It's story time folks...

So I guess no one liked my Killer Whale story!??!?!?!?

Well here are some more...

Today was my day to work at the hatchery. I was assigned to feed chum with Scott (the boss). So the first feeding, we headed out on his boat and fed and then messed with some of the nets. But then a plane came so we hurried in so Scott could talk to whoever was on that plane. It ended up being some builders? who are going to build an apartment. So 2nd feeding time rolls around and Scott is still talking to them. He tells me he'll be just a minute... but then a few minutes later, he ends up saying that I can go ahead in the work skiff and he'll meet me there. Then he asks if I've ever driven the work skiff and I say "umm well no, but people have shown me how." So I tell him I think I can do it and well... I did. But it's a bit nerve wracking driving some boat you've never driven before... ALL BY YOURSELF. I haven't even driven the Takatz boat by myself! Well you might be thinking "well, you HAVE driven the Takatz boat before... what's the big deal about driving this other one?" Well the Takatz boat is alot nicer... you turn a key... it starts... drive it with the steering wheel. The work skiff isn't the same. I've been with Sarah when she's driven it and I know it's a bit temperamental. It "starts" with a pull cord... I say "starts" with quotes because it likes to give you a work out before it'll actually fire up! Then you sit in the back of the boat and use the lever on the motor to drive the boat. I know you guys can mentally picture a boat like that... like a little fishing boat. Well this thing is a bit long and it was a little hard to steer. And it's confusing to drive for ME because you want to go one way and you have to move the lever in the opposite direction of what you think. Well, it ended up stalling on me after moving about 5 feet... Then it ended up stalling on me right near the chum pens, so I just drifted to the pens and didn't have to worry about parking it, which was fine.

I guess it wasn't SO bad... maybe because I didn't have someone watching me do it so I didn't feel self conscious about screwing up or something. But then when it was time to come in for lunch, Scott drove his boat and I had the work skiff still. Which meant I had to PARK the boat in front of the boss. Now that's intimidating! I guess it wasn't completely horrible. I ended up being a little bit away from the dock but Scott pulled me in. But then I had to think to myself "ok... how do I turn this boat off again!?" Because I didn't HAVE to turn it off the first time... it stalled on me! And I wasn't going to ask because then I'd look like a moron! I got it though. :-D

Anyhow, that's the boat story for the day. Here's a wildlife story. I saw another bear today. Or maybe it was the same bear just in a different spot... who knows. It was pretty cool though. We were out on the chum pens and Scott pointed him out. He was just walking around up on the hill... don't worry, the bear and I were separated by a bunch of water. We watched him for a few minutes... he didn't seem to even see us.

Alright, we've got a boat story... and a bear story... how about a tourist story? Ok sorta... So after the 2nd feeding, Scott said he was going back in but that I should stayed to mess with some of the nets again. Well during that time, this big boat had come into the bay. Who knows what for... then I saw they lowered this little fishing boat to the water and someone was messing around on it. Well then that's about when Scott went in. So I'm messing with the nets and sort of watching this boat... then it goes back to the bigger boat, loads on 2 more people and they head over to the chum pens. I'm thinking "Oh great... I'm gonna have to talk to these people, whoever they are!" As they pull up, I say HI and the guy jokingly says he's from the Alaskan Hatchery Inspection Agency or something like that and we laugh. Then he says he's from Sitka, but the other two people are from Pennsylvania and they were just checkin things out. So they asked me some stuff about the pens and the fish... And I'm trying to BS my way through answering these questions. Thankfully I've gone to enough trade shows with my dad to know how to BS my way through answering questions while trying to sound like you really know what you're talking about! ;-) he he he Most of them I could answer but I did have to throw in the "Umm yeah I'm not sure... I'm new here!" statement. They asked to see the fish and I said sure, hoping that it WAS, in fact, ok! I couldn't see why not... I'm sure we get people who do this... wanna just see things. Then they left. I just thought it was sort of funny... the ONE day I'm out at the chum pens, some random tourist type folks come up and the NEW girl has to play a "tour guide" of sorts. Now that I think of it, Scott did ask me earlier on if we got any visitors... boats... down at Takatz.

Well...... those are my stories for the day. Sorry, no pictures. Today's weather was crap, with a side of CRAP. Rain... wind picking up in the afternoon. Probably in the mid 40s. The water temperature today was 4.9 degrees Celcius, which is about 41 degrees Fahrenheit around lunch time I think? BRRRR...

SHOUT OUT OF THE DAY - To Dad... thanks for teachin me to BS! ha ha