A Nutria Trap Line by Bicycle

This is a video of a bicycle trapping workshop that I led last winter through TrackersNW of Portland. As discussed in my last posting, I ran the same workshop last week. Participants came along on a bicycle trap line for nutria. A trap line is simply a bunch of traps set in a variety of locations by a trapper to catch fur-bearing animals. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has a specific list of what animals are considered fur bearers and are legal to trap. Some of these animals, such as nutria, have an open season for trapping, meaning they can be trapped anytime of year. This is because of some of the reasons I described in my last post.
We caught two nutria at one of the two urban farms I set traps at. (I would like to emphasize that I was the only one setting the traps because I was the only one with a valid furtaker's license. ODFW requires that a person study a packet of info and pass a written test in order to be issued a furtaker's license.) We then returned with our catch and skinned them, prepared the hides for tanning and butchered the carcass and cooked up a bit of the meat. Most folks seemed pleasantly surprised at the "chicken- like" taste of the meat. I have been asked, and often wondered myself, whether the meat from these critters is clean enough to eat being that they are semi-aquatic and spend much time in Johnson Creek, which isn't known for being clean. My opinion is this: Eating a bit of this now and then can't be too harmful because the nutria are feeding mainly on clean organic crops and grasses at the farm where they reside. They are not eating fish and so, I assume, are not bioaccumulating toxins the way tuna, salmon and other seafood (that folks pay top dollar for) does. I would like to find someone who could do the research to see what toxins may be present in urban animals such as, nutria, raccoon, opossum and squirrel. These mammals are plentiful in Portland and sometimes even overpopulated, and I think could offer a healthy source of meat for humans. Think of it as free-range sources of meat, fat, and fur. : )

Possum wool?

I was just checking out Rivendell's website and came across this rad hat that they are selling made from 40% New Zealand Possum Wool, 50% Merino and 10% Nylon. Check out the link and read about it. The New Zealand Possum is different from our native opossum and was introduced there years ago. Unfortunately it causes a lot of damage to the native flora and fauna of NZ so people are trying to wipe them out. This is much like the nutria (Myocastor coypus) here in the US which causes much damage by eating up massive amounts of wetland vegitation and pushing the native muskrats out of their territory.

It just so happens that I will be leading a workshop through Trackers NW of Portland this Tues. and Wed. where we will cycle out to a farm in the Portland area where the nutria devour many of the farms crops. Here we will speak with the farmers, do some tracking for the little buggers and then set traps. The following day we will pedal back out early in the morn and check our traps. If we catch some of these big rodents we will ride back with them on our racks and skin and process them at TrackersNW. Participants will learn about the ethics of trapping animals and how to do it responsibly and how to skin, butcher, and tan the hide of a small critter.
I often think about this idea of native and non-native or invasive species. The reality is that the nutria or the NZ possum is not evil, it is just doing what it does best and it is a master of survival because it can prosper and multiply in many environments. However, it brings sadness to me to see the native species be killed off and lose them potentially forever. The reality is that nature has a way of balancing itself out and what I am witnessing is this process. Someday, the nutria may take the place of the muskrat over much of North America and it is silly for us to fight this change. I say we need to embrace these species and realize that they are capable of providing much for us and for others. For example: abundant sources of fur, meat, fat for humans and predatory animals. (Last year while trapping nutria, I came upon a bald eagle feasting on one of the nutria in my traps.) Which brings me back to my excitement about this NZ possum fur hat that Riv is selling. The makers of these hats are making use of an abundant renewable resource, unlike polyester and other plastic fibers made from oil. If life gives you lemons make some fuckin' lemonade my friends!

Winter Hats

I do have some Alpine hats in stock in black and grey. These are $40 plus $5 ship/handle. I will also be posting some of my Wheely, 3 panel and 8 panel hats with earflaps. These will come in 2 sizes, unlike the Alpine, because the body of the hat is made from woven wool and not stretchy like the Alpine caps are. I'm in the process of getting my hat studio in order after moving it all from a basement into an 8'x 12' camper. It was previously owned by someone else who had a sewing business of sorts in it. It looks like a piece of junk but I love it so far. I have been working out of basements for the past 5 years and god damn, it feels good to finally be working in an above-ground space with natural light shinin' in. Here's a photo of the space so far.

