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!

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!