Chapter 109

I left Miles to join his fishing party. I headed up the mountain with the hunters. We left camp a few minutes before the fishermen so I was out of sight before Miles left. He carried two one gallon plastic milk jugs which we found laying about. He didn't have to be told to clean it first.

The hunt team had very definite instructions on where to shoot and where not to shoot. Since I didn't know which of the clowns to trust, I made sure not to allow myself to be back lighted against the ridge. I wanted to be seated with my back against a large tree as much as possible. I also scanned my little valley continually for game and other hunters as well. I didn't want one of the others to walk up on me.

I sat reading about preservation of food between game scans. It looked as though a smokehouse was the answer to short term food preservation. Since it was only a month's camp, I had no plans to build a proper smokehouse. Good looks and sturdy construction came well behind speed and efficiency. I checked out the plans for smoke houses and smokers. The only things they had in common was the ability to trap hot smoke while also venting it. The smoker had a rack where the food was placed to allow smoke to permeate it from all sides. I felt it might be better to hang the meat to eliminate the need for a metal rack. I knew that I could use rods of some type to hang the meat.

There had to be a fire hot enough to burn green wood which smoked the best. The smoke needed to be inside a structure that wouldn't catch fire. I decided to take a look around for something metal when I got back.

Somewhere during the middle of making that plan, I heard a rustle of leaves. I scanned the area in front of me and saw a couple of squirrels moving through the trees. I tracked them with the .22 and waited for them to stop. When they stopped outside their den, I fired the rifle at the one in front. The squirrel was dead instantly. I was almost surprised that my first shot had been a kill shot. I waited to see if the other squirrel would become curious enough to look at his friend. He hid in the den and did not show himself again.

I walked down the hill to retrieve the squirrel. I moved back up the hill only after I had the squirrel inside the plastic bag that I use to carry home all my game. I tried to remember what Killer had said about game trails. Nearby I found some damp earth complete with the tracks of small animals of some kind. I set the two hanging loop snares I carried. I marked them with a piece of white plastic cut from trash found on the site of our base camp.

I spent most of the morning sitting quietly either reading or observing. The rustle of leave and scraping of branches broke my train of thought a few times. Enough times to result in two more squirrels joining their friend in my plastic bag. I also missed two others. I was far from Annie Oakley, it seemed.

Miles was already at the doghouse when I arrived. He had a fire going which was a welcome sight. Even though the day wasn't deadly cold, it was cold enough for me at thirty to forty degrees.

After spending a few minutes warming, I cleaned the squirrels. Miles had already cleaned his fish so I didn't ask him to help. He had caught two trout close to nine or ten inches long. After the head, tail and fins were removed. The intestines had to be removed. With all his mistakes of an amateur filleting job, there was probably the amount of meat necessary to make a 1950's fish stick. Still it would go a long way to prevent starvation.

Once dressed out I planned to sear the pieces of trout in my three inch deep frying pan. There was no oil to cook the fish, so we just ate the pieces semi sushi style. The fish wasn't great, but it was a welcome addition to the small amount of beans and rice I had left. I splurged to have the bean and rice with my share of the seared fish. Miles was out of prepared food so he was shocked at the taste and sparsity of the meal. I on the other hand was satisfied with my feast.

Me: Miles we need a smoker to preserve the squirrels, do you have any ideas?

I thought that it was a good idea to include him in my planning. The conversation took place while we boiled water over the fire to refill out water bottles.

Miles: I gave it some thought while I was fishing. I saw some of the sample smokers in our informational pack. It seems we can get a simple one rigged up pretty easily. It looks like a fire, a rack and an enclosure that won't burn will be enough.

Me: How about one of those five gallon metal buckets to build the fire inside. They have lids we can use as racks to hold the squirrels we would just have to turn them. Then we can sit one of those plastic fifty five gallon barrels over the whole thing.

Miles: We can build a rack of some kind inside the barrel to slow smoke the meat instead of using the top of the can. We can remove the barrel to feed the fire.

Me: Yes we just need vents in the barrel for the smoke to escape. We can use the hatchet to drive the skinning knife into the plastic to make the vent holes and the holes to rig the rod.

