Tundra Tricks part 2

So here is the second video of Tundra's tricks, a couple new ones. The newest one is the "play dead"- so it is not perfected yet. He is 6 1/2 months! Last time we weighed him a couple weeks ago, he was 55lbs!

Last weekend, Adam, Tundra, and I went to one of Adam's co-worker's cabins near Talkeetna. You take the train out to it. It is literally in the middle of nowhere, except for the occasional train. They built the cabin, outhouse, and sauna by themselves. I was seriously impressed and amazed--- it was a beautiful piece of land and a very nice cabin. Tundra played with their 2 year old black lab all weekend. They did a lot of swimming in the Big Susitna River... Tundra is a cheater and would wait for Murphy to get to shore with the stick and then steal it from him to bring back to the thrower! We were positive we would see wildlife, as they have many precautions in place for bears and porcupines at their cabin. (actual claw marks and rubs from the bears and chew marks from the porcupines) Unfortunately... we only saw arctic swans and an eagle nest. We had a great time, it totally felt surreal as we were living in "luxury" in the middle of nowhere!

Last day of school tomorrow--- yippee!!

We will be flying out for Iowa tomorrow... double yippee!! We will be snaggin some spoonbill asap! :)

Speaking of spoonbill... we invited our neighbors over to try spoonbill one night (from Adam's Missouri trip) And he told us numerous stories about moose and bears in our neighborhood. We knew of the cow who gave birth in our next door neighbor's yard and of the occasional bear. But he was telling us about two griz twins who were harrassing the neighborhood and killing the baby moose. Also of a griz that had to be shot up the street from our house. A black bear after his bird feeders. A griz scratching it's back on his truck.... All kinds of crazy things-- so now I am watching out the window even more often and considering taking the gun to the mailbox! We also have the binocs and spotting scope set in front of the window to glass the mountain when we have a chance. What a thrill eh?!?

Winter is finally over!!

The two things that mark the end of winter is not the melting of the snow or the slightly warmer temperatures or the dates... it's mosquito's and the awakening of the bears! There is still plenty of snow in the mountain areas and temperature has yet to breach 60. With that said, it has gotten warm enough for both the mosquitoes and bear to wake up.

With the awakening of the bears comes good bear hunting opportunities. The brown bears are the first up waking up early to mid April. The black bears soon follow during early May and up until June depending on where they were hibernating. The meat and hides of spring bear are fresh and sought after by many.

The last weekend of April a guy in the pharmacy asked me if I wanted to tag along on a hunt in Prince William Sound (a series of bays off the Gulf of Alaska). We only went out for 2 days and 1 night, but it was a good time. The other two guys that went were very interesting and fairly unorthodox in their hunting strategy. I won't go into detail about them but I would have much rather expereinced this trip with some closer friends... good thing my pharmacy buddy was there. One of the guys flew up from the states and spent a fortune on the possibility of getting a bear. Well, he wasn't disappointed, but he did drop one of the smallest bears I have seen in a while. Enjoy!!

First fish of the season... a flounder

Not sure what this fish is called, some kind of cod

Porpoise!!

Rock bass

An eagle fishing

Our portable motel and fishing/ killing transport

Black bear down!

First picture with the trophy

SHRIMP!!! We didn't catch many, but it was interesting learning about potting these guys (and they tasted AMAZING)

A zebra... no, a starfish silly

An unknown fish... Wilbur has never caught one of these before

Either he just got goosed or he is confused on what the heck is on his line

Rock fish

Biggest fish of the weekend

Our scenery

This is a long video, but it show you how we shrimp. It takes so long to bring the rope up because it is 600 ft deep!



What happens once you catch the shrimp... minus the eating part.


We were headed to pick up our pots, but got distracted.


A rare group of sealions. We have no idea what they were doing.