Alex Mathias - Shots Rang Out in Peaceful Valley

Alex Mathias

A Collection of Photos From The Internet

Special Thanks to
http://temagami.nativeweb.org/alex-mathias.html NativeWeb, 
http://www.ottertooth.com/Temagami/History/Characters/amathias.htm Ottertooth, 
Brian Back, Kim Cowan

Friends of Temagami, Alex Mathias

and Facebook Walls and Photos of Friends
music copyright by
Neil Young - Peaceful Valley Boulevard

Once a Month

Once a month I have to leave my paradis and trek to Mississauga. I always travelled outside of business hours, but given the distance that has proven tiring. This month while in the city, I upgraded my crappy little cell phone to a smartphone. I twinned up my office email and my office phone number. I know I should have done this sooner, but I was resisting. It really is a beautiful apparatus. It has GPS and maps and internet and wifi. I understand there are a ton of apps. I am painfully slow with my big fat fingers and I am learning the conventions.

Whenever I am in the city, there is a whirlwind of visitations and ultimately, there are more people than time. My buddy Ron has a room for me and a home away from home. I like to go to the AGO art gallery of ontario a few times a year. I met up with Deb on Wed and we had a nice tour of AGO and a walk through town. Ron and I met up with Patti and Barry for an authentic Mexican meal at their, and now my, favourite Mexi restaurant. I had an enchilada with some sort of chocolate sauce. Interesting use of chocolate. When I saw it on the menu I said "I wonder what it tastes like?. One of the dinner clients said its great...would you like to taste the sauce?. haha you know you are at home in a restaurant when someone offers you to taste their meal. Of course I took her up on that offer, and dipped my pinky on her plate, tasted it and placed my order. We had fun and the meal was great. I met up with Deb again and we travelled home together. We stopped for some sushi, and she chopstick fed me my share while we drove. This too is one of my great joys of life. How could it get any better than this?

My Job as a Salesman

Global Buckets

hhhmmm...Buckets were on sale for under 3 bucks at Home Hardware so Sue went and grabbed us a bunch. I think we will give this a whirl!

Living Stones

"Living Stones" 

music and art copyright don wright

Beaver - A Way Of Life

I went for a visit to see Elder Alex. Alex is from the n'Dakimenan Beaver Clan. Alex and his family have relied on the beaver for generations

 http://www.ndakimenan.com/CLANS.htm 

This is a teenager beaver. There is typically a mother and father, 2 teens and 2 young ones in each lodge. Alex practices the same management techniques as his father and grand father did to assure sustainability. 

When Alex was young, Beaver pelts would be sold to the fur traders for goods like salt, flour etc. The meat would be eaten by the family and by the sled dogs. Nothing went to waste.

Beaver pelts are only fetching about $10.00 now, so this is not really a viable commercial enterprise anymore, however, as a way of life, the beaver can still help provide for a family. 

Alex demonstrated the skinning technique.

Here is a beautiful beaver pelt, ready to be made into gloves, hats or boot insoles. Alex showed me how to prepare and work the hide. We made 2 pairs of boot insoles for everyone in my house. Our feet have been toasty warm this winter thanks to Mr. Beaver and to Alex.

We had a wonderful meal of beaver together. I was surprised at how good it was!

Alex told us the various ways his mother and grandmother would prepare the beaver.

I realize that these pics might be a little graphic for some. I want to assure you that I have posted these pics with great gratitude and honour for the beaver. It is important to note that every time you eat meat, an animal has to die. Some choose not to eat meat. Many continue to eat meat but have lost touch of where the meat came from. A grocery store can make a beautiful display and you forget the sacrifice made by the animal. We have lost touch. I think that anyone who eats meat, should at least once take part in the killing and preparation of the animal. If you find this to be too difficult, perhaps it is time to become vegetarian. 

I have read about modern commercial practices in the food industry and I am not very impressed. In fact, I am afraid for my health. I simply do not trust our food supply. This is one of the reasons why my wife and I are returning to a more traditional life style. I believe that our entire commercial food chain is tainted. I will grow, gather, collect, hunt and fish for my food supply. I want to know where it came from and give gratitude accordingly.

"Moose Medicine" Copyright don wright 2012

Singing with my old friend Pete and a walk through the Obabika Old Growth

Last Ice

I was laughing because this is my "last" ice fishing of the season.

The opportunity arose for one more kick at the can and I jumped on it!

We took our snowmobiles and gear for a ride into the bush to a lake I have been wanting to see.

It is quite remote.

We drove by sled to the lake, but found there was not enough to actually get there.

We had to hike in the last couple Km.

 

We caught a few lakers like this.

On the last day, it was really warm and the ice was disappearing before our eyes.

We had a shore fire under a tree during the rain and for cooking and staying "dry"

We hiked out and made our way back to the snowmobiles

Smoke Break on the trail. 

Walking the lake was tiresome as each step broke through a 6 inch layer of ice and water.

Open jacket, sunglasses and 20C degree weather..unbeleivable.

Moose Tracks. I saw 2 Pileated Woodpeckers,

2 Bald Eagles and 1 big Lynx

"hwy" 805 and the last dying snow.

The trail was open rock in spots and we had to make several water crossings.

Things can really change in a couple of days.

I got home and the ice was off the Sturgeon River!

2 days is all it took. 

Only a few days prior, I was standing on 2 feet of ice!

wOw

I can safely say that ice fishing is officially over now!

Surprising But Not Surprised

I saw this on Facebook and I found it surprising, yet, I am not surprised. This is why it is important for me to grow, hunt and gather my own food. This is why I have to establish relationships with local people and farmers. 

