"This summer before I started cutting fish I had to clean my fish house and wash all my fish hanging poles. Then the next day I cut a tote of Chums because there were a lot of Chums on the river. After I cut the fish Nick hung them up and got me some alder trees to smoke them. I let them hang for about two and a half weeks, smoking them all day. Then about a week after I put my smoked Chums away in a bucket and some zip-loc bags, I started cutting King salmon strips. The first time, I cut fifteen Kings and it took me over twelve hours to put them up in strips. The second time I made strips it took me six hours because I had only twelve Kings. The reason I took so long was because King salmon are very large fish. I also had to let them hang a little longer because they were too oily. It was a lot of work but it was worth it in the end.

After cutting fish strips was over I started thinking about berries. The first berries I thought about were salmon berries. But there weren't very many salmon berries where we looked and I only picked two quart bags full. Then it was blue berry season. And they were fun to pick because there were lots of them. So far I must have picked about 25 quart bags full. I could have had more but I kept on making agutak. The next berries I'm thinking about are black berries, but I won't pick those until the first frost comes because they are sweeter after the first frost. It was a fun summer for me."

Interviewed by: Carmen Pitka

Story by: Nancy Fitka