Trick or Treat

The boys had a good time tonight with Trick or Treating...or I should say Landon did. Grayson wasn't too big on getting dressed up. I think he would have been more excited if he knew there was food involved. He wore a lion costume that we borrowed from a daycare worker. It was suppose to be 18 mos...but it was a little snug. Landon was a knight. He had to be a book character at school They had a parade and had to carry the book that character came out of. He chose one of his Magic Tree House books or as he calls them a "Jack and Annie" story. You could also say we had a Chronicles of Narnia theme with Peter and Aslan. Landon is posing next to a full size drawing of his skeleton that he and his reading partner did at school. "Dem Bones" is the old poem that goes...the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone...the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone, etc...." We walked to our neighbor's house but when we got to their driveway the light wasn't on, so I asked Landon if he wanted to go to the next house. He said, "No it's too cold I need to put my snowpants on." I guess that's what it's like to trick or treat when it is 20 degrees outside. On another note, we have this awesome jack o latern that Layne carved. I went to open it to put the candle in it tonight....it was frozen shut! We went to our church and had some fun at an indoor festival and then to a friend's house to visit.....it is now 7 degrees outside. We have had a lot of clear nights so it has been exceptionally cold! (Colder than normal)

Country First

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8

We hear alot about celebrities who "endorse" a candidate...as if anyone of average or greater intellect cares what some overpaid, undertalented actor/actress thinks about any matter of importance to the nation. What the liberal media tries so hard to keep from us are endorsements like the one in the video link above (keep trying it if it doesn't load at first). It's an endorsement from a young man whose opinion means so much more.

Please watch this video to the end, til you see the young man walk away from the camera. Feel free to spread the link around.

Prayer is the most powerful force on earth....and in Heaven.

Don't give up on this fight.

1 Timothy 2:1-6
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/30/youtubes-election-video-iraq-vets-mccain-endorsement/

http://www.johnmccain.com/

Happy Halloween!!

Landon wanted a spider on his pumpkin this year. So we carved it today. In Alaska you have to wait til this close to Halloween to put pumpkins out, because the moose REALLY like to eat them. In some communities they don't allow real pumpkins to be displayed in an effort to keep the moose out of the neighborhoods (just like some areas don't allow bird feeders because it attracts bears). We'll keep it in the garage tonight and then leave it out after tomorrow - maybe we'll get pictures of the moose finishing it off over the weekend. One guy at work already lost his pumpkin earlier this week. A moose ate it the first night he left it out!

Kodiak Brown Bear

This is the Kodiak Bear taken by a friend of a friend, shot on the 25th of October on Kodiak Island. Two days later, another Kodiak brown bear mauled a man who had flown in from Montana for a hunt. He had shot a deer on Kodiak Island and was dragging it back to camp when the bear attacked (then took his deer). They say that these bear, the largest type of brown bear, have learned to listen for a gunshot and then they come looking to steal the kill. It took two days for help to arrive to get the man off the Island, but they said he would make it.

Cold Enough For You!

Poor little Grayson got sent home from school yesterday with a stomach bug. I decided to stay home with him today. I just put him down for a nap around 9:30 when I finally got a chance to look at the temperature this morning....the thermometer said "0"....Here's a picture of the "1" that followed a few minutes later and the 9:30 sunrise...accept it is still below the mountain range! (Definitely daylight though) Just to clarify the "63" is the indoor temperature!

Alaska "Barn" Raising

Helped an army friend from work build a garage - "barn raising" style this past week. Last week we framed out the walls and this week we put up the trusses. Weather man said the wind chill had been -2 F during the day which made for a cold building effort. Didn't get too many pics since the camera didn't work as well in those temperatures. The snow has melted off our South side yard, but is still 6 inches in drifts on the North side. I've gotten plenty of practice snow shoveling (Landon calls it "snoveling" for short). We still have plenty of daylight during the day - but we're losing about 5 minutes per day. Last year the temps got down to -25 in February, but right now we're seeing a low in the teens and highs in the twenties. I would say that it doesn't feel that cold at all to me yet (except while we were building the garage), but Jolene may differ on that!

Would've-Been Neighbor's Bear

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/560712.html

The story at the link above happened next door to the house we tried to buy in Chugiak (the Log-Stucco house) before we decided on this one in Wasilla. The bear in the story was bigger than many Kodiak bears, and we would likely have seen him many times around the house if the seller had accepted our offer on that house. Big bear. Easy hunt - right out his back door! Though that area is only ~20 miles away from where we live now, there's a big difference in bear population. We didn't see any bears in or around Wasilla this year - but Anchorage/Eagle River/Chugiak had quite a few maulings. They should all (or most) be hibernating by now (which is what it is feeling like we're starting to do now that the days are turning darker and darker!). The picture below shows the house we offered on (the one under construction in the picture) and the house below & to the right of it that the guy in the story shot the bear from. Would've been our neighbor!


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Winter is Here!

For those of you who laughed at the thought of snow tires....they have been to good use this week. It snowed Sunday night, Monday night, and all day today. We are only looking at about 7 inches right now (Sunday's snow melted by Monday afternoon) but it doesn't look like there is much relief in sight!......

