Inside and out...the work continues

Here's an interior shot of the cabin.  We just had some furniture delivered last week.  It is starting to look homey in there.  We also had the "driveway" worked on.  Up until now we would leave the house in the morning with flashlights roll up our pants, put on rubber boots and head up the hill to the car.  The hill had turned into deep mud and could barely be traversed with a four wheel drive vehicle and was rough on the four wheeler.  This also goes for bringing groceries down and laundry up.  But we bit the big one and bought some crushed rock, like ten dumptrucks full and had the backhoe come down and make us a driveway. The backhoe moved our picnic table out of the way, onto the trampoline and I forgot to ask him to move it back when he left.  That thing weighs so much we may just have to picnic on the tramp from now on.  Now I can actually ride my bike, yeah right, maybe when it stops raining.

Happy Halloween

Soiyor and Jonathan were able to carve the pumpkin before they took off last week.  Jonathan to Sitka for an alternative energy conference and Soiyor to Juneau and Skagway for a volleyball tournament.  Their pumpkin had a knife sticking out its head and a butt.  

Back to Blogging

Why can't I upload pictures? It seems that my computer got upgraded when we went back to school and I can't upload pictures with my Safari browser.

Sitka-Back in school again

I am writing from Sitka now and using some new technology, i.e. a Mac.  I have been double timing PCs and Macs but I am now convinced that I like PCs better. They much easier to manage photos with.

 Anyway, I am trying to get another degree called Masters of Art in Teaching (MAT).  So I have to do 5 weeks in Sitka.  I was not happy about this.  Jonathan and Soiyor are in Edna Bay and probably seeing lots of bears and catching lots of salmon.  It is also time to make fireweed honey and kelp relish.  I may try to do this here in Sitka.  The sockeye salmon were running in Coffman Cove before I left.  Now I have to sit in the classroom for 8 hours a day and then do home work at night.  It's not all that bad, the first few days I saw a brown bear with two cubs during a nice trail walk and then we hiked up a mountain to a look out at 2550 ft..  The next day I went and bought a camera. Since than I haven't taken many photos because the work load has increased but here are a few from the Fourth of July parade here.

Summer in the Cove

We had a good whalewatching trip out on the old bass boat on Sunday. We had Killer whales, humpback whales, sea lions and seals. Even Dolly loves to go whale watching.

These are some of the flowers that were growing in the yard a few weeks ago.

Here's Soiyor and Ant Misty

The day Soiyor got here her Aunt Mistybrought her seven rabbits. The next night she got a new .22 rifle, its pink. I think there is only one rabbit left.



We've been busy going out on the boat. We've been camping and clam digging and crabbing and whale watching







This is a really bad picture of her carivorous Ant Misty.

It was time to move into the cabin.

I came home from work one night, and Jonathan had moved the hot tub down to the cabin. Now that this was done, it was official we had moved into the cabin. He also brought the matress so there was no turning back. The hot utb area is beautiful with a deck and some potted plants. I am not sure if I have posted our hot tub before but it is very cool. It has a snorkle or scuba stove in it. It is just a wood stove that sits under the water and you load it from the top. Tub its self is an old barrel, just enough for the two of us.














Big John and JLo from Colorado built us some beautiful benches for the kitchen counter. They are made from black pine and pine pole with some awesome worm hole details.

Alaskan Bruises

When Soiyor got here it didn't take her long to notice that Alaskans seem to be bruised or cut up alot. So we are starting a collection of cuts and bruises photos... Here Kyla shows off a slightly aged bruise that has lost some of its purple undertones yet clearly illustrates some pain was suffered.




This next one was a doozy, Becky was moving into her new place and moved her refrigerator across her calf.

In this one Jonathan raked his arm across a staple, this is by far not his only cut and scrape. As we were moving into the cabin I realized that we have seven boxes of Bandaids and most of them were empty. We are also on our second bottle of iodine this year.

Isn't this prescious, Soiyor's first Alaskan bruise.

Lots of training lately, and driving.

I was sent to Ketchikan last week for a Phytoplankton Monitoring workshop. They sent me home with a microscope and a small lab to monitor phytoplankton in the cove. This is part of a nationwide monitoring network, the Alaska portion should be on the National Ocean Service site soon. When I got back I went into a Commercial Fishing Emergency Instruction and Onboard Drill course. Then I got to teach some of the modules to the students at the pool in Craig. They seemed to enjoy it, hopefully they won't need it. Then the ferry started up again on Friday so I am back to work on that as well. I saw six or seven killer whales yesterday and I have the first two humpbacks so far this season. I also saw another bear on the road. The road is getting some pavement so there are flaggers and lots of stuff to look at too. There's Brian on the roller and Jean standing by with her stop sign in case Brian gets out of control. I got home from the ferry and had a call from the Coast Gaurd that had to do with my harbormastering job and another from the National Weather Service about a weather station on a rock out in the middle of the straights that went out of service over the winter. They want me to check on it. That one may be a bit over my head but the rest is doable. No days off for a while. Summer is here.

