The hound quickly flipped its claws in the snow, whimpering in a low voice to signal for the sight of its prey.
The hunter ignited the dead leaves of the branches and kept tapping with his axe to confirm the hollow position of the trunk, the axe swung down to split the gap, and the clever dog guarded the other end and stared at the exit.
With the tacit cooperation of hunters and hounds, the range of activities of prey hidden in tree holes is getting smaller and smaller.
The keen sense of smell allowed the hound to find the location of the prey first, and with a low roar, it pounced on the trunk, and the bark splashed a few points faster than the axe in the hunter's hand.
When the hunter saw this, he quickly stabbed the hole in the tree with a wooden stick and drove the prey in the direction of the dog.
Suddenly, a flexible figure escaped from the tree hole, and the hounds who had been waiting for a long time swooped down and tangled with the figure.
When all the dust settled, the hunt won the final victory, and it was a sable half a meter long lying on the snow.
The old hunter of the mink is named Solo, but he is not a despicable poacher, because he is the owner of this wild land.
He and his hounds enjoyed the treasures of this entire forest, where one man and one dog had lived freely for more than 30 years.
Solo lives in the Siberian village of Bahatia, in the heart of the vast Siberian wilderness, surrounded by endless wilderness and coniferous forests.
With no roads and railways, outsiders can only get here by plane and boat, while the Yenisei River next to the village is mostly a glacier that boats can only reach during the hottest midsummer.
However, as one of the few hunters in the village, Solo does not live here most of the time.
In every snowy season, he and his hounds crossed glaciers and hunted alone in the distant wilderness.
It's early spring in Siberia, the rising sun is busy sprinkling spring light on the white glaciers, and the restless waters of the river herald the end of the year's hunting season.
Solo had a lot of work to finish before leaving, shoveling large chunks of snow from the hunter's hut, then stockpiling enough firewood to burn in the house to keep him warm, and packing tools and food in iron boxes to prevent them from being found by bears.
There were more than one hunter's hut, they were scattered in various locations in the forest, and all these things needed to be done by Solo alone, and he had lived for more than 30 years.
As early as 1970, Solo and a companion were sent here by the Soviet government to hunt for the country, and the government gave the whole 1500 square meters of land to the two people.
Before leaving, he was given only some money and a gun, and promised to airlift supplies on a regular basis.
But things were uncertain, and his companions soon left because they could not stand the environment here, and because of the turmoil in the country, the supplies promised by the government were not delivered, leaving Solo struggling to survive in the vast snow forest.
Fortunately, he met a loyal hunting dog, who was with him in his most difficult years, so that he could find a lot of prey to eat.
The hunting season usually lasts for a full seven months, starting in August of each year and ending in March of the following year when the hunters return to the village for a period of repairs.
Labor Day on May 1 is a big day in Russia, when villagers burn off their old clothes to symbolize that the cold winter is over.
Hunters fired their guns into the sky to celebrate the day, and the long-dormant Yenisei River seemed to be infected by the festive atmosphere, and large chunks of ice and snow dissolved and shattered.
The white torrent wrapped in a huge roar flows towards the Arctic Ocean, and the scene is vast and spectacular.
The river thawed and Solo got busy in his brand-new canoe.
After a winter of dormancy, most of the fish in the Yenisei River were fat and hungry, and he had to catch more fish when the river was still shallow and gentle to feed his family and these newborn dogs.
When summer comes, everything is full of life under the moisture of the sunshine river, and a sable is happily foraging in the tree.
Winter is the main prey of hunters, this summer is the best time to train new hounds, dogs have enough energy to exercise their ability to hunt prey, hunters can also catch enough fish every day.
For the upcoming hunting season, hunters must be well prepared.
The blue-blue Yenisei River is clear and transparent, the sound of water babbling, the dinghy paddles through the white waves in the water, the hunter sits on the stern of the boat and is blown away by the breeze, the hound lying on the bow of the boat is squinted by the warm sun, everything is so vivid and bright, but it looks as quiet as a painting from a distance!
The boat is moving, the water is moving, but the heart does not want to move.
This summer is also the time when hunters help each other build hunting houses, which are their base camp for hunting in the forest, which stores potatoes and onions and other foods that are not easy to spoil, and everything is done by the hunters themselves.
Chainsaws are one of their few modern tools, and the real test is mosquitoes, mosquitoes that overwhelm people.
Dedicated hunters may not care about this, but hounds and children can't.
There are no pharmacies nearby, but hunters have their own way, peeling off the bark of birch trees and putting them in iron barrels to make tar and apply to hunting dogs and children.
Although the taste may be a bit pungent, the effect is outstanding.
Solo is making a pair of skis, an ancient craft that must be understood in Siberia, and the wood for skis is the best wood in the region, with a straight texture and no holes.
Even if it is only as thick as cardboard, it can easily support the weight of an adult man.
The soaking of boiling water can make the board flexible and powerful, and then through pressing and roasting, the surface of the front section of the ski can be permanently fixed.
Solo, who wanted to pass on the craft to his son, said the skis he produced were much better than those in the factories outside, and wouldn't get tired even after paddling 15 kilometers in the mountains.
The sun is abundant, the land is fertile, and most of the vegetables grown by the villagers grow very fast, and they can be harvested in one summer.
Like Solo, the people of this village are accustomed to self-sufficiency, and everything outside can hardly affect their peaceful lives.
During the days when the river was clear, a politician came here with his own propaganda team, and the government has almost forgotten the place for the past four years.
But now, in order to get votes, politicians have promised the villagers a clean and transparent government and sent a few bags of wheat to express their condolences.
