The Fish Were Biting

DD#2 went up to Ketchikan on Friday—we arrived on Sunday—and specifically requested to go fishing. One of DSIL’s colleagues has a boat and was only too happy to take them out on Saturday.

DD#1 caught a 32-pound halibut:

DD#2 also caught a halibut, albeit a slightly smaller one. Here are the kids are with their haul for the day (several halibut and one ling cod):

We bought the kids an industrial-grade vaccum sealer for Christmas last year and they are getting a lot of use out of it. Living so close to the water gives them plenty of opportunity to feed themselves for the cost of a yearly license and some effort. We had dungeness crab for dinner one night:

Seafood for dinner every night is my personal idea of heaven, living as I do in cow country.

We also had crab fries for lunch one day at a local restaurant, which is dungeness crab over fries with a spicy ranch sauce and cheese on top. Yum.

The bay is full of fish and seals—sometimes sea lions and whales—and the eagles like to perch in a tree next door to see what they can scavenge. I counted two dozen of them in the tree one afternoon:

DD#1 got us all tickets for the lumberjack show downtown. That was great fun.

DD#2 flew back to Seattle on Tuesday and we followed on Wednesday. I had reserved the Airbnb close to DD#2’s apartment again as a home base for my mother and I to do some exploring on Thursday and Friday. More on that in tomorrow’s post, along with details of some of my fabric shopping.

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Traveling in the spring and early summer is always tricky. I went to Alaska in May last year, which is typically when I do most of the garden prep and planting. I shifted the trip to late June this year, thinking that most of that work would be done, but I hadn’t counted on such a cold, wet spring pushing the growing schedule back three weeks. The husband faithfully watered what was still in the greenhouse. I have a bit more transplanting left to do this week.

The peas look more anemic than usual—too much rain?—and the corn still looks shell-shocked. I’m going to top dress the corn with some chicken manure. The tomatoes, amazingly, are coming along well. The potatoes are spectacular, as is the lettuce, Swiss chard, and collards. We had a salad with our lettuce last night. We will have zucchini, no doubt, but something got to the melons and cukes. I went to a nearby nursery yesterday and picked up some replacement vegetable starts to fill in the bare spots. The beans I started in the greenhouse never germinated.

The grapevines are loaded. I have never seen that many grapes on them before. One of the members of the homesteading group I frequent manages a vineyard, and she generously advised me on pruning the vines a few weeks ago.

I will watch produce sales this summer and pick up what we need. I can get beans and carrots for canning. The husband might miss fresh watermelon and cantaloupe, but the grapes should make up for the loss. And the raspberry bushes are covered with flowers—and bees—so I expect we’ll be swimming in raspberries shortly. The cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli love this weather.