AUGUST

       In August the landscape on the western Canadian prairie ever so faintly begins to change. The sunlight is not the direct bright rays as as the angle of the sun has changed. It is drier. Plant activity is shutting down. The nights are colder. Two nights ago our low was plus 3 C.

      It's a good thing that we have these changes or is it people taking advantage of the changes. It's harvest time in this huge prairie land. Weather is extremely important. It has to be dry to harvest the grain.

     So I'm talking like an old farm boy even though I left the farm 68 years ago. You can't take the farm out of the  boy. 

    Farmers grow different crops so that they can stagger harvest times and give themselves a long harvest time. My nephews farm. Their first harvest is silage which they take off green. Then they swath some crops that can lay in the swath until later. Then they straight combine wheat. This means they harvest the grain when it's standing. Nowadays this looks like the indie 500. Combines have a 45 ft and 37 ft cutting width. I can't believe the speed these machines travel. They are one big sensor. An operator sits in the cab but doesn't do much. The canola is swathed. that means that the plants are cut and laid in a row. They can be threshed later when it's dry enough. 

    Things have changed on the farm since I lived there but it's still an interesting process. 

   Now if I've made any errors one of my brothers will tell me I'm sure. 

   So August begins a busy time as many things change on the landscape and people take advantage of the change. .

    Critters take advantage of the change and either leave or collect food for the winter or go to sleep. Some Richardson's ground squirrels have already gone into hibernation.  

MR. McGREGOR

        I felt like Mr. McGregor  yesterday.

        Mr. McGregor was the gardener in the famous TALE OF PETER RABBIT written by Beatrix Potter. Peter Rabbit marauded Mr. McGregor's garden on a regular basis. Mr. McGregor couldn't catch Peter. My favorite part is when Peter hides in Mr. McGregor's watering can and Mr. McGregor doesn't see Peter and walks by. We all want Peter to get away. When Peter gets home his mother scolds him for going into Mr. McGregor's garden.

      So yesterday, what was in my garden but, a big Jack rabbit. He/she was lazily taking a bite of pea leaves and then a bite of gooseberry leaves and then grooming him/her self. It was a very peaceful time for the rabbit. 

     At this time of year my garden is a jungle. The peas are 2 feet high. It's easy for a rabbit to move around and not be seen.  It's also the time of year when most things have matured and one rabbit isn't going to do much damage. In the spring time I close the gates very tightly.

     So believe it or not I just took this picture . There is a Jack Rabbit hiding in the pea patch but I can' get him to stick his head out of the peas.

        

     So I waited and finally the jack rabbit stuck his head out of the pea patch. He's above the bird bath and to the left.

EATING WHAT?

                             GROSS ALERT

   If you don't like gross stuff stop reading now!

      At my Arctic post in northern Quebec, I was teacher, school principal and Local administrator for the federal government. I was extremely busy but loved the work.

    From time to  time government people came through and had to stay at my place as there were no facilities in the settlement of 200 people. 

   One of the people who came through and stayed for seven days was Fred Breumer who is a well known photographer of northern subjects. He also knew a tremendous amount about everything Arctic. Fred was given the Order of Canada . Fred had come to the area to photograph petroglyphs. These were the only known petroglyphs in the  Arctic. An article was written in the Beaver magazine on the petroglyphs. 

    Fred went through the second world war as a young person. He was in a camp and it's very hard to read his story. 

    The federal government gave Fred permission to take any of their flights that had a space.

   So one day  fellow walked up to the house from the airplane. He told us who he was and asked for a place to stay. He was a helpful guest and offered to pay. Fred was there to photograph petroglyphs which were the only known ones in the arctic.

    So he spent days helping in the house with my wife. She says he was the most interesting person she ever met. 

   Another of Fred's escapades was to spend 3 winter months in the Keewatin area with several families.  . Fred promised that he would live as the Inuit did and work and hunt. He would eat all country food.

    In the spring there were caribou. The eggs of some flies were laid on the backs of the caribou in the summer and incubated under the skin. In the spring time  the eggs laid by the  flies were in the larva stage and when large enough the larva popped out of the caribou skin. Now what Fred didn't know is that the larva or maggot was a delicacy. The Inuit loved them and ate them like candy. Fred said it's one thing he just couldn't eat. It's the only thing he didn't eat while he was with the group. 

    Check out Fred's books in your local library. He also wrote numerous magazine articles. Check out his biography, 

COUNTRY FOOD

        I began this series thinking about having nothing between me and the north pole. I then got looking at some photos and was reminded of things that I had forgotten. So the whale hunting popped up on some old photos.

