7/18/2009 The Girls Go Shopping

Today was the "GIRLS DAY".  We left to go to Homer around 11:30 I guess.  Main thing on our list of things to get was corn on the cob from Safeway.  The corn we had from there yesterday was so good we're hoping to get corn from the same batch.

Dan was pulling "first mate" duties for his brother Fred today and Bob decided to stay home since it was an overcast, drizzly day anyway.

Our first stop was the outside Farmers Market going on in Homer.  It wasn't a huge market by any means, heck it wasn't even a large market.  In fact, by most outdoor Farmer's Markets this was, well, to put it bluntly, damn small.  Maybe 20 booths all totaled.  Several booths of hand crafted jewelry, fresh veggies were sold in a couple places, homemade jams and jellies filled another booth, hand knitted items filled yet another as did a leather goods stand.  One booth in particular caught my eye.  When you see the picture you'll understand why.

Lin and I both bought butter crunch lettuce at a very good price so I was happy with that.  Darlene bought a bag of kettle corn and I believe a souvenir for a loved one back home.

From there we drove out to the Spit and started going through the little shops looking for souvenir T-shirts for Darlene, Lin wanted to buy another blanket and I was most interested in taking pictures.

A wood carving of fisherman and halibut.

We noticed a crowd gathering down the boardwalk in front of a shop called the Time Bandit.

As I got closer I was excited to see why!  Time Bandit is the name of one of the crabbing boats on the TV show Deadliest Catch.  Its a Discovery Channel show about those that work the crabbing boats off the coast of Alaska in the dead of winter hauling up those huge crabs.  If you haven't ever tuned into this show I would highly recommend it.  Its just good entertainment and you really do have boats and crews that you root for.  It is a competition between the boats to see who brings in the most crabs but that is secondary to the comedy and drama that plays out every week as you watch these guys do this cold, dangerous job week after week.  It turned out that Captain Andy Hillstrand was there!  In the flesh!  He's my favorite Captain out of all of them.  I got to meet him and even had my picture taken with him.  I'm kicking myself now for not buying a T-shirt and have him sign it as he was doing that time and time again for others.

Our next stop was the Salty Dawg across the street.  We didn't stop in for a drink or something to eat, we were in need of the ladies room and I wanted to take pictures.

This is another one of those bars where thousands of dollar bills are tacked to the walls. 

The building has served many capacities over the years since it was built in 1897.  It has served as post office, a train station, a grocery store, a school house and office space for a few different companies.  For the last 52 years it has served as home to the Salty Dawg Saloon.  A world famous landmark on the Homer Spit.  It has been featured several times on The Deadliest Catch.  I think Bob and I will have to make it a point to have lunch here.  Or at least a beer and a soda.

The outside of the building.

The lighthouse attached to the building on the opposite side.  Actually this was built to cover up a water tower but the light in it does work so I don't know if this really a functional lighthouse or not.

Some random shot around the building.

A few inside shots.

There's a lot of money on these walls and more is added every day.

A sign that just stood out.

A look at the harbor.

Random shots from around town.

Of course there were some flowers I just had to take some pictures of.

So that was a peak at Homer.  Bob and I are moving there tomorrow.  We want to experience Homer up close and personal and there's no better way to do that than spending some time on the Spit.

So today I got a quick glimpse of what the Spit has to offer and I noticed dozens and dozens of photo opportunities when I have the time to stroll the main drag while Bob fishes the lagoon.

7/17/2009 About 60 To Go.

Well, I typed the part below at approximately 3:20 this morning. When I got on here at 9:30 it was at 71,056. I didn't get any comments or emails so whoever turned the counter didn't notice it. Maybe next time.

There's about 60 more hits and the counter is going to do the turning thing again, It was just a few days ago that my cousin, Beth in Virginia, turned it over 70,000 and here we're heading towards 71,000.

Many of you know this by heart, but with new readers every day I'm afraid I have to put it out here yet again.


If YOU are the one who has turned the counter to 71,000, please leave a comment letting us know who you are, how you found our blog and anything else you'd like to say.


Nothing special will happen, we're just curious.


Snookie

7/17/2009 FISH ON!

The call of the day was.....FISH ON!

Bob got to go fishing today and what a good day it was! He and Dan left around nine and headed to meet up with Dan's brother and a few other's who were going fishing.

Meanwhile, us girls did laundry, read, got some computer time in, took care of some tasks concerning dinner and just generally hung out waiting to hear the fishermen did.

It was mostly overcast today with some short glimpses of blue skies. A little on the chilly side so it didn't take me long to change from shorts to a pair of pants.

I guess it was around two to two thirty when we got the call to meet the guys at Fred's, Dan's brother. Since his other brother, Don was here dropping of things for dinner, he drove us over.

