!!!!!!!!!!!!  NEWS FLASH  !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alaskan "Mini-Sasquatch" discovered in Alaska!!

Here's Craig posing with "Sasquatch" himself . . .

a.k.a. Billy - the Well-Driller!! ha.

Billy has to be the craziest Alaskan man that 

we have encountered thus far.  He provides us with

many memories to laugh at.  He's PSYCHO!!

Irene, Craig, "Sasquatch" & his step-son.  Billy drilled

our well on the property and now he's helping me

hook-up to the water line we put in last year.

Here's a couple of hard workers!!

Couldn't ask for a more gorgeous setting to work in!

It's a pleasure taking the short walk through

the spruce trees to work.  We have a nifty little

wildlife trail we follow to get to the cabins.

AWESOME!!

Irene, Craig, Preston & I went fishing on the Kenai

Saturday evening (6 pm to 11 pm) but we 

didn't catch anything.  Had 15 boats

around us for the entire time and did not see

a single King pulled in.  The Kings were jumping

all around us though!  We've never seen them jump

like that before.

The only thing we caught Saturday evening was this

beautiful sunset.  It was a "drop-dead" gorgeous

evening and it was very relaxing on the

river.  Lots of fun!

Went back to the Russian River last Wednesday.  It rained

on us, but that doesn't stop a "TRUE FISHERMAN", right??

Bryson helped me net 2 of the 3 I caught that evening.

Reds are running again, so we're headed to 

the Falls this Tuesday, just before Celeste & Devyn

arrive.  Don't worry Devyn . . . we're stopping for some

fishing the evening you arrive!!  YES!!!!!!! ha.

I have had 4 VERY GOOD workers this summer.  Here's

one of the "workers" protesting her punishment in

the "sweat-shop"!!!

The BOSS ignores ALL COMPLAINTS!!!

HAPPY WORKER!!!!!

Ploy and Shelise have been awesome in the 

"STAINING SWEAT SHOP".

They stained 420 twelve foot long pieces of 

siding for me (double coated!).  The colors

are perfect and the cabins are going to look super!

Good job girls!!

Shelise "showing-off" her "STAIN TALENT"!!

YOU GO GIRL!!!!!

Ploy . . . . getting so fast at staining that her hand is

just a BLUR!!!!!

"SPEED-DEMON"

Shelise & Ploy stained all the siding inside of the

large cabin designed by Devyn.  We made

them some "drying racks".  Shelise is wiping off any

potential "drips" from the bottom edge of these pieces.

Ploy hard at work!

Stain Sweat Shop owners:

Shelise and Ploy

Shelise failed to post these cool photos she took of 

flowers and plants covered in water droplets

after a recent rain shower.

I thought this bark covered limb looked like someone's hand!

GROOVY!!

Here's my favorite!!!

Doesn't this flower bud look like an insect

with water droplets for eyes and a large droplet 

for a body?

REALLY COOL!!!

June 2009 - Fishing & Cabin Update

Howdy Doody everyone!! Well, Craig arrived

last Tuesday. As we were headed to Soldotna,

we saw a moose about 5 minutes before Coopers

Landing . . . then we stopped along the Russian

River to watch the fishermen pull in a "slew" of

Red Salmon. About 2 minutes after leaving the river,

we came across this Brown Bear in the center of the

highway. I pulled off quickly and Mom handed me

her camera. I got off a few shots before it disappeared

in the brush. It didn't seem overly frightened of us.

So, here Craig is, less than 2 hours in the State of Alaska,

and he sees a Moose, Red Salmon being caught, and a bear!!

Hardly seems fair right! ha.

After we cleaned Bryson's King a couple weeks back,

I asked Ploy and Shelise if they would help me process

the eggs. Check out Ploy's expression - looks like

she's having a great time! ha.

Don't worry Ploy, "They don't BITE!!"

Oh come on Ploy!!! They don't smell THAT BAD!!!!

(Big Baby!!!)


Wow . . . check out the color of these babies!
You can't imagine the size difference of the King
Salmon eggs versus the Red Salmon eggs!

Incredible difference in size!!


Shelise's photo. Pretty fancy!!

Looks like one seed is getting ready to launch!

Mom went down to the city park to check out

the little "fair" they put on every Saturday in the

summertime here and she couldn't resist

snapping a quick shot of this "groovy dude"

sitting in the side-car on a motorcycle.

