EVENINGS

      On June 30 I posted that the sun set just before 10:00 PM. I took a photo to show that it was light enough for the camera to pick up color. 

      Somebody suggested that I take a photo at about 9:55 PM to compare June and July. On July 30 it was still very bright and you could take a photo but not pick up color The sun set at 9:28 PM. 

      So today on Aug. 30 the sun sets at 8:26 PM

      So from June 30 to July 30 the sun set 32 minutes later. 

      From July 30 to Aug. 30 the sun set 52 minutes earlier. We are losing daylight very quickly. 

      I walk most nights and I get home around 8:30 PM. I'm going  to have to change my route as I'm getting home when it's just about dark. 

     So sunlight is deceasing rapidly a this time of year. We know what's coming. 

MORE RABBIT

     I find that many posts I write do not end where I think they should end. In other words there's more to the story. Sometimes more happens and the story grows.

    That's what happened to the rabbit post of   Aug 17. I had portrayed the rabbit as sneaky and a nuisance.

    Well, some of these things may be true. 

    Later on you get some information that shows you are not quite right.

    A rabbit has been hanging around my yard. I also  see it in the morning. It seems to hide in the garden.

    Well yesterday I noticed that this rabbit has nipples. Yes, a row of nipples down her side. This indicates that she is nursing.

    When Jack rabbits have their babies, they hide them in different places  on the day they are born. The babies stay quiet all day. At night the mother comes to feed them several times. When the young are able to fend for themselves they leave the protection of the place that they were left by the mother. 

   So we get a very different idea of this particular jack rabbit when we learn some more. 

AFTERNOON VISITORS

      When we came home from lunch today we drove through the neighborhood. I noticed something strange in the close next to us. There were two large animals in the shade behind very large willow tree limbs. I looked carefully from one hundred meters and couldn't identify them. They had a gray  coat and very large antlers. They weren't moose because they weren't big enough.

    I hurried home to get my camera. I know that shooting from bright sunlight into shade  doesn't make much of a photo. I tried but I couldn't see much in my veiw finder. I was able to identify them as mule deer bucks. I was surprised to see the winter color of their coats. I saw a doe two days before and she still had the summer coat and color. 

   They were rather cheeky and stayed didn't move. I went back later on to get some better photos. 

   There was still some velvet on the antlers. 

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.