Category Archives: Journal Entry

Trouble training the sled dogs, Libby Riddles lends a hand

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Two people and a dogsled

Norman (in red) and Sylvia (seated) posing for pictures after running the dogs.

Monday, November 17, 1980— I ran Fear, the lead dog, Oscar, Mack and Chrissy twice today—three miles each time. They are doing pretty well. Weather is nice, a low of zero degrees to a high of 10 above. Called Nadia, Ernie H. and Jim R.

Thursday, November 27, 1980—Charlie helped me run the dogs again today. Things didn’t go well. This is discouraging. Fear, the lead dog just isn’t strong headed enough to lead the dogs.

Friday, November 28, 1980—cut up firewood for the lodge garage, their saw is broke down so we used my saw. Did chores and took care of the dogs and ran Sylvia to Gunsight to help Nancy at the lodge. Mike was here and visited for a while.

Monday, December 1, 1980—up early, took Sylvia to Gunsight, helped Ray a little then came back and hitched the dogs to the sled and took them to Libby Riddles place (three miles). She put a dog called Phantom in my team. Had a good run, lots of excitement. Broke my brake on the grade off of Snowshoe Lake so I turned back for home to make repairs.

Tuesday, December 9, 1980—it’s -37° this morning. I glued the heels of my Sorel boots where they were weakening. Took my dogs on a training run in the afternoon at -40°. At supper time, Mike P. called.

Wednesday, December 10, 1980—put the snow hook holder that I made out of leather onto the dog sled, allowing me to more safely carry the snow hook when I’m driving the dogs and the sled. I put some oil in the front differential of the pickup and cut up some logs for Henry. It was -35° all day and dropped to -40° this evening.

Thursday, December 11, 1980—I read late last night and slept late this morning. Henry’s water system froze up and I helped get it thawed and back in service. Took dog collars and a chain and a snow hook back that I had borrowed from Libby Riddles. Now I have my own equipment. It’s -45° today.

Friday, December 12, 1980—hitched up the dogs this morning at -48° and took pictures in front of the cache here at the lodge of the dogs and sled. I tried to run them, but Fear, the lead dog that I got from Libby just wouldn’t lead. The pups sure wanted to go. It’s discouraging—maybe she thought it was too cold.

Dan’s wife Patti had asked him to bring his van down for me to take into Anchorage. He did it, but didn’t understand why Patti wanted me to drive it into Anchorage. Unbeknownst to him, Patti had made arrangements in Anchorage for his van to have a new paint job. She wanted to surprise him for Christmas.

Finishing the Trapper Cabin

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wooden cabin

Finished trapper cabin

Note: this cabin was also called the remote cabin. There was another, makeshift, trap cabin Norman used that was closer to home on another line.

Friday, October 17, 1980—breakfast was over by daylight. Put up another wall, cut a window and put up a few logs on the next wall. I don’t have a drill to drill holes and I have to drive the logs together with these big log spikes with a three pound hammer. Cut 30 more logs. (It’s partly cloudy and a nice temperature to work.) Cut and trimmed most of the rafters, light snow this evening.

Saturday, October 18, 1980—up early, two-sided logs until 3 p.m., then spiked some to the cabin. Occasional light snow, really a warm and nice day. Sylvia pulled all of today’s logs in on the puka sled.

Sunday, October 19, 1980—two-sided more logs and finished the walls and cut another window, sawed boards for the door, and put the plates on top of the logs. It’s been a nice warm day.

Monday, October 20, 1980—finished putting up the end logs, the ridgepole and started the rafters. We put the plywood sheeting on the rafters as we went along. Finished the roof on the east side and got three rafters and two plywood sheets on the west side. Sylvia really likes the cabin shaping up. One night when we were sleeping in the tent, we could hear something walking around outside it. She was really concerned about what might be walking towards the tent. Listening, I knew it was a porcupine. If you’ve ever seen a porcupine walk, you’ll know what it sounds like in the snow.

Tuesday, October 21, 1980—finished the roof on the east side and got three rafters and two plywood sheets on the west side. Chris Ronning flew in and landed with wheels on our little lake. It’s frozen over now. I got in some firewood while he went after oil and insulation for us. (He brought back a bottle of whiskey.) Then he took off just as it was getting really dark. Before he left, he asked me to cut down two trees farther out, away from the lake in the landing line and take off strip.

