more hiking, hunting, and northern lights!!

Went for a hike on a beautiful day in the fresh snow!!

 Happy dog!!! He loves the snow!

 Dogs-- a woman's best friend!

 They had a great time together!

 Gorgeous sunset-- what a view for those houses on top of the ridge!

 Northern lights from our back deck!!!

 Flowers from a girl in my class!! :)

 Tundra's first grouse!!  Adam took him out and he said Tundra did sooooooooooo well and was so proud of the birds! 

Proud pup!!!

September 15, 2012

 Adam and I hiked a few...7 miles lookin for ptarmigan-- no luck on birds but had a great day!

 The "historical" missle launch.... there was just an article on Anchorage Daily News about it-- check out adn.com for the article if interested.  (Dad and Brandon- this is was you see from teh highway that you have been interested in)

Symphony Lake (on right) and Eagle Lake (left)

 Jessica is a new pharmacist at ANMC- we hiked 6 miles in to Symphany Lake and out in 6 hours with a stop for fishing and lunch

 Tundra's new buddy

 The coyote we came across... check out the video of it below!

 My new toy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We came across about 15 of these lil buggers down by the river!

 Eagle River and the valley from the mile hi hike

 Hiking with Danae and Tyler!!

 Adam and the cutest lil baby boy-- Opi!  Don't let Adam's face fool ya- he asked to hold him and loved it!

 A girl's night in August!  The picture tells it all!

 A girl's night in September---we survived Talkeetna!

 The pups in front of Denali!--- ya know...the big one on the right

 carrots were not successful in my garden this year.....our 5 year old neighbor boy laughed hysterically!

 The last of our lettuce... yum yum

 The neighbor boy helped me dig up these potatoes!  They are delicous!

 Tundra is the ultimate frog dog!

 Adam took the boat up to the glacier to attempt a goat hunt.....the river was low and he ended up coming back home with a dinged up boat! 

 beautiful day!

 Perfect day for viewing the glacier

Our happy pup with termination dust on the mountains behind him! here comes the snow! already!

This school year is off to a great start- much, much, muuuuuuuuuch better than last year! I only have 15 kiddos!  There are a few challenges, but nothing like last year.  I absolutely adore one little girl who has a degenerative disease that also affects her mobility and speech, but she is super smart and SO HAPPY!!  The rest of the class just loves her and jump at the chance to help her.  It has definitely been a learning experience and eye-opening......and of course sad.  But we are trying to make every day exciting for her with lots of love from our class and Government Hill staff!

As mentioned.. Adam attempted a goat hunt but turned back after a rough run up the river to the start of his hike.  Other than that he has been studying for a test coming up in October that will ....hmm- I don't remember why he is taking it.  I have heard why probably 50 times because Erin and other pharmacists have taken it before, but sometimes the pharmacy lingo just doesn't stick in my head.  If you're interested... ask him! :)

We had a huuuuuuuuuuuuge windstorm with winds up to 100mph that took out power and trees were down everywhere.  We didn't have any damage at our house and the power was only out 10 hours but some people had it out for 5+ days!  We are suppose to have another windstorm with similar strength tonight.  eeeek!  Wish us luck!

PEACE!!!!!!!!!!

Caribou Hunt

 We had a successful first caribou hunt!  We arrived in the area on Thursday afternoon to glass for bou and set up camp.  The hunt started Friday---we got our caribou the first morning.

The pictures are frustatingly out of order and it is even more frustrating to try to rearrange them... so bare with me!  Also-- Adam and I were goofing around at the airshow which resulted in my camera being slammed to the ground.... now broken.  These pics are with our other camera--- not quite the zoom.  Shopping for a new camera now!

I am standing at my caribou--- this large group just came up to check things out-- including a bigger bull!  Who woulda known?!?!

 A bunch of small bulls, cows, and a few calves.  (Females get antlers too!)  There is a large bull toward the left end.

 Adam with his share of the first pack out!

 Our 3rd flat tire of the trip.  We have bad luck with the shale in the gravel when some people have yet to get 1 flat tire out there.  We are up to 8 flats from that darn road!

 Beautiful sillouettes on the mountain ridge!

 the "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES" pic!  Had to represent Iowa with my hat! (even though you can't even tell in the pic!)

Our camp.... I'm sitting with a mosquito net on--- for the flies!

 MY FIRST CARIBOU!!!!!!!!!!!  Not the biggest and not the smallest.... just right! 

 A group on the edge of the morning fog.... cows and calves

 We woke up to nasty fog..... terrible hunting conditions!

This mountain side may look familiar... this is the spot we had scouted with Brandon and Deanna.  I have posted a picture of Brandon making a snow angel over there!  Well-- caribou were traveling right through that area (now melted)

 A great view... small bull going through the night before the hunt opened.  It was nice to observe their patterns of travel!

 The 2nd flat tire....Adam is not happy!

 What beautiful weather for hiking and hunting!

 This cow and calf ran right past our truck when we were parking to start the hike!

 Our set up for the 5 day hunt... we were only there 1 day and didn't even get the wheelers off the trailer!

 The first flat

 Another view of the set up... with our customized meat wagon! 

So this is where the zoom woulda been nice.... the brown spots in the snow are caribou. The night before the hunt opened- hundreds of caribou lined the ridge.  It was quite the sight!  Hunters were just drooling and anticipating the next morning like it was Christmas morning! ;)

And a couple pics from dipnetting.  We hit the red salmon run just right again!  We were in and out with 35 fish in 4 hours!  A-MAZING!  Unfortunately the work had just begun... cleaning and vac-packing took more time than actually netting them!

We took our neighbor out the next day.... got 17 fish in no time!  (he usually dipnets from shore but took up the offer to try from the boat to get the rest of his fish since he'd never netted from a boat before.  Let's just say 17 fish in 3 hours was easier than 3 fish in 8 hours!----the time of the run makes a different too)

YEAAAAAAAAH for a successful summer of visitors and a packed freezer!  Since we got back early from the hunt- we spent a day unpacking and prepping the meat.  The next morning we took off silver fishing on the Deshka with our boat-- we caught a couple.  Today was a day of resting and taking care of tires!  Tomorrow we will try hunting for ptarmigan.... our goal is to replace chicken with ptarmigan so that we are buying ZERO meat from the store.  It feels amazing to know we have supplied all of our meat and are eating that much healthier! 

Adam is in one of his best buddy's wedding this weekend in Chicago.  Teachers go back to school Thursday.  Danae and Tyler will be visiting and come in Thursday night!

A video of the group that came up after we started cleaning my caribou... check out the nice bull!  DANG IT!  It was cool to hear all of their hooves hitting the ground and... they smelled our campsite before running over our tent! :)  They actually turned and went WAAAAAAAY out into the valley- opposite direction of other hunters.