Edy’s: Grand Ice Cream, Amazing Company!

So my summer of handing out ice cream couldn’t have gone any better! I got right in to the swing of things and started going to local HyVee’s and Fareways. I found that it is a lot of fun promoting our products and that the interaction with people is what really makes this job. By the time I am finished I should have given over 15,000 samples of ice cream to smiling faces this summer. It is pretty amazing when you think about it. I have found myself saying in my sleep, “would you like to try our Edy’s Slow Churned Ice Cream? It has half the fat and a third of the calories of regular ice cream.” It’s true and the ice cream is amazing, I am lucky I can still fit in the van. While giving out samples I have been all over the place and stayed in lots of hotels. Some of the towns you may have seen me and the sampling van in are Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Quad Cities, Des Moines, Sioux City, Mason City, and many others in Iowa, as well as Yankton and Sioux Falls South Dakota. I have also been to Chicago, IL several times. I got a coworker about half way through July. Maureen has been a lot of fun to work with. It is nice having someone to travel with and a lot more people take samples when one of us is outside the van drawing attention. I keep wanting to have a scooping competition but she won’t bite. The job has been great and the company has been even better. There is a lot of positive reinforcement. Edy’s uses a reverse pyramid style management and has a GROOVE mentality that makes it a ton of fun. Everyone is upbeat a really seems o be enjoying their job. This is contagious. I am really fortunate to have the experience of working for them. Thanks Edy’s for all the great memories, hopefully we’ll cross paths again.

Missing civilization

So not too much is new. I caught a ride in to Westport yesterday to enjoy civilization for a while which is always a good thing. I haven’t been lonely but it is amazing how being stuck in one place for extended periods of time can really affect a person. I mostly just ran errands and stopped at the pub for a couple pints. I watched with the locals as the new budget was read on the telly (TV). Cigarettes went up 30 cents a pack but alcohol and petro stayed the same. Everyone seemed pretty content with what they heard. The worst news was they are going to up the tax on vehicles based on their emissions. After that I caught a ride home with Sarah, David my boss’s wife. They met at Delphi Lodge 15 years ago. She came from Australia to work and never left. She travelled as I am now doing and said it was great, but living in a different country then your family can be tough. I would agree. My next set of travel plans are now booked thanks to my travel agent, Matt Kyhnn. He has to take care of everything online right now as ours is still down at the lodge. The plans are to head to Norway from Dublin on December 26th, then head to the UK on the 30th. I don’t know anything about Norway but why not. It should be a great time. Now we just have to figure when we are heading to Spain to see our friend Cat from college and things will be grand. I am really excited to hit the road again!
Today we caught 30 salmon and the temporary office arrived. It reminded me of living in the camper during August. Ahh the good times of sunny, humid, Iowa weather. It has been rainy and windy all week. On the bright side the insurance company cleared the building and are now going to send a specialist to see if it was lightning that caused it. We took inventory or all the gear and now have to get prices on replacements. I can’t wait to get my new rain gear; I’m tired of getting soaked all the time. Well it’s off to bed for me, I have to work in about 7 hours. Peace out!

It only takes a couple seconds

I haven’t been neglecting my blog lately I promise! The internet at the lodge got taken out the same day of the hatchery fire so I just haven’t been able to post anything.
Today I learned a little more about the life of a salmon. That little bit being the first seconds of many salmon’s lives. For the first time this year we stripped the hens (females) and milked the males. The process is quite simple; first you get a hen that is ready to spawn. You can tell because their stomachs are very soft. Then you squeeze the eggs out by running your thumb from head to tail. It looks really easy. So far I have just been holding the tubs. We put one salmon’s eggs into each tub and record it. We then go about milking a male. To do this is similar to the females but there is no way to tell if a male is ready, you just have to grab one and do a similar action with your thumb and forefinger. You have to be really careful not to let any water touch the milk as this activates it and it will only stay fertile for a couple seconds. The next step is putting the milk in with the eggs and a little water, swirl it around and let them rest for several minutes. Most of the fertilization is done within a few seconds but we give them several minutes to be on the safe side. Then we gently rinse the eggs and place them in special trays that have holes to let running water through but not the eggs. Then we leave them. I am told that in about 4 to five weeks they will start to get eyes and will wiggle if you watch carefully. Lets cross my fingers that I did everything right so we can have first generation Wolken salmon come spring. It is amazing to see really. The eggs change from a translucent orange to a cloudy orange after they have been fertilized. It is really cool stuff and we will keep this process up for about the next three weeks. I will try and get some pictures and maybe even a video and try and post them. Cheers and g’night!

What's the worst that can happen, you burn the place down?

