Alaska Pictures

I'll never get tired of looking at the mountains and am
really missing that view.

A month after returning, I am finally posting my Alaska pictures.  I am very ashamed it took me so long to get it done, but I did learn another valuable lesson along the way:  Never delete the folders on your camera until you are finished removing ALL pictures from the memory card.  Accidents do happen that can lead to a small melt down as you realize that it deleted all folders rather than the one empty folder you had intended.  Fortunately they make programs for just such problems so I was able to retrieve most of my lost pictures, but not all - hopefully I only lost the bad ones, but we'll never know for sure.

Salmon berry blooms

It's not in great focus, but I won't get many chances to take
a picture of eagles fighting over food.

Mike cutting salmon - mmm yum!
(I know this time last year I was saying
that I was sick of salmon, but I've
since decided that I didn't really mean it.)

Fish hanging in the smoke house - mmm
yum in a few days!

A magpie sitting on the top of the smokehouse hopping to
get in on some of that mmmm yumminess inside.

Catching salmon makes for a good day!
(unless you're the salmon, then not so much)

 

The blooms pictured earlier were starting to produce the
beginnings of salmon berries before we left.  If I remember
correctly, they'll be getting ripe the end of July and into August.
When ripe they're an orange-red color (hence the name) and
taste like blackberries, just not as strong.

Eagles!!  I really miss their chirping.

More eagles

Hanging fish in the smokehouse

Suppertime - everyone takes their fish
scraps to the beach for the birds, who seem
to appreciate it very much.

Magpie sunning.  I think they're cute, but Carol does not
appreciate their efforts to protect their nests, especially
whey they choose to build their nests close to the clothes line.
Having wondered too close to a crow's nest a couple times,
I can understand her point.

Nanwalek's park overlooking the bay.  We're still asking ourselves
often "What were we thinking?"  Stupid retirement system -
keeping me from one of the most beautiful places on earth.
I don't want to be looking for work at 80 years old, but do
sometimes wonder if it isn't worth it.

Diaper lilies - I'm told they are named because they are stinky.
I decided I did not need to find out for myself.

Young eagle losing his juvenile feathers.  You can see the head
is starting to stand out as a lot whiter that the rest of the body.
He'll be an adult before summer's over.  I wonder if they ever
miss their childhoods like we do some times?

Sunset over Iliamna

Mike fussed at me before I headed down to take more sunset
pictures (at midnight - insert a small grrrr! at the sun) saying
I already have a million sunset pictures, why would I need
more?  I may have a million sunset pictures, but I didn't have
any with an eagle silhouette and would have missed it had
I listened.  Wouldn't it be nice if not listening always worked
out so well.  It usually just gets me into trouble and listening
to an "I told you so." when it's all over with.

The Trip Home

I've decided that if given the choice, and cost not an issue, I would rather spend seven days driving the Alaska-Canada highway, sleeping on an air mattress on top of the tubs in our trailer, shampooing my hair in shoe box than flying to/from Alaska.  Time and cost both discourage one from taking the road route since driving takes a week and will cost at least $2000 in fuel plus food and other such expenses and that's only one way.  Flying will take one day and cost $500 to $700 for one person round trip so it is more time and cost-effective, but not nearly as much fun or comfortable.  I won't spend too much time complaining about never getting an aisle seat when I remember requesting it for Mike because I'm always in the middle, so it makes no difference to me.  I will whine a little about getting stuck in the last row with seats that are leaning a little more forward than all the rest and do not recline at all, while the row in front of us all feel the need to recline.  I will definitely not complain about sitting next to the girl who spent the entire descent for landing throwing up in what seemed an effort to fill the entire trash bag in her lap.  It could most certainly have been worse - I would rather be the person sitting next to the girl throwing up, than be the girl throwing up on the plane while the flight attendants who wouldn't allow her to go to the bathroom are fussing at her about her seat belt being unfastened.  We'll just leave it at driving was far better, but less practical.

One advantage to flying was getting to visit with Mike's cousin, Tina, and her family in St. Louis who were gracious enough to let us stay with them before and after the trip.  We really enjoyed the time we had with them and are looking forward to getting together and visiting with them again.  We're truly blessed to have such great people in our lives.

