Crab Season, Night at the Museum, and Halloween!

 This was a week ago on Chico's lunchtime walk - things are very different now with snow all the way down to sea level.

 The berries are easy to find and easy to pick this time of year, and still delicious!

 Well, I've been slowly breaking the news to our families - with unprecedented prices being paid at the dock for king crab out here, I'm probably not shipping home Christmas crab this year.  Our crab boats are sure happy though, and cod season has been also going very well.

 A busy dock at work.

 Last Thursday there was a Medicinal Plants of Unalaska lecture at the Museum of the Aleutians by island treasure and fellow blogger Sharon.  Goldfish and I loved it!

 I kind of had a spider themed buffet table this year, so I carved a quick and easy spider pumpkin to use for a center piece.

 The table is shaping up, the guests will be here soon!

 We added the 6 foot long black cat this year, emerging from the master bedroom.  I was worried about the noise from the blower unit but it wasn't even noticeable once the party got started.

 All right, lets get the pillaging party started!

 Captain Sandness got out of the Marines a long time ago - someone tell him he doesn't have to stand at attention in my living room . . .

 Here's a good looking couple, and they brought an amazing Halloween themed chocoflan!

 The Millipede tournament rages throughout the evening.

 The fog came and went, at some points you couldn't even see halfway across the room.

 I have no good explanation for this . . . . it was late, and the music was thumpin' and the air guitar was getting the best of all of us. . .

 I thing it was just before this that the beaver attacked . . .

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  Thanks to all the trick or treaters and party guests that stopped by the house and helped us celebrate - see you next year!

Wouldn't You Know It . . .

Now that I'm back at work, the weather has been pretty amazing.  My only consolation is taking the long way home over the pass after work, as I did Friday.  Friday was a full day of work, a nice motorcycle ride, out to the Grand for a date night dinner (Goldfish had one of their amazing salads - the Cashew Chicken, I beleive - and I had the pork tenderloin.  Both entrees were great, as was the clam chowder!), then we popped downstairs to the pub to see who won the KCUB roundtrip airfare drawing (congratulations Lynda!), then we headed home and watched the movie "Date Night" with Steve Carell and Tina Fey.

This evening, at Goldfish's insistence, I started in on the decorations for the Halloween Party.  I got a few minor decorations hung and figured out how I wanted the buffet table arranged and got the spider web hung behind the table.  A couple more evenings and I should have the place decorated and ready for Sunday night!  I still need to come up with an idea for a cool pumpkin carving for this year . . . . and ideas??

Show Your Support for KUCB ! !

Tomorrow is KUCB's One Day Radio Pledge Drive - everyone on the island, stop by Burma Road Chapel and renew your membership or make a new pledge!  Everyone who pledges and pays at the $125 level will receive a new limited edition KUCB sweatshirt and an entry into a drawing for a round trip Alaska Airlines ticket to Anchorage or Seattle.  They are giving away coffee and muffins in the morning and pizza at lunch - what's not to love?  You can also make a secure pledge on their website at www.kucb.org - that is how Chico likes to make his pledge, he's a long-time fan!

For those of you who admire Unalaska from afar, no worries - you can stream KUCB 89.7 live over the internet, make an on-line secure pledge, and be part of the family!  We love our Unalaska Community Broadcasting!

Odds and Ends . . . .

Paw-Paw gets cuter by the day as his winter coat fills in.

Also cute is my mother-in-law who flew out for a visit and is shown here picking berries with Chico.

And for cute overload, you have the mother-in-law, the wife AND Chico . . . 

Goldfish has been experimenting with monkey bread . . .

This one she brought to a double birthday party where it went over pretty well . . . she's making another one for the Halloween party this year . . .

Speaking of the Halloween Party, someone has been getting in the mood . . . I need to get started on the decorations.

While the old '79 black Ford has been replaced with a  much newer green one, it still helps out around the place, especially when there are heavy things to be towed . . . .

And the snow is beginning to make an appearance now and then.  King crab season started a couple days ago, and Mother Nature began the season with a bang with the weather shrieking out of the North one minute, then out of the South the next, with rain driven by 50 knot winds sounding like buckshot on the side of the house.  It has been fairly warm though, just not great weather to get anything productive done outside.  We're out of dry wood for the stove and have actually been running the furnace for heat, just doesn't seem right so early in the season . . . . that's all for now, off to bed, Monday morning is fast approaching!  

