Caribou Hunting

Paul along with the kids from Caleb on up got to go Caribou hunting.  Quentin and Josh A. went out in the first plane load and set up camp while Paul brought out the next load of kids.  You are not allowed to hunt the day you fly so they spent the rest of the day scouting out the caribou.

They also spent some time scoping out the caribou and

taking pictures :)

Quentin

Joshua

Caleb

The next day the caribou were all too far away so all they could do was watch.  On the third day, after a good nights sleep, they split up into two groups.  Paul, Anna, Joshua and Caleb went one way and Quentin, Josh A. and Deborah went the other.  Paul's group was going to chase the caribou towards Quentin's group so Josh A. and Deborah could shoot their first caribou.  It worked great, Josh A. shot a caribou and then Deborah and Quentin collaborated to shoot another.  In fact it worked better than planned.  Paul's group came across a huge bull.  Their bull was so intent in watching Quentin's group that Anna was able to spend an inordinate amount of time sighting in on the huge bull.  Seconds before Paul exploded with Buck Fever Anna shot and killed the bull with one shot :)

Deborah

Caleb and Josh A.

Quentin and Deborah

 They had to pack the meat about a mile back to the plane.

Paul started flying meat and kids home.

A hunting trip a few years ago taught them to leave one tent and survival gear for the last trip out.  On that hunt a fog rolled in after the airplane made its first trip out and they sat there for three more days until the fog lifted.

The antlers on Anna's bull barely fit into the C-172.

Getting Wood

    A couple weeks ago before the lake froze we (Anna, Dad, Quentin, Joshua, and Benjamin)  went up the Tazimina river and got some wood.

Dad

Joshua and Benjamin loading the boat.

Joshua

We brought a gun to go duck hunting too, Quentin was the only one that hit anything though.

Joshua ready to shoot a duck.

No, this is not a duck.

Nondalton

Spring is Here

Spring is here!!!  Warmer weather means swinging on rope swings...

Goose season...

Ice melting...

Swimming in the literally ice cold water (more like dunk and get back out as soon as possible)...

 Fishing...

Lots of mud, three Honda's couldn't pull this one out.

We tried to jack it out but that didn't work so Dad wrapped the winch around a log and winched it out.

These pictures were taken at midnight.  See how light it is out!!

These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago.  All the ice is melted now and it's starting to feel like summer.

Quentin turns 14

Quentin turned 14. He's growing like a weed. He already wears the same size shoes as Paul!

After they had cake, Quentin and the boys put up our tent We are going to spend a week camping in Saskatchewan Canada and Paul's Mom is going to join us, so she gets the bed in the camper and the boys are going to sleep in the tent. They wanted to make sure they had all of the parts before they packed it away for the trip.
Quentin got a kit to put feathers on arrows for his birthday. We took a hike up the mountain behind Nondalton and he had a chance to test them out.
The guys spotted a couple of spruce hens and below you can see Quentin stalking one while everyone looks on.

He got it with the first shot!

Below David is carrying the spruce hen that Paul shot with a pistol and the one Quentin shot with his bow and arrow. He and Benjamin took turns carrying them until we got to the top of the mountain and Quentin dressed them out.

Last year for Quentin's 13th birthday I put together a nice slide show that you can see here. http://quiverfullofkids.blogspot.com/2010/06/quentins-13th-birthday.html

We are going to start traveling down the Alcan (Alaska Canadian Highway) today so please keep us in your prayers.

Abigail's 16th Birthday

My oldest baby just turned 16!

Abigail has grown to be a beautiful young lady. She is bright and talented and can easily handle anything that I need help with. She loves new challenges and will frequently take up a hobby and learn all there is to learn before she moves on to a new interest. She can light up the room with her smile.

Abigail has been out hunting with Paul several times, but she has never gotten a caribou or a moose. So, for her birthday they decided to go hunting. They had seen some caribou earlier in the day so they came home packed up the plane and headed out to find them.

