FISH!
Well lets be honest, something smells a Lot fishy, and that something…
Fish. Come on people what else has that distinct fishy smell that comes from freezing a thousand salmon in your driveway? Let me tell you the answer is, nothing. Fish is the smell of fall at Dew Claw Kennel. Fisheries operate in the fall, and have to stop when the rivers start to freeze up, so you have a limited window of time in which to get your entire winters supply of fish. We were very fortunate, again this year, to get about a thousand fish for our team.
But nothing is ever that simple in my life, or so it seems. And this fall fish was no exception, because right after getting over 700 of the fish home the freezer unit in our walk in decided it would be a great time to stop working. Of course it was NOT a great time to quit, I completely disagree with the freezer unit on this one. But after actually finding a repair person who would make the trek out to our place, and saying multiple prayers to the patron saint of major appliances, the freezer unit stubbornly refused to change its mind.
Which leads me to the explanation of why stinky fish were covering my driveway. No freezer, no problem, this is Alaska things will freeze. So the fish were stored in a crib, a traditional method used in interior Alaska long before there were even freezers to break. Then once temps dropped below freezing I spread them all out single layer in the driveway to freeze individually. once they are frozen solid they finally make it into the freezer. It is still very secure storage, and like I said, now that the whole outside world is frozen the broken unit doesn’t matter. Take that freezer, in the long run I win!!!!
And so what would motivate a (somewhat) sane and rational person to physically move by hand thousands of fish multiple times – to the kennel, to the crib, in the driveway, and finally stacked in the freezer?
This
Awesome nutritious meals, with kibble, Alaska salmon, beef fat & Dr. Carson’s All Natural Supplement. And healthy snacks.
Dogs think this is fine dinning!
Dawn enjoying her fish
Dogs Love Fish Snacks
And now that they are all stowed away let us all bask in the glory of it. Actually we have to bask in the glory of half of it, this photo was taken before the project was finished, but while I still had enough light to get a good photo. But even the half of it is impressive.
Filling the freezer
The back wall is now full to the ceiling with the best fish, they will get cut with the ban saw into trail snack sized steaks. The bin on the right is entirely full, and these fish will get used in the cookpot to make meals. The freezer is right near the cookers and meat saw. In the same area we have a shed to store fats, oils, Dr. Carson’s supplements, coolers, trail cookers, scoopers, and all the related dog feeding items. Not much unlike a commercial kitchen we make meals large scale! And over the years we have made major improvements on our food prep and storage area that make it so much easier for us to put together not only the meals we feed in the yard, but our trail snacks and drop bags as well.
Food prep area at Dew Claw Kennel
You can see the sliding doors for the storage shed to the left. In front of the ban saw you can see the cut meat box, where I store pre-cut meats that I can grab and go when I need trail snacks. The walk in freezer is in at the back of this area.
Snack Time!
And we use uber large cook pots to make a kennels worth of cooked fish and meat.
The start of dog fish stew.
So to anyone who came in direct contact with me while this whole project was happening at Dew Claw, sorry for the smell. But trust me when I say it is well worth it to be able to give our dogs something so good for them that they enjoy so much.
And apparently the dogs are not the only ones at Dew Claw who think cooked fish is the best…
So dogs are eating great and the training is going very well. Snow and cold have come to Interior Alaska, making everything crisp and beautiful, and the dogs seem to enjoy it as much as I do. We are already planning some early season camping trips, and I am excited about how things are shaping up.
So there you have it, that fishy smell is more like the smell of success at Dew Claw
