Eye Opener: Photo Essay

From way long before I was born my family and I have been living off of the land in some way, shape, or form. When I say that I mean that we hunt, fish, blueberry pick and wild rice among other things such as: we've built our own houses, hunting shacks, and cabins along with burning wood for a heat source. My dad taught me at a very young age how to hunt, fish, blueberry pick, and wild rice and still do all of these things today. The picture above was taken a few years ago at our family cabin on Lake Vermillion of myself and my uncle Fred after we cut some firewood for the cabin.

 

These two photos are of our family's hunting shack and cabin. The one on the right is our family hunting shack which is located in Buyck, MN on the Echo Trail. We built this shack with our own hands in 1994 but had previous shacks long before I was born. The picture on the left is our family cabin which is located on Lake Vermillion in Cook, MN was constructed by my family members in 1970 and stands like the picture shows today. We use both of these sites for extended periods of time throughout the year especially during the MN grouse hunting, deer hunting, and fishing seasons.

These two photos represents the fishing that our family has done for many years. The picture on the left was taken last spring on Lake Vermillion of a walleye that I caught which was 27 1/2 inches and weighed around 8 pounds. I released the fish right after we took this picture. The picture on the right was taken by myself last spring of my dad and brother while fishing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We catch the fish and eat them for a food source not only during the fishing season but throughout the year. We have huge fish fry's during Memorial Day weekend and usually throughout the season depending on what we catch. We use the family cabin pictured above as base camp during the MN fishing season on Lake Vermillion and we use the shack when we go to the BWCA. We clean the fish ourselves and recycle/compost the remains of the fish in the lake for other fish, birds, and animals to eat.

  

These photos represent the deer hunting and grouse hunting that my family has been doing for around 80 years. It all started with my grandfather who began hunting in the area around the 1930's. We process all of our deer ourselves. What I mean by that is we skin the deer and cut it up and package it ourselves to make ground venison, chops, jerky, steak, and polish. After we are finished cutting them all up we donate the hides to hides for habitat and we compost the remains in the woods for the other animals to eat. We gut the grouse out the same way and compost the remains as well in the woods. We usually make wild rice grouse soup with the breast of the bird. We also used to trap animals such as beavers, mink, otter, fisher, and pine martin, but we haven't trapped in some time now. As for the pictures, the picture on the left is of my dad with a grouse he shot this past deer season and the picture on the right is of myself and the deer I shot a few weeks ago. It was an 11 point buck with a 13 inch spread and 10 inch tines.

   

These photos above represent the wild ricing that my family and I have been doing for many years. My dad began wild ricing around 30 years ago or so and still does it to this day. I started ricing around 5 years ago and go every year now thanks to my dad passing it down to me and my brothers. We used to harvest and process the wild rice on our own but now we bring it to a guy in Cass Lake to get it processed. We use the rice to make hot dishes and casseroles or we simply just boil it in hot water. The picture above was taken this past fall in the Brimson, MN area around Two Harbors. The people above from left to right is myself, my brother Craig, my nephew Jacob, my older brother Jerry, and my Dad. My other nephew Tyler is taking the picture. The bags in front of us are filled with wild rice. We picked about 320 pounds total that day between all of us. It was a good day! My dad has taught me a lot of valuable things/skills that I will pass down to my kids and grandkids and for that I thank him very much.