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Chum spawning - CHECK
Spawning party – CHECK
Can you believe it’s the middle of August already!? I mean, where did the year go? For the past three and a half weeks, we’ve been spawning chum. Since I missed all of chum spawning last year, I was looking forward to it this year! It’s such a tiring time but it’s so fun! It’s one of those times that I wish I was still paid by the hour, instead of salary. We are always working past 5pm… and since I am in charge of the numbers, I’m usually the last one working. But still… I’ve had fun. This year, instead of grinding up our carcasses, we’ve sold them. It seemed like it was going to be such a pain but really it ended up working out pretty well. As we spawn the fish, we send them down a metal shoot and into the grinder. But this year, they installed a conveyor belt coming off the end of the metal shoot and the fish are diverted onto the belt, instead of into the grinder. Then they are moved on the belt and dropped into a fish tote. You always have to have someone manning the fish totes and moving them, but since it takes 10 minutes or so to fill up a tote, it’s not a really fast thing. Coming into this, we thought we would have to take a few permanent employees off the spawning table everyday to deal with the totes, since we are the only ones who can run the equipment, but they ended up training a few of the seasonal on the forklift.
I dreaded the times I might have to be the tote mover, but I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with it. Now I feel like I can just jump into a few of our pieces of equipment and do something, instead of feeling nervous about it. I can drive the forklift pretty well now (which was a bit difficult at first, getting used to dealing with a clutch and stuff) and even our telehandler. The telehandler is a smaller loader that has an extendable arm that you can reach out and pick stuff up with. It’s pretty easy to use but has a bunch of blindspots, which is the hardest part. I’ve been pretty proud of myself about that though. I can use the Skid Steer too (I dunno what else it’s called…) but I haven’t driven it very much. We also have a Case loader, which I’m not real comfortable with because it’s so big! I drove it back and forth a few times the other day though, and on the last trip, I started to understand it a bit more and get better. That loader is a bit different because it’s split in the middle, I guess, where as a car is all one piece. You turn the steering wheel and the front half of the loader moves so if you are going really slow (like I was!) it turns sort of jerky. I’m not sure if that makes sense to you or not. Guess I won’t be working for Mike and driving a combine anytime soon, but I might be able to do a little tractor work! HA I guess it does give me a bit of a confidence boost to know that I can drive something like that, if I need to!
This is a telehandler... all of these aren't really ours but basically the same thing.
The Big Case loader... it looks small here but it's pretty big.
The Skid Steer
Similar to our Forklift... minus that tank on the back.
We still have most of our Chinook spawning to do but that shouldn’t take that long. We did some of the Chinook on Thursday. Last night we had our spawning party, which was a lot of fun. We were set to get a pig (and maybe even a lamb) to roast on our spit, but it fell through. So we have chunks of pork. Scott smoked two of the chunks in this smoker and then the other 4 we put on the spit. The smoker meat was done at like 6pm maybe, but the spit meat took a lot longer and they didn’t take that off the spit until like 11:30pm! So that was a bit of a “midnight snack pork.” There was so much left over, so we have a chunk of meat in our fridge and a few other people do too. Our weather was AMAZING so we all just sat out and talked, drank, ate, hung out. It was very casual, like normal. I think everyone gathered around 12:30 or so…. And dispersed about 12 hours later! We played our games of course! The egg guess, bucking contest and chum toss. Those are always amusing! Adam and I cleaned up when it came to prizes. We got first and second place in the bucking contest!! Adam was first, I was second. Then we both got first prize in the boys and girls chum toss. I felt a little bad for winning most of the prizes, but hey, what can you do!? I was giving tons of tips out to everyone… trying to get them to do their best job! It’s more fun when you have close calls! It seemed like the bucking contest was a bit of a struggle this year… not real long distances! Though Adam’s winning distance was 24 feet, 7 inches. I think I only made it to around 21 feet maybe. But I’m not even sure. I threw my chum first and thought I blew it. It felt like it slipped out of my hand, but I guess no one could beat me so I won. Hey, what can I say!? I’m just good. HA
Hanging out
Emma and I matched! Hair and all.
Just a cool picture of the fire pit
A fancy picture we took with a sparkler.
