A Year In The Life - Day 193, November 30, 2014

Ahh, memories...  We headed down to the island to manaq for burbot, and by the time we tried a few holes, the ice chipping and the frozen cranky boys had everyone unimpressed to say the least.  Nonetheless, we gathered up for a pose, and this is what we got.  :)

A Year In The Life - Day 192, November 29, 2014

Our family outing for the Christmas tree turned into a photo session. :)  Though we didn't get good results for the Christmas cards, we did get some pics at least.  Here's one..

A Year In The Life - Day 191, November 28, 2014

A blurry shot (sorry, but there it is) of Warren proudly hoisting a good-sized Sheefish (Inconnu) that he decided to have for dinner this evening.  Abram wasn't too sure while outside, but once W and I started cleaning it, Abram got all kinds of interested.  Good thing it was bestowed upon us, as our lush lines sure have been drawing zeros...

A Year In The Life - Day 190, November 27, 2014

A shot of Sarah drawing a crowd while chipping a lush set-line hole this afternoon.  The kids sure like to help.  We had to laugh though, as one of the girls asked Sarah "The men are supposed to carry the babies - how come you don't make him do it?".  As I rolled my eyes and once again thought 'you don't know Sarah do you?' :), Sarah explained. "I don't want him to carry Abram - that way I get some exercise too."  And she got a look like "Ohh...never thought of that..."

A Year In The Life - Day 189, November 26, 2014

Warren smiling with a shrimp egg he got stuck to his finger. Got so excited he made me take a picture. :)  Grandpa brought some huuuuge spot prawns up with him when he visited this fall for moose hunting.  Made us realize how much we miss catching those for ourselves when we were in Southeast.

A Year In The Life - Day 188, November 25, 2014

As Warren still isn't quite over the virus that swept through us all and hasn't been eating, he has been asking to be carried a lot more on our daily adventures. (no shortage of still wanting to go outside, though, of course). Sarah captured one of these moments, me with my demon eyes and all. :)

A Year In The Life - Day 187, November 24, 2014

Warren curling up with Ada to read during our time of everyone in the house being ill.

A Year In The Life - Day 186, November 23, 2014

More blurry Iphone pics, I know.  Can't carry the big camera every time out though, and sometimes the phone will surprise you.  Anyway, this had the potential to be a great shot:  Yesterday meets today on the winter trail.  Dog team gets the right of way over a snowmachine. :)

A Year In The Life - Day 185, November 22, 2014

One of my students in the classroom with a pair of weasels, one of which has yet to be turned as it wasn't dry yet.  The student is the one who caught the inside out varmint.  It has a tear in it, had coffee spilled on it (by the student, not me), and lost its tail during the skinning.  :D  Should be quite a valuable pelt.

A Year In The Life - Day 184, November 21, 2014

A beautiful winter sunrise, (even if seen through a blurry phone pic) again from the classroom.  The whole sequence of classroom sunrises should make for an interesting timeline montage at the end of the year...

A Year In The Life - Day 183, November 20, 2014

The streak continues of one burbot a day.  I have always liked their markings, and so today we have a couple shots of one on the ice just after being pulled up by Warren...

A Year In The Life - Day 182, November 19, 2014

Today's shot is of a trio of friends that keep following us around everytime we head down to the river.  I am amazed they held still long enough for Sarah to get this shot, but thankfully, they did. They must have been very interested in learning how to set lines for burbot. :)

A Year In The Life - Day 181, November 18, 2014

The evenings have been beautiful lately, with nicer weather.  As well, the winter sunsets have begun, and checking the lush lines is more enjoyable for it...

A Year In The Life - Day 180, November 17, 2014

I nabbed a pic this morning of the river, as seen through the classroom window.  I took this one to show just how little ice we have on the Yukon right now.  The reflection of the sunrise, I thought, shows that nicely - all the light you see is open water, not just overflow.  There is a very slim stretch of shore ice, at left of the picture, that runs downstream, left to right, and finally widens out down near the island, where the ice first jammed up.  There is a long way to go until winter travel opens up...

