the best beaver coat i ever saw was a zippered hoodie that a guy at the Vets Hospital was wearing.i never saw another one like it and all i could ask was it beaver and he said ya i got it up north and was out the door.

Trying to find someone to build me matching beaver mittens. My furrier says the market is tough right now. A lot of the people that make things out of fur are getting old and going out of business, with no one replacing them. Also, the Chinese are buying up furs for their manufacturing industry on a grand scale. So I may have to wait a while to get what I want.

Went to the archery range this weekend. Took the wife and let her shoot for the first time. She was apprehensive at first, but took to it right away and is now an enthusiast, despite putting a nasty string burn on her bow arm (everyone has to learn the hard way it seems). By the time we were done she was hitting the target at 30 yards just shooting a recurve. The son in law has a bow under the tree as well, so it looks like we will all be shooting together a lot next year. I am excited.

Cracked open a jar of corned beef hash I put up a year ago. Still tasty, and the taters were still firm. Put three over easy eggs on top and ate my fill. Found a bottle of chipotle tabasco to top it with and brewed up some strong coffee and now I am just kicking back and rubbing my belly. Life is good.

Well, I headed back up to the slope on the 15th. Spent a bit of time putting together some goodies to take with. Ended up filling my suitcase fairly well, and the bows made it up there no problem.

When I got back up there, I spent my lunch hours shooting 100 arrows at a time. My shooting didn't really improve much until the last week, when I was finally able to isolate a few problems with my shooting sequence that were throwing arrows out of the grouping. I could get 6 of 10 to group where I aimed, the rest would fly up and left or wide right. Two of the three adjustments were to correct bad habits I had learned long ago. These were plucking the string, and opening my shoulders toward the target. The third problem is old age, or in this case my eyesight not being what it was 26 years ago. Now that I figured them out and have made the necessary adjustments, my groups are consistently holding at 6 to 8 inches at 20 yards, and I expect slow steady improvement on that over time.

Really, it is the first shot that counts, so teaching my brain to ascertain distance and do the computations for drop at range without the aid of sights is what the practice is about. You practice consistency, and the precision will come. But accuracy requires variation. So I shoot at 10 yards, 15 yards and 20 yards. Eventually I will have to take my bowhunters certification so I can go hunting with my bows and arrows. I plan on acquiring another recurve so I don't have to transport the one I have now back and forth. That way I can go out while I am in town and do some stump shooting etc. I gave the wife one of the two recurves I had with a lighter draw weight so she can have some fun too.

They fed us filet mignon and king crab(I am still allergic to the crab, darn it). I ate double portions of the filet and it was perfectly cooked. They had sweets galore, and yes, I have put on more weight this time. I got home this last Monday and have been trying to shed some of the weight. Hopefully I can get it off and when I get back up on slope at the end of the month I will be able to continue. We lost power during a particularly strong blow one night a couple weeks ago. In the 45 minutes it took to get power back, my hooch went from 68 degrees to 48 degrees. They don't insulate those buildings worth a hoot. We sat there listening to the turbine generator wind up and down about a dozen times. Had they not got power back within time, they would've moved us to another camp or some such. Our power loss was localized, and with all the redundancy they put up there, the chance of a catastrophic loss would be pretty remote. Even so, under the most dire conditions we could just light a gas line off and stand around the plume. A 40 foot tall wall of flame puts out a lot of btus. There's so much gas up there I am not worried about running out in my lifetime.

I went ice fishing today and caught a nice 22 inch Pike. After taking it home and dressing it out, I determined that Pike are a scrap fish and I will leave them for eagle bait when I catch them from now on. Pike don't belong here anyways, and I would much rather catch and eat trout.

Still not sure which bow I will buy next. But I will keep y'all posted.

Stay warm and enjoy the winter sports until summer arrives. Be careful.

It is unseasonably warm here in Anchorage. Some of the lower peaks in the Chugach are essentially bare and the forest trails are still quite hikable with just boots. There's only about 3 inches of residual snow in the yard, and that is crusty and icy. I am expecting the weather to turn soon, but for now, our winter is very mild. Even up on the slope, the weather has not been as rough as usual. I am fairly convinced our weather undulates with the solar cycle. We've had a lot of solar activity in the past couple months, and I think that is having an effect.

Gonna head back up to the bulk foods store and get another couple bags of legumes today. With meat prices as high as they are, it is past time to get some moose and salmon in the jars. Since I missed my opportunity for it last year, I am working in earnest to make sure this year is a success. As with all things, it is all about networking to find the best value for money hunts and fishing ops I can. I will have a spring black bear hunt for sure in May, and a good chance to get on a moose this fall.

So that just leaves the salmon fishing. With 3 weeks off at a whack, I can borrow a boat and hit the rivers when the runs come, and try and make the most of the season. I am hoping to get at least 100 pints of moose and salmon in the pantry, as well as filling the freezer and replacing all the ham and sausage I have with good quality natural meat. We scored 40 lbs of ham at the grocery store on Thursday at 99 cents a pound. Up here that is a darned good price for quality ham. It is bone in butt, normally priced at $3.99 a pound, so we paid 1/4 the price. Ham is not a premium meat choice, but it does make a big difference in my legume pots (peas, navy beans, black-eyed peas, etc). Using it mostly for flavor, It also works ok for a jerky, though not in my top five. Dehydrating it and putting it through the molca-jete renders it as a fairly shelf stable meat product to use for casseroles and breakfast dishes.

