Summer Harvest Starts

We have heard for years about the phenomenal vegetables grown here in Alaska due to the many hours of daylight in the summer. The season is short, but we get 20 hours of growing light during the season. So far that has been true of the Rhubarb. I don’t know how many stalks we have cut off of our one plant but it keeps coming.

The apples are looking good – well on their way to edible.

We have the biggest clover I have ever seen in my life. The stalks are about the size of a green onion stem. I filled two trash bags with clover today.

We have chives daily from the garden.

I picked the first quart of raspberries today. I picked two of them the other night as a test which Robert promptly ate calling them good. (Wonder if they make a raspberry picker??)

Apparently though, tomatoes prefer SUNSHINE over just plain daylight. We have spent a fortune between purchasing plants, watering, fertilizing and they are just LOADED with little green tomatoes. They have been for weeks and continue to put them on.

Finally - today – we picked our first two little guys. Here are our $80 tomatoes. Aren't they gorgeous?


Of course to put the size in perspective.


They were very tasty!

Fishing with Whales - Guess Who Wins

Talk about losing a fish ....

Beware - this has pretty raw language on it. Children should turn off the volume.

http://community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/109080

North - To the Slope!

Each summer, our company provides a fantastic opportunity for employees or guests of employees to tour the North Slope Oil Field and view/touch/swim in the Arctic Ocean. Because of the large number of employees and contractors doing work for us on the slope, we share Boeing 737's with another company making several flights a day. Yesterday, one of these flights was dedicated to a slope tour and Robert and I were lucky enough to get a spot on it.

Our pilots took us between Denali and Foraker mountains for some incredible viewing.



Here is a Reindeer near some of the pipelines. Unfortunately, we couldn't get off of the bus for pictures (we aren't supposed to bother wildlife on the slope) and my pictures of the four Reindeer with big racks under the pipelines didn't turn out. The big white bubble in the background is the US Defense Early Warning System.

Here's the Arctic Ocean. We had two people join the Polar Bear Club yesterday. Neither one of them were Robert or myself. Although, we did get our hands wet. Robert - step back just a couple more steps for a great picture... :) I actually have this same view from January - but you can't tell as it was dark when I took it!

It's July. Where's my long underewear?

As foretold by several "natives", once summer arrives you tend to go - go - go. Get as much done as possible. We have found that to be the case and have been VERY busy from touring, to going to summer parties, remodeling and just working around the house. Daylight (all 20 hours of it) is wasting and we need to do stuff!!!

One thing that continues to amaze me is clothing requirements. It is summer. I used to live in Houston. I have lots of summer clothes. When does it get warm enough to wear them here??? Actually, I am ok with 50-60 degrees for the temperature - we just need some more sun to really get the summer duds out.

Dress in layers is the mantra for dressing in Alaska. On several recent outings (gold panning, fishing, bay cruising) I have worn at minimum, 3 layers. Who knew long underwear would be an integral part of my summer attire. When hiking or biking on cloudy, cool days, I am normally in two layers. I just have to make sure that bottom layer is acceptable for street clothing should I need to shed something.

I remember thinking when purchasing all of my winter clothing that I would only use them half of the year. Boy was I wrong. I am pretty sure the only winter items I purchased that I haven't worn this summer have been my ski bibs and ski gloves (I have been tempted), snow boots and heavy, heavy winter coat. (I still wear my light winter coat daily.)

At least I can look back and say those shopping trips and $$ weren't wasted. :)

Welcome to our world Ella!

A good friend of ours had her baby Thursday night. A beautiful little girl named Ella.

Congratulations you guys!

May you'll have a couple more. :)

Our first black bear sighting

Wednesday evening, we were giving a tour to a family we know from work in search of moose. We had stopped by Ship Creek to watch salmon fishing and saw a couple of really big fish but didn't stay long as this wasn't the primary goal. Off to Glen Alps and Powerline Pass - the Old Faithful for moose sightings.

Driving into the parking lot where we were going to hike, our 5-year old guest spotted the "watch out for bears" sign and it took us a little time to convince him that he wouldn't be eaten by a bear while were walking around. But once we got him sidetracked, we were off and did see some beautiful bull moose. (They are gathering for the yearly rut. Stay tuned for more on this topic.)

We hiked around Glen Alps until about 9:30 and then headed back to town. About 1/4 mile from the parking lot, we see a moose cow right by the side of the road. GREAT picture opportunity (of course my camera was in the backpack in the back of the car and I couldn't get to it).

