Fireweed not cinders
(Lou)
Fireweed not cinders
Great news from Ryan, our hunky Dawson City Wild Fire Crew dream (I have no idea what he looks like, by the way.) Our cabin is still not cinders and with more rain forecast it’s likely the nearby forest fire will be out. A friend passed by in his boat and has informed us that the brush, mostly fireweed, is now at chest height all over our property. So the cabin is engulfed in fireweed not flames, which is less of a worry. Though now I’m wondering if we’ll even spot it as we head down the river.
Beach landing
Some more good news, there is a beach to land our boat. The river was still frozen when we left in April so we had no idea what was sitting under all that ice.
I’m not good with landing boats. I get confused about left and right, up and down with the outboard motor. You have to do everything in a reverse-mirror Alice in Wonderland fashion. So I have a tendency to be accelerating at high speed bearing left when I mean to be slowing down and drifting right. Not good for landing in rocky eddies.
Who’s been living in Our House?
Also less good news. Fresh bear scat. So we have a visitor. A visitor that might get very close in the chest high weeds and that we won’t see until he is near enough to shake our hands.
In preparation for such a welcome we managed to buy our guns online last week. Now I have received my Possession and Acquisition Licence, we simply go online to the marvellous Tradex.ca website, choose firearms we like the look of and have them sent to our little PO Box.
How does one choose? Well, we learnt all about LOP, (length of pull- see footnote.) Using a youtube video and my old air rifle we worked out that Neil’s LOP was 14" and mine 11". We managed to find a little Husqvarna 30-06 rifle with 12 5/8” LOP which might be perfect for me. Though the short stock may mean the recoil breaks all the bones in my face. Not sure, it’s all guess work for us at the moment so we just went for the cheapest.
Eardrum buster
Ordered a 12 bore pump action Remington shotgun for Neil. It comes with a Door Buster Muzzle Brake! After more internet research we found out what that is. It’s a fitting that goes on the muzzle used by special forces and people that want to look like assholes. You use it to blow open a door by putting the muzzle straight onto the lock and firing, causing a tremendous flash and bang, shattering own eardrums at the same time. As we don’t even have a lock on our cabin I can’t see we’ll ever use it, but the gun was cheap and hopefully we can remove it.
So that’s one risk diminished- aggressive ursine squatters, and two increased- facial fractures and deafness. Bush life often feels like a process of deciding on the lesser of two evils.
Footnote - Length of pull is measured from the trigger to the back of the stock and helps with aim and handling.
Fireweed not cinders
Great news from Ryan, our hunky Dawson City Wild Fire Crew dream (I have no idea what he looks like, by the way.) Our cabin is still not cinders and with more rain forecast it’s likely the nearby forest fire will be out. A friend passed by in his boat and has informed us that the brush, mostly fireweed, is now at chest height all over our property. So the cabin is engulfed in fireweed not flames, which is less of a worry. Though now I’m wondering if we’ll even spot it as we head down the river.
 |
| Cabin will be out there somewhere |
Some more good news, there is a beach to land our boat. The river was still frozen when we left in April so we had no idea what was sitting under all that ice.
I’m not good with landing boats. I get confused about left and right, up and down with the outboard motor. You have to do everything in a reverse-mirror Alice in Wonderland fashion. So I have a tendency to be accelerating at high speed bearing left when I mean to be slowing down and drifting right. Not good for landing in rocky eddies.
 |
| About to crash another boat |
Also less good news. Fresh bear scat. So we have a visitor. A visitor that might get very close in the chest high weeds and that we won’t see until he is near enough to shake our hands.
In preparation for such a welcome we managed to buy our guns online last week. Now I have received my Possession and Acquisition Licence, we simply go online to the marvellous Tradex.ca website, choose firearms we like the look of and have them sent to our little PO Box.
How does one choose? Well, we learnt all about LOP, (length of pull- see footnote.) Using a youtube video and my old air rifle we worked out that Neil’s LOP was 14" and mine 11". We managed to find a little Husqvarna 30-06 rifle with 12 5/8” LOP which might be perfect for me. Though the short stock may mean the recoil breaks all the bones in my face. Not sure, it’s all guess work for us at the moment so we just went for the cheapest.
 |
| My little face-smasher from Tradex |
Ordered a 12 bore pump action Remington shotgun for Neil. It comes with a Door Buster Muzzle Brake! After more internet research we found out what that is. It’s a fitting that goes on the muzzle used by special forces and people that want to look like assholes. You use it to blow open a door by putting the muzzle straight onto the lock and firing, causing a tremendous flash and bang, shattering own eardrums at the same time. As we don’t even have a lock on our cabin I can’t see we’ll ever use it, but the gun was cheap and hopefully we can remove it.
So that’s one risk diminished- aggressive ursine squatters, and two increased- facial fractures and deafness. Bush life often feels like a process of deciding on the lesser of two evils.
Footnote - Length of pull is measured from the trigger to the back of the stock and helps with aim and handling.
No doubt you'll find your cabin rising like a phoenix out of the fire weed ( one of my fave weeds by the way) As for the bear you seem to have done your gun homework and all should be well.If not I have heard marmalade sandwiches work a treat my mum makes it - she can send you some xx
ReplyDeleteNo doubt you'll find your cabin rising like a phoenix out of the fire weed ( one of my fave weeds by the way) As for the bear you seem to have done your gun homework and all should be well.If not I have heard marmalade sandwiches work a treat my mum makes it - she can send you some xx
ReplyDeleteMarmalade from Wolverhampton. Sounds deadly. We'll take a case.
Delete