Lodge Maiden Chronicles: Week 1

For those of you who didn't know, I'm in Alaska! And for those of you who did know, I'm in Alaska!!!
    I've been loving it so far! All of the buildings on the site were built by the family who owns the lodge. There are the three guest cabins, the main lodge, the crew's cabin, the barn, the boat house, and the sauna. They log their wood out of the forest, run it through the sawmill, the whole deal! They lead hunting and fishing expeditions, and I'm going to be learning how to fish, hunt, do carpentry, the whole deal! I guess I'll come back a real wild woman! lol (P.S.Thanks to my cousin Kyler for coining the term Lodge Maiden for me) ;)
    This week has been so fun. It started out with Sydney (my BYU roommate) and I flying on a floatplane out to the lodge. When we pulled in to the dock there was a dead bear lying on it. Just the night before one of the clients shot a 9 1/2 ft Kodiak Brown Bear! Later that morning Sydney and I watched them skin it right there on the dock.
    Then we started hand-tilling and weeding the garden. We did that for a few days and then started transplanting seedlings from the greenhouse. In non-chronological order we've tilled, weeded, planted, reorganized the greenhouse, reorganized the upstairs of the crew cabin, cleaned the main lodge kitchen, washed lots of dishes, and gathered moss. It's been a pretty busy week, and a rainy one at that (3 days straight).
    One of our tasks this summer will be to help Brian make a cookbook that they can sell here at the lodge. He's a phenomenal professional cook and we'll get to learn a lot! He started working in his dad's bakery when he was 13 and he became one of the youngest Master Bakers in the US. In other words, he's really good at what he does. For example, some of the dishes we've eaten this week include: eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce, prime rib, venison and gravy, halibut stir-fry, calzones, and fried chicken. I'm so excited to learn how to make all this stuff!!!
    There's no cell reception, so e-mail's my best bet at being contacted. If you want to tell me how you're doing then I'd love to hear back from you! Just e-mail me. :)

[Insert fun signature sign-off phrase]
Shawni
    aka the wild woman lodge maiden ;)

Lodge websites: Hunting - Fishing - Youtube Video