October Already?

This is a great time of year to "take the long way home", riding along the ocean to Summers Bay and cutting over the pass, coming out the other side right near the house.  A two-and-a-half mile commute becomes a 10 or 11 mile commute, but by the time I get home all the troubles of the day are gone and I'm ready to enjoy the evening.  I think I have photos on the point and shoot, and photos on the DSLR, but for tonight we're just going to have to make do with these two shots I took with my cell phone on the way home.  Photography is really 90% being there, and 10% equipment anyways.

You can see we're starting to get some snow in the moutains - and, one morning right on my doorstep - and it seems like more and more I wait to ride the motorcycle until the afternoon, switching over at lunchtime.  We're starting to plan this years Halloween party, and just got a few decorations in the mail today that we had to check out before bed.  Goldfish is making her rounds, turning off the overhead fan, banking the wood fire, checking the dog's water dish and the locks.  I'm so very grateful I got some primer on the south wall of the house just before it turned cold because I'm not sure there will be many more days this year warm enough to paint.  I got to talk with my sister briefly at work today while I waited for the computer to finish cranking out a backup disk for the Seattle Office, but I need to call my sons, and my Dad, and my brother, and my other sister, most of whom are heading to bed in their time zones by the time I get out from work each day.  I miss them all, and wish they were closer.

I'll try to blog more, and not wait until I take just the right picture to illustrate what is on my mind.  This was the 603rd post on this blog - not bad for 3+ years of island life.  The great thing about just posting snapshots from the cell phone is they are much smaller files and upload much quicker at our slow island internet speeds.  Cheers everyone, I'm off to bed to listen to the wood crackling in the stove and the rain on the metal roof, the dog snoring on the floor beside me as I drop off to sleep . . . .

View from the Door Step

Sorry, its view from the doorstep because I have staying close to home these days.  I took a week off where it pretty much rained the whole time, went back to work for a day to catch up on anything critical in my in-box, and took this week off as well, which has been marginally better, so I've been making some progress on my projects.  A couple weeks back, when I went out the door in the evening, there was an adolescent bald eagle perched on my porch railing.

He took note of me, but had no interest in leaving his spot.

I took a step or two closer . . . .

And even when I used the flash to highlight his plumage a bit, he still sat right there . . . .

Until I was standing right next to him, and could have touched his beak.  The island is thick with eagles, some days I see hundreds in a day, but this was a neat opportunity to really study one.  I eventually moved on, out to the shed.  I'm not sure how long he hung around, but I'm glad he stopped by . . .

Now THIS little one, our intrepid Paw Paw, needs to stay further away . . . he drives Chico nuts . . .

Cheers everyone - I have some interesting blogs percolating in my head but can't seem to get them posted.  Back soon!

Socializing!

We've been doing a lot of socializing lately - we've had pizza parties and a combined birthday party and even pizza combined with a birthday party.  We even broke out the nose cups - real classy way to drink ice wine, tip it just a little higher Elaine!

So when you have a double birthday party, you get to have two different cakes - a dreamy cheesecake for Elaine, and a peanut butter work of art for me, both complements of Goldfish.

Max tried his hand at topping a pizza . . . I think he had three or four layers of pepperoni.  Nice job Max!

So I used to make these deep dish pizza creations, with lots of crab and other toppings, the whole thing having to cook for an hour or more.  I've been taking things in another direction lately, auditioning a half dozen crust recipes to get a thin crust pie that will bake in less than 10 minutes.  Currently I'm favoring an Alton Brown crust (except I like to sub maple syrup for some of the sugar - sorry Alton, and 25 minutes with a dough hook - really??) with a Martha Stewart pizza sauce.  Toppings vary widely depending on requests and available ingredients - we all love this certain Potato Leek pizza from Pioneer Woman Cooks, but finding leeks on this island is amazingly hit or miss, so I have altered the recipe so much, it barely resembles the original, but everyone still likes it.  It has no sauce, you lay a thin layer of potatoes sliced very thin on a mandolin right on the crust.  It is quite unexpectedly delicious.  I went through a brief period of insanity where I thought it would be fun having pizzas at our Halloween party this year, but Goldfish reminded me my chicken costume tends to shed on pretty much everything, and I'd be sweating like rancid pork in that thing for 3 or 4 hours to feed everyone . . . .