Now it’s the weekend… some people are recovering, some people are just hanging out (like me… no recovery needed!), and some people are on a mission! Those “mission” people would be Adam and Ben. They are currently hiking up to the alpine (That’s ALL the way up to the top of the mountain.) on a mission to hunt a monster mountain goat! They both were pretty excited to go… Ben compared it to the excitement at Christmas. Personally, it doesn’t sound fun to me! Heh Last year I hiked up with Adam and we didn’t even get close to the alpine, and I thought it would be the death of me! So that’s what Ben is for! Ben’s practically a professional hunter… he takes a month off from here, in November, to work as a hunting guide for… rich dudes essentially! But this is Adam’s trip this time… he’s going to be the one shooting. Ben is just going to help him pack the goat out. They should have great weather up there so they should get one. They went up a few weeks ago with Scott to check it out, to leave some supplies up there, and to see if they could spot any, which they did (like 13 I think!) So they’ve had their eye on this one goat, and they think he’s a big one. So I’m crossing my fingers for them! Glad that I’m not up there with them, but ready to admire the goat hide and horns, and eat the meat when they get back.
Scott couldn’t go with them this time, even though I’m sure he would have loved to. He’s heading to town today in his boat, because he has to head to Colorado in a few days to get married! Last Thursday his friend from Sitka showed up and they (Scott, Kyle, Ben and Adam) were supposed to go up goat hunting, but the weather wasn’t good. It was supposed to be a sorta surprise Bachelor weekend for Scott. So instead, Scott, Kyle and Ben drove over to Admiralty Island (which is across Chatham Strait) to look around and ended up getting two deer on the beach. Well when they got back, they hung the deer in the big walk-in cooler, like they always do. Unfortunately, they forgot to put the pin in the door handle (to kinda lock the door) and a bear broke in and stole the deer. It sucks, but at the same time, it’s a little funny. There are a few bear paw smudges on the door, but it probably didn’t take much for it to hook the handle and pull. It (or multiple bears) walked off with the deer, ate it and then buried the rest right near the cooler, by the spawning shed, for later. That’s a bad thing because that bear could get territorial of that area, even if the guys dug the deer up and took it away. So they hung around back there to see if the bear was going to get mean about it…. They scared a few bears away back there but who knows which bear it was. The guys did end up digging the bear up and taking it away and we haven’t really seen much bear activity back there so that’s good. It seemed like it would be a lot more dramatic than it ended up.
We haven’t really had any issues (except for the deer thing) with the bears, but there have been a lot around. We have a sow and 1 cub, and possibly 3 sows with 2 cubs. There is definitely a sow with 2 really small cubs and a sow with a bit of an older set, maybe 2 year olds. Melissa and I think there is that third set around but we aren’t sure… just seems like there’s another small set with one darker cub and one lighter. But who knows. There are a bunch of single bears… atleast 3. My favorite is the sow with the single cub. Ok and the sow with the 2 small cubs! They are so cute! The single cub is sort of rascally and mischievous, it seems. I always see it on the other side of the weir from its mom… always just standing up on its back paws looking at its mom. I watched it climb through the little space over the weir pickets the other day and almost got it’s leg stuck in the metal poles. It hung there for a minute but came free. It was pretty cute and funny.
The Rascally cub climbing through the pickets
It's hard to tell what the heck he's doing... but he's almost all the way through. His head is on the other side and he's sorta hanging. This was when he was stuck.
Well anyhow, for now, Tucker and I are hanging out and going to enjoy the nice weather today! It’s supposed to get up to about 75 today and tomorrow, but is perfect. It was probably almost 70 yesterday. Tomorrow, we are planning to head to the beach with Jacquie and the kids and Melissa, assuming we can wrestle the boat away from someone! I guess that’s it for now.
Hangin at the beach
Tucker loves digging in the sand.
Not much new to say except that vacation is a day away! Adam and I leave Monday for town, and then fly out of Sitka on Tuesday, arrive in Maine on Wednesday morning. I'm pretty excited! I haven't left this place since I got back in late January or early February. I can't even remember. It's been a really long time. I had a hard time working on Friday... I had "vacation-itis" or something.
Not much going on at work lately. Feeding and moving fish around and getting stuff ready for spawning season. Last week, we transferred some Chinook to Haines, AK via boat. Adam had to go along with the fish and was gone a few days. It's a 16-18 hour ride to Haines. A few weeks before, we sent off our Coho to Deer Lake. This is when we bring in a plane and load some fish on in a tote and land on Deer Lake and transfer then into some net pens there. I went along on one of the 8 trips.
This is the plane we used... it's considered a "Super Otter." The planes we usually get in are Cessnas or "Beavers"... those hold 3 or 5 people in the back of the plane (1 more person can sit next to the pilot.) The Otter can hold 10-12 people. This plane is "Super" because it's a turbine engine so it sounds like a jetplane instead of the Cessna or Beaver sound. It's pretty cool. It's loud when it is sideways and then once it turns around to head out, it goes very quiet. Really cool.
