Enjoying the Holidays

Music
Barkely's Bug
by Frank Solivan II

Halloween in Sitka

RayJen Cajun played to a packed house in Sitka's Centennial Hall this past weekend. About 600 packed the house, decked in costumes such as the the $700 billion dollar bailout, a convicted Uncle Ted, the scary roller coaster ride, and of course several Sarah Palins. My favorite was the jellyfish. Sitka has been doing this celebration for the a couple of decades now and we were honored to play to the revelers. As always it was great playing along with Princess and Professor Bang. You guys rock.

Festival Acadiens

Here are several pictures and a movie, created by the lovely Aileen McTriangle-Player. The movie is from several clips on our trip to Fred's Lounge in Mamou. There were about twenty of us Alaskans that indulged our selves in some fine cajun music and bloody Mary's at about 10:30 am. The festival was wonderful. We had some good food and a had great time seeing all the bands that I have come to love since playing cajun and zydeco music with RayJen Cajun. We sat on the porch on the Bluemoon in the day and danced and partied all night. Laissez les bon temps roulez.

Growing Season Ends

Must of the garden was harvested last week, but I saved the carrots and beets for yesterdays. Today we awoke to four inches of snow and so the growing seasons ends.

Pig to Pork

Many weeks have gone by and we have slaughtered the pigs, hunted for caribou, and harvested great amounts of strawberries, while the state of Alaska has become famous for its' runner up beauty queens and corrupt good ol' boys.

The pig to pork process went wonderfully, with the exception of the boar reluctant to give up the ghost. This morning we are eating cured bacon and it is good. Today I will smoke the bacon following the procedures in Charcuterie. Each pig half weighed in over 100 pounds and the chops are succulent. I am also curing two hams and I never done this before. I will keep you posted. We had team of six on hand for the slaughter and five the next day for the butchering. Much thanks goes out to Whiskey Jimmy C for let us use is hanging cooler and butcher expertise.

Last week we went caribou hunting again. This time Nicky went with us. It rained and blew the entire time. The winds were so strong that Nicky was knocked over twice. We pulled off the mountain at 3 pm. On the way down we ran into a several flocks of ptarmigan. I shot two before I ran out of ammo. Back at camp we fried them up with some Mountain House freeze dried dinners and slept for 10 hours. The next day we headed home. It is hard to pull off a hunt, teach, and go to college at the same time. Speaking of which I best get back to work. The next post will be a follow-up on the Festival Acadians trip we are taking October 9th-13th. About 30 of us from Alaska are heading down for the festivities.

Cheers

The half day we did not have.

Hunting in Alaska takes you to places you would not head out to see on any other occasion. This past weekend a long time Alaskan friend and I hiked up into the Kenai Mountains in search of the elusive and unpredictable caribou. This is the good friend that helped me with my first Dahl sheep in the Wrangell Mountains back in 1991 or 1992. We were both wondering about the years, but were certain as to the events that unfolded on that memorable trip. This time it was my turn to help. So, we met on opening day in the Chugach National Forest with the best and easiest alpine access we could find. These days we to tend feign away from too much extra effort. Often times we would look at an ascent and question if it was worth the effort to climb a thousand feet through the alder patches, the mountains gods first line of defense for the clumsy bipeds. Alders are tightly bunched together and when you try to barrel through them any branch becomes loaded with enough energy to through most folks of the average size down to the ground. At this point the hunter carrying the 40 pound back struggles to get back up like an upside down turtle. As you struggle to get up you are usually sweating profusely, while biting insects are flying around and trying to get into any orifice or exposed skin for blood. At this point you are struggling, soaking wet with sweat and rain from the alder leaves, questioning why you should not just buy some reindeer meat at the grocery store and call it good. Instead, we decided to skip alder patches and the fields of waist high grass, false hellebore, and cow parsnip. This is akin to walking through an automatic car wash, but you cannot see the ground, resulting in stumbling, swearing, and sweating while you stir up even more biting insects. No this time we are older and wiser, and yes possibly lazier. Instead we hiked up existing mining trails and game trails.

