Pictures by Andri

Andri and I went for a ride with Mom on the afternoon of the 15th and then went out again in the evening.  In the evening we hiked all around the willows, shooting ptarmigan and looking for rabbits to photograph.

Wade out to take a shot

Take the shot

The afternoon was just beautiful.  It was about 20 degrees and it was so nice to just be outside in above zero temperatures.  I even rolled down the window a little for some fresh air in the car.  It gets harder and harder to be in the office now that Spring is coming and the days are getting longer.  I think everyone is getting a little bit of spring fever in their systems.

Drat. Missed. Wade back to road.

After work I had a big old ptarmigan dinner with Momma.  We had two birds from previous hunting excursions, so I didn't have to rely on my terrible hunting skills from the afternoon.  I was pooped out and super full so I decided to hunker down and curl up on Mom's bed for a little snooze when my phone rang.  It was Andri.  She was out back in the snow hiking up and down the willows trying to photograph bunnies.  She asked if I wanted to grab my gun and get some of the ptarmigan she was flushing out as she was hiking.  Of course, I couldn't resist the urge to go and get a few birds, so I roused myself out of nap mode, bundled up and headed out to meet her.  She was laying down in the snow holding her camera up, looking at the bright blue sky when I pulled up and whistled at her.  Andri's head snapped up and she stood up and met me by my car as I was loading my shot gun.  She pointed out where some ptarmigan had went and off we hiked.  The remainder of the day was spent chasing and shooting birds and trying to find bunnies to take pictures of.  We hiked all around and were on our last hike around one of the lines of willows when we saw some ptarmigan.  I didn't have my shotgun so I sniped one off with a .22 magnum that my uncle Pete gave to me.  I was so excited that I hit the bird!  It was a freaking blast.  It was such a beautiful and warm day.  The warmest and most beautiful that we've had yet.  So I'm really glad that I took the time to get out and enjoy it.

Different gun.  Got a ptarmigan!

Me Skinning!

I finally have a few pictures of me skinning a critter and not just skinned critters.  Gregg took the pictures.  Lynx are a lot tougher to skin than foxes.  The way their body is shaped just makes it more complicated, or at least it did for me.  I didn't do too bad except for getting a bit tired at the end and nicking a few tiny holes in the ears and paws.  As always, I started at the back feet.  I skinned around the "ankles" and then cut the paws off the body (this makes it easier to skin out the feet, and you want the feet because lynx have such neat claws.)  Gregg has a super neat contraption used for hanging the critters up.  It's a bar with two hooks on the ends.  It's adjustable and everything.  It was a girl lynx so I didn't have to chop off any balls.  We caught it in a foot trap, so it was still warm when I was skinning it.  I was able to pull a lot of the hide off and didn't have to skin it as much.  Gregg said I have a much lighter touch with the blade than he does.  I guess I'm always scared of cutting stuff up or making holes.  I skinned the back legs up the back of the legs to a point under the tail.  I used Gregg's fancy tail tools to pull the tail bone out and then split the tail.

I wish this wasn't blurry.  It would have been a neat picture.

After hanging the critter up by it's ankles, I skinned around the "wrists" and then cut the front paws off.  I skinned the front legs up close to the body and then pulled down the hide from the butt to where the front legs go into the body.  The front legs were kind of tricky for me.  Gregg had to help and hold them apart.  And help me pull the hide back when I was trying to skin around them enough to pull them through the leg holes.  But I persevered and got the front legs done. 

I got blood on the sleeve of my shirt

The head was super messy.  Because the cat was hanging and still warm, the blood flowed down to the head.  So when I was skinning out the eyes and ears and lips, I was getting blood all over my hands.  There are veins or arteries near those organs that you just end up cutting.  I managed to get the eyelids, ears and lips though.  The after getting the hide off the carcass, I took a razor blade and skinned the ears out and cleaned up around the cartilage.  I was pretty punchy and tired when I was done with the head.  I tried to skin the lips but just couldn't get my head around it.  Gregg helped with the feet.  I skinned 1 and he skinned three.  But to be fair, I was working on the ears and stuff when he was skinning the feet.  It was a long day but totally worth it.  I was soooo happy that I got to see a live lynx and then I got to skin him from toe to nose.

I can't wait till my Carhart's get this grubby.

Pink real tree.

I'm in love with camo right now.  I think it loves me right back.  (I'm also in love with Cabela's, as pictured below.  The other camo hoody that I have, I adore, but it just has a lot of baggage attached to it, and my friends don't really like me wearing it. That doesn't stop me from wearing it though, because I am unshakeable in doing what I want.

Note the carhartt hat, a recent Anchorage puchase.  LOVE.

I like how you can see my pink socks.

You can get yourself a Cabela's real tree pink camo Sweater here.  I've already gotten a few compliments on mine.  Bonus: It matches my 20 gauge shotgun.  This panda couldn't be happier about that.

 

 

 

Hey look, it's my back. Um...

This ended up being my favorite picture.  Who knows why?

Mel always says I'm photogenic.  And sometimes I agree with her and sometimes I don't.  I love having pictures of myself doing things but just standing and showing off what I'm wearing often seems silly.  Maybe that's a hurdle you have to jump if you're a serious fashion blogger and not just doing this for my amusement.  I do want to play with my tripod more often, but there is always something else to do.  Like shooting guns...

Lynx in a foot trap!

Wednesday afternoon my trapping partner came into the office in the afternoon and asked if I wanted to go and check traps.  Even though I had fixed my hair and put some make up on, I was game!  Good thing I was because I finally got to see a live lynx.  We were heading up Rabbit Creek and saw some lynx traps go off into the tundra towards our other traps.  Lynx don't normally wander off into the tundra.  We had traps to check though so we left off following the tracks and went to go check the set up Rabbit Creek.  Nothing.

Lynx in a foot trap

Gregg was letting me lead because saw a ton of ptarmigan tracks in the willows.  I'm not a very good leader.  I'm not ever sure of where I'm going or what I'm doing.  Gregg doesn't seem to mind though.  I often wonder if he's thinking, where the hell is this girl going?, when he's following me.  Gregg saw about a dozen ptarmigan but I didn't see any.  We saw the lynx tracks again heading towards one of our traps.  I was looking for ptarmigan but Gregg saw something move by the tree with the trap next to it.  We drove over and sure enough the lynx was caught!  It was so neat to see his tracks and follow him to the trap.  Definitely a cool experience.

This is my favorite picture of him

I walk around behind him and startled him out of the little bit of brush that he was hiding in and then Gregg put a snare around his neck and strangled him.  It's always sad.  It's the one part that I don't like.  But I see the necessity of it.  And I see the value in strangling rather than shooting. The lynx was the only animal that we caught on Wednesday.  He was still warm by the time we got home, so I was able to skin him that night.  It made for a long night, but the skinning is another post altogether and this time, it'll finally include pictures.

Look at them teeth!