The tote we put the fish into.
Ben is ready for fish to be pumped in. You can almost stand up in the plane, it's so big. All the seats are on the sides, folded up. I sat about where I'm taking the picture from... just in front of the tote. (Just for point of view, I'm looking out toward the tail of the plane.)
Just some scenery along the way. Deer Lake is south of Hidden Falls.
More scenery. They call this spot "Red Bluff." They get alot of mountain goats in this area.
Deer Lake... that is where they keep their fish food. See that yellow area? That's all tree pollen on the water. It was really bad around the time of the transfers but alot worse at Deer Lake. The whole inside of the net pens were covered!
Their net pens. The yellow teepee things you see are a set of floats to hang a net off. Unlike the net pens, there is nowhere to walk around these nets. Just a holder for a net.
This is where the Deer Lake people stay. A few years ago, their "treehouse" had a fire so they had to rebuild. I'm not sure what it looks like inside.
Well that's all the Deer Lake pictures I have. Now for some sealife...
A cool Seal picture I took on our last day at Takatz.
The Loch Ness Monster!? It's a Sea Lion. They like to catch the fish and then thrash them around. It's fun to watch. They throw them in the air.
The same Sea Lion. He probably had just thrown his fish or dropped it. They are pretty big and fat. 8 or so feet long and a few thousand pounds.Well that's it for now. I'll let you know how my first trip to Maine goes. It should be fun!
Hey Hey! Back again… It’s fish release time here and surprise surprise, Mr. Whale is back! We are going to be wrapping up stuff in Takatz in the next week, releasing fish and packing up. Even though we don’t have whales down there, the boss wants us to release them slowly (a few pens at a time) instead of 2 releases of 7 pens each.
The only thing really new is our vacation plans for this summer. Most of you might already know, but we are heading out to Maine! I’m excited since I’ve never been there, and I can check that state off my list! We are leaving Sitka on June 22 and coming back July 6 (actually arriving the next day.) I’m already making plans to go to the mall and see a few movies that are out. Adam’s parents are trying to get this nice house on a lake (or atleast rent a house) to relax for a little while. It’s going to be a fun trip. We wish we could take 'Ol Tucker with us but it’s too long of a trip for him, so April (our next door neighbor) is going to watch him for us.
Well, that’s about all I have… so since it’s been a really long time, I’m going to turn this over to Tucker! He’ll tell you what he’s been up to lately!
What’s up guys!? What’s new? There’s a lot new here. Dad caught a king salmon last week. He was so excited… it was the first one of the year. I was MORE excited because those things are cool! They flop around and then I get to lick the blood off of them. Mom thinks it’s gross but I don’t care! Bears are back so I’m back to being a guard dog. We saw a bear at Takatz a while ago right near the fish pens and… I didn’t really see it. So maybe I need to get some better skills… but then I saw it and barked like crazy and he got scared… Yeah he was scared and took off. Chicken bear…
Mom and Dad took me to the Warm Springs a few weeks ago. On the way there, we stopped by some rocks out front of Takatz so Mom could take pictures of seals.
Mom says "AWWW Look at their faces!"
At the Hot Springs, we went to the pools to see if anyone was there. We didn’t go all the way down but far enough to see the pools from up on the hill. Well….. There were some people… and Dad saw a big naked guy. So we went back to the path and walked back to the lake to give the naked guy and his friends some more time. Dad wanted to go fishing for a little bit but it was way too windy. So we hiked around some more. When we went back to the pools, the people were out and there was a dog too! So Mom and Dad talked to the people for a few minutes and I sniffed around with the dog. He was an old chocolate lab. Then Mom and Dad went into the pools for a while and I watched them and slept a little.
When they were done, we walked back down the path and as we got closer to the houses, I saw two more dogs! It was a great day to make friends. These two were small dogs. One was a Boston Terrier, just like my buddy Rocky, but smaller, and the other was a Chihuahua Pomeranian mix. As nice as I was, neither of them liked me very much. They didn’t want to play with me. That was a fun trip.
My favorite friend has been back to visit me at Takatz and she brought lots of people with her. She works on the fancy cruise ship. They came this week and last week. Mom and Dad talked to everyone about the fish and stuff, while I mingled and made lots of friends! We haven’t been able to go to the boat yet but hopefully we will because there are more friends to meet there! Everyone who I meet loves me. They like to play with me and I do some tricks for them. It’s the most fun EVER! Ok maybe not the most fun but I love meeting everyone.
THIS is the most fun ever… I’d like to introduce you to my girlfriend, Sophie!
Her mom is Melissa. She is good friends with my mom. Sophie is a German Shorthair mix and she came from the Best Friends Animal Shelter in Utah. Melissa adopted her. I met her the first day she came but she really didn’t like me. Mom said it was because she was just nervous because she just got here. Then we played the next week and we had so much fun! We are about the same age. She runs me into the ground actually… she really tires me out… but I love her. We love to just run around and jump on each other. She is SO much faster than me but I don’t mind. Our favorite thing to do is this…
I love this spot! It’s a mud trench right behind our house and it’s fun! Though I have to get a bath or atleast washed down afterward… so that’s not very fun, but it’s worth it! Mom and Melissa laughed a lot when we first went in there. I just walked back and forth in the mud, feeling it squish between my toes. Then I kept finding stuff so I’d try to get it with my mouth… Well my whole face was dirty. But… it was totally worth it! As much fun as it is, I don’t really go in there very often anymore. I get in trouble. Then Mom and Dad won’t let me get out of my box until I’m completely dry… that takes a while.
Yeah, I'm dirty... but look how good I can sit there!
Sophie and I both played in the mud... but I'm the only one who looks guilty.
Well, that’s all I have! I just want to say that I’m a little sad that I won’t get to meet any of you this summer. Especially you, Grandpa! You would LOVE me. Alright, I’ve got to go. It’s a great day out and there are HOPEFULLY fish to be caught and licked and grass to be chewed and, maybe if I’m lucky, MUD TO BE STOMPED IN! BYE!
This blog is dedicated to my uncle that I never got the chance to play with… You will be missed Uncle Stormy!
So I’m sitting here, making Uncle Eddie proud by watching the second half of the Michigan State game, so I decided to make a post. However, by the time this gets posted online, the game will already be over. So Uncle Eddie, sorry if State lost and I just sent you into another depression after you’ve already recovered.
There isn’t a whole lot new… it’s that time of year where I have no good work stories because it’s all very routine work. Same ‘ol work every day… feed fish. The fish are growing good… too good actually. TOO GOOD, you say… IS THAT POSSIBLE!? Well sorta. It’s good that they are growing great. But last year when Adam had to figure out how much food he needed for this year, he estimates that the fish will grow at a certain percentage and right now they are growing BETTER than that percentage. We have different sizes of food and we switch the food when the fish hit certain size marks… So when they grow better than expected, they get to that size but we still have a lot of food left. We still have to feed all that food out so instead of switching them at 0.5 grams, we have to switch their food at 0.6 grams or something. When the food is too small for the fish, they just have to work too hard to get it. So it’s just not as beneficial for them. Yeah so I hope that all made sense… a bit of hatchery science for you.
(Ohh a Spartan just dunked… NICE.)
ANYHOW, our weather has been so off and on that it’s getting to be really a pain! Not just like “Oh it’s raining… have to put on my rain gear to feed” but every time we have to switch out for Takatz, the weather is usually bad. Last week, we had to leave the hatchery early to go back because it was going to get worse. Then this week, we couldn’t leave Takatz because it was crappy so we had to work another day and got back Thursday. TODAY we are supposed to switch out and go back to TK but I don’t think we can because it’s windy and choppy in the water. It’s sunny though… this second. A few minutes ago it was rainy. We actually got a bit of snow on Thursday, which happened to be April Fool’s day! That Mother Nature and her jokes! None of use appreciated that much.
There has also been annoying business with our seasonals also. We just had one leave last week. He surprised us with that one a month ago… Well he was one of our Takatz people so we had to get another person to go down. But… they don’t want to or don’t feel comfortable with it or the other person or something. I’ve been stewing about this whole thing for a few days… and I probably shouldn’t really even say much about it, in case someone reads this. It’s just been really annoying and like they are trying to make up their own rules, even though they’ve been here for about a month.
IN OTHER NEWS, I have told a bunch of people this story already but didn’t put it on here. About two weeks ago, we were down at Takatz and took Tucker to his favorite beach. Well Adam wanted to go looking for some ducks in this one area so we hiked over there. Then we hiked back and as we were getting close to the beach, we got to this spot where there was a small drop off. Well Tucker was in the lead but Adam stopped him and told him to turn back. Adam turned around and walked toward me, then stopped and said “Where’d he go?” “I DUNNO!” I said. “OH NO, DID HE FALL!?” Adam said as we both went to the drop off. Sure enough, Tucker was at the bottom. Now we arent’ talking like a hundred feet or anything! It was only like 10 feet. But that could do some damage. We aren’t sure if he jumped or maybe fell as he went to turn back, but he was down at the bottom… and he was bleeding.