Leaving in a Small Plane, Then a Jet Plane

6/19/13

It's a bit of a mouthful to fit into John Denver's song, so I won't even try to accomplish it in my head, but the time has come to leave the village and return to Missouri.  We got to the airport early this morning, gear in tow, to head out and start the drive to Anchorage to catch our flights and was quickly reminded of the difficulties we faced as we were leaving Alaska last year.  Last year I learned it was easier to get an assault rifle on a plane than a cat and it is apparently also easier to get firearms on a large commercial jet with TSA security, than on a small plane with no security.  I did not think to mention that we would have a lot of luggage when I scheduled a flight because usually people have all of the freight going into the villages, not coming out.  You only bring your clothes and such out, but you return with all of your groceries and other shopping.  They shouldn't have any problems getting our stuff . . . not exactly.  They decided to be ultra efficient and scheduled six people out of the villages that morning, leaving room for only our luggage and the cooler - not the gun case.  Of all things we were faced with leaving behind, it had to be the gun case.  It's contents cost more than this entire trip and are priceless to my desperately needs to find a support group for his firearms addiction husband (and no, the NRA does not count).  Fortunately, as the pilot looked as his manifest he noticed we were short one of our scheduled people and since she was a no show, there was just exactly enough room for us and our things.  Small crisis averted!  Next, of course, came the really hard part . . . "Please, God, don't let me die today. . . "  I won't go into the entire discourse for you, but will say that it did involve not having gotten a will written yet, and I really should since I keep doing crazy stuff like getting in little planes, etc.  If God has a sense of humor, I'm sure I keep Him laughing.

The drive up to Anchorage was very nice.  It's amazing to see the transformation in the landscape in the short three weeks since our arrival.  The large lake (on the side of the road, by the way - so it also is a lake of death!) that was frozen completely across the top is now entirely melted with no hint of winter.  The landscape has shifted from mostly brown to fully green.  Mountains once nearly covered with snow are half to almost completely rid of that chilly covering and streams are now flooded with the run-off.  Summer is short and nature seems to know it has to get things going quickly.  Solstice is but a few days away and then each day will be shorter than the last, bringing winter closer and closer with each sunset.

We stopped along the way to enjoy the scenery, look for bears with no luck, and see some of the streams along the way.  Mike and I lived here for a year, traveling this road to Anchorage several times, and didn't see half of what we've seen on this trip.  I suppose there are disadvantages to being too goal oriented.  When Mike and I are on a trip, we have our final destination in mind and drive towards that goal, and that goal only.  We usually make very good time, but I think we sometimes miss a lot of great scenery along the way.  I definitely think goals are important and good, but I think we can allow those goals to make us miss out on some great experiences in life as we hurry to achieve the destination without taking time to stop and enjoy the sights along the way.  Alaska has given me a lot of great experiences, and a few lessons along the way.  We will definitely miss her, but all things must eventually come to an end.

6/18/13



Coming in from the valley

Today the village was abuzz with excitement again as the helicopter came in to claim the float plane that flipped in Second Lake last week.  They got the float plane upright within a couple days of it's misadventure, at it has been waiting patiently on the beach at Second Lake for the helicopter to come in and take it out.  The entire process was actually very speedy and we spent far more time at the runway waiting for things to begin than watching them take place, but it was still pretty cool to watch.  Given that several flights come in and out of the village most days, accidents will happen, but they seem to have had more than their fair share the last few years.  One got caught by a sudden gust of wind as it was landing and ended up in the lagoon right before we moved to the village two summers ago - I think I posted pictures of it, with it's curled up propeller.  In December of that same year, one experienced problems taking off and the pilot took it over the water before going down to soften the crash - very brave considering he cannot swim.  Everyone was shaken up and very cold, but okay and we were all thankful.  Last summer, that same pilot went down in the neighboring village.  I'm pretty sure everyone was okay again, but I'm thinking he should rethink his profession before his luck runs out.  Later that same summer, the same company lost a plane to incoming tides.  They had landed on a beach for a bear viewing tour, and couldn't get the plane up before the tide came in.  Now this float plane has also been sunk, at least in fresh water rather than sea water so it is salvageable, although it will be the insurance company doing the salvaging - I would hate to see what's happened to their rates over the last two years.  Hopefully, they have experienced enough problems to satisfy Mr. Murphy and his law, because this little duck still has one flight out of the village to go.

Bringing the plane down for a break before heading to Homer

On another note, I found some interesting treasure on the beach this morning as I was looking for sea glass.  Were I still living here, I would be making Mike drag it up to the house to put on our porch for decoration, but I am not still living here and do not have a place to put it in my house in Missouri, nor am I interested in paying the freight to get it there, so a picture will have to suffice.  I know it's a gear, but I'm not sure where it's from.  It's obviously been in the water for a while since there are rocks rusted into it.  I thought it was a pretty cool find for a sea glass expedition.

