Is it Winter?

We swiftly have transitioned from Fall to Winter but it seems as though we have not gone into "deep winter" that we typically expect about the arctic circle. The year as far as snowfall and temperatures it has been EXTREMELY mild. This could be a problem. Not enough snow makes traveling with snow machines very hard, lots of ice and uncovered ground makes for a bumpy ride. Also we will not have the spring thaw and melt like we should which could effect fish populations and other wildlife. The temperatures have been in the -20's at it's coldest and 20's-30's on average. So it hasn't been cold enough to from a lot of thick and substantial ice that could be dangerous in the spring.

November and December passed in what seems a blink of an eye. Thanksgiving was spent in Kotzebue with friends. The Martins invited us to their house and we had a fantastic time hanging out with them. Scott and Zonda taught with me my first year in Kiana and were amazing mentors. Their son Zach and his girlfriend were also there! Sam and I have become very good friends with them so it was really nice to have them there and it felt like a family Thanksgiving.  The dinner of course was fantastic. We had turkey and all the fixins. We were even able to eat left overs for a couple days, which we all know is the best part of Thanksgiving.

Christmas was a ton of fun! We were able to fly down to Idaho to have a big family christmas with the Dutton clan. It was a great time spend with family that i had not seen in awhile. I always love Christmas for that reason. We spent part of the time at the lake and the other part in Kennewick seeing old and dear friends. We had a great time but it went too fast as it usually does, and before we knew it we were back on a plane headed north. Because of the scheduling of flights Sam and I rang in the new year on a plane over the ocean......yay 2015. We decided that this is going to be a pretty exciting year with one major event punctuating the year which is our marriage. Plans have been coming along with help of my fantastic sister-in-law Bree. She has been a God send to Sam in helping with the planning process.

Sam is still staying extremely busy as she took up the mantle of Activities Director for our site and has to run all sporting events and extracurricular activities. On top of that both of us are seniors advisors which means we are fundraising for the senior class trip and of course she does more than her fair share in that.
I have been staying busy with trapping, working on snow machines and school. I try to lead an extremely active life style but it seems like time conspires against me at this time of the year with 4 hours and 21 min of daylight officially. We have not caught anything trapping yet but it is still really early in the year, but i have found some really nice moose antler sheds! I even found a matched set right next to each other. Glenn and I are trapping in the backcountry this year. It's pretty exciting to be going places that you know people haven't set foot on in years. We have high hopes for trapping this year. We have to go over a few mountains that are about 4000 feet tall.

Well that is about all I have to say for now. There hasn't been too much going on right now. Things will be more exciting when i start catching animals in my traps! Stay tuned for updates! Happy new year and thank you for taking and an interest in my Greater Northern Adventures.