Here come the fisherman!

Off loading the fish.

Getting them hung up and washed off for picture taking.

Everyone caught their limit today. Here's Bob standing next to the fish stand with all that were brought in.

I watched Fred clean the fish and he was so darn fast! In no time at all he had 15 fifteen halibut filleted.

He couldn't have taken more than 2 minutes per fish. If that! He'll take care of getting it vacuumed packed and frozen and Dan & Lin will put Bob's share in their freezer and get it to Quail Run. (Although Bob and I are discussing purchasing a small chest freezer to put in the closet anyway. It just makes sense to have one since we can really stock up at the commissaries)

I came back to the 5th wheel when Dan & Lin had to return to meet up with someone. After all I can only take so many pictures of dead fish. Bob hung around a while longer and caught a ride with Dan when he returned after his meeting.

We had a good dinner tonight with Dan's brothers and a sister-in-law joining us. We had corn on the cob for the first time this summer and it was excellent! We're making a run tomorrow for some more! Now if we could just get our hands on homegrown tomatoes!

Even though it is only mid-July there are signs that fall is just around the corner here in Alaska. The leaves are turning already.

This evening we sat around the campfire and told jokes and solved all the world's problems.

Here's our fire-tender for tonight.

If it got any better than this it would be against the law!

7/16/2009 We Don't Ever Want to Eat Again!

Bob and Dan got up and out to go fishing but before we knew they were back. Turns out the seas were so rough that it was thought better to stay on dry land today. What a disappointment that was for Bob.

It was a pretty lazy day all around. It seems the five of us just laid around, watched TV, got some computer time checking emails and the such.

Bob wasn't feeling 100% late this afternoon so he opted to stay home instead of going to the local senior center for the dinner they put on for the community every Thursday evening.

So the four of us took off in Dan's truck and in no time at all pulled into the parking lot of the Anchor Point Senior Center.

For dinner we had a salad bar, a large homemade biscuit covered with turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, macaroni salad, Jello w/fruit and for dessert a choice of homemade blueberry pie or sweet potato pie. All this for the sum of $10.00. Was it ever good! If the truth be told, all four of us made complete pigs of ourselves. You never heard so many groans of "I'm stuffed" and "Oh, I ate too much" and "Oh why did I have that pie and the ever popular "I ate so much I'm uncomfortable". Darn those senior center cooks for being so good at their job! Its their fault we kept shoveling in,,,yeah, its their fault!

Every one was given a ticket for a chance to win one of four door prizes and I'm sorry to say that no one in our group walked away with a prize. Not a one of us even came close to the 50-50 drawing winning number either.

For their fundraiser this year they are raffling off a 2 + ounce of gold.

This nugget was taken out of a local mine about 30 years ago and the mine owner has donated it for the fundraiser. It has a value of about $6,000.00. I was surprised at how heavy it was. I was also surprised at the shape of it. I guess I never gave gold much thought because when I think of gold I picture that shiny gold bar in my mind's eye, never in the raw state like here.

Dinner done, we waddled out to the truck and Dan decided to take us for a ride in search of eagles. We headed towards the coastline and on one of the roads we came across these very old buildings.

Can you imagine how many stories these walls could tell? Can you imagine how many "you shoulda seen the one that got away" stories these wall have heard???

I wonder who built these? I wonder who lived here and died here?

We looked inside and found the ladder that takes one to the loft.

It was while Dan and I were looking inside this building that Lin and Darlene went nuts in the truck trying to get our attention. It seems that while we were paying attention to what was in front of us we should have been paying attention to what was going on above us. It seems a bald eagle had swooped low right over us and we missed it. The girls couldn't believe we didn't hear the "whoosh" of its wings. They said it was just mere feet above us. The perfect eagle picture and I'm looking at old wooden ladder. Sheesh! We did see it sitting on a tree top just over the roof line.

We went down on the beach again. Remember I told you yesterday that Bob and I wouldn't attempt a particularly steep hill going to the beach? Well, here it is. Can you just picture what your cabinets would like after going up or down on this?

This is a homemade vehicle for taking boats and trailers to the water and out again.

That eagle had taken flight again.

It seemed that eagles were coming out of the woodwork. Everywhere we looked we saw them. Sitting in trees, flying high above the bluff, flying just over the water.... (Look at right side of pic, just above gulls at the water edge)

Even the seagulls want to soar with the eagles.

