Home again

After a wonderful trip around some of the other islands of the Southeast we returned ready to start the summer delivery schedule.  We also returned without a boat - the motor is blown and it has a persistent leak.  I returned sick and it has taken me two full weeks to get over it.  That is an unfortunate side effect of meeting outsiders.

We don't dwell on the negative.  The tides are the lowest and the highest that they will be all year.  We have two Guest Workers from the site that will not be named that are working  well and a Brit on the way the 11th of July.  We are farther ahead on handling the selling sized oyster than ever before with this help. 

 

We have all ready began to clean and rework our baby oysters hanging on the lines.  They will be the cleanest yet.  The house, greenhouse, and beaches are looking great and we have plenty of fish and shrimp.  We are in Heaven.

The fish are biting and the sun is shining for hours and hours.  It is time to get outside!

Summer Visitors

Over the summer we have had three visitors staying with us here in Kahli Cove from a web based work exchange program.  They help with the day to day chores of sorting, cleaning, packing and delivering oysters to customers... in return for this we are sharing our local perspective on living on the waters of Wild Alaska.  As hosts we posted our info along with some pictures from around the farmstead..... and throw in a Linn's great cooking and a place to bunk down in our guest cabin. 

After screening several hits on our host page we excepted Lee's offer to join our team.  He is a Hoosier from Indiana and raised on a farm so we knew he was used to hard work and with his love of hunting and fishing was a great fit for us.

 

For the first few days after Lee arrived....Jerry took him around the area showing him to our way of life.....which included fishing, setting shrimp pots, setting skate lines and did I say fishing and then they went fishing. Lee didn't seem to mind fishing and he was always up early and in the boat at the first glimmer of daylight .....like Jerry always said ...You can't fish all day if you don't get started in the morning.......So the routine was .....even after the work part of the equation came into play was to go out fishing first thing in the morning and then come back to work for a while and then back to fishing.....after all you got to fish while the fish are in....don't ya know.

Now in the mean time we are still getting hits on the host site and then came Lucas.....

.....Lucas was from Switzerland...yup the little country with all the banks and the little pocket knives that have all kinds of gadgets on them.. oh and they make Koo Koo clocks and lots of cheese too....

 Lucas was great fun.  He took to fishing and was soon fighting Brick the Karelian Bear dog for the third seat in the boat each morning.  He was after as he called them, "the Sal i man". He also enjoyed cooking and was a great help around the house.  He took over running the shrimp pot lines and loved killing/cooking crab.

 Fellow European Alaster soon arrived and they had a bit of a rivalry going at first.  After all, if a Swiss could swim in Alaskan waters, so could an Englishman.  They grew to work and play well together.  After all, they were sharing a very small float!

 Alaster's parents are Scouters back in Kent so Larry had a lot in common with him and they spent long evenings talking and sharing pictures.  He took to fishing with a vengeance and more than once prepared a "proper English fish and chips".

 Alaster was game for everything.  On a dare, he sorted out the largest of our large, a real Lollygagger and shot it down raw...

                                                     all 10 inches of it.

                                          Now that's a lolly Gagger.

 Over the summer we all worked and we played.  Sometimes the work was fun

 and sometimes the play was work. Lucas and now soon Al returned home to start school terms.  Lee actually took  a paying job locally and moved on but in Alaska permanently.   Hopefully we all learned from each other and the experiences.

 Meanwhile, the web site just keeps on getting hits.  We tell people we only farm in the season, that fall is cold, windy, stormy, and wet.  That the winters are long, dark, and dreary.  And they just kept applying.
So, Jerry will have two weeks of 'lone time then he has two Maltese guys coming for a month and a lobster fisherman from Maine for the entire winter.
As for Larry & Linn, they learned from the Guest Workers for sure.  They set up their own listing for a mature, experienced couple available for light work for the winter and have taken a job house sitting on the big island of Hawaii - Aloha! 

On to Wrangell

Staying an extra week in Sitka was good business and good fun, thanks to Joe and Debbie.  It did change our plans to see the Mendenhall Glacier.  Instead we loaded onto the ferry and headed back south to Wrangell, another Alaskan gem of a city/island if you read their brochure.  It is touted as, "the friendliest city in Alaska".

Wrangell Mountains

I think they were right.  We got in at 4 a.m. and just pulled over and slept in the van for a while.  I would say until light, but we are in to that incredible summer sun season and it was daylight by then.

