Mark Stopha - Alaska Wild Salmon Company

Kickin’ it with Bob

Came off of a subpar ski on the cross country trail at Eaglecrest yesterday and saw I had a phone message. Bob said if I was ready to fix my ski, he could do it. I called him back and said I’d stop on the way home.

Bob is a craftsman’s craftsman. He’s had a hand in most every museum in the state setting up displays, from Dutch Harbor to Utqiagvik to Skagway. He’s also a stringed instrument builder and repairman. He supervised the building of the state museum in town.

I’d mounted bindings on the skis, and they were not lined up. Not centered properly and canted to one side. But the mount was not off by much, so you can’t just back out the screws, line it up, and reinstall the screws because the new holes will be so close to the old one that you’ll just be making one big hole that the screw will not hold in.

Enter Bob. While we talked, he methodically went to work. I helped him back out the old screws. Then he got a drill of the size of a piece of maple dowel he had, put a piece of tape on the drill bit about a half inch from the tip so he could drill all the holes to the same depth, then drilled out all the holes. Next he mixed some JB Weld quick setting epoxy and filled each hole.

He then cut little pieces off the maple dowel for each hole with the band saw. These were going every which way off the saw. When he was done, we picked the pieces up off the floor and took them over to the ski.

He set a piece of dowel in each hole and pounded it in with a hammer. Then he took a fine little saw I’d guess he uses for instrument repair and cut the dowels off even with the top of the ski. Next he used a fine scraper to get them as flush as he could with the ski top.

Now he went to work finding the dead center of the ski. He made his marks with a punch, then drilled down. He did the top center and back center screws of the nnn binding. Once these were lined up on the centerline, they would hold the binding in perfect place to put in the two side by side screws of the nnn binding. By doing the centerline screws front and back first, it was impossible for the binding to move and cant to one side as I had done. Simple stuff. Crap, a guy can learn a lot in 30 minutes.

Bob and his wife have helped me out in any number of ways over the years. I met them through Sara right after we were married, and they are about 10 years older than Sara and I. Bob welded zincs on the Dutch Master when I needed it. He helped me plan and build my garage. Laura, a graphic designer by early trade and social worker later in life, designed our company logo. She also took a deer backbone, cleaned it all up, glued it together, then painted it to a beautiful art piece she gave me as a present. Laura and I gather fiddleheads and nettles each spring. Sam used to go with us on the expedition when he was a kid. Me – I just keep them in deer, moose, salmon, crab, and halibut. A perfect match.

Took the ski out today to Montana Creek trail with Kurt, and it worked perfect.

Air Fryer Incident

So, after falling in love with the Instant Pot – a logical, I guess, from a guy who does a lot of pressure cooking canning, my buddy Kevin said he was hooked on the air fryer. So, I found one for $20 on Craigslist. From my loan officer at our bank. Small town funny.

I watched America’s Test Kitchen yesterday and they made chicken sandwiches in the air fryer. I thought – that’s a good test for fried fish.

We had all the ingredients except Panko. My friend Ken used this often as I remember. I stopped at IGA downtown to buy some. I felt this would be a 5 minute in and out. Nope. Up and down the isles I shopped. I then checked the Asian isle. Didn’t see it. I asked one of the checkers. Both she and a customer directed me to the flour and bread crumb isle. So I back tracked there and scanned back and forth again. I’m 60 now. I know it could be right in front of me and I wouldn’t notice. Sort of like Sara coming home with a new hairdo. Nope. I could not see it.

I hit every isle in the store. I went a last time down the Asian isle. Then boom. There is was. On the top shelf. Hiding itself in plain site. Panko. And luckily only 2 choices. I grabbed one, along with an apple fritter as a reward, checked out, and was on my way.

We decided to do the fish the next day – today – as Sara had a long day at the legislature. I got the ingredients together and got air frying today.

First, I cut up 4 red potatoes into wedges, then dredged them in an olive oil, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and parsley dredge till they were all coated. I put these in the air fryer for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

While these were cooking, I got the fish batter together. First I coated a cup of panko with 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl, then microwaved them for a minute at a time to brown the panko. While I was microwaving, I mixed an egg with a tablespoon of flour and 3 tablespoons of siracchi, some garlic powder and salt and pepper.

