July 14, 2008

Monday

FEEDING THE CAMP

The low last night was forty nine.  It was just a tad warmer when Onie woke at twenty minutes to eight.  Clouds hung low over the camp and looked as if they could open any minute and deliver the next deluge.

Tea water was set to heating while the tea ball was emptied, washed and filled then attention was turned to the coffee pot.  By the time it was ready the tea water was hot and the tea ball was dropped in.  When the tea was ready Onie brought me a cup. 

Colby called to let us know he is coming in Thursday instead of Friday as he had told us earlier.

Oatmeal and bacon were placed on the table next to the crossword and we settled in to enjoy all three.

On the grate Kurt was catching a fish.

We headed off to the showers.  Back at the coach we made the bed before Onie cleaned the kitchen preparatory to beginning her day’s labor, cooking to feed the camp.

Outside the writer began making the rounds of the camp, beginning with the grate, which was packed, inviting folks to dinner at six, at our place.  This also included a walk up the hill to the cabins to invite Mike as well as a walk through the lodge to find and invite LaVon.  A running head count was kept so Onie would know how to prepare.  It turned out there would be twenty eight people, including us.

Sidney decided to mow and I asked him to start at our place so we could get the picnic table out on the grass and arrange chairs and lay a fire in the fire pit.  He was amenable to that so I helped him mow and move furniture at our place as well as a couple of others. 

Kurt was spearheading a honey wagon crew, himself, Ted, Dennis, Norman and Jay, that was going from rig to rig draining tanks.  The writer helped with this chore, too.

The Honey Wagon

When our tanks were empty, we were last; our fresh water tank was filled.

Then it was time to help Onie in her mission of feeding the camp.  Paper plates and paper desert dishes were put outside along with plastic dinner ware and paper napkins.   Chairs were arranged and stuff was moved to allow folks easy access to where the food would be. 

Everyone needs a break now and then so the writer took one and headed off to the grate.  The good news is he didn’t have to clean any fish.  The bad news is he lost a very good red.

A grease spot of unknown origin had developed under the front of the coach.  A flattened cardboard box had been placed under the coach to see if there was a leak or if the spot was from a one time occurrence.  Over time it appeared that there was a leak.  It was decided that the hour had come when someone should do something about said leak.  That someone turned out to be me.  After opening the outside access door and then removing the ten sheet metal screws that hold the cover on the generator one could see a messy oily residue on the front side of the diesel engine that provides power for the generator.  A quick check of the two oil filters and the air filter proved they were all tight and not the culprit.  A shop towel was used to wipe off as much excess grease and dirt as possible and then the engine was started.  Almost at once a slow but steady drip began from the fuel supply line, a rubber hose attached to the engine with a hose clamp.  A one quarter inch socket was set on the set screw and a full turn taken before the screw began tightening.  The leak stopped.  After a few minutes of watching the process was reversed, the tools put away and the job was pronounced, “DONE”.

The fish grate was beckoning again and the call was answered but with no better results than before.

The weather people had predicted today would be one of the nicest thus far this summer.  They were right.  The sun began to shine about five o’clock and the temperature rose to a nice comfort level.

It was five thirty and time to get some snacks on the table.  I helped the cook then started the fire in the fire ring.  As smoke snaked skyward campers noticed it and began converging on our site.  Some brought snacks while others brought salad.  Neighbors put chairs close together and visited until the writer coaxed them to the table.

Barbara, Sidney and Phyllis

Becky, Ted in background, and Birdie

Caroline and Ted

Dennis and Sonny

Duaine and Bonnie

Jim with grandson

Kaye

LaVon and Kurt

Mike

When snacks were done Onie brought out the main course, at six sharp, chicken fettuccini along with garlic bread.  The crowd lined up and the writer served their plates.   When they thought they were full the s’more makings were brought out.  Many people, young and old, fathered round the fire to make their own.  The sun, now over the hill, was still shining but it was turning cool and folks stayed close to the fire until they began to drift away, home.

Priscilla was back on the grate at nine thirty catching fish.  Seeing the action Duaine, Kurt and I got our poles and headed to the grate.  Kurt hooked a good size king that jumped a few times before throwing the hook.  The writer followed up with a foul hooked red.  Duaine had a good time.

Ten thirty and I was back at the coach where chairs were folded and put under the awning.  The sky was beginning to cloud up and it looked like rain was imminent.

