Out Front

I should be down cleaning out the fish hold and getting it ready to receive a shot of ice for the upcoming opening, but I was actually able to get on the internet for a few minutes and so far got one picture to download, so I thought I had better take advantage of the opportunity. We are in the middle of a four day closure for cohos, which really worked out good for me because I had to do a bi-annual cleaning of the forest service building, which includes cleaning all the windows inside and out and powerwashing the whole building outside,as well as shampooing all five thousand square feet of carpet. It's quite a chore so I was happy that I could do it during he closure. The tides are huge right now too, and I don't normally like to fish too much when there is so much water moving. Depending on whether you're going with or against the tide, the boat is either going too fast or too slow. If you go cross ways to it the lines can sometimes get tangled. It's best just to avoid them if you can.

This picture is from my front lawn. Some years back we went on a picnic to False Bay. It's a delightful area down in Chatham Straits that you can drive to on the logging roads. It's a rough ride and takes about an hour to go the twenty five or so miles, but the view is breathtaking. While we were there I was walking along the beach and noticed all these pieces of drift logs. Being stronger than what I am now, I picked up three or four and hauled them to the car. I had been wanting to do something with the front of the lawn for awhile so I took them home and dug a three foot hole and buried them. While I was digging, the young lad from across the street called over and wanted to know who died. He assumed I was going to bury someone out front. Hmm... I don't know how he came up with that assumption, but maybe his Uncle Zeke is buried in his back yard. Anyway, I bought an old anchor from a friend who was moving and got some rope to wrap around the whole mess and was rather pleased with the end results. This year we went to Juneau and picked up bedding plants from Glacier Gardens. Everything we bought from them was so nice. They operate a really nice tourist attraction in a separate location too. Lots of flowers and other unique arrangements. One of the things that stood out the most was the trees that were turned upside down and used to plant flowers in the roots. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Juneau.

We get a lot of tourists passing by the house. Foreign visitors in particular seem fascinated by our place. We had one couple from Bombay who wanted to take a picture of Jan and I while we were out on the front porch. When I asked him why, he said, " You are from Alaska." Oh well. Maybe I can just sit out front and charge people five bucks to take pictures of me. I'll throw in a glass of lemonade for an extra dollar.