Summer Tips

I've survived the first three weeks back to work. But who wants to hear about work? Brent is doing a superb job of caring for Phineas and me. We've been doing our best at getting out and about on the weekends. No wild and crazy adventures yet (unless you count the ill advised off road ride we took the stroller on last Sunday); we're just enjoying some long walks and hikes.

field diaper change

Brent has been in subsistence mode as best he can while watching Phin and doing some legal work. Our subsistence activities consisting of hunting, fishing, and gathering take a lot of time – something that is hard to come by with a wee one. Although time consuming, subsistence is one of our shared priorities. The process of collecting and processing our own food is often fun and meditative (try taking to Brent when he is fishing or collecting berries – he wont respond). Best of all, we think that the foods we gather taste better than most store bought food. As the year progresses we hope to share our subsistence activities with you through this blog. Right now, it's spruce tip time! Spruce tips are the soft, bright green, tips of the spruce branches that come out in late May. Once you have a large pot of tips collected, you boil them for a while- strain the juice, add sugar, boil again (there really is no recipe as far as we can tell and our results vary with some batches better than others), and then jar the syrup and dream of pancakes in January.

 

Another local subsistence delicacy that we've been enjoying is black cod tips. Our neighbor does commercial fishing, and after a recent haul of black cod, he welcomed Brent to come work his way through a fish tote of black cod heads. The tips are a rich delicious piece of meat around the neck of the fish. It's time consuming to cut them out, so there is not a commercial market for them. Phineas kept Brent company as he cut his way through piles of cod heads. Now we've got cod tips in the freezer, and we've been enjoying them marinated, grilled, and wrapped in seaweed with rice.

 

 

 

I've posted some pictures here of "Devil’s Club" as well. It's a plant that grows like crazy here in Southeast. It has prickly thorns, and big broad leaves that grow quickly up and up towards to sun. It is also the symbol of the healthcare organization that I work for. Devil’s club is used by the Tlingits (Southeast Alaska Natives pronounced "khhleen-kit) for medicinal purposes. Mostly I've seen it as an ointment or salve. People use it on sore muscles and superficial burns, and actually- any kind of skin condition. I can't attest to its efficacy, nor have I seen any harm come from it. So enjoy the photos of Devils club. When I look up at it from underneath, I feel like a fish in a pond looking up towards the lily pads on the surface.

 

We've also posted some "cute kid pictures" for those family members who are demanding them. Enjoy the summertime. Something tells me it's going to go fast.

blue and blue

a nice place to feed the baby