Busy Busy Month - Part One

Whew can't believe how fast May went. I had a busy busy month as outlined below.

But first, Peyton had her plastic surgery to repair her nose, lip and gums. They put tubes in her ears at the same time. She came through the surgery perfectly. The cleft closure is scheduled for the end of August.





There has been no word on Spike. My thanks for everyone's heartfelt condolences and wishes. They were truly appreciated.

Please check out a new website I found..Dear Douchebag...the link is on the left with my other links of interest. I have posted two letters already. Read the archives ...some of the writers are truly inspired. Also check out my news articles of interest. They are also on the left.

I am not posting a slide show this time. So all the pics are in the blog itself. Also there will be two parts to May's blog..Part two will be posted later in the week. The title of that part two is " The Manly Chronicles or What it takes to dress as a biker in Alaska and Rituals in pursuit of Salmon Fishing".

So Enjoy...it is kinda long.


I spent the last five weeks at the Homer Hostel. After a week, the owner, Will the Terrible, put me to work which helped me out a lot. Saved me the cost of a bunk..woo hoo.. Will isn’t really terrible..in fact he is an incredible, genuinely, truly nice guy.




I will have to say I wasn’t sure if I would like staying at a hostel…little privacy and lots of people. BUT I have actually had a fabulous time. I have come in contact with a lot of interesting and of course, some annoying people from all over the world. For example, we have 3 guys from German, 1 from Poland, 4 from Italian, 3 handicapped guys with their tour guide, 1 Israeli and several Aussies here right now in addition to a bunch of Americans. Most are here on holiday but some are actually looking for work on a fishing boat or just looking to work in AK for the summer. And this mix changes almost every day.

One of the more annoying people was a guy from CA who came here to be a pilot with a charter service. He stayed here a couple of weeks while getting his certification with the company. Had quite the A personality which won’t get him far in AK. One of those guys with two sets of rules…the ones for him and the ones for you. He left abruptly in the middle of the night after being asked to keep his voice down as people were sleeping. Took exception to it. And I was polite and everything… really lol.

Then there is Fergie. Fergie has lived here in Homer for about 16 years on the spit. In the winter he would go to Hawaii. The last time he went he stayed for 3 years and just came back. He stayed at the Hostel for 12 days which is where I met him. Fergie is a Harley rider, avid salmon fisherman, has the long hair, all the biker stuff, little earring, etc. And this is what he lives in.





This bus used to be a tourist pic spot on the spit until it was moved to Anchor Point 4 or so years. It is quite the interesting living space. He runs an electrical cord to it from a friend’s house and uses a wood stove and/or space heater for heat. Ferg has basically been camping for the last 16 years. I helped him move his stuff that he brought back with him from HI. And believe me the man has a ton of stuff. Never seen so many Tshirts for just one person. I helped him clean up a bit. Three years worth of grime is a lot..lol.

So we have been having lots of fun in the last few weeks. He took me for a couple of bike rides, introduced me to all the bartenders in town, played pool, went to see Pirates III, I got to witness the entire ritual of river Salmon Fishing and what it takes to get dressed to go bike riding in AK (more on that in part two), and just generally having a great time. At some point we are going to the shooting range and when Silver Salmon are in season, I will be introduced to the mysteries of salmon fishing.

But I have been doing other things as well when not drinking or imbibing in nefarious activities that are legal in Alaska.. if you know what I mean.

I went to Seward on May 3rd for a Gray Whale Watching Cruise. Stayed at the Moby Dick Hostel. The cruise was really nice. It lasted four hours and I will have to say I was ready to go back by about the 3rd hour..lol. So very glad I didn’t book a full day one.

We didn’t see any gray whales but we did see a Fin, several Humpbacks, Stellar Sea Lions, Dall Porpoises, otters, one lonely little Puffin bobbing in the waves, Murants, Gulls, Cormorants, Kittiwakes and other seabirds and Mountain Goats…not in the water but on the cliffs..lol. It was an absolutely beautiful day and I was doing fine until I went in to grab some coffee to warm my fingers with and that was a mistake. Got a bit seasick and didn’t really recover from it. But it was great fun. Here are some pics of Seward. The first one is on the road to Seward.

This one is in Seward and is a shot of the mountains across the Bay. The entire town is surrounded by mountains.
This is shot from the boat in Resurrection Bay.
Stellar Sea Lions sunning themselves on the rocks in Resurrection Bay.

