Pioneer Peak Over Palmer Alaska
I was on my way home from putting up signs this evening and saw this view. If you look close, there are two rainbows.
Alaskan summers…so nice.
King Salmon Fishing At Eklutna Tailrace
I was on my way home from Anchorage yesterday and was a little early for an appointment in the Butte so I stopped off to see what was happening at the Eklutna Tailrace.
It was a beautiful day to be fishing. I didn’t see any fish but talked with a some people who said there were a few rolling. The action wasn’t hot but the weather certainly was. I think it was close to 75 degrees without a hint of wind.
The cool think about this fishing hole is that there is great handicap access. A wheelchair bound person can wheel right to the waters edge and fish…they chose one of the best fishing spots for the wheel chair as well.
The Wasilla Tea Party was extremely well attended yesterday. There were close to 1,000 people at the event in the middle of the afternoon. That’s pretty good for a small town. Here are a few photos:
There were some Ron Paul Supporters:
It was at the Wasilla Lake Park at the corner of the Parks Highway and Crusey Street. The photo below expresses the general feeling of the crowd.
Don Young showed up to give a speech and there was also an open mike for people to have their say. Looks like this will likely be an annual event.
Happy New Year! Wishing you a warm and joyous New Year.
If we have much more of this global warming we are going to freeze to death.
Hopefully this will be the coldest day of the year. At least we know that every day is getting lighter between now and June 21.
I got this email from a fellow realtor today:
I received a call from my mother today asking for help removing a freezer from her driveway. Her next door neighbor moved out of the house last week. He came over to the house and asked her if she wanted a Moose Box and in the same breath spoke of kindling.
Her thought was, hmmm, a box for kindling, my boys might like that.
She told the neighbor sure. Next thing you know there is a dead freezer in the driveway. The dump charges $25 for freezers/fridges etc. So we paid to get rid of the “moose box”.
The moral of the story is: Be wary of accepting gifts with catchy Alaska names from thy moving neighbor….
The Chugach Mountains over Palmer were beautiful in today’s late afternoon sun. Gerrit had been asking to get the old Skidoo Elan out for more than a week so we brought it up to Jay’s place on Lazy Mountain. Jay and his family have ten acres there which gives the kids room to zoom around without going on anyone elses land.
This is almost a 30 year old snow machine, but Gerrit loves to zip around with it. It is nice and light and rarely gets stuck. If it does, he can horse it out by himself.
His cousin Thomas had his Snow Sport going and was spinning brodies all over the snow.
The two boys kept zooming around as it got darker and darker.
Thomas finally slowed down when his hands started getting cold.
We left Gerrit out in the dark and went in to Aunt Susan’s hot chocolate. Gerrit finally got the hint and came out of the cold as well.
A great snow day…and it isn’t even November yet. It’s going to be a fantastic winter !!!
You know You Are An Alaskan When:
1. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a motor home on the highway.
2. “Vacation” means going to Anchorage for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit moose more than once.
5. You often switch from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day.
6. You use a down comforter in the summer.
7. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.
9. You install security lights on your house and garage, and leave both unlocked.
10. You think of the major food groups as: meat, fish, and berries.
11. You carry jumper cables in your car, and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the grocery store at any given time.
13. You know what Bunny Boots are.
14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas.
16. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.
17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item, even when you’re in a rush, because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.
18. You didn’t know what the word “county” meant, and we were never taught about “area codes”… 907 is all you had to know
