Sure, we had that horizontal snow gale on Memorial Day, but that dust soon melted. Summer is just around the corner, as well as Fall.
The green grass is poking up through the brown. DIRT BOYS labor continues to provide results, with green grass poking up just outside my window.
The fat ground squirrels are back, chirping as you get near.
Fog is back. Probably the worst issue with flying.
And tonight I saw some mosquitos flying outside my window. They are not as bad as elsewhere in Alaska, just a sign of Summer. They are a good reason not to leave open an unscreened window, along with our MONSTROUS BUMBLEBEES OF THE ARCTIC. (Big enough to be saddled).
We are FULLY stocked at the warehouse, all dressed up for the new season. There have been a couple of big orders lately, but the big show starts in 2 weeks or so. There are 5 trampers waiting for fish outside my window. That seems a bit optimistic to me this early. But what the hell do I know?
Tonight Dutchie defended her territory against a big new neighborhood cat, a large female twice the size of The Queen of the Tundra
FLUFF, The Fat Cat Of The Far North, is wanting to go outside..
Still have seen no foxes since I came back. There was that one glimpse of a tail leaving the chow porch area late at night, as well as a probable fox seen through a pile of crab pots just for a moment. But that is it. Perhaps they are feeding on fat ground squirrels (THEMS GOOD EATIN’), but the foxes are still around when the weather finally turns nice, and we seem to be THERE finally.
Late breaking development. Just NOW a fox was sitting outside my Small Boat Harbor window. He was a small red fox in the middle of shedding his hair. I had a quick discussion with him and advised he attend the chow porch buffet (1 item, but GOOD). I scrambled to turn on the light and fill the trough. Only problem was Dutchie, who appeared out of nowhere and was into defending her territory. She actually lunged at close range at the poor vulpine, who was three times as big as her. The fox growled a bit, but retreated. Once again, proof of their non-aggressiveness. What are you supposed to do if Tundratic Royalty lunges? Perhaps we will learn during the Diamond Jubilee broadcast. The fox was not that hungry, but agreed to sign a release for photo rights, then promptly exited stage right.
Deadliest Catch has been running for over a month. The season they filmed has still not ended. The ice up north near The Pribilof Islands slowed down the whole fishing season, which was supposed to end May 31. Now the ice has receded to the north. The season was extended to June 15, with another extension possible..
It could be JULY before the pass opens, but I hope it is well before.
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I picture most Unalaska residents as being involved in the fishing industry with their families probably living elsewhere. But with 41 students graduating from Unalaska High School, there must be quite a few families there. What a childhood memory that would be!
Maybe Fluff will lose some weight and become healthier if she starts going out with Dutchie. :)
It adds meaning to Deadliest Catch, knowing that the season still hasn't ended. Thanks for the inside info, Joe.
Great pictures you have been getting lately. Really love the clouds with sun in different colors looking over the mountains. I love mountains!
I just got informed that the Time Bandit with Neal at the wheel just made it back to port and is done. Their now getting it ready for salmon tendering. Andy's daugther is working on the boat at that time. Latest season ever. Wish I could watch it, but have to wait to watch this year's next year on netflix.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!
Perhaps one level above a frozen pizza in Safeways. Lots of single men in Dutch – poor little deep pans don't stand a chance do they?
The ground squirrels would have probably been removed from the food chain completely by now if it weren't for the blanket of fog.
It has to benefit someone doesn't it?
I'm assuming the new local cat (big enough to attach a carriage and pull a Queen of the Tundra?) is going to be named at some point? It would be unusual for a four legged creature to go without being renamed for the purposes of this blog. Can't break with a great tradition (of pissing off all your neighbours...)
I am just trying to defrost myself. I have repainted the garage door and front door. The undercoat went on at the crack of dawn on Saturday, trying to avoid the forecast 48 hours of heavy rain for Jubilee weekend. I was almost finished when the heavens opened – the last two panels of garage were done under a parasol. I ingeniously tilted said parasol to keep the rain from blowing sideways into my wet paint – but that had the effect of sending it spinning round like the wheel of misfortune in the wind.
Every 5 seconds I had to duck down to avoid getting walloped around the head with a now severely sodden seriously spoked sunshade.
This morning I was out there, again at silly o'clock, because this time I had gotten wise to the 'drying' times. Inappropriate word - 'drying'. The first coat took several hours longer than it said it would on the tin – and you can't SHUT a wet FRONT door. That was just the 'quick dry' undercoat (2 hours MY ARSE) – today I was playing with hard nut TOP COAT. The people at DULUX paint tell me its a minimum 16 HOURS drying time on this one, maybe 24 HOURS in wet weather...
I have no desire to get permanently SEALED UP indoors. It has to dry to something the far side of TACKY before nightfall.
I have a dry weather day ahead, fingers crossed. But I'd like to get to bed sometime before 6am tomorrow morning, most especially as I was up at 5am today – outside – painting - in 42f. I know I said I don't do heat, there was literally no way this was going to get done in that 86f stuff I had last week – but I went to the other extreme this morning. My fingers lacked the dexterity to grip the icy metal ferrule on my paintbrush. Suddenly the matt grey undercoat seemed like a nice FINISHED colour.
