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What else has been going on around here…
- Quick Trip Outside March 31, 2024
- 4 H Farm Life March 28, 2024
- Daily Prompt March 27, 2024
- What were you doing 60 years ago today? March 27, 2024
- Tis the season. March 26, 2024
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Tag Archives: fishing
We camped on the beach last weekend, just to get a little glimpse of our normal family working vacation. Instead of a busy, fishing oriented beach, it was oddly vacant and very quiet. An enjoyable but different camping experience for sure.
Mo and her younger kiddos set up camp and we joined them late Friday. I missed our full Fish Camp Family: Niki & boys, Ms Jane & Mr Marion, Mr “Swiss Army Knife” Jimmy, and Mr Chris. They were all in my thoughts, holding places of gratitude for their contributions to our efforts over the past nine years, the friendships developed and wishing we were all together again. Hoping that we get the chance to fish together at least once more.
Our annual Fish Camp time is about far more than just fishing. It’s Alaska Culture at its best: harvesting from the land & sea, working together, learning from others, sharing our collective knowledge and years of wisdom, and going home with pantries full of fish and hearts full of gratitude.
Even without the regular trappings of fish camp , the kids enjoyed an unhurried pace and no chores! (Other than setting up camp and tearing down.) Playing games, eating good food and just relaxing. I enjoyed all of that and the company of my good friend.
This was Ishka’s first outing to the beach and he did very well. No running off. No tearing things up. He did chase after a couple seagulls but we put a stop to that. He was tuckered out every night and slept very well. This dog has a tremendous amount of energy and he used it up every day!
Alaska Boy and I tried our hand at a little halibut surf fishing. We didn’t catch anything but we learned a thing or two. And we’ll give it another try some other time.
Solstice means fish in our family!
Memories from 5 years ago.
Fishcamp recap.
I had a hard time getting up Monday morning. No alarm for nearly 2 weeks, naturally waking is nice! Sleeping to ocean sounds is also nice. Neither of those things are happening anymore . 😂
Although technically not fishcamp related the Solstice Sisters headed to Homer on Sunday, which has become a tradition at least once a year when things are normal. We went for brunch and tried to get home at a decent hour. It was glorious. Doing the tourist thing on the Spit: eating at quaint little cafes and food trucks; shop hopping little boutiques and charter shops; and one cannot forget a pitstop at The Salty Dawg.
Fishcamp was different this year. The emergency orders restricting our fishing between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm essentially gave us about 5 days of actual fishing, for at least 20 mins. We had nets in the water whenever we legally could and we caught 1/3 of the number of fish we normally do. That’s not going to last the year but at least we didn’t come home empty handed. Our household allowance is 75 fish, we came home with 29. Just means we need more halibut. 😎 In total we caught 125 fish, split between 6 permits.
Good food and drink is always a part of our adventures.
I processed three cases of salmon in the beach. Came home and put 8 fish in the freezer for later processing and smoked 6. I tried a new brine, just salt and pickling spice. Smoked for about 6 hours. We’ll see how we like it. Then we’ll do more later.
Even with all the differences and split camps and odd vibes, it was nice to spend time with my peeps. The beach was not as crowded, no rowdy dudes to contend with, few beach racers and poorly behaved people made for a more peaceful beach time.
We also learned new things (Thing 1 got to observe a commercial setnet operation with Mrs Jane and learned about assembling a new net), met new people and had new experiences! Always good things. And we day dreamed of what we could do if this happens again…. Go hiking, camping, fishing, etc somewhere else. It would be more affordable probably!
Alaska on my mind... 