Moose Like Inpatients But Not Geraniums

Our Life in Alaska

Sorry it has been so long to update all of you on what we are up to, but we have been busy! OK, so what is up with the title? We have some Alaskan tales to tell. Since we have moved in we have been busy with some major projects around the house; building a 12x32 deck with hot tub, doing some major moving of dirt in the back yard to make is level and building Jude a 8x14 workshop for her yarn business. More details on that will follow. What I do want to share is what our life is like up here.

During the building projects Jude and I have taken time off to enjoy ourselves and Alaska. None of the breaks have been planned, they just sort of happen. The first example was last month when Jude and I were on the way to Lowe's for more building "stuff". We were half way there when the cell phone rang. (Yes, we have cell phones in Alaska.) It was our friend Charlie over in Copper Center letting us know that the Reds (Red Salmon or Sockeye Salmon) were beginning to run. We pulled the truck off the side of the road, had a brief discussion, and went back home to pack up the trailer for a few days of fishing. After a 3 1/2 hour drive we were at the designated fishing hole and started to fish. The limit for Reds is 3 fish per person per day. After 3 days of fishing we had 18 fish in the freezer, 9 each. We left the camper there and came back to Wasilla for the weekend and the Iditarod Volunteer's Picnic. That evening Amanda and Julius (daughter and her husband) drove over to the camper and fished the remainder of Saturday and Sunday. We headed back over on Sunday and met them on the highway. There luck was not as good as ours, only two fish and a speeding ticket. But, one of those fish was the FIRST fish ever for Julius. When we got there the run was about over. We fished for one more day and only got one fish. Time to head for home and work on the deck.

Let me break for a moment and talk about the salmon here. There are five varieties here in Alaska: King or Chinook, which are the largest (the record is over 90 lbs); Sockeye or Red Salmon in the 3-8 lb range (our favorite); Silvers or Coho; Pink or Humpback or Humpies; and Chum Salmon or Dog Salmon. The Chum are called Dog salmon because they are used for dog food up here. We did notice a store in the lower 48 selling an Alaskan Salmon called Keta. After a little research we discovered that this is also another name for Dog Salmon. Ah yes, marketing! Salmon will run in schools up the different rivers here in Alaska. The Kings wander up all summer long. Then the Reds start and the Kings slow down, then the Reds slow down and the Kings take center stage again. In July the Reds make a second run and then in August the Reds slow and the Silvers start up until fall hunting season.

The deck was started Memorial Day Weekend and finished by the end of June. For the Fourth of July weekend we started Jude's workshop. Amanda and Julius have a friend, Ron Lilly, who is in the process of getting out of the Army and is still hanging around up here waiting to be discharged. This has been good news for us. He is a member of a combat engineer team, meaning he knows how to build things!! He was here all of Memorial Day weekend running equipment and on July 3, helping me get the rafters and roof put on Jude's Yarn Shop. If he is still here for Labor Day, I think I need to give him a rest!!

Anyway, life in Alaska and the title to the posting. About 2 weeks ago Amanda called us up and asked if we wanted to go dip-netting. Dip-netting is for Alaska residents only and has the proper name of Personal Use Salmon Fishing. The limits are larger, 25 fish for the head of household and 10 fish for each additional person living in the house. It involves getting a large landing type net, 4 feet across, a set of chest waders, and getting out in the ocean at the mouth of a river and wait for the fish (salmon) to swim in the net. Now this may not seem very sporting, but it is still challenging and a bunch "sportier" than the commercial guys with their gill nets. The challenge is not only getting a fish to swim into your net, but not to have the waves go over the top of your waders or down your sleeves. I was successful at keeping the inside of my waders dry, but not me sleeves. Great fun in 55 degrees and a light rain. There must have been 2-3000 people there. Looked sort of like a big tail gate party except with fish. On the first day, Julius, the non-fisherman got 4, Jude got 2, I got 1 and Amanda got a flounder. The next day we went out and got a total of 18 more fish. Yes, our freezer is getting full. Later that week I went down with a friend, he got 6 and I picked up one more. I stayed dry, he poured water out of his waders!!

Again, back to the title. When we got home from our dip-netting experience I went out on the deck to just look around. We have 4 flower pots on the deck, two with Geraniums and two with Impatiens. Perhaps to be more correct I should say two with Geraniums and two with a bunch of chewed up plants. It seems that the moose had come by and ate all of the flowers off of the Inpatients but did not eat the Geraniums. Looks like next year it will be all Geraniums. Maybe that explains why it was so hard to find any Impatiens for sale at the beginning of the year.

Yesterday we were getting ready to go somewhere when I looked out the window and saw momma moose with two calves right across the street. They munched over there for a while, crossed the street and munched on the underbrush in my neighbor's yard, came walking right towards us and went through our back yard and stopped just to the edge of our grass area and were munching on our underbrush. We must have watched them for 30-40 minutes. I will never get over the thrill of seeing the moose up here and the dolphins down on Grand Isle.

Yesterday a new stream was opened to dip-netting and it is 10 miles down the road from our house. It seems that this stream has not been opened since the mid 90s. Guess we will have to try it out today!

That's all for now, but with the major projects done I plan on updating soon with information about our house and our jobs with Princess Cruise Lines.

Rob