A Squirrel Subdivision in the ATTIC!

Mum has been feeding rodents of all kinds since first moving to North Kenai. The mice and shrews have hung out in the shop and the squirrels were outside. Or, so we assumed. Their antics have always kept us amused, but when Jon got to the attic of the garage... Amusement vanished. 

Welcome to the Egbert Squirrel Subdivision. An entire expanse dedicated to the thriving lives of bushy tails living on the Pipeline road. Jonathan found this lovely partially finished dollhouse flipped by industrious fuzzy creatures. They fully insulated the first floor, leaving the upper one bare as a viewing platform. 

Steve and Jon hauled away several truckloads of debris. Thankfully, most of it was empty boxes. Or what used to be empty boxes. The squirrely scallywags even filled in the fish box from a cannery we'd worked at, Cook Inlet Processing! 

Mom saved every box from every appliance she owned. This lovely food saver box was recycled by the squirrels to store food in!!!! The little guys were definitely educated. They probably used some of her teaching materials, too. 

 Even the Karaoke machine box was not quite filled with treats for a proper party house.

 Mum saved this mayor sign, so perhaps we had a few political nuts in the attic.

A front and back outside view of the dollhouse. Janet worked very hard on this,. Oddly, the sealed box with dolls and furniture wasn't touched at all! It was even clean. 

 It seems they appropriated my old Habit Trail set, too. Or at least the box! Perhaps it was a playground for the kits.

Steve and Jon used gloves and masks while working up there. Then, Steve decided to fix the entry and exit holes the creatures had chewed in the back wall. A great deal of brush needed moved out of the way. Also trees and bushes and the dish cables. 

 Boards on the ground.

 New board up, but not painted. Which is ok, most of the garage needs paint anyway!

It is now Wednesday, about a week after this chronicle was photographed.  The squirrels are annoyed they can't get in the attic, the internet is working, Steve and Jon are in Oregon, and the days are getting shorter after solstice. It is midnight and the sky is pink with the twilight. 

(this picture was taken just at sunset around 1130 on Tuesday, Arness Dock) 

A Backwards Look

 I'm at the local laundry and am adding a backwards look at the last two weeks from my camera point of view. I'll add Jon's magnificent photos when I have the thumb drive with his pictures stored on it. I left it at home this morning! I took many pictures of my own, it is fun t see things from different points of view! I think he took an average of 141 photos each day he was here.

 It was an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Jon was here for one, by himself. Then, Steve came in the day before Father's Day. They did a million things and couldn't finish them all. I would like to think the highlight of this trip north was fishing. I'd arranged for them to go out with a charter from Ninilchik called Ninilchik Saltwater Charters and I was a bit nervous about it. Jon's a water baby and Steve's been on it a bit less. I went down with them and we had to be there at 4 am for their check in. As we drove down, Jon asked me if there were mountains on the far side of the water, like in Kenai area. I admit, I was a put annoyed with Alaska for making those glorious mountains overcast, but it was ok! We did start out with a fun sunrise on the 21st anyway.

The guys were pretty tired. They had been super busy and gotten not much rest the brief night before. When it doesn't get dark, you keep working! 

 While they were out on the water, I napped and went up to the church and met the story teller, Bob Kanegis.  I took a few photos here and there and chatted with the lovely Mary, who manages the land part of the charter company.

 The boat and van left the parking lot at 430ish in the morning and returned around 2. I'll try and share some of the 'notes' I took as Steve and Jon shared their experience.There were 6 people fishing from all over the place. They had to get into the boat before it was dumped into the water (Jon has photos of that part. I probably should have brought the thumbdrive...) at 5. Steve said it was a bit startling by being pretty rough at first. They said the bouncing, especially as they got dropped into the water in the beginning, was an 'Oh no, we're gonna die' sort of feeling! Thankfully, the inlet calmed before they started fishing. They fished over 200 feet down and it differed from my own experience. This one seemed less stressful. The guys said it was exciting and tiring, they didn't expect to feel as tired as they ended up!  The captain was hoping someone would catch a salmon, no one did. Steve caught the first keeper fish and Jon caught one of the bigger ones kept. (He was the youngest one on the boat, but the others thought he was at least in his late thirties!) There was a ling cod caught and some shark. They were told shark are eaten by halibut, but it is illegal to to use them for bait. There are a million rules to halibut fishing. The smallest ones couldn't be longer than 28 inches (I think  that is how my notes read), the larger ones were as big as you could catch. You, however, were only allowed to keep two. They ended up taking 44.9 pounds of fish back to Kenai. Thankfully, we ate some on Saturday and they left a couple packages with me. When they got to the Anchorage airport, their fish box was 49 pounds!!! Jon figures that the trip, the vacuum packing, the box, and the extra baggage still made their fish less expensive than what is for sale in the stores by almost half!