Sea Treasure - it would look awesome on my porch,
if only it were still my porch

Cabin Fever

6/17/13

We're been enjoying our stay in the village and are keeping quite busy.  Saturday Mike and I helped scale and cut up some salmon for Carol to pressure cook.  Gertie wanted to help too, but I think she got confused about what kind of help we needed so she tried to get rid of the salmon rather than prepare it.  Sunday we went up to James and Carol's cabin to celebrate Father's Day.  First the guys went down to the meadow to finish up Christopher's bear stand, then did some wood cutting to work up an appetite.  Gertie also came along to keep us safe from any prowling bears and was quite busy patrolling the grounds when she wasn't napping on the porch.  Carol started cooking Saturday for dinner Sunday night and my belly very much appreciated all of her work even if I did have to waddle home after.  Today we went back to the cabin to do some hiking behind the cabin to look for bear sign.  Somewhere along the way I picked up a short cable I thought might be important to something - turns out it wasn't, but I didn't know that at the time - which came in very handy for something about Alaska I had forgotten about:  Mosquitoes.  I remember seeing a bumper sticker saying "There isn't a single mosquito living in Alaska.  They are all married and have very large families." and it is very accurate.  Even if those little critters didn't bite, there were so many they were still frustrating to try to walk through.  So I doubled my little cable over and swung it around to keep the area in front of me clear of bugs that might be tempted to try to make friends.  Hopefully they won't think me snobbish for rejecting their offerings of friendship.

Christopher's bear stand before they
finished it

It's Always the Innocent Who Suffer

6/15/1

Anyone who knows Mike or his family, knows they are all prone to pranks.  He and Carol were two peas in a pod while we lived in the village, constantly pulling pranks on each other.  My personal favorites were Carol sewing Mike's coat sleeves closed while we were at school and Mike taping the office phone to the back of Carol's chair so that every time it rang she could hear it but, turn around as she may, she could never find it.  I think she's been plotting ever since because she had her first prank pulled before we even arrived so when we went to bed our first night, we found our bed had been short sheeted.  That should have been my first clue that we innocent by-standers would most likely suffer most from these merry mischief makers.  One of their favorite pranks is hiding things in each other's shoes and I'm pretty sure that they both emptied their boots of those foreign objects into my boots.   They were also fond of using rubber bands to keep the sprayer on so that when we turned on the water in the sink it would spray whoever was standing at the sink.  This is one prank I'm pretty sure got me more times than anyone else - but I did get sprayed 3 times in one night after I knew the rubber band was in place and ready to go.  James suffered from an attempt to short-sheet Carol.  He was warned ahead of time to let her go to bed first, but she noticed things were a little different than when she left them so she just slept on top of the sheet so James couldn't get into bed and had to sleep on top of the sheet as well.  There are about a billion other little things they've done to each other over the past two weeks, some only affecting the intended target, some affecting the innocent.  With several days left before we return home, I'm curious - and nervous - to see what these two will come up with next.

Fishy, Fishy!

6/13/13

We've been running down to the end of the runway twice a day at low tide to try to catch some fish and got enough today to get the smoke house going. 

Step one: (after catching the fish) Fillet them out.  They fillet things a little differently here int he village.  They cut down the back bone and cut down towards the belly until they are almost all the way through and then rip the rest of the fish off of the ribs.  It's pretty impressive to watch someone who's been cutting fish all of their life as they fillet these out.

Step two:  Cut the fillets into strips

Step three:  Tie together any lose strips.  Mike and James cut a lot of strips so that two were attached at the top, so they did not need tying, but a fillet does not always come out to be a neat, even number of strips.

Step four:  Brining.  Every one's recipe is a little different, but the basics are water and salt and the best way to tell if you have enough salt in your water - float an egg.  If the egg doesn't float in the brine, than you add more salt until it does.  A lot of people add some extra flavors into the brine with molasses or brown sugar as well.

Step 5:  Hang them up in the smokehouse

Now all that has to be done is tend to the fire to keep it smoking for 10 days.  These strips will have a cold smoke, so the fire will be kept to a minimum so it won't produce enough heat to effect the temperature of the smokehouse much.  After the 10 days is up, they'll take them down, freeze them, and enjoy throughout the year.

You can also smoke for a 2 or 3 days and then can them which is called kippering and makes for yummy salmon spreads.

If you want to make suqiak (spelling may not be correct), then you smoke the strips for one day, cut them into strips, and bake in the oven with olive oil, garlic, and worchestershire sauce.  I've not had salmon prepared this way, but hear it is very good.