Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Guilty pleasures and a surprise

One of the Youtube channels I have been enjoying is called Simple Living Alaska. The videos are very well produced and the couple seems genuine and lacking pretense.

The couple does not pretend to be perfect. They freely admit they make mistakes. They lose stringers of fish. They don't catch a fish every time they throw the bait in the water. Their onions don't ripen and so on.

The videos document "process" more than "trophy".

Three starter videos to see if you like them are Hooligan, Vegetables, Pike

I know that Howard, one of my occasional readers lives in the area. I am interested in his take on the couple. BS or real?

Stealth Camping

One of the things I do is to hunt deer.

Once upon a time, my brothers and I would engage in deer "drives". Several of us would post-up in good ambush sites and the rest of us would walk through cover to "push" the deer toward the shooters.

I recall times when I pushed deer out of tiny, postage-stamps strips of cover, smaller than my living room. I suspect they knew they had enough cover AND were able to see out, 360 degrees, from their resting spots.

So it is ingrained in me that a person dressed in subdued colors who can maintain his cool really does not need very much concealment to remain invisible. People see what they expect to see. In most cases they expect to see nothing.

I was intrigued to find Steve Wallis's Youtube channel where he goes stealth camping in the most unlikely of places, like in the center of traffic round-abouts and behind warehouses and police stations.

I have to confess that part of the appeal is that Steve seems like the arch-type Canadian, just like Glen Filthy. Humble. Respects authority (mostly). Enjoys a beer every now and then. Maybe he is a little bit goofy but then many Canadians think US citizens are twitchy...so it all evens out in the end.

I also like that Steve is not a gear-hound. He does not spend $300 on a tent when a tarp or a hunting blind can be repurposed. His kind of camping is very accessible.

So I was taken aback when his latest video showed up in my feed "Rest in Peace, my Beautiful Wife".

Steve appears to be about 40 years-old. As he tells it, "Two of us went to sleep Saturday night and only one of us woke up on Sunday morning."

Son-of-a-bitch!!!

Steve, I feel for you man. Hang in there. There but for the grace of God could be any one of us. We are pulling for you.

10 comments:

  1. Yes, Steve, my deepest condolences and do HANG IN THERE.

    I have been losing friends of over 30 years pretty regular lately and I am only in my late 60's.

    Lost a slightly older brother 16 years ago.

    So I am well familiar with THAT pain of loss.

    BUT, losing the Beloved at that young age? That is much bigger burden to carry...by far.

    Whether you pray or not, you and your wife are in my prayers for whatever good that will do.

    My most sincere condolences.

    Da Perfessor

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  2. My comments on simple living Alaska are from a different part of Alaska. I’m not sure where they are at but I have never lived in an area with pike, I have caught them while on fall hunts in the Tanana drainage and they have lots of bones but they are ok eating. I have a lot more experience dip netting Copper River reds and canning then both smoked and plain. Some people do catch hooligan in the spring along the beach in Valdez but I didn’t have time to try that time of year because I worked at the salmon hatchery and we were busy outmigrating and feeding baby salmon that time of year. Several times we did jig herring off the city dock mid summer and hard salt them and made pickled fish as we needed them. Not the same fish but similar eating. On the garden, I have more experience. Their onions definitely won’t keep all winter. I buy plants from an outfit in Texas and the last few years I have been growing them in one of my two, 12 x 24 hoop houses. Last years onions got mature enough that I used the last of the 2021 crop this June. I have similar luck with brassicas, have been eating broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbage etc for a month even though we had a late start this year. Last couple weeks have been wet here too, as it is in August most years. My potatoes have been doing well as I got them in mostly on time and they have been flowering for at least three weeks. Last year we had an early snow before the tops were even down and we had to shovel snow off the rows to dig them, hopefully it will go better this year. So these people are probably doing what they can to put up food in their area of Alaska and seem to be learning as they go. Howard

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    1. Thank-you, Howard.

      Your gardening skills run circles around mine.

      We all need to sharpen up our game. One advantage gardening has over hunting/fishing is that most people can walk out their back door and garden while even in Alaska, hunting or fishing often involves taking a boat 100 miles up the river or driving several hundred miles. That takes a lot of gas and there is no guarantee the game or fish will be there when you arrive.

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    2. Hooligan were known as candle fish because of their oil content when dried. The gold rush trail from Skagway to the Yukon were long established trade trails some times called “Grease trails” because both sea mammal fat and candle fish were carried to the relatively low fat interior for copper and fine furs!

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  3. Yes, they seem to be honest about their mistakes. The root cellar is a prime example. It lasted about a year and then the water table did them in. Still beautiful views of different parts of Alaska.

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  4. "Died Suddenly"

    "SADS" (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome)

    The bigger this looming bad news balloon gets, the harder it will be to keep it under water. Cognitive dissonance thicker than a brick has many who took the experimental ingektshuns refusing to even see, much less admit the obvious....

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    1. That was my first thought also... Being a law abiding Canadian, I'm sure both of them were "up to date".

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  5. CRIME OF THE CENTURY ! ! !

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  6. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/seven-dead-doctors-14-days-dont-lie-wayne-allyn-root/

    .

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  7. ERJ, Thanks, after a fashion. Your link to this gentleman's heartfelt video eulogy for his "Beautiful Wife" made me weep for his loss. The gratitude is for my thinking of how my life would be bereft, should The Darling Wife-Mark II (improved version) depart this coil before me.

    His genuine tears for his spouse moved me. And, thank you for that.

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