Wednesday, October 22, 1980—I packed in more plywood, finished putting up the rafters, and ceiling, built the door and put in the windows. We moved the stove here and moved into the cabin to sleep. I am more pleased with it every day. We had a beautiful sunset. Sylvia is very glad to have solid walls to sleep behind.

Thursday, October 23, 1980—got up late, nice to be in the cabin. Got the press plates tarred and put onto the roof—these press plates are aluminum sheets that the newspaper press in Anchorage has left over when they publish their daily paper. I tarred in between the plates as I put them on the roof. Then we got some firewood in, cut and stacked up. After that, we chinked on the inside of the cabin until 11:30 p.m. We have a Coleman lantern so we have light at night.

Friday, October 24, 1980—chinked more logs, packed plywood and sawed lumber and built the kitchen, bunks and went hunting. Saw a small hawk, and huge bear tracks (measured two inches longer than my shoes). Saw no game today and chinked more logs in the evening by the light of the Coleman lantern.

Saturday, October 25, 1980—we had breakfast before daybreak. It’s frosty and foggy and I went hunting for a while with no luck. Built a bench and table. Put some finishing touches on the inside and out of the cabin. Hunted up some more trees to cut for firewood. Chinked some more tonight.

Sunday, October 26, 1980—foggy and frosty again. Cut eight dead trees and cut up and stacked the wood. Saw a big hawk. We chinked on the cabin and built a sawbuck to buck up wood for heating. Put metal guards around the trees that the cache is in to keep varmints from crawling up and getting inside. I have two 55-gallon drums up there on the cache to put food and other things—protect them from the weather and varmints.

Monday, October 27, 1980—took Sylvia to a hill to see the great view from there. Cut and stacked more wood and built five dog houses and put up the cable to tie the dogs (bedded down with spruce boughs). Really tired tonight.

Tuesday, October 28, 1980—I did a few finishing touches and Chris flew in this morning to fly us out. Sure hate to leave the cabin. We landed at Billman’s, ate dinner and then went to Nelchina. Partied this evening.

Sylvia Helps Build the Trapper Cabin

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man with heavy pack, woman pulling log with strap

Norman packs in supplies, Sylvia pulls logs

Note: this cabin was also called the remote cabin. There was another, makeshift, trap cabin Norman used that was closer to home on another line.

Friday, September 26, 1980—getting ready for winter, getting gear organized and materials ready to take to the bush to build a cabin. Monday, September 29, 1980—worked on getting supplies and gear and so forth ready to go to build the cabin.

Tuesday, September 30, 1980—still working on getting the gear ready—made some stretcher boards.

Wednesday, October 1, 1980—sawed plywood sheets in half lengthways ready to be loaded on the pontoons of a super cub airplane, and got some of the gear loaded in the pickup.

Thursday, October 2, 1980—started building the dog sled and near sundown, I cut some grass hay for dog bedding. It snowed southwest of us along the mountain. With the sun shining through, the snow looked like a fire—really beautiful.

Sunday, October 5, 1980—worked on the sled and got the mortise and tenon joints done and the planeing and tied six joints with rawhide.

Monday, October 6, 1980—worked on the sled until 10:30. Ronning called to fly us to the trap cabin site. Sylvia is going there with me. We hurried to pack, started to fly at 2 p.m. with three loads. I made four packs to camp and set up a tent. Sylvia saw caribou and moose.

Tuesday, October 7, 1980—I packed seven loads from Hole Lake from where Chris had unloaded it. He flew in with another load while I was packing these in to where the cabin will be built. This is a steep grade, at least 100 feet above Hole Lake and a little more than a quarter mile of tundra and brush to get through after that. The stove was one of the last things—it was very clumsy and heavy to pack for our camp. It rained last night, but it’s very nice today. It’s too windy though at Snowshoe Lake for Chris to fly in the plywood.

Wednesday, October 8, 1980—I packed four more loads from Hole Lake to our camp, saw 12 caribou, decided on the cabin site and the cache site and packed 2 more loads. Got pretty well along with the cache.

