When I say that the great strength of a woman lies in her femininity, I do not mean to equate her feminine nature with being afraid of hard labor or getting her hands dirty. Actually the contrary is true. My daughters are as comfortable in the wilderness wearing a backpack as they are in a city wearing a dress. When I took the two of them caribou hunting north of the Arctic Circle, I was proud of ...  Read More

To be a 'princess' is wrapped up in the heart of a girl. And why not? Deep inside every little girl knows she was created to be a daughter of The King. Her true strength- her greatest strength- is found in her femininity. It is a magnificent thing to be 'woman' created in the image of God. There is something forceful- regal- about a woman's strength when it is cloaked in gentleness and good humor....  Read More

For many people, Alaska is an entire 'world' away from family. And for most of those people 'outside', it seems even farther than that. This makes those times when family come to visit us extra special. This last week, my mother and three of my nieces made a very short visit. We shared meals, games around the table, prayer, and- yes, Alaskan adventures. Family was God's idea. He created the very f...  Read More

Twenty years ago I screwed up my courage, bought 7,000 linear feet of log from a mill, and built our house. You see, Laura and I wanted a home that could host large groups of people, and in six years of looking couldn't find a single one that we could afford. Choosing to host others serves a number of purposes. 1) Gratitude- We've had dozens of mission teams come to Alaska to help build our church...  Read More

The world in front of me was almost entirely without color. Of course there was black and various shades of white and gray, but no blue sky, no green plants, no flowers, no sun. It was barren and lifeless. The Gulkana Glacier's moraine became more and more desolate as I continued to climb. Sometimes life feels that way, doesn't it? Our circumstances seem gray and dull- lifeless. But as I looked cl...  Read More

Friends of ours flew up from Florida, rented a car, drove far more than 1000 miles, took a bus through Denali National Park, and in all that time never saw a moose. After enjoying dinner at our house, we opened the door to let the dogs out and a bull moose was standing at the foot of our steps. That's Alaska. That's just life, isn't it? It's often said, "There are no guarantees." That is only part...  Read More

My bear was down- one of the biggest interior grizzlies I'd ever run across. Properly skinning a large bear without help is very difficult. It's impossible to hold up a heavy leg, run a knife, and peel hide at the same time. Add to this that I wanted to keep the meat clean. I've hunted by myself for many years and knew exactly what I needed to do. With strong parachute cord around a tree, I was ab...  Read More

It was one of those rare occasions when everything worked out perfectly. I only had one night to hunt. I had seen sign of a BIG bear in the vicinity... and I only had to wait an hour or two before I heard him coming. Unlike that of the bow hunters who 'pass' on many nice bucks- waiting for just the right one- much of Alaska is not 'game rich' country. I often hunt years at a time without seeing a ...  Read More

Now it was simply a waiting game. The bear had come back on the same trail last night. I was high in a tree 40 yards off the trail. It was 7 PM and I intended to stay until dark (midnight), hoping the bear would use this trail once more. As always, the mosquitoes were so thick that I wore a headnet, two layers of clothing, and rubber surgical gloves. Still-hunting is torture for me, so years ago I...  Read More

Though walking quietly, with the small amount of noise that I was making i knew that I had virtually no chance of stumbling on this bear in the timber. They say that bears have poor eyesight. This may be true, but I've been 'spotted' on more than one occasion at over 100 yards and had bears take off running away from me. Then, again, there have been a few occasions when they've been closer than 10...  Read More

I had my rifle but I wasn't expecting to see anything. I was on a trail that was a mixture of tundra, black spruce and birch, choked with willow brush. It was impossible to move quietly. When I came to a muddy spot, there was a huge grizzly track in the trail. It was fresh and moving the same direction as me. I only had two days to hunt.  I wondered if he would come back along this same trail. How...  Read More

My kids also grew up loving the snow. At some point every August they could see fresh snow on the distant mountaintops, and there would be a collective, "Yes!" This would be followed by my audible groan. You must understand that the snow doesn't melt away from our yard until early May. How could they be excited to see it coming in August? To me that still doesn't make sense. But then, over half of...  Read More