Moose Hunting Trip on the Yukon River

A friend and I decided to take a trip to the Yukon River in hopes of finding a moose about 2 weeks ago. We left early Friday morning with our snow machines, around 6:30 am, in order to be in our hunting area by daylight. Before we left we prayed that God would keep us safe and that we would be blessed with a moose if it be God’s will.  The trip itself is about 70 miles one way, with about 40 of it being wide open, wind swept tundra, which can be treacherous, add to that traveling in darkness. Fortunately for me, my friend works as a game warden and makes this trip on a regular basis. We also decided that we would only take one moose and split it between our families, especially since we were doing this trip in a day. Many times people will set up camp and spend the night on the Yukon, but we decided to try to do it in a day, only planning on spending the night if necessary. It took about three hours to get from Bethel to the tree line of the Yukon, where we could hunt, about 10:00. It didn't take long to find our first moose standing a ways away in a thicket of trees, a big cow. We decided to track the moose by foot. After spending a short period of time following its tracks we spotted it about 800 yards across a meadow. We were eventually able to set up on it at about 300 yards, but never able to get within a reasonable range to take a clean shot. After about an hour of effort we decided to move on and try to find another moose. The rest of the day was incredibly enjoyable, beautiful mountains, warm temperatures, and wildlife. At one point we had a pair of foxes running in front of our snow machines and playing for about 30 minutes, it was fun to watch. The day was winding down, still with no moose, when my friend saw some movement in some really thick willows. We pulled up and stood on the back of our snow machines to see over the top of the willows and saw three big bulls. You could hear them racking there antlers against the willows. Two of them were a little smaller (still big) and one very large.  What was surprising was that they still had there antlers, normally they shed those way earlier. They were moving towards a creek or slough that was on the other side of the willows so we followed. When we noticed that all three were standing out on the slough in the open, we got off our snow machines and worked our way to the edge of the willows in order to get a shot. To our surprise, the big bull, which made the others look small, doubled back towards us and came within 15 yards of us, but the willows were too thick to shoot. After a couple seconds of trying to find a lane to shoot through the willows, I decided to take one of the two bulls standing across the slough, around 120 yards or so.  It was so exciting to be so close to such big and beautiful animals, especially 15 yards from one that had at least a 60 in spread. The one we got was estimated to be around 1100 to 1200 pounds, and had a spread of 54.5 inches on its antlers. Most importantly, it had plenty of meat to provide for both our families for a long time. What a blessing! Goodbye beef and hello moose! The good Lord provided for us, that is for sure. It took about 2 hours to skin, quarter and get in the sled and it took about 4 hours to get home. Between the weight in the sled and the snow storm that blew in, it took a little longer to navigate home, but it just added to the adventure. I was in my own bed by midnight! It was a wonderful day and we were so thankful and blessed. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy if you are interested.

Christmas 2012

Our Christmas Cookie Baking Marathon was a tradition again this year.  However, we were able to spread it over 3 days time instead of cramming it all into one, which made the planning and process much smoother.

 Aaron's least favorite cookie to make due to the great detail it takes to put it together.  It's so pretty and Christmasy that we have to make it every year now.  And it's tradition for Aaron to get mad while making it too.

We spent Christmas here with just the two of us, for the first time and last time ever.  It was the most relaxing Christmas we have ever had, even though it was different.  We really enjoyed the day.

Christmas Morning

 Starting with some percolated coffee

And cherries in front of the Christmas tree

Stockings and gifts were next

And of course our Christmas tradition of German pancakes and the movie Elf

Later in the day we took a family sunset walk

Kiah loves the snow, almost more than water.  This is her favorite thing to do--have us chuck snowballs at her face as hard as we can so she can catch them in her mouth and eat them.

The moon even came out to greet us as the sun went down.

Best buds

We finished off the day with a nice goose dinner, compliments of Aaron's hunt earlier this fall..  It turned out really well.  We stuffed it with apple and orange slices and baked it just like a turkey.  It tasted kind of like roast beef.

The season went by quickly, but we were extremely blessed and look forward to what the New Year brings!

Thanks Oma and Opa!

This is what we did with the picture frames you sent us....

Finished product!

The Holidays!

The river has been freezing up for quite some time now and is probably just about thick enough to drive on.  It's amazing how this location transforms from summer to winter and looks completely different.  Even though the temperatures have been consistently cold (the high for this week is supposed to be something like -5, which doesn't even factor in the windchill), we are lacking in snow.  It's the strangest thing, like it's too cold to snow.  So instead there is ice everywhere.  A few weeks ago we had an "ice storm" of sorts that made the entire town of Bethel into an ice rink, but it was not a fun one.  I've never experienced ice that is so hard to walk on, mostly because it was inescapable.  No matter which way you turned, there was glare ice with no snow coverage, sand, or dirt to give you any traction.  Needless to say, we have already made good use of our ice cleats this winter.  We did have a slight warm-up yesterday that gave us a little dusting of snow, so at least we might see a white Christmas yet.

With the holiday season underway, we have also gone to Saturday Market several weekends in a row, which is a local crafts and hobby market that is especially exuberant during the holiday season.  We managed to get some pretty unique and fun Christmas gifts for a few people, but these little booties were more of a gift to ourselves for the little one coming!  Handmade booties were one of the few things I knew I wanted to get as a "specialty, but not really necessary" item for the baby.  However, I still think they will be very useful and practical for the wintertime.

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends, and I experienced deep-fried turkey for the first time!  It was an interesting process but not one that seemed any harder than a traditionally baked turkey.  Plus, it turned out to be really good!  I thought it might be a little too greasy for my liking, but it was actually just a lot more tender and juicy than baked turkey.

 It was a bit cold, however, to be standing outside to fry a turkey, but our fryers did a good job!

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving we commenced our holiday decorating but this time with a new tradition to complement it: homemade donuts!

 Snacking on these with some spiced coffee made decorating that much more fun, and we're excited to keep up traditions like this with our kids in the years to come (which will most likely require some additional elements like sprinkles and hot cocoa).

We ended the day with some egg nog, a homemade tea ring, and Home Alone, of course, to officially kick off the Christmas season.