The Sinking of Joanne's Song

Well things were all set up to take a boat trip tomorrow, and everyone but Oliver and I would be returning to the mainland. One tiny event kinda put the kebosh on that plan... the boat sank. Like- filled with water, everything floating away, bailing like mad people in surf up to our necks- sank. So we just got back from doing that and no one is talking much. Pretty glum team today. It's hard to say how it happened, but the last time it did (yes it sank once before) there was something about the rope to the anchor not being long enough... I don't really know. The bummer was, besides the fact that the boat SANK, it was full from our boat trip yesterday, full of lumber and other building supplies that we were going to unpack on the high tide tonight. So once we all ran out to the beach, all this wood was washing away and we had to run in after it. I don't know if any of you guys have tried to pick up sheets of plywood in the surf, but it is a bad idea. I think I got knocked over once for every two boards I rescued. And being in the ocean up to your chest... I now know why they call hip boots "suicide boots".

Anyhow, so that's what's happening here today. Everyone is safe, no one was on the boat when it sank or anything, and we just have to wait for the high tide to see if we can salvage the motors etc.

`Danielle

Doomed Halibut Trip

We went on one last halibut trip, and Oliver's sister and her friend came along. The day was beautiful and the crew was staff only, so it looked like an awesome day for fishing. Sadly, we got completely skunked! We caught dogfish all day and no halibut. So the freezer is dismally empty and we will go a little halibut hungry this winter. Drat.

Iliamna looked pretty though

My favorite spot off the motors, and our little companion, one of the shearwater gulls that follow the boats

The fishing must be bad when the captain falls asleep

How many sleeping fishers can you see in this photo? I count five!

`Danielle

Cutting Wood

As the guests leave, we spend more and more time going into the woods on woodcutting trips. This specific trip lasted all day and we had a great time just getting away for awhile and cutting loose.

Part of the crew on the first run of the day. So serious!

A baker and a bear guide discuss the finer parts of tree management.

Oli practices safe tool use

I prepare for the pulling of the tree. This one was a leaner, so we all lined up to pull it towards us

Riding the full traliers back

See, I was there too.

Some bears stop by to see what all the fuss is about. Oliver is excited to see bears!

`Danielle

Things to eat in the woods

When we go to the woods to cut firewood, there is a lot of downtime while they choose trees to cut and then fell them. Thus, Jenny and I spend a lot of time taking pictures and eating berries! I thought it would be fun to show you all the yummy things we have lying about in Alaska.

Raspberries in the garden

Blueberries in the woods. Note, they look like blueberries and are large like blueberries, but taste exactly like the red hucklberries we used to eat in Washington!

Jenny picking lowbush cranberries in the woods

Low bush cranberries. Very yummy, but also very soft and very small!

random pictures

http://thinkinpictures.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/weugenesmithwalk_.jpg

Welcome to the Shack in the Back!

So it really seems overdue for me to post some pictures of the lovely Shack in the Back, or as Joanne and David call it, the Moose Lodge (because of the stack of moose antlers piled behind it). Following that line of thought, we might as well call it the Motor Inn as well! The outside might look a little "Arkansas" as Oliver likes to put it, but inside it's just perfect. It was just an old shed when he started work on it, and since then it has grown windows and electricity and insulated walls! The squirrels are doing their best to reclaim the attic, and I am at war with myself over what to do about that. They are pulling down all the insulation and dropping pinecones in my bed at night and chewing in the walls by my bed and giving me nightmares, and yet... I really don't want to shoot them. Hmmm. More on that dilema later.

For now, here are some badly lit photos of our little cabin!

The path to our little place

Our porch! Note the old washer/wringer to the left, as well as the moose antlers and motors and my lovely bay window! There are many more decorative antlers and motors to the right, but they have been cropped out for your pleasure. However, I included the chunk of insulation to the right of the photo.

Upon entering, this is what you would see. The next photos move to the left, in a circle. Directly ahead is our dresser and mirror, and to the left is our "closet" complete with turquoise feather boa. Everything in the cabin has been salvaged or "borrowed" from elsewhere in camp.

