Time flies in the Arctic!

Well as usual it has been longer than i would have wanted between my post. I really appreciate you for taking the time to read this blog post. Time seems to be at a premium currently, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. This year has had an interesting start to it. At school we have 6 new teachers out of 10 total. So there has been a steep learning curve for the new staff members. By now everyone seemsto be getting their feet under them with everyone running in the same direction. All in all the year has started out well for me. As a highlight of , my professional career this fall I was able to speak in front of Senator Mark Beigch and the chairman of the FCC Tom Wheeler. I was able to tell them about all of the technology we use in Kiana and I impressed them with my new 3-D printers.
Although time has seemed to have always slipped away, I have found time to go hunting this fall. This year I was successful in harvesting my first moose! I was hunting with my buddy Glenn, whom I have mentioned in other posts. We started huning the end of August for his bull. He had a federal subsistence tag which allows him to harvest a moose from August until December. I had the general federal tag which allows me to harvest a moose from September 1st-20th. So we started hunting for Glenn's moose first. We found a lot of great spots to hunt that we put in our "play book" and would check routinely for moose. We did a lot of hiking, a lot of boating and a lot of calling. Finally one night we looked in a meadow from our "play book" and there stood his moose. He wanted a younger bull for a more tender meat. It was sharing a meadow with 5 cow moose. Glenn pulled up and put the bull down. After congratulations we started to get to work. It was about 5 minutes after the shot that a HUGE bull walked into the meadow wondering what had happened. I got really excited thinking this could be my bull. He was a bull of a lifetime, with antlers that spread 70+ inches. I decided I was going to try for him. He was about 500 yards away and had 5 cows around him. I stalked in through the willows and brush to about 200 yards but with the fading light I couldn't get a clean shot so I let him walk. It was a great day of hunting!
Fast forward 7 days to September 15th.....the magic day as Glenn calls it. We are heading to the same meadow that Glenn got his bull in because we know that granddaddy is around there somewhere. As we round a corner of the river I see a bull through my binoculars, I can just barely see a part of his antlers for a split second but he right there next to the meadow. So we pull up downstream and anchor the boat and hike in quietly to the meadow, about 200 yards from where I saw the bull. Glenn starts calling like a bull to tempt this guy to fight. We brought a shed antler that I found so he is thrashing brush trying to sound like a big bull moose. After about 5 minutes of call I heard brush being thrashed. Then I heard the sound of willows and other brush scraping antlers! It was a bull coming our way and he was in a fighting mood! He would walk then thrash bushes then walk some more, this went on for about 20 minuets. Finally he came into the meadow swaying his head looking for a fight, what a sight to see!! He wasn't the huge north country monster but he was big enough for me. Once I gained my composer I put him down using my .338 Win Mag. About 5 minutes after my bull was down I head brush thrashing again, it was another moose. I waited a few minuets and out stepped the MONSTER. I couldn't do anything but laugh, I waved to him and promised to see him next year. What a great hunt. It took 2 days to get him out of the woods but I had an army of new teachers and my fiance Sam to help. Many hands made for lighter work, I still had to pack quarters to the boat! He is now sitting in my freezer and will provide many wonderful meals and jerky! That wraps up an extremely successful moose season!













I also found time to go caribou hunting. We went out a couple times for caribou but the herd was late getting to kiana. Instead my buddy Brad and I decided to go find them. We ended up going 75 miles up river to a place called onion portage. We saw a lot of caribou! We had another boat with us and ended up taking 13 between the 2 boats. It was a great time and decided to snow while we spent the night. I didn't get many pictures because it was so cold but it was a great hunt. Like I have done in the past I took a caribou up to school to teach the kids how to butcher an animal. It was very successful and the kids enjoyed it.










Well I guess hunting stories is all I have to tell currently, it seems that and school have taken over my life. Wrestling just started 2 days ago so I'm sure my next post will include more school/life based material instead of just hunting. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the stories of my Greater Northern Adventures.

Spring has almost sprung

Well it seems as though spring is coming sooner than I had hoped. I have been extremely busy with school, trapping, working out, moving Samantha to Kiana and trying to keep up with the ever lengthening day light. The kids are getting more squirrelly by the day because of the short nights and long days.