A Year In The Life - Day 179, November 16, 2014

A sequence of Warren this time, in honor of his pulling up his first ever solo lushfish (burbot) through the ice.  The short video will follow in a later post, and appear on the species list pages as well.  But for now, just some victory photos of a boy and a slimy fish, running around on the ice of the Yukon river...

A Year In The Life - Day 178, November 15, 2014

A series of shots including Warren and an elder from Russian Mission, who was showing Warren the finer points of how to 'manaq' (muh-nuk), or ice fish, by letting him borrow her gear.  A great few minutes there, one of the types of things we will miss about this place...at least the conversation is now immortalized...

A Year In The Life - Day 177, November 14, 2014

A shot looking upriver after getting a couple of burbot holes punched through the ice.  Our pace is now well ahead of last year's, so hopefully a bigger haul will end up in the freezer...

A Year In The Life - Day 176, November 13, 2014

Warren walking up the water tower hill on the pipeline.  Notice the complete lack of snow...November 13th ?!?

A Year In The Life - Day 175, November 12, 2014

As our snow is gone, I took this shot today of the scene down by the river.  A lone chair someone left so they wouldn't have to carry it down each time they want to fish.  Mud all the way to the bank, and just a thin strip of ice, but that doesn't stop anyone.

A Year In The Life - Day 174, November 11, 2014

Today a shot of a weasel entering one of the trapping class's weasel boxes.  His front feet were likely just hitting the trap pan as the shutter went off on the trail camera.  And no, I still don't have the camera date and time settings quite right...

A Year In The Life - Day 173, November 10, 2014

Today is one of those days when a sequence of shots is the only way to do things any justice...  Warren was ambushed by a pack of sled dog puppies, and picking just one pic out of the bunch would be just too hard... If you can look at these and not crack a smile, there's something wrong with you...

A Year In The Life - Day 172, November 9, 2014

Warren on one of our walks lately.  The ice and snow is quickly leaving us, as falling rain and rising temps are making quick work of it.  By tomorrow, the opener for trapping, there may not be any snow left, let alone enough to make a set...

A Year In The Life - Day 171, November 8, 2014

A shot of a frozen puddle, getting smaller by the day.  Noticed that the pattern in the remaining ice was the same as the mud - from when it was last under ice.  And another abstract pic of the day was born...

A Year In The Life - Day 170, November 7, 2014

Today's pic is a shot of a few of my students trailing behind me as we went around baiting our pre-sets/mock sets in trapping class.  Gonna miss this...

A Year In The Life - Day 169, November 6, 2014

Another shot of indoor fun:  Warren decided he wanted to try on my snowmachine helmet for good measure...meanwhile, Abram plays with a hot wheels car and some plastic worms out of Warren's tacklebox... :D

A Year In The Life - Day 168, November 5, 2014

Today we have Abram making do and having fun with the simple things...remove the toys and play with the bucket they are kept in...sounds about right.  The boxes toys come in are better than the toys, too.  And, clearly, you should dress up for such an adventure... :)

A Year In The Life - Day 167, November 4, 2014

Another playground shot today.  Warren in an abstract super slide shot.  With some of those colors it could just as easily be a shot of a glacier ice tunnel...

A Year In The Life - Day 166, November 3, 2014

The boys, still loving it up in Anchorage.  Today's big adventure was the swing set at a playground Sarah found.  Sure sounded like they had fun...and looks it too... These are surely blurry, but the message is clear.

A Year In The Life - Day 165, November 2, 2014

A bunch of firsts for the boys while traveling.  Here's Warren's first 'official' haircut, (not at the hands of either mom or dad) at a real, bonafide 'salon'...  :)

A Year In The Life - Day 164, November 1, 2014

Another shot of the boys' trip to Anchorage with mom.  They traveled to the Anchorage zoo for the first time.  Wolves, indeed. :)