Every year we go down to Chitina on the Copper River and dipnet for salmon. Its exhausting. And a whole lot of fun. The Copper River is a great wide roiling band of silty water power that cuts through the wild. And every year the salmon return, swimming somehow upstream against a current that will tow a man under in moments. The Darlin'Man along with our good friend Maple of Maple&Me made the long trek down and back in just under 48 hours whilst, conforming to traditional gender roles, we womenfolk stayed home. Hanging off the side of a shale cliff just isn't quite the best idea for a 16 month old and this pregnant lady gracefully bowed out of the prospect. Then we all pitched in to process the fish. Even the littlest one, who was a champ wiping down everything in reach with her own paper towel!

We do our best to waste as little as possible: fish are filleted, then scraped for canning, then carcasses are boiled down for chowder stock or frozen to feed chickens.

They are a precious natural resource we are so fortunate to have access to, but more even than that they are sacred. We are what we eat. Literally. Foodstuffs are the building blocks of the body. Analysis of your tissues will turn up genetic markers that speak to your diet. Yoga calls the physical form the anamayakosha , the food body.

When approached with reverence, the relationship between eater and eaten is a sacred one. I feel and I honor this connection with the plants in my garden, with the chickens and moose and caribou that come to our freezer. But for me this sacred relationship is most tender, most intimate with salmon. Before each trip to Chitina I spend some time in meditation, I journey to the spirits of the salmon, and I renew my gratitude. My love. I feel a kinship with them. They also happen to be one of the best sources of nutrition on this planet!

And let me assure you, fresh never-frozen copper river red salmon is incredible. Grilled with just a hint of lemon or salt and pepper. Divine.

These cookies came out of my oven the other night. An unremarkable feat, perhaps, except that I have a whole new appreciation of the systems in place to allow this minor miracle to happen.

What is even more stealthily phenomenal in the above photo is that it is late evening and even our Alaskan summer sunlight is fading late in the evenings these days. Yet you can see these treasures of butter and sugar and nuts and chocolate... because they are illuminated by an overhead electric light.

After 5 months, give or take 3 days, I once again have electricity in my house! I walk in the door after a long evening of teaching and I can make there be light – instantly! – over the stove to reheat dinner, or over the couch to curl up with a book, or in the living room, or, or.... And perhaps best of all for this pregnant lady, I can cook things like pie, cookies, baked potatoes to eat with sour cream, biscuits, or fresh bread. This baby is a fan off all things baked and carbo-licious as well as any kind of fresh fruit. And while the stove itself is propane, the oven's regulator is run by the magic of electrons flowing through wires.

At any rate, I thought that the picture of the cookies was a far more interesting and attractive way to start the post than this picture:

Back in February the generator died, the battery bank failed, and the inverter broke; all in the space of a few weeks. I was upset and frustrated by turns for a week or so, and then our pregnancy test turned up positive, and for a few weeks I saw everything through rose-colored glasses and couldn't have cared less that there was no power coming into the house. For the past few months however, my dearest Darlin'Man has gotten to weather increasingly hormone-fueled frustration at the lack of first-world amenities at our house whilst he navigates the steep learning curve of fixing diesel generators and off-grid electrical systems. We're pretty committed DIY folks out here. I'm so proud of him for all he's figured out and fixed. But mostly? I'm happy to have electricity again. Vacuuming! Baking! Music-listening! Lights-using! Dehydrator processing of herbs!

Next up? Operation Fix-The-Water. Is it the well? Is it the pump? Is it the water line? Stay tuned for results of this fascinating detective operation! Baby is going to have a working washing machine if I have to magic it out of thin air!

Isn't this a beautiful sight??  Illumination from above! — Isn't this a beautiful sight?? Illumination from above!