We know a friend of a friend that moved here and had called ahead to say that we were coming by.  He met us at the dock, took us to his home for a home cooked meal, then gave us a tour of the island.  He insisted that we stay with him both nights of our stay there and cooked all of our meals because he claimed the restaurants there weren't worth much.  Thanks Jack!

He lived within walking distance of Wrangell's big attraction, Petroglyph Beach.  We got up at 4 again the next morning to see the beach at low tide.  Petroglyphs are carvings in the rocks, not painted.  These were of unknown age (estimated 10,000 years), origin, or author (not in the Tlingit oral history), but according to Larry they are here.

I say according to Larry because I went right down to the beach and started climbing and looking while LR stayed up on the dock and read the information plaques.  I think I looked one minute for each of the 40 symbols they claim are there.  I didn't find any, zip, naut a.  Larry on the other hand, took pictures of the area and his hiking staff, read the info, watched some eagles breed, and then walked slowly down to the rocks.  He soon whistled me over.  By then, I had dang near walked, climbed, and slid half way around the island.  All 12 miles of it.  He had stepped off the walkway and spotted the first petroglyph.  He proceeded to turn around and spot three more.  I stood beside him and could barely make out the ones he pointed to.  It must be the light.  

Do you see any?

How about now?

Now?

Wrangell has a clean, picturesque downtown. Someone with a paintbrush clearly had too much time.  Every building hosted full on murals.  They were running food booths to select the 4th of July queen.  It must be a great celebration.

The museum there is one of the best we have seen in Alaska, especially the gift shop!  It really chronicled the history of the area. Wrangell was the first stopping off place for miners.  Wyatt Earp visited the place during the gold rush days and refused the job of sheriff stating that it was a little to wild for him.

It was just right for us!

Sitka Totem Park

We took advantage of the sunny weather when we first arrived in Sitka and hiked the totem trail.  The locals actually hike and bike everywhere.  This must be a healthy city.  They all have dogs too and were walking them the day we were there.

We have seen a lot of totem carving by now but these were special.  Part of it was the setting.  They are arranged along a shore trail in the woods.
The park is the site of the historic battle for Sitka between the Russians and the Tlingit.  It has a great educational center which covers native life and totem carving.
Looking at the top figure here, I think a Norwegian may have visited too! 

We have a friend who is a carver so we are learning to appreciate the forms, figures, and color arrangements.  Poles tell a story actually from bottom to top.  Low man or creature on the totem pole is really the most important.

This modern pole has a woman on the bottom!!  Woman are rarely carved so this one is special.

 This is a more traditional animal carving in traditional colors.

As an art form, I think they are an acquired taste!

Sitka's Fortress of the Bear

On our island, Prince of Wales, we see bear most days.  Our bear are the cute, cuddly Black Bear that weigh out around 300 lb.  They have claws, teeth, and have been known to eat meat but generally they are exciting to see.   On Baranof Island however they have the largest of all bear species, the Brown bear.

Browns have been recorded at 1500 lbs and standing 10 foot tall and they eat a lot of meat!

Two brothers near Sitka became fascinated by the bear and horrified that the DNR were shooting nuisance bear so they remodeled an old pulp mill water tanks and opened the Fortress to save orphaned cubs.

The bears have 3/4 of an acre while the viewers are crowded on a small platform.  The bear go about their typical days.

Looking mean when they scent people.

Fishing for lunch.

Hiking the trail.

Playing at the pool.

Having a siesta.

Brown Bear are a more aggressive species.  These two brothers are part of a set of triplets however and were just rough housing.

The Fortress was established to save bear not to train them.  This guy did have a trick...

for a treat.

They left us with these few words of wisdom:

Sitka's..... Alaska Raptor Center

As promised, more from the fascinating island/city of Sitka.  We visited the:

The center rescues, repairs, rehabilitates, and hopefully releases over 200 birds a year.  They have treated everything from a hummingbird on up.  Other states send birds here for help.  It was amazing.

We met one of the permanent resident eagles (and handlers) close up.   This female has a deformed beak and can't feed herself in the wild so no release.

 The oldest eagle, Volta, a male has been here since tangling with a power line back in 1982.

Peregrine Falcon

Red Tailed Hawk

A Golden Eagle with a broken wing. He has created more new residents than any other raptors here. He gets wild eagles or  ravens trying to steal his food.   Reportedly Goldens have 2000 lb/sq. in. pressure in their talons, enough to crush bones.

There were several resident owls as well.   Seems owls continue to take on autos even though they typically lose.