STILL.
I'm British.
WE LIKE WEATHER.
We damn near froze the arse off the entire royal family yesterday...
Morning Joe, our great Alaskan adventure is over. We once again cheated death flying into horrible storms in Dallas. We were the last plane in prior to a complete ground stop. Our plane coming from Dallas was late due to weather coming into Anchorage. When we finally landed in Orlando we were four hours late, but we were alive.
It was great fun meeting up with Tori (Alaskasnowluvr) in Sterling Alaska and then of course meeting Maxine and Dave (Homerlady) in Homer. We had dinner with Maxine and Dave at Captin Patties, a marvelous seafood meal.
Our fishing was a great success. We are going to be blessed with a lot of fish being shipped to us from Homer arriving tomorrow. We are giving away some to friends and then the rest of that gorgeous halibut is ours. We were out for ten hours and I found out fishing for halibut is a real job. Had fun on our six-pack boat. We had a great Captain and the other four folks were great. Found out quickly that no whining was allowed.
Well back to Orlando hot weather...95 today. The temp in Homer was 42-45 degrees. Body is in shock.
This was the big guy caught by four of us at one time. He was 70+ pounds. The Captain did not shot him but hit him on the head several times before pulling him in the boat. I guess legs can be broken by these guys if allowed to wiggle on the deck.
Glad you had a great vacation, OGal.
InsideUK Now what did you do to the Prince. He can't go to the big party tonight. No fun for him! Weather should have been more cooperative - but that may not have helped - any way, he should be used to the chill and damp - I think. Hope he is better soon!
I have enjoyed reading all the posts in the past several months and of course seeing all of Joe's photos.
The only sad part of this moving experience is that I have to re-home all 4 of my cats. Where we're going you can only have 2 pets and we have the 2 doxies. One of the cats is the feral that Rotty was going to take except that clever kitty that she is would not get into the humane cage for transport. I will be traveling to FL a few more times before the move so hopefully I can corral this girl and get her down to Rotty's place.
UK- you must be so enjoying all the fun in London for the queen although I just read on the news that Prince Phillip has been hospitalized. Bummer for him and for the queen. I'm sure she would have liked him to be a part of all the excitement.
This time the weather played ball and helped dry out my front door by 8pm – there are several very stupid insects who landed in my tacky paint and promptly sunk in to knee height. I'll remove those body parts that choose to come loose easily, but I fear the boots, shoes and feet are likely to remain as fossils for the future.
Most were greenfly, which was lucky 'cos they matched my paint colour pretty closely. Love it when a plan comes together...
It is a shame about Prince Philip being taken ill – the Queen looked a bit strained by last nights concert event, but things are being rearranged slightly to keep the planned Jubilee events going into the final stretch today. I have no idea how she finds the stamina for all this stuff – she barely sat down the last 3 days, she was on the go from early morning to late into the night. Hostess with the mostess.
I'm afraid it's very likely to rain on her parade this afternoon. These processions always look best in full sunshine, Lord only knows what a bear skin hat starts to weigh after the rain comes down. Requires a strong neck, possibly some scaffold?
Good luck with the house sale Dix – if the realtors over there expect to take 6% (DAYLIGHT ROBBERY – they get between 1 and 3% in UK) I'd expect THEM to be up a bloody ladder with a paint brush in hand for 3 months.
And find insects to match...
VENUS TRANSITING THE SUN
This image was shot by poking the lens of my CoolPix9100 straight into the eyepiece holder of my little Celestron NexStar5 telescope. The darkening towards the center of the Sun is caused by the shading of the secondary element of the telescopes optics train. I didn't have time to rig up a fancier method. It did the job. I'll do much better the next time Venus transits the Sun, promise.
It's been an eventful week anyway. Not only a rare celestial event, but almost as rare, we had 0.12 inches of rain yesterday!
Best wishes on selling your house, dix608greys. UK, now that the dear old queen's Jubilee is nearly over, I'm sure paint drying weather will return in abundance. Joe, charming photo of the Duchess of the Tundra.
Isn’t it a bloody nuisance having these celestial eventages blocking your solar panel savings though Haupty? That little blob called Venus must have lost a smidgeon over a microgramwatt in the hour it took crossing the sun…
I LIKE THIS PHOTO, BUT PEOPLE OF DUTCH HARBOR YOU ARE MISSING A TRICK HERE.
If this were at the Tate Gallery in London it would be hailed as an interesting study on humankind's impact on nature and it's responsibilities for the future of the planet...
It would win prizes.
Go figure. It's all about how you see it really. If you never look at it directly, but let it's image reflect back through a small hole onto a screen door it'll still look somewhat...
Yeah. I heard you shouting the answer Joseph.
OUTHOUSE.
GREAT PICTURE Dave... you are an ingenious fellow !!!
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