August 2009

Here's our little friend that loved to clean up the spilled

birdseed on the deck. He loved us until Preston & Bryson

came up with the idea to TRAP & TERRIFY HIM!!!!

Here is one of the "EVIL-MINDED" & "CRUEL" squirrel-catchers!

As you can see, a styrofoam ice chest was used as the trap.

Once they caught the little-guy, he chewed a hole right through

the side of the chest to escape. GO-SQUIRREL!!!! ha!

Bryson and Preston told me that after he had nibbled a hole

through the styrofoam, they picked up a small piece of it to

shove back through the hole, but when they did, the squirrel

grabbed at it and yanked it out of their hands . . I think it scared

the crap out of them!! ha . . . GO-SQUIRREL!!!!

After a long wait and lots of phone calls, the furniture for

the cabins arrived from China in late July. It came in a 40 foot

container. It took 6 of us 2.5 hours to unload it. Thank

goodness I had lots of good helpers!!

We stacked the furniture on wood pallets. Here's

Bryson & Preston "man-handling" a box!

Shelise & Ploy made the furniture look light . . . . just

look at the muscles on these girls!!!

I spent most of the 2.5 hours just supervising!

Our kitchen table for the main cabin.

One of several jewelry chests.

Check out the lamp-shade on this baby!

Pretty Cool !!!

It's made of bark and the base is

made from Date Wood.

One of the Queen footboards.

Dresser & Mirror.

I had them make the drawers quite deep,

this way the visitors can just "dump" the contents

of their suitcase right into the drawer!!

Preston!!!! Catching ANOTHER SQUIRREL!!!

Oops . . . my error.

Here's the well-house almost completed.

Watch for a finished shot later . . .

Don't know what the name of this

wild-looking flower is . . .but they're

some of Mom's many. . . .

This is the flower on your broad-leafed plant

in the front love . . .

A few days ago we rented a ditch-witch to trench

for the electrical cables (3) that we laid. We trenched

about 500 feet. Here's Craig . . . showing the ditch witch

who is BOSS!!

Once the trench was dug it was time to lay

3 strands of electrical wire in (1-1-1 size). This is

very big wire!

Each of these spools of wire (1,000 feet per spool),

weighed 500lbs. We had Brown's Electric lift them onto

our homemade "WIRE-TRUCK" so that we could

roll out the wire. Our idea worked great! The two pieces

of 7 foot long pipe you see holding the wire spools cost $80!

I spent $1,500 per roll of wire! It was an expensive day!!

(Brown's price on the wire was HALF the price they

wanted at Home Depot . . paid to shop around)

Here's one of our "wire-laying-fools"!! Herman

layed and covered a good portion of the wire while

Craig and I operated the ditch-witch. It took two of us

to make the turns and help the machine along through the

wet and muddy parts. We were glad when this

job was over!!

Herman (more commonly referred to as "studdly")

working his magic!
Herman amazes me . . . if I'm in half the shape he is at his

age today . . . I'll be a happy camper!

Awwww . . . . . the finished product!!

Craig did an EXCEPTIONAL JOB on the painting. All 3 of us

worked on the siding and roofing of this shack!

Actually . . . this well house looks nicer than a lot of

folks' homes!!

Well guys . . . do the insides of the cabins look a

tad bit different now??? ha!

Shelise . . here's where your "sweat shop" was. You

stained all those siding pieces right in front of

this refrigerator!!

Mom did an AWESOME job on picking the carpet,

linoleum and wall colors. Everything matches perfect!

Today, Saturday, August 29th, 2009, we moved furniture

into cabins #2 & #3. I have decided that Chinese

definitely DO NOT know how to make a comfortable

couch or living room chair! They should have either slanted

the backs of everything or made the cushion to slant.

We'll have to fix that! The furniture looks great!

Living room set in Cabin #3

Kitchen & Table in Cabin #3

The table in this photo weighed almost

as much as a piano!!! It dang near killed Craig and I!!

Big bedroom in Cabin #3

The furniture is bigger than I anticipated, so we

will have to arrange the rooms a little differently than I

had invisioned. We'll only be able to accomodate 7 fishermen

in cabin #3 instead of the 8 I had hoped for.

Don't worry . . . the bunkbed you see only has ONE

ladder . . . the extra is from the bed behind me in this photo.

A photo looking out from the big bedroom.

Here's Herman hard at work in cabin #2 (please notice the

socked feet - no shoes inside!! ha.). Actually,

we had just finished furnishing this one and it was about

quitting time.

Kitchen and Table in Cabin #2

Check out the "Mountain" of cardboard in front

of Cabin #3!! We'll have about 4 pickup loads of cardboard

to take to the dump.

Devyn . . . we all definitely like cabin #3 the best.

It's much more "roomy" than the others. Both styles are

nice . . but I like the bigger one better.

We're halibut fishing tomorrow and then we'll have only 3 working days

to finish . . . wish I had more time, but I'm ready

to come home . . . miss you all . . . Dad.

Here's a photo of Mom at the Russian River.  When

Craig was here we all took a hike up to the Falls again,

chasing those Red Salmon.

Craig took this photo for us.  Ploy almost had to be carried in

and out!!  She was the heaviest "huffer and puffer".  We all had to

laugh.  It was a real workout for those carrying fish out!

The GANG!

Check out the number of Reds waiting to climb the falls!!

You need to click on this photo to make it larger so you can

see the salmon.  There were hundreds waiting to climb.

Looks like a couple of "seasoned" fishermen here . . haha!

Here's a good looking couple!  We were on our 

way out in this photo.

