Elmira Rose

We are still welcoming people to come and visit. Kids are great. Dogs could be okay we would have to feel it out.

Check this guy out!
Rocket stoves can be as easy as mud pie.

He forgot his tea kettle for the top

hi patrick, glad to see your interested in taking part in a great american past time. I have eaten a lot of roadkill deer at this point over a hundred or more. I've also dined on other roadside delights. The short of my advice would be go snatch that deer up right now! Disclaimer: me and some friends once got a 400 dollar fine for possession of roadkill deer in oregon.
The reason I say that is there's probably going to be some meat salvageable. Another good reason is if anything you will learn about butchering. I would also like to point out that if the deer is smelly that doesn't mean that all the meat is bad. Often people will age a dressed deer for up to two weeks. A little bacterial tenderizer.
As far as your question of how to spot freshness of the deer. There are some guidelines I follow. probably the most important is rigor mortis, if it has it your golden. See once the rigor is gone that means things have started to rapidly decompose. I not talkin' just a stiff carcass but a really stiff carcass. try pulling the legs apart if its hard to do and they don't just flop around its pretty fresh. This is something you'll tune into more over time. Another is the eyes get cloudy which means its probably not very fresh. One more guideline is checking the stomach and in between the hind legs to see if there is any green coloring. Although this can happen rapidly if it got hit in the gut. Having said that people the world over have commonly fermented or aged meat. Interior Alaska folks eat the stomach contents of caribou. I sometimes find deer that looks a little far gone and I don't want to deal with the whole carcass. I just cut out the back straps or cut off a honch. If your like most people eating meat like this can be an aquired taste, if so just grab the freshys.
As far as health risks if you cook the meat you will be fine. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them. good luck.

Not sure if this would be helpful but I've built a few of the tin can rocket stoves and cooked on them daily sometimes three meals a day. the quick and dirty one made out of clay, straw and tin lasted me about a year. I've made sturdier rockets out of 5 gallon metal buckets -got it from a natural food coop selling bulk maple syrup, Who gets to lick the bucket! Another source for metal 5g buckets is construction sights but you might want to burn out what was in it before hand. For the feed tube and riser I used stove pipe -got it from a scrap yard. I also bought vermiculite for the insulation and filled any cracks with clay. Lasted a couple of years of daily use and then I gave it to a friend. seemed like it could've lasted awhile longer.
Other folks on this forum probably know more about specifications but I just loosely followed the 3 to 1 rule. This I would say is not a hard and fast rule. I've seen and made stoves that break this rule but are good enough to get some water rolling with just a few sticks. I think good insulation is important. but in some situations if your riser is tall you can get away with poor insulation.
The information I'm presenting is based on real world experience. Like the time I was under an overpass waiting for freight to hop and it got chilly (winter in texas and it was snowing, what the Eff) and I got hungry and was sick of cold sardines. I decided to throw together a make shift shelter and build a rocket stove with some tin cans lying around. One hot meal ready to go on the fly! buckle up Sardine Sammy is blasting away on his rocket stove!
In summary tin can rocket stoves are awesome. quick, convenient (as in free), and once you get the hang of it shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to make.
Oh and by the way you definitely do not need all those electric tools in the videos. Try a multlitool and gloves. Or a knife you don't care about dulling or if you know how to sharpen knifes just use any old knife. gloves are key.

I've devoted a lot of time to making whole grain bread for the past two winters. I only use sourdough starter, wholegrains, salt, and water. I taught myself using two books: Tartine and Flour Water Salt Yeast. These books use a simple method of high hydration of the flour, folding the dough instead of kneading, and long rising times. The results are amazing! Complex flavored bread with and airy crumb. I think the key to home baking any bread (which I found in the books mentioned) is placing the loaf in a dutch oven in your oven. -preheat dutch oven. At first I followed the directions in the books to a T and eventually developed a feel for things and now I just follow my nose and the feel of the dough.
Other people mentioned high hydration doughs and I really think that this will give good consistent results with simple ingredients.
I would also like to mention this method works well with low protien flours and the authors prefer them.

Thanks for the heads up on the pines Alex. I'll have to look into that. What part of AK where you in? Have you heard of them doing good in southeast AK?

Spring through fall would be great. We have a wall tent set up for guests that can be real cozy.Winter visits could also be an option but we live in a small cabin and space would be tight. This might only work for a short period say a couple weeks. Couples are welcome. This is a pretty informal situation just looking for folks who love wild spaces and want to share in the adventure of it all. As long as folks are willing to help out we are willing to share what we have. thanks for the interest.

Hi I live in Haines, Ak and share a few acres with my partner. We are interested in inviting folks to stay with us in exchange for worktrade. most of what we call work is enjoyable and a part of living in this environment. some of which includes: hunting, fishing, collecting plants and medicine. Some projects planned this summer include building a shop space, gardening, and doing some repairs on our 38ft wooden sailboat. The land itself is about 12 acres. 3.5 of which is a bluff over looking an amazing river. we live in a small cabin and have a modest garden with a lot of potential. The valley we live in is a very rich, relatively intact ecosystem with 5 species of salmon spawning up its rivers. Haines it self is located within a fjord called the lynn canal so there's access to ocean and all the yummy and beautiful things in it(we actually live about 30 miles from town). I'm posting this ad mainly because I want to share with folks that have a tendency to be more radical minded. My background has included activism,train-hopping, immersion into primitive skills, and a pull towards my connection to nature. so if anybody is interested give me a call 9077675626.