At 10 minutes, I shook the potatoes and cooked them another 5 minutes. When they were done, I put them in a bowl and into the toaster oven on warm. I cut the bomber rockfish fillets in half, dredged them in the egg mixture, then coated them in the panko, and put each piece in the air fryer. I used up all the egg mixture and panko on 5 pieces of bomber fillet. ‘

I cooked the fish for 5 minutes at 400 degrees, then flipped the fillets over, and cooked for 5 more minutes.

We had ketchup for the potato wedges, and I made kelp relish and mayonaise tartar sauce for the fish. Sara and I both approved. An easy meal and no guessing on oil type or temperature to cook the fish and the potato wedges (we could give a crap about whether it was “healthy” or not!).

January Snow: Storm 3

It rained what seemed like a foot this past week, and it was incredible to see how fast 3 feet of snow can melt off. The sloped part of our driveway was bare. Until yesterday at 3 pm, when the third January storm hit. Luckily, Kurt and I got in a ski just before.

We had another foot of snow overnight, but luckily we got Roy and Brenda and dogs from the airport, and Zeke, their son from Haines who arrived on the ferry, back to the house and got their vehicles up the driveway before the worst of the snow had piled up.

When everyone cleared out this morning, I put the plow back on the truck. I’d bought 2 sets of brand new tire chains on Facebook. Funny how sometimes you see an item has been on there awhile, and you say you are interested, then don’t hear back for maybe a week. Then boom – a reply that they are still for sale. I think busy people put stuff on there and don’t check responses to their ads for awhile, and maybe I was the most recent to reply and so I get the call. Anyway, the seller worked at Bobcat, so not only were there chains, but the tensioner…..and an extra tensioner. $50. For 2 pair! And unused. They went on almost too easy. And boy, did they seem to make a difference. With the front tires biting more and slipping less, the plow seemed to dig in better. I got to plowing and it looked great when I was done. Still doesn’t take the snow right down to the gravel, and the driveway is still slippery, but my neighbor’s driveway that was plowed out by a professional wasn’t a whole lot better it didn’t seem.

There was just enough snow to shovel that I couldn’t get with the plow to rehab my hip. It’s really something how much better my hip feels. I’ve got a new outlook on things. I feel like I can pack a deer out again. I can climb through the snow again to get to the truck or the woodpile. Maybe this is what people with knee or hip replacements feel like after they get the new part in and get past the pain of rehab, which Brian is going through right now.

No long melt off in sight now. Hopefully we’ve got reliable snow for skiing for awhile.

January Snow

We got socked with snow again. Three feet of snow in a couple days. People looked sort of shell shocked when I passed them along the road as the storm progressed. Shoveling again. And again. And again, as the snow just kept coming. Many don’t have driveways you can really plow, so it’s shovel or snowblow.

I was all fine with it til I managed to bury the truck nearly to the axles in soft ground under the snow in our gravel driveway while I was plowing. Now it was back to the shovel for me, as I’d given away the snowblower and my tow truck company’s truck was down.

When Sara got home at night, I was bushed, and a little depressed. “This is why people move south or get a condo here” I told her.

But as the storm progressed, and the shoveling went on and on, I realized: hey, this may be good for my hip.

Today was the best my hip has felt in a year and a half. The inflamed bursa finally seems to be subsiding.

I went to the boat to do the post storm shovel off. Chris checked the boat for me yesterday when he went down to check his boat, and said mine was okay, but would “need a haircut” before the rain started. When I got down there today, I saw what he meant- the wet exhaust pipe, which is usually showing the top half of the pipe above the waterline, was all underwater. Chuck, the dock manager, had just sent me a text when I got there regarding the boat, too, to let me know it was time to get her cleaned off. I looked around and saw I was one of the last boats to get cleaned after the storm. And with my hip feeling so good, I kind of enjoyed it. And I noticed Eaton’s work painting the boat name on the bottom of the skiff pulled up on the stern of the tug has been impervious to the snow.

Weather has warmed up to freezing and supposed to be in the 40’s for a week. Ski trails should be able to weather the warm up now for a long time.

Day of Gratitude

Stopped by the shop with the crab cooking pot I cleaned from Chris’s boat. While I was there, he wanted to give me a couple quarters of deer from their hunt. We went to the freezer, he opened up an 80 lb box full of quarters, and I grabbed a couple quarters. Chris added two more for good measure. They were beautiful. He’d glazed the whole quarters, just like you do fish.

It’s the first time I can remember I’ve been given raw meat because I didn’t get any deer myself, for the second year in a row no less. But also surprised at how grateful I am. Gives me a good sense of the gratitude others who’ve been on the receiving end of our sharing of fish and game and gathering over the years that I really hadn’t considered much until now. And Chris seemed really happy reminiscing about the success we just had getting king crab and how happy all the people that went along were – many who don’t set foot on a boat very often, much less a big platform boat like his.

