Posts with the category “daily-devotions”

I left my ram where he lay and started on the sheep trail to get my pack. I had no lightweight or quality gear of any kind, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that my pack probably weighed 70 pounds. Because I was so high on the mountain this was only a 10 minute traverse. It was definitely sketchy, but I had confidence because I'd walked it once before. As I rounded the end of the moun...  Read More

The place where my ram died was far too steep for me to cape it and bone it out. At the very least I needed a flat spot where I could lay a small tarp down to set my meat on to keep it clean. There was a sheep trail a short distance beneath me, so I dragged the ram down to a better spot. I didn't have a camera, and Tim and Larry Hand had the heavy video camera we had packed in. I still had no idea...  Read More

When I squeezed the trigger, the ram simply rolled over. I couldn't believe I had my first Dall sheep. Thanks to my partner Tim Hand, the day before I had learned how to descend a shale slide. This was fortunate because there was NO other way to reach my ram. If I had not already done this once, it would never have occurred to me to try. The mountain was so steep that it looked like I was stepping...  Read More

When you are looking straight down at a Dall sheep, the curl of the horn actually looks smaller than it really is. Even so I was certain that both rams were legal, but I couldn't tell which one was bigger. They battled for several minutes before one retreated and the dominant ram bedded down. At this point, the ridgeline was so narrow that I actually lay down on the back side of the ridge and used...  Read More

In places the ridgeline was razor thin- perhaps a foot or less wide- but it was also a sheep trail. As I looked down into the first 'bowl' up the valley, I didn't see my partners but I DID see our band of rams 300 yards beneath me. Another ram had joined them, so instead of seven there were eight. Not only that, but the eighth ram was also legal, and the two mature rams were battling it out for do...  Read More

I had no idea where my partners were. I reached the top of the mountain ridgeline right at sunrise. I had hoped to see Tim and Larry's camp from here, but no luck. I had a general idea of where they would be camping, but with the Dall sheep gone I figured that they would be looking for me. Our plan had been to meet up just below me where that other hunter had screwed us up. This was my first sheep...  Read More

I had no desire to speak to this hunter who had ruined my morning, so even though we were just a few feet apart I simply turned my back to him and began climbing a short distance to a sheep trail. When scouting the week before, this was the first sheep trail I had ever walked on. I knew that it wrapped around the face of this mountain and continued for several miles up the next valley. I also reme...  Read More

The sun and I seemed to be climbing at about the same pace. As I reached my destination above the Dall sheep it was just getting light enough to see. The sky was clear, but a low fog was whisping in and out at my elevation. I wondered where my partners were. I hadn't heard a shot yet. As I crested a final small knob, I saw one of them standing in the fog 50 feet from me. He was facing away from me...  Read More

I broke camp and was climbing well before daylight. It was far too dark to see the Dall sheep, but I didn't need to worry about getting off the trail because my path was uphill all the way. About 5:30 AM two massive bull caribou glided right past me. Either would have been 'the bull of a lifetime' for most hunters. By 6 AM the eastern horizon was showing signs of light. The blanket of stars above ...  Read More

Carrying a heavy pack through low brush up a steep hill was no picnic. I finally made it to a little knob that gave me a relatively straight shot up a ridgeline to the sheep. There was nothing left to do but to set up camp and wait for morning. About 11 PM, just before dark, other hunters entered the valley and set up camp about 3 miles from me. I was directly between them and the sheep and they c...  Read More

The rams were bedded in a place with no approach. Even if we walked past them they could see us coming from either direction. We decided to split up, with Tim and his dad camping at the base of the mountain just past the rams, 8 miles up the valley. I was setting up on a high ridge about 2 miles this side of the rams. Only one of the 7 rams was a legal full curl. We decided to come from both direc...  Read More

We put on our heavy packs and jumped into a vertical shale slide. I wasn't happy about it, but my partner, Tim Hand, had grown up in these mountains, so I trusted him. Our return to camp, which would have been over an hour of suffering down that steep ridge, took about 15 minutes. Another lesson learned. Though they were nearly 8 miles away, we could see where our rams had bedded down. While we ha...  Read More

Watching a wolf kill a sheep was exciting, but our Dall sheep hunt was far from over. In fact, it hadn't officially started. We'd come in the day before, but this was August 9. The season didn't open until the 10th. We had spotted a small band of rams the night before, climbed a steep ridge this morning, and were trying to figure out where they went. We finally saw them several miles away running ...  Read More

