One of my teacher’s Father-In-Law passed away on Monday. It was expected but still an event in the village. I was taking an itinerate special education teacher to the airstrip yesterday and I passed the son and his mom coming from the airstrip, so I knew the body had arrived from Bethel. As I got closer to the airstrip I saw a procession of four wheelers coming towards me at a slow speed. I pulled into one of the pull out on the board walk and got off the four-wheeler and waited as they passed. The lead four-wheeler was towing a trailer with the coffin on it. Four grandkids were riding on the trailer with the coffin and then the rest of the family were al behind it. After they passed I went on to the airstrip where I meet my teacher. She had waited to leave until after the body left. They took the body to their house where it will lay in viewing for a couple of days and then the will have a funeral service. His son is the pastor at one of the local churches so it should be well attended. We will turn school out early so everyone can attend that wants to.
Each night a loud horn sounds for curfew, but when an elder passes everything stops, they do not have curfew, kids run wild all night, it is almost like a festive attitude after the body arrived. We were fishing till about 10 p.m. last night and as I walked home parents were out looking for their kids, I directed them down to the river because they were all down there playing while we were fishing. I caught two more lush fish (burbot) about 15 more and we will have enough for a fish fry. Off to work and then to Bethel for more training.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
What do you do on a rainy and windy Saturday in Tuntutuliak?
Got Roe? Got Time? Willing to try something new? Make something out of salmon roe, why not; this is something a southern boy does every week.
When I clean the silver salmon the other day, two of them had large egg sacks (roe) in them. I saved the roe, for what reason I have no idea. Some people in Delta Junction cured them and made bait, I heard of people cooking them in different ways, what could I do with mine. I figured I’d give them away or throw them out.
Google is a great thing, I typed in cooking salmon eggs and up popped making caviar. I laughed and said to myself no way that has to be too difficult. After reading how to do it, I decided it was not too difficult, just tedious and time consuming; can you think of a better way to spend a rainy-windy Saturday in the busk of Alaska than making caviar?
I think it turned out okay; I will let others try it today. It was not on my bucket list, but it was a new experience and a much better way to spend a rainy-windy Saturday than napping, watching TV, or going into school and working. I needed the break from school and this provided an excellent opportunity. No champagne to go with it since I live in a dry village, ice tea, grade juice, or sparkling cider will have to do. Oh, I did watch, on and off, the Georgia Dawgs win their opener. Go Dawgs Go Braves
When I clean the silver salmon the other day, two of them had large egg sacks (roe) in them. I saved the roe, for what reason I have no idea. Some people in Delta Junction cured them and made bait, I heard of people cooking them in different ways, what could I do with mine. I figured I’d give them away or throw them out.
Google is a great thing, I typed in cooking salmon eggs and up popped making caviar. I laughed and said to myself no way that has to be too difficult. After reading how to do it, I decided it was not too difficult, just tedious and time consuming; can you think of a better way to spend a rainy-windy Saturday in the busk of Alaska than making caviar?
 |
| Roe - in sack |
I think it turned out okay; I will let others try it today. It was not on my bucket list, but it was a new experience and a much better way to spend a rainy-windy Saturday than napping, watching TV, or going into school and working. I needed the break from school and this provided an excellent opportunity. No champagne to go with it since I live in a dry village, ice tea, grade juice, or sparkling cider will have to do. Oh, I did watch, on and off, the Georgia Dawgs win their opener. Go Dawgs Go Braves |
| FInished Caviar |
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Second Open Gym, Mooe Hunting, Cabin Fever
The second Open Gym for Perfect Weekly Attendance has come and gone. There were a lot more of the younger kids this week. I really did not expect them to come back to school since it was pouring. It rained the entire day, it was so wet the ducks left village looking for drier ground. Only six high school students qualified for open gym this week and only five of them showed. All of them were girls. I let them in and they started shooting around and then they made their mistake, they asked me to play basketball with them. I told them I was lousy but I would enjoy playing basketball with them. So in I went, and I was not even the last one chosen. My first shot, an air ball now they knew for sure I could not play. They soon found out that I could out rebound them based on height alone not jumping ability. The first time one of them tried to get the rebound and I just reached up and one handed it and passed it out to one of my teammates they started to laugh. I guess it looked funny to them when this average sized Yup’ik was trying to get the ball from the giant white man. They started trying to hip check me but to no avail, I had them by weight also. It reminded me when I played against my friend Tim; he used to knock me all around the court and just score at will. I usually passed the ball out when I got a rebound since I did not feel it was really fair to just put it right back up. I think my teammates would have preferred I put it right back up. When the 40 minutes was up we won by four points, and I had a lot of fun.
