The Byrds Nest

Moving Days

2009-09-27T17:42:00.004-08:00

This looks like a pretty easy way to move from place to place, just hook up the house to the boat and away you go! But we went a different route. To move in and out of Alaska, the easiest way for us was to get a c-van from Alaska Marine Lines, they deliver it to your door, you load it up (we had a week and friends, THANKS LYN AND DEB!!!) then AML picks it up and will deliver it to your door to where you are moving, but in our case we will unload it at the AML yard in Seattle when we get there next week. From there we have more friends, glad we have friends! RUTH AND JERRY are not only helping us unload and reload to a u-haul, but are storing our "junk" in their shop and having us stay at their home until we get settled.
I can't believe the summer is over and we are on to another adventure! It's bittersweet leaving Alaska, I truly thought when we came here 7 1/2 years ago, we would retire here. But then our kids started having kids, and we want them to know who we are and to be able to spoil them. We were really starting to feel "homesick" this last winter, so decided to make the move after the summer charter season was over. Boy, did summer go by fast!The AML c-van, almost loaded and ready to go.

The boat did not sell before we left Hoonah. There was room on the ferry for us to bring it from Hoonah to Juneau, but not room on the ferry we were taking to Juneau to Bellingham. The van did an awesome job of pulling the boat, I was really stressing this. And thanks to yet more friends (KEVIN AND CINDY) we had a place to park the boat until they load it on the ferry for us at the end of October or it sells (keep your fingers crossed that it sells!)

Since we weren't needing our signs for the fishing charter we decided they looked pretty good on Chris Ericksons van (since he's staying in Hoonah). He was out bear hunting when we put them on his van, and had a good laugh when he got home. Maybe if he cuts the phone number off, he could put the signs on the side of his building......

So here we are in Juneau, waiting for the ferry to take us to Bellingham, we had a week between ferries, which was great. It has given us time to say goodbye to so many of our friends here. Barbara and Jacque have housed us and fed us for this week, I will miss them SO much, I wish I could pack them up and take them with us.
The termination dust on the mountains is saying it's time to go, winter is on it's way! I guess I'll be having to change this blog at some point, since Hoonah Byrd Nest won't seem appropriate when we start our new adventure in Eastern Washington.

Skate Fascination

2009-09-17T14:54:00.003-08:00

My fascination with Skates continues. It took all summer, but we finally caught one so I could inspect it closer. They are just so pre-historic looking.
This one was kind enough to just lay there and let us take it's picture, notice the little feet like things, you can see what looks like legs under the skin too.

Frank got this close up of it's eye and gill, scary!
The tail has little barbs on it, so you have to watch so you don't get hit by it! The skin is like sand paper, very hard to hang onto unless you have a cloth or something to use between your hand and it's skin.
A shot from the top, you can't see the full spread of his wings here, since he was using them to hang on with.
He kind of looks sad here, his mouth is on the other side of him, he's like a halibut in some ways, with his eyes on top but his mouth is like a smile on the under side. His underside is also white in color like a halibut. Some people cut pieces out of the wings and cook them like scallops, we just let him go.

Little Trouble Makers

2009-09-08T16:31:00.002-08:00

The other day in broad day light, these little trouble makers were right out on the dock in the marina! Usually, they are so shy they are never around when there are very many people out and about.
These are Land Otters, they cause trouble by getting up on the boats and leaving BIG messes, they get into everything and they are so NOT litter trained!

This guy didn't want to leave his flounder he had caught and was busy munching on. He was going to put up with the picture taking even though he wasn't too happy about it.
I always wondered what ate those yucky flounders!

Pink Salmon

2009-09-02T17:00:00.003-08:00

Pink salmon, also known as Humpies are in the creeks by the tons right now trying to avoid the bears and fishermen to get some spawning done. Frank was out a couple of weeks ago catching them and trout on his fly rod. Once the salmon hit the fresh water of the creeks they start to turn (or decay) pretty fast. These are not good to eat but fun to catch and release. Right now the streams are getting pretty stinky with all of the dying and decaying fish floating in them, but this is good, a stinky stream is a healthy stream. All of the dead fish will leave needed nutrients in the water for the smolts (baby fish) when they hatch.
This is a female Pink, you can see the white on her belly where the decay is starting, they also turn very dark.The male Pinks, once they hit fresh water start to "hump up" (ah, the name "humpies"). You can see it on the top of this fish. And the humps get larger then this the longer they are in fresh water.

The Cutest!

2009-08-13T11:48:00.003-08:00

I love Sea Otters, they are so darned cute. We don't get them much in our area, very often. This one was floating along when we were whale watching at Pt. Adolphus last week.

He's just too cute!

Fly Fishing with Frank

2009-08-04T17:50:00.003-08:00

Frank loves to fly fish, I think it's his favorite type of fishing. After we went and picked strawberries last week, he talked me into "standing guard" while he fly fished for trout in Kennel Creek. Everyone knows how much I love being bear bait, but I did it, I stayed on the bridge with my gun and camera while he fly fished.
No, Frank didn't leave that pile of poo......

The Chum salmon were in the creek spawning, I love watching them, so I was occupied with them, when I remembered I was supposed to be watching Franks back. When I turned around this nice fuzzy guy was walking towards him on the bank. Frank couldn't see him because of a fallen log, so he started to walk towards the bear for a better look! Then he said, "well, are you going to take a picture or what?"
He finally decided to cross the creek, then went up through the woods onto the road, (ACK!) by me, where my adrenaline kicked in. At least my mind didn't go blank, when he stopped and stared at me. My first thought was to run, then gun, then camera. That shot was a little blurry. Thankfully, he kept going back down into the creek and away. Frank said he was very proud of me for not running in circles shooting my gun! I think I'd rather get my next rush from eating horseradish.

Wild Strawberries

2009-07-26T19:12:00.005-08:00

Frank drug me out of the house today to pick wild strawberries. I don't know why I'm so hard to get out of the house, guess I really am a homebody. So we strapped on the guns, and headed out the road. Once I'm there I really have a great time. I grew up picking strawberries in Oregon, well, these guys are not even close to being an Oregon strawberry! But for such a small little berry they pack in a lot of flavor. At first they are hard to find, they kind of tuck themselves into the moss and they grow really close to the ground. Most of the time we were on our knees picking these guys, but once we got used to seeing them they seemed to be everywhere! The area was flat with a big area to see around, so it wasn't as bad as I expected, there weren't many places for bears to hide and jump out at me.We pick almost 2 gallons, but cleaning them takes forever! The strawberry shortcake we had tonight was well worth the effort.We picked them all, red ones and almost red ones.
The salmon berries and blue berries are also ripe now. I don't really like salmon berries, there just isn't much flavor there. We'll wait to pick the blueberries after the first frost when we pick high bush cranberries.

The wild flowers are really in full bloom now. Frank took some good pictures of the flowers.
I love the color of the Fireweed, it's so beautiful this time of year, and it's everywhere!

Different Views

2009-07-25T10:11:00.005-08:00

Once you live in a place for awhile you forget how others see it at first glance. Little things that we see everyday that put others in awe. I'm not saying that the beauty of Alaska doesn't still thrill me, I never forget how blessed we are to be able to live here, to see the whales, always awesome, the sunsets because they are so rare, and any wildlife. But there are times I forget we are really remote, and I forget to point out the eagles, berries, starfish or crab to others who are just visiting, even though I'm still looking at them and enjoying seeing them, I forget that others don't see them as easily as I do now. I thought I would share some pictures that were taken by someone "just visiting" to give a little different perspective on Hoonah.This is how it usually looks, weather wise, overcast, low clouds, fog. Downtown Hoonah taken from the harbor.
A many legged starfish. I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of starfish until we moved here. One of the Tlingit cemeteries. There are 2 here, one for the Eagle Clan and one for the Raven Clan. I have never figured out where they put you if you are not Tlingit.......... A sure feeling of remotenessA rare sunset.

Bubble Feed

2009-07-18T17:35:00.004-08:00

This guy has been hanging around Hoonah right where we catch our bait in front of town. He's been bubble feeding all by himself, seems pretty content and the boats all around him don't seem to bother him at all. He's been fun to watch and tourists and locals alike line up on the docks to get his picture. In this video he's in about 30 feet of water.

Fire Works at 10pm

2009-07-04T18:17:00.006-08:00

Oh ya, it's another 4th of July in Hoonah! We made it down for the parade today, we had to show Chase (our friends son who is staying with us and learning to deck hand) what it's like to celebrate the 4th of July in a small community. I'm sure he was terribly impressed! The parade looked the same as last year, Smoky the Bear and Sammy the Sockeye were riding high again, along with all the sirens from the ambulance and fire trucks. Chase didn't complain about all the candy he scored though. We actually went down to the park after to check out what was happening there. Not much.....not even horse shoes! A lot of food being sold, and there were races for the kids, but that was about it. Fireworks start at 10pm tonight, last year half of our van occupants were snoring before they were finished! I hope we can make it up that late for Chases sake, he really wants to go. Man, are we getting old or what?!These 3 wheeled bikes were a new addition. I keep waiting to see them around town with tourists in them, someone should be making some $ with them.
Frank (or Dread Barta) is finally getting his salmon itch scratched, we went out for fun yesterday and caught 9 Silvers, 1 big beautiful Chum and 6 halibut. Chase will learn to fillet too!

Montana Deb and Lin week-end

2009-06-29T19:44:00.005-08:00

Our friends Lin and Montana Deb from Juneau were here last week-end with Debs parents who were visiting from Montana. A little rough water the first day out, but we managed to bring in a boat load of halibuts, a ton of crab and we gorged on clams too!

Lin with the "one" that didn't get away! Nice 56 pounder!

Saturday the guys had their own day on the water for some salmon fishing, they managed to bring in 5 silvers and a nice chum. YUM!
Frank (Dread) got over his salmon bluesDebs parents, that look says it all. I can't wait until we go visit them in Montana, what a great couple of couples!

Fun Filled Friend Week-end

2009-06-14T22:22:00.007-08:00

Friends from Juneau and friends from Washington all were here this week-end. That meant a lot of fishing and crabbing. The first day we brought in a limit of halibut (14!) That's a whole lot of fish to clean and wrap. I think the last of the crab has just finished cooking, we'll be shelling those for a while, good thing a lot of them will be going back to Juneau. I think we are all tired, but a good tired, it's always so much fun when we get together, the week-end went by way too fast.

We got so many crab, we ate until we couldn't hold any more!
That week-end was so much fun, time went way too fast, but we got a ton a halibuts and lotsa crabs. Yum YUM!
This is "Aflack", she comes back every year to the marina and every year she looses all of her babies to Eagles, mink, and other predators. This picture was taken last week-end, I saw her today and she had no babies left.........poor Aflack.
I love the "girls" week-ends, and I love my girls!!!! I can't wait until our next one!

Neka Bay

2009-06-06T17:27:00.003-08:00

Frank and Erickson went up to Neka Bay fishing the other day, what a beautiful day they picked too. For some reason I had a different idea of how it would be up there so stayed home instead, but now that I see the pictures, I don't think I will turn down my next invitation.They caught and released a bunch of beautiful sea run Dolly Varden. What beautiful fish they are!The wild flowers were in bloom everywhere.
Frank got a great picture of these shooting starsAnd these are something I've never seen before. Chocolate Lilies, how pretty is that! They tried to talk him into bringing me home a big bouquet for in the house. But they never made it here, they thought they were pretty funny, I guess they don't smell as good as they look!