This year ended up being a decent year for trapping. It was a good second year! Glenn and I ended up trapping 3 wolverines, 2 nice marten and about 20 fox. We were really excited about the 3 wolverines! We missed a lot more but we will get them next year! Unfortunately we had 2 other guys trapping on the line that has been in Glenn's family for over 60 years! Then we also got beat by the "King of the Kobuk" from Noorvik. He ran the mountain range that leads to the river so he was picking the wolverines up before they got to our traps. Oh well next year we will give him a better run!
It was really fun to take those 2 big male wolverines and skin them in class with the kids. I took my time because I am going to make a rug out of my wolverine, the one with the red between the shoulders and head. The dark male and smaller male wolverine in the blue sled went to Glenn, I would have got the 4th wolverine if there had been one.











I have spent a good part of spring moving Sams stuff from Kotzebue to Kiana by snowmachine and sled. We have brought 6-7 sled loads, 20+ totes!! This is the most economical way to get her stuff out to Kiana. It has really cut down on the stuff she will have to ship. The catch is that everything is being stored in my house. It has become an inconvenience but it will be worth it in the end. I have been taking loads myself but a few weeks ago Sam was able to talk some friends from Kotzebue into a convoy of snowmachines and sleds to Kiana. We had 5 machines and 4 sleds to start. We arrived with 4 machines and 4 sleds. One machine broke down on the way and it was loaded up on a sled on their way back to Kotzebue. We really appreciated the help.














Instead of the hot springs trip we took last year we decided to support the Kobuk 440 dog sled race as a school field trip. I was able to convince 4 students and 3 staff members to go on the trip. We went from Kiana to Ambler and back. We marked trail on the way to Ambler and prepared a shelter cabin that is between Kiana and Ambler. We met up with w group of Noorvik students and chaperones as well as 2 chaperones from Kotzebue. While in Ambler the kids used a mobile satellite interactive broadcasting system to broadcast race results, conduct interviews with race officials and mushers and give the people a look of the Ambler checkpoint. We spent 3 days total on the trip traveling to Ambler, a day in Ambler and traveling home to Kiana. It was a great experience and the kids had a blast. It was a good time for me as well. Sam was able to go as a Kotzebue women chaperone so it was great to spend a little time with her.
I was excited to be able to see my favorite musher Jeff King in Ambler. He was in a good mood and running fast. One of my students was even able to interview him! What an experience that was for my student. Ambler was s strategic location for us because the teams come through there twice in 24 hours. On the way up and back. The trip was different for me this year because I was the "trip leader" for my group. Luckily I had 2 experienced chaperones from Kotzebue that I talked with but this trip wasn't a pleasant follow the leader, I was the leader. No machines or sleds broke down, no one got hurt, it was a sucessful trip! Enjoy the pictures of the trip.












Well as always thanks for reading my blog and taking an interest in my greater northern adventures. Stay tuned for future blog posts during the summer!

Mid Winter

Well mid winter is here but it feels like spring sometimes! It has been a crazy year for weather just like last year. At least we have a bit more snow this year it seems. Or it could be that we have a little more snow a little earlier than last year. Whatever the case may be I have been running the trap line with Glenn hard! I go out to a part of the line 3 days a week (about a 30 mile loop) then we run the full line each weekend (about 110 miles). Getting all of the traps into the woods has been a huge task. We are mainly running sets for wolverine. We have a few marten and wolf sets but wolverines are what we are mainly targeting. Is has been a tough season for most trappers in our region. We have not been lucky enough to catch a wolverine or wolf yet but it is only a matter of time. Gotta keep my hopes up and not despair.










This season I've been able to use some new cool gadgets. My SPOT tracker is a really cool piece of technology. It uses satellites and allows me to check in throughout the day to say I'm ok via email. It also has the ability to send messages for help if I need it. A pretty cool pretty and handy device that gives me and my loved ones a piece of mind. The second piece of technology is a gps. I have gotten into the habit of marking every set so if we have a big storm and our tracks are covered i will still be able to find our sets.





Sam and I went into the big city (Anchorage) this month to see some Doctors. I saw a dentist and eye doctor. Much to my surprise I was fitted with a new pair of glasses. I was not too happy about it but I wear them at school where my students insist "they make me look more smart, like a nerd"......thanks I guess? For those of you who don't know Sam loves musicals. Westside story was playing at the preforming arts center in Anchorage while we were there so we went to see a show. This would be my first musical. I went along grudgingly. After the show we both agreed it was sub par performance. It was still fun to have a night out with a special lady.



We have been doing some cool things with the kids this winter. We took a few kids from Kiana to drill test holes for the ice road from Kiana to KOTZ. We drilled 11 holes between Kiana and Noorvik. Noorvik kids drilled from the mouth of the river to Noorvik. Then Kotzebue kids drilled the lake into Kotzebue. We had to drill holes, record them on GPS then record the ice depth. Each student had their own job, drill teams 1,2,3 and reclding team. We had a good time and did a great job.







