I'm working as a Fish Culturist at Hidden Falls Salmon Hatchery in a remote spot near Sitka, Alaska! AM I CRAZY!? I'm starting to think so...

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

This morning I got cold feet...

No, I'm not talking about the "nervous... I don't wanna go thru with it" kinda of cold feet. I mean literally, my feet were COOOLD! It was quite cold here today... More proof that the weather here is different from Sitka. Earlier when I looked, it said 32 but Shannon said it was probably like 25. This map shows it was CHILLY today. (I'm closer to the "19" section of Alaska.)


Anyhow, day #2... worked more on that fence I talked about. Finally finished THAT crazy project. Cleaned up one of the raceways... Shannon explained to me how to use all of the boats... THAT should be... interesting. HA And then Angie and I started to clean some of the trays (I'm not really sure what you call them) of tiny fish in one of the incubation rooms. Darn... either Coho or Chinook... I can't remember. They have hatched and are about the size of a silver dollar. Since they are trying to simulate real conditions, all of the lights are off in this room so we are walking around with headlamps with a red covering over the light to make it less bright. In nature, the baby fish or eggs would be buried in the gravel. 1/2 of the room has incubators full of unhatched eggs... THOUSANDS of little eggs in each tray. It's kinda neat. All in all, a good day despite the fact my hands and toes about froze off this morning. Then I changed socks and my feet stayed warm in the afternoon. Not sure if it was the socks or something else. We'll see.

Anyhow... MORE. :-)

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The floatplane we took to Hidden Falls. We had the most experienced pilot in Sitka so I wasn't worried. That is Tommy in the brown... that's who I've been in contact with up here. "Hey guys... make sure you get all MY stuff in that little plane!" It was a tight squeeze!

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WELCOME TO HIDDEN FALLS!

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I took this from the boat dock. Those are some of the net pens that are right out from of the hatchery. There are alot more on the side. It's hard to tell how many pens there are and really I don't even know. I'd guess 12?
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of fish.

The little house with the stairs going up is the Takatz Bay floathouse that I'll be living in! Funny right!? Actually, the bottom is just fish food storage so upstairs is a 3 bedroom apartment.

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This is the view looking into the bay from the boat ramp. The hatchery is behind me. Chatham Strait is just on the other side of those little tree covered islands so we are pretty far back in the bay.

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And this is the bunkhouse. That first section on the left is an apartment... then the 5 windows on the right are where the bunkhouse rooms are. SEE, lots of snow!

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This is the view when I look out my window. Those are the outdoor round ponds (there are some under an overhang too.) They are pretty big... they're about chest high or a little lower on me. You can see the snow piled up around them too! That building on the left is the duplex where two of the guys live. If you look carefully, up on the hill in the top right of the picture are 3 houses. They're hard to see so look at the enlarged picture. They're pretty big though... permanent employee housing (along with the duplex & apartment).

Hopefully, seeing some of these pictures, helps you guys understand what I was talking about. Again, click on the pictures to enlarge them or go to the picture link! Hope you enjoy them. :-)

P.S. Idol anyone!?
I heart
Blake Lewis

and
Jared Cotter!


CUTE! ;-D
he he he

Anyone else think it's the most culturally diverse group (atleast of guys) that they've ever had?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seriously, it looks SO PRETTY up there. its insane. How weird is it that you're gonna be living in a house thats floating on water.... Does it like move and stuf?? Cuz I think i'd get sea sick. hehe

MISS YOU DUDE!

Anonymous said...

Hey MIss Cold Feet!

Must be a Moser thing, cause my feet are always cold. Don't put too many layers of socks on. It may help to have some real loose space between your feet and the boot. Tight boots will always be colder than loose ones. Also, check your socks when your feet start to get cold. If your feet sweat or get damp, then they are going to feel cold. Maybe use the thermal socks that can get damp in the mornings when your feet get colder and switch to other socks in the afternoon if they start to get hot. (You wish!) Love you! DAD