Eight hundred acres of on foot only hunting. Is a two minute walk from my house. This rules. Not just for hunting but for going on walks, pretending I am survivor man and plain old hanging out. Life in the parkland rules.

Wild Boar hunting was unsuccessful... If you call getting in a canoe for a short paddle and spending six hours in a beautiful poplar forest unsuccessful. I don't.

The best part about this program I am in is having instructors that are literally treasure chests of knowledge for everything I am interested in. Yesterday in maps class, instructor Phil was telling me about hunting for wild boar last weekend in my neck of the woods. Every so often a population of farmed wild boar becomes feral. When this happens their status turns from domesticated animal, to pest. Meaning anyone can hunt them, can hunt as many as they want, and should hunt them because they are an introduced species that does an awful lot of damage to habitat. So with some more poking and proding I have found out where a herd, supposedly sometimes reaching fifteen in number, hangs out. Sugar island, accessable by quad or canoe. I have a canoe. I have a shotgun. I have a friend with a rifle. I am going wild boar hunting this weekend. Wish me luck.

The Night Sky

Comparing the aesthetics of the night sky to daylight is like comparing Oreos and oatmeal raisin cookies. Sure they are both cookies, but one infinetly kicks ass. A couple weekends ago I went out to Wascana trails with my friends Mel, Jenna and Ali for some light recreation. Only a fifteen minute drive from Regina, you are out in nature but you are still ever conscious of the haze of the city. When I arrived, the night sky proceeded to enthuse me for the better part of three hours. It started out as a cloudless evening with an absentee moon so the stars were out in full effect. Stars are quite wonderful in their own right but when they start shooting around up there like a heated duel in an old spaghetti western, they take on a whole new level of awesomeness. If you watch the constellations long enough you get to see them move around in the night sky which is also pretty amazing. The North star will always stand triumphant but the big dipper who you can always count on to point you towards this beacon, will do summersaults in the Northern horizon if you keep one eye on it.
The stars hung out for a bit and then the clouds decided to roll in. Brightened from below, the daytime role of the clouds was reversed in the moonless night, as they reflected the collective glow of a million tiny lightbulbs rather than the powerful sun. The bustle of the city, canvassed across a sky of condensed water vapour.
Then my mind wanders for perhaps twenty minutes. I look up once again and the clouds are gone. I take another glance and I am greeted by my fellow Northerner, Aurora Borealis. From East to West she stretched across the Northern hemispher. Simply magnificient. Never have I seen a show such as this. Up, down, flash, subside, dance, inflame, fuck throw any verb or adjective in there and it would fit. Such an eerie green too. If there was a spirit world and this spirit world had a representative colour, it would be the green of the Northern lights. I don’t think I am doing a good job of explaining Aurora here but if you have seen it, you know what I am getting at, and if you have not seen it, get off your ass and get out of the city sometime this winter and you just might be lucky enough to gaze into the heart of a miracle.*

*sorry for the ICP reference but I had to.

Hippies

Are usually pretty awsome.

I had the opportunity today to visit my friend Dean and his aspirations of living off the land. A slow progression is being made here. First comes the house and the learning and hopefully one day a dive into the ocean of self sustainability. It is a goal that I echo within the deepest realms of my being. It was absolutly wonderful to have the opportunity to see someone's beginning attempts at going back to the land.

Dean has found a like minded compatriot in Kenny. Kenny is a retired man who long ago bought a quarter section in an area north of Shell Lake. Deffined by giant eskers left by the glaciers of long ago and bordered by limitless amounts of crown grazing land and provincial forest, this property is a little piece of heaven within spitting distance of civilization.

A few of the notable things that Kenny has created are:
-An orchard bordered by a beautiful fence made of willow.
-A contraption for catching fresh water coming out of the side of the esker to feed his garden via gravity flow.
-An underground fridge. Kenny dug a hole deep enough that maintains an ambient temperature of 5 degrees celsius. Simply amazing, essentially a free fridge.
-The water is free, clean and delicious. Oh and you get from a hand pump!


Kenny is a man who probably has ten thousand thoughts floating through his head at any given time and is genuinely interested in each and every one of those thoughts. As a result Kenny's "mansion" is somewhat of a convoluted mess. One bright summer day Kenny had an old winnabego dragged to his property. After slashing the tires he began the quest of building his freedom. Eight and a half by twelve feet at a time he constructed a building around this trailer. No foresite requires no limitations so the structure has continued to grow into a misconstrued maze. Wild weasels living in the house keep the mice away and the occasional salamander stuck in some plastic will stir Dean from his slumber. Wine and curried vegetables are served by candle light and the comforting glow of a wood stove keeps us toasty at night.

This is a place I must visit often.

Hunting season

It's the best.

I would trade a thousand diamonds for this Indian summer we have been having.
Its October, I go out hunting grouse in a fucking T-shirt with my friends. I come back after a long day of walking. I stuff some birds, put them in the oven, my pals come back over, I bring out the wine(which by the way turned out fantastic), and we feast like barbarians! No utensils allowed at my kitchen table! Seriously though, bird hunting is the best. It is an excuse to get lost in a forest all day long, scare deer, stumble upon a magnificient antler shed, collect wild mushrooms and just unwind. Even if I don't shoot anything I'm still as happy as the day I first discovered I could grow a beard.

Fish of a lifetime.

You know what is fantastic... Living in a city where you can go fishing after school. Living somewhere you can go fishing within city limits. Catching the fish of a lifetime and then being able to have a fire at a public park combined with an epic fucking fish fry. Prince Albert I salute you.

This behemoth was caught from shore last Wednesday where the bastard child of the mighty Red River, aptly called the Little Red River, meets the greatness that is the North Saskatchewan River. It was early in the evening and I was using a five of diamonds tipped with a worm when I got the strike. "I think your snagged on that log that we have been hitting," replied my fellow class mates. "Not unless this log moves," I snapped back. Pretty quick it was evident that I had latched onto a monster. Kevin, who guides up at Wollaston Lake Lodge, an affluent lodge which costs the small price of 1500 dollars a day per person to visit, helped me land this wonderful fish. Weighing in at 11.6 pounds it is probably the biggest walleye I will ever catch.