At play where the midnight sun holds court
This post is for those who wish to process the meat themselves. Some elect to take it to a butcher or game processor, who will process and package the meat for them. I have not done this and have no desire to do so, so I can’t comment further on that matter.
My love for flying in Alaska began with watching bush pilots. During our NOLS semester, we were resupplied once every week and a half or so by Kirk Ellis and his Supercub dubbed “The Hulk.” Most of that period, we were over 50 miles from the nearest road requiring the food drop offs by plane … Read more
In my experience, the greatest fear when hunting is wounding an animal and not being able to finish a kill. But the part that caused the most anxiety and a sense of overwhelmment in the beginning was field dressing.
This summer we kept pigs with our friends, Andrew and Eva. Neither Alana nor I had any experience with keeping farm animals. The arrangement was that we would get three piglets and keep them at Andrew and Eva’s since they already had a pen. In the beginning of May, we arranged with a local farmer … Read more
Last winter, Alana and I set the goal of be able to produce or independently source (ie not purchasing) 80% of our food within 5 years. Given this objective, we set out to create a large garden space in which we can grow vegetables for both seasonal and year-round use. With Alaska’s cold climate, we … Read more
So you’ve found your target. You’ve researched the area, spent time on the ground, glassed the area or set up your tree stand and are now ready to make the kill….
September is best known throughout Alaska as moose season. The time when good luck and plenty of effort can yield a winter’s worth of meat. Having less luck than I’d hoped this season with caribou, I set out a few different times during September in hopes of finding a moose. I floated with my friends … Read more
Living in Alaska for many people means living in a place that is very far from any kind of family due to the many that originate from elsewhere in Alaska’s urban areas. For me that holds true as well. I was raised outside Chicago, IL and almost all of my family and friends are still … Read more
I wrote the following essay for the January 2019 edition of Alaska Magazine. Each paw is carefully placed atop the snow, allowing silent movement as he prowls around willow thickets or narrow trails through the forest. While his eyes scan the surrounding vegetation, his ear’s stand above his head, ready to pick up the slightest … Read more
The summer of 2020 was terrible for fishing in the Interior. Fish runs were very low in many fisheries, like the Yukon, Tanana and Chitina, making closures a norm throughout the summer. I had been very successful fishing in 2019. I had limited out at Chitina, catching 25 salmon, and I had started set netting … Read more