       Then I saw the food processing and that's another whole post about gathering food.

      The men we went out with, were caretakers at the school. They received a decent wage for their work. However, if they bought their food from the Hudson Bay Store they wouldn't have enough money. Food in the store was very expensive. So they  processed country food to augment their food supply from their wages. There were many other people at this location. It had been a traditional hunting area and they still used it. 

     The butchering of a whale was a large process. These animals were about 12 ft long. The belugas are white. The skin is thick and tough. The outer layer of fat and skin are peeled off. Some of it is hung on poles and dried. Some of it is boiled in a large barrel and rendered down. The red meat is cut into strings of squares and hung up to dry. Some of this was made into muk tuk which they considered to be a delicacy. I didn't think it was a delicacy and I didn't try it. 

     So much of the summer was spent catching belugas and preparing the meat. This meat would last for a long time. For our guys (caretakers) they would eat this throughout the year with store bought food. They also shared some of this food with family and friends. 

     Traditionally this food was stored in the area and other hunting areas and consumed throughout the year, They were constantly hunting for fresh food. They could catch many seals and some of the seals were large. The skins were traded at the trading post. 

                                                 Boiling the fat

Whale skin and blubber hung up to  dry

White fish netted nearby

Parts of the beluga

Whale meat hung up for drying

Fat being cut for rendering. 

Fat being cooked in a barrel

Wood supply for cooking. 

ALONE

    How did this ever get posted? I did not intend to post this as there are errors and I have to change the photos. I hope you read the edited version of this post. 

It seems that one incident I write about reminds me of another incident. 

     As I've said many times , I spent five years in the Arctic. I was active and many adventures gave  me interesting times.

    The people and the land changed my life immensely. It gave me a completely different perspective.

    Our school care takers still went out hunting beluga whales. They agreed to have us come to their camp on the shores of the Arctic ocean. They had been there for a few days and had caught 2 or 3 whales and were in the process of butchering them and preserving the many parts of the whale that they would consume. 

    Their camp was between Tuktoyaktuk and Kitigazuit at a place called White Fish station. . They were in a neat little cove that that did not face directly out to sea. They were well protected from storms and high seas. There were not many high seas and the tide was about 18 in. 

    The next morning they took us out. We were in our own boat and were to follow. About a mile off the coast a beluga was sighted. They made a shot but were not sure if they made a hit  and the whale sank or if the whale got away. 

   They looked around for an hour or two and then went back to camp and continued preparing the meat. We were about 3 miles off the coast and were seeing small chunks of ice so it was time to get out of there. About 8 miles off the coast there began to be large areas of ice. 

    Later on that afternoon I climbed over the 50 foot ridge and went down to the beach. I was by myself and sat on a large piece of driftwood on the beach away from the other people. . 

   I gazed out into the Arctic ocean. It hit me that there was nothing between me and the north pole. That experience has stayed with me. So there was nothing but ice. 

                           The little protected cove behind me

One of the hunters telling us about hunting beluga whales

Large slabs of blubber which will be melted down. 

LONG WEEKEND IN MAY

       My last post was about a long weekend here and how I enjoyed the quiet.

       One of my favorite long weekends is a weekend I took to get married. Many teachers choose a long weekend to get married because of their work schedules. 

       The weekend of our first anniversary is one that stands out in my mind. It was the long weekend in May and we decided to spend it camping at Grieg Lake, Saskatchewan. Grieg Lake is a small lake in northern Saskatchewan. It's 1.5 km long and .5 km wide. 

      We were surprised when we got there because we were the only campers. It was perfect weather. The lake is beautiful with clear shallow water.

     We rented a canoe and spent most of the day paddling. Fish were hiding under the lily pads. If you pulled into the lily pads there were many fish trying to find another lily pad to hide under. 

     We were not fishing so spent the day paddling around the small lake. We had taken a lunch 

     There was a clean sandy  beach so we spent one day relaxing on the beach. We were the only people on the small beach.

    And of course, we headed for home on the third day,

    This is a weekend we talk about many times and how we enjoyed the quiet of a northern lake on our first anniversary. 

HERITAGE DAY

        In Canada, most provinces celebrate Heritage Day on the first weekend of August. This weekend is in a very pleasant time of the summer. People can enjoy an pleasant weekend camping. "We don't get snow around Aug 1."

        So this weekend in town has been very quiet. Some people are away. Other people don't have to go to work so traffic is cut down. My neighbor beside me is away, the guy across the street is away. 

       I enjoy this quiet time. At one time I went along with everyone else and travelled. I had a travel trailer so went to many different places. 

      So a very short wish to people and I hope you enjoyed Heritage Day.