It's been another exciting week in the village of Kiana. First and foremost we made the front page of the Anchorage daily news a couple days telling about our fugitive situation up here. The troopers were in the village for a few days and we able apprehend the fugitive without incident much to the relief to everyone in the area. It seems that the village is getting back to normal quickly. Kids are playing outside again, people are out on the river and Hondas can be heard putting around the village.
I've been busy in the shop on weekends. I decided to build a gun rack out of scrap wood. It turned out pretty good. Our basketsled is coming along nicely and we are getting close to starting to build our own, which the students are excited about!
We had our first mini snow of the year, although it only stuck around for a day it was a good little flurry. The students can not wait for the snow. Riding snow machines AKA snow-go, snowmobile, sled is a way of life up here. It seems that every student has one. I have access to one I'll be able to use so I don't plan on buying one this year.
I have been working on my culinary arts as well! After hanging my caribou meat for 5 days I cut it up and ground it all. I plan on harvesting another caribou before the snow comes so I can cut some nice roasts steaks and stew meat. After grinding I ordered a new food dehydrator and jerky gun to start making homemade jerky. My first batch made original flavor and teriyaki jerky. They both turned out great! Maybe some lucky readers will get a caribou jerky sampler! I also had the chance to try black meat and seal oil.......that is interesting cuisine. I was able to swallow it! The oil is not bad but I was not a fan of the meat. At least I tried something new. It has a salty ocean taste. Very tough and......oily, the taste is hard to describe.
I did get out hunting Friday night. Along with doing some hunting we were also charged with spreading the ashes from a person we had never met. The ashes were mailed to a native corporation and were asked to be spread on the river. We stopped at a nice spot up river opened the box and found a candle, a photo and the ashes in a jam jar. It was a rather odd to do this for someone you knew nothing about. We were asked to document the spreading with a camera so we set up a little memorial, took some pictures, said some words and spread the ashes on the kobuk river. With our duty done we could get to hunting. Unfortunately we got out a bit late and only saw one herd of caribou and two moose. The moose were crossing the river a bull chasing a cow. He had one thing on his mind! We got close took a couple pictures and let them go on their way. The bull was pretty small but they were fun to watch.
Well that wraps up this blog entry. Hopefully I will have some more excitement to share with you next post! Thanks for reading, take care.
I've been busy in the shop on weekends. I decided to build a gun rack out of scrap wood. It turned out pretty good. Our basketsled is coming along nicely and we are getting close to starting to build our own, which the students are excited about!
We had our first mini snow of the year, although it only stuck around for a day it was a good little flurry. The students can not wait for the snow. Riding snow machines AKA snow-go, snowmobile, sled is a way of life up here. It seems that every student has one. I have access to one I'll be able to use so I don't plan on buying one this year.
I have been working on my culinary arts as well! After hanging my caribou meat for 5 days I cut it up and ground it all. I plan on harvesting another caribou before the snow comes so I can cut some nice roasts steaks and stew meat. After grinding I ordered a new food dehydrator and jerky gun to start making homemade jerky. My first batch made original flavor and teriyaki jerky. They both turned out great! Maybe some lucky readers will get a caribou jerky sampler! I also had the chance to try black meat and seal oil.......that is interesting cuisine. I was able to swallow it! The oil is not bad but I was not a fan of the meat. At least I tried something new. It has a salty ocean taste. Very tough and......oily, the taste is hard to describe.
I did get out hunting Friday night. Along with doing some hunting we were also charged with spreading the ashes from a person we had never met. The ashes were mailed to a native corporation and were asked to be spread on the river. We stopped at a nice spot up river opened the box and found a candle, a photo and the ashes in a jam jar. It was a rather odd to do this for someone you knew nothing about. We were asked to document the spreading with a camera so we set up a little memorial, took some pictures, said some words and spread the ashes on the kobuk river. With our duty done we could get to hunting. Unfortunately we got out a bit late and only saw one herd of caribou and two moose. The moose were crossing the river a bull chasing a cow. He had one thing on his mind! We got close took a couple pictures and let them go on their way. The bull was pretty small but they were fun to watch.
Well that wraps up this blog entry. Hopefully I will have some more excitement to share with you next post! Thanks for reading, take care.