Sum, Sum, Summer Time!

2009-06-03T16:47:00.004-08:00

Someone said to me today, "I wish it would rain", ACK! Bite your tongue!!!! It's been 2 years since we've had this nice of weather. I don't know what she was thinking. It's so nice to say, "man, it's hot in here", or "where are my shorts?" And I know I am not the only one feeling GOOD!
The kids are out swimming off the docks, the water temperature today was around 50, that's really not that warm.......

The tubing looked like a lot of fun too:
And sunbathers, ha, you don't see that very often in SE Alaska! I bet those 2 were really red today!And this awesome picture that Frank took today while doing a whale charter. He said they were jumping everywhere. It's not just the land lovers that are liking this sun.

Harvest of The Sea

2009-05-27T19:21:00.003-08:00

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

2009-05-23T16:32:00.005-08:00

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

2009-05-11T09:08:00.005-08:00

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

2009-05-06T07:51:00.003-08:00

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

2009-05-01T10:46:00.005-08:00

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.

Some Sunshine in SE

2009-04-27T17:37:00.004-08:00

Coming home wasn't too hard this time. Juneau was beautiful with no rain in sight. Coming back to Hoonah today on the ferry was just as terrific, the water was flat, and you could see for miles. I was really surprised we didn't see any whales though. We're supposed to have sun and warm weather all week. That will make getting the boat cleaned and back in the water so much easier. When we left we had about 3 feet of snow in the yard, now we have a yard, and the driveway that was more of a ski slope is all gone!
This is the light house at Point Retreat. This is where Lynn Canal and Chatham Strait come together. Usually there are whales feeding in this area.
Same location, just facing the opposite direction.

Some Bass Fishing

2009-04-24T05:09:00.002-08:00

Frank, Josh, Fulfer and Coach got a little bass fishing in while I was in Long Beach. They just happened to be in the middle of a bass tournament when Fulfer caught this nice one:
The "boys" finally got over their fishing itch and got a sunburn to go with it!

Not Just Sagebrush

2009-04-17T16:22:00.003-08:00

So many people pass through Eastern Washington and say, why do you like it there, there is nothing there but sagebrush! I've always loved this area, especially this time of year when everything is turning green and starting to bloom. Frank and I were driving back to Coaches from Richland today, near Rattlesnake Mountain (tallest mountain in the US without trees!) when I noticed these purple flowers blooming. Soon there will be cactus along the ground blooming too. If you look close you see all kinds of small wonders.Close up they are so delicate, but the wind is really hard on them, but they still endure.
You can see how dry the ground is, so they don't need a lot of water, and there is tumble weeds blowing all around and over them.

Brown Bear Fishing

2009-04-14T12:16:00.003-08:00

I had been meaning to upload this video for a while now, but haven't had a fast enough internet connection to get it done until now. This was taken last fall while Sven and Frank were fly fishing.

A Taste of Spring

2009-04-14T11:17:00.003-08:00

I'm cheating, since spring wouldn't come to us, we had to go to it! It's so nice to see all the cherry trees, daffodils and tulips in bloom. It's nice not having to wear my winter coat and rain boots! I'm hoping while we are here spring will sneak into Alaska and melt all of the snow.

I didn't see any baby chicks yet, but I don't think it will be too much longer. This is the duck pond at Columbia Park in Kennewick, WA
The geese are pretty intimidating when you are only 1 years old, especially in that big group by the pond, but one on one is a totally different story!

March = Spring?

2009-03-27T14:49:00.004-08:00

I keep thinking I need to get out and take some pictures, but this is such an ugly time of year. Well, in SE Alaska it is anyway. The snow is trying to melt, and all the piles of snow are dirty with sand and gravel. The stuff left in the yards have craters in it from the rain, or there are huge piles by the edges of houses. Nothing like the white with the first snow in the fall, when everything is so clean and bright. So I've had a hard time finding pictures to post, unless we have a blue bird day and we are near or on the water there isn't much to see. Frank and I are sure looking forward to our trip to Washington in April to finally get some spring weather, and maybe when we get back the snow will be all gone! There is only 1 real type "hotel" in Hoonah. This is the Icy Strait Lodge. I've never stayed there myself so can't comment on the rooms, but I have heard they are in need of an updating. The building is in a great location though, and the dinning room sits right on the water, which at high tide is pretty nice, low tide isn't so pretty, lots of mud. When they have a good cook there, it's actually a nice place to go for dinner. There is also a bar with pool tables, but we aren't much for hanging out in the bars so we haven't spent much time there. You can see we still have plenty of snow piled up along the roads, and as I type this another snow storm is going over.
You'll have to settle for more pictures of our ever entertaining Nooks. She loves her boxes, especially when Frank cuts holes in them for her to look out. This winter she has started to meow at you when she wants to play. She's had a very boring winter.

The Sky is Falling!

2009-03-14T10:14:00.006-08:00

It sure sounds like it anyway. We must have gotten about a foot of snow the other day, then it warmed up and rained, then snowed, some sun, etc. The snow started sliding off the roof very fast. That is so loud when it comes crashing down! It doesn't have far to fall anymore though, the piles are up to the bottoms of the windows. When we got a lot of that last snow, we made the mistake of not shoveling the driveway, I kept thinking, oh, it's supposed to warm up it will just melt. HA! Now, it's water heavy snow, and neither one of us wants to shovel it. Cabin fever is starting to set in for sure. You can tell when you notice how loud your spouse chews, and the other small little things are like a fuse being lit inside your head. Yes, I do believe it's time we either get a job (YIKES!), or go visit some friends!This is right outside the front door, domino effect, from the roof, to the yard, to the walkwayThe yard between our house and the neighbors. I think the bbq is under there someplace!Poor Nooks, Frank gave her a kitty toss into the snow. I don't know why she likes him!

Just Another Day

2009-03-07T09:25:00.003-09:00

It's really time for winter to be over. Just having survived February is a bonus around here. If I remember right though, no matter where I am, February is the hardest month to get through, maybe that's why Valentines day is in there, to try and add some "love" when everyone feels grumpy. But it's March now and it's all down hill to summer! The National Weather Service said SE Alaska was going to have an exceptionally warm summer. Really. I wish I would have saved the link to that statement. No one believes I really read that, for some reason they think I am making it up. I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm hanging onto that statement. If we have a summer like last year I think I will just jump overboard and call it good.
Frank got this shot the other day out our front window. I'm glad the camera zoomed in on the Eagle and not the dirt on the window!

Nooks, a never ending source of entertainment. Both cats fight over this location on sunny days.

Around town, continued

2009-03-03T08:38:00.002-09:00

Since this snow isn't letting up, and all the pictures I take now will look the same. I went back through some of my older shots of places around town.

This is the Russian Orthodox Church. It needs a lot of work still, they started working on replacing the roof last summer, but I think they are still using the Catholic church for services, so I don't think it was finished. This tiny church sits up the hill overlooking town. So many people miss it since they are looking out at the bay and not up.

This is one of the stops for the tours from Icy Strait Point. The totems located at the school parking area. Under the shed is 2 canoes, an older one, and a new one that was supposed to have been finished last summer. I'm not sure if they ever took it out, something had been done wrong on it, which resulted in a crack. They weren't sure if it would float or not. So much work went into the carving of that boat, I'd hate to see it not be usable.

And this is known as "Bear Bread". Really, it's just a fungus that grows on the trees. A lot of people gather them, dry them and then paint on them for the tourists to buy when they come to town. I think this one never got dried out............

Around Town

2009-02-24T08:01:00.005-09:00

I got to thinking the other day that we take a lot of scenery pictures, but we haven't taken too many pictures of Hoonah. Probably because the town itself isn't that pretty. We see the town everyday and forget that business and such are a little different then they are in a bigger town. So I thought for a few posts I would put some pictures up that show a little more of Hoonah.
This is downtown Hoonah taken from the float plane dock near the marina. This was the part of town that was rebuilt after the fire in 1944 (or around that time).

The red building is our power plant, I know it's hard to see through the snow, but there isn't much there anyway. The town is run on diesel generators, which you guessed it, makes electricity very expensive. The town gets a grant, so our electricity is about half of what it would be without the governments help.
Do we have a Dr. in town? We used to get a Dr. to visit once a month, but he retired, and as far as I know we haven't gotten one to replace him. The clinic is run by HIA (Hoonah Indian Association), but last I heard they were having a hard time making ends meet financially, and were hoping that SEARCH would step in and take over. SEARCH is another native group that if they came in would build a new clinic. Looks like they need one here. If you have a major emergency you have to be flown out of Hoonah to Juneau or Seattle. Our ambulance crew is all volunteers as is our fire department.
This is the Senior Center, it seems like this would be a bigger place since are really a lot of seniors in this town. I think the biggest draw is that van out in front, I see it all over town giving our seniors rides to the post office and the store.
And this guy was sitting up on the hill enjoying the sun that I just had to take his picture. He was scoping out the dump (pictures on that will soon follow).

Another Great Blog

2009-02-17T16:20:00.003-09:00

Our friends Lyndsey and (Montana) Deb over in Juneau have started a blog, and I just have to mention them. Lyn takes some fantabulous pictures. His latest are of the avalanche that shut off the road to Thane about a week ago. Every time they email us they attach a great photo to go with it. Here are a few of them, but to see more, really, check out their blog, and maybe drop them a comment to let them know you were there:
http://jumpa-zorro.blogspot.com/

I think he took both of these pictures right outside their door.

Sunny Days

2009-02-13T13:32:00.005-09:00

For the last 2 days the sun has been shinning and we've bee seeing blue, blue sky! It doesn't matter that it is still colder then ever, the sun just brings everyone outside. Gotta get some Vitamin D! Frank and I took a walk up to the Shaman Rocks, it's near the ferry terminal. Frank didn't have his spikes on and I get a little nervous walking through that pass when the sun is shinning on thawing rock. The same feeling I get when we are out in the woods and I know that the bear is just around that next tree waiting for me. Legend has it that the Shamans of the Tlingit tribe are buried on top of these rocks. It used to be that NO ONE went up there because there were evil spirits about. But from what is said now, is that the younger generations don't listen and have ropes to help climb up there.

The rock used to be all connected until they blasted through to put the road out to Icy Strait Point. You can see we still have a little snow piled up.

This was taken from the Ferry terminal parking lot. They are supposed to build a walk way around the rock for tourists this year. It gets a little congested going around that curve between the rocks in the summer time. Look how flat that water is! Frank would have loved to have been out fishing for winter kings.