Day one of this adventure found us at 4000 feet scouring the tundra for caribou, while the rain and wind blew. It was chilly and we did not see any animals. Dejected we headed back to camp. Day two we went up into an area that we had intended to hunt the day before, but someone was a head of us that first morning and Rich said the valley only supported one hunting party. Once we reached the crest that revealed a beautiful double cirque. Here we saw a tent near a snowfield with game bags that had meat in them. We figured the party had shot a caribou and were just our getting the rest of the meat. This meant we were the only ones hunting the drainage that day. We got on the highest point and scoped the tundra until 8 pm that evening. The day was pleasant, but still the cold northwest winds blew. We saw one caribou two hanging valleys away. The caribou hung out on a snowfield for 15 minutes and then ran off, away from us. Again dejected we headed back to camp. The next morning and our final day, we decided to look at alternative access points for future trips. Other hunters had gotten up into the valley we had hunted and we lost any motivation to climb. Ironically, the last day within a two-hour time span we saw five caribou and seven black bears. All of these animals were at least a half-day away, a half day that we did not have.

Clams Glorious Clams

Now that I have finished my summer course work I can concentrate on some more harvesting. Yesterday local chef and sommeleir Cefferino M. and I headed across the bay for some clams. The seas were flat and the fog hung in beautiful wisps and curls along the live and green Sitka Spruce trees, unlike the spruce on this side of the bay that have been killed by the spruce bark beetle. It always amazes me that in a 10 mile distance the devistation of the beetle kill is so dramatic. On the Homer side a majority the trees are dead and brown, yet the other side of the bay has such a different climate that the trees had enough moisture to combat the infestation.

We ended up on a hot bed of streamers, butters, and cockles. The streamers, the sweetest and most tender of the clams, were mostly two plus inches across. Nicky said that these are some old clams. We left a lot of sub-legal clams, which means good recruitment for years to come. The sun poked out a couple of times and by the time we headed back the fog had lifted, but the seas were still calm. Last night Nicky and I had steamed clams dipped in garlic butter, fresh tomatos from our greenhouse, and sauteed garden fresh spinach with shallots. An attempt was made to halibut fish today, however the fog has rolled in and visibility is limited, so we will try tomorrow.

I'll Be Dipped

This was another successful year dip netting sockeye salmon on the Kasilof River for the Team Homer. Once again several friends and myself headed north for our yearly supply of salmon and it paid off. Picking the right time to have a successful trip, which means achieving your limit of 25 fish plus 10 fish for every household member, depends on the tides, run timing, and commercial fishery closures. Alaska’s fishing regulatory process is not easy to understand; every year we learn another piece of information. This year we learned about the 24-hour window closure to commercial fishing on weekdays and it paid off. We arrived at 10:30 am and by 9:00 pm we our limit. By the time we hauled in our last catches we were getting triples and doubles in our nets. How lucky we are to participate in such an awesome natural event. Now that the fun has ended today the work begins. I will be spending the morning filleting all the fish and getting them ready to be vacuum packed.

Timeline

Check out the timeline from Dipity at the bottom of the blog. You can click on any photo, switch to a list, flipbook, or map. Add comments if you want. Pretty cool web application, it is easy to use. Tracy will love it for family events and such.

Went dipnetting for reds two days ago and got four fish for 12 hours of effort. Team Homer was there is force with 13 people and five nets in the water. We will head back up to the Kasilof River early in the week. For now I will be writting several papers for my college work at home and keeping Nicky in good spirits with the summer bounty.

Cheers,

Jeff

Wet and Broken

Nicky and I biked in to Upper Russian Lakes last Sunday. The plan was to bike in to the cabin, that is newly renovated since it’s original construction in the 1951. We figured we would stay for a couple of days relaxing and fishing for trout in the outlet and possibly fish the Russian River to Aspen Flats cabin three miles down river.

The day started out overcast and windy. It started raining six miles in, the cabin is at mile nine. Nicky was a bit sore from hiking the day before, 16 miles with Mary King, but appeared to have the energy. The trail took on an over grown character by the time we got to about a mile from the cabin. Then only a half mile from the cabin on a flat section of trail Nicky’s front tire went into a foot deep drainage ditch and she fell onto a one-inch diameter alder stump. When I got to her she said she heard something crack. After she caught her breath we hiked the bikes to the cabin. We decided to leave a note on the sign at the junction for the cabin to notify anyone hiking out to talk to us about setting up for a flight out of the lake. Nicky was pretty sore and it was hard for her to breath.

We ended up staying for the two nights. Nicky was sore and could not move around very well. It was very quiet with no hikers, bikers, or planes. I ended up fishing the next day only to have a run in with too many brown bears. They were everywhere; at times we were afraid to go to the outhouse. We had a sow and cub run through the cabin area in the middle of the second day. The sow bayed at the cub, which was pretty curious about the people making noise on the cabin’s front porch.

