Audfrith smiled when she saw that the fish trap that she had set day before yesterday was almost full, a nice haul of medium- to largesized cod fish. The trap was still in good shape, and the placement was fast. She left the fish swimming in circles in the narrow-necked basket trap and walked back to begin to prepare the site that would be her cooking and sleeping area for the next two days and nights.
It was still fairly early in the morning when Audfrith began digging her cooking pit at the campsite. She had walked almost three hours this morning to find her traps full of good-sized cod. After digging the hole for the fire pit, she walked around the area to gather wood and stones. Since she needed to build two fires and a smoking pit, she could use almost everything she found, she noticed happily as she made several quick trips into the woods from the campsite and back.
She lined the pit with stones and then placed some kindling underneath green hardwood that would create a nice slow smoky fire. She then stacked the wood up for what would be the hotter fire beside it, using more kindling, tinder, and aged dryer wood. After preparing the fire areas, she constructed the frames to hold the fish over the smoking fire. She had brought several long branches with her as a sledge. Several of these she used to construct her shelter, and now she wove the smaller ones into a good mesh that would hold most of the fish from the traps.
Audfrith had finished a good morning’s work on the campsite, preparing it to smoke the fish she had caught in the traps. Now that she had the firepits built, the frames for the fish woven together, and the wood laid for the fires, she took a mid-day break to have some of the cheese she had bought in the market yesterday and a few handfuls of the fruit and dried squirrel meat mix that she had brought as her main food. Her water skin was looking empty. She would refill it when she went back in a few minutes to get the fish trap out of the water and bring it back on the small sledge. Then the work would truly begin, she thought to herself. But the sun was not yet in its mid-day position, and she felt good about her preparation for the trip. She had one more handful of dried berries and seaweed and headed back to her traps.
Audfrith took the nets and a cauldron on the sledge back with her to the traps, then carefully pulled the traps from the water, loaded them onto the sledge, and pulled them back to an inlet halfway back to camp. If the fish leavings attracted wild animals, they would likely come here for the leftovers rather than facing her camp with the fire burning. She filled the cauldron with sea water and began to kill, gut, and clean the fish at the water’s edge. When she had finished, she emptied one of the nets of cleaned fish into the pot then filled it up with sea water and pulled it all back to camp.
She strung fish from another net up to put on into the smoker as soon as she started it. This fish that had not been brined would not last as long, but she could smoke it again in a few days at home, after she had the bulk of the catch preserved.
Audfrith leaned down over her stacked wood to start the fire. She took a bundle of tinder together with a piece of char cloth from her pouch kit, placing the char cloth on top of the kindling. She looked thankfully at the pocket curved steel she had carried for years and the new flint stone, striking hard on the edge of the stone with the steel, until embers of steel fell welcomed into the char cloth. Audfrith picked up the small bundle like a baby, blowing gently on it, then suddenly with a BURST, a flame caught the ashed fabric. She carefully placed the burning bundle in with the tinder in the fireplace and blew on the flames harder now, challenging them to light up every stick in the pile. When the fire was brightly burning, she sat back on her heels and breathed a sigh of relief.
Audfrith placed the cauldron full of fish and sea water brine near the hotter fire, where they would sit for the night before going into the smoker tomorrow. She started the second slower cooler fire in the smoker pit with no problems, then propped the fish she had strung over it. It would be almost morning before these fish would be ready to eat. Finally, she draped the oiled canvas over the frame like a tee-pee, allowing just enough of an opening for smoke to come out. She took the other fish that were left, four beautiful steaks about the size of her hand, and put them directly on the hot fire for her dinner and midnight meal. She sat back as she considered her evening ahead, as she would need to keep both fires going and sleep as she could.
Audfrith ate her early dinner in peaceful wonder of the sunset. She had more water in her skin, the fires were burning at their best, the fish were cut, cleaned, and being cooked, smoked, or brined for cooking tomorrow. There was extra firewood at the ready. She lay down contentedly near the fires for the night ahead.
End of Part 1