June 23 2016 The waiting begins with swamped trucks

Sometime when sleep refuses to come, pet worries will come instead. One night, I lay awake worrying about the state of the roof on Debby’s cabin (“oh no! How will we fix it?! We aren’t roofers! If we just let it go, we’ll lose the cabin and everything in it! Oh no! All is lost!”) and not having the piece of wood to close the door on the ranger’s box (“oh no! Without that piece of wood, the ranger box might fall apart! And everything will come spilling out! It’s so hard to keep track of! It’s just the right size! And I don't know where it is! All is lost!”). After letting those thoughts have a night of my sleep, I realized that the roofing job doesn’t actually have to be great or even good; just good enough and solid enough. It's OK if it's ugly. The ranger box lock might be found (maybe I should look for it!) and if not, we can make another. Hey! Maybe we should label it!

I also have spent some fretful hours worrying about and planning how to get the fish in across the mud flats and how to get the skiff back out.

Patrick got this photo and I'd like to say, "This says it all," but it doesn't! It says the moon crater part of it, but honestly, this part isn't so bad. If we just stick to the low country, it's not so bad. Even in the towering cliffs of mud, it isn't all that sticky. When we get out of the moon crater territory where it's both deeper and more homogeneous, it's much tougher going.

We have giant pulleys - from 2007 and 2008, before we put the rangers back into service. These may be crucial to getting our fish across the mud - we used them in those heavy years to pull the Bathtub in from the mudflats with a load of fish. But they've been frozen up for a few years now. I thought it was just rust, so I asked the crew to work on loosening them up, spraying miracle goo on them, wiggling them bit by bit. But it hasn't been working. I've thought that maybe we could just use them and the pressure of the rope pulling through them might break them loose. Or it might just tear the rope. One of the things that did not keep me up last night and that we did not talk about last night was whether the trucks were out of the tide.

So I'm not sure why my first thought on waking up after sunrise for the first time this week and after high tide was, “Did anyone park the trucks up out of the tide last night?” The timing of that question was not so helpful. Holding off alarm and still in my PJs, I rushed to look over the cliff and saw that the answer was no, no one had. Aieee.

I went down to see how bad the damage was – I was the one that had left the white truck near the bottom of the stairs. David had at least parked the Carry nosed up the cliff a little ways. The view at the bottom of the cliff wasn’t any better than the view from the top. It looked like the white truck had been in over its axles on the driver's side. The floorboard was damp, but not flooded; water was still dripping out of the door.

The Carry looked better, though I could see tundra hanging from truck parts pretty high up under the bed of the Carry, suggesting that much of its rear end had been underwater.

So, I did what I do in most emergencies: call Roy. He is always so nice to me, even when I do really dumb things, like let the trucks get swamped. He advised us to take the trucks to Mark at Pen Auto, tell him what happened, and ask Mark to take off the wheels and see if there’s water where there should be grease and if so, to fix that. And he said to bring the pulleys to him.

Good advice all the way around. The crew took the trucks in, washed them really well at AGS and then drove them up to Pen Auto. They also took the scorn I deserved for letting it happen in the first place. Mark's shop had them ready the same day and when the crew went to pick them up, he handed them a stack of tide books. The white truck’s bill said “Drain and refill front & rear diff lubes, grease, inspect grease job, inspect and clean rear brakes.” And the Carry’s bill said, “Drain and refill front & rear differential and T-case, clean rear brakes and drums, cleaned battery terminals.” That surprised me because I thought the white truck got wetter.

There is a positive side to this near catastrophe. First, that it was only a near catastrophe - no one wants to just spend $650 as the fine for making a mistake, but at least the fine was not the total loss of the vehicles. Further, it was a real wake up call that I'm trying to keep track of too much. With all the focus on pulling in the nets and getting the dinner ready, I just plain forgot the vehicles. That means, I need help. And it really helped the crew understand the impact of forgetting something crucial. That evening, I clarified with David N that he would take the trucks down before going to bed. He took it very seriously and repeated it back to me. At the same time, he noticed David D paying close attention, so he pulled David D into the responsibility "because you're looking at me," he explained. Whereupon, Inku immediately looked down. I'm guessing Inku will be ready next week.

That evening I got a note from Roy saying that he had freed one of the pulleys. Those pulleys had a brass bushing that had melted. (Yeah, there was that fire in 2009 and these pulleys were in it. I forgot that part. This is the first time we've tried to use them since.) It wasn't going to turn no matter how much goo was sprayed on it. He had to take it apart, pry out the melted brass and replace it with plastic. He did that for all three of them. Yay! We're getting closer.

When we're not fishing we have more time to spend on projects (like fixing Debby's roof), cooking, exploring, and photography. Patrick led the charge on the roofing project. The first day was spent mostly taking stock of the problem and the materials available - and the materials needed - to fix it.

This is the perfect time to use some of the food that requires a little bit of fussing, something we just don't have time for when we're fishing hard. Tonight's dinner is roast chicken. I had some frozen stuffing (leftover from Thanksgiving!) that I used with the chickens. (It was really good!) This photo shows our innovative way of closing the chicken cavity. Does it say something that it was easier to find a couple of long nails than string or even dental floss?

The crew took another field trip to Pedersen Point to pass the time. Davey - with his camera - was one of the explorers.

It looks like Jeff may have found his next project. We need a new four-wheeler!

I'm not sure, but I think if the legal department or North Pacific Processors Inc saw Jeff and Davey climbing all over these rusty, elevated, probably sharp, and probably unstable detritus of the fish processing industry, they might get a stomachache.

And if that four-wheeler doesn't work, maybe Jeff will finally learn to fly.

Oksanna has been prolific with her photography - something like 100 photos per day so far - except for the days when we are in urgency mode. On those days, we don't have the time or additional attention for photos. That's kind of too bad because those are some interesting sites. And actually, this section makes me understand for the first time why reporters need to keep themselves separate from what they are reporting about - it's so they can do the reporting. Here are two more of Oksanna's photos.

First, here is Patrick, doing Ollie's bidding. I've finally realized that when Ollie jumps up, he wants to be picked up. Sigh. David tells me I now fit the stereotype of little old lady who carries around the little white dog. I'm beginning to think that Ollie's perspective is that his feet should not touch the ground.

Why run when you can fly?I tell you, his feet should not touch the ground. Apparently even gravity agrees.