2010 Caribou Hunt

I was fortunate enough to make it up to Alaska for a caribou hunt while Naomi dealt with Hannah and her tests. We had a great time and excellent weather. Here's a few photo's of the trip.

The Ranger, loaded to the hilt, and headed for Coldfoot.

Marsh Fork of the Canning River, Bench Strip.

Our first camp site, next to The Bench landing strip. Complete with electric fence to ward off Kushtaka's.

Heres a photo of Mark. Across the river is the camp and the strip.

Finally, we saw some bulls and Mark shot the largest in the bunch. Then shot it again, and again, and well he didn't have a rest. However, it was a morale booster as we'd hunted for a few days and hadn't seen any bulls.

There are sheds and critter remains littered all over the hillsides, so I carried a few back to camp for a photo.

The water levels were getting low, so after Mark shot his bull we figured it was time to head on down the river. In this shot you can see Chad in the Pro Pioneer raft. Mark was well ahead of us in the Kayak.

Then on the 5th day Chad and I connected with a couple of nice bulls. Chad even hit 2 for 2 on his farthest shots ever.

So here's the raft loaded with most of the gear and caribou. The payload is 1500lbs, so technically it could hold more weight, but I don't know where it would have fit.

Here's a picture of Chad on the final float of the trip. We took out at Plunge Creek and got picked up 3 days early. It was a mixed blessing, but we were 51 miles from the Beaufort Sea and this time of year the weather can change in an instant.

Ain't Nothing Going to Stop Me!!!

Today I took Hannah in for her Ambulatory EEG, and as you can plainly see, life went on as normal, plus two new toys. Have you ever seen anyone else pull this look off so beautifully?

Boise

We had to go over to Boise to see Hannah's specialists, and decided to make a weekend out of it. Hannah got to enjoy the zoo and a park with real playground equipment. Oh yeah, and one of Hannah's new favorite objects, benches. Elmo was her special treat for all the doctor stuff.

She'll hate us when she's older...

Hannah won't be to happy about this video when she's older. Oh well, isn't this what being a parent is all about, embarrassing footage to show future boyfriends?

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Hannah is performing one of her new favorite songs, and wanted to share.

Garden Update - 1 Month Later

We have officially had our garden for a month, and have harvested a ton of red leaf and romaine lettuce (mostly donated to the food bank in town), some radishes, and a couple of green bell peppers.

I've already begun making changes to the layout of the garden (you may be able to tell from the first set of photos posted). As I pulled the radishes, I replanted in their space cilantro, which bolted in this blast of hot summer weather. And where the cilantro used to sit, I planted more radishes. With the radishes this go around, I'll have to spray the leaves with soapy water, to help keep the pests away and ensure a more productive harvest. I also had an empty space in the lettuce plot, and decided to try my luck at spinach, and tonight I actually harvested enough to go in our scrambled eggs in the morning. Yummy! In my donation of romaine lettuce to the food bank, I replaced some of the romaine with some free butterhead seeds I had.


As the photo below shows, our spaghetti squash is going gang busters. A few are already measuring about 4 inches long. I had planted some cabbage and broccoli, but pulled the plants this week. The bugs had gotten the leaves pretty bad, and the plants themselves hadn't increased in size much. In talking with another gardener, she mentioned the season was getting a little late for their success. Oh well, we'll try again next season. The space isn't going to go to waste, did you see that spaghetti squash? Yikes.


Carrots, onions and leeks continue to do well, and seem to be enjoying all this magnificent heat. The kohlrabi I planted, to remind Robbie of his grandparents garden, hasn't fared as well. It to has a pest problem and will need to be sprayed with soapy water too. In the back corner of the photo is Robbie's garden, two Topsy Turvey planters. They hold a tomato and jalapeno pepper plant. After trying to keep them in our deer infested yard, he decided they need some protection. We hope that they will survive the browse they received and provide us with plenty of peppers to make jalapeno jam and tomatoes to eat right off the vine. Time will tell.

Our Summer Garden

Our Garden is starting to look pretty good. We purchased two small plots from the John Day Community Garden: A Plot of Gold, for a very minimal price.

This photo shows that I've tried to squeeze a lot of produce into one small 5x10 plot. I've planted two bell pepper (green & purple) plants, a tomato plant, radishes, cilantro, Lettuce (red leaf & romaine), and am still waiting to see if my spinach will sprout.


This plot, also a 5x10, has carrots, kalyrabi, leeks, onions (red and candy, brocollii, cabbage, speghetti squash and cucumber. I've really never gardened before, so this summer is my garden experiment. I'm keeping a journal, so hopefully in the future I'll have more knowledge on what does or doesn't work here in John Day's short, hot growing season.


Hannah is a big helper, today she's watering the garden with me. However, usually she's just eating the dirt.

Pigtails or Devil Horns

You be the judge...

Today I attempted and succeeded at getting the front of Hannah's hair into pigtails. She was very cooperative, only because she didn't know what I was doing. Once I showed herself in the mirror, I think she was wondering what Mom had done to her. Her hair is getting so long and in her face. We are trying to grow it out one length, so a major cut isn't an option, as of now.

I think she pulls the look off perfectly.

Walking Debut

Well, it is official, Hannah has decided to start walking. It has taken her a long time to come this far, as her first steps were at the end of April, and now it is mid June. None the less, she had the ability since that April day, but for some unknown reason to us, or the rest of the world, she decided to hold off until now. Either way, we are ecstatic for her new found freedom. Now we all venture forth into walking toddler land. The video isn't great but you get the idea. She knows she's got it, and just wants to show off.

At the Park Video Footage

In Robbie's last post, he mentioned some video footage of Hannah I had taken. Well, the footage I took was vertical, I must of thought I was taking pictures, who knows. Anyway, I took Hannah back to the park and she was a willing participant in a another take of her going up and down the slide. The footage is in two parts, as I don't currently have the software to combine the videos into one.

Enjoy!

At the Park

We finally got a break in the weather and made it to the park. Hannah's friend Jack showed her how to climb up the stairs and go down the slide. So now that's pretty much all she wants to do.

Naomi was able to capture a couple of good shots as Hannah was coming down, so we thought we'd share them.


Naomi also took a video sideways that she'll try to straighten out prior to posting. Stay tuned!

PARTY TIME!

Hannah's big party was a success. Some family and numerous local friends attended the starry event.

Hannah's getting excited as she watches all of the crazy cousins and other energized kids running around.

It turns out she liked her cake. Yum.....raspberry filling.

She got ton's of gifts including these cool shades.

We ended the event with a trip to John Day's Best Western for a dip in their pool.

The Big 1

Hannah turned 1 today. Although we didn't have a party for her she did have the opportunity to practice opening presents. She got a lot of great things, books, clothes, barrettes, a stylin' cowgirl hat, some dora the explorer underwear, and a wooden helicopter. We think she'll be ready for the big party to come.

Every time we go to the store Hannah points at the balloons. So low and behold she received some for her birthday. She wasn't real sure of them at first but by the end of the night she was enjoying them.