Frost On An Owl

Warm, beautiful, sunny days lead to chilly, frosty nights this time of year, so there was a fair amount of frost this morning when we got up to take the boys down to the boat. 

They planned to leave the harbor at 7:30 am to catch the tides just right, but there was some sort of carburetor problem with the little diesel heater in the salon that demanded immediate attention...

 
Boats have a way of suddenly having problems...there are so many components!  Electrical systems, propulsion systems, electronic systems, sanitation systems, hydraulic systems, safety equipment, all the typical household appliances, and much, much more.  A boat captain really needs to be a jack-of-all-trades to keep things running smoothly. 
Once things seemed under control they cast off the lines and were underway.  Destination - Kake, Alaska,
where they will pick up the hunters to begin hunting.

 

Levi and I then hit the garage sales, but we didn't find any treasures this time.  We had breakfast at the local coffee shop and then headed for home.
The boat will be out of town for 3 weeks and I have a lot to do before it comes back - when it does it will be my turn to get on board and do the cooking. Today I transplanted kale and beets.

 This was my first year starting beets indoors.  I heard of someone else doing it last year and they had beets really early so I thought I would try it. 

It was WONDERFUL to have the bed fenced in!  The ducks kept pecking at the seaweed peeking through the chicken wire, but they couldn't touch the transplants and I was able to work calmly and efficiently without their interference.  The row is now covered with floating row cover to protect if from frost and the cover is weighted down with seine net to keep it from blowing away.  Good work, but I will really need to step it up to get everything done in time.

The Happening Place To Be

Today was my last day coordinating testing.  I finished around lunch and then headed down to the boat to vacuum and clean the head (bathroom).  Our harbor, The Dick Eliason Harbor, is the happening place to be right now.  It is just buzzing like a bee hive.  The herring seine fleet is in town and there are boats EVERYWHERE!

The fishing vessel Tsiu was selling King Crab off their boat and it really draws a crowd. 

They let me hold a large one up for a photo.  For about $100 you could take this fellow home for dinner!

Look at this little guy trying to hold one up for a photo.  King Crab have very spiny shells and it can be quite painful to hold them.

The edge of the dock has been lined with the old and young alike trying to snag herring....

Our harbor is the most popular place in town right now. 

I finished around 4:00 this afternoon and headed home to see what could be accomplished in the garden.  I finished the fencing project...all except the ends.  For now plywood will just have to do, but the goal is to build swinging doors on hinges to allow the ducks in when they are empty.  I think I am going to be happy with this design.

Good and Tired

Today was another beautiful but long day.  After coordinating testing it was time to launch the boat...

ooohhh, I want that....

After the boat was securely tied in its stall in the harbor we headed to the grocery store.  Grocery shopping for the first trip of the year is always a painful process.  This year there are 3 trips booked back to back without coming back to Sitka so we needed a lot of stuff.  I usually end up filling about 5 carts for the first trip, but earlier this Spring Mr. Adams and I made a Costco run to Juneau with the pickup so we were already fairly well stocked.  This time we got by with only 3 carts!

And then it's home ... and there is no food in the house...sad but true.  I sat in my chair like a zombie and the boys scrounged up some leftover cookie dough.  Ron baked the cookies and they had warm cookies with ice cream and caramel sauce. 

Painting Weather

 After coordinating testing today I grabbed Levi and we took lunch out to the boys and stayed to help them paint the bottom of the boat. The weather was absolutely beautiful today, in fact I can't remember the last time we've had such nice weather during a haulout.  Usually it's raining and snowing and blowing sideways so it was a real blessing.

We got done early, so I had time this evening to work on my fencing project.  It is going slow because I am still designing it.  Hopefully I will get it figured out soon because it is almost time to transplant!  My little seedlings are starting to get tall and straggly.  This always happens to me because I have a tiny sunroom and I use shelves.  Each shelf shades the one underneath it and even though I flip the trays around once in a while they still get tall and eventually I give up.  It will be okay though because the seedlings can be planted up to their necks and they will grow straight once they are outside.

Testing

This week I am coordinating state testing for a local homeschool group. That keeps me busy until about noon so the boys hauled out the boat without me.  It was still windy but it needed to be done. 

They did not need me this afternoon so I worked in the garden.  Over the past couple of years I have been trying to build fencing for my rows that will keep the ducks out, keep the dirt in, accommodate u-pickers and withstand the rototiller. I don't like traditional bottomless boxes - they harbor slugs, disease and weeds.  Some fencing has too large of holes and the ducks reach through too far, chicken wire is wimpy, our soil is very rocky so it's hard to drive in fence posts, ducks jump up on top of floating row cover...the problems are endless.  I think I finally have a design that will work, so that is what I worked on today.
 Rebar posts, 2x4 rails and chicken wire fencing.  I had to quit for the night to make dinner, but it's almost done.

I hope it works.

A Blustery Day

It was very windy today.  We were scheduled to haul the boat out of the water this morning for yearly maintenance, but it was too windy.  We rescheduled for tomorrow in hopes that the weather will improve. 

I spent the morning catching up on paperwork at my desk, then headed to the boat to make up bunks and do some laundry.  Here is a shot of our laundry room / crew quarters....

Looks snug doesn't it?  After that I came home and looked into Lucy's sad eyes and felt guilty for neglecting her, so I took her for a bike ride.  She is old and pretty much blind now but she still acts like a puppy.

I didn't do much in the garden today besides walk around outside to pick up things that had blown over in the wind and walk through the sunroom to admire the starts.

It was very exciting to see sunflowers poking up through the potting soil!!

It's going to be a great year!

A Good Day's Work

Last night our good friend, Ron Ropp flew into town.  He is going to help Mr. Adams on the boat this Spring.  He can cook, drive the boat, work on the engine and just about anything else you might need done! He and his wife Lisa have been good friends of ours for about 40 years!

We had halibut cheeks for lunch after church today and then the boys headed down to the boat to work and I headed outside to see what I could get done in the garden.  I put up a fence....

...and straightened out an arbor that had gotten sadly askew over that past couple of years.  Every morning  that crooked arbor is the first thing I see when I look out my bedroom window, so I am really looking forward to seeing a level arbor tomorrow morning.

While I was in the groove I also transplanted some Tayberries into pots.  They were in a bad spot and I didn't know where to put them, so I potted them up until I can decide where they should go.  All in all it was a really good day.