Prince Albert

Well, so far everything rules about my new home. I have been neglecting posting about it though as I have been busy settling in to my surroundings. Hopefully next week I will get around to building a nice screened porch for my trailer and maybe even get out bird hunting already. I believe the season starts September first but I will have to double check on that. No one is living on my fourteen acres of paradise except for me right now which is mind blowing. The family that normally lives there is renovating the house and so they are living in PA for the time being. Their renovating is also to my advantage as I may have struck a deal to roof the house for an entire years rent. I will take some more pictures this week, especially of my neighbours set up. They have a really amazing log house that is heated entirely by a wood burning boiler in the back yard and have a wonderful garden and chickens running around everywhere. And he even has a meat processing shed so I have somewhere to take a deer if I get one. It pays to have nice neighbours.... and to go and meet them.

Home Sweet Home.

This will potentially be my residence for the next two years. I can't really call it home I suppose, as to me, Regina will always be my home regardless of where I am. But that is not to say that this experience will not bring forth feelings even more enduring than that of home. My trailer is located about 3 km North of the South Saskatchewan river and that is very hard to complain about. It is in the middle of fourteen acres of bush and the provincial forest is only a short bike ride away.

I have purchased a re curve bow so I will get plenty of practice shooting apples off of unwilling heads with all the space I am going to have. Hopefully I will get the chance to do a fair amount of hunting while I am up here. "Here" being just North of St. Louis, which is 20 minutes South of Prince Albert.

School, environmental and resource law enforcement, starts Monday. If you can call it school. I'm pretty sure there are classes where I take ATV training and go camping for weeks on end. hmmm... it's pretty tough being in the first world I will tell you.

northern feasting

When I go places I really get a kick out of figuring out what tasty edible wild things exist in the area. I think my favorite place though has to be the Canadian shield in summer time. Fish, clams, grouse if you wait until early fall, wild mint, rock tripe, Labradore tea, raspberries, saskatoons, cranberries and wild blueberries everywhere, you name it really.

Most of these are common knowledge things except for maybe Labradore tea, rock tripe and wild mint. Wild mint occurs in places along the shoreline that are somewhat sheltered, it obviously is delicious in tea and what not. Rock tripe is some sort of black brittle thing that grows on the side of rocks overlooking the waters edge, but it turns rubbery when it gets wet and can be eaten like a leafy green, added to soups or even used to lengthen your flour if you crumble it up when it is dry. But Labrodore tea is the real kicker. You find it in boggy areas and you obviously make it into tea if you could not figure that out. I don't want to sound like a new age hippie but I swear by its affects as a cure all. If I feel ill it always solves my problems, and lord knows I have lots of those. Some also say if you seep it enough it becomes a mild narcotic. Nice.

Here is a couple pics.
One is my lunch bucket for the day.
One has a bag of Labradore tea while the other bag is wild blueberries
The third picture is some wild onions I picked up in Fernie, these can also be found along the North Saskatchewan river for certain.

The old Comealong

I really can not pass up a trip to Fernie every summer, as come August every year I seem to always get a strange itch. It's not the type of itch you get from a night of unprotected sex, but rather it is an "Itch," a hankering, a need to do something, I great fucking desire to go see the rocky mountains. Anyway enough about Fernie for now, other than to say that Fernie even takes precedence over my yearly family fishing trip. Not that I would bail out on that, but I can always come late. Usually everyone flies in together but three years ago I paddled in, last year I hiked in and this year I decided I would try something different. I would come late and borrow my brother's mountain bike. This proved to be really really great. Tons of fun as always on two wheels, even if the quad trail to the lake sometimes resembles the bog of no return.

Now this morning I woke up at five to take the route out once again. All went well, I made it to the car in one piece and my car was still in one together... for now. In case anyone out there was wondering, a Volkswagen Jetta is not a suitable off road vehicle. "But Jeff! I always go off roading in my Volkswagen Jetta," is what I am imagining you are all crying right now....right?
soooo ya I went and got it stuck in two feet of water, I could not get out of the car without water coming inside the vehicle. Luckily though I had my bike. The nearest house by the way is a solid twenty kilometers away, and when you get there, the community is a secluded four house reserve. I approached one man, who only spoke Cree and who directed me to a neighbour, that neighbour also only spoke Cree, but her grandson inside was home and directed me to another neighbour.

