A familiar face in 'Wild West Alaska,' plus a new AK-based HGTV show premieres this week
There was once a show about a gun shop in Anchorage that ran for four seasons. I'm honestly surprised it made it that long.
Wild West Alaska premiered in 2013 on Animal Planet, and showed the everyday life of the staff who work at the shop. The shop is still open, over off Homer Drive — you may have seen the big blue sign that said "custom gunsmiths" while driving south on the Seward Highway.
In one scene, Hans and Ken are having breakfast at Gwennie's, when I noticed a familiar face on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News. I perked up immediately.
This 85-year-old lady beat a moose with a shovel, Ken said. Now what does that tell ya? What does that tell ya? Huh? Huh? Huh?
That she's safe, Hans replied.
We're gonna arm the elderly. Shotguns for seniors, dude. Only Wild West Guns can provide her with a gun, he said.
I knew they were talking about Dorothea Taylor, who made national news in 2012 when she did exactly what Ken said she did — beat a moose with a shovel (which attacked her husband, George). George broke seven ribs and had pretty severe cuts to his leg and head.
I used to do yard work for Dorothea in the summertime when I was a pre-teen-slash-teenager. Her and George lived in Willow on Long Lake with their two golden retrievers, Feller and Tut. I went over quite a bit. We were always there for their holiday parties. I wish I had photos of her garden beds in bloom.
She invited Hans and Ken into her home, and showed them the shovel she used to fight the moose off with. It's been signed by friends of hers, many of the names I recognized (Willow is small, you guys). People who I've known since I was a kid. Kind of trippy.
George and I always run the dogs, Dorothea said. We have two golden retrievers, and I was recovering from a skiing accident. So George said, 'Why don't you just stay in the truck?' He saw the moose coming down the road, but he didn't worry about it, because we've got moose everywhere. He was gone just a short time, and I heard the dogs just screaming. And I jumped out of the truck and the moose turned and looked at me, and came racing right toward me. So I got up there, and I started hitting him with the shovel.
She said the moose ran down the road. Then, she saw a stream of blood coming up out of the snow, which took her a minute to process as George.
He was buried in the snow? Ken asked.
Yeah, the moose was pounding him right down into the snow. It's hard for me to tell this, it is so bad, Dorothea said. People got there, and they figured he had lost about 75% of his blood. I said, 'Well, unless you can get him a med-evac, he's dead.' So by golly, George was in the hospital only five days.
Ken and Hans end the episode by taking Dorothea to the gun range, and gifting her a firearm for any future encounters.
(total watch time: 1 day, 2 hours, 36 minutes)
Three Alaskan women are the leads in a new HGTV series, House Hunters: Grand Alaska Buying The Last Frontier.
About 6 months ago I was contacted by HGTV for a new real estate show about buying luxury homes in Alaska! Regina Welch shared on social media July 1. Myself, Lorrie Seward & Devon Doran were cast on the show and started filming the pilot in February with a fabulous production crew! The pilot airs on [Friday], July 10th on HGTV at 6 pm Alaska time (10 pm eastern standard).
Maybe we'll watch on Discord haha. We're watching Love Island but the season wraps next Sunday the 12th, so we need something new to watch with the group. Brinity forever.
The season we're watching has 35 episodes. Current watch time is 1 day, 6 hours, 52 seconds (with 8 eps to go). We started on June 2. New episodes six days a week is not for the weak. All you need to know is that there's one couple that we are rooting for, Bryce and Trinity. All the companies are hopping on the Brinity boat — like the couple's billboard in Roku City, or Life360 changing their name to Brinity360. SILENCE, BRAND.
