Saturday - Day to Play!

This is the last full day and night here for the boys and I.  Lucy stays with Bryan.  We are hoping that they will be home no more than a week after we get there.  It will be a busy week with school starting, but we always miss them lots.  I am awake early thinking of last minute things that need to get done and things that I'd like to do on our last day.  I think the most daunting task will be the cleaning of the boys' room!  It is always nice to start fresh each year but there are lots of Lego pieces, shells, and other small stuff scattered everywhere...

I am hoping that Garett can take one more spin in his Zodiac.  It used to be Bryan's when he was little and Papa fixed it up really nice for him this year.  Has an outboard on it that he is able to start and run on his own.  We are also having friends over for dinner.  They have 4 kids and it is always nice to get them all together.  I think the crew is excited for the dinner as well.  They are in need of some distractions and socializing with all of this down time.  It is always better to be fishing than not out here - especially in August!

It should be a nice day weather wise too.  We had quite a stormy day yesterday.  Everyone just kind of hunkered down and tried to stay warm.  I don't think any of us got much sleep either that night because of the wind.  Our cabins were definitely rocking!  The buildings here are built on top of pilings.  This is because of the freeze and thaw pattern that the ground goes through each year.  So, because of this, if you get a good wind, it literally will shake the house making it feel like an earthquake.  Adam said he kept waiting for their cabin to be ripped right off the pilings and tossed into bushes behind them.  Garett had to sleep on the couch.  Bryan and I were up and down.  No damage was done however and the sky and water are calm this morning.

Judy and Leon get home this afternoon from their trip.  Leon will fly out tomorrow and we'll fly into town on the plane he gets out of.  Short hello and goodbye with Papa which is sad.  I know he is eager to get back out here though.  The boys will be glad to spend a few days with Nana.  We always have fun at their house in town.

After we leave the guys concentrate on winterizing the camp and getting all of the gear out of the water - anchors, bouys (OK I can't figure out this spelling - sorry), and lines.  They have already started on some of the stuff in camp.  The boats also need to be winterized and they are stored in our Boat House down the beach.

The internet has been really slow for a few weeks now and I am unable to post any pictures.   When I get back to civilization, I will do more posts about the things we've done lately and include pictures.

OK, time to start our last day!  Just think, tomorrow I can take a shower  ;D

We are still here!

Well, I don't have the picture option again today so I guess I'll just give an update.

Judy and Leon are still in Maryland. We pulled up the nets on the 15th and have been doing shore work since then. Adam and Austin did some net washing, Bryan, Justin, and I worked on mending the nets, and today there was yard work and house painting. We have managed to enjoy some downtime. The boys and I visited some neighbors. Bryan and the crew did some sport fishing. Adam caught a really large cod! Today we took a boat ride to the lagoon to do some beach combing and hiking around. The weather has been beautiful. The backs of our necks are all nice and brown :)

It has been over a week since we've been on our own. Everyone misses Nana and Papa but we are making it work. I think Bryan and I have done a pretty good job of coming up with meals that help empty out the freezer as well as use the nice veggies that are growing in the garden. It is a hard time of year for groceries because you don't know how long you are going to be here. You need to use up what you have and you don't want to order too much other stuff.

There are plenty of chores to do around here though to keep us busy. We are planning on taking another boat ride in the next few days somewhere and have a picnic. Let's hope the weather stays good!

I'll write more later and hopefully can attach pictures.

Double Trouble

I realized yesterday while looking through my photos, how many I had of both boys posing for me...

Thought I would do a little time line of the summer so far. 

This first one is of our two maniacs in full force.

 

Now they are getting ready to go out fishing with Daddy.  For some reason, Emmett wanted to wear his Mexican Wrestling mask.

Awwww...  How sweet are these two monkeys?

Oh yes.  Another cute one.  It is taken after banya so they are freshly clean as well :-)

Here they are kicked back waiting for the boat to take them to the cannery.  Justin made some lounge chairs for us on his off time.

What camp isn't complete with out their very own Men In Black?  Be careful ... they are armed and full of nonsense!

There you have it!  Our crazy and wonderful and lovable boys!  They certainly keep us entertained!

Fishing for Fun

Sometimes we are able to take a little time for fun.

Leon gets his "fun" boat, Lakota, ready and takes everyone out to do a little sport fishing.

This shot is of Steven and, what looks like, a heavy halibut.

Garett is the king of sea bass fishing.  Every time he goes, he knocks 'em dead!

The last time they went out they got a BIG surprise...

This enormous Cod!  The tender weighed it at 46lbs.  The funny thing is that Leon reeled it in because it was eating the Greenling that he had originally caught!  Wish I had the picture of that fish because it was a good sized one itself!

A close up of the beast from the deep!

Our Gardens

This is my garden this year.  Sweet Peas and radishes.  It isn't doing very well but I tried.

This will be my garden next summer.  Right now it only grows fishermen who carpenter. 

This is Judy's green house.  Inside is a lush forest of zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, lettuce, and tomatoes!  It is also a favorite place of the bears because the compost pit is in the back.

