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.

Reindeer

Brother and his girlfriend came down from Nome after Christmas with Avakate, the cutest niece on the planet ever. I was lucky enough to be volunteered by the council to host a New Year's Day celebration luncheon for the community. Part of this responsibility was providing some food. I decided reindeer soup would be awesome and easy and would go a long way. So I had the office order reindeer from St. Michael. This is what came. My brother was sweet enough to help me butcher the chunk of meat. I would have seriously struggled without his assistance.

Reindeer butt. Sorry Rudolph.

Brotherman cutting off a hind quarter

I was extremely proud of us. The only part of the reindeer that we didn't use was pictured below. We skimmed off all the fat we could and put it in ziploc bags and gave those out along with the ribs, the leg bones (all sawed in half by my dear mother), and the back bone. There were big chunks of meat for everyone who volunteered to make soup.

Unused bits

I now feel like I could butcher a caribou. So that means that I need to go caribou hunting post haste. I'm sure I wouldn't be the speediest butcher-er but I'm anxious to try. I just don't want to get a caribou with those fly thingies in the skin. I shudder to think about that. I'm cringing just thinking about it.