Three moms on a mission.....to freeze whatever bit of sense we had left !!! I think it was about

-23 or so that day. Lora, myself and Martha skiied for 2.5 hours and stayed warm the whole time. I was actually sweating which is not a good thing because if we had to stop I would have been a brick of ice. I can always count on these two girls for great adventures! Alaska mom's rock!

Sweet Success! The plane finally goes into the hangar. Phase one is done! The door is an expensive part of phase two...... Lance is so talented and he has had a vision for a long time of this and I am proud of him that it is now a reality!!! Sleep tight N9104D.....you have moose to find soon!

After having his bow for several years, Lance finally shot something with it! He got this moose while we were all watching from the opposite hillside. Scroll down to see some great photos of this fun hunting trip. It was fun to have Gramps along with us this year!

After Lance shot the moose it was getting kind of late. We decided to take the time to butcher the animal the right way to preserve the meat as best as possible. Even if it meant coming off the mountain in the dark and fog and 1am with no headlights...which we did!

Notice Reid and Amelia sleeping on the tundra by the fire while we cut up the moose. What awesome adaptable kids!!!!

Piper greeting the moose head after we came home.

The meat hanging in our shop ageing before we cut and wrapped it for the freezer. Amazing that we consume all that in one year, plus two lambs, 13 chickens, salmon and maybe a caribou if we're lucky!

Our weather wasn't always perfect on this adventure. The first couple nights I thought the trailer was going to blow off the cliff. After a few days of hunting with no success we got the kids up at 6am to go sit on the hillside in the fog for a few hours. Gramps came in handy with his boy scout skills and built us a nice fire that kept the kids occupied and warm for a bit. The tarp prooved a handy shelter for some passing rains. We were not fair weather hunters...we were determined to have a good time no matter what the weather.

We aren't used to hunting with 4-wheelers but I could get used to it real easy! I rode with gramps (except for when I walked because he dumped me off a couple times!) The kids rode with Lance. We spent lots of hours riding and glassing and the kids were such troopers! One day the wind was blowing up my nose so hard I could barely breathe and the kids just kept bopping along...... the trail was narrow and quite sketchy in several places but I finally relaxed and left our safety up to God because worrying wasn't going to help.

Three generations of hunters....many good memories were made on this trip!

Thought I better throw in some work photos or everyone will think all we do is play! This may just look like a bunch of dirt to most of you but it's my future house site!!!! Lance's dad ran a dozer and Lance worked with the bobcat and dug our basement (first photo back left corner.....)., a circle driveway, road into the house lot and shop pad. We may pour the foundation next summer...time and money allowing!

"Big" and "Little" before harvest day. It was a fun experiment to raise sheep this summer. My dreams of keeping the ewe and trying to raise my own lambs next summer quickly faded when I got kind of tired of dealing with the sheep. I'll stick to chickens and ducks for now. We ended up with 75 lbs of lamb chops, leg of lamb, lamb roast...etc. It is a nice addition to the freezer! I'm so lucky to have a husband who deals with my animal frenzy and continues to make all the pens and coops...and shelters!!!

We managed a salmon fishing trip into our busy summer schedule. The kids had a blast! Reid is such a fisherman but the poor thing fished for hours and didn't catch a salmon. This was very different than the grayling fishing he had done earlier in the summer (where he caught one on every cast!) The camping was different than what we like (in a camp ground along the side of a highway...but still fun!) Amelia caught this chum on her barbie pole. She won first place in the yearbook photo contest with this photo above of her holding her prize salmon! The kids enjoyed playing with the salmon eggs and digging in the mud along the bank of the river.

One of the many harvesting days this Fall. We butchered 4 chickens this day and then got really busy with other projects. We were running out of feed for the other 8 chickens and Lance was busy so I decided to get the job done and butchered the 8 by myself one day...well actually Amelia did quite a bit of plucking! In the photo above we are using a killing cone that Lance made to invert the chicken upside down and cut it's head off. The cone keeps the chicken from flapping and brusing the meat and the blood drains out the bottom of the cone. Yes, I'm sure it's easier to buy Foster Farms but then again....how do you think their factory looks compared to ours?