July 16-18: Starting to pack up

Fishing has remained slow. One tide is usually very slow (maybe 3 fish) and the other, by comparison, seems great (maybe 20 fish). But we're fishing and slowing chipping away at our homepack goals.

Everyone on the crew continues to do great. They are all willing to do any job (though washing dishes, cleaning up and taking out the garbage seem to be the least favorite jobs by a big margin). David led a crew in cleaning up Debby's cabin and they even got down to the counters... and wiped them off! Another group has been sorting through the crew cabin. Working with that group, a particular challenge of keeping this place organized and "lean" occurred to me.

In Seattle or other locations where just about everything is easily available, it is relatively easy to throw away the extra screw that comes with something or the extra button that comes with the shirt or the cardboard box that something comes in. In Seattle, if we find a few days later that that was just the thing we needed for something else, we can go get another one. Here, it's not that easy. Here, if there's some life left in something, it is prudent to save it. That takes us out of the disposal mindset and encourages the hoarding mindset. But those mindsets aren't so specific and actually require thoughtful decision making. Is there life left in this? How could it be used? How hard would it be to replace? How hard would it be to store? How likely is it to be used? And if we're busy or distracted or tired, it becomes, "Never mind - just keep it."

Combine that with distributed decision making and our combined absence of the tidiness gene and stuff builds up rather dramatically. Because of the hoarding mindset, we all have this assumption that the piles of stuff lining the walls is precious and might come in handy some day. It was a major revelation when we peeled the stuff away and found our precious space taken by useless, rusted, broken, and empty things. The truckload that went to the dump was pretty full. And we continue to extract more useless stuff. I don't think we can claim "lean" yet, but we've stepped away from "bloated."

July 16: Bear alert. David came to get me to let me know that there was a bear out by Debby's cabin. We all ran out - it looks like a two year old. Probably the same one that was playing hide-and-seek the night before when the night crew was pulling in their catch. We all ran out to see if we could get a good look and he ran down the cliff and walked along the beach. Here he is on the way to Pedersen Point.

Not much later, David came to tell me he was back and out by the pond behind my cabin. He moved pretty quickly over toward the neighbor's place. I thought they were in town so it was alarming to see someone emerge from their cabin and head to the outhouse not even a minute after the bear passed by. So far, we have managed to avoid one another.

July 17: Slowing packing. It is really helpful to have all these willing and able hands. Some of the crew heads into town to wash laundry, strip the used nets (cut the hangings that connect the web to the corklines and leadlines) and prepare them for shipping southbound to be rehung in the winter,

work on the truck (do you recognize Jeff's eye and... sideburns?),

get the Ambi loaded up onto the trailer in preparation for taking it to Lake Camp and across Naknek Lake to Katmai (that's Big Brad lifting it with the giant forklift and David and Jake helping Jordan getting it in position), and

run the new ranger around a bit so it doesn't rot from disuse. Here David is teaching Will how to run it with Luka looking on. He is still wearing the bandage from where the piece of lumber fell on his head in the net locker.

Will drove the ranger around camp with David walking next to him. I think David has taught Will how to use every piece of equipment we have.

July 18: Almost finished fishing. The "emergency order" period ended on Wednesday, July 17. After that, we go into the fall fishing schedule, which is just like "free week:" fishing is allowed from 9 am Monday to 9 am Friday. Since Wednesday evening's tide produced only 3 fish and there are bears out, we decided to pull our nets on Thursday morning as the tide ebbed, instead of Thursday night/wee hours of Friday morning. We had about 35 fish. We'll set them back out again after we get back from Katmai for one tide (unless the fishing is really great and then... who knows?)

Most of the crew went into town tonight - I stayed out. Mainly because I prefer the beach, but also because I wasn't ready when they wanted to go. I had the place to myself when suddenly Sage sat up, ears up, and eager to go outside. When there are bears around, I figure that's a really good time to keep her in. So I did, for a while. But then I remembered the pan of fish out by my front porch. Uh oh. So I went out and found nothing there except the undisturbed pan of fish. I had been trying to dry the strips that I'd salted and then soaked out - for smoking. But it's been wet and they didn't dry. Instead, they went bad. So the seagulls got the fruits of my work. Sigh. I did feel a bit more secure once the bait was removed from my doorstep.

This part of the season is very hard on the waistline. We are no longer working so hard, though our work remains largely physical. However, those of us who like to bake, really appreciate having a group of young men to bake for and the time to do it. This is a Fruit Pizza and it looks much healthier than it actually is. I've never made such an orange one before - usually I can find good green, red, white, or blue fruit too. The orange-ness of this one has led to the hypothesis that orange fruits last longer than fruit of other colors. I had oranges and mangoes... and some dried blueberries.