About Ashley Selden

I am a trappers wife and a mother, you may have caught a glimpse of my life in the documentary styled show on The Discovery Channel called The Last Alaskans. Our lifestyle revolves around our annual migration to our remote trap line in one of Alaska’s most beautiful remote wildlife refuges. For 6-8 months a year we live a life on the edge of the past, closely connected to the river and the woods. Asking for the land to aide us in survival and a livelihood if it is so generous. The other part of the year, the short Alaskan summer, we live outside of Fairbanks and do our best to prepare for another winter in the unforgiving Arctic, alone, as a family, in the woods. In the spring we sell our furs and start our garden to later dry as light, pack-able food for the winter. In the summer we try to scrounge up wage work in town, grow meat birds, harvest the garden and prepare for our journey back to the woods. We try to lead “the simple life”. I’m interested in telling stories from “the simple life” that aren’t always so simple. I struggle, holding on to an old school mentality in a world that keeps on moving towards technology and a life I hesitate to enter. I wanted to start this blog to give people a little more detail into our lives in order to show the commitment is takes to live a life in the woods as well as to show the beauty and rewards of such a drastic lifestyle choice. I also wanted a place to write and see how people respond to my writing… So here goes. Getting this blog started by myself was like learning a new language for me. Like an over sized toddler I want to do things “all by myself!” so things might look a little messy for a while, maybe forever, hahaha.

Another reason for creating this website was to create a shop for the products we sell as a result of our lifestyle. To earn a living as a stay at home Mom I have started to become a furrier or fur sewer. I love hand stitching warm mittens, hats, knitting hats to put real fur poms on and making wolf and wolverine fur ruffs. I take a lot of pride in my work. Pictures never do real fur justice. I hope to astonish and surprise customers with the quality of my work. If you know of anyone in need of quality fur work please send them my way. I love doing custom work. tyseldenfur@gmail.com