Goodbye!

Summer is over. School has started. We are back into the swing of things here in the city. The transition home this year has been a strange one. Bryan is with us which is unusual. (He was able to take Emmett to class on his first day of Kindergarten which was really important to him and was totally awesome.) Both boys are in school now so we are getting used to 2 lunches, 2 backpacks, 2 sets of paperwork, 2 packets of homework, etc... The strangest thing for me is that I don't feel like I have missed 3 months of time here. It honestly feels like I went out our back door and a few minutes later, entered our front door. Everything is the same - including the pace of life that we left. That's probably what gets me the most this time around. I TOTALLY appreciate the life we have at camp, the pace, the routine, the ease, the time with family. The boys are happy to be back but overwhelmed at the same time. There are night time fears that weren't there before and tears that come on all of a sudden. All in all though it is good to be home and everyone is rested, happy, and doing well.

Goodbye East House! We love this cabin and will love seeing it again in the spring.

Goodbye guys! You were awesome and we totally miss hanging out and talking with you. Good luck adjusting back into the "real" world and with the rest of the year.

Hello school!

Thank you so much for reading this blog. It was a lot of fun to do. Hope you enjoyed yourself and check back in with us next season. Have a wonderful year and we'll be back in 9 months!

The trip home

1. Push the skiff into the water with the tractor.

2. Load luggage into the skiff and hope it stays dry on the ride into the cannery/Larsen Bay.

3. Take the van up to the landing strip. Unexpected situations may arise: high tide, bears, forklift stuck in the only road, etc...

4. Fly to Kodiak on a small bush plane, weather permitting. Flight takes about 30 minutes.
5. Fly to Anchorage and then wait for another plane to take us HOME.
6. It is the middle of the night and time for the last leg of the trip. The shuttle ride!

Wrapping it up!

The end of the season arrived earlier than usual this year. After waiting for more than 2 weeks for Fish and Game to make a decision on whether or not to open again, we made the decision that it was time to go home. Part of the packing up process at camp includes putting the nets away, cleaning out the boats and putting them in the Boat House, winterizing the cabins and engines, taking inventory on any foods or goods that are being left behind for the next summer, pulling up the lines and anchors that are still in the water, and boarding up the cabins. I helped with the inventory and getting our cabin in order. The rest of it falls on Bryan's, Leon's, and the crew's shoulders. They pretty much worked full force after the boys and I left. These are some pictures to give an idea of some of the things that we do to get the camp ready for the winter. As you can see, during the summer the Boat House doubles as an indoor play ground for the boys.

Road Trip!!!!

Before the boys and I left camp, we took a day trip with some friends to another bay. We had beautiful sunny weather the two days before hand but on this day it was grey and damp! Oh well, such is Alaska...

We all met up at a friends cabin and took two skiffs up the river at the head of the bay (Zachar Bay). We went at

high tide since it is marsh land. The skiffs were tide up down

stream a bit and then we walked farther up the river to do some fishing. There were signs o

f bear EVERYWHERE! Bear trails, footprints, scat, half eaten fish, etc... Amazingly we saw no bears the whole time we were there. The day was fantastic! I haven't been up a river for a million years so I was totally enjoying the moment. Everyone caught a salmon including the kids. We had a great picnic with cucumbers from the garden, homemade cookies, smoked salmon, and deer sausage. Definitely a day that we will remember for a long time!

Net Mending

Once the nets are cleaned, the next job is to "mend" them. That means we fix up or patch any holes or tears in the web of the net. To do this we use a special twine and a mending needle. You start with making a granny knot at the beginning of the tear/hole and then with a few more knots, twists, and flicks of the wrist, you end with another granny and cut it loose.

This is probably the job that our crew likes the least (well besides emptying the outhouse - but that goes without saying...)

It is tedious and can be trying for some people. It can be hard to see where to start or sometimes how to finish a mend. In the pictures below, the lighter colored twine is where we fixed a hole. I actually like mending and it is one of the jobs that I always help out with. Once the nets are mended, they are then ready to be put back into

the boat for the next opening.

Fun facts...

1.  Our electricity comes from a generator and solar panels.  The solar is fairly new.  We only turn the power on in the evening.  Generally between 5 and 10 pm.

2.  We do have a washing machine.  It uses the water from the creek so there is no HOT setting.  There is a dryer but it isn't very good so we hang our clothes out on the line.

3.  I mentioned before that we bathe every 3-4 days.  We wear the same clothes for that time period too.  Changing underwear and socks is purely personal - ha!