This is Judy's new raised garden at the back of the house.  She started everything in the green house and then transplanted it here last month.  The peas are out of control.  They are huge and have only just started flowering!  There is broccoli, lettuce, brussel sprouts, potatoes, radishes, peas.

The satellite dish up above is what allows us to have internet.  

A Changing of the Guard

Just wanted to write what has been going on lately.  Found out when I signed on that the picture option is back up so I will try to do another post later in the day with pictures.  

Bryan and I are now "in charge".  That's right, Ma and Pa Francisco and running the show!  Ha ha!  The reason is that Leon and Judy left yesterday to go to Maryland.  They will be visiting their oldest daughter and her 3 girls.  They weren't able to come this summer to Alaska and we sure missed them.  I know they are going to be SO happy to see Nana and Papa!

This is the first time, with me being at camp anyhow, that both Leon and Judy have been absent.  It is very strange.  We miss them already.  The boys won't have trips to the boat house and Garett was talking about how he is always showing and telling Nana about different things.  Emmett is usually following Papa around.  "Papa?  Where are you?  Papa?  Where are you going?"  Even Lucy is wandering around looking for them.  She sits at the front of the door of their cabin waiting to be let in...

So now Bryan and I need to figure out the dinners, everyone needs to help with dishes and cleaning up the main house, and my boys also have to help with dishes.  They were very cute last night.  I washed, Garett dried and put away, and Emmett helped put away too.  We started him off with the silver wear but he helped with more.  We also have to take care of Judy's plants and garden.  Yikes!  The boys are excited about that though.  Emmett loves to water!  Adam is worried about not having any more cookies being made.  I will try my best but it won't be the same that is for sure :)

That is the new news.  Time to get dressed and get breakfast ready to go.  They guys are late this morning so let's hope it is because of fish and not dirt!  Wish us luck out here on our own :)

An Update

OK, so I have been wanting to do a post with pictures but that still isn't working out for some reason. So....I'll just give some updates instead.

We are still fishing. Officially open until 8/15 and then we see what happens. The guys are doing 3 picks a day so that is good - that means there are more fish! Two nights ago we had another bear. This time I think it wrecked the grill for good. Happened around 3:30am. Leon heard the grill go over and managed to get a couple of shots off at the bear. Adam and Austin heard the shots but Justin...well let's just say that Justin sleeps like a baby out here!! Garett didn't hear anything either which is amazing because he was right NEXT to Papa when it all happened. He stayed the night in their cabin and slept with Papa on the couch bed. No bears last night though. I walked on the beach to the Boat House last night and there are sure a lot of tracks on the beach!

I guess the guys have gotten tired of their facial hair. Justin shaved yesterday I believe and Adam shaved today. I gave him a good neck trim too. They are looking good! Everybody did laundry so they are ready to take on the world - ha!

Judy's garden is doing well. We are eating lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, and broccoli from it. The salads are SO much tastier when we start putting in her stuff - yum... Leon built a raised bed box like Judy's for me. Bryan put it next to the house today. It is right in front next to our porch and goes all the way out to the end of the wall by the clothes line. That will be really nice to have next year. We are thinking of doing something like that at home now for herbs.

Emmett had a birthday on Wednesday. He is now 5 years old! He was very excited of course. Loved all of his presents and "Happy Birthdays". There were 6 other kids here and they just ran around and had a blast.

I guess that is about it for now. Hoping I can add pictures next time :)

Bear update

Well that rascal came back again. Broke into the warehouse, again, and made a mess. Tore apart the screen door, again, and made a mess. Dug up Judy's compost, again. Knocked over and messed up the grill, first time. Justin and Leon didn't hear a thing - again :)

We were ready the next night though. Well, Leon was. He did an all night vigil only to have the bear show up at 5:30 am of course. Anyhow, he popped the bear in the butt good a couple of times and we hope that takes care of it. Nothing happened last night and we'll see about tonight.

I am having trouble with this blog thing the past few days. It won't let me post pictures - not sure what is going on. So bear with me and I hope that this program gets back to normal!

That pesky bear!

He was back! The one night that Leon wasn't waiting for him of course. The darn thing broke into our warehouse and ate up ALL the salmon that Bryan and Justin had put on the racks to smoke. As Bryan put it, "It was a stealth job!" It was like he was in and out. Every piece of salmon is gone and the racks hardly disturbed. An entire bag of garbage - GONE! No trace of it. Bryan remembers locking the far side door which he must have because the ramp leading down from there was broken. The bear must have gone up it and tried to force the door open by standing on its back legs. Bryan isn't certain if he locked the other side door. That was most likely the point of entry .... it left out of the swinging double doors at the front of the warehouse. So Justin and Bryan were very depressed to see that their fish was gone, and everyone helped take down the busted ramp.

This afternoon the bear came out of the wood down onto the beach. Everyone was warned and Papa and Bryan took off on the 4-wheeler, shot gun in hand. Leon managed to get a shot off but the bear was a little far so don't know if he got stung or not. I think the doors to everything will be shut and locked tonight! Hope that bear enjoyed his salty salmon!

PS. I finally figured out how to answer comments that some of you have left. So check it out!