Moose and more Moose

Today was pick up day for the moose. Just a few picks of what approximately 300 lbs of meat looks like. We did not realize that the summer sausage and hod dogs didn't come vaccuum packed....so guess what I spend the afternoon doing. We also got to see a bull chase a couple of cows in the backyard. The eagle also perched in our backyard this morning but I was too slow to catch him. We also threw in a picture of our studded tires...which I have already put to good use. The weather was nice today (upper 50s).

Happy Birthday!

It's hard to believe we are celebrating another birthday. Landon had a great time talking to out of town relatives...openning packages wrapped in priority mail boxes, and hanging out with his friends. The boys had a great time eating pizza and cake.

Mommy will have the joy of picking up legos, darts, and sand! Thanks!

Moose Hunt Picture

Finally got the picture back of the cow moose I took. I drew a cow moose permit for the base here at Elmendorf, and shot this two and a half year old cow moose with my bow at 28 yards back in September. There was over 300 lbs of meat for steaks, roast, grind, sausage and hot dogs, which is still at the processor (should be ready this week). It took 4 of us (me and three friends I called after I shot it) about 3 hours to cut it up and carry it out. She was probably about 600 lbs on the hoof. It was raining pretty heavy all day on me, so I look like I'm sweating, but actually am just pretty wet from the rain. I'll try and smile next time for the photo!

Disastrous Bear Hunt

It was actually a fun bear hunt - with a little bit of disaster thrown in at the end. Me and an Army friend from my office who got back from Iraq earlier this year left late Saturday night to drive down to Homer (~5 hours) to catch the ferry across Ketchamak Bay to a small town of ~100 people called Seldovia. You can only reach Seldovia by boat/ferry or plane - no roads in or out. I borrowed a four wheeler and put it in the bed of my pickup and pulled a trailer with the friend's Polaris on it. We left my truck on the spit at Homer and drove the ATV's on the ferry with all our gear to survive in the "bush" for three days (tents, chow, extreme cold weather sleeping bags, rifles, ammo, etc). We drove the ATV's right off the ferry, through the little town and out about 20 miles towards Red Mountain to hunt Black Bear. The pics show the trip, some places we stopped along the way, our campsite showing my tent set up, the clearcuts in the mountainsides that we hunted, a bull moose that came out to say hi to me on day 3 (first pic on third page), and the damage to the truck (I'll explain later). It snowed two days on us, but mostly melted during the day...rained some, but overall the weather treated us nice. Neither of us had made a trip down there before, so it was a good chance to try out new gear, see the area, and learn where/how to hunt black bear. To make a long story short, out trip was about 1 or 2 weeks too late and the bears had started to den after several early snow falls - leaving only a few small ones out scrounging for food. I saw 2 bear while hunting - but didn't get a shot at either. One coming towards our campsite the first night (he bolted away through the woods after seeing us and prevented us from getting a shot). The second day I sat up on a hilltop and glassed over a clearing all day before finally seeing one small bear walk into the clearing and then disappear back into the brush before I could get a shot at about 5 pm. The third day I only saw the one bull moose (already took my bag limit of moose for the year - 1), but no bear. Also found some good late season fishing holes where the silver salmon are still running. Learned to survive on melted snow and blueberries if I had to (and a good minus 25 degree rated sleeping bag doesn't hurt either!!). But I didn't bring home a bear this year. I think that spot will be good for a spring hunt though, or a September'ish fall hunt next year. Tons of bear sign in those woods (second picture on page 2 is of one of the hundreds of bear trails through the woods I hunted near) and plenty of salmon and berries for them to eat. Now for the disaster - It snowed a foot in some areas along our drive home from Homer and we hit some black ice that caused us to jack-knife and nearly slide off a hillside before recovering it at the last minute and keeping it on the road. But the damage was caused earlier when I loaded the 4-wheeler in the truck after returning on the ferry to Homer. Our ramps we had in Homer were too short for that tall of a truck, so we tried to load the machine from the trailer into the truck bed using the short ramps, but after the front wheels were on the tailgate, the rear wheels spit the ramps back off the truck and I had to gun the machine to jump it from the trailer to the truck bed to prevent the machine from falling off backwards with me on it. I gunned it enough to jump it into the bed, but didn't have the brake power to stop it from slamming through the front panel of the bed and into the back seat of the cab, bending the back wall and shattering the back glass. So now my new truck that doesn't even have permanent plates yet is in the body shop with a $4400 dollar mistake being fixed! Alaska is expensive! Couple of lessons - I won't haul a 4 wheeler in the bed anymore (it also bent my tailgate going in), and I don't think I'll plan any road trips after Oct 1st around here - too much chance of icy roads. With May-June being spring bear season, June-August being salmon season and August-September being Caribou/Moose season - I'll have to learn that the hunting fishing trips need to be over by October (unless someone else is driving!). Three good hunting trips to learn from this year - no bear or caribou to show for it, but at least I did get a moose to keep the freezer full through the winter, and we have plenty of salmon and halibut saved as well. Maybe by next year I'll have learned enough from the hunts to make them all successful.

Bear Hunt (cont. 2)

Bear Hunt (cont. 3)