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.

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.

Marsh, grassy flats, and a beaver dam

Last week I took the cat and Dolly out for a walk. The tide was in so I thought we could go see if there were any birds out at the grassy flats. I always call them the marsh but noone knows them by that name here. Apparently the propper name for them is a fens. Anyway it was a nice walk. I found a duck decoy and a beaver dam under construction. The kitty even walked next to Dolly and I the whole way.
This is a beaver dam under construction. With fresh cuts and green boughs. The beaver is blocking off a small creek draining through the marsh but it will soon be much wider...The water is running around the dam and eroding the bank down stream. I will have to go back and see if beaver goes all the way across.This is the logging area not far from the dam. This new dam is about a hundred feet in front of an older dam. That is about four times wider than this new dam. This was the logging area for the older dam. The woods have turned to a swamp behind this dam. It is all flooded and the trees that are still standing are dead. Kitty pushed through for a while but it got a little quaggy. Dolly and I looked for the beaver but we never saw it. Secretly I wanted to have a beaver down by the cabin so we would have a nice pool. Well that secret is out.

I Brake for Salmon

I heard rumors today that Chuck had caught the first King salmon of the season. So as I was driving home from work, Chuck was stopped in the road talking to Danny (we call this the information highway). As usual I just pulled around them while they were talking. But this time Chuck flagged me down. He pulled a nice filet out of the back of his truck. Sure I brake for salmon, so with a fresh piece of fish in hand I headed home to make sushi. Amy and Bob gave us a sushi set for christmas that I dug out of the boxes that are already packed to move out to the cabin. We're having sushi, sashimi and miso tonight. YayYa.
And I got to use the last of the winter keeper carrots I planted last year. Last summer we did a sashimi taste taste with four of the five salmon species we have here: King, Silver(Coho), Sockeye(Red), and Dog(Chum), no humpies(pink). Normally kings and silvers get all the attention. Even sockeye because their meat is pretty. I have turned up my nose in the past to dog salmon. But in the taste test that is the one I liked the best. It must have been in the middle of the season to get them all fresh. I think we caught a couple and we begged some of the others at the dock. But you know what, fresh king sushi in March will do.