Anyways, one week down, two to go before heading back to work. God I love this routine.

Well, getting ready to head back on to work on Monday. We are finally getting some snow here in Anchorage. Looks like about 5" overnight, and more coming down today.

The wife and I celebrated our 26th anniversary and her 52nd birthday on Thursday. Still going strong. All in all, this has been a pretty good off-rotation break for me. I bought a new bow to keep here at home, a 50# Bear Grizzly recurve. It is a good shooter, nice and smooth. With my overdraw I am pulling about 62# at my anchor point. That will be plenty for hunting, but really I intend to use my Bear Authority compound for any serious big game opportunities. I've eaten well, got a moderate amount of sleep, and still have a few bucks left in the account. Anytime I can have fun and not go broke doing it I am happy. I have been on the job now for over 6 months, and it is still good, so that is a big plus. But I am still wringing some Christmas spirit out of the new year. I have one piece of mincemeat pie left to eat before I go, the chimes on the clock are still playing carol music every hour, and the outdoor Christmas lights are still up and come on every night. With the new snow coming down, it gives me a real Vince Garibaldi moment.

As far as preps go, Even though I have augmented my arsenal, I missed the opportunity to stock up on more bulk foods like I intended. I will have to catch up on that next time I am home. I did manage to crank out another 10 lbs of breakfast sausage, this time garlic and sage, and a little hotter than normal. It was quite tasty, though a bit strong for breakfast. I also found a couple new sources for dehydrated instant refried beans. I'll put a recipe on the forum that uses them for a quick high energy meal.

I will post again when I get back in three weeks or so. Until then, y'all need to hold the fort.

Have fun and be safe.

Well, back home once again. Was quite hectic up on the slope this time. Found out BP made $12.1 billion in profit last year. The general conclusion is that oil production must increase with the lowering of prices, as volume now must make up for margin loss to keep profits up. The CEO is under pressure to keep making money for the stockholders, so there will be no cutbacks up on the slope. In fact, they are pressing hard for increased production, despite a mandate being handed down to intensify control of work processes. They may be cutting back in other locations, but up on slope, it is business as usual, and I was swamped the moment I got off the plane 3 weeks ago. It does make the hitch seem to go by quicker, and I am happy to have a break. However the pace destroyed my motivation to exercise, so that is a set back for preparing for my spring bear hunt coming up in May.

I did acquire yet another take down bow. I found a really good deal on a Samick Phoenix 2 from Lancaster Archery (no affiliation). This is a higher end "custom made" as they advertise it takedown, with superior fit and finish to the ever popular Samick Sage. The limb attachment is different, and in my opinion superior. I haven't shot it yet, so I will have to take it to the range, tune it in, and see how it does. I practiced quite a bit while up on slope and was surprised that my precision began to degrade. I decided to reset my shot sequence by forsaking aiming at anything and just focusing on my technique. I found that I have been getting quite sloppy by shifting my focus from the process of performing each step up to and through the release and on to the result of where the arrow is hitting the target. It seems counter-intuitive, but technique is really the key to consistent, accurate archery, with aiming really only a small part of the whole process. Once I started deliberately checking each step in my process, my shot groups improved quite a bit. I need to spend the better part of another month focusing on technique and not just on aiming for the bull's eye. That should reprogram my bad habits out and consistency back in. Instinctive shooting is a lot more work than shooting with sights. But it is far more rewarding for me.

After living in the same place for two years here in Anchorage, we are ready to move out of town. So we have been searching for places that suit our needs and budget. Looks like we should find something suitable in the next three weeks while I am home. It is so warm here now, it is mid 40s today, at least 50 to 80 degrees warmer than what I've been in. Wind chill had us down to -80 a couple days. Without a good ruff on the brim of your hood, you get an ice cream headache in about 30 seconds I found out. But wind chill is different from when the temp drops below -30 or so. Once that happens, my eyelashes start to freeze together and my nose fills with ice quick. I still prefer the cold to the hot, so other than being a novel experience, it is not such a big deal as long as I dress for it. I actually like bundling up for the cold more than having to don shorts and a tee and still sweating all the time. Just a weirdo I guess.

So I need to go get some more bulk foods for my supplies. I think I will be getting some more wheat and some navy beans and maybe more lentils, preferably red ones this time. I have to resist the urge to buy more rice. It is always an attractive purchase to me, but I have more than I should now relative to my other supplies. I should probably consider getting some garbanzos and some barley, and definitely more Crisco. For me, that stuff is a miracle fat. I have yet to see it go rancid, unlike my olive oil. It is also priced cheaper. I like coconut oil, except it adds coconut flavor to whatever I use it in. Sometimes that doesn't work. I can't use canola oil anymore. I will also need to pick up some beef fat from the butcher to render down for another batch of pemmican. I prefer tallow to lard, as it sets up firmer and seems to have a better taste.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll post again before I leave to update how things went on my preps.

Instinctive is the only way to go for me as well. If you haven't read Fred Asbell's books I highly recommend it. His DVD is useful as well. Let me know what you think of the new bow. I've been shooting a Black Widow MAII for over 20 years now. I really enjoy making my own arrows and gear as well. Best of luck in your bear hunt. I would love to go hunting in Alaska one of these days...

G

It took me a long time to learn how true that is with pistol marksmanship.