I had the opportunity to go moose hunting with one of the guys in the village, well in reality moose spotting since I did not get the right tag. I could not carry a rifle into the field so I carried my camera. It was my first trip up river to the Kuskokwim River. The Kuskokwim is one big river, at one point it looked like a big lake, you could not see land anywhere. We were in an eighteen foot flat bottomed boat with a 115 outboard so not seeing land was a little nerve racking. We went to the old village site, noting is left except the grave yard. We saw lot of moose signs but no moose. Then we traveled to another slough and traveled up it. There were beavers everywhere, and yes they really do slap their tails on the water and then dive under. Beavers and muskrats are bigger than I though and a weasel is smaller. We were going out again today, Saturday, September 04, 2010, but it is too windy. My maintenance man and his nephew both got a moose on Wednesday and on Thursday he brought by a nice roast. I now have King Salmon, Silver Salmon, caribou, moose, chicken, beef, and pork in the freezer. The chicken, beef, and pork are from Omaha Steaks everything else from my maintenance man. Thankfully, he is a good fisherman and hunter and willing to share. I think a lot of the folks in the village think it was a good thing that I went hunting, a lot of them have asked me how I enjoyed it, and have shared stories with me about their own hunts. The coffee pot in the school lobby for elders and parents has been worthwhile, I don’t mind making coffee every morning for them since it gives me an opportunity to sit and listen to the elders. I guess it is kind of like McDonald’s, free coffee and company for senior citizens. 
I had the opportunity to go moose hunting with one of the guys in the village, well in reality moose spotting since I did not get the right tag. I could not carry a rifle into the field so I carried my camera. It was my first trip up river to the Kuskokwim River. The Kuskokwim is one big river, at one point it looked like a big lake, you could not see land anywhere. We were in an eighteen foot flat bottomed boat with a 115 outboard so not seeing land was a little nerve racking. We went to the old village site, noting is left except the grave yard. We saw lot of moose signs but no moose. Then we traveled to another slough and traveled up it. There were beavers everywhere, and yes they really do slap their tails on the water and then dive under. Beavers and muskrats are bigger than I though and a weasel is smaller. We were going out again today, Saturday, September 04, 2010, but it is too windy. My maintenance man and his nephew both got a moose on Wednesday and on Thursday he brought by a nice roast. I now have King Salmon, Silver Salmon, caribou, moose, chicken, beef, and pork in the freezer. The chicken, beef, and pork are from Omaha Steaks everything else from my maintenance man. Thankfully, he is a good fisherman and hunter and willing to share. I think a lot of the folks in the village think it was a good thing that I went hunting, a lot of them have asked me how I enjoyed it, and have shared stories with me about their own hunts. The coffee pot in the school lobby for elders and parents has been worthwhile, I don’t mind making coffee every morning for them since it gives me an opportunity to sit and listen to the elders. I guess it is kind of like McDonald’s, free coffee and company for senior citizens. 
Labor Day weekend is upon us, I will fire up the grill on Monday if it is fairly decent out. The forecast does not look promising, but we will deal with what comes our way. I am getting cabin fever from all the rain; I am not looking forward to the winter if the weather does not improve.
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