There was no struggle. The wolf hit the Dall sheep like a freight train and it was over. But then the most amazing part happened. Once dead, the wolf bit this adult ewe about halfway down its spine, right where the rib cage was largest. Then he lifted the entire animal off the ground, with its head and legs dangling, and carried it into the brush. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I...  Read More

As fast as the Dall sheep were running, the wolf was quickly gaining ground. He expertly separated one ewe from the others, and in a moment he was on her. It was over in a matter of seconds. Divide and conquer- this is the same strategy that Satan uses to destroy friendships, marriages, families, and churches. When we are alone, we are a much easier target. When we lack unity, he can even use us a...  Read More

It only took a moment to see why the Dall sheep were on a dead run. A lone wolf was racing toward them. In John 10:12 Jesus said, "The wolf attacks the flock and scatters it." That's exactly what was happening. Think of it- the shepherd GATHERS and PROTECTS, the wolf SCATTERS and HARMS. The shepherd brings UNITY. The wolf brings DIVISION. There have been a few times in my life when I have seen pas...  Read More

Hunting Alaska's Dall Sheep was a new experience for me. I was lying on my belly on top of a mountain 'glassing' a small band of ewes and lambs when I decided to set up my spotting scope for a closer look. I barely had them in focus when they began to run as though their lives depended on it. When danger comes, their only defense is to FLEE. When it comes to maintaining moral purity, this is also ...  Read More

I was now over 3 hours into my '15 minute' stop to drop off tires and a Christmas tree. When the fuel truck arrived, the driver walked into my shop to see if he could figure out why the furnace wouldn't start. No luck, but he filled my fuel oil tank and I was able to start the furnace in the house. As the house was warming, I went back into the shop and finally figured out the problem. I still did...  Read More

The whole time I was working on my frozen garage door I was hearing lots of 'beeping' sounds. I thought there was heavy equipment working in the neighborhood. When I walked in to check the house, I discovered every C02 detector blaring loudly. As I was getting a ladder I noticed that the house was very, very cold. One by one I removed the detectors, because just pulling the batteries didn't stop t...  Read More

Laura and I are custodians of a home and shop in Big Lake. I drove out there this week intending to store our Christmas tree and some spare tires and pick up a snowmachine. After snowing more than 2 feet earlier this month, it rained hard last week. The huge double garage door to the shop was frozen shut with over half inch of ice at the bottom. I had a torch to try to melt the ice, but I couldn't...  Read More

There is a certain sense of satisfaction that farmers and gardeners and hunters and fishermen get from 'living off the land.' My moose was home, but the work was far from over. Hundreds of pounds of steak, roasts and ribs needed to be cut and wrapped, and all of the scrap needed to be ground into burger. Add another day of work. On top of all of this, my hunting and camping gear needed to be clean...  Read More

Pulling the trigger was the easy part. My moose was down. I've done this by myself many times, and to be honest, there is always a moment of exhale where I think something like, "Lord, what have I done?" The first long job was to get the hide and meat off one side and then the other.  I am also meticulous about keeping my meat clean. On a good sized bull this can take 2 or 3 hours by the time I'm ...  Read More

I managed to stay on the bull- just a glimpse here and there as he made a beeline through the timber. I got a good look at him when I first saw him, and I knew this was a legal bull. When he stepped behind a small patch of low-to-the-ground spruce trees, I steadied my rifle against a birch tree and waited. I couldn't SEE him, but I KNEW I had him. It's actually very common for us to KNOW that we h...  Read More

Hunting moose in the timber is far from ideal, yet I've 'stumbled upon' legal bulls several times in my life. I was a little frustrated with my day. It had taken a long drive and a lot of work to get deep into those mountains, and the low clouds had driven me out of my hunting spot. To make things worse, my ATV had a flat tire and I was literally driving on 3 wheels and a rim. I still had a day an...  Read More

If I'd have had a few more days to hunt, I would have waited for the clouds to lift. With less than two days, I decided to break down the camp I'd just set up and move to lower elevations. Eventually I got beneath the clouds, but this put me in very mediocre country for hunting. But given the dense fog up high, mediocre was better than the place I'd come from. If we waited for circumstances to be ...  Read More

I was by myself- deep in the mountains- hoping to find a moose. Well, that's not exactly accurate. I hunt hard and I ALWAYS find moose. I was trying to find a LEGAL bull. For those of us who are stuck hunting off the road system, this is the area where skill and hard work play a minimal role. You see, we can only shoot a spike/fork or a bull with an antler spread greater than 50 inches. So- I was ...  Read More

