Kodiak No. 3 in Fish Landing Value, No. 5 in Tonnage

Dog Bay, where the big boats dock. Dog as in dog salmon, which the Alutiiq word is Alimaq. Dog Salmon Bay Road was renamed Alimaq Drive.

Please don't take anything I say as fact! I'm blond. I get things wrong all the time!

Which reminds me - How many blond registrar's does it take to screw in a light bulb? Zero. Blond registrars cannot screw in a light bulb, but they can document the process.

Jason worked on the Walter N. for seven years. The Walter N. was built c. 1949 as a steel fishing boat in Kodiak. It sank in the tidal wave in 1964 and remained sunk for three years, when Fred Brechan fished it out of the water. They supposedly fired the original engine. The boat has been sponsoned and lengthened numerous times, but is still small for a Bering Sea boat.

A/B for Abz.

Jason knows everything about everything in regards to fishing - who is captain of what boat, what boat is doing what, who did what when and how much fish were caught and what the hell is an arrowtooth fish - just ridiculous amount of information in that noggin.

Is this a good time to mention how draggers are not very eco-friendly. A lot has to do rationalization and the mass spoilage of bycatch, but even methodologically speaking, bottom trawling is not the most delicate way to retrieve fish. Bottom trawling involves towing fishing gear over the seabed, destroying most everything in its path.


It's pretty much an all kill process. They are fishing for cod, but catch a few thousand pounds or so of halibut, which are dead, and those go overboard, wasted. WTF? I am not saying I am anti-trawler, I don't know enough about it. I talk to a dragger, and they complain about longliners. Talk to a longliner, and they complain about draggers. I wish though I could get thirty pounds of the halibut being thrown away! (legally).



Jason came to Kodiak on the Provider, a scallop boat, from the East Coast. He brought the boat through the Panama Canal, if memory serves me! He's only told me like 500 stories.

Above is actually the crab boat Provider, not the scallop boat.

The fleet comin' in!

What's my Name?!

So far her name could be:

Tonya, me

Pink, after the rock star because she looks like a rock star, Anne

Valine, from Hannah

Anya, from April

Chrysanthemum, from Dani

Kandy, after Nora's dolls, Patrick

Svetlana, because she seems to have a Russian flare, Mayra

Xanadu, after the film, Jill

something in Alutiiq I cannot spell, Sven

Woman Warrior in Alutiiq (would need to get translation), mom

What's my name?

I acquired this doll from Alutiiq artist Coral Chernoff. She has a traditional-style carved wooden head (Karluk One like), a fuschia fabric body with a leather corset and thong, Kodiak rabbit hair that was caught, processed and tanned by Coral, a spruce root bracelet, and a necklace. Abby likes my dolly but wants to know her name.

My vote: Tonya from my fav Eminem song Same Song and Dance.

What's your vote for her name?

Abby will decide.

Darke County Fair - one person's entry into one exhibition class.

Abby with her large airplane.

Ack, made in China. Well, this one slipped by me in the heat of the moment.

Having a great holiday weekend. Took Abby to the fair on Saturday. Good weather! The exhibits were a little on the sad side, nothing like the Darke County Fair. Abby had fun though playing games, getting her face painted, petting animals, dancing (running around in circles) to music, good food, and a little rodeo.

I did not get to go hunting this weekend as my bff was sick, but I am now more prepared for next weekend. If me going hunting is something you have not heard of, well, I will be posting about it. In brief, what do I want to eat - cows that are standing knee deep in manure, corn fed and have issues because of it, injected with antibiotics but still diseased, and processed with ammonia, or a happy Kodiak deer? My way of eating is dramatically changing, slowly but surely. I want to be a responsible comsumer, and who wants to eat chickens that can't even stand because of our genetic engineering? What was once food is now a really gross product that a couple large companies control. No thank you.

Last Day of Summer

wedged. stuck. together. my bff.

get away from the landslide area please

Our spot. Ugak Is. in background.

surfers at surfing beach

Kodiak girl

Sea lion in harbor.

