Thanksgiving was Thursday but Today was Turkey!

As usual we headed to the school gym for the community feast. The feast was set for 4 pm and I bet there were about 80 folks down there.
Holly and I had signed up to cook a turkey and make mashed potatoes so the morning was spent in the kitchen! Other items for feasting on included lots of turkey, hams, potato salad, stuffing, rolls, corn, black olives, cranberry sauce and all sorts of pies and cakes to go along with the ice cream. It was all delicious.
So we took a break and today we had our household turkey. Denise is in Anchorage and had to work so she could not be at home. Holly spent the a good part of the day in the kitchen working along - Becca stepped in and made the mashed potatoes. We tried a new dish today - Cranberry Jello Salad (courtesy of Virginia Degnan), and it was a hit!
We had a dinner guest with us, Morgan Edmundson.
The food was delicious!

Three months have gone by ... Oh my

Peas .... It is really hard to believe that it is almost Thanksgiving (in 2 days). The first quarter of school ended half a quarter ago. Meaning we are at mid-quarter of the 2nd quarter already. We are only 1 month away from the Christmas program!! Oh my. Before we know it we will be on vacation!!
Peas .... Peas ... Peas ...so what is up with that. I have never liked peas. I have students who know I do not like peas. I do not know exactly why I do not like them. I think it has something to do with the texture and the taste. But I know this - I have never enjoyed eating peas. Getting me to eat my peas as a child was torture for my parents. Unbelievable as it sounds, I remember some tears being shed (on my part) and sitting at the dining table long after everyone else had permission to be excused. Yes, as a child we had to ask permission to be excused from the table before we could depart from the dining room.
Back to the peas .... Have I matured? I think I have for I have now found peas that I like to eat!! Simply amazing to think it has only taken me 49 years to get to this point. I like them so much I have even stocked up on them.
Not exactly made for a sit down dinner but boy are they good to munch on ... now to make up for lost time!!

One fish, Two fish, Old fish, New fish

Once we began looking at putting away our fresh fish I decided I needed to clear out some freezer space. I still had some wonderful looking silvers from last fall so I decided to make pickled salmon.



The wonderful recipe I use is from Teresa Hickerson! The first step is to cube and salt the fish.






Dig deep in the cabinets to find all those jars we have been saving!












Boy oh boy - three more days until it is ready!!

New School Year=New Teacher=Fishing :)

August brings the new school year and with it at times there are new faces on the staff. Kristen arrived in White Mountain on Friday afternoon.


Saturday found her out on the river fishing for silvers! The fishing was good and she was able to put some away in the freezer!

















We went fishing again on Sunday and it was again a good trip.

What do we find at home?

Well - after having been gone for the full month of June and 99% of July you find that the sunshine and the rain have encouraged a few things to grow! The area around the house was incredible.




















The snowmachines were parked on mud!






And at work you find the mail from the summer - LOTS of it.
Teachers orders have started to arrive and need to be inventoried.


But with a little work it all gets done and everything is sorted and ready to go the classrooms!

Time to leave the city life!

As the end of July comes around it is time to return home to White Mountain and get ready for work. It brings conflicting emotions: it is so nice to get out of the city and get to the peacefulness of a place without cars, but there is also a pang of sadness because you can't always run to a store to pick up fresh produce!
But, it is also exciting because we do some shopping and pack it all up to ship it home! Here is the car loaded to go to the airport!

Speaking of missing out on things :) Becca and her friends at home love to go out and have a campfire to roast hotdogs and make smores! So when her friend Crystal came to town they had to do it Anchorage style!

Faithful Companions

We have two ladies that keep us company around the house. There are times that they are even seen keeping Becca and/or Holly company as they drive around town in the evening!
Missy 'belongs' to Holly. She is an incredibly patient and tolerant dog. She loves to find and greet those visitors, especially those that are unaware of her attachment to those who will pet her!


Niko 'belongs' to Becca! When Becca is out of the house Niko justs hangs around waiting for her return. She is a great little dog but we need to be careful around the doors because she loves to run!