Inside Onie and I watched TV until twelve.

July 15, 2008

Tuesday

EDUCATED FOOLS

We were up at nine to fifty two degree air with cloudy skies hovering overhead and from them mist was drifting down.  It was another summer day in Sterling.

The tea was started and when it was steeping the coffee pot was turned on and the aroma began wafting into Onie.  The writer played a couple of games while the coffee brewed.

Onie followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen and began cleaning up from the night before.  The writer made a few notes before he started reading the paper.

The temperature has reached seventy degrees in Anchorage only twice this year.  Today’s paper says this is a typical Alaskan summer and the summers of two thousand five and two thousand six were anomalies and the warm weather caused people to forget what summer in Alaska is really like.  In addition the mild summers lured folks from the lower forty eight to the forty ninth state where they are now experiencing summer in the far north as it really is and they are not liking it.

Now comes an educated fool, a college student, from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and says that Alaskans are in danger of dying from global warming and the global warming is being caused by Alaskans driving SUVs and pickups.  The writer expects to read, in the near future, where the educated fool and others like him are put on an ice floe and pushed out into the Bering Sea.  This is another way of saying the average Alaskan thinks the idea of global warning is another joke made up by the inventor of the internet that would be Al Gore.

We had oranges and sausage for breakfast along with our steaming beverages.  Today’s crossword was another fill in the blank.  Only the Sunday crossword is really challenging.

Onie cleaned while I was paying bills and taking care of agency business.

We went to fish at five.  There were lots of fishermen on the grate.

Priscilla and Becky showing off Kurt's ponytail cap.

Ted and Priscilla

Kaye with granddaughter Caroline (Haley's new friend) picnicing at river's edge.

Onie left and met Becky.  They went to our coach and worked on Becky’s computer.

Yours truly missed six before landing an eight and a half pound red.

He took a break and went to the coach for ice cream and Jelly Bellies before returning to the grate.

Onie went with him.  While he was busy missing two she was busy landing and stringing two, in thirty minutes.

We had supper at nine at our place with Kurt and Becky.  She brought salad and we contributed yesterday’s fettuccini.

Onie went to the grate again and fished for twenty minutes before calling it quits.  The live weight of our fish was twenty three pounds.  The writer set about filleting them.

The writer was in the coach at eleven forty five where he settled down to make notes.  Onie worked on Becky’s computer.  When the notes were finished I played a few games before we went to bed.

July 16, 2008

Wednesday

SKIP TO MY LOU

It was noon, in Coldspring, when we rose.  Local time was nine.  Outside it was cloudy and threatening rain.  The dampness made the fifty five seem even colder.

We went with the cold theme and had cold cereal and sausage while we worked our crossword.

Then we went off to shower.

Clean and refreshed the writer headed off to fish.  Several were lost in the process of landing and stringing two.

At one o’clock the writer headed back to the coach to make notes.

Onie was working on an Excel file for Becky.  When she was finished she wrote some letters and chatted with Tracy, on line.

After a snack the writer headed back to the grate where a light rain s falling.

Onie headed off to town to shop and get a haircut.

When Onie returned we dined on salad and Bing cherries, for supper, then we both headed off to fish.

We strung five fish, cold in a cold rain.

Back in the coach we played Skip-Bo with Barbara and Sidney.  Kurt and Becky came by and watched as the game unfolded.  When the game was over a second game was played with Kurt and Becky sitting in.  They were quick studies and the game was very close.  It is fair to say that they are new fans of Skippy.  Happy with learning a new game Kurt and Becky made their way home.

Sidney, Barbara, Onie and Me headed back to the grate in a heavy rain. It was cold.

Onie strung one more fish before we went back to the Marlin at eleven thirty.

Onie watched TV while I played games and made notes.

The rain was falling through fifty two degree air at one thirty when the writer went to bed.

July 17, 2008

Thursday

SOAKED

The rain that had begun last night lasted on through most of the night with the rhythmic patter on the roof there, each time the writer woke to roll over.  Sometime around eight this morning it quit. The ground, which rarely gets soaked and even more rarely holds puddles was puddled and soaked today.  The rains had come with the fish.

