to butcher in a hurry. He and Lida did pounds upon pounds of it on their own, and finally in the early afternoon decided that a little help with the grinder and wrapping might not be such a bad idea. So Brandon and I helped out for a little while. It was nice to feel helpful and useful. Brandon and Kyle ground the moose, while Lida plastic-wrapped and I did the final package job with the butcher paper, masking tape and a Sharpy labeling system. I had a lot of fun helping and while we weren't expecting anything in return, they gave us a generous bag to stock our freezer. We now have a handful of pounds of ground moose, some stew meat and a roast. I'm excited to see how it tastes!
After that, Brandon and I sat down for some homemade chili we had started in the crockpot a few hours earlier and eventually made our way to the couch where we thought some quality time with the Wii was necessary. It was fun, but because it had been raining all morning, Brandon was itching for some outdoor fun. So we decided to go fishing. Brandon packed up his gear and we headed down the hill to the river. We saw Gusty and Man II fishing, with a total of four silvers sitting on the beach. With that, we thought we'd have similar luck. We thought wrong. We walked downriver along the bank and found a fallen tree to put our pack on and began to douse ourselves with bug spray. It worked momentarily, but not to the degree we had been hoping for it to. We didn't catch a thing, but mid-trip the skies opened up and began pouring on us. Most of the time you'd think rain would be a downer on an outdoorsy trip, but it was just what we needed to drive the bugs away.
About twenty minutes in, Dani and Ron decided to join us. We liked the company, but with one pole and no fish, we weren't down there for long. Man II had three silvers sitting on the bank, and the boy that was no more than ten offered us one of his since we didn't have any luck. What a sweetheart?! We thanked him for the offer, but said we had a fish in the freezer we'd eat before we took his. He must have felt proud for outfishing four adults. Or, he felt sorry for the kasaks (gus-aks=white people/visitors/new to town in Yup'ik) that couldn't catch their own dinner. We finally gave into darkness and headed back up the hill. The hill has gotten loads easier since the first time we walked it. With any luck, it'll be a breeze by October, when we'll have a whole new mess to deal with in the walk: snow. But we'll focus on baby steps for now. Out here I've learned to celebrate small successes...after all, success is success and the way I see it, small things tend to be overlooked, but are what ultimately determine the success of the bigger matters at hand. I know it's just a walk up a hill, but as I referenced in an earlier post, life has a lot in common with a short simple walk.
Love you all,
Brie
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