Jam-Packed July

A beautiful vista from a hillside in Homer.

Looking back on the month of July, we certainly feel we made the most of every minute! From fishing, to farming, to masonry, and vacations, the whole month flew by.

A glacier-carved mountain valley in Hatcher Pass.

At the beginning of the month, we kicked off with a fun Independence Day celebration by having steak and halibut for dinner. It was a warm week so we focused on the garden, chickens, and building a kitchen table. Though it may sound like on of our smaller achievements, the kitchen table could very well be my favorite project of this month. Since we've moved into the cabin, we haven't had much room or time to construct an actual table to sit at while we eat. Eating off your lap or a folding tray gets old quickly, and after a year and a half of this routine, I decided it was time! Since we need to optimize how we use our cozy little space, we couldn't just go and buy a standard table and chairs from the store, so we built our own! Using some super local spruce that was harvested from our property and cut on our mill last summer, we edge-joined the boards to make the tops for the table and benches. We made sure to select boards which prominently feature the blue streaks that appear in the wood grain due to an infection in the tree caused by the spruce beetles feeding on it. For the legs, we saved a lot of time by ordering pre-made steel legs online. The table looks great and it's very rewarding to sit together and share a meal as a family!

Cutting tile on the wet saw.

From cutting stone and tile, to leveling, setting, spacing, and grouting - this project gave us the chance to do many new things for the first time. Pete's sister was happy to help also.

After the holiday weekend, Pete's sister visited for a few days. We had so much fun hiking, sight-seeing, visiting, and even getting some more projects crossed off the list with the extra set of hands. The wood stove hearth got a facelift with a new ledge stone surround and tile base. This was also a  good chance to clean out the stove pipe and put some fresh paint on it.

Hemmed the curtains, built a kitchen table, and completed hearth. This winter is shaping up to be a cozy one!

Hiking in Homer

We hiked down near Girdwood and also up in Hatcher Pass and it rained both hikes, but the weather couldn't hide Alaska's beauty! We enjoyed some ice cream and local brews after the hikes, and also squeezing in a fancy dinner at Knik Glacier. The next day we took a trip up to Talkeetna to see Denali, but unfortunately the mountain wasn't visible on the overcast day. Making the most of our trip anyways we stopped to see some friends and met the little piggies they are raising. Then, we got some delicious local food and walked the banks of the Susitna River.

Hiking in Girdwood

In the middle of the month, we took a trip down to Homer, about a 5 hour drive, for a bit of halibut fishing with some friends. Our Little One and I had a mommy-daughter day together while Pete and friends went fishing for the day. We went for a morning hike on the Calvin Coyle Woodland Park Trail, had lunch on the beach, and then some beach combing while we waited for daddy's boat to come back in.

On the tip of the Spit in Homer. My AK bucket list includes camping here!

The boat was happy to report that everyone limited out on fish! When we returned home we processed our fish, ending up with 25lbs of fresh halibut and rock fish fillets in the freezer. The two halibut Pete caught were not nearly as big as some of the monsters people are able to pull in. (but we hear the smaller ones are better eating!) They said some of the fishing scenery included otters, sea lions, orcas, humpbacks, and bald eagles. In Homer, Pete spotted a couple of ring neck pheasants which are very common and popular to hunt in our home state of South Dakota, but we had never seen any around here before. We are thinking someone was raising them and either released them or they escaped and are thriving in Homer. Overall, our trip to Homer made for a fun, relaxing, and beautiful weekend.

Sea birds flock behind fishing boats as they leave a trail of fish scraps.

The next week, our Little One and I headed to South Dakota for a week to celebrate a family member's wedding. It was so nice to see our family and friends! South Dakota gave us a 'warm' welcome with the hot and humid weather, but that didn't stop us from playing outside and enjoying the A/C inside. We attended a wedding, went swimming with cousins, played in grandma's garden, met her great grandparents, played with toys at Uncle's and Aunties houses, made new friends, and many good memories!

Lupine bloomed well into July.

