Our Spring 2020 Album: Uganik Life
Just before we turn every ounce of our physical and mental energies toward getting ready for the upcoming salmon season, here’s a little moment’s pause to remember what this unique spring of 2020 looked like for us in the wilds of Uganik. Warning….it involves a puppy.
We started off the spring right with two new additions to our life: Vali the Icelandic Sheepdog puppy who makes us laugh and smile every day, and 36 chicks who will become our egg producers in summertime.
One of the things we enjoy is slowly, as we have time and money, finishing our house - all by hand, all without the aid of any outside help. A big milestone was achieved when we finally got rid of the temporary plywood in our kitchen and finished our custom concrete countertops. From hauling all the bags of concrete from the store, down the dock to a boat, then off the boat into our skiff, then out of our skiff onto the beach and up the hill to the house, to waiting patiently for the multiple coats of epoxy to dry, the project took a good long time. But the wait was worth it! Here Tollef inaugurates the surface with homemade pasta.
Our supply chain this spring involved a small landing craft delivering a tractor. It was such a relief to finally take possession of the little Kubota - it had quite the journey, coming by truck from Oregon to a port, then by barge to Kodiak across the Gulf of Alaska from the lower 48, then from the town of Kodiak to us via the “Supplier,” a 6-hour run.
Vali gets a ride with Tollef on a rainy day, while the new chicken coop we built this spring to house the fast-growing chickens stands behind.
Gardening was a big part of our spring energy. Here are some growing plums in the greenhouse. If all continues to go well, we’ll be looking forward to our first harvest this fall! Plums in Alaska….who knew?
We’re having fun teaching Vali to be a great little boat dog. Here he is loving all the smells whizzing by his nose as we skiff around on a calm day.
We had a mild spring despite the extra cold winter and were able to plant some of our starts out at our setnet sites early this year. These lettuces and kales look a little wilted in the picture due to the shock of transplanting after going for a skiff ride from our greenhouse to the site, but they perk right up as they get used to it.
Hiking in our neck of the woods is the best in spring since all the vegetation is down and we can scramble around almost anywhere without getting stuck in heavy brush. So we try to get out as much as possible. Here we are having a break atop the 2,000 foot peak that shoots pretty much straight up behind Adelia’s setnet site.
Just like the skiff and the puppy in this photo, we are poised, ready and waiting (well, getting ready) for our upcoming salmon season. Though the global pandemic injects many layers of cloudiness into our crystal ball, we do know one thing, and that is that we are as eager as always to begin the harvest. It has never felt more important to be engaged in feeding people pristine, healthy and sustainable food.