Here I met Marshall, A strapping young man of about thirty who would start his truck by coaxing it down a hill and slamming it into gear. I have found just the man for the job. He even had a Comealong that was holding up his tailgate. A Comealong for those of you wondering is sort of like a ratchet strap in a way except it is made for pulling out cars, and it is made of solid steel. So we put that to good use, tying one end to a nearby tree and given er for about ten minutes. My car started, I slapped Marshall two twenty dollar bills and away to the city I went.


Oh, and the first thing I am doing when I get back is buying two Comealongs. One for my truck, and one for my car.

Pictures

Here are some pictures sent to me by my friend John. The fox cubs are the little devils I was always seeing at the side of the road. The fawn was a regular visitor to the yard of the boss and Lumsden in General. You may be able to see the doe in the background, that doe actually ended up attacking my pal Liam's dog when it started barking inquisitively at the fawn. The dog obviously ended up worse for wear from that situation. As well the bat was a visitor in the living room one day when we were eating lunch for work.

Rhubarb raspberry wine.

Will it be good? Only time will tell.

Getting paid in liquid gold.

Is there a more suitable currency? I think not. I went out to help out at the apiary again this week. After finishing up I asked if I could buy some liquid honey. Instead I was given two gallons of it. I then proceeded to start making a wild berry mead with green tea addition. Not only is this bad boy going to taste like heaven, it is going to be around 18 percent for alcohol, and it is even going to be caffeinated. This could be a dangerous situation, but it is a dangerous situation that I am going to dive head first right into.
In the big barrel is where the mead is being made, the little buckets are what the honey came in, The big glass carboy is holding the Saskatoon wine and the two little carboys have the dandy wine in them.

Now thats Fresh!

Sometimes you get a call at nine thirty in the morning-

"Hey dude... I just woke up in a back alley somewhere near your place, can I come over?"

These are the tentative words that will make us glance at the reflection in the mirror. Did I do something wrong? Is my life okay?

Of course you are alright! Everything is just fine. In fact Jason, two hours after this conversation ends I am going to wake you up, ask for your hand in harvesting a chicken and our taste buds are going to take a ride on the gravy train in the Sunday morning sunshine. There is nothing wrong here. All is alright. It's not time to stop drinking, you may have forgotten that there is 100 bottles of wine being processed in my living room.....

NOW THAT IS FRESH CHICKEN.

Wine

Saskatoon/Raspberry wine is currently in the primary. Going out tomorrow to help with bees. hopefully they hook me up with some honey to make me some mead. So good it could knock the spots off a Dalmation . The wine is probably the tastiest thing you can smell right now, but then again...it is not wine yet.

saskatoon jam

Made a bunch of this the other night. Pretty stoked to spread this on all sorts of grain products.

pictures from canoing

NOTE- There is one picture that involves lawn chairs. The second night as evening was approaching, a man hailed us from the shoreline and offered his land for us to camp on. The property involved comfy chairs, a tap, a fire pit and even an outhouse. I may or may not have left this part out of the original story I wrote because it is in fact not very hard.

Garden

Paddling the South Saskatchewan.

I have some pictures to add to this later but here goes the story anyway.

Day 0- Jeff and JJ have not yet joined the procession. Jim and Joe, the brothers, paddle from the damn at Diefenbaker to Outlook, grasping the beauty all the way through. Spirits are high, beer is plenty and food everywhere. A six point mule deer is spotted swimming across the river. The duo paddle up in an attempt to pet the deer but are outsmarted by this cloven footed creature.

Day 1- Spirits are high, Jeff gets off work at three, picks up JJ and away into the yonder they go. The friends cut a deal, Jeff buys the gas, Jeff drinks JJ's beer and eats his steaks. The duo greet the brothers on the mean streets of Outlook, The spirits of the brothers are low after having to sober up on account of waiting for the late bloomers all afternoon and evening. the group paddles across the river to the camp that the brothers had set up the night before. Conveniently the camp is located across the river from the pay for a site RV park. Beers are cracked, spirits are raised. Quiet time passes at the RV park to hoots and hollers from the foursome across the river. Fireworks are set off and O Canada sang at the stroke of midnight as spirits rise to unprecedented heights.

