Jef and I each got a another load of wood today at the free wood pile.  I saw a beautiful chocolate colored black bear walk across the highway on my way back yesterday.  Had my first salmon berry today- one ripe one on the bush in our front yard.  Brian called from Craig and said “get down here” because there’s so many king salmon around so I’m on the mid-morning plane tomorrow.

I saw an ad on craigslist this morning.  A pile of free firewood.  Logs, already limbed and stacked.  You can drive right up to them and cut in and put in your truck.  I figured it would be gone by the end of the day, but my hunting partner Matt and I drove two F250s out with our saws after work to see.  It’s a rainy day.  And there’s no king salmon around.  We figured people would be all over it.  And we were the first ones there.  We took the smaller diameter stuff that we could load the log cut to truck length and get it all to our yard.  Plus, the wood could probably be burned this fall – it was so dry.  And most of it it very light.  Free heat.  Sweet.

This was originally posted June 22, 2015 but didn’t post correctly. Today I had an extra day of whale watching as they were short-handed.  The company is so good to me I was happy to do it.  Bluebird day.  Flat calm.  And whales were bubble net feeding. The calves that can’t participate wowed us with breaching. I wanted to get some salmon berries this year, as I’ve heard they are already out but did not know where to go here, even after going on 20 years in town.  I’d thought I’d seen salmon berry bushes up at Eaglecrest when I was hooter hunting and gathering greens, so I headed back to the fiddle head spot.  What a change. After crossing the creek and breaking into the open the landscape was mostly ferns.  Everywhere.  About waist high. I found a few patches of what I thought were salmon berries but only saw a few berries that were small and green and others with just the blossom back left. So I headed back to the truck and thought I’d look along the road further up to the ski area parking lot.  After making the loop and starting back down, there was a couple who flagged me down and asked for a ride down the hill.  Sure I said, wondering – did they walk all the way up here? As we drove down the hill I asked the male where he worked.  McDowell Group he says.  I used to work there I said.  When he told me his name, we realized I worked with his aunt at the legislature.  When I said I was up there looking for salmon berries, they both said – go to, well, a certain spot that’s easily accessible.  They said I could pick all I wanted with ease.   When I asked what they were doing at Eaglecrest, they said they’d walked a trail up from the N. Douglas Hwy to a mountain and swung down to Eaglecrest.  They asked if I’d ever but up the mountain, and I replied “not on purpose!”. I dropped them back at their vehicle and headed to the supposed honey hole of salmon berries.  I was not disappointed.  Berries galore.  Yellow ones and red ones.  Everywhere.  All within 50 yards from the road. I realized when I got home I get an adrenelin rush when I’m in a gathering frenzy like that. My mind is clear.  There is produce everywhere.  I will never pick it all.  Maybe this is what heaven is like. I picked till it was getting dark.  My pack was pretty heavy coming out.  I got home and measured what I got.  30 cups of berries plus a couple cups of juice.  2 cups shy of 2 gallons.  And I easily had the full 2 gallons but stumbled and took a header down a stream bed and lost several cups in the process.  I vac packed the berries for a later jam session, and now know I’ll be obsessed to continue picking for the next several weeks until the salmon berry season is over.  Life is freakin’ good.

Did some chores on the boat today.  I had to change a leaf spring that broke earlier in the week.  Of course, no one in town had the same type spring I needed.  So, I put on an easy loader spring, making the requiem 3 to 5 trips to Western Auto to finally get all the parts necessary.  Today I fixed a step on the trailer.  I also bought some LED tail lights for the boat trailer, which will last alot longer than the old bulbs.  Cleaned off my work bench, but never can seem to thow away everything I should, but mostly move things from one side of the garage to the other.   Sara finished her life guard tests and after her last day of school yesterday, will cap her retirement as the graduation speaker tomorrow. She spent most of the afternoon working on her speech.  Sunny and high 60’s today.  You can almost hear the foliage growing. 

My cousin Christine Gilroy and her tribe were in town to celebrate her husband John’s 70th birthday.  John looks – and I’m not kidding – like not a day over 55.  I used to stop at their place in Iowa when driving somewhere – NY or Mississippi – to Alaska.  We went crabbing – unsuccessfully – and over to our cabin.  Went whale watching.   They went up the tram and to the brewery.  Today they went to Haines on the ferry and then to Sara’s retirement party.  We cooked Alaskan dinner here at the house everynight.  Deer one night.  Moose the next.  Then crab – Ron gave me 10 when he scored 20.  And geoducks last night.  I made crisps for dessert from all the berries last year.  They leave in the morning and I miss them already.  It’s great having family here, especially since it’s so rare, and so harder to see people go again. 

Laura, Samuel and I went up to Eaglecrest fiddleheading in 70 degree weather.  If this keeps up, I’m going to have to move further north.  Supposed to be 75 degrees tomorrow.  We were a week later fiddleheading than last year, plus it was an early spring.  We almost missed them.  Most were 18 inches high, although with the fiddle head still curled.  Some were already leafed out to full-fledged ferns.  There were still young ones coming up between the tall ones, and I got 5 nut canisters full in about an hour and half.   I saw a deer with a red coat bounding across the hill when Samuel and Laura were up near it.  The brush just swallowed it.  No wonder I don’t see many deer over there.  Samuel ran all over the hill and talked from when he got in the truck till when he got out.  Of course he went up to his thighs in a muskeg pool on the way out too.