Survival in the Arctic
Hey, everybody! It’s me, Taco, your favorite cute little dragon friend. I know! It’s been forever since I’ve been given the reins to write a post. That’s okay. I know my friend Yeti has been very busy filling the airwaves with news and promotions for her campaign. And Scottie and friends are always traveling new and interesting places.
Luckily, this time it was me that got to have an adventure! My BFF Fajita had to come, of course. And Yeti and S’mores couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet some new potential supporters. So off we all went to…. the Arctic!
Well, okay. We didn’t go all the way up there right away. My research said that was a pretty good way to get yourself into trouble. You see, there’s lots of very cold weather, snow, and unpredictable conditions. There are also few trees, roads, people, or stores. You really need to know what you’re doing. We asked around and got some winter survival experts to train us in a few things. First, we learned how to build a snow cave.
Snow caves are great ways to stay warm. The snow insulates you and keeps you out of the wind. Be careful, though. You need to be sure it’s sturdy so it doesn’t collapse. We chose to not build a fire in ours. Too complicated to figure out the draft so it wouldn’t fill with smoke….. or melt.
Once we had our shelter sorted out, it was time to find some food. We tried tracking.
Turns out, there were lots of deer tracks. Deer are way too big for us to catch. There were also lots of squirrel tracks. We couldn’t possibly! I mean, what would Scottie say?
How about fishing? That seems like a good idea. You just put a hole in the ice…
Then you add this fancy fishing line that drops into the hole…
And then you wait for the flag to pop up. That tells you a fish is on the line. You just stroll over and scoop up your supper. Easy peasy!
And you wait. And you wait.
Gosh, fishing requires a lot of patience.
Ooh! Wait, the flag popped up!
Hmm.. That fish is the perfect size for a fish taco for me. But, it’s not going to feed all of us. Better stock lots of food. Maybe it’s time to practice something else…. like running sled dogs. We have the perfect friend to help.
Stella loves to run, for sure. She does not love to be tied to a very small sledge filled with her Stuffie friends. We’ll spare you the picture of what happened- it did not go well.
Speaking of things that can go wrong, it’s really important to get off the ice before it freezes in place in Fall or breaks up in the Spring. The last thing you want is to be trapped in the ice or have your boat squished like a banana left on the floor.
Okay. So we prepared ourselves for all the things that could go wrong and learned lots of new skills. After all this practice, we felt sure it was time to head out on our Arctic adventure. Here we come!
Man, that is a lot of ice. It goes as far as my tiny dragon eyes can see!
It’s good to have some bigger friends along for the company, warmth, and muscle. Yeti hopped out on the ice floe and pulled our sledge/boat onto shore.
We all got safely “ashore”. Then it was time to unload our supplies and get to work.
We have a lot to do if we’re going to survive this adventure, so I’m going to say “so long!” Hope the New Year brings you some unexpected and fun surprises. Stay warm!
-Taco, Fajita, Yeti, and S’mores