Day 2- The friends must paddle across the river to grab the trucks and drop one off near toon town. Voices are taken to their threshold in singalong without a working radio as the trucks stumble along, barely reaching a hundred even when the peddle is pressed tightly against the floor board. The troupe stumbles across an extremely ritzy golf course along the shore near Toon town. Mildly out of place in cow boy boots and wrangler jeans, Joe and JJ park the dusty old 400 dollar, two door, light blue, 1990 Ford Ranger Pickup between an Escalade and a convertible Cadillac. The four then sandwich into the bench seat of the other truck, the one that no one is sure of how it made it there in the first place. Joe picks up the MP3 player in the exact right way so that it properly works and the jams start off with Steve Earle's Guitar Town. Spirits are back at last nights level and the troupe sends themselves off to outlook to the soundtrack an outlaw cowboy.

Canoeing for the day goes off without a hitch except when the rain begins and JJ has to improvise a slicker out of a garbage bag. Jeff and JJ spot a lone coyote crossing the river. As it reaches the shore and scampers up the bank, they can't help but wonder if the coyote is following them, watching them with intrigue and perhaps a slight amount of hunger. Camp is made, spirits rise once again, coolers get a little lighter but no one goes hungry.

Day 3- A day filled with lazy river paddling and naked sand bar bathing. Cliff jumping takes on a new level and Jeff discovers the wonders of making Saskatoon berry chocolate chip biscuits, cooked in bacon fat over a bed of hot coals. The last night on the river raises toasts to the trip all evening long as the group vows to not bring any beer home tomorrow. They do not disappoint. Spirits rise, then plummet as the environment mimics the mood of the drunkards and a thunderstorm rolls in to bring a force down upon the beach where the group has camped. Coolers become empty, self respect drops and meat becomes scarce.

Day 4- Spirits are low at the prospect of returning to careers, wonderful but time consuming families, and empty houses. Thoughts are thrown around about throwing it all away and paddling the water ways all the way to the great Hudson's Bay. An excursion that would knock the socks off just about any grizzled lumberjack. Paddling down the river with anticipation of reaching a destination of sorts, JJ routinely scours the banks for a human that could let us know our location. Gazing off into the distance he spots someone, just as Jim spots the naked man, leaf covering his genitals, standing on the side of the bank holding a friendly wave. Spirits rise slightly at the hilarity of the event. Finally the troupe arrives to interrupt a Sunday morning golf game just as little white balls come flying purposefully in their direction. Hauling the canoe up the side of a valley through thick bush is no easy task, but the men tackle it with pride and resourcefulness. The smell of man is thick in the air, you could cut it with a six inch bowie knife, and luckily, JJ has one strapped to his left leg.

The trip is over. Back to life it is.

Updates

The Garden- Is growing faster than an awkward pubescent girl. Raspberries are getting eaten, so are peas. Carrots will be big enough to chow on soon and green tomatoes are starting to pop up. I must take pictures tomorrow on my day off to put up here. In comparison to most gardens I have seen so far this summer, mine is miles ahead.

Methane Digester- Was a bust, but it did yeald some compost tea that was both smelly and a huge kickstart for my tomatoes.

Dandelion wine- Is still fermenting, I think this may be a pretty potent batch. Looking forward to drinking it when it is actually ready. Me and some friends may have gotten silly earlier this week and drank half a bottle of unfinished wine. WOops.

STOONS!

It is Saskatoon berry season once again. Fuck Yes! Fight me if you think there is a tastier berry. Actually raspberries are pretty good too, but not as plentiful. So this is the first bag of the season and there are still oodles of unripe flavour explosions on the branches. Last year I made some fantastic Saskatoon wine so hopefully I can get out enough this year to collect a sufficient amount for that. Also the jams are always the best to, I had to start rationing those goods this winter they were just so darned tasty. But the ones in this here picture or most certainly going into some breakfast biscuits tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and the day after that even.
If your wondering where to procure some berries of your own(No I am not giving out my secret spot). Buuut, if you head out to the country go for a drive down some smaller country roads in valley type areas or go for a walk down an old set of rail road tracks and your bound to find all kinds of berries on public land. These were harvested not ten minutes from Regina so keep your eyes open.