That is the common phrase we say when we are left to look after something for the first time, and none of us ever think it going to happen right? Well today was the first day I was solely in charge of the Delphi Salmon fishery and what did I do? You guessed it, burnt it down, sorta. The day started off as normal as possible, I checked all the tanks and filters, took out the rubbish from the lodge, and then started to get some paperwork in line for Monday as we were going to start stripping the fish. I went to make some copies and to clean all the coffee mugs from the office. At this point it had begun to rain which is nothing new because it rains a minimum of three times a day here. Well today’s storm brought with it something I had yet to see or hear in Ireland while it rained, yep, common thunder and lightning. And while it was only a couple shots it was violent and quit close, but none of us could have guessed how close. After making my copies, washing the mugs, and chatting with the ladies in the kitchen I headed back to the fishery. When I came over the hill I saw a lot of smoke and thought that’s odd. When I got to the fishery I could see it was on fire. I ran back and informed the staff at the lodge and then sprinted back. I started throwing water on it from the stream next to it. By this time the whole lodge staff was over helping. We got in out fairly quickly and I then went to shut the generator off, and had one of the regular staffers make sure that all the power was shut off to the fishery. There was a lot of damage, but nothing that can’t be replaced. After all this the fire brigade finally showed up, as it’s a 35 minute drive from Westport. They cleared it and said the building was safe to be in. They also said that the cause of the fire was unknown. It was amazing to see how some of the electrical leads were blown apart. It makes me thing that lightning struck something. Luckily no one was working today because it all occurred about 10:30 in the break room where we would all be gathered for morning tea. Luckily no one was hurt. There is a lot of damage but nothing that can’t be replaced. Now we have to wait ‘til Monday for an insurance adjuster, get and electrician, and start the cleanup. And for now, you’ll find me hand feeding the fish about every 15-20 minutes while the sun is up. And as my boss said, try and keep the place in order tomorrow, and well, at least you can’t burn the place down… you already took care of that today!”

Life as a Salmon Farmer

Well that’s what I like to call myself anyway. I am currently working for the Delphi Fishery, which is a part of the Delphi Lodge. In the spring, summer, and fall the lodge primarily functions as a fishing lodge. Guest from around the world come to spend time fly fishing for salmon in the renowned lakes and rivers of the Delphi Estate. In the winter the lodge and cottages are used to host house parties for anyone who wants to rent the place out. It is a great get-away and I have yet to see a guest who isn’t smiling and having a great time. As for me, I am doing general work for the fishery itself.
I start off every morning by checking the 12 holding tanks of salmon. I check to make sure everything looks to be in order and when one of our friends goes belly up (dead) I scoop 'em out and dispose of them. I also check the system filters and make sure the food is being rationed properly. The morning routine is fun and usually followed by a tea break. After break me and the lads, Lawrence, Giles, Rodek, David, and several other stand ins go about the day’s work. This can be a range of things from plucking birds from the recent hunts, cleaning out streams so the local sea trout can make it up the rivers to spawn, hauling rubbish from the lodge, and every day we clean the nets and go netting. This has to be the most fun of the job. We take nets and go fishing in several different locations on the two lakes. We almost always do the stream on Finlough as the salmon wait here to head up the stream to spawn next to the hatchery where they were raised. We catch anywhere from 10 to 50 salmon per netting. We also only keep those salmon that have their back fin docked which means they are a Delphi hatchery raised fish. All wild salmon are released back into the waters. We then put them in a transfer tank and head back to the hatchery. We separate the males and females and also check for id tags. We kill any salmon that currently have tags as they are a non-native species that is no longer needed in the system. The first couple of weeks of December will bring a new set of jobs as the salmon will then be ready to spawn.
Once they are ready to spawn we will harvest the eggs from the females, milk the males, and start the next generation of Delphi salmon. It should be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to it. At this point I know way too much about the lives of salmon, but I don’t intend to quit learning until my six weeks here is finished. I will let you know more about the process as I learn.

antique internet equipment = dial-up access

So, did I tell all of you that I wasn’t going to neglect my blog only to neglect it? No! I promise I have a ton of post ready to go but they are on my laptop and we lost the wireless connection when a storm hit last week. We are down to dial-up service. Yep, it still exists. It has been really windy and rainy here at Delphi. We get sleet and small hail about once a day. It is light around 8 and dark by 4:30. It is crazy, but then that’s just winter in Ireland. Today I helped set up the new feeder system, and went netting in a tiny stream by the hatchery. It is about 5 or six feet wide and usually from6 inches to a foot deep. When it rains a lot like it did last night it rises to waist deep water. This is when the salmon come in as they are ready to spawn now. We got 31 out of the stream and at least that many got by me. It is a ton of fun walking up a stream and scooping fish out of a stream, I suggest you try it if you get the chance. It is yet another moment that makes me glad I came on this journey. Sometimes I stop and think to myself, I am really doing it. I’m living in Ireland. Matt calls and says he and his roommates often times find themselves saying the same thing. It is a great thing that will soon end as I move to the UK. I leave on the 26th with a 4 night stop in Norway. Why you ask? Why not, it was a cheap flight at 67 euros. Then after I spend the New Year in Edenborough it will be off to Spain for 10 days with me and Matt's friend Cat. I think she may have a blog as well. I’ll look into that. I have a ticket scoped round trip at 37.50 euros a piece. I am going to book in a half hour when the system comes back online. It is amazing how cheap you can find flights. These have both been found at a great site Matt heard about called www.skyscanner.com You can get detailed and type in cities and dates or go as broad as from Ireland to Europe, anytime. It then tells you where you can get to super cheap. I recommend it if you are planning a trip soon. Well I have to get back to writing some x-mas cards to the family but look for more posts next week when the wireless is back up here at good ‘ol Delphi Lodge.