Thursday, October 9, 1980—just finished the cache and it started snowing. I rushed to build a tarp lean-to and put gear into it for a cook camp. Set up the airtight stove and put extra food up in the cache. It’s 12 feet up off the tundra. Then we got a snowstorm of 4 inches.

Friday, October 10, 1980—started sawing the base logs and the chain saw quit, and then broke the mill attachment for sawing lumber. It just popped so easy. Got the saw fixed so it runs and I packed a can of gas in the morning from Hole Lake and then Chris flew in the plywood towards evening. I ran over to Hole Lake to meet him and help unload the plywood and I packed a can of gas back to the camp and I carried one bag of traps up to the top out of Hole Lake and cached it in a clump of black spruce. It was borderline flying for Chris, but he got our plywood to us before freeze-up. I told him how grateful I was that he was able to get this done for me. I really like Chris.

Saturday, October 11, 1980—it was a beautiful sunrise and 1° all day. We dragged the foundation logs to the site and got them into position and got seven floor joist mortised into them. Sylvia still has a sore throat. Cleared some brush and sided logs. I lost my tape measure somewhere.

Sunday, October 12, 1980—up early, beautiful day, hunted caribou (they evaded us). Saw a martin, mink, fox and porcupine tracks. Packed eight of the half sheets of plywood to camp (two packs), and finished the floor joists and nailed the plywood floor down. It’s turned cloudy.

Monday, October 13, 1980—I two-sided 14 logs, peeled 9 and cut 15 more. Cut firewood and packed in eight, 2 x 8 sheets of plywood from Hole Lake. I’m very tired. Sylvia’s cold is a little better. Luckily I found the tape measure and I won’t have to guess—I can measure my logs and lumber. It’s cloudy and the geese are flying south at night—we can hear them.

Tuesday, October 14, 1980—I went hunting and saw a cow moose and calf. Caribou had been near camp, there were more martin track and Sylvia’s cold is much better. No luck hunting.

Wednesday, October 15, 1980—up early, warmer and sunny. Cut lots of trees today, sawed lumber for a door, table and so forth—and two-side logs.

Thursday, October 16, 1980—peeled and hauled logs to the cabin with the little puka sled. Sylvia hauls the logs from the wood lot where I’m cutting them. I cut them down and two-side them. They’re six feet long. I put two in the puka and she has a rope that goes over her chest. She pulls these logs to the cabin and unloads them and comes back for the next two. This one time, she’s just ready to start out and I clicked my cheeks on my teeth and (like you do when you tell a horse to start and pull). Sylvia, she stopped, turned, looked at me, stuck her finger at me and said, “Don’t do that again!” I didn’t.

I shot a spruce hen for supper and there were more geese flying south. We can hear them especially at night. Two wolves were howling this morning, they sounded really close. They must have been young wolves and didn’t know what we were. They weren’t very far from our camp, knew we were there and were howling. We put up a wall of the cabin today.

Bending Hickory for Sled Runners

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a hand made wooden dog sled

Norman’s dogsled

Thursday, September 11, 1980—got up early and worked with the dogs, getting in some training. Helped at the garage until afternoon, then built a stove and a tub to heat water out of a 55-gallon drum. I’m going to heat my hickory lumber for the sled runners to get a bend in them at the front. Then when that’s done, I’ll boil and dye traps in the tub for trapping this winter. Saw Charley T. for a while today and Sylvia.

Friday, September 12, 1980—boiled the hickory sled runners all day and worked at the lodge. Made a form for the runners and went and got Sylvia.

Saturday, September 13, 1980—finished steaming the runners. The wood was so dry, it was hard to get them to the point where they would bend. Possibly I boiled them too long. Then I boiled the traps in dye and fixed the tire for the trailer for the swamp buggy. Waxed the traps, and it’s raining. Did laundry at Mendeltna and visited people there. Then I took my swamp buggy up another creek and trail. I came across another swamp buggy that had gotten badly stuck. They pulled the winch so tight that they couldn’t get the cable loose. I had to pull them ahead into the swamp farther so that the cable could be loosened and get if off of this tree and pull them out of the swamp. Then I had the winch to work on. They were hunters going out moose hunting.