Shelves, shelves, and more shelves

Jonathan feels like he has been building shelves for weeks. The reality is he has. But they look great. We have spots for hats and gloves in the entryway and cool hooks to hang the never ending pile of jackets. There are also shelves for the bathroom stuff. I need to catch up and do the grout on the tile up there.

Another driveway casualty

Robert was down at the cabin the other day. We usually tell people to back down so they don't have to back up the driveway in the dark. Well Robert stayed into the night, he was routering in the sink. When we went to back out the driveway it turned out he didn't have any back up lights. How he got the truck in this position backing up I have no idea. Anyway, everyone carries come-alongs because going in the ditch is sport around here. Russ and Johnna came out in the morning to help him out. One of our rigs was in the driveway ditch for a month this winter. Rumor has it that someone is going to blast a rock pit up on the road near where our driveway begins, soooo we may have a driveway this summer!!!!

Spring sprung again, this time I have the critters to prove it.

I saw the first black bear of the season today. It was a little one but his coat was nice and healthy and very dark. He was eating grass on the side of the road, he was pretty relaxed and aware that I was there, he made his way through some grass and then went into the timber line. Jonathan called and said there was a weird white duck down at the ball field. It turned out to be four snow geese, 1 male 3 females, passing through on their migration. There were also a bunch of deer (sitka black tail) out too. They're all over the place.

I also found out I am accepted to the Master of Teaching program at U of Alaska and I also heard from my prof from URI. He wanted to know if I still plan on finishing my thesis, but I am pretty sure I missed the deadline on that one. If not I may be able to finish still. I have completed all of the course work, just have to turn in the darn paper.

Appliances

We picked up the appliances from Boyer Barge. A chick named Rainbow runs the forklift there she's cool. When appliances arrive that means things are pretty close to moving in. Hurrah!! Jon drove through camp with a refrigerator in the back of the truck and rounded up Ken, Bear, Kit, Dusty, and Ron to help lift the washer and dryer up on to the loft. Then that night we moved it at least four times and we're still no sure where it will go. I think they just look so new, modern and weird that it is going to take some getting used to. We still need plumbing and a bathroom sink. But first we need more firewood, so that is what we are doing today.





Anyway the tile seems to be curing allright.

Happy Earth Day--After School Trap Line

I went to one of the other schools on Friday which was early day and sunny! Notice the blue skies. Most of the kids went to Craig for an Earth Day Festival, I stayed at the school to work with a few kids on their science fair projects. At the end of the day, one of the kids went to check his trap line as soon as he got home and he got a beaver. He was really excited and showed it to us and the neighbors. He has a few pelts from the winter and is hoping to sell them to tourists in the summer. This reminds me that I need to go visit the new beaver dam I found earlier this spring that I posted about in March.

Spring Sprung then Recoiled

So I was noticing Sunday that spring is really underway, I planted some lettuce, peas and chard according to the moon phase planting chart. This is a new system for me, I need all the help I can get.
There are some berry bushes with their flowers bloomed already. My helebore "Ivory Prince" had a great winter and has so many blooms.

Even the blue plastic collection seems to have grown.





Then on Wednesday we had white out conditions in town. I had to drive the Ecovan over to the school in Thorne Bay that day for a invertebrate education presentation. Normally I like to drive fast, but when I got to the junction I was stuck behind two log trucks doing 25mph. I kept trying to get a good shot of these ones because the one right in front of me was loaded with pecker poles, smaller logs, but the one up in front was loaded with just one huge log, called a pumpkin, that filled the whole bed. Alas, my batteries died out before I could get the shot. The money shot would have been the three of us together: two log trucks followed up by the Ecovan. I love this place, but I think that moon phase guide was printed in California--too early for planting outside still.

Carpet, again.

The carpet got stretched into place, thanks Ron. It looks great, feels good and kitty likes it.

More on the eagle

So a while back I blogged on the eagle. We got a package this week from Jon's accomplises, John and John. Really, they are all named Jon. Anyway, this is a blurry picture of a blurry picture, but you can tell that this is the condition they found the eagle in. The best part is the engraved caption they added: