I have a plan...

Hey folks!

Well back for the weekly... bi-weekly!... monthly!?... blog. I guess I don't write as frequently anymore but it's the slow time. Chum eggs are incubating... Chinook eggs are seeded in incubators and about to hatch... and Coho eggs are still tucked in safely with their mothers. We'll spawn them sometime... not even sure when. I previously said that we have our coho broodstock set aside for spawning, and there are SOOOO many more coho. So we've been taking them to the boat to get processed. We did that last Thursday and again on Monday. Scott said we went through 50,000 pounds of coho on Thursday!! Monday wasn't as many. Today Steve started to move his Chinook out to saltwater, and that will take another day or two.

It's really starting to cool down. This morning was probably the coldest morning we've had yet (not counting Jan and Feb and those winter months). The thermometer in the lab said it was 35 degrees... that might not have been completely right but well... now that I think about it, it probably was right. I'm not ready for cold temps like that yet! It didn't really get much warmer... I remember looking at it again and it said 41 degrees but I can't remember what time that was. It rained for some of the afternoon, but then stopped... and when the clouds cleared above the mountain tops around 4pm when we were feeding Coho, I saw the first glimpse of snow. The first light dusting of snow on the mountain... urggg... That doesn't mean it's going to snow on us soon, but that just signifies that it's getting to be that time. And it was just a light dusting...

Anyhow, I suppose the big news, though most of you know the basic plan, is that the vacation time has been set. ADAM AND I... yes, both of us!... will be leaving Sitka on the 5th of December, home on the morning of the 6th... home to Coloma! YAY! I'm excited! We'll be there until the 10th, where we'll fly to Cancun, and stay at a hotel in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico which is in the Riviera Maya (south of Cancun) for 8 nights. Then fly back home, where Adam will stay another few days and leave on the 21st of December back to Sitka. SO... GET EXCITED! :-)

I guess that's about all I have for now, except for some pictures. Some of these were taken a week or two ago... some were taken on Saturday when I was really bored and decided to go walk around and photograph things.


So one morning, there were tons of bears down by the water. I guess they all decided to leave at once because next thing we knew, there was a bear parade in front of the window. Really, there weren't tons but about 7 or 8... Ok that probably sounds like tons to you! It was the sow and 3 cubs, sow and 2 cubs and possibly a single bear. This is the mother of the 3 cubs. I took this from in the window so don't think I'm nutty! She sort of looks mad but really she just looked my way. Looks dramatic though right!?


Oh these guys! These are two of her crazy little teenagers! Playing with a piece of PVC pipe.


These guys again! Oh all the bears, I think the sow and 3 cubs are my favorite to watch. As much as I looooooove those 2 tiny baby cubs, these 3 cubs are hilarious! They are in the "teenager" stage of bearhood, so they play and fight together alot. This would be cooler if that stupid net wasn't in the way.


As teenage bears, their favorite thing to do (that I've observed) is to swim and fight each other in the water. I just love the look on that cub's face... make it bigger and it's better. I don't know if he's going to be the pouncer or the pouncee.


Silly mom! I swear, she isn't posing for the camera! She didn't just find out she was on Candid Camera either! P.S. If the picture is too small and you can't tell what is going on, she's sticking her tongue out.


This cub came jumping out of the water and played with mom a bit. Mouths are opened a bit...


I just thought this was a cool picture. That's the mom again... her cubs are below eating a fish and she was just walking around on the log. This picture just seems a bit National Geographic to me... I think it's neat.


I know I've talked about it before, either on here or to a few people, but we have a hot tub here. During my boredom walk, I decided to take a picture of you because I don't think I have before. Right now the cover is 2 pieces of wood because the bears ATE the other, real hot tub cover. They love foam. But the tub is sitting on a platform which basically sits on a rock that juts out into the water. It's a pretty nice place for a hot tub... cool scenery!


This was growing next to the hot tub and I thought it looked neat. I put my camera on the "foliage" setting and the colors (though it doesn't really look it on here) turned really vibrant.

Well that's about it.

RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK - Though I am not finished yet, I have a good book to recommend. I was getting bored with the books I had sitting around so I decided to check out what Oprah named as the new bookclub book. Well it's called "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski. I'm about half way into it and it's pretty good and I'd (so far) highly recommend it. It might just be in hardcover right now, which is what I have, but I can bring it home if anyone would like to read it. It's about a mute boy, Edgar, who lives in Wisconsin and his family breeds and trains dogs to sell. His father's brother enters the story and breaks the peace up in the family. His father ends up dying (Don't worry, I didn't ruin anything, all of this is written on the book cover!) and Edgar tries to prove that his uncle had something to do with it. Apparently the plan backfires and yadda yadda. I haven't even gotten that far yet. Anyhow, it's good.