Happy to be butchering meat inside with a cozy wood stove ablazing and unlimited espresso from the new machine while it’s a chilly 10 degrees outside, with sun, but that breeze on the waterfront that cuts like a knife.

Crab tails, coffee machines, alternators, and other life lessons

We pulled the king crab pot yesterday. I forgot on day 1 to keep the king crab tails. I kept them all yesterday, and sure glad I did. We got 8 more crab for the new people we had on board, and I saved the tails as we cleaned the crab. I steamed them when I got home, and opened each one up to get the meat out. There is a LOT of meat in a king crab tail – and 8 of them make for several crab sandwiches. The photo is of the meat from a crab tail on the left, the shell it was removed from on the right, with a Bic lighter for scale.

We had some of Chris’s crew and Sara’s staff on the boat today, along with my brother in law’s nephew and his boss from Craig, a Russian friend of the Ukranians who has lived in town a couple decades, and another friend of Chris. I had to twist Jeff’s arm to get him to give me his proxy form so I could bring one back to him. He likes to make it hard to do a favor for him.

Turns out one of Chris’s crew had worked in the alternator shop here in town, and she seemed to really know her stuff. I may get her to check out my whole 12 volt system on the tug to give me some advice to have enough juice to run the little freezer and maybe the new smoker I got for Christmas next summer. I had one of Sara’s staff, who fished and worked for Fish and Game out of Kodiak and the Bering Sea, talk to Chris about possible work at the legislature, as Chris is a wealth of fisheries knowledge and an excellent writer from his years working as a seafood consultant for his dad.

I went out to Chris’s boat today. We were careful to clean the crab well yesterday, and so I wanted to save some of the broth left in the pot from steaming them all for Chris’s daughter to use for stock. I poured some off through a strainer into a pickle container, then planned on cleaning the pot for Chris. The crab residue was frozen on, so I took the pot home with me to clean it properly.

I then went skiing at Montana Creek, and it was fantastic. But crap. I’m out of shape. It about killed me. But wonderful. Such a pretty trail that runs along beautiful Montana Creek. I was almost back to the start when Mark called. My alternator was fixed.

I stopped there on the way home, and he said that the alternator I took off was now cleaned and tuned up. And the brand new spare did not work. He asked several questions about where I got it. He showed me how it was supposed to be hooked up, which wasn’t the same hook up as the one I took off! I may have fried the unit myself. More tuition. And it may possibly have been just a loose belt that was making the fluctuations in the charging, and nothing else. Chris’s dad Eric, who taught me to troll, told me to always suspect the simplest, easiest solution first when you have a problem. I did check to see if the belt was tight to the touch. And I thought it was. But Mark showed me how to test it properly – if I could turn the alternator pulley by hand with the engine off, the belt was not tight enough. I didn’t try that. More tuition.

When I got home, though, past tuition started to pay dividends. Sara’s espresso maker is kind of tired. I spend a lot of time trying to make it work for her (and occasionally me) properly. A person had a fancy shmancy Mr Coffee espresso latte cappuccino maker on Craigslist for 20 bucks. Said she only used it a couple times. I’ll take it, I replied. She could even deliver it when she took her kid to hockey practice. Then she got back to me and said the pick up tube for the milk was missing, so she’d just give it to me if I still wanted it. Sure! I said.

She dropped it off, and it did look like new. I saw where the tube had broken off. When I tried finding a replacement online, I could not find any vendor that had one in stock. The tube fits into a socket, and the top part of the tube was up in the socket, but the part from end of the socket to the bottom of the milk container had somehow broken off. I took the top of the container with the socket to the hardware store, and found a piece of 5/8 inch clear tubing fit snugly over the socket (not inside of it). I paid the $1.72 for the foot of tubing, and headed home. I measured the tubing to the bottom of the tank, and needed to cut it in half to be the right length. Which was great, as now I’ll have a spare. I filled the container with water just to try it, and it worked!

I bought milk on the way home from skiing today. I poured the water out of the milk container and loaded the milk. I first tried the latte function, and out it came. First the milk. Then the espresso. Perfect! After I finished that, I tried making a cappuccino. Same result! I looked up the machine online, and a new one is over $300. A win.

So 1 loss and 1 win for this 60 year old this week. I’ll take it.