I was able to spend a week in KOTZ for a CTE professional development conference. It was good go spend time with the other CTE teachers and Sam! I was also able to present at the conference. I presented the Rhion 3-D program and a 3-D printer. It was really cool to discuss this new technology and the possibilities of incorporating these technologies into our classrooms. I was also able to acquire 4 flight simulators for my classroom that the kids have gone gaga over! I wil, soon incorporate them into my classroom instruction.




Like I mentioned there have been a lot of wolves around this season. Unfortunately they are traveling in big smart packs. It's hard to trap a wolf out of a pack because the pack together is smart. But we have seen plenty of evidence of these packs like this moose kill we found up river. Unfortunately we found it too late and wolves were no longer feeding on it. Look at the carnage! Every rib is chewed off, only one , leg is still there, half the skull is gone, the wolves wasted NOTHING! If we would have found it a day earlier we could have set traps on it snd probably caught wolves. Oh well hopefully next time!




Hopefully you have enjoyed this blog post and will continue to check in on me and my greater northern adventures! Thanks for reading.

Been a long time!

Well it has been a long time since I last posted on my blog and I am extremely sorry for that. Life has been crazy, hectic, and fun. In my second year of teaching I have been learning and growing by leaps and bounds! The growth has been welcomed and has benefitted me greatly but there have been growing pains along the way. Being is such a small school (135 kids, 9 full time teachers) every staff member is extremely important to school climate, activities, and educational demands. We have 3 new staff members out of 4 in the high school staff. I have been taking on new responsibilities and teaching new classes which have been the source of most of my growing pains. With that one complaint filed I can say it was a wonderful 1st semester and 2nd semester has started out great as well. My schedule for 2nd semester is Power Technology, STEM, Business Software, Employability 2 and of course a PE class. A very interesting class schedule for sure!

Wrestling season has come and gone. We had a mediocre season unfortunately. I was hoping to see some improvement from my wrestlers from last year. Some did improve but the team as a whole stayed about the same. In the championship meet 4 out of 5 Kiana wrestlers won a spot on the podium. I was hoping for a perfect 5 for 5 but it was not in the cards this year, maybe next year.

This fall/winter we had a Hercules cargo plane land in the village. What an amazing sight! It used every inch of runway to land but only used about half to take off, what power! The plane also carried cargo for free for the studnet store that seniors run as part of their senior trip fundraising. We had to get a picture of the kids in front of the plane for a thank you card.





The holiday season has come and gone as well. It was a great Christmas and new years! I was able to spend the holidays with my family, friends and awesome girlfriend Sam. We spent the break at my parents houses in Coure d'Alene and Kennewick. It was quality time spent eating, visiting, going to movies and enjoying ourselves. We were able to go skiing on Christmas eve at silver mountain and many memories were made! Sam gave me snow shoes and a jet boil stove for Christmas! ! What an awesome girlfriend! I got her a kitchen aid mixer because she wanted one SO BAD! Before I left the village for break I was put in charge of cutting a Christmas tree for the school. I took about 5 students out on snowmachines with a chainsaw and sled with hopes of finding a tree to make Clark Griswold envious. Welllll that didn't really happen. The tree we were able to find could have possibly made Charlie Brown jealous but it was not of the Griswold family Christmas caliber. I also taught about 30 kids how to make sugar cookies and frosting to give to the elders of the village. They had a great time and the cookies turned out pretty good!












Winter is here and now it's time to trap! I am so excited for this season. I already have traps in the woods. I took the plunge and finnally bought some gear this year. A new snowmachine, a skidoo expedition 600 ho etec http://m.ski-doo.com/#vehicle?serieID=Expedition&categoryID=LE A new sled from Northern sled works http://www.northernsledworks.com/Cross_Fox.html some leg hold and conibare traps. I did spend a bit of coin but my investments should pay off in the form of keeping my sanity.
Whenever you get new traps it's best to boil them to get all the oil and grease off them. Then you need to seal them with wax or a wax based coating that will protect the traps and make them odorless. I have been running a 30 mile circle every other night to see if I got lucky and trapped a wolverin, wolf, lynx, or marten. Some nights I decide to pick up some dinner, by way of a Ptarmigan or two. They are a little gamey but still delicious.















I feel like I say this every time but I will try to do better and keep up with my blog. Thank you for reading and taking the time to check out my Greater Northern Adventures!