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My winter sojourn is over. But not to fear I will continue blogging as the year progresses. April 30, 2007 was my last day at Tutka Bay for the winter. Really hated to leave, as did Spike..So what has happened since my last blog a month ago?
Well let's see...the harbor finally unfroze, but the incoming water never unfroze and lordy, lordy, the outgoing septic line froze up tighter than dick's hat band. So the outhouse got a lot of usage for a couple of weeks.
So to backtrack a bit, in my last blog I told of the trials and tribulations of melting snow for water and conserving the remaining water for showers and toilets. Well, needless to say with the septic line frozen, I didn't have to melt water for the toilets any longer. Of course when it froze it did so in spectacular fashion.
The downstairs toilet had been temperamental all winter and had occasionally backed up. It had done so again, overflowing like a slow moving geyser. What fun. So after the clean up, I left it alone to wait it out. However (and there is always a however) once I saw the water in the bowl going down I got a mite impatient and decided to plunge it and assist the flow. Bad, baaaaad idea. All I managed to do was move the blockage down the line beyond where everything else flowed into the septic line..Of course I didn't realize this at the time, I just knew the toilet was still stopped up.
So in the middle of doing a load of laundry (after taking a shower), I was minding my own business playing on the internet when I started to hear a strange noise coming from the kitchen. So after hearing it a few times I got up to investigate..and lo and behold the sinks are backing up with water..all four of them. Yikes!! I run upstairs to shut off the washer, which is in a rinse stage. and then spend a nice chunk of time scooping out four sinks worth of soapy (and other) water. Then I let the washer finish and bailed that out as well.
So now I know the blockage is not where it was..I let Jon know what was going on and I end up removing all of the insulation under the house which was mightily duck taped in place and then open the clean outs to let air in.. So I slowly open the first clean out, which has a very long icicle hanging from it, leaned back as far as I can so I don't get gushed on and water is spewing everywhere of course. So once the pressure dies down I take it the rest of the way off. I did the same thing to two other clean outs and can see a block of ice going straight through the pipe. Nothing to do but wait for it to thaw.
So the outhouse became my best friend for a couple of weeks. Spike had to check it out as well. The walk to the outhouse was over about 3 feet of snow, so after trampling through it a few times I had knocked it down about 6 inches. Spike would follow me out there and all you could see of him was the top of his back and his tail.
Anyway, after close to a week the ice I had seen previously in the pipes was gone. This was in the pipe before it took a 90 degree turn and went underground. So I closed the first clean out and ran water down the drain to see if the pipes were free. And they were..woo hoo. So far so good. I closed the other two clean outs and enjoyed indoor plumbing at it's finest.
Two or three flushings later and a shower, it backed up again. Damn it. Back under the house to open the clean outs closest to where the line went into the ground. Apparently the line was frozen underground. So knowing exactly what was in the pipe I went prepared. Not wanting any poo on me and knowing water was going to come spewing out of the pipe, I donned my "no poo on me" outfit. A garbage bag with a hole cut in it for my head and two arm holes - Chest armor - and one garbage bag per arm, wrapped around and secured with twist ties...Quite the outfit. Unfortunately no pics of this get up. Rubber gloves, channel lock and read for action. Opened up the clean outs and out it all came. Even had Spike for company this time. But no little feline 'no poo on me' outfit for him.
I gave it a few days and tried again, only this time no poo water...just shower water, figuring the warm water would help melt anything in the pipe. And it may have but there was no way to tell if any water had gone down the septic line or not. Needless to say most of it did not and I had to open up the cleanouts and just forget about it.
Jon was able to get a plumber out there after a while and he dug up part of the line and found ice. We put hot water down the line but couldn't tell anything.
A few days later Jon came back and ran a hose down the line to flush it out, repaired the part that was cut out and viola I had indoor plumbing back..
You don't really realize what a luxury indoor plumbing is until you don't have it.
We also ended up having to run a long long line from the spring house to the tank room to start filling the tanks. This line literally went through the woods and along the beach, then up the deck. Lots of hose. At last water, both in and out.
So other than that most of the last month has been pretty normal. I spent time cleaning the cabins and getting them ready for guests and getting myself ready to go until June. It rained for almost two weeks straight and then the sun came out and the snow melted for the most part. Beautiful weather in Tutka Bay. Spike went on hikes with me and stayed out everyday longer and longer. He really loves it out here. We found a skeleton on our last hike. Looks like a fox. I tried to get Spike to stand over it to show his prowess as a hunter but couldn't get him to stay long enough to snap the pic. He sniffed and was done. Haven't seen any bear but it is getting to be that time. Never did see the moose but he has been around. Found fresh droppings around the staff cabin.
I got a close up view of Bald Eagle Love. Full blown screaming and carrying on at the tip top of a tree. I don't know how she hung on, the tree was swaying back and forth..but then again it only lasted 30 seconds and in typical male fashion, he screamed the whole time and then took off. Didn't even hang around for the cigarette. One pair is rebuilding a nest that didn't get reused last year so I have been watching them build it. It is pretty close to the lodge house so hopefully I will be able to get some shots of it and the babies.
Id'ed a Northern Saw Whet owl by sound. And Varied Thrushes (this is the species name not 'many' thrushes) and white crested sparrows are all a twitter in the trees as well. Warblers should be coming in soon.
I spent the last three days I was out here cleaning the main lodge house from top to bottom (yes I do windows), making a bunch of trips to the staff cabin to move my summer stuff over and getting the rest of my stuff ready to go. Needless to say I am tired. It was kinda like real work..
Eric and Jon have been coming over pretty regular getting the place summerized and ready to go,doing some repair work. Eric was kind enough to take Spike over with him the day before I was leaving so it would be one less thing to deal with and I could also get his bathroom thoroughly cleaned as well before the last minute. Spike will be staying at Christy and Eric's until I come back over in June. Then he will be coming out here for the summer. We will see how that works out. He may end up back in Homer for the summer.
So finally , I came back to Homer, loaded down with stuff for storage. We saw two small humpbacks on the way in and a small school of dolphins. No pics unfortunately. We couldn't get close enough to them.
I am staying at the homer hostel... www.homerhostel.com . The building is really cool. Check out the website for pics. Tomorrow, May 2nd, I am going to Seward and taking a Gray Whale Watching Cruise on May 3rd. I am hoping to do a half day at the Ididaride in Seward as well. www.ididaride.com .
Then back to Homer on the 5th for a few days, over to the lodge on the 10th through the 14th to help with some early guests, back to Homer until June 1st and then driving up to Denali for 5 days. Planning on camping out in Denali, taking two bus tours, do some hiking and hope to work in a Nenana White Water Rafting trip www.alaskaraft.com I will be back in Homer on the 6th, spend the night, pick up Spike and head back over to Tutka Bay for the summer.
So look for another blog chock full of pics of my adventures through the first week of June.
Peyton, my granddaughter, is doing great. They postponed her surgery again and her first surgery to fix her nose, lip and gum will at the end of May. They will also put tubes in her ears at the same time. She is gaining weight and both baby and mom are doing great. Unfortuntely I don't have any new pics yet. Still waiting on my ex to send them.
Hope everyone is doing well. I am having a great time. The weather is wonderful here. We have already had a couple of days in the low 50s!!
Talk to you all outsiders soon!!!
Lynda and Spike
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