It’s been a while…

Well, it seems I have had no concept of time the last year or so. The Fishermen Poets did not happen. As much as I would have loved to have gone to Astoria, I went back to school. And yes, I am still in school. Studying Judicial Court Reporting which was never one of those , “Mommy… When I grow up I want to be a COURT REPORTER” sort of dream jobs for me. “Mommy, I just want to type! Type! Type! Allll day long and listen to crazy people. Yeah. That’s what I want to do Mommy!”

But I love it.

Perhaps I should be as confusing as possible and start working backward in time… I must mention that I did go back to Kodiak Island last summer. I was officially working for my brother Richard again, however I spent half of the season working on my parents brand spankin’ new (well… they started with a skeleton of a boat) GORGEOUS 50′ Ledford Hull seiner the F/V Sea Grace. It was like working on a yacht. I love that boat. Love love love LOVE that boat. It made all those days of physical beatings from the elements and hard labor… a little bit more bearable. So nice. I left early to come back to Arizona for school. Yep.. short summer. Probably the best way to go the older I get. ; )

So, I came back to class and a month later we were on a jet heading to Guatemala City, Guatemala for the Feast. Hopped into a 15 passenger van from there and bumped down the road towards Antigua, Guatemala. On the way my baby brother William saw his first dead person. Which of course was an unpleasant experience for all of us. It appeared as we were driving by that a pedestrian had crossed the road and been hit several times by cars driving up and down the highway. It was a messy scene and they tried to cover the man the best they could… but William still saw. My poor brother was up with a churning stomach all night. Its strange how we become, not callus to those things, but learn how to deal with them over time. It was a good reminder of humanity to see my brother’s reaction. I am almost comforted that my innocent and sheltered brother would react in such a way. It confirms what I already know. That he is a pure, innocent and loving young man who is struck to the core by such a tragedy. We made it into Antigua safely, shortly after that. The home our family rented was beautiful. It was a newer home, but built like a spanish colonial home. Hard wood and wrought-iron everywhere. The artwork and furniture alone made my heart overflow with joy. There were windows and french doors everywhere  and we often just left them open to the outside. There were two fireplaces, one upstairs, one downstairs. We definitely spent many nights next to the fire with a bottle of wine. I could go on and on and on about my favorite things in Antigua. I must preface this with… we were planning on taking several different trips OUT of the city, but hurricane weather and effects kept us within city-limits. So, we spent all of our time in Antigua, except for a coffee plantation in a neighboring city. I have never been so happy to be trapped in a city before. The people of Antigua are wonderful. I was surprised how timid most were and then as soon as I made an effort to draw them out (in my broken Spanish) they were relieved and their joy “ran-eth over”! I was told by so many different people that most tourists do not want to speak to the locals. I suppose the word that came to my mind was transactional. I can’t imagine! Whats the point of traveling to another country and NOT speaking to those that know the country the best? One fellow I spoke to, a Spanish speaking taxi-driver, told me that he was celebrating his mother’s 100th birthday the next week and that his siblings were coming from all over North, Central and South America to celebrate with her. How fun is that? Instead of a silent bumpy ride down the cobblestone streets of Antigua, I was told all about his favorite places to see, how his family throws the best parties, where they are all from… and just for listening to him and showing interest…. he showered compliments on us. How beautiful we were! How nice we were! What a nice family we must come from! I hoped that God would bless us!<—- All for taking interest in a person’s life. What wonderful lessons can be learned each and everyday. Regardless of where we are in the world. It doesn’t take a classroom or a “wise one”. Just living life proactively and stepping out of our comfort zones on occasion. I met a lot of wonderful people in Antigua that I will always count as friends. Some from Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico and the United States. I can only hope to return sooner than later so that I might get to climb one of the volcanoes near Antigua, visit Aztec ruins and cultivate those friendships! 

 

Since Antigua, so much has happened. But that will be for another day!

Return to civilization….

