I know, I know, it’s been a long time. 2022-23 Season Recap.

Last fall was crazy busy getting ready for trapline. Tyler was guiding moose hunts for Charlie while I was drowning in last minute chores for our town cabin. I had to drink plenty of nerve-calming chamomile tea to get by without loosing my wits.

I like to keep busy but fall time right before leaving for the trapline is over the top, completely overwhelming. I was wrapping up preparation for Sidney to be homeschooled for the winter and helping her attend the first season of cross country running club. Her last practice was two days before we flew out to the bush! I was completely lost in my own head and had trouble enjoying the moment myself, but also glad to give that moment to Sidney. As I watched her practice, last minute logistics were on constant replay in my head. It’s stressful  squaring away all of our finances, obligations and relationships so we can go wild for six months with two kids in tow. We haven’t bothered to try to get internet connectivity out in the bush, though with the advent of Star Link it’s becoming realistic. We have decided we don’t want it. Seriously, we don’t. Part of the woods lifestyle is enjoying the benefit of putting some space between us and all the distractions of modern day living and the internet is probably the biggest distraction of all. Satellite phone plans are running at an all time high at almost 2 dollars per minute. ….so we only talk on the phone when it’s necessary. We use an Inreach device to text, a fairly affordable modern day convenience for us. Texting is not the same as talking, but it helps us keep in better touch with close family and friends. 

The day we finally flew out was like a salve. It was all over. The stress levels just instantly drop. There was nothing left I could do at our town house. I was on an airplane headed north and I could finally leave those modern worries behind. I had done my best to batten down the hatches and it was going to have to be good enough till spring. The weather was bad on our departure morning. Fairbanks was completely enshrouded in fog. Our first flight to Fort Yukon was delayed. Instead of spending the time doing something responsible, like finally getting a chance to clean out our car before we left, I took the kids to their favorite restaurant instead. They love Sushi and it was their last chance to have something like it in a very long time. The problem with not getting the car completely cleaned out is mice. After you have kids and they leave little crumbs and bits everywhere it attracts mice while the car is parked for six months and mice build nests in the car…. and poop….lots of little poop. Yucky experience. I don’t recommend it. 

The fog finally cleared and we headed out to Fort Yukon at about 3pm arriving in the village at 4. There we waited for a pilot to return from some distant gravel bar after picking up a load of hunters so we could load up and finally fly to our peaceful wilderness home. We ended up spending 3 hours on the tarmac in Fort Yukon. One of the guys that lives there came out to say hi to us. Blaze was busy looking at the caribou and moose waiting to be reloaded and sent back to Fairbanks or wherever the hunters were from. Our friend teased Blaze that Santa was going to be mad! Someone got one of his reindeer! Blaze wasn’t fooled one bit and replied that he wanted to eat the tongue! This is the sort of thing you hear a bush kid say and then you know that’s how they’re different from the rest.

We finally made it out to the river just before dark in a light snow. I was so relieved the journey was over when the wheels finally came to a rest on the river rock and there Tyler was standing by our boat in the fading light ready to ferry us across the channel and home. The kids were patient little travelers all day long. Too excited on their grand adventure to make much trouble for me. 

Uncle Bob, Tyler’s uncle from Nebraska, came up to Alaska to ride out with Tyler and the dogs in the boat. (Some of you TLA watchers will remember this character from the cabin building episode.) Uncle Bob survived an ordeal with cancer the summer before, just barely, and the promise of making a trip with Tyler out to our trapline was something that helped pull him through. Some of our and Uncle Bob’s best memories/experiences are times shared in the Alaska backcountry. We had a really good time having Bob to ourselves for a few days before he and Tyler left to bring the boat back to town for the season. It was nice to have someone to help. Bob watched the kids for us while we hauled loads gear up to the cabin from the river bank. 

 

After Tyler flew back out after putting the boat up for the season we finally got to settle into our simple wilderness lifestyle. We had such a good time as a family this year. Enjoying each day and sharing our time together with the easy going basic activities of daily life. 

We walked around with the kids a lot just enjoying their sense of wonder and fascination with nature. We would often have our pack of dogs along with us too. Our kids adore having a dog team. We went out to our haymow and cut grass one day, as is our yearly tradition, to lay up a winter’s worth of dog bedding. 