A check of the Alaska Department Fish and Game website fish count for the Kenai River showed an additional sixty eight thousand fish came through the weir counter yesterday.  That is in addition to the twenty five thousand that came in yesterday.  The run seems to be underway and on its traditional time slot.  The sixty eight thousand mark wasn’t reached last year.

The rain kept the temperature up last night with the low being only fifty one but with the rain it felt a lot colder.

When the writer rose at eight he turned the heater up to sixty eight and started the tea water while he fixed the coffee pot.  With the tea water hot the tea ball was dropped in and the coffee pot turned on.  Onie was listening to the rumblings in the kitchen and rose when she heard the coffee pot start to perk.

The writer sat down to resume his pecking.  It was eleven A.M.

Outside it was threatening rain, it is in the forecast, and the thermometer had climbed to fifty three.

Brunch, eggs benedict, was on the table at noon.  Plain strawberries, not strawberries and cream, finished off our meal.

Outside, on the grate, the fishing was going on and the catching was in full swing.  Poles bent and fish were netted.   Those who had been blanked in past days were having success today.

We set off for the grate, just across the drive, at one, in the rain.  A few minutes at the grate being pelted by the rain told us that we needed rain gear.  The writer went back to the coach to get some.  He had left the grate where his second and seventh casts had resulted in hookups, however brief they had been.  The fish were definitely in the river.

Back on the grate he helped Onie get on her rain jacket and then they both resumed fishing.  Hookups came fast and furious and with them came lost hooks, lost weights, failed swivels and loss of the entire terminal tackle.  The rain came down.  Vision on the river was restricted and safety glasses became rain spattered.  Hats no longer turned rain but trickled it down the back of one’s neck.  Rain hoods were pulled up and hats placed over them.  The fish kept coming as did the rain which was now dripping off the rain jackets, we should have donned pants and boots, too, and running down pant legs and into shoes.  Big fish and little fish were caught.  Some of the big fish were released.  All of the little fish were released.   The rain kept falling and now, under garments were soaked.  The fifty five degree air was starting to send a little chill through both fishers but we stayed the course.  Shoes gushed water each time we went for the net to land a fish and cold water ran down our legs.  It was starting to get a little uncomfortable.  Ten hooks were tied on and lost before the last large male was landed, bonked and strung. 

The fun was over.  It was time to clean fish.  Onie took the fishing poles to the coach and returned with a five gallon bucket, for the filets.  In the meantime the fisher turned fileter began the task of separating fish flesh from fish hide and bones.  Onie came back and stood in the rain, keeping me company, as I worked through numbers one to six.  When the last one was done we headed for the house, wading through standing water.

Under the awning we took off rain gear, wet shoes and socks and then stepped into the coach where the rest of the wet clothes were removed.  Hats, dripping water were hung in the shower along with jeans that were doing the same.  A wet hoody hung from a hanger hooked to a cabinet door.

Hot tea and coffee warmed us as we sat in our robes in front of the heater.  Later the fish cleaner climbed into bed to warm up where Onie joined him.  He thought an Alaskan glacier had moved in next to him.

Even later both of us headed off to steaming hot showers.

Back in the coach by seven we waited for Colby’s arrival.  He was due here at a quarter after seven.  At eight o’clock we were still waiting for him.  The flight from Anchorage to Kenai was delayed for an hour due to bad weather and he arrived here at eight twenty.

Mike Richardson had picked him up at the airport and brought him to the house.

Onie had a big sockeye filet ready for the oven.  The oven was already preheated so the

Salmon went in as soon as hugs were exchanged.

Onie hanging on every word!

The salad had been made earlier.

We sat down to eat.  The fresh salmon was a hit with everyone and an entire filet was just about gone before the appetites were satisfied.

A quick walk to the fish grate stoked Colby’s interest in getting a license first thing in the morning.  Until then he would have to dream about catching his first sockeye.

At ten Onie and I retired to the bedroom leaving Colby to listen to his Ipod, or whatever that thing is he carries.

We watched an old movie, Coming Home, with Clark Gable and Lana Turner before going to sleep at twelve.  The movie had been in black and white as our dreams would be.

July 18, 2008

Friday

CAN YOU SAY FIRST SOCKEYE OF THE TRIP?

We were up half an hour before Colby who rose at ten thirty.

It had rained all morning while the temperature had stayed at fifty two.

Onie made the coffee and tea and followed then with biscuits, eggs and sausage. 

