Fall 1958 Geese Hunting.

My first trip up to Hannah Bay, goose hunting with uncle George and cousin Martin. During the summer I had a little practise with the 12 gauge, Stevens, double barrel. I fell on my rear end with the first shot and yes my right shoulder was blue the next day. Hannah Bay is on the east coast of James Bay, about 30 miles from Moose Factory. It was the Labour Day week-end and my uncle George said we will pick you around three o’clock to-morrow morning. Three o’clock that morning I was on the side of the river waiting for them. It was still dark. I had my grandfather’s double barrel shot gun and two boxes of shells, Canuck number 4 heavy load. I was ready for those geese. Uncle George had a 23 foot freighter Chestnut with a 18 hp. Evinrude motor, it was a big canoe. It was pretty chilly going up there that morning. As we entered the James Bay for my first time, I said holy smokes you can’t even see the other side (shoreline) it was like the sea it was big, I guess that’s why my uncle has a big canoe. As we entered Hannah Bay which also was a big bay and landed on shore my uncle George said we will have to wait for awhile. We cannot leave the canoe here, we have to bring it closer to those bushes, I said, that’s over a mile away. Do we have to drag the canoe up there? Uncle said that’s a good three miles away and no we don’t have to drag the canoe; the tide will bring us there. The land is flat; they call it the Hannah Bay flats. When the tide is low all the birds ducks and geese come out to feed. When the tide or water flows in they all fly back inland. So what we do is set up a blind with branches and mud. My decoys then were white toilet paper with a twig with a “V” at the end and this was the head with the toilet paper wrapped around it. Took out my little shovel out of my pack sack, turned the lump of mud over and stuck the branch in it. Yes this was my decoy, made about 20 of them. I got settle in my blind and all I had to do is wait for them too come. At about a mile away I could see about two thousand geese on the ground. My uncle and cousin had set up a blind about a half a mile from me, yes I was alone and that I liked. I forgot we set up the tent over the canoe and slept in the canoe. That’s the way they do it because you will never find a dry spot to set up camp. Oh I think that the geese are moving around, yes there’s a canoe coming up. The flocks of geese took off and heading my way, at least two thousand. Off to my right they were going, I started calling them and some started turning for me. I pulled the shells out of the box and laid them in front of me, this way I will be able to load faster I told myself. They were over me and I started to shoot I could see some falling, I loaded up and fired again and a couple fell. Loaded up and shot again and again some fell, I don’t think that I was even aiming. After calming down I went out and picked up 9 geese. Out of 9 only one was wounded, which I managed to catch without shooting it. This was a great week-end hunting geese and ducks. The total bagged that week-end was 26 geese 12 ducks. I killed 4 ducks and 17 geese, was I proud, when I got home and showed them to my grand parents.

Summer 1958 Fishing Trip.

It was the end of June my uncles Howard, Doug cousin Don and I were on our way to the Quatabahgan rapids to do some fishing. The canoe we had was a 23 foot Rupert’s House with a 18 hp. Evinrude. Up we went and not just a round trip we were there for two nights. After taking everything out of the canoe and setting up the big prospector tent, I think it was 14 by 18 ft. I got the job of cutting the spruce branches for the floor. We set up the little box stove, got some dry wood and that was it. Cousin Don said in a soft voice look on the other side of the river, a cow moose with her 2 calves. I said why the calves are a red colour. They were beautiful. I picked up my tackle box and rod and down the Quatabahagan River I went. My first cast with a dare devil was where the white foam and whirl pool was and “I got one”, what a fight, it was a 4 lbs. speckle trout. That week-end was great, we ate a lot of fish, bacon and eggs every morning. I even had my first bottle of beer, a Black Label in a clear bottle. My uncle Howard gave it to me and said, no fishing close to those rapids after that bottle. I drank it slowly and it was good. What I remember that week-end is that we did catch a lot of fish, but nice ones were the speckle
trout’s which were all a nice size 3 to 5 lbs.

Winter 1957/58 Training Blacky.

Blacky was big and heavy he was 19 months old and it was time to start training him to be a sled dog and the best one. It was late November and enough snow, the river was frozen. I had built a sleigh about 7 feet long and 3 feet wide. I had no steel or copper tubing for the runners. But got the pail of black earth that my grandma told me to keep for the runners. I said grandma what do I do with that black earth. She get me a pail of warm water, with this she pour a little in the bucket of black earth and started mixing like dough to make bread. When it was thick enough we went outside and started building up a thick layer on the runner. About 2 inches thick, we did the same thing with the other runner. We waited until it harden, well froze. Then we scraped it smooth with a knife, watered it with a cloth until it was smooth and slippery. Turned the sled over and it was sliding by itself. My grandma said every time you the sleigh after a long sit, you water it with the cloth. Oh yes my grandmother made a canvas harness for Blacky, on went the harness, tied him to the sled and go. I jumped on the sled; he stopped, turned around and got on the sleigh to. I had to get some weight on the sleigh, and walk beside him that’s what I had to do. My grandmother was watching and laughing at me. I said grandma you Said you would like to have treated water from the power house at the hospital. Well that’s what I’m going to do. The power house gave the heat and electricity to the hospital and there was a water hose that anyone could use for fresh water. I got the 45 gallon water drum onto the sled, tied it solid, put the wooden lid, grabbed Blacky by the harness and away we went to the power house. It was in the village one mile from home. I walked beside Blacky all the way. At the power house I said to myself I’ll fill it only half full, which I did, patted Blacky and said lets go, I said, hike and we were on our way. Did not even help him, it looked easy for him to pull. Once at home grandma was all surprised and said you have a good and strong dog, treat him well. I emptied the drum with a pail into the drum in the porch. All that winter and few more to come I hauled drinking water and not just half filled it was filled to the top. We hauled a drum of drinking water every week

Summer 1957 Big Fishing Trip by Plane.

It was the end of June and my uncle Howard asked me do you want to come on a fishing trip; we will be a group of twelve and all going by consul to Lake Kasagammi and that will be around 6 o’clock Saturday morning. I was tickled and could not wait until Saturday. At 6 sharp we were up in the air and away for that lake. It took an hour and what a big lake with nice sandy beaches. They dropped off 6 people at one end and another 6 at the other end. The pilot said be ready for 6 PM and he took off. I was in a hurry to get that first cast in. About a couple of hundred yards up was a nice rocky point, that’s where I fished for my first cast. I had a red and white lure a dare devil and I yelled I got one. It’s something pretty big and it sure was and what a fight. A 27 lbs. musky and let me tell you what a fight it gave me. It took at least 30 to 35 minutes to pull it to shore. We fished all day and everyone caught pike, pickerel and muskies and all big fish and what I remember, the biggest musky was mine. The biggest pickerel was my uncle’s which weighted 18 lbs. and the biggest pike was Charles’s 25 lbs. everyone caught their big fish. Oh yes, during the afternoon it was sunny and hot so I went in for a swim. A few hundred yards on the lake was fishing net, maybe natives or commercial fishermen had set it. I asked my uncle, can I go out there and see what’s in it. Be careful, and away I went. When I got to the net I took a deep breath and under I went, as fast as I went under faster I was up and on my way too shore. Boy, were those fish ever big. The net was full, maybe 25 to 30 fish caught. I guess things look bigger under water. At 6 sharp we were boarding the plane and on our way back to Moose Factory. I will always remember that fishing trip.