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A New Jersey couple survived the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead
- John23832 2y agoThey discuss eating bear, just a reminder for everyone that bear meat is a prime harbor for worms and parasites. On top of the fact that, like expressed in the article, it's frankly not good.
- downrightmike 2y agoAll the toxins in the food chain end up in the apex predators
- kibwen 2y agoThis is why you should be careful eating raw fish.
- stcredzero 2y ago> All the toxins in the food chain end up in the apex predators Is there an analogy for media and information?
- thsksbd 2y agoIt's basically the same process, mathematically. \rant Each level up increases the concentration of toxin because the n-th level is eating the (n-1) level which has a higher concentration than the (n-2) level that the (n-1) ate. Similarly, if we posit that all else being equal [1] a sociopath is more likely to go up a hierarchical level, then the nth level is promoted from the n-1 level that is more sociopathic than the n-2. I also believe that presidential democracies are more prone to this concentration of sociopaths because voting the higher offices is more divorced from the voter (ie you dont know who you are voting for personally and are more easily mislead). Parliamentary (or congressional seats) democracy is more resistant to psychos. Monarchies are immune (except for genetic inheritance), but of course come with their own set of problems. \rant [1] a similar assumption is made for toxins.
- hentrep 2y agoYour last sentence is subjective. I grew up eating bear sausage and it was delicious. Perhaps owing to differences in black bear diet/meat vs Alaskan bear. This article seems to corroborate my suspicions: https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/bear-meat/ https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/bear-meat/
- rolph 2y agoyes your right, the time of year, dictates diet, and general diet influences the meat.
- porkloin 2y agoTrichinosis is incredibly common in Alaska's bear population. As with any kind of game meat, thoroughly cooking to recommended temps is highly encouraged. Plenty of people get away with eating undercooked meat for years, but you don't have control over the randomness of what an animal you hunt was exposed to. Trich is no joke and can seriously injure you. https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=disease.muscle2 https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=disease.muscle2 > All bear and lynx meat should be considered possibly infected.
- rolph 2y agoyeah, game meat really should be well done, thin cuts that get to temperature all through. organ products, from game are kinda risky.
- doodlebugging 2y agoTrichinosis can kill you too. I can't find the story link but I read years ago that one of the few German POWs to die in captivity in the US during WWII at Camp Hearne in Texas died from eating undercooked pork which also sickened a couple of other POWs and maybe one of more of the guards. With that said, pioneers and mountain men ate bear meat. They preferred bear paws due to the high fat content I think.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 2y ago> I grew up eating bear sausage and it was delicious. Isn’t sausage the goto thing when you want to take meat that would otherwise be nasty and turn it into something palatable? I don’t think you statement contradicts the parent post about bear meat being not good
- rolph 2y agothat smell, when your yard dog, is soaked from the rain, after rolling in fishwaste. thats sorta the smell of cooking bear meat, theres a lot of grease, and fat. ! Dont Cook it in Your House ! it often ends up feeding sled dogs.
- alfalfasprout 2y agoBlack bear that feeds on mostly berries, etc. during spring is actually quite delicious.
- carabiner 2y agoThis is NSFL, but there are numerous pictures and videos of bears trailing tape worms from their anus.
- cgh 2y agoYour first point is much less of a big deal than you think. Cook it thoroughly (easiest way is to simply grind up the meat first) and you’re fine. I don’t agree with your second point. It’s pretty good, especially spring bear. That said, I avoid bears that eat a lot of spawning salmon in the fall. People have eaten bears for literally millennia, especially indigenous North Americans. It’s not some recent thing that we are wrong to do. They are a natural prey animal in eg BC, where they live in high densities.
- John23832 2y ago> It’s not some recent thing that we are wrong to do. Who said it was wrong? I said bears harbor parasites (they do), and that the meat is bad (which is my opinion, I guess).
- maxerickson 2y agoA reminder for all the people that are going to accidentally eat some bear?
- kibwen 2y ago> In April 1964, Alaska was struck by a magnitude 9.2 megathrust earthquake that devastated much of Anchorage. This is a sidebar that I think is historically underappreciated. Take a look at this incredible graphic, which goes up to 2005: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#/media/File:Graph_of_largest_earthquakes_1906-2005.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#/media/Fi... For the period from 1906 to 2005, half of all the energy released by all recorded earthquakes came from just three events, one of which being the Alaskan quake. Logarithmic scales are scary.
- brianbreslin 2y agoIndonesia having over 2000 earthquakes a year is wild!
- canadiantim 2y agoring of fire, baby
- grecy 2y agoThat earthquake in Alaska cracked swimming pools in California!
- IncreasePosts 2y agoSounds like they didn't survive the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead, and instead survived in a city or in a provided structure while occasionally heading out into the wilderness and wasting their time producing nothing much of a value.
- fxtentacle 2y agoSounds like they divorced and then the father died in a car accident while trying to make life in the wilderness work. And the mother moved to the city and never came back, which helped her have a long life with her daughter, so probably that was the better decision.
- justusthane 2y agoSort of tragically ironic that he died in a car accident while trying to live outside of modern civilization.
- solardev 2y agoAre there any successful tales of Alaskan homesteading? It seems like we fetishize those foolhardy lone wolves like this couple or Alex McCandless from Into the Wild, but where are all those people who moved out there and actually managed to live happy, simple lives? One of my favorite book series is Woodswoman, about a lady who set out into Vermont to build herself a lakeside cabin from scratch and made a living off maple farming. The several books detail her trials and tribulations, but also her joyful swims and happy encounters with the neighbors. I would love to hear about more encounters like that in Alaska, not just the people who trek out there but never make it.
- GlibMonkeyDeath 2y agoTwo examples I can think of off-hand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke and https://www.jeanaspen.com/about-us https://www.jeanaspen.com/about-us
- slackfan 2y ago
- BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 2y agoWomen are not as much attached to the backwoods life as men. I know two that went back to the big city after a few years.
- black_13 2y ago[dead]