2nd trip - Dipnetting on the Kenai

We headed out of Anchorage at 4:30 am on a Wednesday morning (7/18) with Holly taking the day off from work! It was a great drive with little traffic and only one construction delay. We arrived at 7:30 and Holly and Rudy were on the beach and in the water by 8 am. The water already had more people in than I had ever seen before but the real rush hadn't even started.















We had the high tide pegged about 8 am. As the tide started going out Rudy caught a fish about 9 am. All of a sudden it seemed like people were shoulder to shoulder and fish were starting to pop out of the water with a lot of speed.





























The fishing got pretty wild for awhile. My job was to 'bonk' the fish and gut them after Rudy and Holly brought them out of the water . Within an hour we had ten in the ice chest and I decided that I had better start filleting. So I set up my work station and got to work. Our pile continued to grow! It was difficult to keep up ...









































The dippers!










































Dipnetting brings out many people. Some come to watch what is going on and some come to help.





















The gulls are everywhere. As you clean your fish if you throw the egg sacs there is a mad dash of gulls fighting over them. I had piles of carcasses which the gulls finally felt brave enough to invade!

The fishing slowed down with the low tide. As the tide came back in the current was very strong making it hard to hold the net out in the water. As it was starting to drizzle and our ice chests were almost full we decided it was time to head for home. After packing up the bus we hit the road. We were home at 10 pm. We had 42 fish! A great day!

Dipnetting on the Kenai

Rudy picked a Thursday to try the dipnetting for the second time. Unfortunately Holly had to work and did not get to go. So on the 12th of June we headed down. The Kenai is only open to dipping from 6 am to 11 pm. Although the parking lot is about a half mile away the plus side is you can drive to the edge of the dunes and drop off your gear so you do not have to lug it so far. Vehicles are not allowed on the beach as they are in Kasilof which really makes it nicer. There is access for vehicles on the south side of the river but we decided not to venture there even thought the VW is 4 wheel drive.







What is interesting all the techniques that folks use and kinds of nets. Regulations do not allow a net larger than 5 ft in diameter. But after that the sky is the limit ... some are square, some octogonal, many round. Many are homemade creations!














Some use long handles to get way out in the river and others prefer to hold it close to them. The beach at the Kenai is a nice soft sand. hauling your ice chests can be a chore so again folks are very creative with their transports! We use plastic sleds that we drag along.














As the tide goes out many keep moving their gear down towards the water so putting fish on ice is easier.




Some folks only gut their fish and others do all their filleting right there and let the tide take away their waste.

We spent one night and fished two tides. We ended up with 14 fish which is okay. I dipped as well although I only wore hip boots and I landed four fish! We ended up with 50# of fillets!

Dryers that cannot work might be ...

I guess I grew up in a time that all dryers were put on outside walls and that cleaning out the ducts was not an issue because I had never really thought of it :)
Recently we had an annual maintenance check done by Sears and the man said the dryer worked fine but the duct was probably clogged or blocked ... when asked when it was last cleaned I looked around and muttered something about being here for 15 years and probably never.... I thought of the 30 feet or so of duct down in the crawl space and (wisely) asked if a service might do this job. The man said of course and told me to call a chimney sweep!
Now although the painting is becoming more difficult I do enjoy it. The thought of cleaning dryer ducts was not pleasant so off to the yellow pages I went. An appointment was quickly made.
Now although I watched everything the man did I still do not think I will do it next time since each section of cleaning rod costs $80 and he only charged $75 to do the job. Of course, when asked again for the last cleaning date and again I mumbled something about "at least 15 years" he simply smiled and agreed with me that "it sure could be dirty".
So on the first or second insertion of the brush and one length of rod, a little bit of lint came out...

When a second and then third length of rod was attached and again the duct was brushed - again a little bit more came out .... alright already, tons and tons came out ...

The whole job only took him about 45 minutes and was easily the best money spent that day! Especially because as soon as he was done I headed to the Kenai to try some more dipping.

When he was done he assured me that we won 'The Dirtiest Duct of the Month' award!