Television or Not to Television

2009-02-11T09:40:00.006-09:00

We watched a lot of television while we were in America. When we got back our house sitter had a satellite attached to the side of our house, looks kind of like a wart or a growth of some kind hanging up there. But all of the houses have them, so now ours "fits" in. She said we could buy the satellite for $75, and just switch the payments over to us. That's a huge decision for us, we've been without TV for over 3 years now, do we really NEED TV? I thought, well, I'll call Dish and see what the fees are, I only want ABC, CBS, NBC plus the cooking channel for me and outdoor channel for Frank, how much can that be. I called the 800 # for Dish, I think I was on the phone for probably 20 minutes with the sales person. He asked me what we watched, what we liked, our address, blah, blah, blah. After all that he says "You need to call the Sitka number, I can't help you they can". Miss patience that I am (NOT), figures ok, I can be jerked around a little more, after all we could end up with TV! I call the Sitka office, she says "OH, you are in Hoonah, we DON'T service Hoonah, you'll have to call the #800 number" You guessed it, if DISH doesn't care if we have TV, I don't care if we have TV.In Juneau we had our phone, TV, and wireless internet all by one company. GCI, it was cable, so we don't get that here. But can't that be done with 1 satellite? Call me "stupid" but I just can't figure out why it's so hard to have high speed internet, phone and TV in Hoonah without paying a fortune to have it. Direct TV, I looked on their website, great deal, you can have the satellite free with a 2 year contract. I thought GREAT! Then I clicked on the link that said internet, thinking (big mistake, don't think) we could have 1 satellite for both. hahahahaha, so silly me. That link took me to Hughes Net, for $400+ we could also get a satellite for internet, and $60 a month to keep it, plus whatever our payment would be for TV,and you can't have just 6 channels, the minimum is 150, (that seems like a lot of $ me, plus I'm cheap) I like 1 bill to 1 place for as many things as I can. Who wants to watch TV anyway.............

Nooks and I will just spend time watching the snow melt, then build up, then melt....

Snow to Slush and Back Again

2009-02-03T15:47:00.004-09:00

We are definitely getting our winter now! I think we got about 6-8 more inches on top of the slush last night, so it's nice and slippery under the pretty stuff. I about did the splits on the way back from the post office today, I'm sure that was a pretty sight! We went to the Economic Development meeting this am, everyone knows we are back so we can't not go. But the rumor now is that there are 2 cruise ships that will be pulling out of Alaska in 2010, and both of those 2 make stops here................I'm sure Icy Strait Point will be scrambling to find other ships to take their spots. As it is I hear the cruise ship industry as a whole for Alaska will be down about 30% this summer. With 4 cruise ships stopping here I'm hoping we won't notice it.
Frank shoveled a path down the drive way today, it was his turn, I did it when we got home.This is our neighbors yard, can you see the swing set, it's almost covered.
This is the view out the back of our place, Frank got to shovel a path to the freezer too!

Back to Remotness

2009-01-31T09:14:00.003-09:00

We got back to Hoonah yesterday on the ferry, the water was a little rough in places but not too bad. It was nice having people on the ferry we knew and seeing landmarks we've come to love. Kitties are good, Maureen did a great job of taking care of the house and cats, but I know she was ready for us to get home. We couldn't have made such a long trip without her staying at our place. She had her satellite hooked up while we were gone so we have TV now! We may have to option of buying the satellite and keeping the service so we're considering that, it would be nice. The post office was glad to see us too, they'd been putting our mail in a box and that was getting full! The weather has been pretty rotten so there hasn't been a mail plane in a couple of days and by the snow that is coming down now there probably won't be a plane today either. My edge card seems to be working now that we are home and I've ordered another one, but the internet is very slow, we got spoiled by having a fast wireless connection while staying at Jacque and Peters. Jacque spoiled us more then just the fast internet, they made our stay in Juneau extra nice. It's so good to have such great friends, not only in Juneau, but also in Washington. I'm sure Coach and Sally were ready for us to leave so they could have their space back again. Frank and I are getting back into our routine, but I have ideas for downsizing our junk, so that should keep us busy for a while since we have so much junk!

This eagle didn't seem to mind the ferry docking right next to him. They wouldn't let us out on the deck to get a better picture since it was so icy.

This is the view outside our kitchen window this am. Notice the patch of blue, it's gone now, replaced with snow clouds. Currently it's snowing lightly.
You can't even recognize our van! Looks like we got some snow last night. It doesn't seem so bad since we really haven't had any winter weather in our travels.

Over the Mountains

2009-01-26T10:20:00.003-09:00

Snoqualmie pass was so much better then I thought it would be. We left Tri-Cities at 10am, kind of late, but with no problems that would give us plenty of time to get to Bellingham and the Ferry by the 3pm check in. The pass was great we even got sun at the top which stayed with us until we got on the ferry. The frost was very heavy starting at the Yakima Firing range, you can sure tell which way the weather comes from.
Top of the pass, sunshine!

Missed the I-5 exit, I was thinking we would be taking 405 all the way to Bellingham, so when the I-5 came up we couldn’t get through the traffic and onto the exit. (Not a pretty sight, both of us yelling, and at who?) And of course it wasn’t a simple turn around, no taking an exit, go over the overpass and back on, NO, we took the exit, ran into a mall, had to figure out how to find our way back to the freeway, hit road construction then finally found our way back to the right direction. We checked in at the ferry office at 3:30pm and the lady was like, “you’re late, we could give away your tickets when your late” I was ready to reach across the counter and strangle her. At home we get to the ferry at 5 minutes till it leaves and they never have anything but nice things to say to us, and this one didn’t leave until 6pm!!! I thought we were doing darn good. Then she says, you’d better hurry and get in line, don’t go and do anything else. So of course like idiots we went and got in line. Sat there until almost 5:30pm. They really could use some bathrooms and maybe a concession stand in that line. What was that rush about? The ferry was full, of vehicles anyway, they had us move our car more then once, and almost everyone else had to come back down to the car deck to move their cars closer together too. When we moved ours there were at least 4 cars on the ramp trying to get on, I don’t know where they found the room for them. We went to where we had slept on the way down, but the firewatch guy made us move this time up to the top level. OH boy, a mom with 3 kids all by herself is up there too. The kids aren’t bad it’s her yelling at them that is annoying. I’m voting her off of the ship, so tomorrow at Ketchikan she has to get off………oh, I guess that is her stop anyway. And since when did they stop giving free refills on coffee on the ferry? The sign is always there that says no refills, but when did they start enforcing that? This is a totally different crew this trip, I don’t like them. Where’s the guys we know and love? There’s also a lot of “strange” guys on board this trip, and I’m not talking about the military ones………I think these guys must be going to work in the processors, either that or they are running from the law in some state, I’m not impressed, and they are sharing our dorm with us! Don’t they know the showers are FREE! I keep wondering if this is a miserable trip because I’m really not ready to head north yet. One good thing, this is a shorter trip, no stop in Sitka and only 1 hour in Ketchikan, so we’ll be in Juneau on Monday morning.
It sure was a beautiful drive over the pass.Dog at work, in line at the ferry in Bellingham. He sure worked the cars fast and didn't find anything! Arrived in Juneau this am, 29 degrees and snowing...............

This Party is Over

2009-01-22T16:29:00.001-09:00

Yup, time is up, the tickets say we have to be in Bellingham by 3pm tomorrow. So far the passes have been clear and wet, but I did notice snow on the mountains around the Tri-Cities today. I'm sure we'll leave with plenty of time for traveling tomorrow. It's been great seeing our kids, grandkids and friends, staying this long is making it a lot harder to head for home. But, in the real world, taxes are calling, cat's are in need of love, the house sitter is tired of shoveling snow, and we spend way too much money with access to all of these stores!
Our grandpup, Autumns doggie Sierra.
Autumn with Kyler (JC's son). At least I got to spend the last day here with the kids. I'm already looking forward to seeing them again in April.

Last Week of Birds

2009-01-16T08:26:00.002-09:00

For Frank anyway.............Coach, Max and Frank managed to get out 3 mornings this week to get some duck and geese hunting in. I know Frank really misses this from living in Alaska. Since we have left Washington most of the places left to hunt are "Pay to Plays", meaning you have to pay to hunt on the land. There are some public lands (CRP) that are free to hunt, but they are farther away then what they want to go for a day.
Frank and Coach with the ducks, and Max's dog Betsy. Frank really enjoyed working with Betsy, I know he would love to have another lab.
Coach in the goose blind out in the middle of a winter wheat field.Looks like they got a great shot of some geese, but these are just the decoys.
These were some BIG geese. This was a "pay to play" field, with about 8 guys on a "guided" hunt. Frank didn't shoot but just went as an observer.

Lewis and Clark Camped Here.....

2009-01-15T15:16:00.004-09:00

Is there any place in the Pacific Northwest where they didn't camp?! From the looks of this area up Patit Creek near Dayton, things haven't changed too much, at least there are not a lot of condos all over the place.
This is one of the Lewis and Clark camps on their way back to St. Louis, this picture is probably too small to be able to read on the blog, but that basically sums it up.
I really like how the metal cutouts look so real from a distance. This is kind of an out of the way place to find. It's really not on the way to any town, we just happened to be out driving when we came on it.

You Call This Winter

2009-01-12T10:13:00.007-09:00

It's getting harder and harder to think of heading home. 50 degrees here or 5 feet of snow there! Normally, this time of year is the coldest in the Tri-Cities, a couple of weeks ago it was cold, snowy, just like normal, then it warmed up and now it's flood time! Coach and Sally live on the Yakima river, but not right on the bank so they haven't had to worry like others have. I did forget that the wind blows most of the time here though. Always something......
This is Coach and Sally's back yard, you can see the Yakima river thru the trees. It didn't come up much farther then this.

This is the Touchet river that runs through Dayton, Washington. We spent the week-end at Svens house, this river runs behind his house too, he said it's the highest he's ever seen it since they lived there. Very muddy.

With the nice weather, all the wild animals were out like it was spring. Frank loves seeing all of the turkeys. He enjoyed seeing all of the deer until he almost hit some driving home! He said he saw at least 40 deer along the roadway waiting to jump into traffic! At one time he went between 2 deer, one in the center of the road and one on the shoulder.

We took a drive up Pattit Creek Rd out of Dayton, it was so beautiful. Then got to the top of the bluffs and.......................here is a whole herd of windmills! They're everywhere!!!!

More on the Gorge

2009-01-02T15:12:00.003-09:00

There was a lot of standing water on 84 East, combine that in the ruts made by the big rigs, and I'm just glad Frank was doing the driving! Rained all the way to Boardman, but that was so much better then black ice. The water falls were really putting the water over the sides of the hills.
Multnomah Falls was roaring as we went past.
There were a lot of water falls that are normally dry.A renewable resource........pulp tree farms for paper products. These have really grown since we've been gone. There are miles of these trees just outside of Umatilla. I think most of these have been harvested at least once already.

2009...............

2009-01-01T07:11:00.002-09:00

Guess where we rang in the New Year? We had to celebrate Franks 50th birthday too, so he chose a bubble tub room in Portland. It was nice, a great dinner out, then back to the room. Of course we didn't make it until midnight..........but this room was so quiet we weren't even woken up at 12pm, guess not too many people shoot of guns in the big city on the New Year!
We are heading back up the Gorge, snow is mostly melted so we have a nice window for traveling, we've been very lucky on this trip with being able to drive where and when we want. Last week the Gorge was closed due to snow and ice. We will be back in cell and internet service, YIPPY! Don't realize how much you miss it until it's gone.

Snow At The Beach?!

2008-12-21T12:54:00.004-09:00

The snow never lasts for long though. It’s raining and windy now, slushy and just a big mess. In Portland you would think the sky is falling! That’s all that’s been on tv, news coverage of the snow and ice in and around Portland. I’m surprised they don’t file for emergency relief, jeez. I am glad we are here for another week or so, and not having to drive anywhere. The gorge is closed today, as are a lot of other roads in and out of Portland.

