Chignik eats

Its time I discussed food here in Chignik. First and foremost we eat a bit of fish here. Although we have huge salmon runs, we actually eat more halibut as they are easier to catch. These usually end up as tacos or pan fried fillets. When we are lacking fresh vegetables it feels good to at least have some fresh fish (strange but true).

Greens can be sparse at times here. We often cannot get fresh veggies so we go through dry spells on the green stuff. This is particularly hard because we are so accustomed to good fresh veggies in the summer time. This year I am experimenting with growing sprouts as a way to get some green between trips to the bay store. So far it has worked out really well. They are easy to grow and low maintenance. It really makes the sandwich when there is no lettuce.

I have also been working with sourdough this year. I made a starter in the first week of June and have kept it going ever since. We have made lots of pancakes, but the fresh sourdough bread is the real treat. This is fun to do and helps our store bought bread go a little farther.

We have also made some sourdough pizza crust. This is nice because it actually doesn't need to rise. Just mix in the starter and roll it out. Its not quite as good (although Jen looks pretty excited) as the dough I make at home but its really easy and makes for a quick pizza meal.

Of course, we do also eat salmon here. There are currently over 1000 kings in the river, which may not sound like too many, but the river is only about 2 miles long. Hopefully we can get out and get some more in the next couple of days.

So what is a typical meal at Chignik? Here is a list of our dinners from the first month:
Red sauce spaghetti (it was the first day, ok)
Chicken stir fry
Halibut tacos
chile verde
fresh sockeye/mashed potatoes
hamburgers
grilled halibut
roast chicken/ rosemary potatoes
pork fajitas
gumbo soup (progresso can, we were camping up at Black Lake)
macaroni and cheese
homemade 15 bean soup
Thai curry (twice)
flank steak/baked potatoes/green beans
taco salad
homemade chicken pot pie
poached salmon
soft tacos
pizza (artichoke hearts/onions/tomatoes)
pan fried halibut
halibut green thai curry
mushroom and red wine risotto
chili and cornbread
homemade enchiladas
shepherds pie (Jen specialty)
homemade black bean soup
stir fry with rice noodles
mushroom and broccoli quiche
Lasagne

I think we do pretty well. Soon Jen and I are going to make a run to the Bay store for some lettuce, tomatoes and more tortillas (I have been pushing the mexican pretty hard and we have used up a case of tortillas already).

Another Bear

Well, we are pretty busy right now with several visitors and the ongoing building projects so I haven't had time to take many photos. Here is a nice blond bear I saw a while back. It was pretty curious about us and stood up checking us out for some time before it went on eating the vegetation. Yesterday we went up to Black Lake where 500,000 fish are currently beginning to spawn. There are a number of bears up there. Next time I will try to get some shots of them.

More building projects

We're not putting up a flag, we're pulling up a fridge! So we decided it was high time for a new generator shed. Our old one was three feet from the new lab/shop building, soaked in diesel, and not very sturdy. So we decided to put up a new one further away. Unfortunately we got off to a rough start as the spot for our foundation was occupied by an old refrigerator al la 1970's. Lots of stuff gets thrown out around here, but few people go to the trouble to bury things as huge as a fridge. It was quite an ordeal to get it out but we finally succeeded.

A couple days later we got the foundation in, and the pad for the generator to go on (3000 pounds of concrete! That one is going to be around for a while.) The old generator shed has the rusty red roof. Mark Reynolds came over from Dillingham to help us put this thing in, and here we are starting to put the roof on.

Rafters are done.

So the 900 pound generator had to make it from one generator building to the next. Luckily with some encouragement we could just ride it over (well, that and a couple of strategically placed come-alongs)

Hey its in! The old Lister lives again, and it even fits on its new pad! Now we just need some finishing touches and we'll be making power again.

Fourth of July Fun

sorry for the outage, our internet has been terrible the past week or so. On the fourth of July we were invited to the fish and game weir downstream from our camp to hang out for the day. We started off around lunchtime with some fishing for kings in the fish and game scow. Why bring the fish to the BBQ when you can bring the BBQ to the fish? Their boat is great because it has a big flat deck so we could anchor it in the river and cook up some lunch while we were fishing.

After fishing we were involved in a horseshoe tournament. James (the weir manager) and I were paired up and won our first game, but then lost in the second round. It was alot of fun though, and I wasn't too embarassing even though I haven't gotten the horseshoe pit here at FRI up and running yet (well, the pit is done but I haven't made any horseshoes).

After horseshoes, fish and game brought our a huge box of expired flares, which are as much fun as fireworks. Here everyone is trying to figure out how to launch the big rocket flares.

The kids, Wyatt and Dalton, got to set off some of the hand held flares and smoke signals. They had a blast with those things.

Alec River

A few days ago we took a trip up the Alec River as far as we could go in the boat (about 12 kilometers). At that point the river forks and the flows are too low to get any higher, even in the jet. It was the furthest up any of us had been. What was neat was that the water was extremely clear and loaded with big Dolly Varden. Conrad and I took turns rowing the boat down while casting to the fish holding in the river. The weather was nice and it was a blast. We would love to get back up there but the water is dropping fast and I don't know if it will be possible this year.

Here's the focus of my research, a big male Dolly getting ready to spawn way up the Alec.

After a long day of fishing it was a late trip back down to camp, about 2 hours in the boat.

Fishing

A few days ago we had a 40,000 sockeye day through the weir. Conrad managed to catch one of them and we ate it within the hour. It was fantastic, and the first sockeye we had here this year. They can be frustrating to fish for, as they are extremely numerous, and don't really take fishing tackle.

Before Chad left we did some halibut fishing.

Being the gracious host, I arranged to let him catch the large fish. He actually caught two that were 25-30 lbs. He froze them and took them home. Mine became tacos that night.