Sidney and I started working on kindergarten this year. We followed a reading and math curriculum and I had her writing letters a couple times a month addressed to our teacher-advisor. Our homeschool program was really liberal with us and accepted that we wouldn’t be able to get any work samples in until we were back to Fairbanks in March. I tried to do a really good job documenting our journey in order to gain a good reputation. Being a bush kid, Sidney knows the entertainment value of being able to read a good book. She was really motivated in the reading department. She’ll be turning 6 at the end of April and she’s reading beginner books with confidence. She’s a good role model for her energetic little brother. The struggle with school was usually keeping 3-year-old Blaze busy with something at the same time so Sidney could concentrate. By the end of the winter Blaze was getting really good at coloring in the lines and cutting shapes out of paper with his scissors. Sidney would work with him on his colors and Abc’s. He responded much better listening to his big sister than he did to “the grown ups”, as he often calls us parents. Homeschooling is going to keep me very busy in the next several years!

In the fall we did some beaver trapping with the kids though we were a bit limited by the distance of the den locations this year. A lot of them are located on the other side of open river water too. We had some good hikes and the kids enjoyed the process and excitement of checking our sets. Beaver meat is delicious and a very valuable food source for a bush family and dog team. We’d always bring the .22 along in case we see grouse. The grouse population was really high this year, like unbelievably high. Sometimes we’d see flocks of up to 20 Sharptail grouse. Sharptail grouse are spooky and harder to hunt. Ruffed grouse,(we call them willow grouse because that’s where you find them) are easier to trick. 

In late October we had a few caribou come through. Tyler came home from the river one day to tell us there were fresh tracks around. When you see a fresh track that is the time to go looking because the herds pass through the country quickly, here one day gone the next. We don’t normally have many caribou around in our country and its a novel experience to see one. Though it was late afternoon we bundled the kids up to head upriver to try our luck at spotting one. I had Blaze on my back in a frame backpack and Sidney walked through the snow. After about a mile and a half Sidney started pouting about getting tired….we tried to encourage her to try to go just a little bit further, that there might be a great reward for being strong….and lo and behold it wasn’t long before she was rewarded for her fortitude! It was a truly magic experience for our family to share together.  We even got to bring one home. It was dark by the time we walked back but the beautiful full moon was our lantern reflecting off the snow. 

Tyler turned 40 this year on November 25th. We made him a cake and had a few special gifts for him. He said it was his favorite birthday ever. The kids were so excited for him, haha. He got to read a few cards from family and I think he may have even teared up a little. 

During the winter solstice the kids and I busied ourselves by making a paper machete mobile to model the moons orbit around the earth and the earth’s orbit around the sun. I had saved up spent paperwork from homeschool for this project. Kids just love some messy paper machete and painting. 

After Thanksgiving we decorated the cabin for Christmas and made new decorations for our tree. I do enjoy never having to set foot in a store during the holiday season. It’s a pain in the butt planning for every event of the winter back in August but then I get to ride on all the work I already put into it all winter long and just enjoy the moments. My big Christmas splurge for the kids this year were two sets of Magnetiles which are pretty heavy to transport by bush standard but gave the kids many hours of enjoyment. 

Last fall when we were driving home from one of Sidney’s cross country races we spotted a fireworks stand that happened to be open and pulled in. We always wanted to have a few fireworks for New Years but because of wildfire risk here in the summer time its rare that you’ll find a stand open during any of the summer months we’re in town. Fairbanks was experiencing a wet fall so we finally had fireworks on New Years Eve this year! We really had a lot of fun doing that. The simple things, stuff you take for granted when you can just go to the store and get more of it, take on new meaning in the isolation of the bush.

We really had a nice time together on the trapline this year. Tyler worked really hard and got a lot of miles on the dog team. We all stayed healthy and happy. We couldn’t ask for more. It’s really important for Tyler and I to be raising our family like this and we’re making it happen in spite of the challenges of raising a family remotely. I got a lot of good sewing time in and made some things for the kids as well. In February we took the kids on a great muskrat trapping adventure with the dog team and that will be the topic of my next writing.