The soil temperature of the lowest terrace in the greehouse...we shall see how the new fertilizer mix (poultry manure, compost, and seaweed/shells) heats things up in the next week or so. On a sunny day the greenhouse air temperature gets high enough to have to open the door and windows to vent, as high as 100 degrees. Not exactly a bad place to do some work.

Lettuce newly germinated under the lights...what amazing information seeds hold...this is not sterile soil but it was light enough to work, also I figure that those seedlings that succumbed to damping off is kind of like survival of the fittest, I have already gotten rid of the more disease succeptable seedlings...but new potting soil should be arriving soon to germinate the rest of the seeds with...spring is just around the corner!!!

along with what we are growing in the windows up at the main house.

the seaweed, kelp, and shells are ready to mix into the newly workable soils along with plenty of poultry manure, compost, and gypsum...you can still see the remaining kale...we covered their roots with a little extra soil and straw (from the tundra/beach, no seed heads!) and cover them loosely when there is a danger of a heavy frost....last day of Februrary and so far so good....they are very hearty plants, one just has to keep up with them so they don't bolt...which is exactly what they are going to do when they start growing more in a month or so yet, it has and will provide us with greens until things get going this spring...

After a good rinse in the beautifully clean, cold, fresh water...

One can even find vital trace nutrients to replace those lost in last years growing season in the garden and greenhouse!

and even these strange, sausagey, looking creatures...harbour seals and cormorants on whirl point reef...the seals have a "white" stage in the winter months that ranges in intensity with each individual seal. We tried to get as close as we could with out sending them back into the water. The stellar sea lions will become more numerous soon, in a month or two.

Fun character wood to work in the shop with...

You can find all sorts of interesting things on the beaches, like this caribou skull that washed up in the bight near the house. I have yet to find a whole glass net float, but I have found walrus ivory and whale bones to name a few items...

Including these guys...back from near extinction

All walks of life take advantage of the low tides...

All sorts of starfish...they were much more robust looking earlier in the season...they have slowly been turning more and more greyish white, kind of like us...almost transparent.

Chiton on Stonewall reef...approximately 3-4" long, 1.5 "wide, eight segmented plates...very hard to release their suction on the rocks...

Slightly larger than a quarter, a limpet shell on kelp, great to eat eventhough one has to gather quite a few to make a meal, (and the whole PSP thing).

And seem to "out-fox" him every time... (can you see the fox curled up near the rocks on the left?)

They are just camouflaged so well...

and that is not from a lack of trying...

(Enjoying the scenery together)

He hasn't caught one yet...

That was the idea...

They used to be about the same size when he first got here...and the fox used to be somewhat scared of him...

This is one of the many "Mr. Fox" around....mention that name and Roo goes nuts looking all over for him. Can you see his ears sticking out above the rocks?

Master forager at work on a purple sea urchin which is his absolute favorite treat. He also munches on chitons or (gumboots for you southerners).

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about our dog...we got him from a guy who got him from a musher in Skagway (since he had a bum left leg since birth he wasn't fit to pull (yet, I think otherwise. And if you met him you would know why)...he had it pretty rough as a pup, I won't go into details, so we adopted him. On our way here, we took him to a vet in Juneau and they said, "yeah, I think we could take that off for him." Needless to say that is the last time I will go there. He gets around just fine and it really doesn't seem to bother him, although he lifts it out of the cold water when he is wading. He has become a master forager and friends with the family of fox under the shop (hard to believe but I have proof) and enjoys meeting his fellow wild comrads.

This dog knows that when we put his "necklace" on that we are going to town. We usually walk him where ever we go in town so he can socialize with other dogs, (Digger, cookie, cessna, copper, and about three others), to get used to being on a leash, (he is suprisingly good for being a husky) and being tied up in different places while being left alone. I usually leave my jacket for him to lay on.

He likes to think that he is helping yet, Josh usually just gets in the way...haha.

Taking a trip to town...must untie the skiff before we send it down the ways...both of our loving families send us amazing care packages which makes going to the post office every now and then feel like Christmas every time.

Alaskan roll minus the avacado and plus tamago. Delicious...

It is windy, usually precipitating, but atleast it is predictable. Winds from the north (Bering Sea) bring the cold, winds from the south (Japan) bring the warmth. The fronts are predictable from month to month. One is able to tell where a front is in relation to the chain by what direction the wind is coming from. You can actually feel and see it passing as you watch the prevailing winds start in the south and work their way west, then north and so on.

He finally figured out where all that white stuff was coming from.

Nice rack!

This is pretty sunset across the pass, I though the island was on fire at first, or maybe a volcano erupted, or possibly the japanese were attacking again and taking Unimak as a strategic base of operations. But no, just a sunset, sure makes yo happy to be here though.

This is Roo and his best friend Mr. Fox. It's crazy, but I swear they are friends the fox hangs around the house and Roo chases them away as fast as he can and then he just comes right back until Roo is to tired to chase him anymore and then they just stare at each other like this. Ah puppy love.

This picture is kind of blurry, but I liked it anyway. It's of a place called the palisades which is just a short walk down the beach.

We may have posted this picture before, I'm not sure because Christen usually does this, but I like it so I'm gonna post it again, because I like it.

Waiting to go get water from the creek below...our domestic water has frozen a few times, so when that happens we go fill up at the creek and pray for warm weather (anthing above freezing will do).

"When the tide is low, the table is set." A blue mussel bed...and a limpet...everything you see here is edible...(chitons and butter clams are plentiful here as well) yet, the risk of PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning) kind of takes the fun out of it...supposedly in the winter months the red tide and PSP risk is low...not low enough for us to take any risks though...what a shame, i love mussels steamed with a nice white wine sauce.

Below Einer's cabin...the amount of metal strewn about the beaches is amazing...even with the price scrap metal is fetching today...perhaps one day it will get high enough so it will become worth it to haul it away...with all that said, it is interesting to look at and recycle a few things here and there..

Snails in Goose barnacles...low tide at eagle's nest.

I think the homemade wine, the sauna, and what seem like an endless supply care packages from home, are going to be what gets us through the winter.

mmm...king crab legs! Mrs. Hoblet, over at the post office, was telling me how her husband Tom, like many other crabbers, will brave 20'+ swells no more than six hours from the pass to bring these monsters back to shore. These crabs are better than lobster, but I would rather have all those men (and women) safe on land rather than eat these things. But, thank them none the less. I don't know how they do it.

It didn't take us long to bust into our jam reserves that were barely cooled from the canning process...the blueberry has been amazing, especially in the waffles!

"Hey, do you know where Roo went?"

After getting the fire going, filling the buckets full of water and waiting for the sauna to get hot, we found this little guy waiting for us in the 100 degree+ room...sound asleep...I thought huskies were supposed to like COLD weather?!

Note to self: quite stacking the wood so high...

Safety first Josh! Once a week we check the solution level in the batteries. The bucket in the top right corner is filled with rainwater. The tubing makes it really easy to fill the three cells of each battery of the eight battery series to the appropriate level.

Roo loves to chase and pounce the seaweed and grass blowing in the wind. He will crouch down on the beach and wait for things to blow by.

Beach

"erosion/deposition-meter"...one day after a good storm this appeared near the ways. I wonder what else is under all this sand?

Alright, I know it has been a while, so here are some more pictures. And please disregard anything that has been written with the last few posts. Not wanting to make Josh feel like he wasn't a part of this, I told him he could post a few pictures and add his two cents. So again, I appologize. Haha. And please don't feel bad but, he can't really read either. He just looks at the pictures when he "reads" books. So I am sure he will so the same with this blog...ignorance truley is bliss.