Harvest of The Sea

This week we've had a -4 tide, which is an excellent time to go clamming and since it was not too early in the morning we decided we'd better go get some. When we pulled up to the beach there was a lot of sea grass covered with herring eggs. They were everywhere, and the clams were squirting all over under the grass and farther up the beach in the sand. Frank convinced me that I needed to try eating some herring eggs just to say I had. It's not something I'd like to add to my diet, but I can say I tried them. Very crunchy, but I'll pass next time, thank you very much.
It only took us about 20 minutes to get all the clams we needed. Frank raked them up and I gathered, rinsed and put them in a 5lb bucket.The clams will stay in clean saltwater for a couple of days until they spit out all of their sand.
Also with that low tide we were able to get our crab pots in a good location, left them overnight and ended up with 16 dungeness crabs today.Tomorrow we will spend the day cooking, smoking and canning the clams. Cooking and shelling the crabs, and freezing or canning what's leftover from us eating them!

Herring, Herring Everywhere

Herring, without herring we'd have no other sealife. Everything follows the herring schools. They are in by the millions now, and ready to spawn. We catch ours fresh for bait, we use them for salmon and halibut fishing. These beauties were caught right from our boat slip. Plus, they're a lot of fun to catch.
This wild group of sea lions were feeding on them too when we were out trolling for salmon, if we would have caught a salmon, they would have switched their main course from herring to salmon in an instant! These bad boys like to take a nice big bite our of your salmon as you're reeling it in.
This eagle swooped down and grabbed a herring in the water, but couldn't fly back out with it, so he decided to swim to shore instead. We've seen them do this with salmon also.There were also a couple of whales enjoying the treats of herring, but I was unable to get a picture of them today.

So Many Birds

Seems like we've had all kinds of birds flying or passing through lately. The Sandhill Cranes on their way North, they don't stop they just call to us as they pass over head, they have the coolest sounds to them. Happens every spring. We were on top of it this year though, got those hummingbird feeders full and out when we saw the first one in town.

Of course the best spot for the feeder is right in front of the window where the cats lay, they need entertainment too! The hummingbirds don't seem t mind either.This year we had these guys eating out of the hummingbird feeders too. They come flying in and land on the feeders so fast and hard it just makes the feeder really swing. Frank is really into birds (mmm Byrdman=Birds, who knows) but he got his bird book out when these started coming in, it's a "blah, blah, Warbler" At least I remembered the Warbler part!But whatever their kind, they are all hungry! This Eagle was giving a look to this Raven, boy if looks could kill! That Eagle wasn't letting go of his halibut head either, we got some pretty close pictures that normally we wouldn't have been able to get.

Hoonah's Economic Development Plan

For the past couple of years the city of Hoonah has been working on building this boat haul out. I believe they are in what they are calling Phase III now, anyway, it will be completed by July if all goes well. You can really see it coming together now. When completed big, I mean BIG boats will be able to be taken out of the water to have work done on them. This is supposed to be one of the biggest haul outs in Southeast Alaska besides Ketchican. The town is hoping this will bring not only big boats in here for work, but people to move here to work on them, and thus stimulate the economy of Hoonah. I guess only time will tell on that one.
This looks so huge without a boat in it, I can't wait to see it when it's holding a boat!
This is the dock they are working on finishing up now. I think these pilings will last a lot longer then the wood ones!

Time to Get Moving

So much for sitting around and cruising the internet, winter is OVER! Thanks to our friend, Lyn Strickland, he flew over from Juneau to get our butts in gear. He's great for motivation. The boat is in the water, cleaned, electronics hooked up, fishing gear on board and ready to go. In fact the boys are out right now looking for a king to catch. They couldn't have asked for a better day, sun, sun, sun, and the water is so flat, it doesn't get better then this.
Does Captain Byrd look like he's ready to hit the water? The Mystress sure does!
I don't think this boat kitty went without too many meals over the winter. He was calling to me from the other slip, I think he wanted me to swim across and pet him.

All that is left of the snow are plow piles. This is the city park with Elephant Mountain in the background.