F.i.S.h.I.n.G.

Last year I worked for the International Pacific Halibut Commission. Nearly 150,000 dead halibut passed my hands, I waved a wand over each - concurrently blessing them and checking each for a tag in its head. But never ever have I personally killed a halibut.

A few nights ago Jeff finally came home from his brief respite with 'employment' with the fantastic idea to gear up and head out on the Bay to assess the halibut situation out there...beautiful. I went out to the garden to finish planing some flowers while the boys got rods and reels and bait and the proper fixin's for an evening of fishing.

And beautiful it was! No halibut were found, but I caught an Irish Lord (a oft berated fish of little value to fisher-folk), and Ben and Jeff reeled in a small handful of p. cod - great for bait, apparently! Kaya hated the boating part, but loved the fishing. Shaemus couldn't really care less really, and slept through most of the fishing part, and Pemba loved every minute (evidenced by her full-body trembling and occasional 4-paws on the gunwales).

River Rally 2009

Just pictures for now - it's so beautiful and SUMMER outside, it's hard to buckle down and post much on the blog. Last week I went to Baltimore, MD for the River Network's annual conference - River Rally!
I **loved** it. Loved the people, being in the City, loved the field of work and the passion. I was humbled by the sheer number of people that believe in the power of stories, the importance of community. I left feeling inspired, empowered, and oh-so-thankful to be back home!

Hope, Alaska

I told Ben that I was determined to go and sleep in a tent, and not in the backyard. i didn't have to work on Monday, Memorial Day, and was long overdue to get out of dodge for a little bit. Plans hadn't been set, and come to find out it was the opening weekend for Saturday night music @ the Seaview Cafe in Hope - quite possibly my most-favorite-town-in-Alaska. Ian and friends joined us on Saturday, and we camped in Hope. In Hope - as in, the most populated place on earth (or so it felt) on Memorial Day. We were at the end of the road, in between a parking lot and Turnagain Arm, surrounded by people and city-folk reveling in their camping holiday weekend. Not *entirely* what I had in mind, but I got what I wanted - sleeping in a tent! The music on Saturday night was fantastic - an AK band the Whipsaws - it was great to see Ian, and we hiked up Point Hope on Sunday .. beautiful and alpine and steep and sweeping. Loved it.


Who knew so many people could fit in this wee-area??!?
Ian , getting his ducks in a row before a run /hike

While Ben & I were up on Point Hope, we saw the bore tide coming in Turnagain Arm! This is a crazy phenomenon which has something to do with how shallow the arm is and how much water floods in during certain tides. Turnagain Arm is not a place for recreating - the mud will suck you in, the water will wash you away. But it's certainly beautiful. And funny to see so much water with no boats on it....

Pesto from stinging nettles

(from Two Sisters Bakery)

* A big bunch of young nettles (~8cups), picked in the yard (careful to avoid the known spots where dogs and other household members may pee) and boiled for 2 minutes
* 1 cup-ish of shredded parmesean cheese
* 1 cup-ish of walnuts
* 5 garlic cloves
* salt
* dash o' pepper
* ~1/2 cup of olive oil

Spring update - summer's here!

It feels completely like summer. The past 2 days have been warmer than any I've felt in over a year (I don't actually thing this is an exaggeration), the sun doesn't set till after 10pm, and I've been killing some massive mosquitoes. It's entirely possible that we haven't seen the last of frost and cold and a rainy spring, but for now I'm going to bask in the blue skies and hot sun.

My computer is nearly in its death-throes, and so can't really handle much in the way of blog-updating. For now I'll post up some pictures from Chris' first visit, in late-March, when he dropped off Shaemus, a low-tide walk I took on Easter with the dogs, a day trip across the Bay with Ben, Mike, Jeff, Stacey, and the dog pack, and the gardening adventures we've set forth on!

Diamond Creek - Bishop's Beach, Easter Sunday

Chris, Megan & I went to the Bear Creek Winery on Megan's birthday to do some wine tasting of local berry wines. MMmmmm - we had smoked halibut on crackers with cream cheese to snack on as we sipped our way through the wine selection.

Mt Redoubt erupted while Chris was here - ash fall #1 of the year ... what a freaking mess!

We were both pretty impressed with the coating that Homer received.

A few weeks ago we went across the Bay to hike up a braided river, we'll just call it the Woz here since I can't remember/don't know how to spell the full name, for the day. Ben anchored the boat offshore and pack-rafted in with Pemba in hot pursuit... Mike, coming after Ben with a giant stick.

Jeff & Stacey

Back on the home front, work on the garden has begun in full force. Heavy machinery (well, not so much unless you count a chainsaw & rototiller...) and some elbow grease. A lot of the latter, actually. ~700 sq ft that needs to be surrounded by a moose-proof fence, ~150 hummocks to be removed, and thousands of pushkie (i.e. cow parsnip)(which, incidentally, I'm apparently very allergic to) to uproot and battle back. Payback for all of this labor? Aside from warm feelings of a job-well-done (and burly muscles)(and welts from the pushkies), potatoes and onions and spinach and dill and carrots and turnips maybe and leaks and radishes and .... etc etc etc! Yeah!

The Heavy Machinery

And the elbow grease

Baby pushkies. My nemesis, whom I will be battling all summer long. Bring it.

Dogs are so helpful.....they have been working hard checking out all the best places to nap in the shade or sun around the garden.

Ben, assessing the garden situation. A man with a plan. And some wicked-old-tools.

Pemba {hearts} the buoy...

Happy SpringSummer!

Sushi and St Patty's Day!

I'm combining these two posts because I've been a wicked slacker and have heaps of pictures I'd love to share but am feeling a bit backed-up.  Sue came over approximately forever ago, and we made sushi & wontons.  Jeff came home and deep fried them, and then Ben came home and ate just about all of them.  Mmm...deep frying.

Go Team!

For St Patrick's Day, Jeff made corned beef, with potatoes and cabbage.  Dyed green, of course.  It was my first (and Stacey's first) corned beef.  Oh how far I've fallen.....it was supa-good.

 

Car bombs were had and it was good.  Uh - let's not really talk about it, but there might still be leftovers in the fridge.  Apparently 3-4 people in this house weren't enough to do what needed to be done to finish off the phenomenal amount of corned beef stew that was made.