Sunday, September 14, 1980—went to Dennis and Sally’s cabin on Tazlina Lake. Pretty nice cabin. I also went to look at Bob Schmidt’s cabin on the same lake, then Sylvia had to go back to work at Gunsight, so I took her over there. I came across Ray Kole’s. His machine was broken down and he had two other hunters with him. I took him and these other fellows back to Gunsight and then went home and worked on the dog sled.

Monday, September 15, 1980—bent more hickory for the dog sled and sighted in the .338 rifle. Did cabin chores and started getting gear together to fly out in the bush to hunt and look for a trapline cabin site.

Tuesday, September 16, 1980—bent more wood for the sled and got laundry dry. Went to Dan’s with my gear and he flew me over lots of the area looking for trapper cabin sites. Landed me at Nye Lake. (I plan to hunt moose and caribou here). Got my tent up and made camp.

Wednesday, September 17, 1980—got up early and went out. Came close to a bear that was feeding. I heard him first and backed away. Saw over 20 caribou, but nothing nice or in range. Saw two caribou bull fights, saw an owl and spruce hens and two eagles. Dan flew over to check and see that I was all right. There was a beautiful sunset, and two moose fighting at that time.

Thursday, September 18, 1980—I saw three caribou a quarter mile from camp, but they winded me and left. Saw some loons on this lake and a few duck, and a real pretty hawk. It’s very windy, though nice in the sun. Walked quite a ways today and discouraged tonight. There is lots of bear sign in this area and I’m not getting any hunting done with game so scarce.

Friday, September 19, 1980—got up early and went out hunting. Ran into a fella (Bill) who was looking for another guy that was lost. I showed him the area where I was camping and hunting and where I’d heard a bear and they checked all that out and didn’t find this man. Scott, Chris, Henry and Dan flew in. Scott wanted to stay and hunt, so he and I went hunting. We didn’t have any luck hunting, but I found a place that I think will be a great spot to build a trapper cabin. I like the country there.

Thunder Eggs and a Petrified Tree

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round rocks

Thunder eggs

Thursday, September 4, 1980—did camp chores, then Mike and I walked the six miles to Little Nelchina airstrip. We were waiting for Ray to show up with the welder. On the way I saw three ptarmigan. He didn’t come, so we walked back to camp with our packs.

Friday, September 5, 1980—we rested up some and tied the dredge up on top of the buggy. Dug a garbage hole, buried our garbage, did some target shooting, carried in wood and caught four trout and two graylings.

Saturday, September 6, 1980—swamp buggy isn’t here with the welder and it’s been several days. We’re wondering where it’s at, so I left camp at 11:30 a.m. and walked 27 miles looking for Ray, not knowing just exactly what trail he might have taken to get to us. The last hour of walking was in the dark and as I came up on a long swamp, all I could see is the water in each track (vehicle track) shining from the stars. I decided to camp along the trail. I’m carrying a pack, sleeping bag, hip boots and some grub. I lay down along the trail on a small piece of canvas (in my sleeping bag) and pull the canvas around over the top of my sleeping bag (in case we get a shower in the night) and go to sleep. During the day I had seen two cow moose, and one calf and a very large bear track, along with lots of broken down ATV’s and swamp buggies. (There are lots of hunters traveling now and this country is hard on vehicles.)

Sunday, September 7, 1980—I was up real early and walked the last three miles out to the highway and hitched a ride to Nelchina. At Nelchina, I got reorganized and went to Gunsight Lodge. Whitey flew me to the confluence of the Little Nelchina and Flat Creek, where I waited again for Ray for several hours. While I’m waiting, I’m walking around this large gravel bar that Whitey landed his plane on and I found a rock that is called a thunder egg. I kept looking and found eight of them. If you cut these rocks in half, they are beautiful in the center. I gather these all up and I have them ready right beside my pack so I can take them with me when Whitey comes, but somehow I didn’t pick them up and take them when I left. When I got to the camp at Flat Creek, the welder had already been delivered.

