Afognak Day Four - another fish feed

Back at camp we had another silver salmon feed.  But rather than cook the fish in a frying pan over the Coleman stove Thomas used the bonfire.  He found an old grate and cooked the fish over smoking green alder.  It was excellent.  Lightly smoked and perfectly cooked silver salmon.  Patrick

Afognak Day Four - Thomaso Arrives

Hiking to the far beach to get in some fishing

Thomas arrived and was very keen to go fishing.  So we took him back to the beach where we had caught the silvers a couple of days earlier.  On the way I practiced for deer hunting and gave the kids rides in my hunting pack. Nora is still not as heavy as a load of deer meat!

For the sake of variety we took a 'shortcut' to the beach on an old trail that cuts behind the entire village connecting the two ends of the town.  It's called the 'new trail' but is actually around 100 years old.  It crosses a large swamp and once was a built up log and plank road.  Today, however, it is more just a boggy trail through a swamp.  Thomas, the kids, and Zoya were not very impressed by my shortcut.

Thomas admires the chicken of the woods

Fish on!

At the far beach the fishing lived up to its billing.  At one point both Thomas and I had a fish on and Stuey caught a dolly varden trout all by himself.  However, we only had limited room in our bellies, and kept just one salmon.

While Stuey, Thomas and I fished Nora and Zoya read 'Miss Pigglewiggle' at the top of the beach.  After we caught a fish Nora and Zoya tried the raw fish eggs.  They report that the eggs tasted very salty and 'strong'.  Or as Nora puts it, 'ughhhh'.

After fishing we hiked back to camp along the beach.  Patrick

Reading Miss Pigglewiggle at the high tide line

Salmon eggs - yummy?

Stuey casts for silvers

Thomas carrying dinner

Afognak Day Four - Some time alone

Time alone on the beach

Rachel, Matt, Ramsey their dogs, Pauline, Andy and Piper left at the end of day 3 and it was suddenly a very quiet camp.  We missed the company of friends but it wouldn't be long before another friend would join us!

At night we missed Rachel and Matt's camp dogs when a fox started to cry. The dogs had been good at keeping the foxes at bay.  There wasn't a breath of wind. The absence of surf and wind sounds is unusual, and it accentuated the fox's intermittent yowling.  A very eery and scary sound.  Zoya and I were surprised that it did not scare or even wake up the kids.

The next morning was idyllic and after breakfast we hung out on the beach.  The kids made their city in the sand complete with roads and houses.  Feathers acted as currency and they could buy rocks from me to build their houses.  I also acted as the bank for their feathers.

We lit a fire and cooked hotdogs.  The kids pushed sticks into the fire and then played with the smoking ends.  They would stand sentinel with the sticks smoking at their shoulders.  We expected our friend Thomas to arrive but he caught us by surprise when he finally did arrive around noon.  He drifted up quietly in his kayak.  No motor boat noises to tell us someone was coming.  Patrick

Hors d'ouvres - rice crackers and 'pepperoni'

Nora's Eighth!

Nora's Eighth birthday was on Monday and the day started with her going out to breakfast with Ella and her boys in the morning. It was fun for Nora to get some special Auntie time!

We spent a lazy day around the house, I made pizza dough, we ran errands. In the evening 7 girlfriends came over for a dinner party. They made individual pizzas which actually ended up being fun. (It was one of those mom moments when I said to Nora earlier "Do you want to make pizzas?"then worried later that it could be too much work. But it wasn't!) 

Watching the enthusiasm of the girls made it really fun and very worth it. Also, seeing how the couple of older girls were so helpful with the younger ones in the process was great as well. There are two neighbor girls who are older than Nora and Stuey who came and really exemplify kindness and selflessness in such situations. 

On the pizza menu: Olives, pepperoni, cheese and sauce

rolling out the dough

Cutting the cake!

Then we played a game of musical chairs and "guess how many M&M's are in the jar". The girls had a fun time with musical chairs and it made me happy that such a classic older game continues to work so well at a birthday party.

Opening gifts as girls watch on

It was the best 8th I could've imagined for Nora; complete with family time, friends time and lots of laughter and kindness from everyone around. 

At night after she was tucked into bed, I realized I hadn't written her a card. I went back to her bedroom, she was hardly awake. I whispered to her, "Nora....Happy 8th! Have I told you what a wonderful girl you are? And how proud I am of you? Its been so much fun doing your program together this summer. I love you Nora!" She smiled big and I gave her a big good night kiss. 

Zoya

Unplugging on Afognak

Since our return from Afognak, friends have asked, "How was your trip?"

...To which I replied, "It was great! Felt wonderful to unplug!"

I realized I need to create more 'unplug' time into my life here in Kodiak. More away camping trips, leaving the cell phone at home, or beach bonfires. It feels so good for the soul for be away and not in contact. With quick access to e-mail, smart phones, it makes this off time even more treasured.

