I forgot to mention a little aside in my last entry about my trip to the cabin on Friday.  I went to launch our new used boat on Friday after over a month of gale winds every weekend keeping us on land.  I backed down the ramp, put the drain plug in, and untied the safety lines holding the back to the trailer.  Then I took off the safety chain.  Then removed the hook holding the boat to the trailer winch.  And then watched my boat glide right off the trailer.  Onto the launch ramp.  The stern was on the ramp and the boat keel on the end of the trailer about midships at a 45 degree angle skyward.  The boat was about 10 yards from the water and tide not yet quite all the way out.  I had a spare tire in the truck, so I put that under the keel about where it met the concrete ramp and slowly pulled the trailer forward to let the boat keel down onto the tire.  Had to wait about 5 hours for the tide to go out and come back in.  Only had one person come that launched after me, and he was able to launch off the beach next to the ramp.  Luckily no damage to the hull.  Only my ego.  I am lucky at being unlucky.  

I went over to the cabin on Friday. Hauled over washed sheets and other items on the list from our New Years Day trip. I also had 5 gallons of drinking water, so had to make two trips walking in to the cabin. When I came back for the water, as I started to tie it to the frame pack, I heard a few blows. I thought it was probably harbor porpoises, so I stepped out onto the beach to look. Not harbor porpoises. Orcas. Right in the channel between our island and Admiralty. Watched them till they went around the island and out of sight.

Lost a kid I knew when he was about 4 this week in the Bering Sea. The boat he was fishing on disappeared with only a trace- the epirb and a life ring and some tarps. I still wonder why the life raft never showed. He grew up in Sand Point, where I worked my second job for ADFG. I was able to hire his mother, and she was the best hire I’ve ever made. She knew everyone and everything going on in town. She treated us like family and had us over for dinner often with her husband, daughter and son. Her son got into about as much trouble as a 4 year old in Sand Point can. She had another story about him most every day. One day he got the runs from eating green strawberries in their yard. Another day he threw up from eating a slug inside a salmonberry. He was a funny, happy kid. He apparently started commercial fishing at age 14. I watched youtube videos he made fishing with his crew for salmon near Sand Point and for crab in the Bering Sea. You could tell he was still a funny, happy kid that was raised by people who love him. 29 is too young, but it looked like a good 29.

On Friday, I took out about 6 fillet portions of king salmon from the Craig catch this past summer to thaw. Yesterday, I removed the skin from each fillet, and the ribs. I put some pickling salt in the bottom of a bowl, added a whole fillet, then sprinkled some salt and brown sugar on the top of the fillet, then stacked another fillet, and sprinkled some salt and brown sugar on it, until I had all 6 fillets in the dry brine. I put it in the fridge about 9 am. I rotated the fillets in the bowl a few times during the day as the salt drew out water liquid filled the bowl.

This morning I got up about 7 am and took out the fish, poured off the liquid, and rinsed the fillets. I tasted some of the fish and it was a tad salty but not bad. I cut the fillets into cubes. I noticed some of them seemed mushy and was worried I didn’t brine it strong or long enough. I put the cubes in a bowl and ran water in the bowl for awhile to freshen the fish and draw a little salt out. That seemed to firm the fish up, so I didn’t brine again. I weighed the fish and it was about 5 lbs of cubes including the colander weight so maybe 4 to 4.5 lbs of fish. I put 4 cups white vinegar and 2 cups water and 1/2 a cup of sugar together. It tasted pretty sour, so I added another 1/2 cup of sugar and that seemed about right – still a little sour, but okay. I put the liquid in a pot and hung a metal colander with a long handle in the liquid and added some peppercorns, bay leaf, mustard seed and a hot red pepper, brought the liquid to a boil and simmered 10 minutes with the spices steeping in the collander, then took it off the stove and set it outside to cool. I estimated about 8 pint jars of product, so put in 9 just to be sure and simmered for 10 minutes to sterilize. By the time the jars were sterilized the pickling solution was cool. I took a bowl of the hot water and put in some canning lids. I took out the jars, added half a clove of garlic, a couple cloves to the bottom of a jar, added a layer of fish, then slices of lemon and onion, more fish, lemon and onion, until the jar was full. Then I filled the jar with the pickling solution. Came out to 9 pints exactly with no pickling solution left over. I cleaned the lids of the jars, put the lids on, and tightened the bands and put it all in the refrigerator. We’ll try it in a week and see if it’s edible.

So, I come home expecting to make dinner but Sara is already on it.  Chopping up a big leek just like Lydia on Create TV.  Then a big onion.  She has my ceramic over cast iron pot I garage-saled on the stove.  She says shoot, I didn’t get any stock out.  I’m on it, I say. I walk up to the freezer in the garage and get some stock I made from the carcass of the last hooter we ate.  I get out a couple steaks of king salmon to thaw in a bowl of water.  She gets the pot going with leaks, onions,  and carrots.  Then in goes the stock.  Next is the king salmon steaks.  She takes out the steaks when they are partially cooked and pulls the meat from the bones and tosses the meat back into the pot.  Must be creme went in last I guess.   Wow.  What a salmon chowder, people. 

Sara’s had the woodstove going full bore since just after I left for Liberia when the cold set in.  On Saturday, she took out a batch of deer ribs from the freezer to boil on the woodstove.  I took out 4 packages of berries – two blue and two red huckleberry – to make pies.  She boiled the ribs all day, then took the pot off the stove to cool.  I pulled out the bones with tongs. I boiled the berries in separate pots by color for about 45 min.  During the boil, we put the store-bought crusts in the oven to bake.  When I took the berries off the stove, I added flour and a little sugar and let the berries cool. Then filled the pie crusts. The next morning, I skimmed off the fat that had hardened on the top of the water with the deer ribs.  Sara cut up celery, onions, and potatoes and added them to the pot and put it back on the stove to boil for the afternoon.  She baked some bread with cheese in it. The rib meat made excellent soup, and we had blueberry pie for dessert.