Monday, September 8, 1980—got up real early and welded the buggy wheel back together, mounted it on the buggy and loaded up our camp. Mike feels that his wife would like to have him back home now. On the way out to the highway we saw three caribou. On the Nelchina, there was a huge piece of petrified tree (I had seen it previously) that I thought I could lift and put on the back of the swamp buggy to take back with us. As we went down the trail, I lost track of where it was and we got past it, so I didn’t turn around to go back and look for it again. It was going to be dark anyhow. Even so, it got quite dark on the trail the last hour that we were coming out. When we got out to Cal’s, Ray Kole was there. Ray is the man that brought the welder out for me. We visited there for a while.

Tuesday, September 9, 1980—went to Gunsight and saw Sylvia. (She’s been working there and rather than drive the 20 mile back and forth each way, she would stay overnight and work another day.) Then we stopped at Cal’s and drove the buggy home. Mike and I unloaded the gear and got him ready to go home. Dan Billman stopped by and then I went back to Gunsight and stayed the night with Sylvia.

An eagle, a bear and a three-toed dinosaur

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man with a short beard

Norman Wilkins, early 1980s

Monday, September 1, 1980—I saw a large bull and cow, but it was too far to shoot. Charlie saw a cow and a calf but didn’t want to shoot those. We sighted in his rifle. It rained and blew hard and then a few flakes of snow. It’s pretty cold up in these mountains tonight.

Tuesday, September 2, 1980—up early and hunted off to the north. We walked up a creek there quite some distance. Brought our lunch with us. Saw a pinnacle of rock—an outcropping quite tall and it had lots of white eagle pooh on it. An eagle was sitting up there looking the country over. We walked a little farther and there was an esker (gravel esker) sticking up not too awfully high and it had a really sharp peak on its top. I decided to walk down this. Charlie followed me. We were walking along and I saw this interesting rock—it’s been broke in two. It was a three-toed dinosaur track. This rock was made out of mud, water and pressure at some time in the distant past. I picked up the two pieces that make the dinosaur track and put them in my pack.

We ate our lunch and headed south and east. We saw some more caribou that were too far away to shoot. We shot some ptarmigan, boiled it up and ate the meat. We boiled everything on this ptarmigan, all the little bones and we drank the broth from that—really was good.

One day when we were out hunting ptarmigan, I had a 12 gage shotgun and Charlie carried a rifle. We’d switch off shooting. When I shot a ptarmigan, why then I’d give him the shotgun and I’d take his rifle and he’s shoot the next ptarmigan and so on. We were walking up through the willows and we came upon a six foot grizzly. All I saw at first was just his head. He had heard us coming and was looking at me. Then he stood up and I said “Bear!” to warn Charlie that there was a bear close by. Charlie couldn’t tell from that whether or not the bear was coming at us, so he was backpedaling. When the bear stood up and saw there was two of us, the thing reeled and ran. Charlie said afterwards he was concerned that he was handling a strange gun and was wishing he had his familiar .30-06 in his hands when I hollered “bear”. Here I am holding his .30-06, not familiar with it—and I wished I had my shotgun! But nothing came of it and we got back to camp and dressed out the ptarmigan and had our supper.

Wednesday, September 3, 1980—Charlie had breakfast and walked out to the strip on the Little Nelchina to meet Whitey, the pilot. Whitey will fly him out to the highway. He’s sorry to have to leave us, but he must. I hunted ptarmigan and got five. Mike came back in the early afternoon. He had made arrangements to have a fellow with a swamp buggy bring the welder to us.

Norman watches a wolf feed on caribou

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dead caribou mostly eaten by wolf

A wolf fed on this caribou killed by a bear

Monday, August 25, 1980—finished getting ready for the hunting trip. Mike and I left at 3 p.m. We got to Crooked Creek and the Little Nelchina confluence at 8 p.m. and camped for the night. I got stuck and had to winch out once. We saw a caribou, but it was so early in the hunt, we didn’t want to shoot it. We expect to be out here hunting for about three weeks.

Tuesday, August 26, 1980—up at 6 a.m., broke camp at 9:00, reached Flat Creek at 11:00 and went on to McDougal creek. Went up McDougal 3.5 miles, prospecting on the way and glassed for sheep and camped. Saw one caribou.

