March coming in like a lion.  Saw a big avalanche come down towards Thane today.  It was a “controlled” avalanche where they shot a howizter cannon from across the channel to make it go, but it was a dandy.   Sara said we were out of burger so we got out all the scraps I saved for burger from the fall deer hunts.  I defrost them until I can just barely cut through them with a knife.  Then take the pieces and through the grinder they go.   I packed the burger in bags and Sara vac packed and labeled.  We put about 30 lbs of packages in the freezer.   Not supposed to get above freezing for at least week now, so we should have snow till April for skiing.

I arrived in Fairbanks in August 1983.  I had come to attend the University of Alaska, Fairbanks with 2 classmates from SUNY Cobleskill, along with a 3rd friend who came up to work.  One classmate (Scott) and the worker (Ozzie) grew up over the hill from me in Cuba.  The other classmate (Bob) grew up between Albany and NY city. I didn’t get a spot in the dorm, but Scott and Bob did.  Scott came by the second day and said hey – you wanna go clean salmon for $5.50 and hour.  That was more money than I’d ever made.  You bet I did.  That job spawned (get it?) some of the longest lasting friendships I have to this day. Norm was the foreman of the processing line.  He was a UAF student and working for fellow Wisconsinites who were buying chum salmon from the Yukon, flying them in to Fairbanks in this plane that was sort of like a 20′ connex with wings, processing and freezing them at Chena Marina in Fairbanks, and then trucking them to Wisconsin to sell. When I got there the first day, Norm gave me a job on the line.  He introduced me to every one.  Buddy, Lisa and Todd were three that remain friends to this day, along with Norm.    A pretty petite lady with long curly brown hair was also helping.  Norm introduced her as Roxie Wright.  Norm took me aside during a break with a – don’t you know who this is?- kind of proclamation about Roxy.  She was a multi-winner of the North American Dog Sled championship.   Having been in Alaska less than 72 hours, I don’t think I knew they raced sled dogs.  I know I never heard of a Roxy Wright.  All I knew is she was a hard worker in Carharts that took all the fish scraps home to feed her dogs. Well, she just won another championship 24 years after the last one.  I emailed Norm, who is a gym teacher and coach in Fairbanks.  He said when he saw Roxy in the news he thought the same thing – about us all working processing fish in Fairbanks when we were young.  

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.