 I was unable to post from Kodiak Island this summer, even when I DID have access the internet was so unbearably slow it took me 1 hour to get into my e-mail inbox. So blogging… wasn’t going to happen. Sorry to all of you that would have liked the updates. What I am going to do is start posting in retrospect. So, from the journals I kept this summer I’ll give you all snippets of how my latest adventure went. I also have a million pictures for your viewing pleasure, so stay tuned! When I share my journal writings your feedback is important to me….especially since I am trying to figure out whether or not I will be attending the FisherPoets performance in Astoria, OR. Be honest now, I wouldn’t want to make a fool out of myself in front of a hundred fishermen and their wives. 🙂

How sweet it is; to be back in X-tra Tuffs :)

Besides the fact that “back in the day”  I would buy X-tra Tuffs for around $60 and now they are EIGHTY TWO….Its good to be clunking around in them again. Its nice having working hands. No calluses yet because we haven’t done any net work. Usually when we work on the net pre-season I build up serious calluses that help when I actually get out there, but I’m going out with a few slices on the knuckles and my fingers are getting tougher from grabbing an aluminum bar and swinging down into the cabin of the Miss Alice. I call that move the “Flying Squirrel” which is accompanied by sound effects. (Mostly as a warning to unsuspecting crewmen below)

Since being back in Alaska I have been struggling to adjust to the amount of daylight. I came over the ridge overlooking Kachemak Bay after 10:30 PM and I had to wear sunglasses in order to look at the camera for a picture.

10:30 PM snapshot

Now, often when I mention Homer, Alaska… people say, “Hey, isn’t that a big halibut fishing town?” YEP. Here’s what you see when you enter Homer:

Welcome to Homer

As you can see when I came in on May 23rd, it still wasn’t that green in town. Homer had a warm winter but received massive amounts of snow late in the season. So, spring was a little bit late this year as a lot of the ground was still covered in snow. However, when I got down to my parents house in town (just above sea level) they had a rich green lawn and their flower beds were showing signs of life and the trees around their yard were starting to leaf out. This last week I have watched red tulips bloom off the front porch, verrry beautiful.

There has been a lot of talk about the oil spill in the Gulf up here. People are distraught, sad.  Serious Deja Vu. Listening to the people up here that have lived it, watching them express their thoughts and opinions you see them wringing their hands, throwing them in the air, holding their heads in sadness.  There is no “superiority” of “been there done that”. There is more a feeling of grief, reopening old wounds and hurting for those that will experience the same if not worse. My strategy of not watching the news before I left Arizona does not work well up here. I’ve run into others who have been doing the same because it is so overwhelming, but its on every radio station, every periodical, discussed in every public place from the Homer Harbor to the grocery store aisles…. devastation. Our only silver lining up here, which is really quite a BITTER silver lining, is that our fish will be worth more because our marine ecosystem hasn’t been effected by the oil spill this time around and we will be harvesting the vast majority of the seafood market in the United States. 

On a lighter note, the Miss Alice is getting close to being ready to go. We have a few small projects left, some clean up and packing (food and supplies- but even this is mostly done). We’re hoping to be gone by the end of this week so that we have a bit of time in Larsen Bay to unload all of our supplies into our storage unit at Icicle Seafoods. I can’t wait to get down there. I know that most people would drag their feet to leave civilization, but its a beautiful simple life. 🙂

Till next time!!

AIR

ha! yep. She's beauty and she's grace, she's Miss United States!

I am sick of puffy, burning, itching eyes. Runny nose. Sneezing. I feel like there is a Kleenex conspiracy. Talk about distancing yourself from your surroundings and the people you love before you leave… MAN I CAN’T WAIT TO GO!! There are no flowers or blossoming trees growing out of Shelikof Strait, nothing but kelp, baby. Nothing resembling flowers but sea anenomes and jellyfish. I’m okay with that. No more zyrtec, sudafed and tylenol for me. Just fresh salt air. AIR.

GEAR

So, this is for the guys… if you want to get an idea of what to bring/ what you will have out there, this is essentially what I am packing:

CLOTHING:

• Carrharrts
• work jeans
• lounge pants/sweats ( most people prefer sweats over jeans…they’re warmer)
• pair of shorts (for the guys, you might want to choose a pair that can be used for swimming)
• bathing suit (for meeeeee)
• long johns
• long sleeve under shirts (moisture wicking base layer)
• t-shirts to layer
• hoodies (for those of you that stack net….you’ll want enough that you can rotate…it’ll be ruined in the first 30 minutes you work, but there are varying degrees of ruination. SO, if you are one of those people that likes to wear clothing so crusted with salt and slime that they will stand up by themselves without even being on your body…gag…. go for it. But its nice to be able to change into a clean one occasionally)
• cap (jellyfish protection)
• beanie
• thick and thin socks….mostly thick. 🙂
• undergarments (remember we don’t get to do laundry often…so…)
• warm jacket/coat
• one pr of kicks for the dock or hiking
• flip flops for the showers at the cannery….trust me on this one.

