Arctic Adventures

"Oren, Who's coming to visit?" "Uncle Brenden!?" Oren was pretty excited that Brenden was coming to visit. He told stories about how he was going to go out and catch fish, and see moose, caribou when Brenden gets here. Oren was just fired up when he saw the "Big Airplane" that Brenden came on. He couldn't stop talking about the big airplane and then "neeeuuum!" Brenden got here on Wednesday and we went out first thing in the evening to go fishing. I had a whitefish hotspot lined up that I knew we would be able to get a lot of fish right away. Sure enough we got a pile of them. On Thursday after work we headed up the river a ways to try by Quesooks and Willies we found whitefish and grayling there but no trout. The sun is up until almost 11 so we took full advantage of that.  Trying to See Fish Friday we went on a bear hunt. I wanted to try to get a spring bear to eat. I have heard that they are a lot better eating now than i...

While visiting in Michigan over break, I was asked to share what general life is like in the arctic.  I find this difficult, because all of the things that seemed so crazy and out of the ordinary only 4 years ago, have now become part of the norm for us.  For some of you that have come in contact with our blog AFTER my first year here, I will try to recap some of the big changes we had to adjust to.   1)  Our village is a fly-in village.  We are not on the road system and you cannot drive here by car.  In the winter, people travel by snow-go from Kotzebue which is about 60 miles.  When the water is high enough in the summer, many people boat down the Noatak River to Kotzebue as well. 2)  We order all of our groceries through the mail.  (Grocery stores overwhelm me now!)  We've tried a few different routes for groceries.  Fred Meyer has a "Bush Mail" department to which we can email our order;  they shop for us, box it ...

I had to get on here before Brett, just this once, to tell my side of a story ;) Brett has been looking for a snow-go since this fall, and finally found one that fit his needs.  He drove it up from Kotzebue a couple of weekends ago and has been on the go ever since.  Oren and I have got to accompany him on a few excursions, and I admitted to him that it was alot nicer riding on a machine that was made for 2 people, rather than clinging for dear life on the end of our other one.  Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut. He has been wanting to take a ride out to the flats and decided Sunday was the day.  It was a bit windy, but the trail was sheltered and the sun was shining brilliantly.  Now by a "bit windy" let me tell you that it was absolutely whistling down from the north and in the short trip to the actual trail, I was ready to call it quits.  My boys both have nice, warm fur hats, but not me.  My ear felt frozen, and I'm pretty sure the ...

 Oren Fishing From His Boat    Oren Riding the Snowmachine  Looking For Fish In the Hole  Asked for His Life Jacket When He Woke Up  Beach?  Neeuummmm! Airplane  In the Mountains  Tundra  Trapping Camp   Not A Bad Day Spring Break here was a busy week! I finally ran into some trout on one day. Kayla and Oren came with to fish across, but then they rode home with Doris. I headed up to Willy's and I ran into Frank Sr with a couple trout on the ice at a different spot. I stopped to talk, and while we were talking he pulled a couple more up. He told me I could use his auger and I didn't waste any time. I was leaning on that thing as hard as I could and it still didn't seem quick enough. He pulled up about ten trout before I had holes drilled for me and Zach. I ended up with about 10 but Frank ended up with a sack of trout.  On Thursday of break I took a ride to chec...

Oren James Cheese Shapes Eye? Bpppp!  Waiting for a Push This week is spring break. I am hoping to get out fishing a lot this week. Mike and I took a ride out to the trapping camp on Wednesday after work. All of my Conibears were tripped, but empty. We had a wolf tracks all around camp, but nothing in the traps. Mike shot a couple of caribou on the way back. I think its really hard for him to pass up on fat caribou.

 Powder Well we finally got a solid dumping of snow these past couple weeks. Seemed like it snowed about a foot every day last week. Last Saturday I went to cut wood with Stan. I buried my snowmachine about 20 times trying to navigate in the trees. I had a sore back when I woke up Sunday morning. After getting wood I went and fished at a new spot called Willie's. I caught only one and lost one in the hole. I was a good day to get outside.    Moose  Lynx Set  Old Lynx Deep Snow I went out this past weekend and got wood with Mike and Stan. We went about 10 miles up river. The temperature wasn't too bad but the wind was whistling. I stopped and fished again at Willie's, but since all the holes were buried from the wind I don't think I fished in the right spot. I caught one little one and that was it

It's always difficult to live away from home, but you settle into a routine and get comfortable--the days pass quickly.  Until that dreaded phone call.  As many of you know, Grandpa Markham passed away last week.  Dad had called me the night before and given me a little warning, but I still wasn't prepared (how can you ever be?).  My thoughts at first were quite selfish, "What do we do?  How can we get home?"  and quickly changed to, "I've got to get home to help Mom."  However, time and weather are always issues when traveling from Arctic Alaska, and Mom and Dad assured us that everything was taken care of--not to try to get back.  Dad had it arranged that we could call in to listen to the funeral, but those old selfish thoughts came back.  "How can we stay here alone at a time like this. I need to help." I was wallowing in self pity and hurting for our loss and our family when we had a knock on the door.  In came Aana (Grandma) Bernic...