View from the back of the boat leaving Resurrection Bay

Right at the Bow are two Dall Porpoises playing in the wave.

Absolutely beautiful

This is the boat we were on.





The next day I went to the Sea Life Center. Saw them feed the Stellar Sea Lions. If you ever get to Seward AK make sure you check out the Sea Life Center. Lots of nice exhibits and information. They also take in the injured sea life for rehabilitation.







On the way out of Homer I had a nice surprise. Two Moose browsing on the side of the road. I got pretty close to them and fortunately they were more interested in eating then charging me..




Then I spent a weekend at the Lodge helping with early season guests. Really nice couple from New Hampshire. We got to see a river otter under the dock eating Fry that didn’t swim out with the tide so they were trapped and made a great dinner for the otter.

Jon and Nelda took all of us on a wildlife watching tour in the skiff. Really great day for it. Saw lots of Bald Eagles, pigeon guillemots, Murrelets, otters, cormorants, surf scoters, harlequin ducks and white winged scoters. They also took us by some of the islands to see the rock formations. Some really beautiful stuff.




One night, on the way out to the Salty Dog with Fergie, we saw the strangest thing I seen here so far…We had just pulled out onto Sterling Hwy on the Harley…woo hoo… and coming in the opposite direction was a typical Homer beater (rusted out car) going about 20 mph with three cop cars behind him..sirens going, lights flashing and doing the weaving in and out stuff. The driver was drinking beer and saluting everyone with it as he went past. It was a slow motion OJ moment in Homer. Pretty damn funny.

Here at the Hostel there is a young moose that goes through the parking lot on a regular basis and two other young ones that occasionally saunter across the road. There is a pair of ring necked pheasants that either have a nest behind the building or across the street. I see them cross all the time and hear them. The male will stand on the side of the road WAITING for a car and then make the mad dash. Frequently the female is about 10 feet behind him. I have seen his waiting with no cars coming and then just as soon as a car comes around the curve, he takes off. Traffic has been stopped in both directions several times waiting for him to make up his mind on which way he is going. LoL

This is a business on the Spit...lol

Adreneline Junkie Ring Necked Pheasant

Homer just had a 10 day Seafaring Festival - Wooden Boat Festival, Sea Kayaking Festival and a Boating Safety Festival. I went down one Saturday for the Wooden Boat Festival and got roped into a Row Boat contest. Wasn’t going to do it and had been designated as the official holder of everyone’s stuff when this guy said he needed a partner so I volunteered and dumped everyone’s stuff on someone else and jumped in. Now I have rowed and did so all winter so I know how to row…by myself. My partner, Johann, a great guy and a sailor is about 6’ 6”. I am 5’3”. Needless to say we had some problems coordinating..lol. The boat itself wasn’t really designed for two people rowing and it didn’t have locking oar locks. So between the height issue, the oars that kept slipping from the locks and first me falling backwards off the bench a couple of times and then him falling backwards off his bench,,we didn’t make much headway but we had a damn good time. And the fact that my friend and the official monitor of the race, Dave Seaman, pointed us in the wrong direction didn’t help any either. Thanks Dave...But we had a great time and no one landed in the water and that is what counts.



Before the race, we watched a coast guard rescue demo in the barge basin. Pretty neat and then they landed the Black Hawk and everyone got to see the inside up close and personal and talk to the Coast Guard personnel. They had planned on giving free rides but it was really windy that day so that part was cancelled.

Later that evening, I went back to the barge basin and took a Sail with Will the owner of the Hostel. He owns a 22 ft wooden sailboat named the Blue Bill. The prow of the boat has a duck’s head and the bill is painted blue.

Now you have to understand that taking a sail with Will in the Blue Bill was kinda like jumping off a bridge with a bungie cord. You just hope everything turns out okay. For example, Will went for a sail the week before and never got out of the harbor. Couldn’t seem to avoid the sea wall. The day of the event , when he was moving the boat to the barge basin, everything was going well, no problems, nice wind, he was probably thinking to himself “congratulations on a job well done” when a boat pulled up beside him and said they had been sent by the coast guard to see if he needed any assistance….lol. When we left the barge basin that night we had an audience just in case there was any comic moments. They stayed until we had rounded the corner.

