Introductory Blog

My name is Temple Dillard. I'm from a rural village in Bristol Bay called Twin Hills.

There was no high school there, so I went to a boarding school in Sitka that catered to rural villages with no secondary school.

Upon graduating there in 2005 as a mediocre student I came to UAF, where my studies were neglected even further. Eventually I took a job at UAF to support the family my wife and I wanted to start, and am now a father of three, working full time, coaching baseball, while trying to take my family hunting, fishing, and trapping every chance I get, and revisiting the pursuit of my degree. If you'd like to follow along on some of our adventures, my YouTube is Temple's Longtails and Fur.

My relationship with art borders on the mundane. I don't blame people for appreciating The Mona Lisa, I just don't care for it myself. Perhaps I'd feel different if I ever saw it in person. I find simple utilities to be most appealing to me. Like the possibles bags pictured below. Simple yet very useful, and they look more beatiful with use as the leather ages and soaks in oil from use, treatment, and perhaps even a little blood from carrying game.

Linked below is the YouTube channel for Black Bear Forge. He makes tools like fireplace shovels and rakes, cookware, coat hangers. Simple, beautiful, yet very useful.