The other thing I've found with cooking these 10 minute pizzas made from dough assembled the day before, it it sets the pace for a gathering.  Everyone stands around and talks and socializes, and I chat and work on pizzas, and every 15 minutes or so there is something different to try.  It works with everyone standing around the kitchen island drinking wine and being involved in the process, and it works with everyone seated at the table, talking among themselves.  I still haven't found the ideal marriage of dough and toppings, but it is fun trying and everyone leaves with a full belly.  I've come to realize there will eventually have to be a wood fired pizza oven in my yard, and I'm slowly come to accept the eventuality this passing idea will be a full-grown obsession, temporarily displacing everything until it get built or the next nutty idea comes along.  Currently, I am working at jacking up an old shed, replacing the floor joists and attaching skids and moving it, so I can built another shed slightly longer, all so I can built an Aleutian style kayak for which I purchased the wood 2 years ago.  So you see, I really don't let go of ideas . . . I still carry an idea for a sculpture titled "The Dichotomy of Man" in my head from maybe 8 years ago.  Might be a good project to work on in the new shed . . . . .

And finally, berry picking has completely taken over the household with gallons of blueberries in the freezer.  Goldfish's Mom has been out here this week, picking her heart out.  It has been a joy having her here - it is always great having company - but you have to see these two in action running all over the island picking berries.  I'm not complaining, mind you, I eat berries at least 300 days a year, and they don't get in the freezer on their own - I love to reach that Zen-like state of berry picking nirvana myself when I get a chance.  Okay, I've got to get off to bed, cheers everyone!

Vacation at Home

I've been on vacation this week, sort of a last minute decision that I needed a break.  With just a handful of days off since vacation last December, it was more than overdue, and I did a pretty good job relaxing, even in the face of endless chores staring me in the face.

Since I live in a valley, there are not sunrise and sunset in the traditional "glowing orb on the horizon" sense, but we do have some interesting skies at all times of day.  Here, you can see the fog still lingering in the pass, awaiting the full rays of the morning sun to burn it off.  The streetlight at the base of my driveway and the moon in the sky are both trying mightily to hold on to the night, both oddly appearing to be equally bright, but the sunrise over the mountains will eclipse them both in less than an hour . . . .

I did get a few chores done around the house but I also did a tremendous amount of goofing off.  Had such a great time, I'm thinking about working next week to get the end of month reporting done for Seattle and Japan then taking another week off, just to make sure . . . . 

How About This Weather?

These pictures are a bit dated, Goldfish and I hiked up to the lake about a week ago now.  The weather has been perfect lately, lots of sun, temps about 60.

She was trying to take a "couple picture" but I wasn't cooperating.  This is probably the least offensive of the bunch . . . . apparently I don't behave well when someone else has the camera.

Heading back down, alas, we kept Chico on the leash the whole time.  Too many temptations here in our back yard, and we didn't want to spend the evening chasing him down while he ran himself to exhaustion after foxes.

These are, again, a week old.  The bike is all back together and running - I plan on taking it to work in the morning!

I fabricated the best fitting patch I could and then JB Welded it all together.  Time will tell how that works, I'll keep a close eye on it.  I found a replacement skid plate on eBay for twenty bucks but I still want to make an aluminum or stainless one this winter.  For now, we have the colors picked out to paint the house, I want to put up a wood shed before winter, and Goldfish's Mom will be here in a week or two for a visit.  Gotta head to bed - cheers!

KLR Update

With the engine pulled I'm doing some real thinking on whether I want to split the crankcase to do an inside repair.  I'm very tempted to take my time and try a repair from the outside to avoid having to shim the crank preload without all the specialty tools involved.  There is another way that is tempting as well - rounding out the hole in the crankcase and using an expansion plug.  No matter what I do, fabricating a stronger skid plate is definitely on the list for a winter project.

I think I'll sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning.  I've got the rock out and all the metal fragments removed - one good reason to split and strip the case would be to check the case bearings and really verify there was no damage from a low oil condition.  I've always loved working on motorcycles, from my very first Kawasaki 30 years ago, and this one is no exception - the important thing is to get it back together and get back on the saddle!  Cheers and good night . . .