When breakfast was over Colby and I went outside to rig his rod. 

We were off to the grate at one.  The rain continued to fall.  Colby is an experienced fisherman but in all his experience he had never used the techniques I showed him, to catch fish.  After a few minutes he was ready to try it for himself.  An hour later he had bragging rights to having landed not only his first sockeye of the trip but his first limit, three.  Yours truly had managed to land three, also.

We loaded our fish in a cooler and headed off to Custom Seafood.  Colby’s fish will be shipped to his house after he and his mom are back home.  My fish is the start of fish that will be shipped to Gary, our son in Alabama, and our brother, Carl, in Louisiana,

With the fish checked in we drove to Coldstone Creamery where Colby enjoyed a chocolate shake and the writer had some rocky road.  While we were eating our ice cream a few young girls came into the shop.  We had been served by young girls, too.  Now he said that after seeing Alaskan girls he was very favorably impressed and was thinking Alaska may be a good place to live.

Full of chocolate we headed back to the coach where it was still raining and it was still just fifty four.

Becky and Onie had been working on their computers for four hours.

Colby will soon be twenty but as of today he is still nineteen which makes him a teenager and as such subject to being hungry most of his waking hours, that included now. We warmed up the salmon that had been left over last night.  Colby dispatched it with relish.

Onie headed down to the grate to try her hand and get her limit.  Colby and I went along to offer moral support and net for her.  She hadn’t been there long when she began hooking fish.  While she was fishing son David arrived, at seven thirty, picked up Colby, and they headed for their cabin on the hill.  They had an early morning appointment with a king salmon guide.  Onie continued fishing and soon had two nice fish on the stringer.

Even adults get hungry and we were.  Onie stopped fishing and we walked to the Marlin to get some red beans and artisan bread.

Rested and refreshed from the meal we headed back to the grate where Onie fished for her last fish of the day.  It was strung by nine thirty when it and the other fish were taken to Custom, at ten.  Onie rode along.

We were back at the coach at ten forty five.  On the way back we had seen a moose in the dale close to the camp.

We turned on Tru TV and had some fresh fruit.  Notes were made before we headed off to bed at eleven thirty.

July 19, 2008

Saturday

WORK DAY

We were rested at eight and rose to find the temperature at forty eight and the skies cloudy, however, it had not rained last night. 

We made coffee and tea to go with our oatmeal, laced with walnuts.

Temperatures here in Sterling don’t seem to move as dramatically as they do in Coldspring.  In Coldspring we can easily see a twenty five to thirty degree temperature differential from morning to night and on occasion we have seen it move as much as forty degrees.  Here in Sterling a swing of twenty degrees, in the summer, seems to be unusual and most of the time it is closer to fifteen degrees.  The temperature had risen to fifty by ten, this morning.

Today was a work day.  The first work at hand, for the author, was to empty the holding tanks and fill the fresh water tank.  The honey wagon was hooked up to the four-wheeler and Kurt, Norman, Sidney and I began emptying all of our tanks.  When we were finished our fresh water tank was replenished.

Onie had her own agenda.  She was canning some of the fish we had been catching.  She and Becky washed the jars then the fish was cut to fit the jars and placed in the jars. Salt and vinegar were put into the jars, the tops wiped clean, the lids and rings put on and then the rings were tightened down.

The sixteen jars were then placed in the dual layer pressure cooker that had an inch and a half of water in it and a fire lit under the cooker. A thin coating of Vaseline was placed inside the rim of the lid, to ensure a tight seal, the lid placed on the cooker, turned just a bit and locked down.  Onie began heating the cooker to bring the water inside up to a boil so steam would be generated.

Some time later steam began issuing through the small vent in the lid.  A cap that regulates the pressure to approximately ten pounds was place over the vent and then she waited for the pressure to rise to that point.  When it did she began timing the process.  When ninety minutes had elapsed she turned off the fire and let the pressure normalize and the cooker cool.  A couple of hours later the lid was opened to let the jars cool.  Each and every one had sealed.  Her first try at canning had been one hundred percent successful.  I reminded her that she could only do worse from now on since she had achieved perfection with her first try.   

With her canning technique perfected she turned her hand to cooking, coconut salmon for Kurt and Becky. While they were enjoying the fruit of her labor Chuck came by and stayed long enough to have a few pieces.  The author and cook also indulged.

