The First of the Season

It happened on a dark and stormy night....

Just kidding. 

So as I may have mentioned we have had a few different bears breaking into the tack shed ad feed shed, both containing horse feed. We finally set up motion cameras where we found out that the bears were coming between the hours of 12:30-3:00 am for the past month or so. Our hope was the they would keep coming around for the bow hunter that was coming the end of July. 

Well the end of July is hear and the bow hunter showed up on the 27 of July. Stevie took him out yesterday on the horses to glass for bears. They saw quite a bit of wildlife while out and about with the horses. Came back had lunch and set up a tree stand near the tack shed, hoping for the bear to be back that night. Dinner was ate by all and then nap time for Stevie and Steff (the bow hunter). They woke up and got all ready and were in the tree (Steff) and on the top of a cabin (Stevie) by 9:40. At 10:15 Stevie saw a bear come to the tack shed and check it out and didn't get in so he left.

Next thing I know my movie is over and I am starting to fall asleep and I hear this yelling. I am just a little lost. I get up to look out my windows and don't see anything. I am thinking maybe he got the bear but it couldn't be since it was only 11:00 and the bear doesn't come till later. And then I think maybe someone is hurt. After I see some of the boys run across the yard and more yelling I realize its happy yelling. I throw on my sweatshirt and go investigate myself.

Yes Steff shot the bear and it it walked about 50 yards and dropped dead. When I got to them the bear was laying in the water and dead! Now time to celebrate. First bear of the season and first one shot with a bow at Rainy Pass Lodge. The bear is 8'+ Grizzly and is a Pope and Young. 

Next task is getting the bear out of the water. Quite the show with 4-5 guys pulling him out. "1-2-3 pull" is what the guys would say with a grunts to follow as they pulled each time. Now its picture time. Spent a good 45 minutes taking pictures and then lets the move the bear again for better pictures in the morning. So the bear is moved, again. Now its off to bed for some and others stayed up till 3 am celebrating and making phone calls to family and friends to tell them of the news.

Morning comes and its breakfast time. They eat and around 11 go out to take more pictures and then the fun stuff comes and its skinning time. Finished skinning around 2 and then its lunch and nap time.

Free Time Equals Read Time

Reading, I have always liked it, but finding the time to dive into a really good book was always hard to do.

Well I have been out at the Lodge for a little over a month now and I have managed to finish six whole books and started book number seven in that amount of time.

Book One: Just The Way You Are by: Barbara Freethy. This book was a free one that I downloaded off of iTunes just to have while at the lodge if I decided that I had the time to read. It was a good book about two sisters who were brought back together when their grandma was on her death bed. Goes through the struggles of the sisters and how their life has been. One of the sisters is in the middle of a divorce and the other is trying to figure out what to do with her life.

Book Two: At First Sight by: Nicholas Sparks. I had to have a Nicholas Sparks book in the list somewhere. As I recall the book was good, but I can't really remember what went on unless I look at it and read over the summary which I am too lazy to do right now.

Book Three through Book Six: A series by Terri Blackstock called Restoration Series. The series starts with all the power going out across the world. Planes fall out of the sky, cell phones stop working, cars stop in the middle of roads, nothing works. The series follows the Brannings on their adventure throughout the outage. It is a great series and the author incorporates christainity into the story. It is wonderful how the family realizes that God is the one who caused this and He was showing them His power. They were forced to put all their trust in Him to help get them throughout the outage. The book is suspenseful and keeps you reading. During the outage there are killers on the loose and a constant battle to find them. If you like those kind of stories I say dive into this series. Denise lent me the first book and had Steve bring me the rest one day and I am so glad I read them. This series is so wonderful I really do recommend.

Book Seven: The Best of Me by: Nicholas Sparks. Of corse I have another Nicholas Sparks book to read, I can't read enough by him. Just started this book yesterday so I can't say to much about it yet.

I have managed to find time to read when I have an afternoon break or when everyone goes to bed and it's only 8 pm I have nothing better to do. I also love to read when the sun is shinning and I am on break, great time. 

My Life For the Week

This week was super busy for us. We had lots of people coming and going. And there was always plenty to do, not a moment of boardem here.

