October at Cape Sebastian

The last barefoot walk on the beach of Indian summer

view from the cape

 The chicken maze. I planted oats on August 25 and let the chicken in to a dense field on Oct 22. They have been forging trails and jumping for oat seeds ever since.

More Kodiak scenes

Eilidh and Bella taking the chickens for a walk

monkeys at Abercrombie Park

catching up

channel sunrise

me, Jill, Ed, Eilidh and Bella Haakanson, Sara and Angus Bruce.

Chiniak Bay- a boat returns

a bowl of lingonberries

dessert at the Pirok-luk

24 Piroks (Fish pie) and the hearty tasters

Eilidh fishing at Salone creek

I recently returned to Ophir from Kodiak. A near perfect trip, visited and hiked with a cousin, Sharon Epstein in Portland. Spent time with the grandkids, friends, Ed, hiked and picked Lingonberries on Pillar and Old Women's Mountains. Hiked Abercrombie, Cliff Point and launched  Ed and my project boat.

Whoops!

Slipped on the slime crossing St. Paul Plaza and sprained my wrist. I should know better than to think that there will be traction on a wet board where those without resources to stay in the bars hang.
tomorrow I'm hoping to get weather to glass some cracks in the deck of the R&R. I guess we won't get it launched this month. It has been hard to get help from the electrician--lots of mystery wires.
I have leads on red salmon but only have one fillet in the freezer!

writing in beach junk

Eilidh spelled with beach junk

oystercatcher landing

Balika, the kids, and I took the "Green Weenie" out gillnetting on a glassy calm and sunny day. After we set the net, an onshore wind came up and we bounced around for a couple of hours and picked 2 dollies out of the net.  a guy in a 14 foot Lund was tending the net next to us.  The skiff flipped, throwing him into the water. Dr. Withrow in the Sea-Jay was closer to him than us and he called the Coast Guard while running over to pick the guy out of the water.  The next couple of hours we watched another skiff try to right the lund and pick the guy's net up. I looked at my daughter and grandaughters and thought about how fast things can go to shit on a boat and my heart raced and I realized how thankful I was that I got out of fishing before having a serious accident. We pulled the net and went home to eat dollies for dinner.

Ocean bounties and crab festival fun

Our first red salmon of 2011

Barometer mountain

Survival suit race

Epic potholes

The last three blocks to Balika and Sven's is unpaved and is a washboard when it rains.
The rain let up for a few hours yesterday and Jill and I walked up Pillar mountain.

We also went to Sara Purslane's baby shower and out to Peggy's to get plant starts.

Pictures of Pre-school graduation:

Balika had a birthday gathering for me on Thursday evening. What a surprise having Liz come for it! She had been in Fairbanks for Nina's college graduation.

rain, rain, rain

Its been a wet week in Kodiak. But I didn't come for the weather.

The ballet on Friday night was worth the trip--About 120 kids dancing-- ballet, jazz, and modern. and quite a few boys!

Eilidh the bluebird on the left

I got a one-month membership to the gym and go there every morning with Balika.

Bella-2nd from left--mouse

Today the rain let up in the morning and I hopscotched to the Old Powerhouse (sushi restaurant) through a maze of pot holes. There seemed to be more pools than road. After lunch we went to take Eilidh to the dentist and Bella and I went to a coffee shop and played fish and war. She beats me at fish and memory. I'm the victor at war.  After Eilidh's piano lesson we came home and I admitted that I wanted to grab my camera and take pictures of the pot holes but the city was grading the road and I was bummed that I missed my photo-op. However a boat was burning in the yard and all the fire,emergency trucks, ambulance, etc were there so, not wanting to take my shoes off, I asked Eilidh to grab my camera.

"I can only find half of it." she  said as she brought me a lens. By the time I got to "The Family Pride" it was smoldering, no one was hurt but the boat may be totaled. I told Vito and Bill that I was disappointed that the road was graded and ruined my epic photo. Bill said, "Yeah, I think that is why the fire department took so long to get here. The had to call the city to grade the road first."

It began drizzling again and I wandered down town and watched bedraggled young, starving eagles in the tree near the Baranof museum.

May 11

Love those dark red rhodies

Its been awhile...

The new tomato bed on the south side of the house

I've been planting and tending gardens, building a new raised bed out of cement blocks, setting up auto-waterers, and and upsetting broody hens by taking their eggs out from under them while the give me the evil eye and peck the hand that feeds them. I planted more bok-choy and romaine lettuce today and tied the foot-tall peas up. The raspberries are flowering like mad, carrots have their second leaves and lettuce and spinach needs eating and thinning.
Its nice to have days when I need not build a fire in the wood stove and I can dust off the bike and start touring.
I had a great visit with Bill Quaccia and Lisa Polito in Ashland on Easter weekend.

Bill in the recently re-enforced grape arbor

Bill and Lisa's house in Ashland

Their back-yard cedar tree

The stream coming out  of Lithia Park

 We took several hikes and a couple of bike-rides around and above Ashland. They have a great old house a few blocks from downtown, a few from the U of Southern Oregon and a five minute walk to the trails through gorgeous Madrone and Manzanita groves in the parks that and trails that wind around and up Mt. Ashland. What a great little city and so nice to be around Alaskan friends!

Central Point-Lillie belle handmade chocolates