Silver Run

I wrote last year about the Yup'ik value of Always Getting Ready: preparing for the next seasonal activity, ultimately preparing for a long winter. Well, we've been so busy here getting ready that we haven't been blogging very much lately. But with the hunting and gathering season winding down, and winter bearing down on us (the winds have begun to change, bringing the cold air from the north), we'll be getting our blog caught up on what we've been up to our first month back in the bush.

Fletcher and I have been doing a lot of fishing this year, even though the silver run has been weaker than in years past. The first couple of weeks back, everyone was saying that the run was going to be late. Then, when the fish still didn't show up, people were insisting that the salmon were here or had already come and we all missed it. The truth is, it just wasn't a very good run this year. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I fished a lot more this year than in years past. Our first full day back in Goodnews, I borrowed Gary's dip net, ran down to the point, and caught my first salmon- a pink- with a dip net.

Fletcher with his first Alaskan salmon. 

Some friends of mine took us out in their boat. 

We ran out of oil on the way back and had to wait for a tow. 

We've had a lot of late nights fishing and preparing fish. You can just make out Beluga Mountain 

off in the distance. Last year, I relied on other peoples' boats to do most of my fishing, but this 

year I've done a lot by Honda, driving upriver about 5 miles to a nice little fishing hole that 

has yielded us some salmon.

Filleting salmon on the deep freezer. 

This year, we decided to do something different with our fish rather than freeze it, so we bought a smoker and decided to can it instead. The process takes much, much longer but the end product is very tasty and won't take up all of our freezer space. Before smoking it, we brined it in a saltwater and brown sugar bath. 

We then smoked it for about 2 hours using alder wood chips. I wish photos had smell capability, because it is just heavenly.

Finally, we pressure can it to kill botulism-causing bacteria. 

The end result- delicious smoked salmon, great for a meal or an appetizer spread on a cracker with some cream cheese. We canned roughly 80 pints of salmon. 

No post is complete without some pictures of this cheeser.

In between long weekends of fishing and canning, we went to Bethel for our annual district wide inservice. Junie absolutely loved running around the gym, yelling and smiling at all the teachers. She loves to be the center of attention (as long as nobody tries to pick her up!)

Junie's first day at daycare. She stayed here and played with other teachers' kids while we had training. Our little girl is growing up so fast!

Exhausted after a long week in Bethel...

Making new friends at the airport!

In addition to fishing, we made a concerted effort to pick lots of berries this year. With Junie being only 6 weeks old at the start of last year, we didn't get outside very much at all, and didn't pick any berries. It's been so much fun to spend time outside with Junie and watch her grow and learn new things. She loves to be outside and pick berries. When we get home from work, she'll grab her boots and jacket and head to the door.

From left to right: blueberries, low bush cranberries, crowberries.

We combined these berries into what we're calling Tundra Berry (copyright pending). We plan to incorporate this mix into some pies and jellies this year!