Sunday July 15- Three guests arrive. Two of which are older and both have a hard time getting around. Weather is gloomy. Cooking is easy for the the amount of people we have.
Monday July 16- Five more guest arrive. Weather is again gloomy. More people more food to cook.
Tuesday July 17- Carly and Stevie go out to Rainy Pass Lake Cabin with four of the guests. Weather lightens up and I'm in SHORTS! I also got to paint the names of the horses on my signs, in the sun. Carly is gone and Denise and I are now one less person down to help with the cooking. Saw a black bear across the lake and later that night saw a brown bear swimming across the lake, I didn't get a good look at him but one of the guests did. I get to have a few extra days of the 8:30 early shift for breakfast.
Wednesday July 18- Group arrives back from Rainy Pass Lake Cabin, Carly is back to help in the Kitchen before she leaves me again for her cousins wedding. I go on a horse back ride with Colton and three guests. Fun times and the weather was wonderful.
Thursday July 19- Fly out fishing with 5 guests and we get the boys back from town to work! The guests get back from the fishing trip and we loose Colton and Carly they go back to anchorage Colton has to go back to work and Carly is leaving me to go to her cousins wedding. We also got rid of two guests ;) they were great and it was awesome getting to know them. Weather starts to get gloomy again, blamed on Toshi since it was nice while he was gone and went back to being bad when he got back, don't worry he blames himself too.
Friday July 20- Denise and Steve take two guests and their grandson Shane to hike up Monument. While Stevie takes thee guests to go fishing a down pas the airstrip. So Michelle is left in charge of Lunch for Wilma and the fishing people and the worker boys. Fishing people didn't want to come back for lunch so Stevie took them some food and brought Maggie back so she could rest since she wasn't felling well. I handled being in charge well ;) Weather could be better.
Saturday July 21- Guests are ready to leave there bags are packed. Now we just wait to see if things clear up. The weather changes every half an hour and the guest get weathered in. We had to cancel flight and hotel reservations. Extra family of four for dinner tonight, there were out flying around and had to land due to weather made it out later on at night.
Sunday July 22- The guests are ready to leave again wait to hear from Regal to see what flight schedules are for the day, and it is all still very weather dependent. Finally we can get two planes out to get the remaining 5 guests out hoping that three of them will make their flights, there was no way two of them were going to make it. So more canceling and rebooking of flights and hotels. The first plane arrives and Carly is on it! Yippee! I got my kitchen and cleaning buddy back. The first four guest get on the plane and make out safely. The second plane lands on the airstrip 30 minutes later and there go the last guests form the week, they made it safely back to anchorage too. Dinner tonight is LEFTOVERS! Less cooking for us and its cleans out the fridge.
Monday July 23- Staff meeting, nothing important for me, Carly and Denise, just Steve and Stevie discussing what they needed to get down around the lodge. Carly and I get to cleaning, the rooms and making all the beds. Then after all is done its is time to relax and read! Weather not so good, chilly and some drizzling every now and then.

That is my week in a nut shell. Yes it was a blast. I met some interesting people and they were all so great. I love this job. I had some great experiences and wouldn't trade them for anything. My horse name tags turned out great, must go up to the coral and get a picture of them. Now it is time to relax a little before the first hunter of the season arrives in just a few days. Bow hunter to be exact, coming to get a bear, hopefully he will get the one who has been breaking in to the horse feed shed and the tac shed pretty much every night for the past month, we have reason to believe that there is more than one bear.

New Experiences

Wow its been a while. Well lets see...

We had 4th of July games on the 4th, it was the smaller version of them but we stilled played them. Two teams this year, the Hatfields vs McCoys. I was on the the McCoys and guess what we won in the end. Our team dominated in the canoe races, volleyball, horse shoes, and charades. We weren't so lucky in the Pistol or skeet shooting. My first time shooting a gun. I hit two out of five targets on both eh pistol and skeet shoot. It was a lot of fun. Since not the whole family was there for the 4th we did fireworks on the 6th when we had more guests. It was far more entertaining watching the boys shoot off the fireworks. It was too light to really see the fireworks. But it was a fun night.

We have had a bear on the propority just about every other night for the past week and half now. We have yet to see him but he keeps breaking into the meat shed where they store the horse feed. They are trying to keep him around for the bow shooter coming at the end of July.

I got to go on a helicopter ride a few days a go too. It was fun. I should have brought my camera for that, but at the time I was staying in a different place for a few nights and I had no idea where all my stuff was I just knew it was in my bags somewhere. It was a fun time in the Helicopter. We rode right up to a hanging glacier.

The other day I did some more shooting. I am getting better. It is a lot of fun and now I wonder why my brothers and dad never did much shooting with me.

We played darts the other night and I am better than everyone thought. My team won the second round and got second the first round. Yup thats right don't underestimate me.

I wish I had some pictures to show everyone. I need to get better at documenting my time out here. I should be able to snag some 4th of July pictures from Stevie. We will see.

Hope all is well for everyone back home.

I am having the time of my life out here, although the weather isn't the best its just so great to be here in this beautiful place. More adventures to come soon.

Love to all!

I haven't Fallen Off the Earth...

So I have been super busy this past week working. Sad news is I haven't been able to use the internet since its been down out here. I also can't use Facebook or upload photos because it uses too much internet and they only have a certain amount a month. They are trying really hard to get GCI out here which would mean better internet and more to use and also a real phone line not a radio party line. 

This past week I got to go on a horse back ride up to Lookout and down the back side of it. It was so much fun! Later that night we played volleyball, best two out of three. My team lost :( but we didn't loose by much. After that almost everyone jumped into the lake. I almost did but I just couldn't bring my self to doing it. Of corse I got wet anyways since I got a big hug from the girl who jumped in and then everyone decided to come up and get a big group picture with me and use me as a towel. It was all good tho. I will get in the lake this summer for sure, even if its not by choice.

The 4th of July is just around the corner. The family will be coming out expect for one boy and his wife. So it will be a fun long weekend. I am excited to play all the games and just have fun long weekend. I will keep everyone posted on what is going on, if the internet allows. I will most likely have to show pictures when I get back to better internet which won't be till October, unless GCI gets out here and gets it all hooked up. But for now I will try to post as often as I can without using to much internet. Don't want to get in trouble.