Sick of Salmon

Dipnetting season is open only for a few weeks and Cannon made it down Monday to try his hand at slaying some fish. They opened commercial fishing on Monday so we didn't know if he'd get anything. After 14 hours in cold ocean waters, he pulled about 30 big, beautiful salmon (and some flounder) and brought 'em home. Dipnetting isn't for the faint of heart--it's ocean fishing in frigid waters with hundreds of folks fishing along side you. It requires using a net attached to a metal frame that is generally 5 feet in diameter and about 10 feet long. You drag the giant net along the bottom of the ocean and wait for the fish to swim in, watching and using the currents to help you catch the fish. With each catch, you gut and de-head the fish on the beach and then go back out. It requires hauling in ice to keep the fish cold and hauling everything out by hand at the end of the day--no small feat if you've had a good day. Some people make it a family fishing trip and spend days, but most folks do suicide runs where they drive down at 4a.m. in the morning and drive back at midnight. Some sleep in their cars (like Cannon did) and others are lucky to find a place to pitch a tent on the beach. Everybody that wants to, finds a way to make their way down, and get as much salmon as possible to stock up for winter. We're only given a window of about 3 weeks to do it. I look forward to doing it next year. It's considered good clean fun up here but it sounds like a lot of work! I'm really impressed that my hubby did the whole trip by himself. What a pro!!

Once Cannon made it home this is what we did:

*Did a dance of joy that he got home safe
*Gave him a hero's welcome as we're guessing he pulled about 30 fish! He did awesome...so awesome that he stopped counting.
*Panicked because we weren't sure how to process that much fish and keep it fresh.
*Argued about whether to buy more ice, whether to buy a vacuum sealer... (I had called around looking to borrow a pressure cooker but everybody else is fishing and processing right now too!)
*Shrugged our shoulders and started filleting. I quickly got intimidated by the filleting so Cannon did that.
*Rinsed fish, cut into steaks and bagged. Sounds quick and simple but it was not simple and it was not quick.
*Argued about how to seal the bags properly. Tried different techniques.
*Realized the bags were too big to seal properly.
*Finally cracked smiles and started laughing about our "greenhorn" inadequacies.
*I ran to the store to get more ice and smaller bags.
*Filleting, chopping, bagging and sealing for 4 more hours. (Sealing consists of adding a little water to each bag of salmon and then sucking all the air out by mouth and spitting the excess water that comes with it. Ick. Yuuuck. Gross!)
*Loaded the freezer with the sealed salmon.
*Did about 130 bags of salmon by the afternoon and were finally done.
*Hoped that our processing was successful. We'll find out in a few months if the salmon is still good.

It was stressful not to be more prepared but we're still novices and we really didn't know what to expect. I was so worried about losing the meat to spoilage after Cannon had worked so hard to harvest it. Next year Cannon will be taking coolers instead of plastic bins and I'll be waiting at the home front with a vacuum sealer, smoker and pressure cooker and several bags of ice.

We were so sick of salmon by the end of the day but today I cooked up a delicious salmon chowder and we are enjoying it very much!

If anybody wants to come up next year and help we'd be willing to pay you in salmon! ; )

A few catching-up pics

July

Tomorrow we celebrate our 5th anniversary. My sis, Heidi, took this picture and it is probably my favorite. I sure love Cannon and my feelings are really tender so I'll not bare my soul on a blog. I just love him and feel that we are completely perfect for each other.

It is another rainy day. This summer has been very rainy and gray. My poor plants and flowers are barely hanging in there and some have started to bite the dust. It's a sad thing because the colors and greenery are something a person craves after a long winter up here and to lose that is like losing part of my youth. I feel older when a blooming plant or flower dies. Rain makes some places even greener but that isn't the case in Alaska. It's already overwhelmingly green so the rain is just a taunting reminder that unless we want to play in frigid grass and mud, we have to enjoy the greenery looking out from our windows.

The latest in our lives is that Cannon is growing a beard that he started while out on a fire, Caleb is half-way potty trained and has been that way for months, I'm wearing new Ugg fliff-floffs (yes, I said "fliff-floffs") that he bought me for my birthday. They keep my feet uber warm but allow them to be ventilated. We had a chance to stay with our friends at their cabin and it was an awesome adventure. Caleb and Cannon had the time of their lives boating, riding wave runners at speeds that no wife or mother should witness, going tubing, eating s'mores, jumping on the trampoline, playing catch with the dog and throwing the football around. I was a great spectator for most of it but did get out on the boat a couple times. Next year I'll be out there with them.