OTHER

• Toiletries- shampoo/conditioner, soap for showers, toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, shavers if necessary (some guys like to look like Grizzly Adams by the end of the summer)   whatever you would normally have, except remember you won’t be having any nights on the town and if you do… everyone will look just like you anyway, so get over yourself. 🙂
• Camera
• Journal/letter writing stuff
• Sunglasses
• SLEEPING BAG / towel , etc
• Music, address book, junk food, pics of yo mama…. anything you can’t do without. 
• **I always bring music, a journal, a couple of addresses written into the journal, a few pictures that I enjoy on bad days… usually family and friend pics, camera and gum. (Gum keeps me awake)
• If you absolutely MUST have junkfood, candy, etc. Bring your own, because we won’t have any onboard.

We’ll get a chance to hike occasionally or even camp if you’d like. So, if you want to bring a small tent, water bottle, etc etc…. go for it. Remember that not only do airlines charge up the wazoo for the amount of stuff you bring, but there is also very limited space onboard. So, Bring as much stuff as you are A) willing to sleep with or B) willing to trip over in the morning when you get up and throw your bag back in your bunk.

Crew

looks like we have our boys FINALLY…. I’ll give you a line up of who we have on board. Character list I suppose. That way you can track us through the summer and know who I am talking about.  So here are my  impressions thus far and we’ll see if they hold up throughout the summer. Both of these guys are great, but let me see if I can pin strengths. 🙂

Richard, aka Rico, Richard Pichard, Little Dick, Freak-o, Bro, Buddy: CAPTAIN

Richard is my younger brother, he is a sensitive sweetheart with a temper. Hopefully with the crew we have this year we can help him through high-stress scenarios and not spontaneously combust. He loves Christian music. He has a girlfriend in Texas, named Mandy. Richard set a satellite phone record last year with 2000 minutes on the phone. Not all of which were with Mandy, but that means he had to have been on it every waking moment when there was service. Impressive. 🙂 I am excited for Richard this year because he has worked out many of the hiccups in his fishing operation and he has grown as a young man. There will be more challenges along the way, but he may be better equipped to handle them.

Mike: LEAD MAN

The lead man in the guy that gets nailed the most by jellyfish. He is also the guy that builds the biggest muscles so I suppose its a trade-off. ha. Mike is a fun-loving and friendly chap. Very athletic and sturdy. I do not see him having any problems with his sealegs. I’ll definitely count on him to perform the crazy stunts that are occasionally necessary. He may be a quick learner and a respectful crewman. Has set-gillnet before for one season in Upper Cook Inlet.

Kevin: CORK MAN

So this is considered the thinker’s job, a little bit more creativity is required. Not as much strength is involved, but its still a workout in the beginning as it is repetitive and try doing it in the sun with all your gear on! Kevin’s most important job will be as engineer. He has experience working with different types of engines, hydraulic systems, etc. This is an extremely valuable skill out there, especially with a young captain. Kevin will be the oldest onboard at 27 but he is also the greenest deckhand as he has no experience fishing. He is dating our cousin Nadia.

Abby: SKIFFER (my favorite term) position typically known as SKIFF MAN.

Well, thats me. This will be my 15th summer fishing. I have seined in both Kodiak and Lower Cook Inlet. I have tendered salmon in Prince William Sound and Bristol Bay. As a small child I putzed around on a set gill-net site in Lower Cook Inlet but that can’t really be counted except for the fact that I have lived the fishing lifestyle since I was about 5 or 6 years old. At 13 I started running the skiff. I know Richard is nervous about having his older sister work for him, but I hope to humbly help him succeed this season. 🙂

Those are the characters onboard the F/V Miss Alice this coming summer. There will be many more tossed into the fray, but the four of us will be the consistent players in each scene.