Raised bed (with a real mattress!) Note my boots to the left, handy for nightime bathroom jaunts to the trees out back :).

Yes, it is true, we even have a couch! And a second window. And a table and chairs. We are very classy out here in the bush. Also some shelves and Oliver's guitar.

Curtesy of the remodel of some guest cabins, we even have a little kitchen area. The stove doesn't have propane, but looks nice, and the sink doesn't have water, but the little igloo jug works great for teeth brushing. We even have a little native art on the wall. Note: the floor is the color I love everything in!

So that's that. Hope that gives a little better idea of where I'm staying. It's really nice because we are a ways away from the main lodge and all it's noisey guests. However, it is getting very cold at night now and freezing our water etc. We will have to move to the lodge soon since we have no heat out here. But I think we will tough it out as long as we can!

`Danielle

Fun With Fisheye

Today we borrowed a visiting photographer’s fish eye lens and took some fun pictures. We took pictures of everyone on staff and then manipulated them even more to make them really strange for an end of the year slide show tonight. Here is a sampling!

Puffins and Stoats

Last week I was able to take a boat ride with Oliver and Jenny and a batch of guests to Duck Island, to see the last of the puffins before they leave for the winter. We saw a whole bunch rafting in the ocean, and more were nesting on the island itself. I’m still trying to figure out how to “track” the flying birds with my camera to take a clear image, while at the same time just watch and enjoy them in real time! I think I’m better at watching than photographing so far. But I wanted to give you guys an idea of how many birds there were, clear or not.

Besides the puffins and the bears, Oliver and I had a close encounter with another animal. On the way back to our cabin one afternoon, we looked up to see a little stoat perched in the doorway of the neighboring shed. We froze, thinking he would be scared away, but to our surprise, he was very curious and stuck around. Eventually we even grabbed our cameras and came back, and he ran right up to our boots and looked up at us! He was pretty young still, and it was quite cute to see him running around on feet that he hadn’t quite grew into yet. So fearless, and very very fast! I think of everything so far, the little stoat has been my favorite.

One thing I didn’t capture on film was the orca sighting we had a day ago on a halibut trip. The fishing was bad, but the weather was great, and when we saw those huge fins come cresting out of the water only 75 yards or so from the boat, it made the whole trip a success. We estimated that the biggest male’s dorsal fin was over six feet high! He came the closest, with a female by his side, and in the distance we saw another five whales surfacing. It was just the neatest thing you could imagine, and so unexpected. In 25 years of living here, Oliver had never seen an orca before. So cool!

`Danielle

Dad and Danielle in Alaska

Sept 10

I left Montana on August 20th, with my father, and flew to Alaska. We spent a few days roaming around Anchorage, and one day driving a rental car all the way down to Homer and back! We went to a wildlife center and saw bears and moose and caribou, we watched beluga whales surface in the ocean, and we drank white Russians at the Salty Dog Saloon in Homer. We drove through Soldotna and got a little better idea of where I might be living in the fall. When we finally got back to Anchorage that night, it was very late (actually, very early the next day) and we couldn’t remember where dad’s friend, who we were staying with, lived. Needless to say, we got to know Anchorage very well that night, and the rest of our experience driving in that town was made simpler because of it!

On the 22nd we got all our stuff together and went to the little airport to get on a Great Northern plane and fly to the lodge. We waited all day, but there was dense fog and it trapped the pilots in several places around the area, and no one was able to make it to Silver Salmon. It was so disappointing; after waiting for two and a half months to see Oliver, I had to wait some more! But we spent the night with dad’s buddy Ben again, and in the morning hopped on a plane as scheduled.

It was so good to see the lodge again! And so much fun to show my dad around. There were a lot of guests that first day, and things were pretty hectic getting us settled in and trying to keep the people organized who needed to fly out. But over the next week we were able to help out and experience a lot of things that make this place so special. We caught silver salmon in the creek, and dolly vardens in the lake, and halibut in the ocean. Dad even caught a big chum salmon up Johnson River that we released. We saw quite a few bears and at one point, when both dad and I had a fish on in the creek, a pair of bear cubs ran off with my new coat! Oliver had to chase them off, and they were so bold they just kept coming at us.