4.  I also mentioned that we deliver our fish in slush ice.  We have two ice machines down the beach in our boat house.  They make ice chips from the water in the creek nearby.  The ice is stored in totes so that it stays ready.  These machines are also run by generator.

5.  There are bathrooms in the main cabin and in our cabin.  The crew (for the most part) uses the outhouse.  That's right - outhouse!

6.  We heat the cabins with either a wood stove or a propane or oil stove.  The stoves we use to cook with, as well as our refrigerators and hot water heaters, are also run on propane.

7.  Fresh produce is really hard to get out here.  It also costs and arm and a leg.  Judy has a nice green house that she grows, tomatoes, peas, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini in.  She also grows lettuce, string beans, broccoli, and potatoes.  We are both trying radishes this year and she's doing brussel sprouts.  Nothing is ready to eat though usually until August and later.

8.  We pick fish 3 times a day.  The guys leave at 7 in the morning for the first one.  They have breakfast when they get back in - no matter what that time may be.  The 2nd pick is at 2 and the last one is after dinner at 7.  We deliver our fish after every pick.

9.  When fishing, breakfast is one of the following:  pancakes and bacon, french toast and sausage, eggs and hash, or hot cereal with toast.  So far Adam is the front runner with the most pancakes eaten!

10.  We do have internet (after 5 when the power is on) but NOT when it rains.  For some reason, we cannot get a signal in the rain.

That's it for now!

Sea Life

The guys found an octopus in one of our nets yesterday.  Today they found a giant sea cucumber.  It is amazing really how many strange and new sea creatures 0ur boys have been able to see and experience out here.  The octopus I think is one of the most unique.  They are really strange creatures.  For those Seattlites that are reading this....no harm came to either the octopus or the sea cucumber.  Both were released in their natural habitats - after we snapped a few pictures of course :)

* photo by Garett

Banya Day!

Yay! Yay! It's Banya Day!  

For those of you who don't know what that is or why it is so exciting, it means a BATH!  

The top picture is of our banya.  This is where we scrub ourselves clean every 3-4 days.  The picture on the right is inside the banya.  There are two rooms.  One for dressing/undressing, and one for getting clean.  We heat water on a wood stove as you can see in the picture.  There is also a tub of cold water.  You mix the two levels of heated water in smaller buckets and ..... you have it!  Warm water to bath with.  The water comes from a creek that runs nearby into the ocean.  So yes, it is bath day and we are all feeling fine!

Cast of Characters #4

This is Nana and Papa.  They are the most important people at camp.  Without them there would be no camp!  Leon is Bryan's dad and Judy is his mom.  My sister and I spent every summer with our grandparents so I love that my kids get to do the same.  Plus who else is going to give the boys grape pop and cookies when I tell them no more sweets!  haha

*pictures taken by Garett

Cast of Characters #1

This is the Francisco Family.

Top left is Garett.  He's the older brother.  Top right is Emmett.  He's the younger brother.

Daddy (Bryan) is on the bottom left and Mommy (Lara) on the right.

**All photos are taken by Garett

Our Summer Begins

The family is once again at our summer home - a 1/2 hour skiff ride out of the village of Larsen Bay on Kodiak Island, Alaska.  Bryan, Emmett, and Lucy got out here first and Garett and I (Lara) arrived on June 2nd.  I swear it felt like we had never left starting with the landing in Kodiak.  Very strange.  It has been the easiest transition in years which I take to be a good omen :)  Let's see if that transfers to the amount of fish we catch!  Unfortunately, we have only had two 1 and a half day openers and there might not be another one until July.  The weather has been really decent though which is awesome.  The boys are outside right now at 9pm yelling and playing in the yard.  What's not to love!

So as an introduction, this is our (my) first venture in this type of thing.  My vision however is for both Garett and I to do posts so that we can give both perspectives of what life is like out here.

I was working on the beach this afternoon doing net work and had such a clear awareness of how our life out here is so similar to how it has been for almost a hundred years.  In the sense that everyone is working.  There are nets on shore to be mended.  Boats on the line.  A fire in the woodstove with someone preparing food for dinner in the kitchen.  A child runs down the path to the beach as a boat approaches with news from the "outside" and gifts from the store.  You take away the fact that we have a generator, a radio phone, and satellite internet, and you'd be hard pressed to guess the present year.  I love it!

I look forward to sharing more of our experiences with you and thanks for your patience while I learn all this "new fangled" stuff - ha!