We both went around gathering the bits and pieces of the smoker. It took just about five minutes to assemble the parts. Then Miles gathered small pieces of green wood, while I cut the vents in the plastic barrel and the metal bucket. The bucket needed a couple of vents in the bottom to oxygenate the fire. The smoke from the top of the bucket would fill the barrel and be vented out the top of the drum.

I found a lot of coat hangers in a pile lying on the ground. I removed a half dozen to use as meat hangers. I quickly looped them through the vent hole to hold the meat in place. In other words I was ready for Miles and the wood. I washed the meat well while I continued to wait. It was as ready as I could make it and still no Miles. When he did show up he was lugging the wood on a sled made from a piece of plastic whose former use I could not ascertain.

I used my fire start kit to get the fire going. By the time it was going Miles began slowly adding larger pieces to the fire. The final pieces were about three four inches in diameter and really green.

Me: Those should burn nice and slow'

Miles: I have some green twigs to make it smoke even more.

He said it as he dumped a handful on the fire. The fire was strong enough not to be smothered by them. We carefully lifted the barrel over the fire then placed a flat rock on top. For the rest of the evening we checked the rate of burn on the fire. My guess was once during the night we would need to reload the fire bucket.

Miles: I can definitely see the advantage of an outside way to stoke this fire. It would take only one of us to do it in that case.

When we awoke at 2 AM, I went into the woods to pee. When I came back Miles was waiting.

Me: Let's get this done. I'm cold and sleepy.

Miles: Me too.

Sleeping was easy because I was exhausted.

The next morning After we stoked the fire under the squirrel smoker, I made Herbal tea from the bag of Bart's secret recipe tea. It was pot tea, that was the only secret. I could never contact Bart again, so I took the opportunity to savor the tea.

"Me: Let's see if we can eat the squirrel yet. Just to get an idea how long it should be smoked.

Miles: Hell yeah, I'm starving.

Me: It has to be thoroughly cooked to prevent disease. It may not be completely dried out yet, but we should at least check.

Just as I had expected Miles agreed with a head nod. We moved the barrel to the tarp we hadn't used over the doghouse. Then I cut one of the three hangers loose. I cut it carefully saving as much of the wire as possible so that it could be reused. The squirrel landed on the tarp which was reasonably clean.

When we tore into the squirrel, I found the meat was done, but it wasn't leathery

Me: According to the book it should be leathery, if it is fully preserved. It looks as though to fully preserve the meat it will need to be sliced thin and smoke a full day at least.

Miles: There was no way to slice and hang a squirrel. Smoking them is going to be a challenge. We will just have to smoke them longer. Squirrel jerky will just have to be gnawed off the bone.

Me: That really sounds appealing. (I laughed)

While we discussed it, I was boiling water in Miles' deeper pot. Every time we built a fire for any reason, I boiled drinking water. Water was one of the essentials.

Me: Well there is a full day ahead. Tomorrow we need to get more meat, so we have a reserve. At least that is what I think.

I realized it might sound as though I were trying to make the decisions without his input. I knew for a fact that I wouldn't have liked anyone else making decisions for me. So I made it obvious that I wanted his input.

Miles: I think we need to search for more variety. I'm pretty good with puzzles. How about I go exploring? I can take an empty pack and try to fill it with food, if I come across anything. If not at least we will know what's out there.

Me: That's an excellent idea. We don't really need anything, but water so I will head to the stream to fill the two jugs. After we have that, I will go out for a couple of hours to see if I can shoot dinner.

Miles: That sounds like a plan. If I get through in time, I will try fishing again.

So that was our plan for the day. I carried water and went hunting while Miles foraged. I had no idea how the others were doing. We interacted with them sparingly. It was kind of like living in the neighborhood with strangers. You spoke and asked how things were going, but didn't give a crap about their personal lives.

When I finished hunting in the middle of the afternoon, it was to prepare the four squirrels for the smoker. I figured Miles and I would try another of the smoked squirrels for dinner to see how well it was preserved. If it was preserved well enough we could take down the third and start smoking again.

Everybody else was eating everything they found, every day. They weren't storing anything. We had twenty five days to go, so I was pretty sure that on at least one of them we wouldn't be able to hunt at all.

Me: So how was the exploring?

Miles looking pretty worn out: I walked a long way then circled back. I found what had been on old fire road so I follow it a ways. Just as I thought someone has used it as an access road. There was a parking spot at some point up the road.