Monday, June 4, 2012

Feet & Meat... Non- Veg Post

Ah, summertime in Alaska.
I was lucky to have heard about a gathering out in the woods near my old stomping grounds from back in the day when I first arrived in Alaska.
I squatted at an old shack when I turned 20 that had once been a homestead. With no car and no rent to pay and a job cooking in a day care every other week I was pretty sure I had it made.
For a somewhat domesticated New England girl it was true pioneering... or just cheap.
Definitely was a character building experience.

I always get a wee bit nostalgic when I walk this muddy trail.
Of course none of us cabin dwellers had four wheelers then.

This cabin wasn't there. My friend Sepp is building it.
He's more of a mountain man type that actually has lived out in the bush trapping and hunting to feed himself,  a totally subsistence lifestyle. In the summers now he supports himself selling blueberries and morel mushrooms at the farmers market although he has given some slide tours of his lifestyle back in Germany where  he's from.
This is his friend getting ready to put a caribou leg on the fire.
Sepp's wild game cooking skills are legendary.

Plenty of garlic goes into the butter basting along with herbs

Sepp mixing it up

Campfire feet.
There's a gnarly story about that missing toe  but I don't want to gross you out too much. Besides it's his story.... only rivaled by his near mauling by a grizzly bear story and how the lead dog of his dog team saved his life


Good organic free-range lean meat

I told you there were feet in this post

Muddy ones.
This is the ubiquitous footwear of spring and early summer in interior Alaska.
"Extratufs"

Or this if you're extra tough yourself


Keep that fire burning

Then he shaves off the outside meat and throws it into the butter, garlic and herbs and  then it's passed around the campfire

We were under this tepee structure

Annalee found some of last years cranberries and a wolverine skull.

Some cranberries from the freezer were tossed in for flavor.
Annalee got to keep hers.
The skull went back to Sepp's rock garden

It was a hungry crowd. The caribou was melt in your mouth delicious.
See, they had to put a second leg on.

I went for a little walk and found my old shack. Some dipstick decided to blow it up with dynamite a few years ago. It had been going back to the earth just fine on its own.
Kind of made me mad that someone would do that.

My old outhouse.... sigh

And since it's light out all night I made the 2 hour drive back to Delta stopping at my son's archaeology field camp site at midnight since it was on the way.
This is the town of North Pole and Santa Claus House.
It's about 11:00 PM in this photo.

I've been using ups some scraps of copper that are left from punching discs.

I got a nice load of this textured copper from a roofing outfit...
most of it for free too.

Some enamel torch firing

I can see some wire wrapping round the stem

Fun with my new dimple pliers


torch enamel "matchsticks" on copper

The sun finally came out today after way too many cloudy or rainy days. It makes the solitude infinitely more easy to bear as Mr. Coryosity is leaving me here to my own devices for most of the summer.
So if I sound really "ronery"  here you'll know why.















32 comments:

  1. A fabulous post, feet and all! It was fun learning a bit more abou you.

    I love the metal pieces with the dimples. It's probably good that I don't have a pair of the dimple pliers otherwise I might practice on things I shouldn't.

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    1. They are super fun. Now you got me imagining what kind of things one shouldn't dimple. hmmm...

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  2. You and I have much in common. I lived in a teepee once as well as a few cabins in the woods. One of my cabins was destroyed as well and all that was left was the outhouse. It made me sad to see since I had such good memories of all of my cabins, tents and teepees.

    Thanks for bringing back all those memories. That caribou leg looks quite delicious!

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    1. What part of the country were you living in then? It is good memories but I just only like weekends of camping these days.
      I never went camping back then because my whole life was like camping.

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  3. awesome! now i feel the need for some matchsticks coming on. te-he-he. maybe my new favorite material? hmmm. love the stories and the visual aides. thank you for sharing. :)

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    1. I guess I gotta figure out how much I want for them....always the hard part!

