Comments from 23 July

Kellie said...
ok, thinking about packing an elk or two (or whatever) back to the cabin: they have hacked and hauled, strung up on a pole, and I believe drug down hill....? And made a camp and dried it -there. What other way could they get a bunch of meat and fur back without too much stress on Einar or Liz and their bodies? A travois (sp?) may not do well through the woods and I think they thought about that before. too bad they could not float it!

If snow was already on the ground, it would be somewhat easier to drag/skid the critter back to camp whole, but it’s not, yet, and once it is, the critters will mostly have gone down lower…

They can’t really afford to leave the cabin right now for long enough to make camp and dry the meat--bears are on the prowl looking for a few last big meals, and might get too bold if they don’t smell humans around for a few days.

Looks like they’re probably going to be carrying it back the old fashioned way, on their backs, but if anyone has alternative, please let us know!

colspt said...
How long is it going to take for Einar's ribs to heal? I know they need another elk but it sounds like good news and bad news. Food and skins to survive with and half dead getting it. I also really like the addition of the raven. They better hope he doesn't learn to talk.

With several ribs broken in more than one place as seems to have happened to him, and the ribs being in constant motion because of breathing, I’m guessing it will probably take somewhere upwards of 6-8 weeks (if this timeline doesn’t sound right to anyone, please share your knowledge with us) before they will have finished knitting back together, maybe longer because of his going for so long without enough to eat.

They don’t have that kind of time. The snow will be there by the end of it, if not before. He’s just going to have to wrap his ribs when doing the heavier work, take as much care as he can and make sure he gets good deep breaths whenever he’s able, to hopefully prevent pneumonia from setting in. It won’t be an easy time.

Kathy/LADY KAYDEE said...
Things went well at the BOL... got the dining room flooring down, finished sheet rocking the living room and picked enough figs for two batches of jam. Yum!

Good to see Einar has an appetite again, that’s a start.
His ribs could use some more healing before he goes hunting again.
“Wiley” Coyote may come back for the food.
That skinny, mangy, one eyed critter could make them stay home a while to guard the larder.
My, their food stores have come a long way…
No more tangy “Bear Belly Barf” stuff or “Bear Bowel Blood Sausage”
Ewwwwwww!

Hey now, Einar actually likes that stuff! He wasn’t just making it because they didn’t have anything else to eat...

Really though, all culinary preferences aside, only by using every part--or pretty close to it--of the animals that are their prey can Einar and Liz hope to achieve balanced nutrition on the sort of largely meat diet their circumstances often leave them eating.

Glad things went well at your BOL. Figs--yum! Much as I love these mountains, I wouldn’t mind being able to grow things like figs…

Anonymous said...
That raven, while being a great alarm system on the ground can be a sun catcher from things above. Those gloss black feather really reflect the light if the angle is right. The reflection might be enough to get a plane to take a closer look.

Ravens, crows and blackbirds also have the ability to "talk" like parrots do. Liz and Einar might want to watch what they say, especially using names.

Yep, not a good thing to have a bird sailing past the ears of search teams on the ground croaking Einar’s name…

As for the bird being a sun catcher, yes, they’re pretty reflective, but he’s certainly not the only raven in the area, and would almost certainly be discounted as an item of interest by observers from the air. Unless, of course, his presence happened to draw their eye to an area that they might otherwise have overlooked where there was a trail, cut trees or some other telltale sign of human presence… Or if he ends up hanging around the cabin through the winter, which would definitely be unusual. They will have to be careful.