The Freshness, the Freedom, the Farness.

An excerpt from 'The Spell Of The Yukon'

The summer- no sweeter was ever;
   The sunshiney woods all athrill;
The greyling aleap in the river;
   The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
   The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness-
   O God! how I'm stuck on them all.
                        - Robert Service

Happy Independence Day! Summer is really rolling here in Homer.  With the long days the wildflowers and forest plants seem to grow before your eyes. It is amazing the transformation of the landscape as things green up and grow wild.

Wild Lupines are putting on a show everywhere!

We can't believe another week has passed us by. We are now on the back half of our trip and although the days are still long, they seem to go by very fast.  Grandma and Grandpa DeAngelis were here for most of the week, so we took some time to show them around Homer and see some of the sights again for ourselves.

The week started off with a bang with Ethan having great luck at the Lagoon.  He ended up catching a small King Salmon one day, and then the following day catching two;  another small one and then a BIG one - another 16 pounder! The great thing about the small Kings is that you do not have to record them as part of your harvest.  You are only allowed to keep 5 King Salmon that are over 20 inches in length per year. The small ones still put up a great fight and are good eating!

Who is this big kid with long hair ??? Catch and Fillet!



Ethan getting a fillet lesson




Fillet and release!


We had a nice week for wildlife.  The local mamma moose and her two twins were hanging out quite a bit in our back bog, which is always a good show.  The calves seem very playfull and like to headbutt each other- very cute and we figure they must be boys!  We took a nice long drive out East End Road to the Russian Villiages and saw another moose and some Sand Hil Cranes, not to mention a tonne of beautiful wildflowers.

They are so cute.

Aren't they all so cute? Hard to believe that moose are considered more dangerous than bears as they are more aggressive by nature and will stomp you to death if you get in their space.

Sand Hill Cranes

Grandma and Grandpa, Colton and Ethan at Bishops Beach



The boys enjoying the ride out to the
 "chicken hole." "Chicken Hole" refers to a
known spot for reliably catching smaller
sized halibut, ensuring that everyone on the
 1/2 day  charter catches their limit of two fish .



With Salmon fishing going so well, the boys were itching to go Halibut fishing again.  Colton tried to talk Grandpa into going, but no amount of sweet talk could convince Grandpa to get on one of those smallish boats for 5-6 hours.   He did however, offer to send the boys off, which they did so willingly. They left the harbor at 6 am and went out on the Sizzler.  The seas were quiet - only 1-3 foot waves, but it was a cold and rainy day.  That didn't seem to bother the fishermen.  All three caught their limit - 2 Halibut each, weighing in between 15 and 20 pounds. YUMM!! Thank you Grandpa!





Colton trying to get his fish up 145 feet
from the bottom of the sea!

Three of the six fish that the boys brought home.  They stopped
counting (somewhere in the 20's) the number of fish they
caught and released.

 



After they returned from fishing, we thought it might be fun to take Grandma and Grandpa to the Salty Dawg for hot dogs and beers.  Everyone enjoyed it, especially the boys as they finally got leave their mark on Homer.  We'll see if they can find their $1.00 bills the next time they return to Alaska.

 

We showed Grandma and Grandpa around town including the Spit and the Islands and Oceans Visitor's Center where we watched an interesting film on tsunami's in Alaska; quite timely after last week's warnings.  After 6 days of hanging out around Homer, watching the boys fish and eating a lot of good Salmon and Halibut, it was time to say goodbye as they continued their Alaskan adventure in Anchorage.

We got them on their way and we went down to the Anchor River, as it had just opened back up again for Red (Sockeye) Salmon. Too bad the Reds weren't actually running yet - but we did get a few nibbles from some rainbows and saw some King Salmon putting on a huge show at one of the holes.  The Kings in the Anchor are now just catch and release, but they were jumping like mad!  Hard to know how many were hanging out in this one hole as the splashes were frequent.  It is so impressive to see a 20 pound fish jump clear out of the river and roll 3-4 feet away from you. And it's very frustrating that you see them doing all sorts of acrobatics, but you can't get one on a line to save your life. Oh well.


Did you see that Salmon jump?



Choosing Tackle



The Anchor River with Mt. Iliamna as a backdrop!

 One of the benefits of fishing the Anchor River when the fish aren't actually spawning is that you have the place to yourself ; no one to bump elbows with.  It was an absolutely glorious day. Wouldn't have changed it for another bucketful of fish.  The sky was blue,  Mt. Iliamna, one of the three local volcanos was smoking and a juvenielle Bald Eagle kept us company.  Regardless of us getting skunked that day, we had a great time and we still  had enough fish in the freezer to ship home 40 pounds of Salmon and 30 pounds of Halibut- so far.  Salmon bake party at our house once we get home!!


juvenielle Bald Eagle

  

Tim fishing a hole on the Anchor.

Yesterday's forecast was not too good, so instead of doing a morning hike like we planned, we went down to Diamond Creek and Diamond Beach for some gold panning.  As typical in Alaska,  the weather folks were way off and we had  another beautiful morning on the beach.

The boys panning at Diamond Creek

Beautiful monring at Diamond Beach

The boys went to HOWL daycamp yesterday afternoon - it is Homer Outdoor Wilderness Leadership group.  Check out this great organization at  www.homerwildernessleaders.comThey had a four hour day camp on the beach doing gourmet camp cooking.  They made cinnamon rolls, pizza and banana desserts on a drift-wood fire on the beach.  Colton starts HOWL's  Wilderness Survival Camp this week.  3 days of hiking, tracking, bear safety, leave no trace, map and compass, etc.,  and then 2 days across the bay putting it all to use as they backpack in and stay overnight at Grewink Glacier. We wish we could go too... . 

Cool cloud on our 'rainy' forecast day.

For now we are enjoying the freshness , the freedom and the farness of our adventure.  We're looking forward to more guests this week as the Schaal clan starts to congregate in Homer. A special outing is planned for the boys on Saturday - check in next week to see how it goes.....