The start of our "Mini Climate Battery" greenhouse

In the meantime, while Mom and Little One were away, Dad stayed back on the homestead and worked on checking of some of the items on the list of summer projects; our 33 chickens needed some attention and shuffling, the garden was producing lots of varieties of lettuce and many radishes which needed to be harvested, salmon needed to be smoked, the driveway needed to be smoothed out and widened, and the greenhouse needed to be built.

Despite our best efforts at protecting our chickens from the long list of potential predators around here, we did lost two of our chickens to a varmint; one of our broiler chicks and one of our mature egg layers, Miss Penny. From talking to others, we believe it to be an ermine, which is a smaller relative to the weasel. We had just started to feed our chickens some salmon scraps which unfortunately lured in the ermine. He followed the scent of the fish to the chicken coops where he helped himself to a couple of chicken dinners. I was more devastated to lost Miss Penny because she was one of our three mature egg layers, and it will be a few months before our other chicks begin to lay.

Penny was the runt of the elder chickens, and that caused her to get pecked on and made her sort of a special needs bird. We built her a separate shelter so she could live in peace by herself, but that also unfortunately meant she didn't have the safety in numbers like the other birds. Since then, Pete built a trap box for the ermine and baited it with some stinky fish, which we know he likes, and also reinforced the coops. We have not seen any activity since we took these actions, which is somewhat reassuring. Though, it would be nice to catch him and know for sure that we won't be seeing him around anymore!

Our first summer with chickens has been a great learning experience. Dealing with the recent losses was a little saddening, however, we had to expect something like that to happen eventually. We have learned a lot from going through the whole process of raising the birds; seeing how much food they eat, how much space they like to have, how much of a mess they make, and what kind of daily chores they require. All of this will help us plan for next year as we step up our operation and refine our process. I think we could now raise twice the number of birds with half the effort, just based on what we have learned with this first batch!

We did share a laugh earlier in the month when we spent 15 minutes chasing what we thought was a loose chick, but turned out to be a young wild grouse! After confirming with a headcount of our flock, we had a good laugh and a sigh of relief! I'm trying to imagine what would've happened if we had actually caught it and released it into the coop - are grouse eggs any good?

The last day of July also marked the last day of the dip netting season for most of the creeks in our area. This season, the run was a little bit later than last year and the creek near our house was only opened to dip netting for one week. Pete went out a couple of times at the beginning of the week, but didn't have any luck. Fortunately, on the very last day of the season he decided to give it one last go. Not expecting much, he headed over to the creek at about 10AM, 4 or 5 hours before high tide. At this creek, most people like to fish the rising tide since that is when it is easiest for the salmon out at sea to make their way up into the waterways to spawn. As he was walking down the trail to the fishing area he was seeing a lot of fish on stringers and hearing the splashing and shouting that goes along with pulling out salmon in a net, and knew it was going to be a different day. He caught 18 salmon in 4 hours!

Can your man pack 50lbs of fish plus a dip net and gear though the mud flats? Sure glad mine can!

Little One learning how to clip tails - next year this will be her job as Dad tosses them on the bank from the creek.

We are quite grateful to have a creek with a productive salmon run just a few miles from our home, it's very convenient! This season, we caught 19 salmon in total, putting 25lbs of fillets in the freezer! They were mostly reds (sockeye), and a few pinks. In a few weeks we may head back over to the same location with a rod and reel to try and get some silver (coho) salmon. However, now with over 50lbs of fresh fish in the freezer, along with some remaining moose from last season, and our 26 chickens we will be harvesting soon, our freezer space is disappearing! There is a good chance we will not need to purchase any meat from the grocery store for a very long while, and that feels good in times like these.

Bear counting the fish, making sure every last one is accounted for.

As anticipated, we have had a very eventful July, but as Alaskans, we make hay when the sun shines AND in the rain (figuratively speaking). This summer has been a very memorable one so far. Occasionally, a chilly breeze blows through and it feels an awful lot like winter tapping us on the shoulder and whispering not to slow down. Here's to making more hay before the snow flies!

A South Dakota sunset at Pickerel Lake. One of my favorite past-times!

The Winner Creek Trail in the Chugach mountains is a favorite of mine.

The Little Susitna River carves part of the pass through Hatcher Pass. It’s glacier-fed waters are a beautiful blue.

Rez enjoys helping with nightly homestead rounds.