Great Weekend

Sometimes you have no plans for a weekend. Sometimes you remember about an invite from a friend to a destruction derby in the small town of Lipton, Saskatchewan. Sometimes you get in the truck and drive on out there. Sometimes it is just as awesome as you would imagine. Sometimes you head back to the local watering hole. Sometimes dinner comes and you need to grab a bottle of wine to take to the barbecue. Sometimes you ask for that bottle of wine, and the only thing that comes out is Royal Red cooking wine. Sometimes you buy that bottle of wine. Sometimes the cap doesn't come off while your driving to the party in the back of a pick up. Sometimes you have to cut off the cap with a buck knife. Sometimes you head back to that friendly local watering hole. Sometimes you witness someone take a bottle to the head. Sometimes your friends follow the commotion outside. Sometimes your friend somehow ends up in cuffs in the back of a cruiser. Sometimes you wake up the next morning and his parents make you all a delicious breakfast. Sometime your friend shows you the old wind up gramaphone and puts on that old Hank Willams 78 just for you......

Sometimes life treats you pretty good.

lazy river floating

Well heres a good trick! But watch out because this is a limited time offer. You will likely never be able to do this again. Right now the Qu'appelle is still almost at flood hight, which means it is deep enough that you can swim in the river and not touch the bottom. The only other time this would be possible is in the spring time, but everyone knows melt water is far to cold to swim in. So anywho, me and my good friend Brett put on some life jackets friday afternoon in the blazing sun and jumped in the river with Brett's bird dog. We lazily floated around, letting the current take us until we got back to his jeep. Tons of fun, I wish I had pictures to share.

Rescue team

The family was out at the cabin today celebrating fathers day. While we were there a couple of neat little things happened.

My pops spotted something in the water, thinking it was dead, he picked it up only to realize that it in fact was not dead. It was a baby warbler that had fallen out of its nest above the shoreline. Dad took the soaking creature into the sun where it began to shake and shiver uncontrollably. Things did not look good, but slowly the sun got stronger and the cute little guy started to warm up. Finally he started chirping and his eyes began to open after his truamatic experience. After about ten minutes of crying you could hear his folks begin singing up a storm in a nearby tree. We decided it was best if we skedaddle and watch the proceedings from afar. The adult birds came down to him and started hootin and hollerin and jumpin this ways and that. Down from the barrel the little birdy went, opening up his wings for a short second to try to reach mom and dad. A little further the next time he went. With mom and dad still hootin and hollerin encouragement he made it a touch farther this time. And finally on the fourth attempt the little ball of down made it into a tree. In one short hour the little guy went from the brink of death to making his very first flight.
A pretty cool sight to see


Second cool thing was that with all the rain we have had, the water in the lake is very clear, especially when brother lent me his expensive polarized sunglasses. A school of Perch had decided to make home intermitently underneath the dock today so I could drop down my hook and literally watch about 30 fish investigate my bait before finally one would try his luck at dinner.

Down In The Valley Below

If all this rain is good for anything besides pushing us towards our generation's Atlantis, it is paddling. While a person can do the Qu'appelle at any time in the summer, the fun increases with the rise in water. Normally at this time you would be scrapping muddy bottom on every third paddle stroke, but not so this year. I failed to touch the bottom even once with my fun stick. This weekend i picked out a portion of the river I had done before knowing that it held a zip line somewheres along its length. However when we got to the line it was clear that it had been taken out in the spring time by log jams mixed with raging torrents of ice. Not one to be dismayed, I kept my eye out for other sorts of fun. stumbling upon a tree that had been overtaken by the river, I got the light bulb in my head that it could be used as a diving board.

Other sights seen on this excursion- owls, pelicans, baby geese, ducks, herons, carp, raccoons, cedar wax wings, normal deer, angry deer, deer with velvety antenna, fat beavers, lazy beavers, beavers that think they can fly, oh and even a couple bovine.

Broody Hens

So I have a broody hen. What does this mean? It means it is trying to hatch its unfertilized eggs. Why are chickens so stupid? I am not sure. A broody hen poses a number of problems. In a coop like mine with only one nest box, the other chicken is never able to get to the box to lay because the other hen is being a stubborn bitch. The broody hen also greatly slows down its food intake as well as neglecting water because it is busy being lazy. So what do you do? You keep tossing it out of the nest box while avoiding pecks from every which angle. Google also told me to try dunking it in water to cool its body temperature down, making it uncomfortable to brood and hopefully waking it from its predicament. We will see how it goes. Up until now my hens have been excellent, producing just about one egg a day each and keeping very silent. I sure as shit can not be complaining about four egg skillets on lazy sunday mornings. Could be better if the skillets were brought to me in bed by cute girls with loose morrals, but I'm better at dreaming than convincing. The city also has not caught onto me yet and hopefully we can keep it at that. I'm sure the city workers are all just to busy working hard... right?