As they headed out the fog was rolling in and they couldn't land where they wanted to and they couldn't find any caribou where there wasn't fog. So, they came home. The next day was Abigail's birthday so Paul, Abigail, Deborah and Quentin loaded up on two ATV's and headed up the mountain for a birthday ride.

Below Abigail and Quentin are checking the oil before they head out.

They had an awesome ride. They got stuck a few times, turned one of the 4-wheeler's over and brought home a couple of spruce hens for supper. The stuff memories are made of...

They got home just in time for Abigail's birthday party.

Below is a slideshow I made up for Abigai's 16th birthday. Pause the playlist at the bottom of the blog to you don't hear two songs at once.

Camping while hunting for Moose

It's been incredible how much snow we don't have this year. I'm sure the moose felt very safe during this hunting season. Paul flew around a few times looking to spot a nice moose to fill the freezer, but it was almost impossible to see their brown hides against the brown ground. He did find a few but without any snow to drive a snow machine on they would have been extremely difficult to get to. The temperatures were hovering around the 40's and not dipping below 35 at night, so Paul and the older kids decided to go hunting and get a nice camping trip out of it even if they didn't find a moose. They traveled light so they would have room in their sleds to haul home a moose if they saw one.

Below they are loading up their gear and checking the gas and oil on their Honda 4-wheelers.

Paul, Abigail, Deborah, Quentin, Joshua and Josh A. headed up the mountain. Even though it was very icy and difficult to follow at times, they had fun helping each other up the trail. As it started to get dark, they picked out a nice spot to camp.

They set up camp while it was still light. Below Josh A. is collecting pine boughs for his bed. He must have done a good job because he was the only one to get a good hours sleep.They got a fire going very quickly and had fun boiling water to make hot chocolate and add to the instant meals they took along with them.

It was a very dark night. The stars didn't come out till early morning and it was almost a new moon so the sliver that showed in the early morning didn't cast much light. Paul had to use a flashlight to see what he was stirring even though he was sitting close to the fire. (The flash from the camera sure brightened things up!)

Deborah

As the stars came out, the temperatures dropped. It had been warm so long we'd begun to believe that it would never get cold again. It did and it made the night miserable for the light traveling campers. It got down to 17 degrees at the house and they were a few thousand feet higher up the mountain, so I'm sure it was colder by a few degrees. They hugged the fire all night, trying not to melt their clothes as they tried to stay warm.

Below Abigail is collecting fuel for the fire. They cut down every dead tree for 50 feet around their campsite. It kept them busy and a little bit warm as they waited for it to get light enough to travel. It was only a couple of weeks beyond the shortest day of the year so the night was very long. After they'd finished all the chores they needed to to get ready for the night, they sat down around the fire and looked at their watches and realized it wouldn't be light for sixteen more hours. Because it was so cold the time seemed to creep by. They would wait for seemingly hours and then look at their watches again and five minutes had gone by.

It finally turned light and they made their way down off the mountain. They called me from a lodge up the lake to let me know they were all well. A friend of ours caretakes the lodge every winter. They seem to end all of their expeditions at John's, drinking hot chocolate.

I'm sure they will look back at their trip with fondness in a few years and the temperature will probably drop with each telling. (Of course now we have this blog to refer back to.) But as of this writing, a few weeks after the trip, they still remember the cold too bitterly to think fondly of it. As I'm sitting here writing, I asked Joshua, the youngest to go at eight years old, if he enjoyed the trip. He had to think for a while and then he said, "not really." I asked him if he was glad he went, he thought again and replied "not really." Quentin chimed in and said that although parts of the trip were not fun, overall it was a good time. I'm sure it won't be long before Joshua forgets how the cold felt and he'll look at his grinning face in the fourth picture of this blog and think, "that was a fun time." By the way, he or anyone else, never complained. We never did get our moose:(