been thinking about where I am and what I am doing with my life. If you would have told me three years ago that I would be where I'm at and doing what I'm doing I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. It's a good thing because it's caused me to grow as a person but it's a weird realization at the same time.

Reading: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel and The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Watching: I've been having a Bones marathon while I've been working on a puzzle. I'm up through season six and can't wait for the newest episodes. The dynamics between Booth and Brennan keep me entertained and happy.

Bones

Anticipating: My flight this afternoon!

Listening to:Can't Get You Out of my Head by Kylie Minogue

Planning: Things to do this weekend in Anchorage. I'm so excited for a break and to see some of my Anchorage friends. There's a lot happening in town: beer and barley wine festival, aces game, Jason's birthday!

Working on: A 3,000 piece puzzle. It's almost overwhelming but not quite. I love the mindlessness and losing myself in puzzles. I took my nephew's tote of Legos once and built everything that I could find the books and pieces for. It took me over a month and I adored every second.

 

You can see the rather large tote on the right. In a week or so they were all busted up.

52 Lists: My greatest comforts

Lately I've been incredibly stressed by work. I'm struggling with leaving it at the door at 5 pm when it's time to go home. On Friday I got so frustrated and angry that I had about four meltdowns. I completely shut down when I walked through the door to my house. My safe haven. I ate a bowl of chili and went right to sleep. I slept from about 6:30 till 10 or so the next day only waking up from 9:30 pm to 11 pm.

These lists have become something comforting in my life. Once a week I've been able to compose my thoughts and focus on good things that bring joy and comfort to me. Here is list 2.

Moose Hunting

This fall I went moose hunting with Frank, Heather, and Craig. We didn't end up seeing a moose and therefore didn't get one but we sure had fun looking. The water was really high when we went up. The highest it's been in years. A lot of the little sloughs and lakes off the main river were accessible because the water was so high. Too bad the water isn't this high all the time, we saw 4 or 5 beavers. I'd love to trap them but during trapping season they're too hard to get to.

Senior beaverpants getting some chow ready for winter

The moon was beautiful

I love summer in Alaska, I miss the long days

Calling moose. I still haven't done this. I think I'd snicker if I did.

Yeah, that's my moose hunting face.

Yoi, fiances!

Dam. Bwahaha! No really that's a beaver dam on the left.

Aaaand another one. Those little critters are everywhere.

Rose hips

Frank's super awesome boat. So comfy and so fun.

We know how to munch. Quack quack style.

I look tired.

Kitty mittys. <--- Bwah!

Okay I've been working a little bit too long today. Because I was absolutely entertained by that title and I had no right to be. That is not witty at all (Look at me go again, Witty kitty mittys.) Terrible. I had it in my head that I wanted to sew with lynx. I didn't want to make a hat (my mom has made them in previous years) so I went with mittens (because she had never made lynx mittens.) This was the lovely, super soft result.

This is the first harness that I've ever made. The short cross piece isn't so bad but the long piece is a serious pain. I tangled it up really bad a few times. I liked how it turned out though.

Hilarious

These make me laugh. Repeatedly. And I believe laughter is good for you. Which is why I visit this site.

Someday.

This is so cute and hilarious and yet...

Technology. The wonders.

This needs to happen more often.

They don't hibernate, they dominate.

I'm still snickering. And yes I do snort when I laugh really hard. It makes me laugh even harder.

Pan fried trout

Chop the head and tail off, gut it, wash it, stick it in a pan and eat it. Delicious. One of my favorite things about living up here is the food. My ancestors knew what they were doing when they settled down at Unalakleet. Okay so maybe my ancestors were from other places around the Norton Sound but I relate most with Unalakleet because that's where I've spent the bulk of my growin' up.

A little olive oil and a bunch of garlic is how I roll

This was just a baby. Booba brought some fresh trout to my mom the other day and I snagged a few of them. I'm an abysmal fisherman, let alone ice fisherman, so I happily accepts the gifts given to my mom. I like trout more than her anyways. Fresh fish in the winter always makes me smile. When I was little I used to think that the fish in the river froze solid and then thawed and started swimming again in the spring time.

52 Lists: List the words that touch your soul

I read Moorea Seal's blog. This year she's doing a list challenge. I thought I'd give it a go. I'm a big of a work in progress kind of gal. So this is the start of my list. I didn't think that it would make me smile and warm my heart every time that I read it, but every time it has brought a smile to my face and my heart.

Snaring beaver

This year when we started trapping, it got cold and things started freezing (including people's water pipes) but we didn't really get a lot of snow. We trapped with four wheelers through mid to late December. It was cold, miserable and slow. But at least we were trapping. This is a series of pictures of our beaver snare sets. I think we did just over a half dozen of them.

Find a nice tasty branch that a beaver will like.

Attach snares where they're be just under the ice.

Chop a hole (I mostly chopped holes)

Two snares better the odds of catching a beaver.  Makes sense, right?

Stick the bait pole down into the bottom of the pond. Wire a pole so the beaver can't escape.

It's important to take a break and lay down on the ice when you're starting to sweat from chopping holes.

This is the beaver house.

This is their feed pile.

That's my trapping partner and Penny, the trapping dog.

We didn't do as good as we would have liked. :/ The lack of snow meant that the ice was not insulated so while the temperatures stayed low it meant that the ice got thick fast. Too thick to chop through the dang ice without breaking your arms off. And thus beaver trapping is over until spring because those darn things ain't worth the back breaking work, even if they're awesome for sewing.