She is staring at me from a distance. The mountains have changed their parkas to what looks like a powdered sugar coating. The air is sharp and metallic. The fish have moved on. The dogs are almost visibly producing a thick undercoat. Any exposed water gets a thin coat of ice over night. And we have begun our winter preparations.
This will be a hard winter for us. The caribou did not migrate South anywhere near here, so meat is going to be an issue, and we are disappointed that we will have to buy almost half our meat this winter in plastic pre frozen blocks of ground beef and chicken breasts. Luckily my husband did get a little bit of sheep meat and a cousin got a moose, so we will at least have some non-fat laden-high in hormones - and whatever chemicals they vaccinated cows and chickens with - meat. The fish also were not cooperating with us this year and since I had surgery I could not go ice fishing in the early spring. Our freezers are the emptiest they have ever been and it feels like we are ...Inupiaq lean.....not really poor....but close. We have traded berries for seal oil and meat, and a few huge chunks of whale meat, which will pad our larders well.
Luckily my brother has moved to the nearest city and will be shipping us veggies and fruits and whatnot through the winter, which will at least provide a variety of goodies.
But I am finding more time indoors, to do things that were abandoned in the late winter. I can blog again, bead again, write again, philosophize again, and work on skins as I repair our cold weather gear. But first we work to prepare for winter. Today we will make sure there is nothing in the yard that is important and that will get buried in the snow, and we will also dig out the stuff for winter and trapping and order straw for the dogs, and a million other tiny thins that will need to be done before we succumb to Winter.
I also decided to experiment with the blog....and add some video.
They won't be much more than tiny (and probably way too artistic) peeks into my random life but it looks like it will be fun!
Lingonberry Mustard. More info CLICK HERE
love the addition of the video...like looking through a window into a world i can only imagine.
ReplyDeleteThe video is lovely... sigh.
ReplyDeleteYour preparation for winter is much like what I do on the farm here. I had our second snow aready of the season - 8 inches but all has mostly gone into the ground. Much different from your lovely home. I have 80 animals to guard from the cold and snow which keeps me on my toes. I understand building a stash of food because I at times do not leave the farm for three months at a time during the winter. My Great Pry's are loving the change in temp and the welcome playtime in snow. Can not wait to see your video
ReplyDelete