Yukon bush life

We’ve had a few moose encounters recently, the most significant being the one I shot. The Tr’ondëk Hwich’ën people believe that if you think about an animal, you draw it to you. I thought about nothing else as we hunted and later, processed the kill and so we’ve had lots of moose visitors. I am now thinking hard about fine wine and vast sums of money. I imagine the theory is only for animals but you never know.  (Update- a kind friend gave me a bottle of wine yesterday. It works!) Hunting by boat We started hunting early. I’ve learned a lot about moose from people here and from reading blogs. The rut is around the last two weeks of September. Bulls don’t come down from the mountains til it gets cold. Best time to hunt them is just before dark or just after sunrise as they move around at night, or round midday when they tend to get up for a stretch. Moose tracks and Neil prints on the beach From the moose themsel...

(Lou, Yukon, Winter Solstice) It’s dark now. We haven’t seen the sun for months but apparently it rises somewhere every day, just as usual. Sunrise is around 11.20am and sunset at 3.15pm (making a guess from data in towns to the south and north of us). Our world is softly lit. There is no shadow except that of the moon when she’s around. Wonderful for portrait photos if you are a middle aged lady with the occasional wrinkle, which of course I’m not. Not a wrinkle or a grey hair in sight We get up early, and by the time grey begins to seep into the sky we are often ready for a snooze, but we grab each hour of daylight with mitted hands. It must be utilised and, most importantly, witnessed. Then we are in bed very early. 10pm, still bang at it on the Kindles, is very rock’n’roll for us. Darkness is a luxury. You don’t have it in the city. Electric light blasts you through winter at the same pace as summer. A kerosene lantern glows in each corner of our cabin. Th...

(Lou, Yukon) We’ve spent most of the last week in a state I can only describe as being moose-bombed. Anyone who hunts will tell you that pulling the trigger is the easy part. It’s a lot of work and I think we both wondered at points whether it was too much. But as I reminded Neil in my usual sympathetic style- “It is fucking disgusting to destroy this magnificent creature and then whinge and bitch about having to deal with it.” (In fairness, Neil had to do most of the lifting.)  But we managed it and, after about 3 days of work, we are toasting our beautiful bull as we tuck into tenderloin, Moroccan moose stew, dill and beetroot moose stew (and so it will go on all winter...) Last Saturday, a friend from Dawson stopped by in his boat after an unsuccessful hunting trip down river.  “Show us your moose calling then,” he asked. A bit shame-faced we gave it a go-  “Nah, needs to be more nasal. Shorter. With an ‘eaarlgh’ sound at the end.” So we all practised bello...