Wednesday, August 27, 1980—went up a mountain of rotten rock, held together with very little moss. We got up on the shoulder of that mountain and sat down to rest for a while. We were looking the country over and we saw a wolf—this wolf had a white tail tip, much like that of a red fox. We watched this wolf and he seems to be going somewhere, but he’s hunting as he goes along. Pretty soon we see him get very cautious and he circles around, finally he goes in to feed on a caribou that a bear has killed—but he’s always looking around in fear that the bear will come along, but it doesn’t show up. He fed for a while until he took the antlers in his teeth and dragged them off for a ways and kind of worked at that. The last we saw of him that day he was going off to the north. Then we went on up the mountain.

We had to cross—I guess you’d call it a slice or crack in the mountain. The rocks are rotten here. This kind of rock, when exposed to oxygen, gets rotten, and it’s so steep there, it rolled down this chute. We crossed on the upper end of it on snow and we get over to the other side and crawl up there. We can see a lot of country out there. All we saw was ewes and lambs, no rams. We decided there was no sheep to hunt here, so we back off and get back to this chute and we want to cross it but the snow is no longer frozen and it’s soft from the heat of the day. We had a little trouble getting around it and we got across it to the other side and we climb out and we go over to the shoulder of this mountain and we start to go down that shoulder and it does not feel good to us. The rocks are rotten. Didn’t give us any trouble climbing up but, going down—and it’s so far down that if one of us slipped and fell, we’d roll for a long ways.

So we went back up on top of the shoulder to decide what to do. We went back over to this chute and I tested the rocks along the side we were on. I could pull them loose and drop them and they’d roll down this chute. But out in the middle of this chute there was solid rock. I told Mike, “I’m going out on that and see what it looks like from out there.” I went out on that and it was solid and after a few minutes of mulling this dilemma over, I told Mike I thought we could go down this chute (the loose rock was something like a couple feet deep or so) and I thought I could walk down it, sliding all the time, of course, and the rock’s going to be moving and we’d have to keep our feet moving and not fall. It took Mike some time to decide he wanted to do that and we decided to go. I started down in the center of this. I would pull my foot up and take a great big long step and then the next foot and all the time sliding, a pack on my back and a rifle. It went really well and I could see down there that there was a bulge out from the mountain and this chute makes a slight turn there and I aimed my downward movement to come to that bulge so I could stop there and look things over. Mike, he’s coming down and when I got to that bulge, why it looked good from there on down so I continued on down. Then Mike came down. It turned out fine.

Thursday, August 28, 1980—this day we decided to go through the pass to the west and, by gosh we saw this gray wolf with the white tipped tail again. He was hunting on a mountain over in that area. We got out to the end of the pass and it’s a vertical drop to the little creek on that side. We didn’t go down—no way for a man to get down there. We glassed for game for a while and watched the country, really nice there, but we didn’t see any game—no sheep.

Friday, August 29, 1980—we got the dredge off the top of the swamp buggy and put it to work in two places on McDougall Creek. We got some gold, but it’s fastened to a darker material–tried a magnet on it and decided it was mixed with iron and could be magnetized. We did catch one grayling.

Saturday, August 30, 1980—Mike and I dredged again in McDougall Creek and today again, we had poor luck finding any gold. The gray wolf fed on the bear kill again. Charlie had a pilot fly him over us. They landed down at the confluence with the Little Nelchina where the pilot let Charlie off. Mike and I went to meet him. I broke a wheel on the swamp buggy at Flat Creek. It was pretty dark by the time we got Charlie to our camp—good to see him.

Sunday, August 31, 1980—Mike left for Gunsight Mountain to get my welder so we could fix the wheel on the swamp buggy. Meantime, Charlie and I hunted caribou. Saw three and didn’t shoot.

Canning salmon, killing chickens and picking berries

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salmon meat in open jars

Canning salmon is an all-day project

Tuesday, August 12, 1980—went fishing in Mendeltna creek on Oilwell road. We got 20 salmon (We can the meat). Walked in to Peter’s cabin to check it for him and it was okay.

Wednesday, August 13, 1980—went salmon fishing again and Scott, Doug and I, we got nine and we canned them that night. Nine fish made eleven quarts, canned.

Thursday, August 14, 1980—Chad, Trish and Frank Wilson came. Chad and family and Sylvia and I went to Lila Lake near Gunsight and caught a few grayling. Chad and I and the boys went across the lake to an outlet and fished there and the grayling were just thick! Mike P. tells me that fish and game stocked rainbows in his and other lakes in the area. Crater Lake for one, and Round Lake too, on the Lake Louise Road. In later years they maintained that and it is good fishing.