When the salmon had satisfied our appetites the group headed to the grate for what we hoped would be a little quality fishing time.  Onie strung one while Becky put two on her stringer.  Kurt was into catch and release rather than catch, filet and release and the writer was into belly hooking, tail hooking and hooking in the dorsal fin, none of which qualifies as keepers.

Done at the grate we headed off to the showers and when the author was squeaky clean he returned to the Marlin and occupied his laptop.

At six fifteen Kurt and Becky came by in their truck.  We had a date to celebrate Becky’s birthday.  We were off to Mykils, a nice restaurant on the Spur.  Ostensibly we were going for appetizers and desert, as an aftermath to the coconut salmon.  In reality it was surprise birthday party for Becky.  When we arrived Sidney and Barbara, Ted and Priscilla and Chuck and LaVon were already seated at a table.  When Becky saw the group surprise was clearly visible on her face.

A great meal was had by one and all and desert followed for most.  Kurt, the gracious host that he is, picked up the tab for the whole party even though most offered to go Dutch.

Just before we left we got the waitress to take a picture of the small group lingering and visiting.

Pricilla, Ted, Tom and Kurt and Birthday Girl Becky

Kurt delivered us to our doorstep at ten.

Onie watched TV while yours truly went to the grate and made eight hundred casts/flips before calling it a night at eleven.  Not a fish had been bumped.

Back in the house notes were made of what had been an absolutely beautiful day.  The sun had shone, there had been few clouds and it had been close to warm.  A couple of games of Free Cell were played before the short walk to the back put me at bedside and a few minutes later I was asleep.

It was midnight.

July 20, 2008

Sunday

A DAY OF REST?

Onie got up at nine thirty.  At ten the writer dragged himself out to a cup of hot tea and cold cereal.  We had both had a terrible night of indigestion brought on by too much fatty food.  Today would be better.

We ate and got dressed for church.  Becky was ready at a quarter to eleven but Kurt opted to stay home so the three of us headed off to Sterling Baptist Church to hear a good message by pastor Tim.

After church we headed home where we changed clothes and then sorted the accumulated dirty clothes.  It would be a four-wash-load day.  Onie carried some and I carried the rest as we made our way to the laundry room.  After the washers were filled and started Onie elected to stay with them in case they became unbalanced.  Some of our friends think she stays with me for the same reason.

With the washers running the writer headed back to the Marlin to do a little phoning.  He called his brothers and sisters and two daughters, our daughter(in-law) Tina Bahm, our son Gary Bahm, got his voice mail and grandson, Kyle Bahm.  Jim Johnson, our neighbor was also called and he brought the writer up to date on the happenings in Coldspring. Then it was time to go back to the laundry and help Onie fold clothes.

Two dryers were still running but Onie and I folded the clothes that were dry in the third dryer.  When they were folded I carried the basket holding them back to the coach and put them away.

While the clean clothes were being put away Colby came by, hungry.  I invited him in and gave him three biscuits and butter, some Muscadine jelly, red beans, sausage and a strawberry.

While Colby was filling his hollow leg Dawn called.  She and I visited a while and then she and Colby talked.

Onie returned soon with the rest of the clothes.  She got out the jalapeño jelly cheese spread.  He had some for a little desert.

We put up the rest of our clean clothes.

Colby took his rod and he and I set off for the grate.  An hour later the writer had strung two reds while Colby had hit a couple but hooked none so had none on the stringer.  He opined as how a few years experience might have worked in my favor.

Colby headed up the hill to meet with David.  He thinks they have an early appointment with a guide, in the morning so it will probably be early to bed.

Kurt and I visited a little about fishing, line strength, leader strength, weight of the lead and when we could test our theories.

Becky put their supper on the table and I went home where Onie had fresh sliced tomatoes, sliced avocado and Alaskan King Crab, waiting.

After supper this day was brought up to this snuff and then the rod was taken up again and the writer headed for the grate, once more.  Kurt met him there.  A few more reds were strung and then the writer began filleting fish.  He finished at eleven thirty.  The filets were placed in a cooler and iced down.  Goodnights were said and Kurt went to his rig and I went to ours.

Onie had been watching Ice Road Truckers and other informative TV programs.  Now she called it a day, took her night time pills, turned out the light and went to sleep.

The writer went to his laptop and finished today’s story before retiring at one.