Pretty funny!

On Wednesday, the day after Craig arrived, we

headed to the Russian River to try our luck at catching

some of those Red's we saw folks pulling in the day

before.

Here's 3 of us trying our hand at it. Bryson, Preston

and yours truly. My spot by this tree turned out to

be the "hotspot". I hooked about a dozen here

and landed 3 of them (all in about 90 minutes). Craig and Preston

also caught one each in this same hole.

After landing my three,

I gave up the hole for the others to try and

I headed downstream.

Just before calling it a day, I slipped back into the hole

and told Shelise and Ploy that, "I get 10 'snag-throws'

before leaving", (it actually took me about 23), but

I hooked another one. Unfortunately, it came

out of the water and flipped off the hook. Dang!!!

Now there's the expression of a HAPPY FISHERMAN!!

Preston declared at the end of the day that, "Red

Salmon fishing is by far the best!" (He

hasn't had any luck with Kings yet)

I just HATE this country!!!! (hahaha!)

Eat your hearts out!!!!

Another happy fisherman? YOU BET!!!!

It was an awesome day. Because there were

record numbers of Reds in the early run this year,

they have increased the "bag limit" to 6 per

person/per day!!

We're going again in 2 DAYS!!! YES!!!!!!

Here's Craig landing his "brute"! Craig and

Preston both lost 3 each in this hole as well.

We just couldn't keep them on the hook

long enough!

I had moved downstream by this time so I did not

see either of them land their fish. I caught

one more downstream, but the best spot

by far was right here by this tree.

Preston says, "I got first dibbs on the tree hole when

we return".

He'll have to fight me for it!!!!!

Heap's private fish pond!!

DO NOT TOUCH!!!!

Ploy tried fishing for a little while and then

lost interest. She and Shelise turned to "other

forms of entertainment"!

Here's an inch-worm they snagged and befriended!

Ploy also caught a good shot of this little visitor to

the streamside.

Here's another "creature" they got a good

shot of . . . . oh wait . . . that's Ploy!! haha.

CRAZY THAI WOMAN!!!!!!

Preston's brother Trevor can never say again

that he "ALWAYS CATCHES THE SMALLEST FISH"!

I think Preston already ordered his 2010 summer return

ticket from Alaska airlines!!! ha! He's hooked!!

Check out all these REDS!!!

Dang I love Alaska!!! haha! Hey, Dallas,

the Freezer is already half full . . . . might have to

buy a bigger one this year!! haha.

Here's Preston, learning the fine art of

salmon steak washing!

The salmon eggs we took from Bryson's King were about

the size of an entire Red Salmon!! These little guys are "itty-bitty".

Our SLAUGHTER TABLE!!!

This is an Alaskan-Mormon-Father's-Day-Gift. . .

given out to all the fathers in the ward here.

Check out that nice 'spin n glo' plug! Pretty Awesome!!

Well, here's CABIN #1 with siding on 2 sides. The

white powdery marks you see on the right side of the

cabin are from "concrete dust" left on the siding when

we cut it. We didn't have time to clean it

all off before taking the photos today.

Looks pretty good, wouldn't you say? Wait till we

get landscaping and everything done . . . it will be an

awesome looking getaway place!

On Saturday, Craig and I worked from 7:30 am until

11:57 pm to get the front and the peak (right side) of this

first cabin sided. Mom thinks we're NUTS!! She's right of

course . . . but don't tell her I admitted it!!

Mom on the "trail" from the cabins. It's

gorgeous as usual here . . . .

Mom has decorated and beautified this place with

lots of flowers again (enlarge to see everything). Ploy and

Shelise will be re-sealing the deck and all the

deck-posts over the next few weeks. Fun fun!!

Pretty in Pink!

We hope this blog finds everyone well and happy!

Life here is absolutely fantastic . . .

Weather's gorgeous, fish are biting and the cabins are

progressing nicely.

Just need someone to win the powerball so I can stay her

forever!!!!

Let me know when one of you stike it rich!

HOWDY TO ALL FROM THE GREAT STATE OF ALASKA!!

As you can see from this photo (above), the trip

from Anchorage to Soldotna was BREATH-TAKING!!

These 3 could hardly contain their excitement!

This year (2009), Ploy joined us for the first time and

Bryson invited his best friend, Preston Frost.

We arrived in Soldotna Saturday afternoon

and by the evening, the kids were "champing at the bit"

to take the Ranger for a ride in the back country!