19. You think bald eagles aren’t that great
20. You know to go to Best Buy a month after a CD release because that’s when it will FINALLY arrive in Alaska
21. You wish seagulls came with a mute button
22. You can go to McDonalds and order off the $1.50 menu which they feel is equivalent to the $0.99 menu
23. You were appalled by the “Carrs-Safeway” merge a few years ago
24. You have to have a raven cage around your trash to keep them out
25. You go to school, work, or both in the dark and come home in the dark
26. 30 degrees is shorts weather
27. -10 is a bit nippy
28. Buses leaving school are delayed because a bear is in the parking lot
29. You tell people you live in an igloo for kicks
30. You don’t swim in natural bodies of water for fear of swimmers itch or beaver fever…or leeches
31. Having a moose in your front yard is a legitimate excuse for being late to school
32. There is nothing like Matanuska Maid…who cares about Meadowgold, Dairyland and Viva!!
33. You only go to the fair for turkey legs and a husky burger
34. You refer to the continental US as the “lower 48″
35. You get an attitude when you have to pay tax in the lower 48
36. There is 4 feet of snow the night before school and you STILL have to go.
37. If you don’t like the weather wait for 5 minutes and then go back out outside.
38. You sleep through an earthquake like nothing ever happened; the only way you know is because the clock fell off the wall
39. Salmon isn’t a delicacy, it’s a staple
40. Halibut is beer battered rather than cooked some fancy way
41. 70 degrees is equivalent to 90 degrees in the lower 48
42. You know who “Sleeping Lady” is
43. During the winter you rarely use your freezer
44. You think $4 for a loaf of bread is cheap
45. A “cookout” is not all the time outside because it’s entirely too cold for all of that
46. You don’t sleep in the summer because it’s too short to miss a minute of it
47. Half your friends own a sled (snow machine) and you think people that call them snow mobiles are idiots
48. You have been chased or know someone who has been chased by a moose at least once.
49. You’ve seen the northern lights, and you know why they are such a “big deal”
50. You know its all about the snow, DUH.
51. You know that Cattle Company has the best potato soup there is.
52. Your bedroom windows are covered in aluminum foil or black blankets.
53. You know the two speed limits in Alaska: the ‘get outta my way limit’ and ‘taking cover limit’
54. You only watch the news when they announce the amount of the year’s dividend
55. Your school classes were never canceled because of ice
56. You have to start your car at least an hour before you leave so most of the ice and snow will melt off by the time you leave
57. You wear flips flops all year without getting sick
58. You’ve never seen cotton or tobacco growing, but your neighbor has a 30 acre potato field
59. You literally can’t leave the house without seeing some one you know.
60. You know the term “studs” isn’t referring to hot guys.
61. You have to ski in gym class
62. You know who “Binki” was, made fun of that stupid Australian tourist, and was so sad when he died.
63. You expect to see a moose crossing Tudor every time you drive down.
64. You give up and tell people in the lower 48 that you DO live in an igloo and you DO have a pet polar bear named Mishka when they refuse to believe otherwise.
65. You call someone without a crack in their windshield a tourist
66. You attend a formal event in your best clothes, your finest jewels and your Sorrels.
67. When you go to the lower 48 you wonder where everybody’s block heater cable is
68. You’ve been to the Peanut Farm but refuse to tell anyone…ever
69. Combat fishing isn’t a joke, it’s a religion.
70. You’ve seen a 2-month old moose get hit by a full-size van at 65 MPH, then get up and run off
71. Two words “Korn Fritters”
72. Your parents taking you trick-or-treating involves riding door-to-door in the car
73. You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
While many anglers were debating which streamer to use on the Russian River, and the purists were choosing between their eight or nine weight fly rod, a few Alaskans were looking for other ways to stock the salmon section of the freezer.
For them the Kasilof set net fishery was just the ticket last week. The ten day long season closed June 24th. For this old gillnetter it sounded like an efficient way to collect a few red salmon.
It did turn out to be a good way to fish, but I was also intrigued by the culture. You don’t see many shiny subarus on this beach…a rusted out 79 chevy 4X4 is more like it.
The beach is lined with camps of almost every type. But I didn’t see any motorhomes. Here is our camp, I’m returning real estate calls during a break.
It’s amazing what you can do with a couple tarps and a little ingenuity. This one had a well stocked kitchen inside.
One camp was called Grumpy Geezers Getaway. Several were flying the stars and stripes from spruce flag poles. .
Picking the nets and filleting several dozen fish every few hours is back breaking work.
It’s nice to have a comfortable resting place…drag the sofa out to the beach, can’t beat the view.