The snow never lasts for long though. It’s raining and windy now, slushy and just a big mess. In Portland you would think the sky is falling! That’s all that’s been on tv, news coverage of the snow and ice in and around Portland. I’m surprised they don’t file for emergency relief, jeez. I am glad we are here for another week or so, and not having to drive anywhere. The gorge is closed today, as are a lot of other roads in and out of Portland.

The snow on the beach sure was pretty though, no snowmen on our agenda, just a short walk.

Frank found this on the beach the other day, any guesses on what it is? I would never have guessed or even known that there was such a thing…………
Any guesses?

Frank finished the flooring in the laundry room and one of the bathrooms, it looks so nice. Tomorrow am the new carpet is supposed to be installed. My mom will have a whole new house by the time we leave. Franks been fighting his allergies the whole time we have been here. My mom has 3 cats and he can hardly breath most of the time. We did find some naturopathic tinctures for him to try, he says they have been helping. From all of the coughing he has boogered up his neck, so as soon as we get back up to the Tri-Cities he’ll head for a chiropractor. Poor guy.

The Columbia River Gorge

2008-12-11T15:27:00.005-09:00

The drive down the Columbia River Gorge was just beautiful for us. Growing up in Portland and later living in the Tri-Cities I had many opportunities to enjoy the historical sites and towns along the Gorge. If you have never driven this area, I would highly recommend putting it on your “to do” list. To really see everything I would recommend at least 2-3 days, there are so many great stops along this route on Hwy. 395. I took all of these pictures from the van as we were driving West on 395, if Frank would have stopped for every picture I wanted to take we never would have made it to Long Beach, plus, Trader Joe’s was calling in Portland!
Wind Mills, ACK, they have invaded everywhere we have been traveling. I know it’s a great source of “clean” energy, but they sure are UGLY!!!! They have disturbed our views of the countryside from Montana, the Tri-Cities, and now they are invading the Columbia River Gorge. I was so disappointed to see them along the bluffs on both sides of the Columbia river just out of Boardman, Oregon all the way to John Day Dam. I’m sure everyone was thinking the same thing when the dams were being built too.

More were still being built along the tops of the hills near John Day on the Washington side. Parts were passing us on semi trucks as we headed west. A propeller is huge when being transported on the extended semi’s bed.

This is near John Day, you can't really see them is this picture, but on the top of the hill is where they are putting in more windmills.

The view of Mt. Hood heading west. This day was so clear we could see Mt. Hood from just past Arlington.
Mary Hill Museum has been a part of my whole life, the Gorge would seem so empty without it. You can’t go to Mary Hill without stopping at the replica of Stonehenge too. Mary Hill was built by Sam Hill for his wife before the new “highway” was built all through the Gorge, I believe she never lived there, I don’t think she liked the isolation of the area. I should stop again and read all the details since I can’t remember all of them. But it’s a huge place, and I know I would live there! This stop would take a day to enjoy all of the sites here, there is a new winery or 2 now, and of course Peach Beach which is down below the museum. Peach Beach is a wonderful park, with RV and tent camping, there is also a day area with a swimming area for the kids, we’ve stopped here many times when traveling with the kids to break up the long drive to Portland. There is also a small and old town just down from the park. I have a friend who’s mom actually grew up there. She said when she was a girl this was a trading stop for Indians that were traveling by boat along the river. She has many great stories.

The Vista House is probably my favorite stop on this route. It has been restored and you can go through the whole building with displays of pictures from when they built this highway. The Highway itself is a historical site with the block cement style guard rails. As a teen, a friend and I would by pass the guard rails and work our way out on the big cliff you see below the Vista House. I always thought I wanted my ashes thrown from here. (but since I don’t want to be cremated this could pose a problem!) To access the old highway to get here you must enter at Rowena when heading West or either at Troutdale or Corbat When heading East.

Mt. Hood face East, taken from the bridge crossing over from Portland to Vancouver.

The traffic in Portland is a lot more then our rush minute and second traffic in Juneau and Hoonah. This is on the Freeway heading over to Vancouver.

Feels Like Home

2008-12-02T07:35:00.006-09:00

Dayton, Washington. I love this town, I love this whole area of Eastern Washington. I don't know what the draw is for me here, but this is where it is. We were driving from Couer d'Alene to Dayton and came across this great old farm house near Dusty, WA that's for sale................boy, oh boy, it's going to be hard to go back to Alaska. I love big old houses, and right now there are so many homes for sale wherever we go. Big decisions ahead.
Main street of Dayton. Looks like all the old towns around here with a big City Hall and lots of refurbished brick buildings.

We spent the week-end at Sven and Olga's in Dayton (Jerry and Ruth), they have a great place just outside of Dayton, it so comfortable at their house it's always hard to leave. It was the Fall Festival in Dayton over the week-end with lots of kid activities, carolers, and fire works to round it all off.

Frank and I took T-Rex for a walk early Saturday morning. He's Svens dog. He's such a great dog, but we walk a little too slow for him. He likes to take off when you aren't looking to go run on his own, so he doesn't get out much these days.

We saw this big flock of wild turnkey's up on a hill not too far from their house too. Frank is planning on coming back in April when the season opens.This was another great old house that's for sale, but it is right in town. Frank took this picture to show me, since he knew I would want this one too!

Random Pictures

2008-11-27T10:15:00.005-09:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Today will be a pie fest since we are having dinner with Franks family. It's a great tradition they have, more pies then people! I have made coconut cream and will be making an apple pie soon. His other sister is bringing 5 pies, and I know some more will show up. One year there were 27 pies! That seems to be the best part of the day, PIE! Frank has 5 sisters and their families are to the point of growing so much that now they split up so that the sisters with grandkids and son/daughter in laws have their own dinners and then show up later for pie. I love being around this huge family, it reminds me of growing up with my dads huge family gatherings. My family now is so spread out that we won't be together for Thanksgiving or Christmas.......but Frank and I will be enjoying a small Christmas with my mom in Long Beach, Washington.

Here are some pictures I've been taking and now seems like a good time to post:

Leftover pumpkins that were left in a field, outside of Pasco, Washington
Ever wonder where canola oil comes from? This is a field of canola flowers in bloom just outside of Pasco.

This is Chucky, Franks sister Leah's cat, he's huge, his front paw is on the counter, he's such a beggar! I think she said he is 13 years old, his teeth are mostly gone, but he's deadly with his claws still.And gas was even cheaper in Couer d'Alene...........................can you believe diesel is so expensive still?

Wide Open Spaces

2008-11-23T08:13:00.003-09:00

On our last day in Eastern Montana we explored one of the huge sections of public land that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), it is also land that is available to hunt on for everyone. You definitely need maps, available at the BLM offices, of the area. Without them you could get endlessly lost. We drove down above a north section of Fort Peck Reservoir . There were a lot of private cabins along the bank over looking the lake, what a great place for weekend fun. Frank had intended to get a doe, we saw a good one early in the am, and decided to pass so we could explore the area more, then ended up not getting one, but the purpose of the day was more to see the area anyway. One wrong turn and thinking you are on one road but really on another can make for a long day getting out of the BLM property and onto a highway, we realized this when we should have been heading north, but kept going west, we finally found a road sign that matched on the maps, got our bearings and started our trip back to Idaho.
Frank pointed one of the "Buffalo" trails out to me that are all over the place. They look just like a small draw where water would run, but they are zig zagged and run deep in the ground. Once you start looking for them you find them everywhere.
Over looking Fort Peck Reservoir. This was created by damming up the Missouri river, and is over 100 miles long.

Some Sage Grouse along the road. I had never seen these before. They look a lot like dull colored pheasant, but fatter.
Finally, a picture of Antelope. With snow on the ground they really blend in good. When a big herd is on the run all you can see is the white on their rumps and it looks like a flock of white birds flying low to the ground, the rest of their bodies blend into the ground so well.

These nice thorny catus are all over the ground, mixed in with the sage brush. We took about a mile hike, but the mud was so awful that a mile was more then enough fighting it. The mud isn't the kind that you sink into, it's the kinds that sticks to the bottom of your boots, so that after about 5 steps you have 4-5 inches of muck built up so it feels like you are walking on high heels or wedges. It didn't do any good to knock it off, but you couldn't help but stop and get it off, it was so annoying. The walk was still good, there are old bones all over, some are even petrified. We were hoping to find some dinasour bones (very common here) but think we only saw buffalo....

Big Sky Country

2008-11-20T16:33:00.004-09:00

The weather has been fantastic for a road trip, the passes were clear and it was in the 60's the first day of the trip. Eastern Montana reminds me a lot of Eastern Washington, just a whole lot more of it. We spent our first night in White Sulfer Springs and woke up to snow flurries! Even though the land is flat we were still at 5,000 feet! The snow didn't last but the cold temps did, today was a very cold and clear 10* when we woke up. I think I have seen more deer in one day then I have at one time in my whole life, they are everywhere. Frank bought a doe tag over the counter and we will surely find a nice one tomorrow, before heading back west.
Coming over the pass into Helena, a very beautiful valley.

There were 4 of these pheasant on the side of the road, they didn't want to stay still for pictures.

On this "short cut" we took if there weren't horses in the road it was cattle, and in the distant, Antelope (still need to get a picture of them)
We are always having to watch the sides of the roads for deer, I don't know why, but they like the sides of the highways best to find something to eat.

The Badlands don't look bad at all, very beautiful, full of color.
It's been a long time since we have seen deer this big! The fawns are about the size of our full grown deer in Hoonah.

Pay to Play

2008-11-17T07:38:00.002-09:00

I found an ad in the Tri City Herald last week: Guided pheasant hunt in Eastern Oregon, they supply the dogs, land, birds, and they'll even clean your 6 pheasant for you. I was just kind of kidding when I read the ad to Frank and Coach, but they thought it was a great idea. So, yesterday the boys grabbed their other hunting buddy Clintsinger, and headed over to Summerville, Oregon to C Bar C Outfitters for some pheasant hunting.
Coach with the hunting dog on point.
Frank only got a couple of pictures before the batteries in the camera died, of course he didn't have extra.....Coach making a great shot, the dog is already on the go to retrieve. The guys had a great time, said C Bar C Outfitters were great, they had licenses there for them to buy, were very perfessional, and their youngest son is even a PBR rider!

Fun in The Fall

2008-11-12T18:40:00.007-09:00

We've been busy visiting friends, kids and grandkids. Time seems to be flying by. I've forgotten how windy it used to be in the Tri-Cities, today we had 50 mph gusts, but it was about 60 degrees outside so it really wasn't that bad, except it blew all of the leaves from the trees. Oh, and tumbleweeds (I'll try and get pictures) all over the roads.After the winds yesterday there are hardly any leaves left on this tree. This is in Coach and Sally's yard, where we are staying.

