Beautiful Fall Day

Yes, it is already fall here. We do check the weather of those of you living down south. I know you are still having 80 degree days and sunny. Here the temperature no longer reaches 60. A great day is about 56 with sun and a little wind (to keep the bugs away). The tundra is starting to change color, the berries are ripe and the Silver Salmon are running. We, like everyone else here in Unalakleet, are trying to fill up our freezer with fish for the winter. This weekend was a Jackpot! Jeremy and I brought home eight silvers to cut up and freeze. Here is Jeremy with his beauty and then me with mine.




















Of course once you get home you have got to cut up your fish. We made salmon steaks, salmon fillets, and are now trying to dry some to smoke tomorrow. Here I am cutting up a salmon with an ulu. An ulu is a "women's knife" and is really good at cutting up fish. I guess the Inupiaq have had thousands of years perfecting it so it should be.







While we were fishing Isa spent her time building "rockets" and "shots" out of a syringe Jeremy gave her to play with. (It was not used and it did not have a needle of course!) What amazing things you can build and experiment with when you have water, air, and a little bit of pressure. Here Isa is showing you how she put a hollow grass into the syringe to build her own "shot".
She immunized us against diphtheria, MMR, and diabetes. We also talked about how salmon feed the river as well as the people. Isa stated matter of fact that of course, it is the cycle of life.








In our exploration of the tundra we found a sundew. A sundew is a carnivorous plant. We had no idea that they grew in such cold climates, but here is the proof! There certainly are enough mosquitoes to feed these plants.