Well, right then, I turn into SCARED MOM and we get down there. By then he was freaking out in a snow drift and rubbing his nose in the snow, smearing blood around. We got to him and saw that he had a gash on his lip and some scratch down one side of his nose. But he was walking and nothing else was hurt. We calmed him down and tried to stop the bleeding. We did mostly and he got up and basically started acting normal. CRAZY DOG! Well we took him back to the house and he was still bleeding a bit and we saw that he broke two of his front teeth. I was really worried but I started feeling better after a while. Now it’s been two weeks and his lip is almost all the way healed, which is good, because we were sort of worried it would get infected. We are going to have to address his teeth when we can get into town, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by them.
Last week, when we went back to Takatz, there were two Killer Whales in bay! This is only the second time I’ve seen any in my 4 years up here. It was probably a mom and calf, but I only got a picture of the mom, I think. This was the only picture I managed to snap before they disappeared under the water, probably because they sensed or heard the boat. But for this being the only picture I could get, I was pretty surprised by how good it turned out. Unless they jump all the way out of the water, this is about as much whale as you are going to get in a picture. I’m pretty happy about it.
Because it’s been rainy lately, we’ve seen a few really nice rainbows down at Takatz. Here are two that I got pictures of.
This rainbow was partly a double rainbow, but you can't see it well.
Well I hope you all have a HAPPY EASTER! We’ll be feeding fish.
P.S. They lost… Sorry Uncle Eddie! :-(
Hey folks,
Well I don't have that much to say to you all but I have some pictures to share. We are heading into our 2nd week of Takatz and Adam and I are there 5 days a week. Our weather has been really off and on so it's been alright there so far. Our transfers went alright and FAST, though we battled slush 2 out of the 4 days. The water was sort of rough too so who ever was riding on the boat back and forth (Adam mostly) had to make sure he didn't get sea sick. Hopefully Takatz will be a good year. The fish are in the water a few weeks earlier this year than last year. AND the water is already at the temperature that it was in the middle of April last year. That's cause there isn't as much ice and snow as last year.
Tucker has forgotten anything he ever knew about Takatz from last year. He didn't like walking on the net pens and you would literally have to carry him. So I played trainer one day and walked him around, off and on the pens like it was nothing. He has been coming on ever since but he still takes a little coaxing. He doesn't really like getting in and out of the boat, but I guess he never really did. We probably traumatized him the other day though. We hadn't gotten our plane for a few days and it finally came, so we went back to the hatchery to get our groceries. The water was alright on the way there but on the way back to Takatz, it was HORRIBLE. Probably the worst boating conditions we've been in. The weather wasn't too bad... just the water. We made it safe though.
On a good note, they have figured out some good stuff with our internet. I'm not sure how much you know about our internet and how much I've said. They have set up a monitoring program so that each house is monitored and it'll shut off each person's internet when (if they do) reach their limit for the day. Instead of one person using up ALL the bandwidth and ruining it for everyone. That way we all have access to the same amount of bandwidth. Also, they found out that our internet provider does not monitor our internet usage from the hour of 8pm-2am so we have basically unlimited internet during that time! That's pretty awesome! Though I have stayed up pretty late for the past few nights browsing and buying! So that means I can turn on the AIM during that time, if anyone is up to talk to me on it. And I can hopefully post more pictures and check out the pictures anyone else posts online, like Melissa's.
Anyhow, that's really all I have to say. Here are some pictures... mostly stuff you've seen before though I think...
P.S. Bears must be out and about a bit. Adam went hiking with Tucker and saw some large bear tracks in the snow.
Some of you have seen this... I posted it on Facebook. This is the valance that I made.
Ehhhh.... slush and 0 visability! Just another winter day at Takatz.
NIGHT AND DAY, right!? That's the exact same view as the picture above. That's only a few days afterward too.
Different year at Takatz, Same ol Tucker!
Tucker and his friend. We pulled up this baby King crab on a line that was in the water right near the netpens. He was such a little guy, but super cute and VERY SPIKY! We wondered if his parents were around so Adam set a crab pot. We didn't get anything though. Can't get much meat off of this guy so we tossed him back in the water, in hopes he'll become our meal one day! :-)
Tucker... just hanging out.
Tucker's other stance. "LETS FIGHT!" is what he's thinking!