Moving forward about 1/2 mile, there are three cars stopped blocking the road. Of course, one of the best ways to spot wildlife when driving on Alaska roads is to see where all of the other cars have stopped. This time was no different. We pull up (blocking more of the road), look in the same direction everyone else is looking and...

Yes - it finally happened....after a year of living here for Robert and 10 months for me....

We saw a black bear by the side of the road eating/playing in a bunch of flowers. He looked like a big cuddly toy and I believe the bees were buzzing his head as he kept shaking it and kind of rolling it back and forth. We aren't sure how big he was as he never stood up but I think he was fairly young. Our friends got some great video - our camera was still in the back of the car.

As we were sitting there watching the little one play, I was thinking of the irony of how much we had to work to convince our smaller guest that we wouldn't see a bear where we went hiking. I hope he didn't think of the irony. I am just glad we were in the car for this sighting!

Fish Pictures

Some of the fish our boat caught. My fish :)

First Fish and Biggest Fish goes to Janet!

Yes! Due to my extraordinary fishing skills both first and biggest halibut went to me on our Halibut charter yesterday. (OK - OK - it was luck but it's fun to think differently. :) ) I caught a 44 inch long halibut. Don't think that isn't heavy coming off the bottom. According to the Halibut weight table, it should have been about 40 lbs and about 30 lbs of dressed fillets.

We have some very good friends that invited us to go with them on a halibut trip. They did a bang up job of planning and scheduling and Robert and I really appreciate the time and effort they put into the pre-planning. We had a blast.

We had a few rain drops but all in all, it the weather turned out perfectly and the seas were pretty darn calm compared to other times we have been in the Bay of Alaska. We were on a 50ft boat (the Nauti Lady) and left the Homer dock about 7:00am. Forty miles later we started fishing.

One the way out we saw a couple of schools (?) of whales and lots of sea otters including one with a pup on her belly. In fact, at the first fishing hole, we had whales blowing just off of the boat. (Whales seem to come out more when you haven't paid to specifically look for them.) It was a tough decision - fish or watch whales - but I maintained focus and fished.

The initial spot was about 110 feet deep. Then we moved to 300ft deep and then to a 275 ft deep spot. This is important information to know as halibut are bottom feeders. It takes a long time to real up 300 feet of line. My arms are tired. The line is actually braided and looks like a miniature rope. I don't know what it tests at but it was bigger line than I have ever used when large mouth bass fishing. Our bait was octopus and herring (I think). Our charter company was Bob's Trophy Charters and they did a fantastic job. I would go with them again in a heartbeat. Incredibly enough, one of our deckhands grew up only 28 miles from where I did albeit a few years later. Wasn't long before we were talking about similar experiences and old stomping ground!

There were 12 of us fishing on the boat with 8 in our group. Each person has a 2 halibut limit and all of us limited out by the end of the day. They cleaned and filleted the fish right on the boat and we carried our meat to the car in trash bags. I don't know how much meat it is (we haven't weighed it yet) but I am pretty sure it is between 40 and 50 pounds. By the way, the seagulls know what's going on with the fish carcuses. They followed the boat and every time one went off the back end, they landed and dined. We even had an eagle following the seagulls. The food chain in action.

Last night after we got home, Robert and I cleaned it, cut it up and stuck it in the freezer. Today we will invest in a vacuum sealer and get it finished.

While you have to take my word at both first fish and biggest fish, we do have a picture of the fish. It is still on the camera though so you will have to check back later!

Wildlife Everywhere!

You never know what you will see in town!

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/9102499p-9017859c.html

They have been trying to trap her with dog food but she apears to be a picky eater and wouldn't fall for it.

Sadly, they shot her today as she went into a local neighborhood and scared the residents...

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/story/9107797p-9024089c.html

More Vacation Pictures!

Baby Elk Papa Reindeer

Eddie the huge Elk. He likes to be scratched between the antler and ears.
Musk Ox
Squirt posing in one of our flower beds helping to use film up.
White water rafting at Lion's head.

Reindeer farm action! Bruce the tame moose that wouldn't come close to let us scratch him.
Feeding humpback whale.
Eagles at Seward watching Robert at the bottom of the pole. (Robert is knocking on the pole.)
More reindeer farm action!

Special thanks to my niece and nephew for allowing me to share some of their pictures also!

Happy July 4th

Have a wonderful holiday!

Pictures of last weeks vacation coming soon!