Little informal parties seemed to start up between neighboring camps while people waited for the tide to turn so that they could pick their nets
Photos courtesy of Charlene Moss and Mark Van Diest…I can’t seem to find my camera since our return, haven’t had time to look for it while taking care of 80 filets.
People have been producing their own energy in Alaska for long time. The photo to the left, of Holikachuk in the 1950s, shows two wind generators spinning on top of wooden towers.
Today, the independent minded use wind, solar, and diesel to power their homes. Or some of them go low-tech with kerosene lamps, wood stoves and out houses.
It’s probably simplest and the least expensive to forgo the modern conveniences and make do without plumbing and power, but for many that just isn’t acceptable. We like to flip the switch and see the light. We also like indoor plumbing.
I recently talked with Ricky Wilder in Chickaloon. He and his family live in a modern log home with in-floor heat a long way from the nearest power line. They heat their home and detached garage with a central boiler from Frontier Heating Concepts in Palmer.
Electricity is supplied by batteries to light the home, run the pumps for the heat, and take care of all the other appliances normally found in a modern home. The batteries are charged by a combination of solar panels, a wind generator, and very occasionally a diesel generator.
I was most interested in the fact that much of the Wilder’s power comes from the sun. We tend to forget that for six months of the year, we get more daylight than anyone south of us. That daylight can generate electricity.
In fact, Wilder reports useful solar power from February through October. He likes solar so much that he plans to increase his solar array this year. There are only three months of the year when he depends almost completely on the wind generator.
When the wind is blowing…and it blows often at their hilltop location…that wind turbine is really humming. It keeps the batteries charged easily.
Ricky Wilder and his son Jordan have been fine tuning his system and helping others with theirs since they purchased their home. They are currently working on a book about wind power and solar power. If you would like to talk to them just drop them a line at akricky(the @ sign)yahoo.com.
Holikachuk photo compliments of celebratechar.org
Salmon Task Force Looks At Upper Cook Inlet Fisheries
I stopped by the ATT Sports Center on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway to listen to the public testimony about the Upper Cook Inlet salmon issues.
It appears that the salmon in our rivers are being hurt by the commercial harvests of red salmon bound for the Kenai River. I am an ex-commercial fisherman so I understand the desire and need for the Board of Fisheries to concentrate their management on those high valued red salmon stocks.
BUT…I can’t understand why they manage the commercial harvest they way that they do. Its just nuts!
Currently, the drift salmon fishing fleet can fish across the whole inlet from the Forelands by Nikiski just above Kenai to Anchor Point toward Homer. Here is a map of Cook Inlet for reference. They are after the red salmon that are mostly going into the Kenai River.
The problem is, they are catching fish bound for a lot of other rivers as well. Some of these fish are heading for Jim Creek, Fish Creek, the Yentna River, and lots of other creeks and rivers that flow into Cook Inlet. The poor fish run a guantlet past all the nets to get to the Upper Inlet. These are silver salmon, king salmon, chum salmon, red salmon, and even some pinks. Most of those fish are just extra baggage to the commercial fisherman.
The better job they do managing the Kenai fishery, the worse it gets for all the other fisheries. The Department of Fish and Game is doing a great job managing the Kenai fishery and they should continue to do that. But that means the commercial drift fleet gets more time to fish and catches more fish going to other rivers and streams. All the other fish are sacrificed to the Kenai Red Salmon.
The really galling thing is that there is an easy fix…and I don’t understand why they don’t do it. In Bristol Bay all the fisheries are specific to the river. Here is a map of Bristol Bay showing the district boundaries for the different fisheries. Click on it to expand.
It would be easy to do in Cook Inlet. All you need to do is make some district boundaries like they have in Bristol Bay. Then you can easily manage the specific fishery.
Here…I’ve done it for them.
Not only does it make for better management, it will produce more fish for ALL the rivers, not just for the Kenai.
And it makes the commercial fishery a LOT more fun. Anyone who has fished the North Line at Egegik knows that.
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