Time of Many Changes

With every new day, the woods around us look a little more lush and green. New shoots emerging from the ground, the leaves of currents and alders and cherries are growing. Soon other trees will follow. Thunderstorms have been moving through over the past few days, and a plethora of bird songs and calls awakes us each morning. During warm nights, the chorus of frogs sometimes goes up to a deafening volume. So many changes…and yet, the natural world is always changing, it may just be a little easier for us to see now…

We’ve started sending a scout every other day to a creek where sucker fish run up to spawn. When the time comes for them to move upstream, we will set up fish camp in the area to catch them for our summer protein. This could happen any day and since the run usually only lasts a few days, we need to be able to leave at a moment’s notice.

Smoked buckskins

In the meantime, camp life at Mashkodens continues. I’ve finished the frame of the skin canoes and am waiting for a sunny day to completely dry out the frame and apply a layer of oil and pitch for preservation.

I’ve also built a smoker to smoke some buckskins that I’d like to use for several

The smoker setup: An "oven" lined with rocks and a birch bark chimney, all dug into a hillside

sewing projects.