Below-Zero Nursing

It was already dark outside, even though it was four o’clock in the afternoon. We soon found out that during the winter, it was just as dark in the middle of the day as it was in the middle of the night. Yet just as there was very little light in the winter, the sun never set in the summer. It was just as sunny at two in the morning as it was at two in the afternoon.

John took Eric by the hand once again, and all three of us ran to the truck and jumped in, the truck that had arrived earlier that day. We drove to the store as fast as we could. There was even a place to plug our truck in to keep the engine from freezing while we were shopping. We dashed in to pick up some fresh fish, vegetables, bread, and desserts-(What four-year-old doesn’t love sweets, to say nothing of the adults?). Although, there was little to choose from.

As we headed back to the truck to put our groceries in the truck bed, we noticed a pack of dogs approaching. Not knowing whether they were friendly, we hurried into the truck and started driving home before they reached us.

On our way back, Eric looked out the back window and said, “Daddy! Birds are eating our food!”

John stopped the truck and got out to shoo the ravens away.

John quickly inspected the grocery bags. They hadn’t had time to really sink their teeth into our food before Eric noticed them. They’d only gotten to one bag of groceries. They flew away with it.

We thought that the ravens taking groceries from the back of the truck was shocking and astounding. But as time passed we saw many situations that amazed us about the ravens, who proved their problem-solving skills and intelligence over and over again.

The only way to describe a raven is that they look like an extremely large crow. In fact, they are a hardy powerful bird that can live in minus 50 below Fahrenheit. They are bold and had such strength that they could easily pick up and fly away with a full green garbage bag. We had never witnessed anything quite like it.

One day as we were going down the street we saw a few ravens engaged in a game with a dog. The dog was tied up. We could see that there were a couple of ravens distracting the dog as a few others worked together and lifted the dog’s dish in the air. There were simply amazing birds that the First Nation people had many legends about, especially regarding their intelligence, resourcefulness, and reputation for stealing food.