At one point, we were back up off the beach and Dan saw an eagle sitting in the tree next to the road. Dan was not going to rest until I could get a good shot at one. He was determined! So him and I get out of the truck and Dan tries to throw a couple of rocks to scare the eagle into flight. I think Dan miscalculated the height of said tree. I'm sure the eagle just smirked at him and looked away. Dan then tried blowing the horn hoping to scare the eagle. Uh-uh, didn't faze the bird a bit. Then Dan got the idea that maybe he should simulate what he wants the eagle to do in hopes the eagle would follow suit. Now picture this. A grown man, running down a dirt road flapping his arms pretending they are wings. Personally, I'm glad the eagle didn't take flight because I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera still anyway. I think that Lin and Darlene were laughing so hard and so loud that the eagle was probably afraid to leave its safe perch.

Finally, when Dan all but threw his arms up in a gesture of defeat, darn if that bird didn't take off! Do I need to tell you that us girls laughed all the harder? I'm sorry, but I had to go through a lot to get these pictures, you have no idea how hard it was to watch Dan go through all he did to make that eagle fly, so you are just have to endure picture after picture of a flying eagle. And wouldn't you know once this eagle took off it just kept circling us. I think it was in spite towards Dan if you ask me.

Then darn if the clouds didn't seem to magically disappear and the blue sky came through once again as this eagle did its acrobatic maneuvers for us.

You know, when I watch this symbol of our country soar through the sky, and that's what an eagle does, it doesn't merely fly, it SOARS, I have a such a feeling of pride and security and loyalty all rolled into one. A feeling that as long as the eagle flies, no matter what diversity our country faces, we're going to be ok, we'll come through it. So FLY, EAGLE, FLY!

One more pass past the beach and we saw the sun shimmering on the water this way.

On the way out we passed this fellow camping by himself and we couldn't help but notice that this EAGLE he had. Dan grabbed the camera and Darlene got out of the truck to play.

Darlene, Bird Handler.

Eagle stands on Darlene's head.

.....and we laughed.

7/15/2009 Another Day in Paradise

What an absolutely perfect day. Its was a shorts and "T" day today. The sun was warm on our skin, the sky the bluest of blues and we were with friends in a place we now call paradise. Yep, a good day, a very good day.

Bob started the day with chopping wood for the ever constant campfire we seem to have going. I didn't see where the logs came from but it seems we have several trees worth of wood now.

We had an early fire and sat around talking about this and that and life in general.

Dan wanted to make sure he got the very last chip crumb out of the bag.

Bob and Dan are going fishing tomorrow on Dan's brother's boat so we had to make a run into Homer again today to go to the bank and to get a fishing license for Bob.

There were no clouds today so the view was different when we rode into town.

Here is a view from down on the Spit.

I went into the tackle/bait store with Bob and was amazed to see that these are the hooks used to catch the halibut. I had no idea that they would be so big.

This fish caught my eye...its made out of washers.

On the Homer Spit is the Seafarer's Memorial to fisherman.

Take note of the bricks in front of the memorial. The townspeople, relatives and friends, of those lost at sea "bought" a brick to help support the Memorial. The fisherman's name and date lost are engraved on each brick. Although I didn't see any there are probably bricks that have been bought by businesses and residents on the Spit who bought one just to be in support of the memorial.

The bronze fisherman statue honors mariners lost at sea.

A bronze bell nearby is rung in memory of fishermen and others who played and toiled on the ocean.

Engraved on this pedestal is a poem entitled "The Sea" by Ryan Bundy

There was a flower garden nearby and this flower was just screaming at me, "TAKE MY PICTURE, TAKE MY PICTURE. What could I do? I took the picture.

License bought, banking done, pictures taken, it was time to head back to Anchor Point. We spent some time around the fire again, shootin' the breeze and our tummies started rumbling. We were determined to eat earlier today than we did yesterday.

Around nine Dan, Lin, Bob and I took a short ride to the waterfront to take some some pictures of Mt. Redoubt. Unfortunately, the sun was still too high in the sky and the lighting wasn't conducive to picture taking. However I did get one of the coastline.

We then took a ride down on the beach in the truck. There were some 5th wheels set up on the beach and Bob and I just couldn't imagine taking ours down there. The road down, and then back up, was extremely steep. Way more than we would be comfortable maneuvering. I could only imagine what shape the cabinets and fridge must be in after traveling this incredibly steep grade. Dan did say that on more than one occasion a wrecker had to be brought in to get a 5th wheel back up. Uh-uh, not us, not taking that chance.

From the beach we made another stop at a creek side walkway to see if we could see any salmon trying to make its way to the spawning grounds. We only saw two stragglers because its between runs right now.

On the way to the truck this caught my eye.

When we got back to the house a little after ten we all agreed to call it a night after the late hours we kept the night before. After all, God willing, we still have tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.....

7/14/2009 Is This HEAVEN?

