52 Lists: List the things that make you feel heathly

I am not really a healthy person. I lean more towards gluttony. I truly admire people that are healthy and make healthy choices. Personally though, I'd rather drink an entire bottle of wine instead of just a glass. I'd rather eat bacon than avoid fat. I'd rather curl up and read rather than exercise daily. That being said I know there needs to be a balance somewhere. It's just a matter of finding that balance.

My exercise in the winter usually consists of trapping and hunting, but when the weather is abhorrent and I can't go outside I usually miss out on that exercise. I used to run inside on a treadmill but after running outside, I can't stand running on a treadmill anymore. Living out in rural Alaska also has a few disadvantages when it comes to healthy options from the grocery store. I bought a cauliflower the other day. What did it put me back? Seventeen dollars. Seventeen. Ridiculous. I can't afford to do that all of the time. Mentally though, living out here is the balm to my soul. I don't know if it's the connection I feel to the place or that my ancestors have hung out here for generations and it's in my blood, but I feel good when I'm here and out in the land. I feel whole.

The fox I fell in love with

Yesterday was perfect. Or as near to perfect as a day on the trap line can be. It was around 0, the sun was out, and most importantly there was no wind. We met up at noon (which incidentally enough is when garage opens). I gassed up my rig and we took off. Gregg brought his .17 HMR and I brought my 20 gauge. I'm always on the hunt for ptarmigan and rabbits, so I lead the way to Egavik.

We pulled the close fox snare set when we passed it. Nothing had been crawling around there since we put it in. We passed over Power's Creek and were cruising up towards blueberry when I saw movement on the next hill over. I practically jumped up and down on my snow machine, it was a wolf! I pointed frantically and motioned for Greg to haul ass in front of me. I sped off after him just as the wolf disappeared over the next hill. We dipped down into the brush and came up on the other side and the wolf was nowhere to be seen. Even just the glimpse of the wolf was so exhilarating. I'd seen ptarmigan in the brush when we sped through it so I turned around and went back and ended up with three ptarmigan. The day was already off to a great start.

We kept our eyes peeled but didn't see any more critters on the way to Egavik. A wolverine had been by one of our sets twice so we were hoping he came back and stomped around, getting caught in the process. No such luck. There was a beautiful red fox in one my snares though. He had a black bushy tail, perfect fur, and nice tall black socks. I'm going to keep him. (He also peed on me while I was taking the pictures below, so you know, we've bonded.)

He's beautiful!

I think it was during this picture that the peeing occurred. He looks like he's smiling.

Wolverine tracks!

After the fox, we moseyed to our last set. The wolverine had been back there again so we took the time to set up a nice baited wolverine cubby. We're gonna get that guy. You better believe it. We paused by the river at Egavik and snacked on a cinnamon roll courtesy of my momma. On the way home we kept our eyes peeled for ptarmigan and the wolf but didn't see either. I'd kinda settled into the last stretch home when my eyes spotted a fox up by the connexes towards the end of the runway. This naturally let to chasing him around quite a bit, never quite into a position for a good shot. He shot off onto the ice and got away from us. But it was a perfectly exciting way to end the day.

By the time we got to the shop, the fox was pretty frozen. so I skinned the lynx we'd gotten on Friday while Gregg putzed around the shop (he mostly drank beer and visited with me). Dang it was a nice kitty with super long fur. I managed to get a pretty clean skin on her.

Bunneh stew

This is how I do bunny stew. Well, one of the ways. It always starts with bunny that has been cleaned and then brined at least 12 hours in the refrigerator. The salt in the brine draws blood out of the meat and tenderizes it. A must.

Next step is to get the crock pot out. I love my crock pot, except for the fact it's old school and you can't take the pot part out to clean it. It's bolted or welded in there, which is obnoxious. I dump a can of chicken broth and a can of cream of celery (or mushroom) soup in the pot and mix em together. The first time I tried this I put all my ingredients in the crock pot before the liquid and then dumped the soup and broth on top and tried to mix it all together. Fail.
I have a bunch of canned tomatoes from the Jacob's crew that I've been trying to use up so I poured a can of stewed tomatoes in once I got my brother and soup mixed together. The first stuff to go in the pot are onions and/or garlic. I didn't have any garlic so I made do with onions.

Next up, the rinsed off bunny meat. I layer it on the onions. I push it down a little and give it a stir.

I add whatever vegetables and such that I can find on top of the meat. In this case: celery, carrots, and corn. I ran out of mushrooms, which made me sad because I love me some mushrooms in my crock pot. I generally dumb the juice from the corn or mushrooms in with everything else, more flavor right?

My liquid wasn't covering everything so I added a can of V8 juice. Wallah. I turn it on and give it a stir every 4 to 6 hours. I cook it until I can pick up a bunny bone and the meat just falls off. Everything is warm and tender and done. If I feel like gravy I'll scoop out some broth and add flour. If I feel like soup I'll leave it. If I feel like stew I'll add a few noodles towards the end of the cooking to absorb some of the broth. Yum.

I should have taken a picture when it was done....

