Back in the early 2000s, I had the bumper sticker “Alaska Girls Kick Ass” on my little toyota truck, the second truck I had purchased in two years since moving up to Alaska. Later I also had a sweatshirt declaring the same thing. I wore that article of clothing until it fell apart. I never replaced them and during the time the clothing wore out and the truck was replaced with a vehicle that had a backseat, I became an older woman and a Mom, no longer a girl. But I have a girl, a third generation Alaskan, and boy does she kick ass!

Sylvia has had an interesting spring. She is ten this year and planned to spend a month in New England with her grandparents playing in the Atlantic and going to summer camp. That of course was all cancelled due to Covid-19. Sylvia diligently completed her distance learning in April and May. Her reward for all the hard academic work? A spring and summer at home with lots and lots of homestead chores. She is a pretty good sport about it though.

We try to break up the projects and chores with some fun and a few weeks ago we rode the 5 horses that are home for the summer down to our property at Strelna Creek to eat the grass there. Sylvia rode Dixie, who happens to be our biggest horse. At first she was hesitant about the ride. Our horses are pack and trail horses, not reliable old nags. They are good horses but we often bring home the ones who are young, new to us, or need extra work before the guiding season and realistically all horses can be dangerous just from their sheer size. We had a marvelous ride though and Sylvia really enjoyed it.

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That is, Sylvia was having a great time until Dixie stepped on her foot when we were picketing the horses before heading home. She yelped in pain and sank to the ground only to pop back up again because she was still under Dixie. Tim and Conner and I secured the horses on their picket ropes and by then she had taken off her boot to find a very bloody sock. Yikes! Back home we discovered that though no bones were broken, Dixie’s shoe had severed Sylvia’s toenail at the nail bed. She was heartbroken at the idea of not being able to walk, swim, or bike without pain. Her summer was “ruined”!

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But as I mentioned above, Alaska girls do truly kick ass. Sylvia hobbled around (in soft slippers) with no complaints. In just a few days she was riding her bike (in slippers.) And jumping on the trampoline, barefoot. After she lost the nail completely, she was able to start wearing shoes again and is nearly back to normal activity levels. What a kid!

This week we took Sylvia to the Copper river to go dip netting. We had a rare day where subsistence dip netting was open but personal use fishing was closed so the river was pretty quiet. We took a couple of 4 wheelers down to Hayley Creek where I have not been since before the kids were born and where Sylvia has never been before. Funny how that can happen in your backyard!

It was a beautiful day without the customary gale that usually sweeps up the Copper River. There was just enough wind to keep the mosquitos off of us.

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And Sylvia dipped up her first two salmon.

Tim got 4, I got 4 and Sylvia got two. It was not a record haul but respectable for an afternoon out.

And now to process the fish. Some went into the freezer and some into the brine to smoke with alder chips later today.

The salmon roe is drying on the garden fence for some future trout fishing.

Who can tell what the summer holds for this young kick ass Alaskan? The sun is shining and it might even be warm out today (even if there is fresh snow on the mountains to the north).

I am lucky to have such a great daughter to work with on the homestead, craft with in the slow times, and fish with during the salmon season. Life is not perfect, but this week, it is pretty good.

I was too exhausted physically and mentally to write my weekly blog post on Thursday this week. Ramifications of covid-19 on our guiding business and crop failure in the garden due to weather and previously unknown pest pressure (cold temperatures, flea beetles, moth caterpillars…oh my!) wore me down. While I truly have much to be grateful for (and I do know this), the cup filling up with “things going wrong” overflowed this week and I needed some extra time to regain perspective.

Today is the first day of summer. It is overcast and drizzling. My husband and I took this weekend off from business related stress and worrying about our financial future. I personally took Saturday off from worrying about all the problems in the main garden. Instead I planted all my neglected annual flower starts into the perennial garden. It was the least priority project on the list so a perfect one to tackle on summer solstice, our 16th wedding anniversary, and a day off from necessary projects. Tim and I worked on different yard projects, visited with some friends around a campfire, and focused on being positive. The problems are all still there but we can work on them on Monday.

Usually I work in the perennial garden when the kids are swimming in the lake so I am nearby and can keep an eye out. With the cold and damp weather this year, there has been very little swimming going on and this garden has been terribly neglected.

Summer Solstice marks the beginning of the loss of our daily light. Already we are sliding towards the darkness of winter. In a season where we have barely experienced any warm weather at all, it is hard to even contemplate the upcoming winter. There is so much to do between now and then. But all I really can do is focus on one task at a time: seed succession plantings in soil blocks, plant the next plantings of lettuce, hunt for more caterpillars, weed the gardens, trim the raspberries, prep the cover crop beds…opps, I am doing it again, too many chores is overwhelming. Focus on one task at a time!

The native roses are in full bloom and I harvested a few handfuls of petals to dry for winter use while I was pumping water the other day.

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The horses are in a neighbor’s unused field this week gobbling up delicious grass by the mouthful. During an early morning check on them last Friday, wood frogs hopped away from my boots tromping through the field and I startled a snipe in the tall grass. This time of year you are surrounded by birdsong every time you step out of doors. It is glorious!

The six ducklings are two weeks old today and have grown rapidly in both body size and mess making capability. A 1020 tray has helped contain the enthusiastic water play but they still need a change of bedding every day.

The four tunnels are finally all planted though I am still working on securing them. I need to improve my knot skills!

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And best of all, this years owlets (there are two) have finally joined me in the garden. They are not as friendly as last years batch so I can not get very close without distressing them. But I enjoy their curious company and screechy voices.

I know that we can overcome any of the challenges that we have facing us right now. It would be great if they could maybe line up and present themselves one at a time instead of clamoring for attention all at once. This year is something else. Phew!