Coming back from Afognak I felt truly recharged, energized.

I was physically a bit tired, but in a good way. The great thing about remote camping is that you get your workout in every day!

 This year  I did more my part in hauling water, sawing wood, cleaning dishes at the oceans edge. These tasks of daily camp life  are essential, rewarding to contribute to and occasionally challenging. For hauling water, it was a 15 minute walk through an up/down trail to a small stream.  Sawing wood with Stuey was new for me this year as well. He really enjoyed sawing the pieces of wood as I anchored the long end of it down with my foot. And I loved washing the dishes...using the hard sand as a scouring pad...waves lap in to wash off the dishes. Quiet beach time is priceless.

Upon our return from Afognak, there was an initial frenzy and hustle bustle of house cleaning, about a full day of laundry to catch up on, responding to e-mails, texts, but that has subsided somewhat and I have a few moments to occasionally day dream about my next outdoor getaway....

Zoya

The campfire beach scene.

We heart driftwood!

Toothless Stuey! He lost 4 teeth in 3 weeks...more to come on that later!

INCREDIBLE freshly caught Silvers ready to cook. Thanks to Andy for filleting!

And to Patrick for cooking them up!

Pauline giving the experience 'thumbs up'!

Afognak Day Two - Zip, Hike and Fish

On our second day at Afognak, Patrick and Matt set up a zip-line that went from tree to tree across the beach at Lipsett Point. To be honest, my stomach was a mess of nerves as they set it up. I loved the concept of setting up a zip-line for the kids, but as it came together, the reality of my kids flying across the terrain on a cable frightened me.

At one point I said to Patrick, "You know Patrick, if its too hard to set up or you don't want to do it, thats ok with me." He replied, "No, no...not at all. We'll get this set up!" I smiled and said, "OK!" but inside I continued to be a mess of nerves, and secretly wished it wouldn't come together. I was afraid of someone getting hurt.

Matt offered to be the tester, to go across first. I think he went without  the helmet. Bless his heart. And then the kids. They were harness and carabeener-ed in to the handle, which was comforting.

The kids and adults enjoyed it! It wasn't too steep or too fast and felt very safe. The landing pad on the end was a bed of seaweed, which was nice and soft and squishy. No possibility of anyone running into the tree at the end!

One of our friends, Andy who was there used to set up zip-line courses and made  a few modifications to the system for back-up safety, which was fabulous!

Ziplining on the beach

Then we took a walk along the beach and looked at the petroglyphs....

Andy, Pauline and Piper with the petroglyphs on the rocks behind. 

And then fishing! The silvers were jumping right off the beach and within 45 minutes we had 3 fresh silvers for dinner. Pauline caught her first silver!

Reelin' it in together

Nora's first Silver!

Matt and Rachel ran back to camp, got the boat and skiffed over to pick us up, as it had been nearly a 2 hour walk to get to the fishing beach.

A crazy hair pic!

The girls on the boat ride home from fishing!

Zoya

A deer for Thomas

The last two times I've been out hunting we got to the top and the fog came in and we did not get deer. So this morning at 5 AM when Thomas and I left the house in a downpour I did not have high hopes for getting a deer.  I figured we'd go up, get soaking wet and bat about in the fog for a few hours.  We even brought a small tarp and stove so that we could create a shelter and have some tea while waiting for the fog to lift.

But before we even got to the alpine it did clear!  And right away we started to see deer.  Lots of does and fawns, and then before we had even been hunting for 15 minutes Thomas spotted this guy.  Almost too quick - we sort of wanted to keep hunting and look for more deer.  But hey, after 2 unsuccessful trips I'm just happy with a fat deer!  Patrick

Afognak Day One

Packing up the plane at the float plane dock

Flying into Lipsett Point

The cook tent...sawing wood for the wood stove inside the tent.

Friends arrived via boat later in the day! 

Enjoying a one-pot dinner made by Patrick-Rice with cabbage and chicken and salami. 

Cooking marshmallows in the wood stove after dinner. 

Day 1- We arrived late morning and it took several hours to set up the sleeping tents, saw wood and get camp set up. After lunch we ventured out on the trails for a hike to see what was new in the forest and beaches since we were there last summer. The trails were in good shape, tides were low and not too much sign of recent bears in the area. (and this was a very good thing-as we didn't' bring out electric fence on this trip)

In the evening, Patrick cooked up dinner and right when it was ready, friends arrived via boat. Rachel, Matt, Pauline, Andy and Piper pulled up on the beach after a 45 minute trip from Anton Larsen Bay. Dinner was served and shortly after, smores.

Prepped the kids for bed-had to do a VERY thorough job of combing Stuey and Nora's tents for spiders. Once the kiddies were tucked away and sleeping, grown ups stayed up around the wood stove in the darkness sharing stories and laughing into the night.

Zoya