The Apparently Never Ending Truck Adventures

I don't think I have mentioned a thing about my truck adventures so far, but they are apparently not over.

On my last trip with the F150 and the camper into the States (just before going to South Africa) I had quite a few truck problems resulting in several trips to various garages and some significant amount of time and money (and head ache) put into it. I decided that it was really getting to the point where I didn't trust the F150 anymore and I needed to buy another truck.

I bought another truck. Now I realize that it sounds easy enough and it fits nicely into a 4 word sentence but it was a whole world of nightmares as I bought something second hand.

I put the camper on it - Right there another simple enough statement but it wasn't without some difficulties as the truck is a totally different model and the jacks were too short to put the camper into the box in one go.

The old F150 was in good enough shape when it didn't have to carry the camper, or so I thought, and I decided to keep it and use it to bop around. I had new spark plugs and U-joints put in and was ready to drive North when the transmission, the transmission transfer case etc just blew up. I sold the truck and flew North instead. It turns out that the yoke was bent and when the U-joints were changed and everything had to go back straight in the way it should be it just blew apart.... while I was at 120km/hr on the trans-Canada highway.... but honestly considering the damage it was amazingly undramatic. The only thing was that I was hurrying to get to M's ballet lesson, but in the end I didn't miss it.

By then I had gotten used to the idea of having an old beater to mess around and, possibly unwisely, I bought a very cheap old truck from somebody I know in Calgary. It's a 1991 Chev Cheyenne 2500, used to be white but all the paint is pretty much gone and it is now grey , color of the metal under the primer.
I knew there was some issues with it: it has no spare tire and no tail pipe, issues easily fixed, it seems to be stuck in 4X4 all the time, and the clutch was pretty stiff and on its way out. I had hope that I could drive it until summer with a stiff clutch, BUT..... I drove 400 kilometers (250 miles) and.......

But I was lucky, on my drive North there are several stretches with no garages:
170km/100 miles from Westlock to Slave Lake,
500km/300 miles from Slave Lake to High Level
570km/350 miles from High Level to Fort Smith
...and this happened in Westlock, just across the road from the Westlock Inn and I was able to turn into a parking lot. So there was some significant good luck factors in that otherwise bad luck event.

So I am at the Westlock Inn, hopefully just for a couple of nights.

Snaring Rabbits

This winter I am learning how to snare rabbits.

Where I am there are two ways to snare rabbits that I know of. Both include making snaring loops with brass wire and finding a way for the rabbits to go through them and get caught.
The easiest way is to put the loops near the ground along paths used by rabbits and wait for them to walk through. This means that they get caught by struggling and as a result tightening the loop around their neck. I can't help but think that it seems too slow and too unpleasant a way to die.

The other way in way more complex at the start as it involves building pens, putting bate in the pen and making the rabbits go through "gates" where the the snares wait for them. Once they get caught in the brass wire loops they trip a pole that throws them into the air and kills them quickly.
I know, they still die, but at least it is a lot faster.

In the first way I described the snares look like this:

The second way, the way I was taught is more involved. The final product, the pen, the poles and the snares look like this:

 The pen can be fenced with branches of spruce that rabbits don't really like, but will sometime eat too, or with some sort of chicken wire or any type of fencing that rabbits prefer not to eat or can't eat.

The brass wire loops looks like and has to be attached to a small stick (the trigger) and a string to be tied to the swinging pole.

This part of the process of building those

 Here is a pen mixed with the stick triggers to show their size

This is how the wire loop snares are positioned when the snares are set

And this is the non-Disney aspect of it, rabbits do die and they basically get hung:

I'm French, so obviously I already ate rabbits and the other day I cooked a really good rabbit stew.

Bare Naked Feet in Snow

The weather is so mild (-7C, 20F) that I somehow started walking very short little distances around the outside of the cabin bare feet. I only quickly go and do something because after all it is still cold.

I never ever would I thought that I would do such a thing, but there you are:

Standing long enough to look at the northern light two nights ago I managed to melt a footprint on the deck.

Random Pictures for November

Somehow I am not blogging a lot, but this "random pictures for the month" thing seems to work for me.

The quintessential northern Skidoo

I was in Calgary briefly this month and these are photos of one of my favourite thing in Calgary, a "recycled metal" horse sculpture", a huge thing way bigger than life size.

From the municipal garbage dump (called "nuisance ground" here) the pattern of ravens wings as they take off.

Muching with a quad as opposed to a sledge

This curious owl spotted me and took off soon after

A little woodpecker

Just snow on a branch of jack pine

Snowy landscapes

Fluffy squirrel

Snow piling up on the steps I never use

Ptarmigan prints across the Salt River

The whiskey jack coming to eat his breakfast on my front steps

A big wood pecker. Love the red cap!