Many studies have been done proving that physical appearance provides great advantage (or disadvantage) for career applicants. Beauty and fitness for women and strength and height for men are a distinct advantage. But here's the thing- those qualities have no correlation to excellence in performance of the job.What correlates to high performance and success? Kindness, work ethic, being a 'team pla...  Read More

So yesterday I had an 'emergency' root canal. It's a little bit like self-inflicted torture. Why in the world would a person put himself through that? Not only was the procedure extremely uncomfortable, but it cost more than I paid for my truck. The answer is obvious- I did it because of the payoff on the other side. I had a painful infection that was severe enough to keep me up all night- for sev...  Read More

Though primarily looking for moose, I planned to check on my ram the following morning. If he was still there I planned to go get him in the daylight, when my hunting partners would be able to watch me in the spotting scope the whole time. In the morning, my sheep was gone. Circumstances often dictate our plans, don't they? Other than a grouse that I knocked out of a tree with a rock, the day was ...  Read More

I was serving as 'guide' to a father and adult son on a moose hunt. Both of them were out of shape, and they were very insecure woodsmen. I spotted a legal ram on the other side of a small, steep gorge. By myself I could easily have been on the ram in less than an hour, but it would have been well after dark before I had it packed out. I was facing a dilemma. Neither of my partners were fit enough...  Read More

I know that you have faith, but is it STRONG? More than strong, is it VIBRANT? In other words, is your faith not something you 'believe' so much as it is a reflection of who you are? Vibrant faith impacts every moment of the day, every decision, every relationship, every conversation. You weather life's storms because life for you goes much deeper than your present circumstances. Jesus said, "Come...  Read More

The temperature is a balmy 5° and it's snowing again. First, the clouds move in, hovering over the mountains, then the heat rises, and then the outpouring begins. Years ago on the Isle of Lewis in the New Hebrides, a spontaneous worship service was finally dispersing close to midnight. God had been stirring the hearts of the people for many weeks. A young man told pastor Duncan Campbell, "The Spir...  Read More

The temperature warmed up to −5° yesterday, so I decided to break in a snowshoe trail. This serves two purposes. First, the snow where I've broken trail will 'set up' and become hard and thereby easier to walk on. Second, the next time we get a big snow dump my trail will still be visible. Having a path to follow, especially in the dark or in white-out conditions, is a tremendous advantage. When f...  Read More

The 4' tall grass kept moving above us as some kind of large animal made its way toward us- 15 yards... 10 yards... 20 feet... 10 feet... We had our rifles up and ready to 'fire.' It was a little surreal. The animal was so close and yet completely hidden. Though I was new to Alaska and had never shot a bear, I couldn't imagine what else it could be. Whatever it was, it was walking right into us. A...  Read More

I was backpacking with a friend into Ptarmigan Lake near Moose Pass. We were on a narrow foot trail about halfway up a mountain and paralleling the valley. In some places grass about 4 feet tall bordered the trail. We paused at one of those places to glass the valley below us for bear. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the grass above us moving. Something big was walking toward us, but it wasn...  Read More

5:15 AM and I've been shoveling for the better part of an hour. The weather is clear and cold. Though not full, the moon is just bright enough to cast faint shadows on the ground. For me, there has always been something peaceful about shadows. Psalm 91:1 says, "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." We rest secure knowing God is with us. We see the...  Read More

Last night I shoveled snow for the first time since November. It felt good, but only because we've waited so long for snow. Sometimes you GO to work and sometimes work COMES to you. Either way, the ability to work is a gift, a blessing. When the world was perfect, God gave Adam a job. He put him in the garden of Eden and told him to care for it. We've all been given our own 'garden'- the place and...  Read More

The weather finally broke. It's 5° at my house and we have several inches of fresh snow. I'm looking forward to 2026. Will this be the year that Jesus comes? Will this be a year of great revival in Alaska? Will this be a year of breakthrough for those struggling with addiction? For those suffering from depression? For those in bondage to the same old sins? Let me answer those questions according t...  Read More

The temperature at my house hovers around −20°. I feel like I've been cold for weeks. When it's this cold, everything seems to get harder. Cars don't want to start, fingers freeze against the cold steering wheel, on the gas pump, and even the on car door getting in and out. But... life must go on. We all have places to go and things to do. We cannot allow life's little inconveniences to disrupt ou...  Read More

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Christian, this is YOUR spirit, the spirit God GAVE YOU. Instead of fear, POWER. Instead of fear, LOVE. Instead of fear, the ability to SEE and UNDERSTAND things as they really are. If you have already died to SELF, if you've already truly surrendered your life to pleasing God and doing his wil...  Read More