Damon Hargraves

Heidi and I were happy to host some more family this week. Heidi's dad Mike and grandpa Henry came up with the serious goal of trout fishing. All the river ice is gone now and most of the snow is melted; school is out so I guess we can officially say summer is here. We all leave tomorrow for Anchorage, and we have had a wonderful time these last few days. Here I am baking some fresh trout and grayling for an afternoon snack. Henry thought I was a pretty good guide. Henry, Mike, and Heidi all pulled in trout at the same time several times today. This happened quite a bit actually. The trout were really biting today. Along with boating on the river, we also had a chance to ride with our friends Jeff and Talon Erickson out on the ocean on a seal hunt. We have had some absolutely gorgeous weather, and on this trip we saw lots of seals, but didn't get any. It would have been Talon's first seal, sorry Talon better luck next time. We also had the opportunity to see the res...

My brother Darin and nephew Slayton came to visit just a few weeks ago. It was great to have them here, and they were celebrated as our first family members to visit us in Unalakleet. Even though it's winter, we of course did some serious fishing. Ice fishing for trout on the river proved to be just as successful for them as it was for Heidi and I last Spring. My friend Henry took us up the river to his secret spot. As well as fishing, we also did a bit of hunting. We were on the lookout for bear and grouse, but Slayton's sharp eye found a rabbit hiding in the willows. With permission from our church, we stayed at the Covenant Church Bible Camp. While there, we chopped wood and helped out in other ways to prepare the camp for summer. We were very impressed with the camp and Slayton thinks he might like to come back in for the summer camp. Here's a picture of Slayton riding an old John Deere, which was rusting away at an abandoned potato farm near Bible Camp. I'm...