Friday, August 15, 1980—hauled more gas for the lodge. Chad went with us to Arizona Lake (it’s a grayling lake) but today the fishing was poor. We stopped and visited Mike and Lynette on the way home.

Saturday, August 16, 1980—Went to see Dan Billman and helped kill eleven chickens. Sylvia is an old hand at butchering chickens. They wanted her there to show them how to do it. Met Denny Billman, Dan’s brother, and his step-father Loyd. Dan’s mother and stepfather own Anchorage Tank. Seemed like a really nice guy and we grew to be friends.

Sunday, August 17, 1980—Mike and Lynette needed help moving a refrigerator and a freezer.

Monday, August 18, 1980—helped at the lodge again and Sylvia picked a few blueberries. Sylvia was across the highway at the base of Slide Mountain on her hands and knees picking blueberries, engrossed in her work, when suddenly she feels something at her behind. She’s thinking, “Oh my gosh, it must be a bear!” But when she turned, it was the lodge dog—whose name happened to be “Bear”. It sure frightened her.

Stuck in the mud at Alfred Creek

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dall sheep ewe

Dall sheep lamb

Friday, June 13, 1980—went to Peter’s cabin and spent the day fishing. Caught whitefish and grayling in the stream there. Peter got a really nice grayling. Then Peter showed me some old, Indian dugout holes where they cached fish, covered it with moss to keep it fresh. The ground here is frozen and it keeps fish from spoiling when they put the tundra over it to insulate it. We had a good time exploring and fishing.

Saturday, June 14, 1980—took Henry, his brother Phillip and Bill Houser in the swamp buggy to Cal Gilcrist’s gold claims on Alfred Creek. While there, we got a few nuggets—got stuck twice. Henry’s always upbeat about things like that and it helps get the buggy out of the mud holes. The trail is wet and slippery. Had a good time, though. On the way back out, I was coming up this stream at Pass Creek and there was a big rock and the swamp buggy wouldn’t climb over that big rock. The water was really deep and Henry’s brother, Phillip was riding in the swamp buggy with me and Bill Hauser was up on top of it. When I couldn’t go any further, Phil, he reached out with a cup and dipped it in the stream that was running by us and got himself a drink of water. Then I had to back a long ways down the stream before I could get out of there and get on the regular trail. When we got back to Nelchina in the evening, we had a party.

Thursday, June 19, 1980—got up early and Dick and Phyllis and Sylvia and I went into Anchorage and did some shopping. I got a gold dredge in the hopes we can do some dredging with it. From the highway, we saw Dall ewes and lambs on Sheep Mountain.

Sylvia returns to Alaska and she and Norman build a Greenhouse

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Aerial image of farm in Motley

Wilkins farm in Motley from high above.

March 5 to May 10, 1980—Norman goes outside to Minnesota to take care of business with the farm in Minnesota. Sylvia returns with him to Alaska and they busy themselves with springtime projects.

Monday, May 26, 1980—started building the greenhouse. I got it framed up. It’s very small. It’s 8 feet square and 8 feet tall.

Tuesday, May 27, 1980—worked on the frame of the greenhouse again most of the day and went on a wrecker service call with Henry.

Wednesday, May 28, 1980—worked some more on the greenhouse. Leo Ogilvy and Mike both stopped to visit. Helped Henry this evening.

Thursday, May 29, 1980—put clear fiberglass paneling and some plywood on the lower parts of the greenhouse. Then I went to Dave’s for a birthday party in the evening.

Friday, May 30, 1980—slept late, put the door on the greenhouse and did some other work on it. Mike stopped by. It’s been quite windy most of the day and a light shower this evening.

Saturday, May 31, 1980—had to build benches in the greenhouse. We had a shower last night and half inch of snow and ice-like hail this afternoon.

Sunday, June 1, 1980—worked on the greenhouse and visited Lucky and Mary Beaudoin. Mike and Lynette stopped and Mike and I went shopping in a couple of the local dumps. That’s always fun—sometimes you find something you really need.