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  4. This post is so full, I don't know where to start. looks like you had a blast with your buds. sorry that someone blew up your old cabin, though.
    your enameled matchsticks are fabulous! LOVE them. and using your copper disc cutting leftover bits for your lampwork-brilliant! you're gonna be dimpling everything in sight. cuz it's addictive! great post!

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  5. Hey camping!
    We've been camping for nearly 2 years now. Fire for hot water n cooking, generator power. All changed now the solar power system is in.
    Have a fully functioning outhouse :)

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    1. Sounds great, will you share some pictures with us? My outhouse there used to get ...ahem...a build-up due to things freezing into what we called "shitsicles" My friend solved the problem by shooting it down with a shotgun. quite literally "shooting the shit"

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  6. Pictures of matchstick men.... Yeah I want some too.

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    1. They're kind of fun to make because I'm not trying for any perfection. that takes the pressure off!

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  7. Great post Kim! Everything looks like fun! I'm getting hungry now!

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    1. I know, it makes me drool every time I see the picture!

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  8. Wow, I'm loving seeing where you live, as well as the people living there. Always wanted to see Alaska, maybe someday soon.

    And the pieces you're making, LOVELY!
    xoxo Juliette

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    1. Thanks, Juliette. We could have a workshop here!

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  9. ...looks like a lot of fun. What a wild place up there--in the summer, and cold in the winter?

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    1. Yes, very cold and dark but now we're snowbirds and escape most of it. Down to the desert in the winter just north of the Mexican border

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  10. Great post. Love the feets.
    Matchsticks and dimples too.
    The dog eating bear story was tough to read.

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    1. Yes, I happened to find that snippet after I posted this. Quite an experience he had.

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  11. gosh Kim, so much in this post! you are a tough guy living in a cabin all on your lonesome... looks like what we called mud season in northern CO... and lots o fun around the fire!

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    1. I'm so much more civilized these days, but I do enjoy going for a visit. I do love a hot shower the most in life.

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  12. Kim im so Sorry to see the ol Homested all blew up to kindilin, devistatin kinda reminds me of my ol hunters cabin in Winsted that those religious party boys fell a huge pine on and split it up in 2, was hard heart breaking to see it all broke up like that, makes u want to hit the spirits to get braced up again, sad all round.

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    1. So nice to see my bro commenting here. Yes such good memories and people have to go and desecrate and vandalize.
      That place was special indeed.

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  13. None of that glamping nonsense for you! Proper big fire, half a deer and bare feet.Love it, but there's no chance a softy like me gonna do that. Copper bits look cool.

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    1. I had to look that up, didn't know if it was a typo or some brit-word that I was unfamiliar with. Yes, no damn glamping!

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  14. i hope you kept journals out there in the cabin you "hearty New Englander" you! Everything here looks enchanting, from your handy work to the fire to the slivers of meat in the buttered herb sauce.

    Sweet little ronery vid, too.

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    1. My journals were either kind of sparse or embarrassingly full of hormone driven man drama and dilemmas. Of course back then the male to female ratio was quite uneven. I do have one sketch saved from back then. I suppose I should put it up.

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  15. Don't be ronery Kim - you have all of us! Not quite the same though I guess. Loving the work and as always completely gob-smacked at your ability to adapt to your environment - seem so wild to a gal who lives in the genteel sweep of vineyard country ...I've always thought of myself as a country girl but you give new meaning to the word! Looks like you are getting lots of great work done whilst you are on your own!

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  16. You wild woman you. Life in the bush, meat off the bone and spit, but I recognize those crocs!!! Ha Ha. Glad you shared your blueberry man. xox

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  17. Life up north is sure different than here in the city!
    The dimple pliers ........oh I want some now!
    Days and nights of light. How do you ever fall asleep?

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  18. What a great way to spend a wonderful Northern summer day! It has been way to rainy in my Northern home, but still lots of light...
    xo
    Kim

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