Recently, Pat got an uncontrollable urge to cut wood! Shocking, I know. He also gained permission to harvest wood in a nearby wooded property that really needed a cleaning of dead wood. Talk about fuel for the fire - pun intended! Pat loaded a couple full loads of birch and began to split it immediately to cure it better. It was gorgeous! We ended up with a cord and a half, conservatively, of birch for next winter (clarify - not this winter since birch has to dry out a year before it's good to burn).
Last Sunday we were invited to join some friends on their boat to try our hands at dipnetting! I'm sure you remember my last effort at
dipnetting. They had a bit of a challenge to win me over, but I figured it couldn't be worse! We met with them and made it to the water by 8:30 or so. The weather was foggy and cooler, but since we were all garbed in our rubber rain gear, we were thankful. Millie was our mascot for the day and was ever alert on the gull spotting.
I'm sailing! Ah-hoy! Way far away from the dock, with the wind and the water and the wind and everything. I sail! Ah-hoy! (y'all know where that comes from, right?)
Pat did have a hand driving the boat. This was actually a much more difficult thing considering the tide changes, RPM issues, speed with the nets in the water at proper depths, and the many other boats! He did very well and did manage to pull in the most fish as well as the biggest, with this, his first King Salmon! Not one to add to the wall, but fun to eat!
To anyone who is unaware, dipnetting is the subsistence fishing method that the state allows to residents in order to garner freezer or canned winter food. One literally dips a large net into the water and pulls in the fish. Ideally, you would want to hit the big runs where there are stories of netting 50+ fish in single digit hours. We did not hit one of those particular runs, but we still enjoyed our day. The five of us brought in 22 salmon and we tried a couple sole (not really worth keeping, unless you are really hungry). In case you were wondering, our group potential haul limit would have been 100 reds total. As head of the household, Pat was allowed 25 and I was allotted an additional 10, giving us a potential total of 35. Way more than we would ever eat in a year.
And we don't particularly like to process fish. It was good that we didn't catch our limits! We all caught the rays and came out a bit burnt, but had a fabulous time with new friends. I have to be honest and say that dipnetting is still not my favorite way to fish, but I also discovered that it was more about the friends, so the experience was fantastic!
Recently, Pat got an uncontrollable urge to cut wood! Shocking, I know. He also gained permission to harvest wood in a nearby wooded property that really needed a cleaning of dead wood. Talk about fuel for the fire - pun intended! Pat loaded a couple full loads of birch and began to split it immediately to cure it better. It was gorgeous! We ended up with a cord and a half, conservatively, of birch for next winter (clarify - not this winter since birch has to dry out a year before it's good to burn).
Last Sunday we were invited to join some friends on their boat to try our hands at dipnetting! I'm sure you remember my last effort at dipnetting. They had a bit of a challenge to win me over, but I figured it couldn't be worse! We met with them and made it to the water by 8:30 or so. The weather was foggy and cooler, but since we were all garbed in our rubber rain gear, we were thankful. Millie was our mascot for the day and was ever alert on the gull spotting.
I'm sailing! Ah-hoy! Way far away from the dock, with the wind and the water and the wind and everything. I sail! Ah-hoy! (y'all know where that comes from, right?)
Pat did have a hand driving the boat. This was actually a much more difficult thing considering the tide changes, RPM issues, speed with the nets in the water at proper depths, and the many other boats! He did very well and did manage to pull in the most fish as well as the biggest, with this, his first King Salmon! Not one to add to the wall, but fun to eat!
To anyone who is unaware, dipnetting is the subsistence fishing method that the state allows to residents in order to garner freezer or canned winter food. One literally dips a large net into the water and pulls in the fish. Ideally, you would want to hit the big runs where there are stories of netting 50+ fish in single digit hours. We did not hit one of those particular runs, but we still enjoyed our day. The five of us brought in 22 salmon and we tried a couple sole (not really worth keeping, unless you are really hungry). In case you were wondering, our group potential haul limit would have been 100 reds total. As head of the household, Pat was allowed 25 and I was allotted an additional 10, giving us a potential total of 35. Way more than we would ever eat in a year.
And we don't particularly like to process fish. It was good that we didn't catch our limits! We all caught the rays and came out a bit burnt, but had a fabulous time with new friends. I have to be honest and say that dipnetting is still not my favorite way to fish, but I also discovered that it was more about the friends, so the experience was fantastic!