Frank wished he would have shot these geese.........our friend Max brought them over for us, since he knows how much we miss geese.
I had forgotten about road kill veggies. I passed some squash before seeing these potatoes, and usually there are onions all over the roads too. Frank and Coach found a mound of potatoes and brought a bunch home yesterday. OH! There is a bunch of tumbleweeds just waiting to break loose behind the taters......
And this is Kizzy, Sally and Coaches dog. I went to town with Coach and Frank the other day and they decided to let Kizzy come along. We had stopped at Walmart, then they dropped me off at Target before heading back to the "man" department at Walmart. When I was at the check out, I looked up at the automatic doors and in comes Kizzy, all by herself. That was a shock, so I called the guys and asked if they had lost the dog, they didn't even know she was gone! I guess Coach had left his wallet in the cart at Walmart in the parking lot, and they were so flustered over that they didn't realize the dog had gotten out of the car. But it all turned out ok, Coaches wallet was still in the cart and a store employee captured Kizzy.

Chinook Pass

2008-11-10T07:36:00.003-09:00

We thought we would drive across Chinook Pass to get over the mountains to the Tri-Cities, since the roads were reported clear and it had been a long time since we had taken this route. It used to be that there wasn't much traffic going this way, so we were expecting a nice slow drive. Frank did take it slow, but we had to pull over to let others that were riding our bumper pass. I don't remember all of the cabins, camp grounds and trails last time we drove this pass. Frank is getting used to sea level too, he wasn't comfortable driving those winding roads with no guard rails, and my side of the van wasn't that comfortable either, looking down into open space. On the East side of the pass there were a lot of housing developments, like log cabin developments, or maybe there were just cabins. But why would you want a cabin right next to someone else's? It didn't seem like we were in the "woods," just another suburb. I think Alaska has grown on us. It has been warm though, 67* when we left the West side of the state and in the 50's here in the tri-cities. The leaves are just turning, so we get another fall.
The West side of Chinook Pass. Mt. Rainer is behind the clouds on the top left. There were no guard rails on this side of the pass, and it just got more steep as we climbed to the top.

The East side of Chinook Pass, not as winding as the other side, and the traffic was less on this side.

I couldn't resist, I had to put a picture of gas prices up. In Bellingham we filled up for $2.11 a gallon. At least all of our cash won't go for gas!

Ketchikan and Beyond.............

2008-11-06T16:02:00.006-09:00

We had a 5 hour layover in Ketchikan yesterday, of course it was raining sideways, I don't think they get nice days. Frank and I jumped on the city bus, only $1 there, and headed downtown to play tourist again. Just like Juneau the majority of shops are closed for the season, but we did make it over to the famous "Creek Street", but Ray Trolls shop was closed for lunch. So we walked around, found a thrift store and scored about 10 vintage crochet books for .10 each. Walked and shopped partway back to the ferry then hopped back on the bus. Having layovers does help break-up the long ferry ride, it doesn't seem so bad this time. We should be in Bellingham tomorrow around 8am.

We thought this was kind of cool, how it was built into the rock, I thought about going out in the street to take the picture so I could get the whole building in it, but I figured this time of year they would run over any leftover tourists!
I wonder how loud it is in the houses above the tunnel, inside the tunnel was very LOUD.
The famous "Creek Street" in Ketchikan, for some reason I thought all of downtown was like this, but it's only one street. We did notice though that most of downtown is built on pilings just like Juneau.
Our cubby hole, not very private, but very cheap!The front half of our suite.
Somewhere in Canada, I think we were by Bella Bella. Wouldn't this be a great place to retire?!!
Arriving at the ferry terminal in Bellingham. Can you believe it's raining!!! Once we got through the massive traffic in Seattle, the skies cleared up and it's a balmy 60* out, nice. We are actually spending the night in a hotel with our own private room, then heading over the pass tomorrow. Frank is really enjoying the gem show and knappers, so he'll go back tomorrow in the am, I think I'll get my walking in then.

Budget Cruise

2008-11-04T18:14:00.003-09:00

We loaded onto the Malispina Monday night around midnight, at least there was no backing the vehicles in, it was hard enough staying focused and awake driving straight. The ferry is full of teen girls traveling to play volleyball, so our usual sleeping space up on the top lounge was full. We could have booked a room, but decided to save the $300-400 and use that for gas on our road trips we plan on taking. We ended up finding a spot in the front lounge. Not too bad, except the fire check box is right above my head and someone checks that every hour......I'm hoping tonight since I know what the noise is that I won't wake up every time. We woke up to sunshine in Peril Strait, absolutly beautiful. Of course the camera was still in the car, so didn't get pictures on the way in, I think Frank got some on the way out, so I will post those later. Dean and Pat from the Sportsmans B&B are also on this ferry. Pat fell down the stairs this am going to the car deck before we pulled into Sitka, cut her head and twisted her foot. Her time spent in Sitka was in the emergency room. Thankfully she didn't break anything, but ended up with a few staples in her head. We were in Sitka for 3 hours, and had the option of taking a bus into downtown for a mere $10 roundtrip per person. So we played tourist. Sitka is a nice town, first time we've been able to walk around, and the hour and a half was plenty of time. I saw where the Tlingit spelling is Sheet'ka, guess that's where those tourists got Shitka from. I think we have a stop in Petersburg tonight around 2am, oh boy!
Frank boarding the Malispina, this ferry is a lot bigger then the LeConte, but not as big as the Columbia or Kennicott
Mt. Edgecomb from downtown Sitka. This is an "extinct" volcano.
A Russian Orthodox church in downtown Sitka.
A replica of one of the bunkers that was used by the Russians to protect their forts. Very cool construction.
This was the view from one of the many marinas in downtown Sitka. There seems to be a tremendous amount of commerical fishing boats here. There were also a lot of B&B's around town.

So Long Hoonah!

2008-11-02T15:23:00.003-09:00

It seemed like Oct. 31st would never get here! But the van is loaded and we are in Juneau now waiting until tomorrow night to get on the Matanuska to head to Bellingham. We are staying with Jacque and Peter while in Juneau. They treat us so good! They had a Halloween party Friday when we got in, it was so good to see everyone, but I didn't get the camera out to take pictures, I should have there was some good costumes.
I drove the van on onto the LeConte, Frank backed Jerry's van and boat on. It used to be pretty intimidating driving onto the ferry and backing into a lane, but now it's not so bad. I would never be able to back a trailer in there though, I get nervous just riding in the truck when Frank has to back anything onto the ferry. The LeConte is a lot smaller ferry then the one we'll be taking to Bellingham.
Hoonah as we are leaving from the top deck of the LeConte, for some reason I don't think I will get homesick!My new best friend! Tequila, Jacque and Petes dog, a Poodle even! Wow, I never thought I would be friends with a poodle! She's a good girl though, they've taught her very good house manners. She's very smart, so I guess I'm not going to be able to call dumb dogs "poodle brain" anymore.........

First Snow!

2008-10-26T06:35:00.003-08:00

We had a couple of inches of snow yesterday morning, which gets Frank all excited to go hunting, easier to track the deer that way. So, we spent the day driving and glassing the hill sides. Snow is so much better then rain! The day was mostly clear, and the snow makes everything so bright and clean. Saw a few deer, Frank did a short sneak up a clear cut, there was no way I was going to climb all over those logs and bushes, plus I didn't buy a hunting license this year, good excuse to wait at the bottom of the hill for him. We didn't see any sign of bears, no purple scat in the roads, no bear tracks in the snow, that sure makes it a lot easier for me to get out of the truck and walk around. Since our deer population is pretty slim from the last 2 hard winters, it is bucks only, and we came home without any, but it was still nice to get out in the fresh air. We have a few more inches of snow this am, but the weather is calling for 40 degrees today and the rest of the week, so it will probably be melting soon, which is good since we need to get the boat out of the water this week, cleaned off with the pressure sprayer and stored for winter.

How can you be depressed when it looks like this out? There were still A LOT of blueberries that we didn't get picked! The taste was pretty much gone, but I liked the texture of semi frozen blueberries.
It's days like these that I realize why we live here, it can be so beautiful.

Cheer Up!

2008-10-23T05:30:00.003-08:00

It could be worse, you could be here, in the rain, with us...............
I was thinking of some of the funny things we have heard in the past 3 years from tourists who have been on board fishing with us, and thought I would share. You can always tell when it's getting close to the end of the season by some of the stuff they are told at other ports.

Look at all of the female eagles, huh? Yes, the ones that are brown are the females and the ones with white heads are the males. Who told you that? The naturalist over in Juneau.

What port were you at before you stopped here? Shitka. Oh, you mean Sitka. No, the correct pronunciation is Shitka, that's the native pronunciation. Mmmm, ok.

(The doll porpoise are black with white on them, and it's very common to see them here)
As we are heading out fishing we go by a pod of doll porpoise. Look at that pod of baby Orcas, where? Right there, those are porpoise, over in Juneau they told us the baby Orcas all travel together in a pod.....

Do you know why whales breach? (One couple talking to another on our boat) Why? When we were in Hawaii they told us. When they jump out of the water they are looking at land marks to find out where they are. Sure...

My all time favorite questions:
What elevation are we? Uh, this is what's known as "sea level"........

Are we fishing is fresh water? Last I knew the Pacific Ocean was salt......

Where's the ocean from here? What can you say?

Here are a few "out takes" I love Franks expression more then anything in these:

Ooops!

I Wish it would SNOW!

2008-10-20T18:27:00.003-08:00

At least then it wouldn't be raining! We got up around 6am today, looked outside, same dreary, wet, yuck it's been for weeks. I told Frank this weather is going to make someone shoot someone, then headed back to bed for a couple more hours. I intended on staying in bed all day, but my stomach wouldn't let me. I don't know if it's worse for me because I know I will be out of here in a couple of weeks, or it's just really worse. We had a break from the "showers" so took a walk up to the store, was going to stop at the nearest store, but it was closed, weird, the hours posted, it should have been open. So we walked farther up to the other store. On the way back the "closed" store had police tape across the door. Someone else let the rain get to him, he decided to shoot himself in their store, not sure what the message was there. We don't know who he was, or even his name, but in this small town he is probably related to almost everyone else. Just sad. Then it started raining again before we could get home.

On a different note, Frank took a drive out the road to see what he could see the other day, no deer. It's bucks only again this year, our deer population still hasn't recovered from our severe winter 2 years ago. He did get a couple of fall pictures:
Fall Fireweed

And some other kind of weed.....

Some Bored Kitty Cats

2008-10-15T20:03:00.005-08:00

I don't think it's ever going to stop raining, just when you think it can't rain any harder, it does. We have a metal roof, so the sound is constant. The cats aren't liking it either, it's getting colder and they hate the wet, so when they aren't sleeping they are bugging us. A friend from our church will be house sitting while we are gone, and she just got a year old lab mix, so that should liven things up a bit for the cats while we're gone!

Nooks in her "princess" chair. I had some foam and an old fleece blanket, was bored so made her a kitty bed............aw, her and Izzy have to take turns in it and they don't like to, causes some friction once in a while.

Izzy likes this little blue pillow, but sometimes she doesn't quite get centered.

Our berries are all processed, so now it's time to crochet, make our Halloween costumes (Franks not too thrilled about that), clean, clean and clean before we go, sort and pack, take the boat over to Juneau on the ferry for it's 200 hour check up (Frank gets to do that too), and diet (hey, we've been doing good since "Sven" and his chips, dips, cake and ice cream left!). So far we haven't gotten into our winter routine of a morning and afternoon nap yet! Will the rain ever stop?!!!!

