Living the dream

Well sorry that is has been about 20 days since my last post but like usual time is flying by in the village! I have been busy with school, wrestling and hunting! School has been a challenge this year because I have had to assume more leadership in the high school wing since I am the senior staff member! It has started out as a great year though. My classes still don't have curriculum so I am doing my best to incorporate meaningful learning in my classes and I think I have been successful. In my STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) classes we have been exploring structure rigidity, strength and efficiency. The students had a great time building structures out of pipe cleaners and straws in order to test them. We have now moved into building air-powered rockets which should be a lot of fun! My arctic resource management class has been a lot of fun so far! Recently we have been skinning, cutting and cooking caribou! It has been great to teach the kids about this valuable resource and enjoy doing it. I have a lot of fun and exciting things planned for this class so stay tuned into my blog and I'll keep you updated.





My parents were able to come for a visit to Kiana and I think they really enjoyed being out in the village. It was definitely an eye opening experience for them I think. Although our boat trip fell through I still think they had a good time. They were able to meet my wonderful girlfriend Sam and my new roommate Phil. They really got a feel for the village and the life I lead. It was great to have them here and maybe they will come back sometime in the winter.







Well the next weekend Sam was able to come out to Kiana again and we went on our first hunting trip together. My friend Brad called me up and asked if we wanted to go to camp for the night? I looked at Sam as if to ask "is it ok?" Of course was the reply, so we had 15 min to get ready and down to the boat. Once arriving as camp we realized they already had 12 caribou there to work on. So we went to work skinning, cutting and hanging the meat. It was hard work but fun! The following morning I wanted to get 2 caribou but Brad had other plans, so 2 turned into 5 and 5 turned into finding a wounded one and going to 6. It was a great hunt! We brought them back to the camp where we gutted them. We then loaded them into the boat and brought them to Kiana. It was an awesome time, made even better by having Sam by my side. We even were able to enjoy a beautiful Arctic sunset!
























Thanks for reading my blog, hopefully you find my adventures entertaining. I really enjoy letting people experience my adventures through pictures and words. Please check back for more updates in my Greater Northern Adventures.

Starting the year off right!

Well I'm back in Kiana for another year of school! I had a great summer driving tour busses all around Alaska, I didn't make as much money as i had hoped but do you ever? Coming back to the village really felt like coming home! I was welcomed by many old friends and before long I was already out in the country enjoying the scenery. I was able to go seining with the Westlake and Reich families up at their camp about 12 miles up river call sunaotuk "place of bones". We caught whitefish in the seine net and brought them back to camp to scale and cut them. Once they were scaled and cut and soaked in a brine we hung them on poles to dry. The white and blue totes in the boat were full of fish! When we were done we had 6 poles of fish. (Which is a lot)


















The next outing Brad took myself and his family up to Westlake camp which is about 45 miles upstream from Kiana. It was an awesome boat ride with Brad.I always learn a lot when traveling with Brad. I learned about the bad spots in the river and well as how to read the river when traveling upstream. Once at the camp we had to haul all the tools up the stair system(very similar to my parents stairs in Idaho) to the camp. We were not there for a visit, we were there to work. We built a look out that was made out of heavy 4 inch steel posts 20ft tall. It was tough work! The reason for lookout was to be able to harvest caribou from land. We had a small generator for power, cut pipe with an infomercial saw, welded in the rain, measurements were "close enough", it took two trips but we finally got the lookout done. On the second trip we were looking for moose so we camped about 15 miles upriver of the camp. It was about 25 degrees that night, good thing I had my cables guide bag that's rated to -20. We didn't find any moose that trip but I was able to catch a few pike!






I have been running in a time deficit since school has started. It has just been in the last week that I am finally getting into a schedule and routine. We have many new staff members including a new principal. Things are finally smoothing out in Kiana. In the last week I have been able to go moose hunting a lot. I was not able to get a moose but was able to work on 2! It was a fun time but a lot of work! The first was Brads moose shot about a mile from Kiana. We took a boat up the squirrel river to get as close as we could. We quartered it there and used the 4 wheeler to haul the meat to the boat. We then hung the meat for 3 days then butchered it all. The second moose was shot by my good friend and trapping partner Glenn. He called the moose from over 2 miles aways and directed him to the perfect spot. He shot the bull on dry land but with its dying breath made it into 1 1/2 feet of water! What a mess! Luckily my roommate Phil and I were there with Glenn so we were able to cut the moose up in the water. What a job!










The caribou are on their way. I am excited to get some! It has been a great start to the school year! Hopefully my next post will be full of adventures! Thanksfor reading and supporting me during my Greater Northern Adventures!

Arctic Spring

Spring in the Arctic is getting closer and closer every day! We have the daylight already, with sunrise around 6:45am and sunset around 12:30am and gaining more day light every day. We still have some snow coverage in the village but it is disappearing quickly. We actually have finally had a day where the temperature didn't dip into the negatives! It has been in the 20's and 30's during the day and I am wearing carhartts and sweatshirts and find myself complaining about the heat.
I have been busy in the craft world. One of my best friends is having a baby boy and when I told the ladies I work with that they are expecting I was told I need to make them a pair of baby mukluks. I worked on them for about two weeks and then sent them off. The received them and told me how much they liked them. At least that kid will have something I bet no other baby in the tri-cities has, hand sewn mukluks made above the arctic circle.





After a short but difficult trapping season it ended on April 15. On April 14 all of my hard work paid off in the form of a young female lynx! We caught her on a set about a mile from town. I have since skinned it, dried it, stretched it and am preparing to tan it. I will update you on the final product in my next post. This season I trapped 10 red fox and one lynx. All in all not too bad for my first season. Next year I will trap harder and hopefully have better results. Trapping has been a great way for me to get out into the country and enjoying the winter.



