They say that the people of the bush have been around for the past seven thousand years. Where the forest is abundant with plants and animals, and the seasons come and go. The people of the land harvest what they need, week to week, from season to season and from year to year. This is a short summary of my experiences of living from the land.
My fathers’ older sister lives between Lake Huron and Lake Superior in a city called Sault Ste Marie. My aunt and uncle have fifty acres of land in a valley, where they grow many crops and take part in a Farmers Market. Besides their great farming skills, they have been harvesters of the land and trapping on trap lines for the past 40 years. This Fall I was invited to help them trap and hunt for an entire week. Here is a day-by-day play of my week. I arrived on Saturday October 17, 2009 in the Township of Jessiman.
-- October 18 -- My first night was a cozy one, followed by a 6am wake-up on a Saturday morning!! Ate a yummy farmers breakfast, packed our lunches and by 8:30am we were hitting the trails. My uncle had already placed a few beaver and muskrat traps earlier in the week; we stopped along the trail to check them, but no beavers yet. Our mode of transportation in these trails was a 4 wheeler. I never knew its capabilities: mud, sand, rocks, logs, even water... this piece of machinery will ride over anything. We stopped at various points along the trail where we would observe for beaver activity, and set up traps. They tried to explain to me the geography of the area and how the watershed system works in their Trapline of 36 square miles. One major river that runs through is the Aubinadong River, a famous canoe route. We had lunch at this nice little campsite, where we made a fire and drank warm tea. We caught a couple Grey Partridge and ate them for dinner! Called it a day shortly after...
-- October 19 -- After waking up with really sore bums, we all agreed to spend the day around the cabin. Cut wood in the morning and pilled it all up. Skinned two beavers that my uncle had previously caught. The process was fascinating to watch, especially the anatomy of the beaver and the muskrat... and the various knives & tools he used. The smell was a little overwhelming at first, however like everything... you get used to it! We ate lunch, and then decided to launch the small Lund boat, and go fishing. We circled the entire lake and caught nothing! It made for an eventful afternoon, followed by a small ride to check two traps at the other end of the trapline. There it was, the Big beaver. I was a little hesitant to carry the animal up the hill... so I offered to bring the tools instead.
-- October 20 -- I learnt that beavers are primarily nocturnal creatures; they start to be active at dusk and then work really hard during the night. Since it had been 48 hours that the traps were last checked, we had to get back on the trail and do our rounds. We did really well... caught three large bachelor male beavers. Our count was now up to six beavers, only one more to go until we had 70% of the quota. On our way back, we went to check the traps just passed the cabin and I was asking my uncle numerous questions and all of a sudden the trap just set off on its own. It caught us by surprise!! I would never want to get my hand stuck in one of those. However we caught another beaver and a couple of partridge. Yay! The quota was met and we were okay. For dinner we were craving some fish.... so we decided to eat some wild Coho from the west coast, a treat that I brought along for them.
-- October 21 -- A day well spent at the cabin! My uncle took off on the four-wheeler to go gather all his beaver traps, while my aunt and I stayed back all day and cooked, cleaned and did tons of story telling. I almost made her pee her pants twice! We were both laughing all day. I spoke to her about my OE3 course from last year, she really enjoyed hearing about my classes and our experience in growing a garden. Later that afternoon we decided to make some solid handlebars for me to go riding in the wagon... that in itself was hilarious. Our design was solid. In the evening I got my own personal lesson on how to grow all varieties of vegetables, how to graft trees, and how to harvest my own seeds. I took plenty of notes and hopefully I can follow through with their these tips one day.
-- October 22 -- Snowy Morning... It was October, but actually it felt just like Christmas. We woke up to snow everywhere. Considering how beautiful and white everything was, all three of us went for a ride to see animal tracks and and begin setting up the box traps for the martens. Of
f we went riding in the snow... encountered fox, rabbit, and weasel tracks. The weather was incredibly mild... upon our arrival back at the cabin my uncle was off to gather trees for firewood and my aunt and I made a snowman. Once the wood arrived, we were very busy with splitting and pilling the wood. One of the trees, once was a beautiful pine. It was at least 150 years old. That's Ontario old growth!! I went down by the water for a little walk and bailed all the water out of the boat from the rain and melted snow, on my way there I came across a weasel. His fur was half white, half brown... a small little adorable creature.
-- October 23 -- The snow is still on the ground! The morning was spent skinning the remainder of the beavers. It's a 
really long job. It's such a process trying to get all that extra fat off the fur. Meanwhile, I tried to attract the Whiskey Jacks to come eat out of my hand... but the birds were too shy. My uncle spent a large portion of the day skinning the beavers. At sundown we brewed some blueberry leaves and tried to make tea. It looked a little dark for tea, and had very little flavor.
-- October 24 -- We pilled wood again, and I packed my duffel bag. We hit the road so we could go eat lunch at Aubrey Falls approximately 30 km's from the Trapline. On our way out we saw some lovely wolf tracks and noticed that one of the beavers had cut a tree that was blocking the road. Lucky for us we had taken the chainsaw and pilled everything to the side. We went to gather some spring drinking water... made a nice stop at the fuel station and indulged warm food. It was weird to be back in civilization again. Shortly after, my dad was already waiting to pick me up alongside the highway. That was the end of my one-week stay on the trap line. I had a fantastic learning experience, great laughs and wild food, all thanks to my aunt Lucille and uncle Jean-Guy.