A Bear in the Road

2008-10-11T19:26:00.003-08:00

We actually had a break from 3 days and night of pouring rain and wind. It took about 15 minutes to bilge the water out of the boat this morning. A lot of boats in the harbor where setting low in the water. I'm sure everyone made a trip down there to bilge today! Since it was still nice out when we got home, we decided to go for a drive, see what we could see. Got out the road, picked some more berries, it's just too hard to resist when they are so loaded and the leaves are off the bushes. On the way back home we came around a curve and this sow was walking down the road towards us. She kept getting closer, and closer. About the time Frank was ready to get back in the truck, and I thought she was going to walk right by the truck, she angled off the road, she was about 100 feet from us at that point.

And she had this little guy following her the whole way! What a cutie, I haven't seen a cub this blond before. They were both pretty mellow with us sitting there watching them.

The Finished Product

2008-10-10T16:11:00.003-08:00

The Christmas jam and syrup are done! (oh, was that a surprise?) Since not too many people are liking our high bush cranberry syrup and jam as much as we do, you get blueberry/huckleberry, we'll keep the best for us! We had enough for 12- 1/2 pints of blue/huckleberry, 12-1/2 pints of highbush cranberry and 4 bottles of highbush cranberry syrup.
Berry goodness................

The highbush cranberries before cooking and juicing. They taste awful until they are juiced with sugar added, then they are pure heaven!
I knew those Pendleton and Patron bottles would come in handy!

Frank even had enough juice left to make a small batch of highbush cranberry ketchup........that is so good on venison, makes my mouth water, oh too bad there's only enough for us! (ok, maybe Josh will get some, since he has venison in his freezer to go with it)

That's What Friends Are For

2008-10-07T09:24:00.002-08:00

I think Deb and Lyn brought the sun with them when they came. We actually had a few days without rain. We managed to get some crab, and go berry picking. Picked High Bush Cranberries, Huckleberries, and Blueberries.
We managed to pick 2 1/2 gallons of Highbush and 4 gallons of Blueberries/Huckleberries in twice the amount of time then with just me and Frank.

The area we pick has this really pretty pond near it, and of course lots and lots of bear trails.
Lyn picking some of the High Bush Cranberries, it's so much easier to pick when the leaves have fallen off.

One more time

2008-10-05T10:46:00.004-08:00

Our friends Lyn and Montana Deb flew over from Juneau for a few days, we were really hoping it wouldn't rain the whole time they are here. The sky was so white, almost looked like it was going to snow, but it wasn't foggy so the planes were flying and there arrived right on time.
Arriving at Hoonah Non International Airport. This is the Wings caravan, one of the bigger planes that flies into here from Juneau

They said flying over the water was flat and they could see whales, so we decided to head out in the boat for some final days of fishing. We set out the crab pots too, right along with a million commercial pots......grrr

While trolling for salmon Frank caught this Lingcod, and he got to keep it since the season was actually open. Didn't catch any salmon, so went halibut fishing. We picked up 3 halibut, they bite very tentative this time of year. Which makes them hard to hook.
The water was flat and calm the whole time we were out there. We could see all of the mountains, and my favorites, the Fairweather mountain range, that is on the outer coast. It was a beautiful day, cold, but beautiful. Of course we woke up to rain this am.

Hunting and Gathering

2008-09-29T14:30:00.003-08:00

We had a fairly decent day (considering what we've had since) right after I got back from Washington, so thought we'd head "out the road" to see what we could see. Didn't see any deer, I think they are talking about making it a buck only season again, the deer still haven't recovered from our record snow fall from a couple of years ago. Didn't see any fish in the streams either, lots of bear sign in the roads, they've been eating LOTS of berries! We found a nice spot to pick berries, up on a hill, I could see all around me, so I was comfortable picking there, plus the huckleberries were huge! We got about 2 gallons, but now I remember why we wait until after the first couple of good frosts before we pick our fall berries. The no-see-ums were very active, about made me crazy. Also after the frosts there are less leaves and you can see the berries better. Frank had caught quite a few salmon while I was gone, so he was just finishing up smoking them, in time for me to vacuum seal them. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas? If this rain ever lets up we hope to get out and pick more berries, we still need to get the high bush cranberries picked and made into syrup and jelly before we take our trip south.

More of Long Beach, WA

2008-09-19T08:51:00.004-08:00

Really nice board walk, with lots of bike trails under and around it.
There is almost always someone flying kites.......Wood carvings along the walk.......
I've really been enjoying all of the sun while I've been here. I wish I could bring it home with me.

BLACKBERRIES!!!!

2008-09-18T19:43:00.003-08:00

Autumn helped me pick blackberries today, they are everywhere. It's so nice not to have to carry a gun to pick berries. But we did learn that using ziplocks didn't work very good either, they would get caught on the thorns, putting holes in the bags and then blackberry juice was dripping everywhere. Of course the biggest berries are the ones are just out of reach.

Our hands are all stained and scratched, but so worth it.

I may have to go back for more tomorrow, it seems such a waste to just leave them.
This was the sunset tonight, it lasted about 3 minutes from this picture. It was so calm on the beach tonight, no wind. Autumn and I just kept walking, but realized on our way back that we had passed the trail back to the house, so we just took the first one we came too, walked out to the highway then back down to my moms house. Got a good walk in!

Flew into summer.....

2008-09-15T16:12:00.004-08:00

It was so easy, just fly south of Alaska and you get sun, wow! As soon as I landed in Seattle I was in SUN!!!! Then I flew into Portland, and it was still sunny! JC and Autumn picked me up in Portland and drove me down to Long Beach, where the sun was still shinning. We've had weather in the high 70's since I've been here. I was doing some painting on my moms house and noticed I had tan lines on my arms when I was done!
I don't know why it is, but even though we live on the ocean it doesn't feel like a beach. The kids had to put their feet in the water, man that is cold.

We've been coming to Long Beach since before JC was born to visit grandma and grandpa, and we've never gotten a picture in front of the famous frying pan before!
I can't believe they are building huge (or any) houses in the dunes now. Kind of makes me wish for a tsunami. Well, maybe after my mom is no longer around to witness it......But it used to be you could just walk down to the beach from her house, now it is all private property and you have to use a "public" trail so you aren't cutting through someones yard. UGH.

2008-09-07T14:25:00.003-08:00

Frank and Jerry had some free time yesterday so they drove out to a stream to do some fishing. Frank had been wanting to go to this spot for a long time, but me, being the big chicken that I am with all the bears, have not offered to go with him. I'm glad Jerry is here and they can go do these things.

These pink salmon are all "humped" up on their backs, ready to spawn.

They saw quite a few bears along the stream and trail, but the bears were only interested in the salmon. Frank got a pretty good video of a bear catching a salmon.(which I tried to upload, but this connection is too slow, maybe I'll try again when I can get a better connection) I don't think I would have wanted to be that close!

How do you deal with a really BIG fish? as best as you can.....

2008-09-04T18:39:00.005-08:00

We usually try and talk clients out of keeping the really big halibut, but it's pretty exciting fighting a huge fish and when that fish is next to the boat it's really hard for anyone to say, "no, let it go". This summer we have had more bigger fish since we have started charter fishing. Who knows why there is more this year then last. I think it's because we haven't seen any commercial skates laid out where we fish this year, but I'm sure it could be a number of other reasons too. I also remind myself that I see 100 and 100+ pounders all the time being lifted up into the processor by the commercial fisherman, and we are not even close to taking that many. We are also one of the few charters who do not shoot the big fish when they are next to the boat, seems pretty dangerous to have a loaded gun on board with clients. So, Frank harpoons the big ones, and once we get them back to the boat we tie the tail and head to the boat until we can bring them into the boat without it beating everyone up.

Once in the boat it won't fit in the floor well, so Frank ties it up as best he can to keep it in one spot until we get back to the dock.

Getting this out of the boat was not an easy project either. Frank slipped on some fish slim and almost went in the water. But with 3 guys they managed to get it into a cart and pushed up to the pickup. The Harbor Master complained that they were going to break the cart, I guess we were supposed to cut it in half and use 2 carts!
Load it in the back of the Toyota and transport it to the processor. He brought out his fork lift to weigh it on, and get some pictures.

That's a happy family with the 265 pounder. Franks sister Leah, husband Steve with his parents, who just happen to be in their 80's.

Dave the processor, filleting the monster. Each fillet weighed around 40lbs each. Franks sister, Leah and her husband will be taking home a lot of fish.

Time for a drive

2008-08-31T15:06:00.002-08:00

Frank and I actually had a day off and it wasn't pouring down rain! So we took a drive out to Freshwater Bay. That's about 30 miles out the road............
It's a big bay, and it turned into a beautiful day. Frank did some fly fishing while I sat on top of the truck and took pictures and watched for bears. He caught a few pinks, and satisfied his fly fishing urge for a while. The grass was so tall, it's a good thing we were both watching for bears. He heard one coming down the river, they are never quiet like I expect them to be. It must have heard us talking and cut up into the woods, when it reached the road I could see the bushes shaking where it was, but it decided not to show itself.
This mama and cubs were in the same river/creek, but farther up from where we were. Looks like she has a radio collar on for tracking. The cubs look like 2 year olds. We saw one other set of cubs on our drive. Thought about picking some berries, but decided to wait until September when more leaves fall off.

A Reverse Double

2008-08-19T06:21:00.006-08:00

This was a first. Barbara and I both hooked this fish, we thought we were tangled since that happens so often, but when we got this fish up we both had him hooked, so I guess that is a reverse double. The fish had both of us on! He ate one bait then ran over and ate the other bait.Notice the short sleeves and the SUN on Barbara's face?!!!!!! Oh, but we woke to rain and wind yet again this am................at least we enjoyed the one day of summer that came our way again. Barbara was even a little red in the face and arms this morning.

More Jellies, crab and company

2008-08-18T08:04:00.003-08:00

Had another quick trip over to Juneau on the week-end, but this time for fun! John Prine was in town and we had tickets (with excellent seats) thanks to our friends Lyndsey and Montana Deb. We have such good friends in Juneau, we are so lucky. Cindy and Kevin let us stay at their house even though we come in at late hours, and we met others at Pizza Roma pizza, they let me pick, YUM! I just hope we are as good as friends to everyone. Barbara and her brother Albert, who is visiting from Pennsylvania came back to Hoonah with us for some fishing and crab, and if the fog doesn't set in they will fly back to Juneau tomorrow with lotsa fish. If it's anything like this am they should get out, it almost looks like summer this morning.
One of the cool orange jelly fish
A white one with long, long tentacles
Frank, Albert and Barbara with dinner.

Some Strange Looking Fish

2008-08-12T13:51:00.004-08:00

Our friend Coach (Tom Cossalter) and his son in law Jedidiah have been up visiting, and fishing. At least there were a few nice days while they were here so they could get out on the water and have some fun. They did manage to catch a nice 125 lb halibut, so they had plenty of fish to take home. They tried to leave on Tuesday at 1am out of Juneau, they have stand-by tickets so when all of the flights were delayed because of volcano ash, they got bumped to the bottom of the list. It was cheaper for them to grab a flight back over to Hoonah then it was for them to stay in a hotel and buy their meals, so that's what they did. We were booked up with whale watching charters, so instead of doing more fishing they drove around looking for bears, they said they saw a few today while they were out. They are back on the ferry now heading for Juneau to see if they can fly out tonight sometime, I guess that is one way to get out of work, I just hope they believe them!
Coach caught this Lingcod, too bad the season wasn't open yet!