It was cool that evening, but at 10:10pm they departed

for their ride with instructions from Irene to just go

for a short ride, since it was so late. Well, you know kids!!

Mom & Dad watched 10:30pm come and no kids, then

11:00pm showed up and still no kids. By 11:30pm I was

getting concerned because partial darkness was going to

arrive by 12:30pm. I hopped in one of the trucks and left

in search of the "Ranger Riders". I headed to a trail where

I thought they might have gone, only to find it too muddy to

continue in the truck, so I returned to the house to get my gun,

prepared to head out on foot in search of the "foursome". By the

time I had returned to the trail head, the foursome had appeared

from the woods . . . ON FOOT of course and rather frightened I believe!

They had walked out from about one mile in. "Yes, the Ranger got stuck",

they told me. We headed back to the house and decided to return the next

morning to retrieve the Ranger. When I first saw the Ranger I told the

kids, "I didn't know you were going 'MUD BOGGING'!!!!"

I was able to pull the Ranger out the next

morning with the truck, but then, on my

way out, the truck slipped into another

deep bog and I got stuck!! We had to leave

the truck for a day until I could locate one

of those upright jacks that Dad used

on the ranch (he always had one in the old

pickup). I had to jack up both ends of the

pickup - put log trees (20 feet plus) under

the truck and then drive it out of the bog

on top of the logs!! Only took me 3 hours!!

KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!@!#*!!

-This is a view of the Kenai River. This summer

has been a welcomed change to last summer. We

have actually seen the sun more in the first 7 days

this summer than we did all of last year!!

On the first morning we fished, Ploy had a very

big King hit her line. I jumped up and helped her

pull her rod from the rod-holder and then she

began reeling. She hadn't reeled for more than

15 seconds when that king decided to "lean" on

her line. He took off downstream and her line

snapped!! The night before, I had put a 35 pound

leader on all the poles . . . MISTAKE!! Last summer

the biggest King we caught in June was 20 pounds,

so I thought we would be safe . . . .WRONG!!!

Live and learn; we stopped immediately and I

changed all leaders and line to 80 pound test. On

our next two adventures to the river we didn't get

any hits, but on the fourth return, Bryson got a hit.

I had forgotten to stick the rod-holders in the boat,

so when we got to the river and realized this, I told the

kids they would have to hold their poles with their hands.

I cautioned them not to let a King yank it from them, each

pole is worth over $100. We had just pulled into one of

our "hot spots" and Bryson was not even holding his pole

in his hands - he just had the pole laying on the palm of his

hand! He was next to me so I reached over and yanked on

the pole and said, "Hey, you better watch out - what if that

would have been a Big King!" He grinned, grabbed the pole

with both hands and not more than 5 seconds later, a King

hit his line! Lucky Boy!!!

It is virtually impossible to land a King in a river where

the current is moving at normal speed. They are too heavy

and powerful. Boats are essential because it lets you drift

downstream as the King makes his run - trying to get away

from whatever he has in his mouth! It took Bryson about

25 minutes to wear this monster out and get her close

enough to the boat so that I could net her.

Pretty Nice "Pan Fryer"!!!!

She measured 45 inches long and

weighed in at 32 pounds!

In June, there is a rule that all

Kings caught measuring 46-55 inches

must be returned to the river.

These size of Kings are the main breeders

and they want them to spawn.

Bryson was fortunate that this girl was

ONE INCH under the limit!!

Nice "BAR BELL"!!

Bryson was hollering for us

to "hurry up, she's HEAVY!!"

Another shot of Bryson's minnow!

Now THOSE are some mighty nice
STEAKS!!!

She had a healthy amount of eggs!
Interesting fact: An average "hen" - that's
the official term for a female King - has
approximately 3,000-3,500 eggs in her.

Of those eggs, only 3 will make it to
maturity and return to spawn again.

Maybe we should have thrown
her back?.........

NO WAY!!!!!! (ha!)


Ploy took this photo of a single egg.
You should make this photo larger - you
can see the veins of the egg-sack!

Nice photo!

We are having fun and working (a little) on the
cabins. I will have updated photos of the
cabins this next weekend. We'll try to
get you photos of more fish as well . . . oh, dang!!!
That means we'll have to go fishing again????
(hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!)

Don't worry . . . we'll save one or two for you
guys to catch NEXT YEAR!!!