Moving day again today. Our time in Kasilof has come to an end and its time to move on. We're going about 40 miles or so down the road to stay with Quail Run friends Dan & Lin at their place in Anchor Point. Darlene, also from Quail Run is there visiting.

On the way we passed Mt. Redoubt but it wasn't very visible this tme because of clouds.

This active volcano rises from the water like a sentinel guarding the great and varied resources of Lake Clark National Park. Having been inhabited since prehistoric times, the area remains sparsely populated and aircraft provides the means of access. Does this mean the few people who live here fly to work everyday?

We found Dan and Lin's place with no problem. They have full hook ups on their property, hereafter known as the Hackney's Homestead, or if I get tired of typing that......HH.

They bought this place last year, 3.5 acres with an A-frame house on the property, a shed, and a dome. Yes, a dome. A very large dome.

The dome even has an apartment in it, though I haven't seen it yet.

Their plans for this property include remodeling the A-frame into a guest house, building a house for them, removing the dome and landscaping.

As I said, there is an A-frame house and of course their motorhome which they are staying in while doing work to the property. Darlene is staying in the house.

This is the view off the porch in the back yard,

There is a river that runs through the property and it has SALMON in it!

Dan had already had a afternoon fishing trip planned so we sat around a day time fire catching up with our friends lives since we saw them last in the spring.

By later afternoon is was determined that Bob and I had to go into the town of Homer, 20 miles away, for a beer/Pepsi run so we took off for that and a short auto tour of Homer.

We came around a curve and goose bumps started on my arms so bad that they hurt. Bob and I could not believe what we were seeing. Is this heaven, we wondered out loud.

You've all heard the term "God's country". Unless, you've been to Homer, Alaska, trust me, you haven't seen it yet.

Look just above the tree line in the left third of the picture below, that is the Homer Spit.

Homer is known as the Halibut capital of the world and have a sign proclaiming that distinction.

The white strip in the picture below running from left to right is a bank of clouds.

A "Going Down the Road" picture.

Surely, this must be heaven.

With every hundred feet further down the road we drive, it just gets better and better.

Here we are driving out onto the Spit.

Take note of the RV's parked on the right hand side. Its "dry" camping, but if we fill our tanks with water, make sure we have gas for the generator and we're careful, we can spend several days out here enjoying this. They charge $15.00 a night and I truly believe it will be fifteen bucks well spent!

Have you ever........

The whole time we're driving the road Bob and I are just in total awe! This scenery is truly magnificent! Breathtaking! Incredible! You know, there just aren't words for this.

We pulled over into another campground to check it out and we it at just the right time because it was fish cleaning time.

Actually, the seagulls gave it away.

These guys had a great day fishing!

A good sized halibut.

Its not hard to feel like you are in the remake of the Hitchcock movie "The Birds" when it is fish cleaning time.

This lagoon in the forefront is supposed to provide some excellent fishing when the tide is in. Bob hopes to find out!

We finally tore ourselves away from the Spit and all it has to offer for further exploring at another time. We were on a beer/Pepsi run after all.

We went to the local Safeway, stocked up on our liquid refreshments, bought the fixin's for a salad for dinner and picked up a few other odds and ends.

When we returned to Hackney's Homestead, we got a fire going again and sat around talking. Dan had gone on a pre-planned golf outing and we waited for his return to eat dinner.

We were having salmon, (I was having a steak) potatoes, broccoli/cheese mix and a salad. Apple pie for desert. We figured we would eat around eight. That was the PLAN.

I wondered around the property taking some pictures. Nobody knows what these are, but sure are pretty! Anyone have a clue?

The shed.

Not quite sure what this started out to be, but Lin made into her garden.

Some random shots....

Dan returned, we sat around the fire and talked some more and decided it really was time to eat, after all it was now 9:30! Since it was still broad daylight, it seemed perfectly fine to be grilling steaks and seafood at this time of day...er...night. At just before ten we finally sat to eat. It was midnight before the fire burned out and we all returned to our places to sleep. Of course we were still wide awake and were up until 2, Bob watching a movie, me doing the Facebook thing and reading. We can't keep these hours like this!

So to answer our question of earlier today, "is this heaven?" we have our answer. If it isn't, its the next best thing.

7/14/2009 Moving Day for Us

We moved today, to Anchor Point, just 20 miles north of Homer. We're staying on the property of friends of ours from Quail Run, Dan & Lin. Also here is another friend, Darlene, also from QR. So its been like old home week all day. Its after midnite as I type this and we just came inside from sitting around the fire.

I'll write all about today in the morning. I'm just too tired right now.

Before I get it posted the counter will likely turn. If its YOU, leave your name in a comment so we know who turned it, tell us how you found the blog and anything else you want to say.

Until tomorrow....