Summer's End

Our summer ends today. It is our first night out of our bunks, in real beds. Our first day in many days to be back in Homer, the town we call home. It seems like a long time ago that we traveled out the Aleutian chain to our homestead in June. We set net there for a few weeks off of Unimak Island, smoked Sockeyes in our smokehouse, and took some good hikes across the mossberry tundra. In July we did a crazy new thing and became seiners in Prince William Sound. Compared to the wild Aleutian weather, the Sound amazed us with its calm. Waterfalls and glaciers replaced our childhood volcanoes and windswept islands. We learned how to wait in line and drive skiff and spot jumpers and tried hard to be okay with lots of days off. It felt very civilized, our family agreed, and in a lot of ways we loved it. When the pinks stopped running we took the boat back out west to False Pass to longline for halibut. This is the fishing we've done together for the longest, and it was felt good to remember the cuts to clean a white-bellied fish, the rhythm of snapping on gear at the setting shoot, the way the sun rises red over Bering Sea swell. We caught some beautiful big fish and we stopped at our homestead for a last summer beach bonfire. We found all the fireworks left in the house and lit them off at the tideline. One more summer, one more season to celebrate, and this place we call home remains heartbreakingly beautiful and honorably abundant. We're leave summer behind, but we do not forget what it taught us: we are, more than ever, sustained by the ocean.   If you'd like to purchase a share of the wild salmon, halibut or cod we caught this summer, visit our fish company's website: www.morshovibay.com. We will deliver to your doorstep!