52 Lists: List the ways in which you can love others

I'm still a week behind! I need to work on that. Last week's prompt was to list the ways in which you can love others. This was a Valentine's day inspired post. While, I have no strong objection to Valentine's Day, I don't really have any outstanding stories about that holiday, good or bad. New Year's and me are pretty much a disaster, but that's another story.

Loving others... I am certainly no expert. Especially at expressing that love (without sarcasm). It's so much easier for me to be sarcastic than to be genuine. I will work on changing that. Here's how:

Back to the trapping life (for a day)

Thank you Mr. Washington and Mr. Lincoln for having birthdays in February. Thank you NVU for celebrating President's Day as a holiday. My three day weekend was much appreciated. And very much needed. I was able to actually spend time and catch up with friends that I hadn't truly been able to visit with in months. Instead of cleaning and doing horrible things like that I worked on a belated Christmas present. Even better, I got some trapping in. The whole Unalakleet line needed to be reset, rebaited and dug out so that was Sunday's goal.

But before Sunday is Saturday night! Ever since my trapping partner moved to his cabin we have less visiting time. So I made dinner (rabbit stew, yum!) and then we went up to the cabin and watched trapping videos, drank whiskey and beer, and ate peanuts. Pretty much epic Saturday evening. Here's a few snapshots of the evening.

Penny, our mascot

Peanuts love me.

She was a creepin'.

Sunday morning came around and I looked outside to a temperature of -30. I pulled my sleeping back back over my head and went back to sleep. Ain't no way I'm jumping out of bed to get an early start on the trap line in that. After breakfast and coffee and then a few beers, the temperature had finally warmed up to around -20. So we bundled up and headed on our merry way. I completely slacked on taking pictures of the cat we snared so you'll just have to imagine it.

Fur Bear-ers (bwah!)

Hooray for about a foot and a half of snow and no wind! That's right folks, Unalakleet finally got dumped on. I can finally look out my window and see snow instead of gravel. It's about time. Of course the plows are working over time and doing a great job, I haven't seen anyone stuck just yet (but I've seen evidence of it), and I'm ready for a three day weekend. Trapping is in order, along with cleaning, skin sewing, and some libations. Let's just hope I don't get stuck in the powder drifts.

Rabbit and beaver

52 Lists: List What You Are Grateful For

This has been a hard morning on the community of Unalakleet. Two of our elders passed: last night and this morning. Snow is coming down in huge fluffy flakes and it almost feel suffocating. I feel like today I need a clear day where I can see for miles.

I'm having a hard time writing last weeks list. (I'm a week behind because of the AK Forum on the Environment.) I don't want to be grateful right now. I want to be quiet.

Anchorage moments

Home. Unalakleet, Alaska. Back to wind and snow and the freedom to go and hunt for my dinner. It's good to be home. Here are a few moments from Anchorage.

My rental this go was rather high tech for this village girl. Eventually I figured most things out. The most amazing thing? These little lights that told me someone was in my blind spot. The vehicle was huge (and kind of looked like a hearse) so I was always paranoid about my blind spots until I figured this out. The next best thing? Being able to call and talk through the car. Amazing.

These boys and their iPads. Attached to their hands and faces permanently. I see little zombies. Once they get cell phones it'll probably be even worse. I shudder to think where we're going as a human race with technology sometimes. And I'm sucked right into it to. My cell crapped out on me during this trip. It crippled me for a half a day until I could get a spare phone sent in to me (hand carried on a flight out of Unalakleet.) Yep, I was that desperate.

Had a blast two nights in a row with these two! Yes there was bull riding. Yes there is a video. No, I probably won't post it. But know that it happened.

Sweet boy brought me a present from his travels. It smells delicious and makes my lips nice and soft.

AK Forum on the Environment

This week I've been attending the Alaska Forum on the Environment. It's the environmental specialist portion of my job. That being said I've had a meeting with the accountant, personal banker, and finally was able to migrate a legacy account and update a registration on the general manager portion of my job. I feel like I've just been bouncing from one meeting to the next. I'm using that as my excuse for not posting Friday (travel day) and Monday (lunch meeting and dinner meeting). Tonight is another dinner meeting but it's more and less casual. Wining and dining. I love it especially when I'm the one getting wined and dined. Beacon is taking some of it's clients out to Crush for dinner. Since I'm such a fantastic client, I was invited. Love it. Plus it means more time with my friend Shauntel.

So far my favorite thing about the conference has been these sculptures. They were created with marine waste that floated ashore. The jelly was created by an artist, who then inspired students in Kodiak to create Ophelia, the octopus. It really is incredible how beautiful the sculptures are considering it's all stuff that's been thrown away and was a hazard to the environment.

Giant, gorgeous jelly

My favorite keynote speaker so far is Annie Leonard. She created the story of stuff. The way she spoke just captivated my interest, there was such passion and conviction in her voice as she talked about her life's passion. She made us all chuckle when she said that it was humbling for twenty years of her life to be summed up in twenty minutes. However, that twenty minutes speaks volumes and has started some amazing dialogue about how much of the earth's resources we're using and just throwing away.

Meet Ophelia. Soon she'll be moving to the Sea Life Center in Seward.