2010 trips to the
Two reasons made it look like my Sticking days were over, at the cabin:
1. Two heavy snowfalls, Oct. 2, 2009, and spring 2010, while the leaves were out, made a lot of trees
break and bend so badly that all the trails became impassible.
2. It seemed that after 15+ years of sticking there, I might be out of business.
By great coincidence, a good friend showed me an area far away from the cabin where the sticking is VERY good. So, naturally, I switched areas. Here is a brief version of the sticking trips there:
On Saturday, July 10, Marie and I took a huge load of sticks to the cabin; these were mostly my 103 Rejects collected here. We visited briefly with John & Diana. John had completed his new Diamond Willow deck.
At the cabin all was well; there had been very little rain so the lawn was badly overgrown but not as bad as I'd expected.
In the field, Conrad had seeded "field peas" but they were not doing well due to lack of rain. Beno came by and he figured the peas would bring in elk.
The beavers were still in the creek about 100 yards north of the cabin, in spite of my many attempts to chase them away. They had rebuilt the dam even though there was very little water.
The two little strawberry patches were doing fine but overloaded with weeds in spite of us putting "carpet" down before we put on the soil. I raised the lawnmower as high as possible and spent many hours working on the lawn; it did not look as good as it should so needs a second round of mowing. In one strawberry patch, we found a toad the first one I've ever seen at the cabin. Odd; Beno had just told us that there were a lot of toads around.


There were 5 ant-hills in the lawn and I poured dry coffee grounds on them to see if that discourages
them. On the lawn I nearly stepped in a juicy pile of bison poop. There was one deer in the park on
Saturday. We loaded up the Rails which customers had requested.
Sunday morning there were 3 Muledeer bucks near the cabin. I drove to the end of the road and spooked 6
bull Elk. They were running so my pictures were too blurred to keep. In
spite of that, this pic shows 4 of the bulls:
Later there was one Muledeer doe on the lawn. Later there was one deer near my granaries.
I climbed the cabin roof and put screen around the chimney to keep squirrels and birds out. Three or four times, over the years, I've found such critters in my stove. I found that my slightly-sweaty bare feet were best for traction on the slick, metal roof.
We hiked one of my many trails in the bush, and noted that even near the cabin, most ant-hills had been clawed up, indicating bears nearby so I carried my 30-30.
My trails are, to a large extent, no longer open due to snowfalls when the leaves were still out.
The squirrels had been busy along my hiking trail "Tanner Creek Road."
I have many old moose racks along the trail and had hung them into trees but many of them had been torn down, probably by a bear even though they are very old and weathered.
The Indian Paintbrush were in bloom:
On the way home, near Spirit River, we enjoyed, as usual, the view to the north:
On Thursday, June 24, I decided it must be dry enough to try for another load of sticks even though I really *was* afraid to run into a mean bear. I took my shotgun along and left at 7:36 AM. By 4 PM it started to rain a little and that was fine with me because I was extremely tired. Once I saw a big animal on the road behind me, a very long way off so I could not even tell what it was. I got home by 4:52 and after a shower unloaded the van. I had 213 sticks! Broke my own record. NOW I have one huge skinning job to do.
June 30: Well, we tried again. Looked FINE until we got to the first gas well. Met a fellow from BP
(yes!!) there and he agrees that there are a lot of bears in that area; Griz and Black.
We went further but due to mud, we stopped and had lunch and then turned and went back. It was very wet
IN the bush too; too wet to wander around in there.
We took the "scenic route" this time.
We did not get rained on, did not get stuck nor did we get attacked by bears or Great White Sharks.
So, it was a good day.
On July 1, I finished processing that load.
On Saturday, July 3, I went out alone to find some very thin Diamond Willow twigs for the cup-rack I am making. I left at 10:00 and was back by 2:00 with about 60 sticks plus some twigs.
Now to let those twigs dry and fit them into this rack to replace the temporary pegs.
********************************************************On Friday, May 14, 2010, Marie, Jack & Wilma Ames (not their real names) and I went south again. We had gone there previously for a picnic and for Jack to show me the area.
We tried in 3 areas; hardly any of the sticks peeled well. We saw one small brown bear, a yearling bull moose and 7 deer. I had been asked about "Labrador Tea" by Sara Little-Crow Russel and did find a lot of that too; I took home a few leaves to dry.