I'm feeling great and passed my blood sugar test. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid Gestational Diabetes altogether with this pregnancy. What else...um, Cannon is starting to trim out our new windows and has almost finished the first one. It looks great! Other than that it's laundry and dishes and playing with Caleb. Yesterday he did the most classic thing. We went to the park because the sun came out and as he was walking past the car, running his hand along the car (which he always does), he stopped at the front of the car, inhaled and said "Mmmm, I smelling da engine!" and then ran off to the playground. Where does he get this stuff? That kid has motor oil in his blood. I think we're raising a pit crew team member without even knowing it. Or maybe a pilot or a plane mechanic. Or maybe a train engineer. But not a race car driver. Mama wouldn't have none of that.

(We're running a "duplicate annihilator" for our photo library so I can't post photos of our latest adventures. It's a shame because my fliff-floffs are so fluffy and cute, you're missing out not being able to see them! Ha, ha!)

Delicious Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

This recipe is so good and so simple, you'll want to hug me for sharing it with you.

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

2-4 lbs frozen chicken (3-4 lg breasts)

1/2 c. soy sauce

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

3/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 T. red wine or apple cider vinegar

2 T. olive oil

Dump in crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours. Serve with steamed and buttered brown rice, pineapple chunks and Chow Mein noodles. Delish!!

Make it now, hug me later!

4 x 4 Fun for Father's Day Weekend

Father's Day

Wish I could have been in AZ to have a brunch with dad, mom and Lolly. I'm sure they had a great time and I'm glad that we got a chance to visit on the phone. My dad is someone I love very much. And while we couldn't spend time with the folks in person, we did get to celebrate Father's Day with Cannon in person and we had a terrific day. Caleb and I had been working on a few gifts and we had fun giving daddy lots of attention: An Autobots hood ornament, a Costco size box of Oreos, a hand drawn helicopter by Caleb, breakfast in bed, a scrapbook and a moose meat loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy dinner to top it off. We also went for a family bike ride. Caleb rode his trike and we corralled him down the sidewalks and paths of the neighborhood. It was sunny, calm, non-mosquito weather and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Then we sat on the front lawn and ate popsicles and watched a baby bird learning how to forage for food. The mama sat in our front tree and the baby waddled around in the grass, learning how to pluck the grass. Sometimes the mama would feed the baby, after it had been struggling for a while. The baby had very fine feathers that stuck up all over it's head and body. A total fuzz ball. Totally adorable. After watching the baby bird for a while (and probably traumatizing it with our close proximity), we watched a cute movie (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) and then wrapped up the night with the usual bedtime routine.

Grateful for the father I've got and for the father that Cannon is.

Living Green: 40 Uses of Baking Soda

I really like articles that share information on living green. This article on the beauties of baking soda was great. And at the bottom it has links to uses for vinegar, lemon juice, etc. Pretty cool!

Camping Trip!

We've had a great couple of weeks (except for when Cannon got his car stolen--yes, we live in Alaska but we live in the largest city in Alaska and it's 2010 so there are gangs and crime like in any other city! We did get the car back). I'm about to go into my 3rd trimester and I'm feeling great!

It's finally green and gorgeous. Our summer has started off with a memorable camping trip to Byer's Lake. The great thing about camping in Alaska is, well, we're camping in ALASKA. Overwhelmingly majestic and beautiful. We rented a kayak, loaded up our gear and took off across the lake to the little cabin.

What you don't see in the pictures are the swarms of mosquitoes and you don't smell us (think no running water, lots of Off layered on our skin for days, and campfire smoke in our clothes and hair), and the drizzly rain that was constant except for a few breaks--which is when I snapped pictures. Really, rain up here isn't a deterrent to any activity, we all just wear jackets. I did actually brave the cold lake to take a bath. I'm pretty much half superhero these days. Cannon and Caleb thought it was hilarious to see a nearly 6 month pregnant lady doing a brave Byer's Lake boogie. Cannon caught some trout--I got a pic of the first one. It looks so tiny compared to the salmon he has slayed in the past. We don't even blink at the tiny fellers anymore, we just let 'em go. Of course, Caleb had a great time exploring the cabin, riding in the kayak, trying to jump out of the kayak (giving mom a heart attack), throwing stuff in the lake, eating s'mores, watching for bears and watching Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed movies while dad kicked mom's can at a game of chess. Good times!

On our way home, we stopped at the Princess Wilderness Lodge and got a bite to eat. We walked in smelling like a campfire that had been put out with Off, wearing hip waders and smiling from ear to ear. The tourists were all prettied up and pretty bewildered at the local color. It was probably our smell! Ha, ha! It's really easy to spot a cruise ship tourist during the Alaska summer months--they all have cameras, they are wearing make up and have their hair done, they are wearing "chic casual" clothing or sometimes REI catalog gear from head to toe, and they walk around with eyes as big as saucers.