However, although the grain was accepted, none of the votes were cast, and the villagers had no interest in who to choose and who would rule the country.
They are more like lone gulls flying in the sky, free and unrestrained.
Autumn rains always come very suddenly, for weeks at a time, which is especially important for hunters.
Because after the water level rose, they could finally transport heavy tools and grain to the wild.
After drinking the wine, the hunters said goodbye to their families.
From today onwards, they will return to their original appearance, far away from their homeland, running away alone, no rules, no taxes, no government, no laws, and everything will follow their own inner choices.
The heavy hull of the ship broke through the rapids against the water, and the hunters went to their own jurisdictions, and the rest of the time was accompanied only by hounds, and everything had to be faced alone.
At this time, the first snow has not fallen, the river is still flowing, the deep forest is lush, and the hunters can enjoy the wild fun of autumn hunting while busy resettling the camp.
Everyone has their own different way of experiencing this fun.
In this vast forest sea that belongs to them, there is no need to stick to the form in the wild water, Soro distributes the bread he brings to various storage points, and wraps a smooth plastic film on the trunk of the tree, which can effectively prevent rats from stealing food.
Since it had been uninhabited for months, the hunting houses were more or less destroyed by bears, and by the time Solo had repaired the hunting houses one by one, the first snow of autumn had quietly arrived.
Tiny snowflakes stain hunters' clothes, and translucent icicles crystallize the branches of the river, and for hunters who are wandering around, there is nothing more comfortable than boiling a pot of hot tea and quietly admiring the snow.
Lonely and far away Cold and clean, the taste of which only you can experience.
Solo turned the winch on the shore and pulled the boat up from the frozen river, which was now no longer passable and his hunt had officially begun.
Solo had already done some of the trap work long before the hunting season, and now he just needed to continue to refine it.
There are generally two ways to lay traps here, one is to place the trap directly, which is very simple and quick, but it will hurt the fur of the prey, and the injured animal will often drag the trap far before it dies.
Another method is to make a traditional horizontal clip, which requires two trees as a support for the clip, and when the prey touches the mechanism in the middle of the clip, the horizontal wood above the clip will quickly fall and clamp the prey.
Prey caught in the forehead is usually killed instantaneously, neither struggling nor hurting the fur.
Solo, the region's oldest hunter, was well versed in setting traditional traps, and every spring he set up thousands of traps in his bailiwick, and many hunters would make traps before the hunting season began to catch more sables.
But Solo never did this, because the probability of catching a pregnant female mink was high, and Solo was very disgusted by this greedy behavior.
In his view, the hunter is also part of the forest, and getting the part of himself is the way of harmony between man and nature.
As the cross-clamp setup is gradually completed, heavy snow falls, the woods fade blue, and loneliness envelops everything.
During the time of waiting for prey, Solo will not feel too lonely with the companionship of the hound.
Solo says that a hunter without a dog is by no means a true hunter.
Many times hunters and hounds are interdependent, not only people feed dogs, but also dogs feed people.
In the snow-covered forest where everything is hidden, only the sense-sensitive hounds can find the sable hidden in the dark, and the hunter only needs to trust his partner and help from the side.
Solo said that training a smart hunting dog is actually very simple, to see what prey the dog is more interested in from childhood, a dog that likes to chase elk trains it to be a deer catcher, and a dog that likes to chase sables trains it to be a sable dog.
The hounds trained in this way tend to accumulate hunting experience on their own and behave more intelligently and spiritually when hunting.
The hunter doesn't need to do anything, he knows what to do.
The able-bodied hounds opened the way ahead, and the hunters followed closely behind, and time was thus stained white in the footprints of one man and one dog.
It was already the depths of winter, and the hunting season was coming to an end soon, and Solo walked through the mountains and forests, checking the harvest of the traps one by one.
Although the sable's catch rate is very low, he hunts a whole mountain forest alone, and there will always be something to gain in more than a thousand cross-clips, and each sable with a complete fur can bring a considerable income.
Solo can basically meet his family's expenses in a year, because he doesn't want to hunt more and doesn't have to hunt more.
Harvesting sables is not an easy task, due to the complex terrain of the forest and the many obstacles, even if you can have a snowmobile for a little walk.
But most of the time Solo had to abandon this modern tool, pedaling a sleigh and a stick and completing the journey behind him on foot.
But working in these tough conditions is already a routine for Solo, and he often walks like this for a day.
After running until the evening, Solo returned to the small hunting house in the distance with a snowstorm, but saw a tree falling on the roof to block the chimney.
It was getting dark, and Solo didn't have time to rush back to the big hunting room, and his only choice was to take out his tools and tidy up the place.
Such accidents often occur in the forest, and Solo is accustomed to coping with them every time, but it is precisely because of his precarious life that hunters know the warmth and preciousness of home best.
The next day, because of the delay in repairing the house, Solo did not arrive at the big hunting house until the evening, and today was the last day of December.
The temperature of minus 30 is extremely warm, because the hunters have packed up their harvest and are ready to go home for the New Year.
The village was 150 kilometres away, and Solo rode a snowmobile non-stop, with hounds not getting on the bike and following behind.
Running like this during the day, there was still no rest at night, and finally the outline of the village appeared in front of the eyes.
The family has been standing in front of the door for a long time, using hugs and kisses to dispel the wind and cold on Solo's body, and welcoming the hounds into the room to feast.
At this moment, all the labor and waiting turned into a strong joy, and the meaning of home was once again engraved into the bottom of everyone's heart.
The hunters stayed for a short time, and after a few days together, they had to sail into the wilderness again for the remaining three months, they were hunters and warriors.
Every hunt is like an experience, whether it is lonely or cold, they love their current life even more.