I recently had the opportunity to go in a "field trip" with a group of people from our district. 3 students and 2 staff members went from Kiana. This "field trip" was a 340 mile round-trip snow machine ride to Selawik hot springs. Check out the link.
http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Selawik/about/hot_springs.html
Lucky for me, I was the first teacher to express interest in the trip so I was "put in charge" of planning the Kiana portion. This meant I had to make make sure who ever was going had all the correct winter traveling gear, camping gear, emergency gear, food for the group and any snow machines going were in good traveling condition. Not to mention I had to create all the legal paperwork for my site to go along with the trip. I made sure to CYA with paperwork. After many weeks of planning and finding last minute items the day was upon us. The morning of departure I noticed a loose idler wheel on the undercarriage of the machine I was going to borrow. We tipped the machine over in the shop to make the quick swap and found a broken undercarriage! I don't know how I missed that upon my initial inspection but that machine could not travel. Eventually as a last ditch effort we put out an all call on the VHF asking for a snow machine to borrow. A great community member stepped up and lent me his machine so the trip was a GO.



The Kotzebue team arrived in Kiana around 12 and we left at 2 heading for Ambler. Kotzebue had about 10 students with them and 4 adults with our trip leader Raymond Woods. It was about 100 miles to Ambler about 50 river miles and 50 through mountains and over tundra. The first 20 miles were spent checking loads, re-tying loads, checking sleds and machines. We had a sled flip and break during the first 10 miles so we had to borrow a sled and re-pack our grear. Once our loads were re-secured we continued on with our journey. During the first day we passed a few mushers that were running the Kobuk 440 race. It was exciting to see the mushers and dog teams in action on the trails. We spent the first night in Ambler. We were able to use the school kitchen in Ambler and we had brought frozen pizzas! In the morning disaster struck for me. While trying to pull start my borrowed snow-go my lower back exploded. I saw stars and fell off the machine in pain. I had never felt pain as intense and sharp as this. I would later find out that I had pulled and torn some muscles in my back. It was decision time for me, leave the group or tough it out. There happened to be a person from Arctic Chiropractic in Ambler helping out the mushers, she massaged some bio-freeze into my back and I loaded up on Advil. Well for various reasons I decided to tough it out. The trip would have been much more fun if I wasn't hurt but at least I can still remember the trip and not so much the pain.
After leaving Ambler we headed to Shungnak. It was a pleasant 26 mile trip accross the tundra. It was a great way to start the day with some beautiful scenery. We stopped for lunch and gas in Shungnak, 2 weeks before leaving we had to arrange with native store in Shungnak to allow us to buy fuel. They were having a fuel shortage and were only selling 5 gallons per non-shungnak resident. We were carrying 30 extra gallons of fuel in our sleds just for Kiana and as it turned out we would need every drop.
Leaving Shungnak we were tired but excited, this was the last leg of our trip. Just 45 miles to the hot springs. It was the hardest 45 miles of the trip BY FAR! There wasn't any snow cover on the tundra and it felt like it was beating you to death. In these 45 miles machines and sleds were broke, loads were lost and people were in foul moods. I have never been so relieved to see a place in my life as I was when I came around a corner and saw the hot springs.
Once at the hot springs we had to set up camp. Most of the group stayed in Arctic Oven tents with their own stoves. We had one tent and the girls wanted to stay in it. Once we figured the stoves out (damper problems) they slept very warm. The remaining members of the crew slept in two shelter cabins that were built by the Huslia people and the Shungnak people. There is also a bath house that was built over the hot springs so you can soak in a small pool. Soaking is said to be therapeutic. All the tribal doctors made to tell everyone that we had to drink a cup of hotsprings water before you soak. So I made sure to follow their directions.













Once camp was set up the kids went to cut wood. Raymond picked up food and a cook in Shungnak so we had great food while we spent our 2 days there. I spent most of my time soaking in the hot springs and preparing my back for the ride back. The kids and adults were able to go explore the valley, go on a caribou hunt with Raymond, see the hotsprings souce, learn about emergency shelter building and just hang out while we spent our time at the hotsprings. The hotsprings are a magical place but due to my back pain I was ready to leave. Unfortunately we noticed one of the Kiana snowmachines had lost a wheel going accross the tundra. Good thing we had satellite phones so we could call in for some help. Luckily the student who owned the machine had family in Shungnak that had the exact same machine and they were able to ride out and bring the part he needed! Raymond and some others stayed with the broken machine at the hot springs while the rest of the group headed for Shungnak. Raymond and the others caught up with us in Shungnak and we headed to Ambler together. After a night in Ambler we headed home. Along the way we had more sleds and machines break. Two machines bumpers totally ripped off. We fixed one by tying a stout willow branch to the remaining parts of the sled and it made it all the way back to Kotzebue! The other machines sled we had to caboose onto another sled and make it to Kiana wherer the remaining team could reload and redistribute gear. Even though Kiana was the end of the line for us, we still had a lot of working fixing sleds, hitches and machines so they could make it back to Kotzebue. Despite my pain it was an amazing trip! We learned a lot about arctic survival and overland travel. It was a great experience and I am looking foward to it next year!




As you have read I have been very busy, as always. School is winding down and I am getting prepared for driving tour busses in Alaska again. I decided working would help me afford all the toys I want! Thank you for reading my blog! I hope this has given you a little glimpse into my life here above the arctic circle. I made a short video of our trip, it's very amateurish but it may be entertaining. Http://you.be/G5BQm2e3bBk