Time for a rest at the midway point.  Craig and I could tell that

we both need to "workout" a bit more (huff-puff) . . guess 

we'll have to do this hike a few more times in August? haha!

Here's a "strange-looking" THAI-ALIEN we met as

we were hiking out.  This alien was wearing a very stylish

bug-repellent helmet . . . pretty cool, don't you think?  She said

it would guard her against the attack of mosquitos . . maybe

I should have some made in China? haha!

Finally!!!! The hike is over!!!!  Wake up Bryson!

Unfortunately, there was no "underwear-clad" crazy

Alaskan to do the "jig" for us.

Devyn and Celeste came to visit for almost two weeks.  They

arrived the same day Craig departed for the "oven".

It didn't take Devyn long to find the Pike lake.  Unfortunately

for these Pike Hunters, they forgot to fully charge their motor before

leaving on the "hunt".  I love Bryson's paddle, but I don't know how 

much it is helping in the push forward . . . looks like a little

water might go through that paddle!

Here's Devyns trophy pike!! ha.  We thought that the

Pike had somehow died out of the lake, because we

didn't catch any in early June.  They must

have been waiting for Devyn?????

Father's Day was great.  I got some cool stuff and lots of

goodies.  The kids "custom decorated" my gift box.  Artwork is

courtesy of all the four of the kids here (Ploy, Shelise, Bryson & Preston).

Can you tell who's who???

One night after we had dinner, Preston was walking 

from the kitchen to the living room when we heard a rahter

"audible" TOOTY escape from him . . . he turned red

and was very embarrassed.  We laughed and teased him

about eating too many beans.  One side of my gift box

was a reminder of that evening! ha.

The picture to the left is Shelise and Ploy in their sweat shop.

They put two different colors of stain on the siding, Mahogany and

Red Cedar . . . without approving the different color with the

boss.  I was very concerned about the different colors, but

as it turned out, they were fine.  On the right is Bryson and 

Preston cutting trees and raking and cleaning between cabin

number 2 & 3 (they did an awesome job!).  In red it says,

"Only 5 minute break for moose?"  I teased them

one day for taking a very long break to watch a mama moose

and her 2 babies and reminded them that they did not

get paid for watching moose, but that I would allow them

to take 5 minutes to watch and then they had to get back to work!

The first 2 times we went fishing on the Kenai for Kings, it was

early morning and my 4 passengers could not stay awake.

At one point, all 4 were asleep while the guide drove

the boat . . . some fishermen!!!!! ha.  On the left, where

the arrow is drawn, it says, "Foul Hook".  Gotta love all this

cool artwork!!

We wound up taking a couple of trips to the Russian River while

Celeste and Devyn were here.  They arrived early in the morning here.

I joined them much later in the day, about 3 pm.

Here's Preston with one of the 4 fish he caught at the Russian.

By the time I arrived at 3 pm, the fish numbers had

gone down and fishing was slow.  Preston enjoyed

himself.

Devyn with his Sockeye Salmon.  He caught this one, but

also hooked into several others that he was unable to land.

This is what happens when too much "ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT" is

applied to your Sockeye . . . the eyes pop out of the sockets . . is

that how they got their name??? haha.

Way to go Preston!!!! ha.

Shelise . . . doing her best to snag a Red.

Celeste with one of the two Reds she caught that 

day at the Russian.  She got many odd looks from people

floating by on rafts . . . guess they hadn't seen too

many pregnant women fishing before!

Had this big boy visit on the opposite side of the river

at the Russian.  He as a big Brown Bear and it was funny

to watch him "back up" the tourists.  He would

pretend to charge them for a few yards and then he would 

stop and find something else to eat alongside the river.

He had the "technique" down!!

Looks like Devyn and Preston are struggling with

the weight of those fish!

We slept in on July 4th and missed the parade, but

we did see this cool car and trailer combo making its way 

into Soldotna.

This photo was taken about 11 pm.  Fireworks are 

prohibited in Alaska, so all the kids had was a few left-over

fireworks from Zack and Tyler visiting us last year.

Mom and I watched from the porch.  The "fireworks show"

lasted a whole 3 minutes I think!

Devyn volunteered to put out this firework with his

"BUM"!!! ha.

We had to go hunting for a King while Devyn and Celeste were here,

but like so many outings, we had no luck . . . but it was

a GORGEOUS day.

Soon-To-Be parents, Celeste and Devyn.  Celeste's size

did not seem to hinder her in fishing and having fun!

Here's a happy "fisher-woman"!  Happy to have

a good drink anyway . . . .

KEEP DREAMING DEVYN!!!!!! ha.

We'll have to chase the Kings again next year . . .it was a very

poor King season this year.  Don't know what happened but it has

been very slow.

We also took a trip to Homer with Celeste and Devyn.  Everyone

went halibut fishing except for Mom, Celeste and me.  We

hung out in town and did a few fun things while we waited.

The kids went on the same boat Celeste, Devyn, Dallas and

Kimberly went on last year (The Spirit).  It was  a smooth day

at sea and everyone caught their limit of 2 each.

Here's Ploy with one of the first fish she has ever

caught in here life.  I understand that 2 men had to help her

hold her pole while Ploy reeled in the halibut with 

BOTH HANDS!!!  Thai Style Ploy???? haha . . .

Preston with his two handsome fish!

Preston had such a good time that he volunteered to 

pay for gas if we wanted to come fish again . . a true

fisherman!!  FISH ON PRESTON! ha.

All is well and the cabins are coming along.  I'll have some

inside photos of the cabins on my next blog.  Sheetrock started

today and they'll finish the rocking by Monday.  It looks and

sounds (your voice) very different inside the cabins now.