Look at those teeth!

Junior (Jerry's son) caught this pretty Yellow Eyed Rockfish while they were all out catching lunch.

A Jelly

2008-08-08T08:20:00.004-08:00

This is one type of jelly fish we see a lot of in this area. Jelly fish are so fascinating to watch, I think I could spend hours at it. We have some red ones with really long tentacles too, we'll see if I can get a picture of one of them sometime. I couldn't get a good picture of this one, Frank had to take over, after about 20 takes he got a couple of good ones.

Back in Business

2008-08-04T20:34:00.003-08:00

I feel like we have been going non-stop since we made the mad dash to the ferry from Hoonah to Juneau last Tuesday. We had 1 hour to pull the boat out of the water, deliver fish to the processor, run home and throw some clothes in a bag, then make it to the ferry. They had Frank backing the boat onto the ferry when I came out of the office with the tickets. Sometimes small towns are nice, they don't get too up tight over small things. Allen Marine in Juneau had a motor in stock, and I must admit, they did us good!!!! They put the new motor on Wed, we picked the boat up Thursday, put it in the water and did a test run on her, and she worked fine. THANK YOU ALLEN MARINE! All of that and we only missed a half day charter! We then came back on the ferry Friday morning at 7am, with our next group of people from California. Got to Hoonah, checked the guys into the B&B then went fishing. They came up for dinner every night after fishing, since there were no restaurants open by the time we got in, plus they are great guys so that was fun. They filled up on deep fried halibut, clams (thanks to Jerry and Junior), crab and salmon for 3 nights. Today we took a group of guys out from Whitehorse Canada, we brought in the biggest halibut ever for our boat, a nice 150 pounder, they had a total of almost 300 lbs of live weight in halibut by the end of the day. Those were some happy guys! Got a breather tonight, but it's back to work early tomorrow......
A seagull picking herring off the top of the water. The herring were everywhere, I couldn't believe there were no whales out there eating them.
Frank and the 150 pounder, getting ready to haul her into the boat.

I Dream of Sunshine

2008-07-28T09:35:00.003-08:00

This morning laying in bed semi awake I kept seeing the blue sky with a few clouds, and then I would get more awake and still hear the rain. The never ending rain, our yard is like walking on a sponge. Even the cats are depressed.

We had the "boys" from the Tri-Cities up for their annual fishing trip last week-end, I don't think it stopped raining one day. The water was so rough in Icy Strait that they didn't get on the best fishing spots while they were here. We even had a "sea sick" moment, and it wasn't ME! Jerry and Jr. filled in on Saturday and Sunday for me, which was so great since I hate being out in the rough water. The "boys" went home with 50lbs of halibut each so it wasn't a total loss. Saturday the motor started sounding rough, and on Sundays charter we were seeing oil in the water. Not a good sign. Now we are in a mad dash to find a replacement motor between charters. This is so not the place to get things done yesterday, try finding someone or some business in Juneau that cares..........
We did have a one whale show for a while yesterday. This guy was bubble feeding around us for about 1/2 hour (that's his mouth coming out of the water). We've seen him for a while now, he's not shy, and will pass between your boat and the bank when salmon trolling too. I just can't figure out why he's always alone.

More Byrds

2008-07-20T19:24:00.003-08:00

Another one of Franks sisters, Lorna and her husband Randy were here for the week-end, they are taking home some halibut, no salmon..........mmmmm, and some crab. The weather was nasty the whole time they were here, rain and wind. Luckily today it wasn't too windy, so had some nice fishing, but it was raining. No sunshine for them until they get home!
The extra guy was a client we added on their trip today.....

Randy and Frank were fighting the monster, about 90lbs, they let this one go after a few pictures, since they already had a limit of big halibuts. They head home tomorrow and we go back to work............

Girls Week-end

2008-07-13T19:39:00.005-08:00

Barbara and Jacque came over from Juneau for the week-end for some much needed girl time.Captain Frank took us halibut fishing and we caught some nice big ones, then saw some Orca's, deer, humpbacks, brown bear and cub, eagles and seals.
Saturday we spent the day sipping wine and painting. Jacque gave the lesson on how to paint an Alabama sunset. But Barbara and I have never seen the hills in Alabama, so ours are a bit bigger.
It was a great week-end, spent with great friends!

Happy 4th!

2008-07-05T12:50:00.004-08:00

We've been here 3 years and this is the first time we watched the parade in Hoonah. Nice old time parade with lots of candy! I think most of the kids were in the parade so the adults and toddlers got most of the candy! Our friends Lyns and Deb are here from Juneau, so we didn't stick around for the other festivities, like horse shoes and races, we went fishing instead. We did manage to stay up and watch the fireworks that went off between 11-12pm. I think Frank and Lyns were sleeping during most of them though.

This little guy was pretty intense!

Frank got a good picture of a puffin while we were out too, there were more puffins then I've ever seen at this spot before, they must be liking it there.

What a beautiful day!

2008-07-03T09:23:00.003-08:00

It's days like yesterday and today that remind me of why we live here. Yesterday was so clear you could see the Fairweather Mountain Range all day, and then turn the other direction and see the Juneau Ice Fields. We only had a morning charter yesterday, so Frank and I rushed back out of the water to fish for ourselves. The water was like glass, we caught 1 King, 2 Silver, 1 Chum and 1 Pink Salmon, then caught 2 dinner size halibut for some friends in town who don't get to fish much.
You can see the Fairweathers in the background on the left, they look so close! They are actually over 50 miles away.

I was happy to spot this whale, I haven't seen any in over a week and was beginning to wonder where they had all gone. Guess we missed the small Orca pod that was near Icy Strait Point when we were out fishing. If they are around that could explain the shortage of Humpbacks feeding around here right now.

Boats on the horizon

2008-07-01T16:59:00.003-08:00

This week the water has been so calm, I love days like this. This morning was kind of foggy and hazy out on the water. I kept looking towards Admiralty Island and wondering if the sun was ever going to come up, even though it was light out at 3am today. But it just reminded me of a sunrise. Notice the boats, there was a cruise ship, fishing boat, sail boat, and to pleasure crafts (better known as Yachts), all were coming our way, they all passed within minutes of each other and the wakes seemed never ending.
OH, and today is our 8th wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary to US!

First Silver

2008-06-24T06:37:00.003-08:00

Frank has had a bad case of Salmon fever lately. Saturday we went out with our friend Chris on the Icy Lady, trolled most of the morning, saw a ton of bait, but no fish. On the way in we decided to try one last time near Point Sophia, and Frank caught a 29 inch (don't let him tell you pounds!) king. But that didn't cure his fever, so him and Jerry went out Sunday in the same area and Jerry caught the first Silver salmon of the season. They were pretty surprised, it seems so early for Silvers, we haven't even caught a Chum yet.
Frank is sitting at the kitchen table now playing with his "hoochies", so I don't think he's calmed down yet. We just need some clients who want to salmon fish instead of fishing for halibut for a few days and that would help.

Low tide last week brought in a few eagles on the beach in front of town.

A Skate, yew!

2008-06-19T18:20:00.004-08:00

Time is starting to fly by, each week we are more busy then the last, but that's a good thing!
Jerry and Frank spent some time on the water catching halibut last weekend. They ended up catching this huge skate too.
Skates are so weird looking, a lot like a ray, but when you turn them over they have a flat face and what looks like little feet down by their tails. Maybe the rays have this too, I've never looked on the underside of one. The skin is rough like sand paper, very abrasive so they hurt your hands to hang onto them. But this rag worked really well for them. Years ago the native people used to use the skin of the skates for sand paper, makes sense to me. We haven't ate any yet, but maybe one of these days we'll try it, I've heard they taste a lot like scallops.

A New Grandbaby!

2008-06-08T09:25:00.004-08:00

Riley Elaine Byrd, 8 lbs. 1 oz. 19 inches was born Saturday, June 7, around 2am.
Franks youngest son Josh and his wife Audra's first child, all are doing well and should be going home today. We sure are looking forward to this fall when we can get down to Washington and see our grand children!

What's for supper?

2008-06-07T08:43:00.004-08:00

We've had some really minus tides this past week, -4.?, so Frank couldn't stand it any longer and had to out clamming. He said he stopped at a half bucket, it was still more then the 3 of us could eat! We stuffed ourselves last night! I don't think we've had fresh clams since we moved here from Juneau, I didn't realize how much I missed them. The leftovers will go in clam chowder. I know Uncle Chris really misses this part of Alaska!
One of our clients sent us this picture that he took of me and Frank, I thought it came out pretty good.

Peaceful Moments

2008-06-05T10:49:00.003-08:00

Some days you don't even feel like you are on the ocean, it's so calm and peaceful. Makes me so thankful that I get to live in such a beautiful place. But not yesterday, yesterday we had clients on board (5 big guys and an 11 year old) makes for a full boat. We tried to fish out in Icy Strait, but the wind and current made it pretty impossible. Trying to fish with the rolls hitting the side of the boat is not fun. We ended up coming inside Port Frederick in hopes of finding some halibut. Luckily, we found some, nothing big, but the guys got to fish for about 1/2 hour before we had to take them back to pick up our next group. Frank stalled to give them more fishing time, and we were about 1/2 late picking up the next group, but everyone was great, we added the 1/2 hour onto the end of the 2nd trip and everyone was happy. This 1 limit halibut per person is a real pain though for people who would like to ship fish home.
Icy Strait on a calm day.

It's Floating!

2008-06-03T19:15:00.004-08:00

Jerry has had his boat back in the water for a few days now. Seems he has fixed the problem and put in an auto bilge for back up. I'm sure he will be fighting corrosion for a while though, but at least the main motor and the kicker still run!
OH, we cooked up some of that bear meat, and if I wouldn't have known it was bear I would have guessed beef. Very good!

A big butt!

2008-05-31T18:35:00.003-08:00

I went fishing with Frank and Leah today, saw whales, porpoise, sea lions, trolled for salmon, and then I had to show them how to catch a halibut! 75 pounder, but not as big as the 85 pounder that Frank caught yesterday.................This would probably do us for the summer, except Leah seems to only catch little ones so she'll be taking some of this home with her tomorrow.

Camping (?) in Swanson Harbor

2008-05-29T16:54:00.004-08:00

We had our first full day of charters yesterday, boy that felt good. (See pictures on our Dream Fish website). Near the end of the last charter our friend Chris Erickson of Tok River Outfitters called to say he had just finished his last bear hunt, his clients had flown out and would we like to meet him for dinner in Swanson Harbor. How could we refuse?! So after getting all the halibut to the processor we ran home, picked up Leah and the rest of our junk and headed across Icy Strait to Swanson Harbor. When we pulled in, around 8pm, Chris was waiting with a sundowner for us:

His assistant guide, Lucas, and his wife Brenda, were out scouting black bears for themselves. So Chris had dinner waiting for us, then Frank took Chris and Leah to join up with Lucas and Brenda back on the streams. Frank said when he dropped them off he heard gun shots, so we figured no one would be back anytime soon. I took this picture while waiting for Frank to get back, it must have been around 10:30pm:
Frank and I decided to sleep in our boat so we wouldn't get woke up when the rest of them got back, heard them come in after 11:00pm and went right back to sleep. I got up about 5am, needed to use the head and when I opened the door out of the cabin this is what I came face to face with:
I'm glad I didn't wet myself! I didn't scream like Uncle Chris either! But I did jump back in the cabin and slam the door, did some cussing, then Frank and I had a good laugh. Our friends are so funny! That sure woke me up!
Brenda and Lucas with BRENDA'S first bear (first time hunting anything). That's a beautiful black bear. They even gave us a few steaks to bring home.