I think all in all we both had an awesome time, and my dad was able to get a better idea of what I have gotten myself into. But before he left, you can bet my dad had a few things to say to Oliver, and they all ended with, “And you better keep my daughter safe”. First aid kits and flare guns and bear spray… oh my.

So now that the last of my family is back in Montana, I am really “alone” out here. This is the first time in my life that I have been farther than an hour and a half’s drive away from mom and dad and Tyrell. And with the internet down most of the time and my phone not working, staying connected isn’t easy either. The idea behind this blog was to keep everyone in touch, but as I am typing this, I have only made one actual post! But I’m trying to get them ready in Word, so that the moment the internet kicks in, I can post for you all. Hopefully I’ll have more luck soon!

`Danielle

About a girl, a knife, and a plane.

For those of you who need catching up, lets start with the incident with my hand. The first week I spent in Alaska, I was joined by my father, and much fun was had. More on that later. But in the first few days we were here, one of the things we did was take an hour boat ride to Shelter Creek and set up the lodge’s tent camp. It was just Oliver and my dad and I, and we got the big tent set up, caught a fish, and were getting a quick meal together. It was around 10 pm or so, and Oliver gave me a filet knife to cut potatoes. He told me to be careful, it was sharp… and I remember thinking, “hmm, this actually isn’t very sharp” and also, “this is probably a bad idea” as I used it like a paring knife to cut the potatoes directly into the pot (who needs a cutting board, we were camping!)

You can probably guess what happened next. I pushed too hard and went right through the potato and into my hand, in what looked like a botched attempt to remove my thumb from its fellow fingers. I quickly closed my fingers together and said something to the effect of “oops” and “I think it’s bad”. Oliver said, “well let me see it, it can’t be too bad because it isn’t bleeding much”. So I took a deep breath and opened it up to show him and my dad, and Oliver took a good look and a deep breath and passed out. My dad looked from him on the ground, to me holding my wound, and took charge. The first aid kit was, of course, missing, so good ol Peter our Leader whipped out a clean (thanks pop) handkerchief to wrap me up with. Not after first rubbing the cut with an ice cube first, of course. Then to make sure I didn’t accidently open the thing up again, we wrapped it with some medicinal grade electrician’s tape. Awesome!

That being about all that could be done for the time being, Oliver finished chopping the potatoes, we built a fire and went to bed. The next morning we were lucky enough that a plane just happened to land on our beach to drop off some fishermen for the day, and it was headed to Soldotna. My dad and I jumped on board and headed off to the hospital. The ladies there were very impressed with my dad’s first aid, but not impressed that the wound was more than 12 hours old. Apparently they usually won’t stitch you up after that long, but I cut myself in such a vulnerable place, they said it would take forever to heal if they didn’t.

Four hours of waiting and five stitches later (if we had got in before 12 hours, I could have had 10 or 15!) we were done. Luck being on our side we got a ride from a friend of Oliver’s and grabbed some food and some beer to take to the lodge, then got on the plane a flew back!
So, with strict instructions to keep my hand dry and away from infection causing fish, we went halibut fishing the next day. Hurray! And a few days after that, I caught the second biggest fish of the season (the biggest being the 76 pounder I caught in June, ha!) one handed. Oliver had to braid my hair for me, and the first week was frustrating because I couldn’t grab anything, but now all is well and healing nicely.

Moral of the story, “don’t hurt yourself in the middle of nowhere”. Or, “don’t use a filet knife to cut potatoes”. Or… something like that. :)

To whom it may concern:

So here it is, the blog you have all been waiting for! Finally, you can get updates about my facinating life and view pictures and videos all in one handy location. I know, pretty amazing. But really, with internet sketchy here at best, and phone calls a rarity, this seems like a good solution. This blog is just for my family and the friends I'm trying to hold on to, created as a way to keep in a little better touch. Hurray! Cut the red ribbon, lets get this rodeo started.