Dig Afognak

Squirrel trapping

Cole's first octopus

Sven getting the seal gut ready for braiding

For a long weekend, the family enjoyed the lovely Dig Afognak Subsistence Camp. Sven used to be the camp manager in the summers between graduate school, and his parents used to be the cooks, so its always bittersweet to go to Afognak and see all the changes. The camp has really turned from a 'camp' into a gathering place. There's a men's banya and a women's banya, 4 or 5 nuzhniks (outhouses), a gathering yurt, and nice cabins for everyone (with bunks! No tents!). And the tents have little heaters. I almost felt guilty for calling it a camp. The most wonderful thing about the camp according to the kids, "Elder story time (every evening), the beach, the kayaks, and the swing".

The weekend was full and wonderful. We were able to do a tour of the salmon hatchery, catch and process octopus, seal & salmon, take a few walks and a do a few kayak trips onto the lake. For crafts, the kids were able to experience bears bread wood burning, making squirrel traps (daddy taught that one), canning salmon, spruce tip jelly making & much more. One of the highlights was taking out the skiff and doing a subsistence salmon pick. For many of the kids & adults, it was the first time they had plucked a fish from a net!

Ronny Lind teaching his grandson how to braid seal gut (to fry up for lunch).

Eilidh's photo of processing seal.

Great swing- highlight of the camp for the kids!

Salting the salmon before the smoking....

4th of July in Old Harbor

4th of July was a dream this year... gorgeous weather- wonderful ride out there from our good friends Phillipe, Cecile & Agathe, whom we were able to visit last year near this same time in Corsica. The boat journey was incredible- At one point Phillipe cut the engine and we just listened in awe to the nearly constant sound of whale blows surrounding us (and smelled the faint stink of whale breath). We were able to stop at Refuge Rock for a quick walk to the location where the Russians slaughtered the Alutiiq people in hiding.

Wading to shore.

Chocolate Lilly

≈

Shooting Star

Bella driving the Le Manguier

Orchid
4th of July Celebrations!

Go Carly, Eilidh and Agathe!

At the 4th of July dance....

I swear we tried to stop her from going out there, but it just happened too fast. Eilidh felt sorry for this little girl having no one to box and was trying to be nice. Very soon she realized that it was a bad situation- she wouldn't hit her because she was so small and she didn't want to hurt her, but this little girl was intent on getting Eilidh! Thankfully she did the right thing by running out of the rink at some point. :-(

Men vs Ladies community Tug-o-war


Egg Toss

Bingo Queen (Mary) in the bingo car for the parade.

Hill race (Eilidh did great- she was one of the first ones to the top, but came down nice and slow, disappeared for a while, and ran slowly across the finish line with a big bunch of flowers for mom!)

Getting ready for the boat race

Our decorated Limpit shells turned into crazy sunglasses

Dump bears posing for a picture