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! ; )
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Sick of Salmon
Monday, July 19, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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!)
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