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Year 2 Begins

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We arrived safely back in Noatak on Monday. This arrival is so different than last year.  It was hard to leave home, but now that we are back up here it feels "right" and nice to be back. It's fun to see all the familiar faces and jump right into things.  Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming.  We got stopped many times walking around by people saying "welcome home" and giving hugs.  It also so nice to have a partner here to share all the new experiences with.  I think we will have some crazy adventures to write about this year!   Our trip from Michigan was quite long, but uneventful. We flew from Marquette, where our plane was delayed 1 hour due to weather, to Minneapolis to Anchorage. In Anchorage we got picked up by Brett's cousins and did our grocery shopping. Remember, we have to go to Wal-mart to pick out our groceries, etc--they have a special "bush-mail" check out where they package and mail all of our supplies. We had 16 hours t...
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Round Trip to Trapping Camp

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We went to camp to set/check a few traps and have some snacks. We also set up the wall tent. We had to put a rope between two trees for the ridge pole and chop some willows to clear out space for the tent. We staked out the tent by tyng rope to willows. It took for ever to get there and back. Marjaana's mukluks fell off many times! -ryker We went to the camp site and had snacks. It was a long trip. It was not light wen we came back. -Anya All Ready to Go! Marking his trap. a sled load Anya gets tired. Oren adding lure to his set. making a new set Marjaana enjoying mom's new camp chair. Her mukluk covers are made out of beaver fur that the boys caught last season. They are warm, but kept falling off. The boys set up the Arctic Oven over break. Now everything is ready for a quick weekend camp! Her mukluks look hilarious, but they are so toasty warm, which has always been a challenge for us with babies/toddlers. The cover comes off for more normal l...
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The Girls Head to Anchorage

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The week before Easter, Anya had some appointments scheduled in Anchorage. Around that time gas went up to 15.99 in town. Yep. That's not a typo. $15.99/gallon. Gas is still $5.50/gal in Kotzebue, so we decided we could drive to Kotz and the girls would hop on the jet while the boys filled drums of gas and drove back to town. Our friend is a trooper in Kotzebue so we were able to stop in there to warm up and regroup. Brett went out to get gas and NONE of the pumps were working! It was such a bummer. He didn't even have enough gas to get home, but thankfully we have such kind generous friends that had some jerry jugs he used to fill the machines. Of course Oren ended up driving my machine back and was an absolute champ. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get down there and about that for them to get home too. The Borough was working on making an ice road from Kotz to Noatak. We heard they didn't make it past this tricky spot and stopped to check it out. (The oper...
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