The last day a plane flew over and fired a signal flare, but it was too far behind the plane. Nicky had some pain relievers from a root canal in her first aide kit and we decided to hike out. We started out pretty slow, 1.9 mph on the GPS. By the time we got our and Nicky’s second pill we had improved to 2.1 mph. It was raining off and on and due the overgrown vegetation and a stream crossing where a bridge had been washed out we were pretty wet and tired by the time we happily made it to the truck and the empty trailhead parking lot.

On the drive town Nicky was pretty feeling pretty sore and stiff, so we went to the Soldotna ER. In the end Nicky had two broken ribs on her left side, number 10 and 11. She was given some Oxycodon and a note for employer saying she cannot lift no more then 10 pounds for the next week. Recovery will be in a three weeks to a month. At present she is moving gingerly and watching movies. She is unhappy about the hiking she will be missing in July, but already has Crow Creek Pass planned for August. By the way, the cabin renovation was very nice. This was the same trail and cabin I did my first hike as a trail ranger when I worked for the USFS 22 years ago.

Back Home

I finally got back home and I am into the summer routine: classes, gardening, and fishing. Caught a nice 20 pound king this morning. Had to get up at 2:30 am catch the sun rise; it is the best time to catch a king. I also, caught a nice 14 pound steehead, a great morning to fish, it was clear and I had a great view of Mount Illiamna. It is beautiful and sunny in Homer, it was warmed up a bit and feels like summer. Once we get the onions and squash in the garden our planting will be complete. RayJen Cajun has wedding this weekend. By the way the wedding in Chehalis, WA, was great. The ceremony was very nice. The food was awesome and the bands that followed afforded Nicky and I plenty of dancing . Check out Caleb Klauder and  Sean Tracey, both these fellas sang their original tunes. Nicky debuted as out triangle and rub board player. It was great to have her on stage. We are family band.

Jeff

RayJen Boogie YouTube

Well here ya go folks. RayJen Cajun at the Boardwalk Boogie. Thanks Al.

Pelican Boardwalk Boogie '08'

Well, the 10th and final Boardwalk Boogie in Pelican, AK, was a great success. Thanks goes out to Josh Onion for inspiring me to head back for the sixth time to Pelican. RayJen Cajun played two sets, a closing and opening at the Brown Bar. We were ready set and go both nights and the two-stepping and waltzing crowd was on their feet. Thanks again to all you dancers out there, you are my inspiration. 

Next stop for the band is Chalis, Washington. It will be pretty much be the Panhandle Union line-up playing at a Martha's wedding in the Big Red Barn. Get your best attire together and you dancing shoes on, because we will be kicking out the tunes.

Siz

Pigs!

Hi Ho, we got pigs. Well we are pig farming now. Yesterday, R & J picked-up four porkers, weighing in at around 5o pounds. We are looking for a total weight gain at around 200 pounds. Lots to learn at this point about what to feed and how much.


Meanwhile, we still have plenty of snow at 1300 fee; it was actually snowing moments ago. Still driving into town every day you notice the green along side the road. A new growing season is approaching. Garden On!

Fading Winter

Part of writing this blog is for the selfish reason to create a journal. Often times the local mushers will make comments about what the season was like the year previously. It is hard to recall and very few of us keep journals or even milage logs. Maybe this will help. This last Thursday we had a bitter cold wind out of the west and before that we had a few inches of snow. The conditions were ripe for mushing and this may have been the last run of the year. This time of the year is great to get out and not see any other people signs; that is snowmachine tracks. On a weekday evening you have the backcountry to yourself. The other great thing about Thursday night was the tracks laid down by the local game in the fresh snow and drifts. Our snowshoe hare popluation is starting to grow and along with the prey comes the predator. I am starting to see more lynx and the coyotes tracks. Mushing has become my release this year. In the past it was about training and getting ready for something. But since I took on a masters degree I abandoned the thought of racing and just got out with the dogs. This was also the first year I realized that I will only be mushing for two or three more years, because the dogs are getting older. Several times this year I was hit be a sadness of not mushing any more. But, I would snap back to reality and appreciate the present. This season was great. The snow was plentiful and the temperatures were cool for Homer. For the rest of the year I will be anticipating and interested to find out what the next mushing season will bring.

Siz