Pre-season days - June 2, Day 3

On the way to the outhouse, I saw an eagle standing on the doghouse out by the cliff. It was as big as the doghouse. And it was a juvenile. Sage ran over and if it came to a contest between the two, I’m not sure where I would place my bet. The eagle looks about the same size as Sage and she’s a husky/shepherd mix and weighs 66 lbs.

Before going to town today, I finally moved the axes, saws, grinders, come-alongs, attendant cables and chains, level, and multiple pry bars out from under my bunk and into the mudroom. I had moved them out from under the bed last night to be able to remove the tin (that was hard – it was a long piece that I sort of scooted in behind the 2 x 4 that holds up the bunk) and install Sage’s bed.

I also sorted through a crate of toys I’ve accumulated over the years for the kids as they were growing up. Mostly flying toys – balls, Frisbees, kites, airplanes. The cliff gives us a great updraft for airplanes and the beach is glorious for kites.
I decided to bring up the five crates of warm room food and yesterday’s mail before heading in to town. Many trips – think “hips and thighs… hips and thighs…”

Then headed into town. I already had bags of garbage from cleaning the cabin, and bags of laundry, and I needed to stop at the PO to check for Josh’s permit before we start the “please send a duplicate” process. They couldn’t find it. I mailed my GSM phone to Harry, hoping he’ll be able to get GCI service for me – it has to be done in person and there is no “in person” here in Naknek. We still don’t know if we’ll get reception on the beach. Hope so. I called the permit people to get the new permit started and attempted many calls to the portable winch people to try to get the locking pulley so that when the tram come up the stairs, gravity won’t pull it right back down again. Waiting on hold, I opened the envelope with my permit curious to know the color this year and found Josh’s permit mailed with mine. Oh. Another call to Juneau (a sheepish one) to call off the duplicate process. The calls were difficult – I think because it is windy – it wouldn’t take the calling card number. This really helps me appreciate how easy things are when everything works.

The laundry room at the cannery was open (barely and temporarily) and I used all six machines. Doing laundry here takes hours. Roy will ask the cannery’s refer guy to look at the new, non-functional freezer. I received an email back from Frigidaire assuring me that they were sorry for the inconvenience and that I should call a qualified service technician (whose travel is not covered by the warranty).

It was time to put away the five crates of warm room food and the food in the five larger crates that wintered over in the cabin. It’s like a major shopping trip. We leave food in the cabin that won’t shatter or lose its texture (much) by freezing, like tomato sauce and canned tuna. But it will rust and lemmings will get into things like chocolate chips, rice, and pasta, so we can’t just leave it on the shelves. Instead, all the dry staples that stay here are packed into crates with closing lids, and the canned staples that can freeze are put into another crate lined with plastic. Then I sprinkle in rice as a desiccant so the cans won’t rust and close it up tight. All that must be relocated onto the shelves.

Now, the laundry then a walk – and maybe more agates and eagles.

It’s 11:45 now and the sun set about 15 minutes ago. The sky is still red and it’s light outside, though getting darker inside the cabin. Tonight’s walk netted three eagles and one red agate. And one stranded motorist. He is with a native corporation that is installing a fiber optic cable that will terminate at the bottom of the beach access road. They said it will serve communities as far away as Dutch Harbor and it’ll carry Bristol Bay cellular, GCI, and ATT. He was sightseeing in his 2 WD truck and got stuck. At about 11:30 pm on June 2. Uh oh – very few people on the beach to help him. Except me, odd for being here at all so early and even odder for taking a walk at sunset. We walked back to get the truck to pull him out. It wasn’t so bad for him – he got to do something useful in the presence of a spectacular sunset. And no harm came to him or his truck.

Liz