Fish on!

Luke and I went dipnetting today at Fish Creek about 19 miles from our house. Fish Creek is hardly ever open for dipnetting - only for AK residents - and when it is, the creek is PACKED. Check out these photos for what the creek is like...keeping in mind that today's tide was the highest of the year and, by the time we left, the creek rose from a tiny trickle to 3 feet of water at the tree line 50 feet away.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/slideshow/photos-dipnet-opening-fish-creek

This slideshow was taken by my friend Stephen Nowers, who also took us dipnetting. He did not mention the extreme glacial silt mud that sucks people to their knees...and makes it dangerous for people wearing hip waders (like me.)

Check out these photos of the creek at low tide for an example.

http://www.adn.com/2011/07/29/1992279/fish-creek-salmon-dipnet-fishing.html

This slideshow illustrates the mud but not the water extending to the tree line that blinds you to where to walk. By the time we caught our four fish - 3 right away, the fourth took a half hour - I was seriously concerned about getting back to the car in with all my clothes. Because I wore hip waders, every time I fell, my waders pulled my pants off. So my blood pressure rose picturing myself walking nekkid to the car, getting stopped by a trooper and cited for indecent exposure. Fortunately, that didn't happen. After lots of swearing, tangling with our 5-foot net and hauling 30 lbs of fish - 15 lbs filleted - Luke and I made it back. We vow never to go again unless we're in a boat.

Or in Kenai, the Hawaii version of dipnetting.

http://www.adn.com/2011/07/18/1973618/kenai-river-dipnetting-2011.html

There you fish on solid sand with a huge riverbank to fall back on, as opposed to a mud choked stream. Now that we have a net...and I'll invest in another of neoprene waders, we're ready to go next year!

For now, since all our fish were females and bursting with roe, Luke and I plan to hit the river next week for silvers. Fish on!

Summer 2011

I'm on day 40+ of single motherhood and so far, things are going okay. We've had pretty good weather for Alaska, some days of awesome perfection and others of low clouds and cold. But even those days are nice bc we have no humidity. Days like these make me remember why I live here!

After much hilarity, T-ball is over. Nate may remain a bit fuzzy on the point of baseball but he was able to hit consistently (even if he knocked the T over) and he paid attention while he was catcher. The rest of the time he spent kicking up dust, drawing pictures in the dust or throwing dust at other players. But we all had a good time anyway.

Grace and I are still in the middle of soccer season. I have yet to take photos since I'm the coach but I'll remember next week. We played the boys team earlier this week for fun - combined our two U12 girls' teams which made for chaos and mixed success. Since we only have two girls' teams in the league and of those two teams, only about 12 girls total show up for games, we normally play 4-on-4. So playing 8-on-8 was a huge adjustment. My neighbor, who plays comp and high school soccer, is helping me coach which I really appreciate bc I have no idea what I'm doing. It's great to get out and run around, which is my only goal.

Grace did a drama camp in June and was literally the star of the show. She played the lead in "Shakespeare Unbound" and had to memorize 263 lines. She also was able to ad lib when others messed up. I was amazed at her talent - she did NOT get that from me, who at her age, seriously freaked out at public speaking - but it did confirm she is a certified drama queen. For reals. I was so proud of her and wished her dad could've been there to see it.

Luke is working steadily 4 hrs/day at Vanderweele's farm, weeding, processing, etc. their huge amounts of produce they sell around the state. He's also mowing the neighbor's yard and picking up pet sitting jobs for people who go out of town. He started repairing our roof and we hope to finish that (must get photos!) over the addition the next time we have clear weather. The problem with clear weather is we want to play and not work. But we'll buckle down and get it done. Eventually.

My parents came for a great visit for a few weeks. We visited Denali for a weekend where we stayed at a cool hostel (we saw the big four - Mt. McKinley, brown bears - mom nursing her gigantic cubs, sheep, moose and Dall sheep) and took the tour back to Eielsen, I took them to Matanuska glacier, we hiked Gold Mint Lake in Hatcher Pass, went fishing and watched Nate and Grace play their games, did some bird watching. It was wonderful to have them here!!

Roger left May 27 and has been to Korea, China, Malaysia and is now in Saudi Arabia. He's told me he should come home July 20 so here's hoping. We both struggle with him being gone summers and all the opportunities missed. I'm praying for good weather when he does get here so we can attempt to pack a summer's worth of hiking/fishing/4-wheeling in the last 3 weeks of summer he's home before school starts.

School - eek!!