A Wolverine

This is pretty much guaranty to be the worst pictures of wolverine you will ever see, but I just have to post them. I was so happy to see a wolverine. She was across the river, so about 700m (just under a mile) and the camera was at the maximum of its zoom on a mildly snowy day, so not a great result.

This is what it looked like with no zoom. I couldn't tell for sure what it was but I thought it might be a wolverine because of the way it walks (sort of like a rolly polly awkward bear)

 Zooming in and cropping the picture is the best of what I photographed

I am just so happy that I saw a wolverine

That's it The River is Frozen

This year the weather is incredibly warm, in fact today it is -7C (19F) when last year at this time of years the temperature had been steady at -30C (-22F) for days. But finally the river forze over. I really would like to walk across this year but it will have to get a lot colder than this for a while before I can do it.

Anyway here is the way it went:

First rafts of slush  floated along

The edge of the river started to freeze in slowly

As it was getting colder the water between the rafts of slush started to get thin layer of ice

but as soon as a warmish day (still below freezing) came the thin layers of ice disappear

Then there was a few cool days and the open water "smoked" all while the ice at the edge of the river kept on slowly moving inward

And finally one morning after a couple of nights of just below -20C (-4F) the river was frozen

  though there are still some open spots

Coyote

This one is just about perfect for a calendar

Black Wolf

Today as I was checking snares (I will post something about how to set rabbit snares) I saw a black wolf. Awesome creature.

Random Pictures for October 2015

Somehow not a month with a lot of pictures.

Cooking and melting the first snow on the stove

Malamuts from the sister of a friend of mine in Hay River (NWT)

The cute martian girl in my life

First Snow This Year

I am way late reporting the first snow which fell on October 20th.
It was unusual snow for this part of the world since it was wet and heavy. Usually here you get what I call "squeaky" snow, light and fluffy and a LOT easier to shovel!

Here was our first snow fall!  There was quite a bit.

Filleting Jackfish

I never took pictures of how to fillet connies and I regretted it afterwards. So I asked C. To show me how to fillet a jackfish he had caught and let me take photos.

 Here is the jackfish (beautiful creature really but with a mouth full of several rows of sharp teeth)

First put the knife in its belly right by the anus, aiming to come out near the backbone at the top.

Like this. And with the blade facing the tail cut along the backbone towards the tail without cutting the piece off

Then slice its belly open

And empty the belly

Then turn the fish around and putting the knife back into the first cut made from belly to backbone but this time with the blade facing the head, cut along the backbone towards the head

And cut the side of the fish off the at the head and the tail so it comes off

Then do the same on the other side

At this point you have the two sides cut off the backbone

Then cut the "triangular" part of the side not all the way to through to the skin

Then following the skin slide the knife between the skin and the flesh

Then turn the side of the fish around and slide the knife between the skin and the flesh from the back towards the front

Now you have a side without skin. Cut the "ribs" off

Then you have to cut the middle bones off by cutting along them, first on one side

Then the other

Ok, maybe I am not explaining it quite right but this is the way it is done,

Basically looking across a fish this is where the bones are, and this is what has to be removed:

Note that in a connie the side bone going slightly up are single bones, and in the jackfish they fork into two