The sail was wonderful. The sun was going down, there was a perfect wind, the view of the mountains was spectacular …and we didn’t run into anything. Will let me take the control thing ( my command of nautical terms is impressive) and I got to steer for a bit. I can definitely see why people get all worked up about sailing.



And then there is my day on the docks. Yes folks I worked on the docks throwing Halibut for a day. The place I worked at is called the Auction Block. Halibut boats call around to the different off loading facilities to see who is going to pay the best price for their catch. The off loaders start the day by setting up the pallets and boxes. I got there at 7:00 am and garbed up in heavy rain gear, boots, heavy gloves etc. They don’t clean the rain gear very well so you can just imagine the smell right off the bat…the first thing you do is help put up boxes and line them. The boxes are taller than I am before they are put up and I was definitely the shortest person out there and only one of two women. But I managed to do my part. Then you have to put a liner in them. That was fun as I couldn’t jump in and out of the boxes like they could …lol.. I almost fell into a few a couple of times.

Once the boat gets in, a team of people get into the hold and put the halibut in a brailer net (not sure if that is spelled correctly). Once this is full the crane operator hoists it up and swings it over to the table where a ‘table dancer’ opens up the bottom and all of the fish fall out. The table dancer is responsible for flipping over all the halibut so the white side is up and sliding it down to the next step.

One or two people are in line to scoop out the belly ice and remove as much service ice as possible. This entails grabbing the fish by the gill, where it is cut, with the left hand and using the right hand to reach in and scoop all the ice out in the body cavity. The next person in line puts the fish on the scale where it is weighed , recorded and numbered. Then it is slid to the next table where fresh ice is put in the belly and then placed in the appropriate box. Once boxes are full, they are sealed and put on a truck.

There are no breaks while a boat is being unloaded and a boat can have upwards of 50,000 lbs or more. I helped off load two boats with a total of about 75000 lbs. Got good and fish slimed…
What I did for the first boat was move the fish from the ice scooper to the scale. The fish weighted any where from 40 to 124 lbs that day. So when a big one came my way the scale guy would have to help me lift it. You grab it by the gill and tail and pick it up to slide it on the scale. I would just yell big fish and he would grab the head..lol. For the second boat I removed belly ice. It is hard work but the 7 hours went by fast, fast, fast. I was definitely hurting by the time the day was done. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics …dang it.

On the night of the full moon I was invited to a Drum Circle. That has to be the most amazing thing I have done in a very long time. The place where it was held was amazing it itself but once it got started the energy flow was incredible. It went on for hours. Someone would just start a rhythm and then everyone would join in with the instrument that struck their fancy. I am definitely gonna go back as often as possible. One of the guys brought heather mead he had made. It was one of the best meads I have every had. He also made Hibiscus tea which was delicious as well. So yes, I am having a woo woo time in Homer.

I finally finally saw one of the moose calves up close. I was leaving Duggan’s (a local watering hole) with Fergie and in the parking lot of the chamber of commerce there was Mom and baby moose. He was driving and I am beating him on the arm to circle around so I could see them...lolI had to stop and watch them for a few minutes. It was close to midnight and getting dusky so my pics didn’t turn out so well. But if you look close you can see them..that was pretty exciting. There is also a mom with twins in the area but I haven’t seen them yet.



These are the yearlings that wander through the parking lot of the Hostel. I got really close to them.

Last night, my last night in the Hostel, we had bear meat. It was pretty damn good. It was marinated, skewered and put on the grill. Yum Yum. And there is a story behind how we scored the bear meat. Keep reading.

The great chefs of the Hostel - Mark and Anna

Skewered bear meat ready for the grill

Anna, Mark and Eran discussing the ins and outs of cooking bear meat.


Katie literally cut that tiny chunk of meat into smaller pieces.. She didn't want it to bite back.

And now for the rest of the story. Mark, pictured below in his fisherman's gear, went out,met a young lady at a bar and he stumbled back to the Hostel around 6am with a package of bear meat. The young lady paid for his meat with a package of bear meat. We are gonna post his pic on www.doyouthinkiamhotornot.com...lol That is " Do you think I am hot or Not".





I got back to the lodge on June 9th.. Gonna hate hitting the alarm clock for the first time since the end of August but I do miss the lodge and it is time to work a bit.

So as you can see I have had a fabulous 5 weeks in Homer and I am very glad I came over. Till next time… ( and look for part two of this blog)

Lynda and in spirit, Spike