Abby loves going on boats (and getting candy). We went on a sailboat the other week, and she said"I don't like this boat. There's no fishermen on it!" Oh my Kodiak girl! Did I already tell this story? Probably.

SO rainy for two weeks! On Friday, I had some Kodiak Island Brewing Co. Devil's Club (or was that Saturday?), and we went and parked and listened to Pasty Cline. I definitely had my friend Clair on my mind. We would listen to Patsy together on vinyl! Now I listen to her with my new bff. I a lucky girl.

The Light of My Eyes

Community Archaeology - the final days

I was lucky enough to get to go out another half day to Community Archaeology. I am a grunt, so I will offer no profound revelations. If you want those, see:

http://saltonstall.blogspot.com/2011/08/amak-stratigraphy.html

http://odellcross.blogspot.com/2011/08/final-conclusions-backfilling-and.html

I will say that I dug through a tsunami inundation, it was a mix of rocky mess, to uncover a layer of charcoal and pebbles - it was going to get good, I could feel it. Alas, the dig was nearing the end, and rather than rush through what seemed to be complicated features, Patrick decided to tarp it and come back next year. So next year's dig will once again be at the Amak site.

My Girl

We went to the harbor and got to go on a sailboat, but she didn't like it cause there were no fishermen on the boat!!! Oh, I have a Kodiak girl! She then had a bit of a meltdown and accidentally ran into a sign near the harbor and got a bloody nose. :(

We were both a lil' tired and cranky, so I took her out to dinner at the Powerhouse restaurant. We lucked out and got to sit outside, and the night ended up being really enjoyable. She likes edamame! After dinner, we had fun reading books and snuggling.

This is Abby's drawing on the window of preschool. I recognized her art immediately.

Abby showing her trick at the playground. A summer day.

I survived the Burma Road

Bells Flats.

The Burma Road was an old WWII road that goes back behind Old Woman's mountain then down to the valley between Old Woman's and Barometer mountain.... Little did we know that it is about a ten mile hike! Again, I think it is mainly used as a bike or ATV trail.

No bear encounters, but enough trash and berry infused bear scat to constantly remind me to make noise, which works, cause we could judge by the little dots of super fresh bear turds that a bear was walking away from us at one point.

GREEN

A WWII pipe made of wood!

oh it just went on and on....

WWII crap.

Welded shut.

I was so happy to see this sign! We hiked for five hours!!!

Pulling a Treadwell

We walked down Saltery Road for a few hours. It was actually HOT! I wanted to strip, but people ride down with their ATVs, so I suffered through the heat. Although it is a technically a road, we still had a pleasant walk and explored areas slightly off the road.

The fireweed is in full bloom, and it is pretty much the last local flower of the season to bloom. When it reaches the top, "summer" is over. It's getting really close.

Again, we decided to take some trails just off the road. Pretty, but.....

As we were walking down one path, we started to quickly realize we were on a bear path, one used by them recently and often to get to the river. We got outta there fast! Probably not the smartest decision of the day. I think we "pulled a Treadwell!"

As we were nearing the the end of our walk, about 50 yards in front of us a very full-sized mature male bear walks out from the bushes to the road. I do have what I call "bear sense". I detected the bear before I saw him. (Hopefully I can keep this sense as I continue to explore the island.) He was a comfortable distance away, so I just waived my arms and yelled "hey bear." He studied us, thought about it, and then continued to walk across the road. (I did not get a picture.) Less than a minute later, we hear fisherman start to yell "bear bear!!!" That big boy surprised them! You could feel the panic. They shot off a cracker shot and obviously the bear ran away.

The big question for us at that point, since we needed to go down the road, was which way did he run off? We just briskly moved out of there laughing the whole way. If we would have got that on video, it would have gone viral. It was pretty good scene! We see very large bear, bear sneaks up on fishermen, fishermen panic, cracker shot fired....not sure I can capture it in words! It was just safe enough to be fun.