Checking out a bear den

We went a spent a sunny, yet slightly chilly fall day with our friend Mark Vail out near his cabin. We went to help him with some of his harvesting chores, digging potatoes, pulling garden beds of spent lettuce, and helping eat brocali shoots and cabbage leaves. But before we got to the garden we took a long round about walk through the neighborhood, checking out the wildlife wonders along the way: like the healthy Aspen tree that grew with hole in it; or the canal that the beavers dug from one pond, to what they hoped would be another pond; or trees were the bears had rubbed up against and left strands of fur behind; and even feeding grey jays out of our hands! But the highlight was being able to check out a black bear


den that was used a few winters ago (apparently he/ she was Marks closest neighbor......) The den was under the root ball of a tipped over spruce tree. The tree was at about a 45 degree angle, and the roots were still it the ground, but creating an arch that the bear finished digging out to create a nice hidy hole. The den was lined with spruce needles,



that were gathered from a tree about 15 feet away and drug over to the den. Mark described how in the spring he could see the tell tale trail of needles from tree to the den on top of the bushes, which showed that the bear denned up after the snows had come. The den went in about 6 feet from the entrance and down maybe a couple of feet. I poked my head in with a headlamp to get a good look, but Owen went all the way in! He declared it a cozy space, a nice bear size depression to curl up in. We tried imaging what it would be like to stay in


there for 6 months. We wondered how often a bear changes its body position during the winter, or how dry it really stayed in the den. We wondered how many bears have their dens collapse on them, and how they probably get smarter about how and where they build their dens as they get older. The entry hole seemed small for a bear, but was no problem for an Owen!












And no he didn't get to feed a black bear from his hand, but he got to feed the grey jays!
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Yard Work 9/3/12

Some friend came by to help us clear a little of the yard and build a new raised garden bed. Many hands makes things go fast and easy.




Kyle,Avery,Sarah,Kaya,Davey,Ezzie, Rye,Owen,Maggie and Parker.
Later that day "the teenagers and Avery went and climbed Porphrey Mountain.











The new garden bed.

Field Trip

                                                       River Trip McCarthy to Chitina

The river trip gang minus Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and her nervous husky.
Dori came a long ways towards being comfortable
with travel on a raft.

Rose hips

Judging by the signs we figure this is a wolf den.

Dori

Avery commandeering the oars.

Strange,spongy,riverside silt

Camp day

Getting gear from raft.
Owen-you are missing your life jacket.

Take me to Chitina O.

 







An Owen entry: August 28, 2012:
Day 3 on the raft trip
Chitina River
8:40 PM
Dad and Parker are coming down from a day of hunting sheep. They didn't catch anything, but they might go up again tomorrow. I went swimming today in the pond. Tomorrow,if it is a layover day I will go fishing. Yesterday we got to the camp about noon. It had been pouring rain all day. At our first camp called "Freaky Dog Camp" we sited in dad's gun. The dogs went beserk with fright. That is how the camp got its name.
August 30th,
Day 6 of raft trip
6:30 PM
We didn't go back up the mountain instead we wen to a creek, where I snagged a salmon but it broke the line.

Pilot Point, Camp Kissa Fishie

 In mid
July all the gang ended up in Pilot Point, on the Ugashik River, to
join Howard who  was working the set net fishery at the Bursch Family
fish camp. 
An amazing place of water and sky, currents and tides, fish and
friends. It was great for me to get to see, feel and taste what is was
all about, and watch my kids getting fishy:)

Owen waiting in the mud for Dad's skiff and crew to come fetch him

First Day of Home School!!! Aug 22, 2012

August 22, was our first official day of Home School with Avery in 7th Grade and Owen in 4th.  We woke to an amazingly clear day, looking at this spectacular mountain landscape, at the toe of the Kennicott Glacier.  Our friend Mike Loso who camped with us gave a lecture on how Alaskan landscape dynamics are different than other places.  We also learned the origins of local rock formations;  esp. Nikolai Greenstone and Chitistone Limestone (which can be seen in these photos).

                                                                       Our student body on First Day of Home School

School principal

Teacher Assistant

Cooking Jiffy Pop and eggs for Family Consumer Science

Instructor

Happy man, rowing around the icebergs spilled by the Nizina Glacier June 2012
I love my man Mozen's smile!!

Moving in to our home at glacier-side this past week.  All was in good order, after leaving this spot deeply covered in snow in early March.  Snow almost all gone.  Water line in and working by May 25th. Dead voles cleaned out of "rot-box" pseudo root cellar. Yesterday picked up our dear friend  Tim on the West side.  He is here for 3 weeks. Today we alternated running down the lower road and riding the 4-wheeler, into MXY, in time for a pre-trip meeting for a raft trip. We are helping with a training trip for a raft co. that I owned from 1993-2000.  This will be a 3 day trip starting tomorrow.June 3rd.  First trip in all the trips that I've floated out of here that I am not a leader - type.  Avery and Owen made art in MXY a la Goldsworthy, Tim and I organized gear, went to Mark Vail's to get starts to plant in our garden. Avery drove the 4-wheeler up the hill, (yikes, so grown up).while Tim, Owen and I did the bike ride .  Thanks to a friend who was hanging out in Chitina, we had our first Copper River salmon tonight cooked on our grill in the rain.  Mmmmmmmmmm! Sacred and good!