This first  photo might be Jon's fish being flung into the barrow by Matt. Both Steve and Jon said he was a good instructor. They enjoyed the whole experience and were glad to have gotten the chance to do it. They were really glad they left from Ninilchik instead of Homer because they would have had to get up earlier! The tides were sort of funny, probably because of solstice, which was noted by both the captain (Steve) and Matt. .

Fronts and Backs of the halibut caught that day. 

The cod. 

Jon looking contently at his fish. 

 A few of the fish hanging up on the hooks outside the cleaning area.

 Steve and Jon in front of the line up. Jon's' pointing to 'his' fish. Each person is given a 'mark' and that mark is made on the fish caught. The captain also notes on a paper  the marks and when the person fills his or her quota of fishes. Jon's fish is the one with blood on the tail.

 This is one of the little ones Steve caught. He also caught a bigger one, but had already 'chosen' his big fish and had to toss it back.

 Cleaning table, Captain Steve is from LA. I think Matt is a local. .

A very tired young man. We did make one more stop to look at the church and he did want to stop at a viewing area, but we managed to miss them. It was ok. He dropped off to sleep before we left K-Beach road! . 

As I mentioned earlier, I'll use Jon's photos next time I'm online. I'm so thankful they came up (I may mention that more than once!)

On the lake

 I got out in the kayak this week, so I thought I'd post. As I am typing, I'm looking down at the floating pallets and there is a mommy with what appears to be a single duckling. She had two last night and at least 5 at the time of these photos. The ducks in the pictures, however, are a different family. I hope there are some babies left by the time Jon arrives. He's in or leaving Anchorage about now, so there might be a few. He did say he'd stop along the drive to take pictures. Stay tuned for photos from a NEW camera (he says he needs another battery and I'll have to find out where he can get one of those!). He took some around the house to practice and they turned out very well. Meanwhile, you have to see Alaska through my lens spotted camera!

When the babies are first born and as they grow, the families hang out in what we have always called the nursery. There is a mallard family in the photo below. The lily pads and the sparkling water often makes it harder for predators to find the young ones. But, they don't stay in that area and that is when death strikes. 

 These are golden eye. I'm pretty sure it is a male and a female. They sure made a ton of racket on the lake!!

There was a lovely play of the light reflections on this old tree. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well as it might have if I'd taken a video. 

 I was excited to spot the mallard family on the edge of the lake, I was a tad concerned because she didn't like the looks of the kayak and went around me into deeper water.

 Even the babies were checking out that giant odd orange bird floating along!

 The golden eye don't seem to care who is in their way. The mama had safely herded her family around me when the mating pair crashed into their flotilla! Mama was very put out and managed to keep everyone together.

 Later, it was quiet again and I was reading. Then, I heard crashing noise in the wood and looked up from my book to see the young bull! He was entirely unimpressed with my being in the lake. I wished he'd have been braver, a photo of a moose in the lake would have been cool!

 For being so large, they camouflage well.

 The pallets are favorites for the ducks. Grooming seems to be a land thing!

Later, about midnight, I heard splashing from the lake and spied one of the bulls wading past that area. He was moving too fast for me to snap his photo and the mosquitoes were fierce!

 We've had some spectacular sunsets, but I"ve been staying at the house. Too tired to leave that late, but I will once Jonathan arrives. I can't wait for him to experience our long days. He's only been here in July or September. I imagine the guys will probably NOT like having the curtains wide and the windows open a smidge. They aren't used to sleeping in daylight! Friday I had several out to help me with what cleaning, recycling, and tossing what was doubtful! It truly has been a blessed week out north. Looking forward to sharing it with my family.