The Unfinished Wood Shelter

Once I got into cutting poles, I had a phase I think and just started to think as all kind of projects using poles. And this is how the 6-cord-woodshelter got started. I decided to do a.... you guessed it.... pole structure.

I cut my own poles, dug 3 feet deep holes, tried to line up the poles as much as I could, and raised the 6 poles needed for the structure that way.

Than it was time to put double girts across and this is when I started using the truck as a ladder. Because I am on my own I had to find a way to hold the 2x8 on one side while I was putting it up on the other side and this is what the  pole which appears to be lining on the structure is doing. It is holding the girt up for me.
First I just put one screw in, then drill a 1/2' hole through the 2 girts and the vertical poles and then bolted them together.

Since later on the rafters will rest on the girts I needed them to line up just right.
I first put the 2 most outward girts then put 2 rafters on top and all other girts were added so they would fit snugly under those rafters which means that in time they will be sharing the load the rafters will be carrying.  No point in putting 6 girts in all if the rafter only rest on two or three.
I had to think in terms of possible snow load here.

...And unfortunately it is pretty much where it is at right now, and has been for the last 5 weeks since I sprained my ankle. I do have all the girts (so 6 and not 3 as in this picture... one on each side of the poles) and they are all bolted in place.

Morels

I did managed to pick a handful of morels

The Tipis or Teepees

 It actually has been a very busy summer. Mostly I have been tanning moose hide, trying to build a wood shelter, garden etc but somewhere in there I build two tipis. The first one is quite small (9 feet tall inside) but just the same I quite like it.

The second one was a bit harder to put together because it is a lot taller (19 feet inside). 

First I put the tripod up.

Then added the rest of the poles

It is hard to show how big it is

But to give you a sense, here are the poles when they are still in the truck (yes I cut the poles myself, I did the entire thing myself alone)

The poles for the small tipi

The poles for the bigger tipi

Early Fall it Seems

Fall is here and really has been here for over a week.

Here is a view of our weather forecast as it stands today.

For people who work with Fahrenheit: 15C is 59F, and 3C (the low for Sunday night) is 37F so just above freezing. I have to make a decision on the garden but I think that especially the basil needs to be harvested or covered.

Yesterday I harvested all the beets. I had two rows, I had already pickles 6 jars worth and yesterday I got a bucketful, so I think I did alright.

The predictions for this winter are the worse El Nino in a 100years, so the coldest winter in a 100 years!
I was building a wood shelter to stack up my wood but I sprained my ankle and had to stop pretty much everything requiring any standing up and now I haven't even started to cut wood!!!
Here is the wood shelter (which will be able to hold 6 cords of wood) being built. The truck is in it because I am using it as a ladder.

In this picture you can see one of the tipis I built this summer.

WARNING picture of skinned bear

Last night I was shown how to skin a bear.
Some friends of mine went hunting the day before and killed a bear (to eat) and I asked if I could be shown how to skin it. I really wanted to learn because I am hoping to go hunt for a bear next year to feed myself.


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I know that this will be offensive to some but this is the north and I am trying to feed myself.

I tell you what is offensive to me: cows, chickens, pigs etc spending their entire life in boxes full of their own excrement, overcrowded, being pumped full of antibiotics, hormones and all that stuff and being slaughtered in  factories. If you don't find those offensive try reading "Dominion: the power of man, the suffering of animals" by Matthew Scully.
But I will  happily agree to disagree about it. Different people, different perceptions, different sensibilities and scale of values. I'm ok with that.

Some creatures of my summer

Here are a few random pictures of some creatures I saw.
Not only did I not blog (or even really go on the internet) but I also took very few pictures this summer, not sure why.

 This is what the weasel looks like in summer. Cute devil! and great because he eats the mice.

Though I managed to rescue one, tiny thing!

Small beautiful diurnal owl that came by my place one day and hunted around the yard for a while while I was doing moose hide.I am pretty sure that it is a northern hawk owl, but a young one.

Another type of butterfly. I mostly see those during the warm part of summer.

Just a grooming robin.

A lynx

A sandhill cranes, there quite a few around here. I did manage to see a whooping though but flying high. Still it was pretty nice, I had never seen them here, just in Port Aransas in Texas, one of the location where they go spend winter.

Spider footsteps

Just to illustrate how quiet my place is:

I was home reading (nursing my sprained ankle) when I heard a noise and thought that it might be a small rodent gnawing at something. I got up to get something to bang on the walls but somehow during th process I realized that the noise I was hearing was a regular sized spider walking across the geological map I have on the wall.
Footsteps of a spider on paper that's what I was hearing!!!!!

Three months !?!

Wow, it really has been a long time. It is not so much that nothing happened, mostly it is because going on the internet requires being indoors.
I can't believe that the last picture has snow in it since today we had a high of 31C (88F).
I am still up north and busy doing all kind of stuff. I even have a garden this year.

Weasel Again

Here are much better pictures of the weasel who hangs out by the cabin.

Beaver Tail

I had a chance to try eating beaver tail. Curtis brought them over and prepared them.

 First this how amazing beaver tails look like from close.

 First you have to roast them over open flame

As the scales/skin bubbles up as it gets burnt you scrape it off.

The scrapped off parts are white because the flesh underneath is sort of like gristle fat

This one is ready.