Grocery List- In Progress

Every spring we make a huge order from an organic farm and natural foods supply company: Azure Standard. So we have to start early thinking about what we are going to eat for three and a half months. I sat down with Richard on speaker phone today trying to work up a partial grocery list. Its a bit more of a challenge than what one might think. I had to take into consideration food allergies, likes and dislikes ( to a certain extent- you can’t make everybody happy ), etc. Here’s what I have in case you people wonder what the likes of us eat out there. I’d say our long camping trip ain’t to shabby:

CANNED

(ONLY GET CANNED FRUIT THAT IS IN ITS OWN JUICE- OTHERWISE KEVIN CANNOT EAT IT)

jalapenos

green chiles

tomato sauce

diced tomatoes

green beans

black beans

kidney beans

garbanzo beans

peaches

olives

mushrooms ( a lot unless you want to see a girl cry)

saurkraut

asparagus

artichoke hearts

pineapple

mandarin oranges

chili

chicken broth

tomato soup

corn

cream of mushroom soup

SPICES

chili powder

garlic powder/granulated

onion powder

cumin

sage

thyme

oregano

basil

dill

lemon pepper

rosemary

cinnamon

nutmeg/mace

ginger

turmeric

paprika

S & P

cayenne pepper

bay leaves

DRY GOODS

tortilla chips (serious bulk man… )

organic instant mashed potatoes (the BOMB for shepards pie)

pasta (more than just spaghetti noodles please)

chocolate chips/ white chocolate chips

baking powder

baking soda

brown sugar

white sugar

raw sugar

hot chocolate

coffee

brown rice

tea

oatmeal

quinoa

polenta

couscous

flour

granola

BILGY JUNK

potatoes

cream cheese

cheddar

eggs

onions

boatmilk

cabbage

yoghurt

FROZEN

butter

spinach

broccoli

peas

blueberries

sausages (turkey)

turkey bacon

whole chicken (2-3)

chicken wings

hamburger

hot dogs ( beef hot linksss  PLEASE 😉 )

bread 30 loaves

popsicles…yeah I know…. but otherwise you will buy ice cream out there and it will be so much more expensive

tortillas

MISC

balsamic vinegar (1 decent sized bottle is all that is necessary for that length of time…I don’t drink it)

sesame oil

olive oil

red hot

worcestershire sauce

soy sauce

Emergen-C

campfire popcorn

peanut butter

raspberry jam/apricot

mayo

mustard

ketchup

apple cider vinegar

maple syrup

honey

mollasses

vanilla

cookie sheet

tupperware/ saran wrap

paper towels

toilet paper

bleach

dish soap

liquid detergent

windex/rain-x

vino- pinot, chard, cab, merlot

beer

Thats it for now. When I go to sleep tonight I know I’ll wake up remembering something. Whatever we do not order off this list through Azure, or forget… we have to track down in either Homer or Anchorage….. Which is never ideal as sometimes it requires a sort of grocery treasure hunt since there is no such thing as “one stop shopping” in Alaska.

I took a little trip to San Diego last weekend so that my niece could have FOUR teeth extracted and for several family birthdays. I ended up meeting Kye in Seaport Village on Friday. It was a shock to see her so beat up. Miss Kye had been climbing in Joshua Tree to spread the ashes of her puppy that had just died and 10 feet or so from the top of a pinnacle…she lost her grip. She is not sure on the exact height but long enough of a fall that she tore ligaments in her ankle, broke her finger and was covered in scrapes and bruises. Broken bones aside, the most disturbing thing to me was seeing her fingertips scabbed up because she was digging her fingers in to try to slow the fall. !!!!!!!! ouchie !!!!!!!!! Lunch with her was full of sympathy pain, bad margarita and good conversation. The following evening we had a birthday dinner for Ruben’s dad and afterwards I was able to get together with Kye again and a couple of her coworkers. Mike joined us at the PB Pub later on…dodging pool sticks, head banging and sustaining verbal abuse from a few local crazies. Needless to say…we made an escape shortly after. All in all…. absolutely ecstatic to see these guys.

Me, Mike and Kye

COMING SOON…..

Thanks for stopping by! I will most likely document any developments before I leave for Alaska. That is, anything related to the fishing experience. However, the meat of this blog will be coming once I get to Alaska at the end of May. If I am fortunate enough to get out of the office before then and explore the great State of Arizona… you’ll hear of it. Until then, hang tight!