9C sunny
\Bowled yesterday, then company for the evening and night. Played rummicube then a nice supper.

.  He replaced the pole barricade.

  Back at the fire, he picked up the pole once more and reversing it he sharpened the small end using his leatherman then thrust the sharpened end into the fire.  He revolved it slowly using the embers of the fire to dry and char the wood.  Every few minutes he pulled it out and rubbed the charred end on a rock, he kept this up until the sharpened end was both sharp and dry.  Next he stripped all the bark off and whittled away and smoothed any knots.  Finally he reinserted the knife handle, retrieved the leather strips, and bound them around the split.  He set it aside to air dry saying to himself ‘I’ll sharpen the knife later while I’m resting.’

  

20

A

s the day wore on, the clouds lowered and a drizzly rain set in.  He improved his bed erecting the plastic sheet so that it shed most of the rain that was falling and made a lean-to of sticks and limbs roofing it with spruce boughs and slabs of wood.  When he checked the pond again it had drained down to the level of the outlet once more.  Here and there he could see dorsal fins and tails knifing through the shallow water.  He decided that one more fish wouldn’t hurt as he had an evening meal ahead of him and then breakfast in the morning.  He stripped off all his clothes but his shirt and waded out into the pond, spear in hand.  In almost no time he had a good sized jack pinned to the bottom.  It followed the same fate as the other two and was soon smoking before the fire.

  It was still early in the day, so taking the pole snare and the empty knapsack Nat went to check his snares.  Finding nothing he decided to reverse his direction for a change and still in the bush headed up river.  He stayed within seeing distance of the tree edge moving slowly.  He found more mushrooms of both varieties but for some reason only picked the puffballs.  His stealth was finally rewarded when he almost stepped on a nesting grouse. The bird flew up scaring him enough to pull a loud “ehh” from his throat.

  The eight eggs that were in the nest, he carefully deposited in with the mushrooms.  He carried on until he reached the bank of the Liard then on a whim followed the beach back down along the Fort Nelson.  When he was about half way back to camp his attention was caught by something out of place hanging over the bank at the edge of the trees. When he checked it out he found a piece of fish net and some nylon rope all intertwined with branches sticks and a couple of small buoys.  The mess was tangled around some trees and their roots, Try as hard as he could Nat couldn’t free it by pulling, so he made a small pile of rocks on the beach to mark the spot and carried on to camp.

  By the time he got back he was thoroughly soaked thanks to the continuing drizzle.  After unloading the pack he stripped his clothes off and spread them over a log. ‘May as well be naked and wet as dressed and wet’ he thought. ‘Now how’ll I do these eggs, the can is protecting my shavings and that’s the only metal container’.  After pondering for a moment he went up to the bush and digging under the top layer of leaves gathered a good quantity of the damp rotting ones underneath.  Returning to the fire he cleared out an opening on one side, scratched out a small hole and put in a layer of the rotting leaves, on this he deposited the eggs, covered them with another layer then pushed a couple inches of dirt over that. As he worked mosquitoes were finding his naked body and he was continually slapping at himself.  ‘This is probably just the beginning’ he thought. Finally he raked some coals over the top and piled some wood on top. Satisfied he sat back on his haunches waiting to make sure the damp wood ignited. ‘That’ll take a while but it should work, doesn’t really matter I ate ‘em raw before’.