We hope your summers are starting off well. And we hope you all plan on taking a trip to Alaska to visit us. Our house is cozy, our fish is fresh, there's plenty of daylight for playin' and there's plenty of blankets and floor space for sleeping. Come on up!

Memorial Day

(WWII B17 Bomber)

Happy Memorial Day! I wanted to pay tribute to my uncle Val Stoddard who passed away this week. He was actually a cousin to my Grandpa Stoddard and I had the privilege of getting to know he and his wife, Judy, when I was going to school in Pocatello, at Idaho State University. It was 1994 when I first met Val. Val and Judy were a couple of characters. Back when I lived in "Poky" they were chain smokers, friends to all stray animals, avid golfers, and feisty with each other. They were good hearted, comical, tell-it-to-ya-straight folks that you could visit with for hours simply because they'd lived full lives and always had an interesting story to tell. And they were truly interested in me. I swear they are the only people who I could sit in a smoke filled room with, as animals were crawling on or around me and totally enjoy every minute in conversation with them! (I don't have the strongest lungs and I'm not really a pet person). And Val was the only (and will be the only) person who ever called me "Kathy" and I answered.

I had been getting around on foot and Val helped me get a car to bomb around town in. It was a Pontiac Phoenix and I think I paid $800. It was root beer brown and when I tried to wash and wax it, the paint came right off. There was a radio but it sat underneath the seat, unhooked. And the windows had a purple tint to them. It was a real beauty and I named it "Mahauna". But it got me from point A to point B and was reliable. And I could turn it on without needing keys, which was handy. Ha! I was pretty flaky and sometimes they'd wait for an hour or two before I showed up for dinner or just to visit. Judy would cuss me out and then we'd all sit and talk and laugh for the rest of the evening.

Val was a WWII POW, a true hero. He was a Balteric Gunner on a B17 that got shot down. When we lived in Oregon we saw a B17 and saw where Uncle Val would have sat. He was in a bubble, right below the nose and cockpit of the plane. Not a lot of room to move and a perfect target for enemies. This is the bomber he would have flown in. When I'd visit them, he would sit on the floor in an odd fashion, kind of a quasi cross-legged style. It was from the time spent in enemy prison camps and had become a comfortable position for him.

Judy passed away after I moved to Utah to resume studies at the U of U. But before she died, she and Val had decided to quit smoking and they just up and quit. A couple years ago we met Val at Elmer's Diner in Pocatello and I introduced him to Cannon and Caleb. I'm really glad that they got to meet each other. I asked Val how he and Judy stopped smoking cold turkey and he explained that "The cigarettes was just too damned expensive!" Val suffered a stroke a few years back but he had continued golfing even after Judy passed and with the effects of the stroke, he had had to put the clubs away. He still wrote me letters now and then, even with a slow hand, still kept up the house and got around town, even after his DL had to get turned in. And at 85 he was as independent as ever.

The last time I talked to Val was at Christmas. He surprised me with a phone call to wish me a Merry Christmas. How sweet and thoughtful he always was to me. I knew Val and Judy for about 15 years and it is wonderful that they are resting in peace, reunited and free of pain or sorrow. Here's to the memory of two wonderful people who were generous in deed, kind in words, dedicated to this country's freedoms, friends to the community (especially the stray or injured animal community), spirited at all times, and full of life even till the end. They were really good to me and I'll always love them and regard them very fondly for their goodness in my life.

Who knows, maybe I'll take in a stray animal one of these days, just for memories sake of Val and Judy. Nahhhh...I'd rather take up golf.

We are going outside anyway

I've just got to complain for a second. I'm into my 5th month of pregnancy and I feel great but I still feel pregnant. I've got a head cold that is just miserable. I'm still recovering from spine surgery and that causes very tight muscles in my neck and shoulders that give me headaches. I woke up a couple days ago and just before getting out of bed my left calf instantly got a charlie-horse. And my leg is still cramped up days later. Um, what else. I have a 3 year old boy to chase. And he takes full advantage of my gimpy state, tearing the house apart, as I lie on the couch wiping my weepy left eye (head colds cause at least one eye to drain)!

But it's SUNNY outside and warmish and I just can't stand to be sick. So we're going outside, going for a bike ride to enjoy this sunshine, regardless of my old-and-feeble physical disposition.

I had to complain because Cannon is gone and Caleb feels no empathy for me. Do you ever have days like that where you feel crippled? Haaaa!