Memorial Weekend

2008-05-25T19:55:00.003-08:00

Franks sister, Leah, flew in Saturday morning, we were thinking of heading over to Funter Bay to meet up with some other charter boats for the week-end, but the LAB the airline she was flying on from Juneau to Hoonah just happened to have forgotten to put backpack on the plane, so we ended up waiting another 3 hours for the next plane to bring it over. Also looking at the weather, it was calling for 4+ foot seas so we opted to spend the week-end close to home and played around in Port Frederick. I can actually say I got HOT today! WOW, that doesn't happen very often and hardly ever out on the water. Trolled for salmon, nothing, but the water is anywhere between 44-47 degrees now, so that will make a big difference. Put the crab pot out and the shrimp pots, first pull, no shrimp, no crab. 2nd pull on the crab pots gave us enough for dinner. Sat on the dock at Salt Chuck bay, caught some bait, laid in the sun, and did a little beach combing. Snuck back into Salt Chuck Lake, between the boulders in the water, with Leah and Jerry on each side of the front of the boat keeping an eye out. Saw a real pretty brown bear at the back of the lake.
Leah getting the shrimp pots ready.........
What is it? Looks like part motor home, part boat, part Beverly Hill Billies! (could be us someday)
SE Alaska sun bathing.
Entrance from Salt Chuck Bay, back into Port Frederick.
Young brown bear.

It can only get better....

2008-05-20T22:14:00.003-08:00

Like Jerry said this am, "the sun actually came up today". Best news first, the engine on the boat started today, and it only got better. Zonie went fishing with us while Jerry got his first day of work in. The water was about 5 degrees warmer, boy what a difference that makes. We had enough crabs in the pot to make Zonie happy, then we headed out into Icy Strait to look for halibut. We weren't disappointed. And I rock! I caught the first one! But Zonie had to outdo me and get the biggest. That's ok, since he leaves tomorrow morning and I'll have all summer to fish
According to the tide book, this halibut weighs 65lbs, nice, makes ours looks so little!
All filleted out and ready to go home
OH YA! Deep fried halibut, fries and crab! At some point you have to just stop!
.

OH, That Sinking Feeling..............

2008-05-19T16:38:00.003-08:00

Jerry got all of the finishing touches on his boat yesterday, the electronics hooked up, and all the other do dads. Got a boat slip for the summer. Then this morning at 7am the harbor master called to tell us his boat was sitting on the bottom of the ocean. That is such an awful feeling, and even worse when you get there to see it. This is how you bring a boat up off the bottom of the ocean when it's in it's slip. First you need lots of rope, and at least one wench, 2 are better. Strong rope is a must, because when it breaks you end up starting all over again. A big pump helps too, once you get the stern and windows above the water line.

Jerry happened to have brought his dry suit up with him, but he did say he knows why it is named Icy Strait now!

Starting to come up, they had to replace one rope after it snapped.

Up high enough to start the pump, then she really came up good.

And to top it off, we were going to put her in the drive way to hose her off (since it's a state road and DOT will not let us hose the boat off in the road) but the bottom of the trailer got stuck on the road, so that took about another hour to get undone. They are still cleaning on her, got the small trolling motor working, lets hope more than that does!

Where are the fish?

2008-05-18T14:25:00.003-08:00

Poor Zonie, he only has until Wednesday before he has to head back to Washington......and it has been raining about every minute he's been here. It hasn't been fun out on the boat, with the wind and rain, but they have been out almost everyday. The last couple of mornings and evenings they've been fishing for trout at low tide, just so they can catch something!Today, it has eased up a bit so the boys have ventured out to try for salmon or halibut, and to put out the crab pots. Last week we set out the pots and not one thing ate our bait, where are the crab? The water is still cold, about 34 degrees, I'm sure that has something to do with it. Kings are being caught in Juneau, all the hatchery fish are coming back, it would be nice if we had a hatchery program here!

A quick trip to Juneau

2008-05-14T16:50:00.004-08:00

We decided since there was only 1 cruise ship in this week and the weather was lousy that we'd head over to Juneau for our big stock up before summer. OUCH! That cost us a bundle, I think we bought Costco out! We also met our friend Jerry who was coming up from Washington State with his boat. Him and his brother drove up to Prince Rupert and caught the ferry there to Juneau. Jerry will be a charter captain for Icy Strait Point this summer and staying at our house. We met them at the Ferry terminal on Tues., then took them shopping for supplies and we all caught the LeConte for Hoonah today. His brother will be here for only a week, so I guess they will just have to put on their rain gear and fish A LOT! I'm beat, it will sure feel good to sleep in my own bed tonight.
Zonie and Jerry arriving on the Taku

Jerry backing his boat and van onto the LeConte

I don't know what it is about friends that you've had from your childhood, but it seems when you are all together again, it's like time has not passed at all and you are all still kids. It's nice to have those moments of youth again.

A good day for a wedding

2008-05-11T12:02:00.003-08:00

We went to our first wedding in Hoonah yesterday. Arely and Sam go to our church, and our church here is very small, I think if 20 people showed up we would be bursting at the seems. Sam has a huge family, I think they said around 200 people were attending. Arely is from Honduras and so none of her family was able to attend. So the priest and deacon set up the alter at the Tlingit lodge down at Icy Strait point. It's a very beautiful building, made of yellow cedar. Then they had the reception at the restaurant that is there also.
The restaurant is located right at the mouth of Frederick Sound going into Icy Strait, it has windows all around so that no matter where you sit you have a fantastic view. There were still a few whales in the area, so that made it even nicer. They finished the evening off with fire works, which I thought was so cool. Frank and I had a great time and it was a good opportunity for us to meet more people in this community and to also see who is related to who. Sam has a great family, they were all so warm and welcoming to Arely. They just looked so happy.

The pursuit of halibut

2008-05-08T07:13:00.005-08:00

I have a new friend, he will go out on the boat with us now always. I don't know how we managed without him.

Mr. Heater, oh my, how much better can life get! The only problem I seemed to have had was once I was in the cabin and nice and toasty, I didn't want to go back outside to fish! We've been searching for some halibut, water is still very cold and they just are not in yet. We have a couple of guys flying over from Juneau tomorrow, they're hoping for halibut and maybe a king, but they might be a little disappointed. And of course now the weather is going to turn nasty, and they are calling for 5 foot seas.

Saw a group of kayakers camping on the beach. Now, there are plenty of nice islands very close in that they could have camped on, but why they chose the beach with the BEARS makes no sense to me. That is where the bears are right now, on the beaches. Seems crazy to me, guess they need some excitement in their lives. (They were packing up and leaving today when we went by so I guess they survived the night)
We were heading back in to Port Frederick Sound and could see a whale ahead in the distance, when all of a sudden one surfaced right in front of the boat, we had no idea it was there. Captain Frank managed to bring the boat to a screaching almost halt in time for it to gracefully move out of the way. As we sat there in neutral we noticed about 6 or more other whales spread out all around us. I got this picture before they got too far away.

Cure for the winter blues

2008-05-06T19:38:00.002-08:00

We spent a much needed day out on the water. It was a good tide this am for clamming, so that was the plan, but then we couldn't find the clam rakes, so just decided to do a little fishing. Oh, I forgot the salmon tags, so couldn't go salmon fishing, forgot the net too. Boy, it's hard getting back into the swing of things. Went to the back of Port Frederick, saw some whales, a mom and a calf, but they were very shy, you can barely see them in the picture. But look how flat the water was!
Got a good picture of these eagles before they flew off. Saw a nice big bear, but he was too far away for a picture. There were also lots of porpoise and sea lions around.
And Frank got to scratch his itch! We had rock fish sandwiches for dinner, were they good!
Having a few problems with our depth finder, we kept loosing contact with the bottom, hope to have that fixed tomorrow, then get the rest of our goodies on board (the port-a-pottie worked great!) and by the time we get clients on board we may actually look like we know what we are doing.

A quote for today

2008-05-05T19:18:00.002-08:00

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you are the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Tourist Season

2008-05-04T20:44:00.003-08:00

Yes, the first cruise ship of the season arrived at Icy Strait Point (ISP) today. It was so nasty out we were just hanging out at home not expecting to get any charters and not trying very hard either. The phone rings, can we take 2 people out whale watching, "hello?!" have you seen the price of gas lately?, make that 4 people and we're all over it. Phone rings 5 minutes later, ok, there could be 4 more people can you take 6? Crap, time to get dressed, looks like a long underwear day. Phone rings, what's your price again? Ok, we're about ready to go. Phone rings, never mind we're back down to 2 people. I'm thinking I really should get online and check the weather since it looks so crappy out from our house. Glad we didn't get a charter, there was a small craft warning out in Icy Strait today.

It was a good day to lay around the house and read and snack. Then we decided we should go take pictures of the tourists. Wow, they even got off the boat and many were walking into town, usually this rotten weather keeps them inside too. Maybe we'll start working on Thursday......

Winter is definitely over......

Saturday May 3rd

2008-05-04T09:10:00.003-08:00

Got the boat out on the water for the first time this spring, make sure everything works ok, a few things still need fixed, nothing major. Thought we would go out to the rockfish spot and catch dinner if nothing else. Water is still pretty cold, about 35 degrees, no fish showing on the fish finder, so that was a bust, weather was crappy, so we decided to save the gas for charters and drove out the road again to see how far we could go this week.
A lot of snow has come off since last week, but since they are not plowing the roads we didn't make it much farther then we did the last time. It was looking good until we topped a small hill and were immediately in snow!
I had to take a picture of this logging "style" that is done on Sea Alaska land. This was probably cut 5 or more years ago, it's looked like this since we started coming over here to hunt. The town is surrounded by Sea Alaska land and most of it is logged off, just like this. You have to drive through this depressing area for miles before you get to the National Forest, never fails to make me mad. Now Congress is thinking of giving them more land in the Tongass to log because they have ruined theirs. If the Forest Service tried to leave land like this, do you know how many different groups would be screaming?! Ok, I'm done for the moment. GRRRR.

Frank's winter project

2008-05-02T19:56:00.001-08:00

I thought I should put a picture of Frank's bow that he made this winter, all by hand, cut it out with a hatchet. This is at full draw, 54lbs. The other day he was stringing it, not with his bow stringer, when SNAP! Awww, dang! Seems most bow makers always break their first bow..............it was fun while it lasted, and at least he shot 1 arrow that he made from it!

He also put together this little knife, very cool. He made a sheath for it too that you can wear around your neck. I think it's the perfect size, for me................

And the "new" bow

Little Kyler

2008-05-02T12:37:00.002-08:00

JC sent me a couple pictures of Kyler today that are so cute I just had to post them. I sure wish we lived closer to them!