Raising the Yurt

Building a Home

Insulating the floor before we lay the deck. I had no idea how expensive insulation is! Damn. Unfortunately we have been told that the mice will eventually steal all of it from us to build there nests. Damn.

The yurt we purchased came with all of the pre-cut car decking. Trying to lay this out and hope that it matched the shape of our beams was a little frustrating.

But it all came together nicely in the end. A cup of coffee as I contemplate laying the final deck boards.

Finally! All 183 boards in place. My back hurts!

The old camper that will become my new mobile sewing studio. Ideally I'd like to outfit it with some human powered sewing machines and a small woodstove. Thats the next project.

Moving to the Country

I've been wanting to move out of the city for a few years now and it finally feels like the time is right. All of the other attempts I made fell through. We discussed it a lot this summer while traveling and when we returned, Kirsten and I decided to move to a small farm, run by a few friends about 45 miles from Portland. We bought a yurt used on Craigslist from the Seattle area and picked it up in the U-haul pictured. It's a 30' diameter yurt and all of the parts were a lot bigger than we expected. The brand is Pacific Yurts out of Cottage Grove, OR. We hope to move into it by Oct. 1st. Below is the post and beam structure for the deck that the yurt will sit on. Our plan is to live here and help to run the small CSA (community supported agriculture)farm started by our friends. If all works out, I will move my hat sewing studio with me in a small camper. I'll post more photos as the yurt goes up.

Back to Portland

It was a five day drive from Skagway, AK to Portland and we are home again! The sunshine feels good on my face after our last rainy week in Juneau. I had the realization when we hit B.C. and the skies cleared, that I haven't really seen any stars since the bike tour through Washington. Though I live in the city, I have become accustom to looking up at the stars each season to see a few familiar constellations. While in SE Alaska though, most nights were cloudy and I sort of forgot about looking skyward. My overall impression of SE Alaska? I like it there. It feels big in comparison to the lower 48, not just because of land size but because of big creatures, moose, bear, whales, caribou, salmon and halibut. People were really generous and everyone that I met seemed to have an intimate relationship with the place, either as fishermen, hunters, backpackers or kayakers. Even if they didn't fish, they could tell you about all the different types of salmon and when and where they run. I like the fact that it is expensive to ship goods such as, beef, dairy, tomatoes and oranges, so instead, or rather because they prefer to, folks stock their freezers with halibut, salmon and moose that their family or friends harvested. All of this makes me want to move there. But the one thing that I seemed to have trouble with was the rain. I was told that it rains all year long and most of the time we were there, it did. The few days of clear 85 degree weather in July were very unusual, even alarming to locals. As much as I don't mind the wet Portland winters, I feel some amount of depression by the end of it and look forward to the guaranteed 3-4 months of sunshine in summer. Anyway, I'm happy to be home and don't intend to leave Oregon anytime soon. Below are more photos.

Porcupine chillin' in a tree overlooking the Mendenhall Glacier.


Mendenhall Glacier from West Glacier Trail as we started our hike up to some mountain I can't remember the name of.


Mountain goat relaxing in the meadow.

More of the glacier as we ascend.


Wild buffalo herds along the ALCAN highway


We made a visit to Liard Hot Springs in Northern B.C. It was $10 per vehicle to get in and the hot springs were really nice. Unlike some popular hotsprings, the park service kept these pretty natural, rather than turning it into a big concrete pool.

We met this awesome woman through craig's list who was moving from Anchorage to Portland and hitched a ride home with her. Kirsten and I drove her truck some of the way as she cruised down the ALCAN on her motorcycle. This made our return trip a lot more fun and inexpensive than flying or ferrying.

A young caribou

I wished I was bike touring through this. I kept thinking that maybe I should hop on my bike and ride the rest of the way back to Portland so that I could travel some of the route we had originally intended to ride through B.C., but the further south we got the less interesting and busier the roads became. The drive from Prince George, B.C. to Bellingham, WA didn't look to appealing to bike with all of it's big truck traffic and construction zones. In the end, I felt happy about the decision we made to stop the bike tour in Bellingham and ferry it up to Juneau rather than bike up to Prince Rupert. It is good to be back in Portland and I'm looking forward to harvesting and preserving some fruit, nuts and wild mushrooms as summer turns to fall.