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.