The view from up north

Overlooking Bechevin Bay and the Bering Sea. Traders Cove is to the right or east.





Back south, a view of Isanotski Strait, Ikatan Peninsula and then the Pacific Ocean.










This is a hike we did over a month ago. When we got up to the peak we could see out to the Bering Sea and down to Bechevin Bay and east to Traders Cove (a favorite bird watching spot). An amazing view that lasted about 2 minutes before an intense cloud of warm fog overcame us. That too was pretty wonderful to see (and feel) but eliminated all chances of Bob getting a full shot of the view. The fog came in waves leaving a hazy view every few minutes. By the time we headed down off the mountain the fog was even thicker and the wind had picked up, practically blowing us all the way home.

The Coast

Water mammals

This the sixth sighting of Orca's since September. We wonder how many we've missed. Check out the article link in the right margin about Orca hunting behavior here in the pass.





The river otters live near us and we see them often. This one was either trying to communicate something to us or needed to swim in very shallow water with this heavy catch (a Red Irish lord?) for as soon as we were seen, s/he swam directly towards and to within 15 feet of us, and Inde - not a common behavior.


The endangered Stellar's sea lion, a predator of high standing, is just below the Orca in the local predator-prey hierarchy.

Starting the garden

Way back in February we were sent this brand new florescent light to start the greenhouse veggies. In early March we planted the tomato seeds and began to watch and wait. A little heating pad helps speed up germination as it was cold indoors and hydro-power low at the time. The bright lights also served to increase our own vitamin D intake. A doubly beneficial set-up. As you can see we are pasty-white folks.



After a few weeks of growth seedlings are looking good.




An evening transplanting session.



Currently our little vegetables are happy and healthy with the exception of the basil which all dampened off, darn! (we've started a new batch). What do we have growing? Spinach, lettuces, kohlrabi, rutabaga, cabbage, kale, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, chives and parsley. A few flowers. In another week or so these guys will make it to their new home in the greenhouse to feed the Laukitis family this summer. At that point we will be direct sowing radishes, carrots, beets and more greens and starting a whole new batch indoors. In March we planted snap peas into the ground, they have just sprouted this week. It is a shame that we will not be eating any of these goodies!


Inde and I, however, will be heading to a farm in Palmer, AK where we can partake in the growing AND eating of veggies. Inde is more looking forward to meeting the other 7 dogs that live there and finding new smelly things to rub her body in. The farm is called Spring Creek Farm and is a 2nd year CSA that also designing and developing an educational/demo garden.

Bob will be heading even farther west in the Aleutians to the island of Buldir. He has an amazing opportunity to live on the most remote island in the chain with one of the most diverse breeding colonies of seabirds. He will be monitoring them and other birds with a group of 4 others.

We are looking forward to these next adventures and at the same time beginning to realize how little time we have left here at Stonewall. Seven months went by a pretty fast and this last month is flying by. We are spending our days trying to soak in all the wonderful realities of this place. Spring has just begun to show its face and it is not hard to imagine all the beauty that will come in the summer months.

Habitat for avianity

The wood shop has lots of cool tools and wood and everything you might need for any number of projects. Besides fixing a few things around the homestead we hadn't really spent too much time there. We decided we needed a project. So we headed down there with some measurements and an idea.






At this time our hydro-power was really low and to avoid the big pull of power tools we tried out some of the old-fashioned kind like this hand drill.






And the finished product--our birdhouse masterpiece!

"Bob, we have a problem."

Yep, that black pipe is our water line. We woke up one day last week to find that our faucets were dry. First thing to do was to make sure our situation did not deteriorate- so after a consultation with Buck, we marched up stream to see if we could locate the spring box (under 4 feet of snow) and/or see if there were any sections of pipe that were yet unfrozen. Fortunately the uppermost section was still flowing. So we disconnected the lower sections to wait for them to melt out.




Life in the interim (of working plumbing) was mellow. The homestead has a second water system fed by another spring. It supplies water to the greenhouse and the fish cleaning table, from which we filled and hauled about 20 gallons a day, enough to cook, wash, and flush with, and nourish the chickens.



Finally, after seven days, the temperatures rose and with a little assistance from us bending and blowing, the ice tubes began oozing out, then shooting out. We reattached the sections and were...quite pleased.

Ice seeps

The Aleutian Sky