May 2007 Archives

This is Ms. Speckled Goose. I was visiting a student when her grandfather came back from a few days of goose hunting out on the rivers. He asked if I knew how to pluck, and when I replied affirmatively he dropped a goose in a paper bag and put the package on my lap.

So I brought home Ms. Speckled Goose that Friday afternoon and you can follow the photos through the plucking, singe-ing and gutting. We haven't eaten her yet...but we'll probably roast her up for Sunday dinner sometime soon.

When I got weary, Keith finished plucking the feathers off the body. The down on this bird was so thick that I saved it in a special bag with the thought of using it for something cosy one day...we'll see if that pans out.

Now the goose is ready to singe. So we built an open fire in a rusted out half of a fifty gallon oil drum.

The wings are rather difficult to pluck, and convenient to use as handles during the singe, so its nice the feathers will just burn off. We're about to just hack off the wings at the "elbow" anyways.

And here we are at the gutting station. After breaking off the head, feet and wings, I sliced through the tail end of the bird and slit up towards the ribcage. Then in a fine delicate procedure I rip out everything that I can get my fingers on. All the innards. Also with bloody hands I am beseaching that mosquito on my shoulder to just move on.

These are innards.

Then you just drop the bird in a bag in the freezer.

Job done.

On May 19 we bid a bittersweet fairwell to the Neuberts. She, the local PA, he the middleschool science teacher, and the village's most cherished "blue-eyed indian" to come out Fort Yukon in a while. They had spent the last four and a half years in Fort Yukon and we will very much miss them all terribly.
But, you can just tell, that you can take the baby out of Fort Yukon, but you can't take the Fort Yukon out of the baby. She's been eating salmon for so long there's just no way we won't see her come this way again.

Best wishes to you, Neuberts!

We haven't actually brought one tumbling out of the clouds yet, but we've had the chance to pluck a few geese. Here Keith shows off a speckled-belly goose before he ripped off all the feathers. He then holds it over a fire to singe off the remaining feathers and hairs, before cutting and breaking off the feet, wings and neck. After that its just the simple matter of slicing, and reaching inside the bird to relieve it of all its organs. The gizzard...jury is still out on what that actually is...is cleared of all the coarse sand grains, and put back in the cavity to be cooked with the bird.

This is a view of the still frozen mouth of the porcupine river just a mile before it feeds the Yukon. At this little cliff more than a few geese had been plucked and feathers were stuck to everything, and blowing in the wind. Every once in a while we venture down a new trail and find a whole new world of breathtaking. New worlds are just around every corner here, even 16 months in.

Things are moving quickly towards the end of the school year for me. Head Start finishes on May 24, though the public school ends a week and a half earlier. Spring has really come to the Fort---the snow is gone from the roads, the dust is back--covers you when you race around on your fourwheeler. There are a few big puddles on the back trails, almost lost myself in one this afternoon, pulled my feet up to rest by the windshield, kept it in first gear, held my breath and plugged my nose. Pretty amazing how that machine can be half in water and still push on through. And no thanks I'm sure to the makeshift boot Keith and I collaborated to wrap around one of the CV joints. It was a little too daunting to take the whole wheel and axl off, so we zip-tied a sliced boot around the joint and covered it with a hodge-podge of duck tape and felt soaked in silicone. It's better than nothing until we get the guts to take the whole wheel off. Keith joined the online Honda riders club and has online access to the shop book, so he's printed off some vague instructions on the process--four black and white photos with two arrows. Umm, thanks Honda, that really does the trick.

Haven't put many photos up recently so I added a few from the not so recent past. Hopefully I'll try to keep things updated better this summer when I'm off work and running from the mosquitos. Which, by the way, are already around...the early ones are enormous, but terribly slow, which gives us the false impression that we'll be able to fight them off...but no matter our efforts, the sleeker, speedier, sneakier 2.0 generation is on the way.

In late March, due the threat of some open water the dog sled races went out over some trails around town. We took advantage of this and were able to drive the snogo a little from our house, watch the racers go by at their two minute start intervals and then drive to the finish line and see them all come home. We also brought our little radio with us, so we could listen the coverage as we drove around.

Here's a photo finish.

We're always welcoming to visitors, we know how to share our pee-buckets. These two hit a big weekend in Fairbanks and here we gathered at Creamer's Field to watch a Fort Yukon hometown hero run in the North American DogSled Race. Also caught a glimpse of the infamous pipeline, ate out, bought fresh food, and slid on ice to our heart's content at the Ice Park.

Let us extend another hearty invite to all intrepid travelers out there. We welcome you to visit, anytime! I'm thinking this summer solstice, June 21 or so, would be a great date to visit. But we have 24 hour light for a couple months...so come on up!

Early in April the children and I planted some seeds, peas, morning glories and Johnny Jump-Ups. One little girl ran in the next day and asked, "Teacher, when will my Johnny Push-Ups grow?"