Oh we are so smart being able to produce more food for less. As this happens, commercialism takes over and you see the results on the chart. You pay less because you get less AND what you buy is genetically altered which is likely the root of many many other problems.

I bet you the result of our new highly efficient, genetically engineered empty food will be sickness, disease, cancer and a whole host of other things like autism, or allergies etc. There is no shortcut.

God designed them just the way they should be designed and any manipulation by man to make them better, bigger, easier etc only ends up in failure.....in the end. There will be fields and fields of babel towers by the time we are completely poisoned.

Just a Bird Thank You

Here is Niijii mimicking air waves. Notice at 7 seconds he is startled and says "what are you doing?" I was approaching him with my finger. When startled he often says this and he also says thankyou. The more stratled he is, the louder and more abrupt the THANKYOU!

I have often wondered what thoughts are attached to his words. Does he have enough brain power? In the wild they cheep and chirp and warble and that must mean something to them. If he spoke budgie, that would be communication. But since he was hand reared and hangs with humans, he has had to alter his words/song to fit in. I think he is social and wants badly to communicate and be with others. Sue reminded me that I am playing head games with a bird that has a brain the size of a pea!

Anyways, he is seeking to be part of community and he is doing a better job communicating than the jerk down the road...haha.

Do You Want To Be Like Jesus

"Do You Want to be Like Jesus" Copyright don wright and kim downward pearson 2000


I wrote this song with my good friend Kim Pearson back around 2000. I solicited the help of friends for various tracks and recorded it in my home PC. I added some pics of people and places I love.
I hope you enjoy
don

Meet Oscar

This is our pet Oscar. He is an Oscar. 

He came with a name.

Oscar was becomming a nervous wreck because the Lobster snapped at his fins all night and he could never get any rest. Also, the water was always a little on the cold side for him, as we were trying to also accomodate Mr Snappidy Snap Snap.

I traded in Mt Snapidy snap snap to the pet store in exchange for a pod of swordtails. We raised the temp in Oscars tank, bought him a dozen goldfish and voila...peace in the family.

Smile

Paradis Icitte!

It just doesn't get any better than this! We got the ice huts off the river but just couldnt give up the season. Deb and I set up right beside our house and we ate Walleye last night. It just doesnt get any better than that!

Lord of the Starfields - Bruce Cockburn

Lord of the Starfields copyright Bruce Cockburn

Only I

Only I - Copyright don wright 2000

I wrote this song in 2000 and recorded it in my PC. My nephew Benjamin played the electric track for me. I wrote this song after reading a scripture that said that nothing could separate us from the love of God. While that may be true from a God perspective, it is not necessarily true from a human perspective. I remember the poster that said God loves you whether you like it or not , and sadly I think too many people just simply dont accept Gods love. At any rate, this song was about me and not anyone else, although you may feel the same.

Guinness...My Favorite Beer

Cheers to Guiness!

Ice Fishing Round-Up

Its been a crazy year for weather. Last Sunday we had so much snow the snowmachines were getting stuck. A few days later,  it was raining. Yesterday the temp was soaring and we had a big melt and a breach in our foundation resulting in about 1000 gallons of water in the cold room. Pete and I are starting to get worried about our huts so this weekend, actually, tonight, we will quickly retrieve our shacks and call it a season. Although we have until the end of the month, frankly, We beleive this is our last weekend. There was a foot of water on the ice which would make retreival difficult although last night it was very cold and everything is frozen again. As of Sunday temps will be above zero for at least a week. So, as it turns out, these pics represent the last last outing of the season.....hhhhmmm unless I set the hut up beside my dock....hhmmm and tie a rope to it..hahaha.

Kathleen Edwards - Great Song!!!

Love these Canadiana Scenes and Lyrics!!!!

Morning Conversation With a Bird

Morning Conversation with a Bird

technical difficulties

Well I had a great blog post this morning that I worked on for an hour and then pressed the wrong button and lost it all. That sucks. So, Instead you get this lame post.

When I go to the washroom with Niijii on my shoulder, he begins to sing when the urine hits the water. He loves that sound and then runs through his entire vocabulary. The longer the waterfall...the longer the diatribe. I'd take a video, except it might be in poor taste....awww heck...I couldnt stand the tempatation so here it is....

Praises

"Thunderbird Changes Into Spirit" Copyright don wright 2012

Niijii Chat

Niijii Chatting

The Bear and the Bunny

Let it Snow!

We had a visitor from Kyrgyzstan. He was expecting to see lots of snow, after all, Canadians live in igloos dont they? This has been a mild winter to the south, and up until yesterday, snow has been scarce. We had a kick butt snow fall arrive just as they were to travel. As they drove north, the snowfall got greater. They arrived just in time to head out for the afternoon and evening fish. Our visitor got a ride on the ATV and drove a snowmobile for the first time. I think he was quite surprised to see the ice was almost 3 feet thick! The snow was falling like jack the bear and then the temperature dropped significantly. We took our catch home for a nice feast. In the meantime, the snow kept falling.

At 9pm I got a c all from a buddy. He was in the bush and his snowmobile was stuck beyond his ability and it would be a very long and difficult walk home. He called for a rescue and moreso...a shovel. It sure is nice to have good cell coverage here. I hopped on my ATV and followed his directions and his trail. I got my ATV stuck about 100 feet from his sled. I stepped off the ATV and sank up to my crotch in snow. Every step was the same. By the time I reached him I was exhausted. He shoveled all the snow and we were able to get his sled back up onto the top of the snow and feathered it out. We then used my winch to unstuck me and we were off. Got home at 11:30. He was grateful. I reminded him that he has rescued me on 2 occasions under similar circumstance. It sure is nice to be able to call for help and its even nicer when help arrives!

Today is a new day in paradise.