It had been very dry and very cool most of this spring hence the sticks not skinning well. Well, a day or two later the rains came. And came. And came. And came with SNOW on Friday, May 22. On Saturday I got up to see about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Trees had been breaking off all over the country bringing down powerlines. This means sticking is delayed again.
On Tuesday, May 25, Marie and I tried again. It was VERY wet in the bush, VERY thick bush and VERY hard to do anything BUT I did find a lot of sticks. I even saw a garter snake. There were still little patches of snow all over in the bush, and much of the time I was walking in water up to 10 inches deep. I did suffer a violent attack from a vicious tree and Marie had to wipe blood off me. On the way home we saw a Great Horned Owl.
I was so exhausted I went to bed at 9. I'm not as young as I used to be when I was not as old as I am now!
On Saturday, May 29, Marie and I thought we'd try it again. Since "flattered scowers" were in the weather forecast, it might be good to have some on hand to skin as soon as that rain was gone. Back home at 4:30 with 74 sticks, including some VERY good ones.
I carry a brown paper bag for garbage. Every bit of it I find goes into the bag. It makes me feel good to know I'm doing the country a small favour.
Next day we tried again. We used the old golf bag carrying thingy on wheels and that helped when I went down an old cutline. Then the rain came and soaked everything suggesting that a trip home would be in order.
Next day we went out again and got a good load. We saw almost zero mosquitos.
By Friday I had them all skinned and had 3 large garbage bags of packed bark.
The sticks at the bottom of the pile, i.e. the ones harvested June 4, skinned just fine.
Saturday, June 12: I went out (alone) about 10:45 AM and was back with 105 sticks by 3:30 PM. I saw a large Grizzly at one oilwell and he ambled into the trees so I moved no less than 200 yards from that spot to start my Sticking. I hauled several arm-loads to the van and as I was bringing one more back, I saw a large Black Bear only 100 yards from the van, on the road, ambling away. He must have been very close to me in the bush; just as well I did not see him. I had seen a few more nice sticks there, so I made sure the bear spray can was still on my belt before I went back in. This one was no hurry at all, even with me hollering my greetings. So I shot him. With my Canon. Here is the result. I suspect this was a 400-pound bear with the Grizzly being much the same size.
Now to skin these 105 and then go look for more until the sticking season ends when the sap stops running about mid-July.
On Wednesday, June 16, I went back out alone, leaving at 9:30 and mailed some sticks on my way out. By 4:30 I was too tired to continue sticking so went home, getting home by 5:00 P.M. and immediately jumped into the shower. Next morning I unloaded the van: 142 sticks including one 15-footer and one Scout Stick. My biggest haul ever in one day.
On Thursday I re-arranged the sticks in the garage and found a bit of mould on one of them. Quickly, I rushed to Canadian Tire and bought a powerful 20-inch fan to circulate air over the drying sticks. On Thursday and Friday I skinned about 75 of the 142. Next day I gave my poor, sore hands a rest.
Tuesday, May 4: it was a cold, snowy, windy day. We saw a bunch of 6 Muledeer on the way. The further north we went, the better the weather. After lunch we went to the cabin and saw a moose feeding 100 yards south of the cabin. It was cold but there was almost no snow. I filled the bird-feeder and soon a couple of Juncos were enjoying my offering.
There was very light snow falling and I mentioned that to Marie. She replied that it was pollen; not snow. So I marched her outside and we held out our hands to let some of the flakes land on our skin. They quickly melted, indicating that it really was snow. Henceforth, every time it snows, one of us will say "there is more pollen falling." I set up the 10 Super Rails which I'd brought from town and took a picture of those.
We got 11 sticks and 3 of them peeled well. I was telling Marie that Connie C was going to have a laparoscopy. When she asked what that was, I explained: "well, you know the word "lapidary" which refers to making jewellery out of rocks, so this must be where they cut a hole in her tummy, pour in a bunch of rocks, and tumble her."
Wednesday: First off there were 2 deer in the field and two rabbits on the lawn. They have completely lost their white winter coats.
The temperature was only zero C and it was heavy overcast. There were no mice in the traps this morning. The sapsuckers are making the usual very loud noise on the boards of the firewood bins. Click below to hear them: