Doileys

There are some days when I get an overwhelming sense of panic. How on earth will I ever do all of the projects that I want to do? How on earth will I ever complete all of the projects that I  have started. I'll do really good for a chunk of time and work on my big projects and actually accomplish some of the and then I'll get inspired and start a slew of other projects. Which puts me right back where I started. It's a never ending battle. Kind of like laundry.

52 Lists: List the things you want to make

I've been sitting on this list so long that I've made 4 fur bears: beaver, mink, rabbit and nutria, finished my first beaver hat and cut out another one, and made a quilt for my bestie's wedding present. Now that's some blogging procrastination right there.

Egg hunting

I went egg hunting this year with a friend and his mom and found zilch. :) But it was good exercise and a new experience. My friend's mom was the only successful one. She found two eggs. I think it was a little early for egg hunting. At least I know how to egg hunt now. I mean, it's really not that hard. You walk around on the tundra and look for eggs. You want tundra with little lakes and pools and such. Pretty basic.

How cute is this little guy. He wasn't very scared of me but just kept scooting around in the water as I looked in the tundra around him. I don't know what kind of bird he was other than small.

An empty nest, this was all I found.

Ducks! Too bad bird season was over. They were much more skittish than the little bird, probably because they get shot at all the time.

It was really bright out. I could barely open my eyes.

Seagull eggs!

Beaver hunting

This spring  I was a very lucky girl and was invited out beaver hunting with Frank, Heather, and Christian. Our adventure took us way up Chirosky.We left town at around 8 or 8:30 and sped off. It was my first time on the river this year. And it was perfect. There still weren't many mosquitoes out and the it stayed light all night.

Unalakleet receding into the horizon as we head up river

Looking for beaver in a little slough

Frank is a really good driver, much more adventurous than me. I tend to go a lot slower and am still pretty scared of tight curves. I was comfortable with him at the steering wheel.

A beaver house in the Chirosky River

There's a swan in the middle of this picture

It was an absolutely gorgeous night

We ended up getting 6 beaver altogether. I shot two of the six and one little muskrat. It was such a fun night. I can't wait till next spring. And I can't wait till this guy is all stretched and tanned and sewed up.

The other beaver I got had quite a hole in his head so I declined taking a picture of him

Iris pin

This was a commissioned piece for a lady that lives here in my town. She gave this to her daughter for a birthday. It's done with delica beads using the peyote stitch. It's hardened with nail polish.

Spring time stuff

Spring time in coastal Alaska means fresh seal oil and fresh oogruk (bearded seal). This girl was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to help make both. I also ended up with three seal skins to stretch and turn into sewing material. This is my friend Chara and her family. She gave me the spotted seal skin that they're taking the blubber off of in this picture. Since I was being given the hide, I helped. Chara's Uncle stopped by and asked who the blonde was trying to cut seal (yes I dyed my hair blonde), this caused some laughter until he realized it was me.

My cousin Velma spoiled me with her eskimo salad. I ate the whole jar in one day. Not ashamed of that at all.

Fat Ab gave me some beluga tail.

And an oogruk rib cage and back bone. I cleaned off all of the meat and and hung t up to dry. Now I have enough black meat to share! (Normally I have just enough to hoard.)

I took last years silver salmon out of the freezer and smoked a bunch of it. Just trim off a little of the freezer burn and twelve hours later you have your self a delicious tasty treat. Some of it will be made into a smoked salmon cheesecake for my friend Jay.

Here's a picture of my oogruk drying into black meat. I love this stuff. When I was younger I used to write on the bag that it was mine and for no one else to eat it. Yeah, I was that kid.

Caribou Hunting

I have wanted to write this post for over a month and I just have not had the time. That's what happens when you half to travel for a month straight. My life is sooooo tough. <--- sarcasm. I love my job and I LOVE that I get to travel for my job. Happy girl, party of one.

This spring I finally got to go caribou hunting. It was super late in the season, so we weren't even sure if there were going to be caribou but I wanted to go anyways. The drive up was gorgeous. It was a beautiful blue sky day. We stopped quite a bit a long the way to chat and look around. It was almost all new territory to me. The first 13 miles or so I'd driven a lot for the trap line. The sun brought out the seals. Here's an oogruk (bearded seal) that decided to work on his tan.

There were a couple really long stretches of just flat... stuff. Tundra. Ice. Really not exciting and the ice had some funky wind drifts that were miserable for my little machine. Gregg's rig is pretty much a cadillac to my beater. Okay so that map is really rough but you get the general idea of where we went to find caribou. The ice and the little spit of land were the flat parts that I was talking about.

We got to the hot springs cabin in the evening. It was still light enough to see caribou through our binoculars up over on the hillside, but we decided we were pooped and wanted to get into the hot springs and soak our aching bones instead of wrastlin' with caribou. Not the best idea. But we couldn't really predict the weather. The next morning it was white out. We could barely see to the other side of the hot springs. So we spent a whole day pretty much in the cabin. We napped 3 times, went into the hot springs and tried to go out twice but were so afraid of getting lost that we didn't really get far. The hot springs were nice and toasty though.

mah sleeping bag

This is what Gregg looks like when he's been stuck in a cabin with me for two days.

I look considerably more cheery. Yes there's whiskey and water in that cup.

The next morning was kind of the same. We still ventured out, trying our luck. The wind was brutal and had the ground storm going strong. We were about to give up when we found a little valley that was clear! Whaa?!?! It was raging all around everywhere else except for this one area. And lo and behold there was a teensy herd of caribou. They were way up on a ridge but if that was the only caribou I was gonna see I was gonna shoot and hike if I had to. I shot. I missed. The herd came down off the ridge through the valley and up the other side which was a hill that we could drive on. We followed them up and I shot this guy:

Right in the butt. Not a great first shot but at least I got him. Then I shot him in the head, but it was a little too low. :( So I had to walk up to him and ping him with my .22. He was a tough bull. I'll spare you the pictures of him in pieces.

Here's Gregg on his cadillac. The fox up near Koyuk are much more tame than the fox around Unalakleet, probably because people aren't out trying to shoot and skin them all the time. This little fellow came right up and hunkered down by us. He even let me walk back to my rig and grab my camera and walk back. I took a bunch of pictures of his cute little self. He was quite blonde from all the spring sunshine. This was my favorite: