An update

As expected summer in Homer is crazy busy. Lou is busy making wine to keep up with demand and training for the Resurrection Pass 50 mile run next month. Every time he goes out for a long run he is running farther than he ever has before. Last Sunday he ran our CDT average daily mileage in 3ish hrs. Go Lou!
I am loving my job. I get to be outside hiking around or measuring fishes almost everyday. Everything is green now, and gorgeous. The snow is quickly disappearing off the mountain tops. I'll try to get up a few pictures of the changes soon.
Although memorial day was last month I thought I'd share a few pictures of one of the projects we worked on that weekend.
Yup, that is a dead moose Lou is untangling.
This young bull got caught up in a neighbors wire fence while they were away. Lou and I went over to help them take care it. The local authorities don't deal with dead moose, but they do hold you responsible if it is on your property and attracts bears. As you can see it died right next to a power pole which, among other reasons, made it impossible to use any machinery to haul it out or bury it. So we got out the shovels and dug down until we hit frozen ground. Rolling the moose into the hole wasn't too challenging, but it did let loose some rotten odors. We layered the poor guy with lime and dirt, said a few words and plopped metal air stripping on top for good measure. To our delight no bears came looking for an easy meal and I didn't have to cut it up in pieces to haul it out of bears reach.
Other more recent news; I have been doing a tid bit of work on a property that Lou and I expect to close on in late July. We are trying not to get too excited or invest too much time until we actually have the keys.
There are apple trees on the property! And raspberries too. The raspberries were in need of some serious TLC, so I have spent a few hours doing that. See the before and after pics below.

Before


AfterThis and another isle just like it created three piles up to my waist of dead raspberry sticks.
The raspberry stocks that are greening up are well over my head. With a little grooming we could have a healthy harvest of berries from year to year.
Here are some pics of the apple trees. For the most part the apple trees (and two plum trees) are in great shape. But the rabbit population has done damage to a few of the trees. I have a lot to learn about keeping plants happy and healthy so we can harvest fruit in the fall. Who knows, bee keeping might be in our future.....
Looking from the raspberries across the apple tree patch. Check out the harvesting ladder.From the other side of the apple tree patch, a couple of younger trees in front.There are other fruit producing plants in the orchard as well. But we'll wait until after closing to think about those.

Jaz's summer job

This summer I am a tech for Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. KBRR is part of the national estuary system. I will mostly be working on a project at the head of the bay at Fox River Flats. The pictures below show some of the sampling procedure. We seine in several side channels and then ID and measure all the fishes we catch.The plastic totes are insect fallout traps to look at prey availability.
The overall focus of the project is looking at habitat use of salmon smolt before they make the transition to the ocean. In the picture above Tammy is measuring the temperature, salinity, & conductivity of the channel water. Almost all of the fish caught are released after being measured and weighed. There also is a diet component, so a few salmon smolt (shown above) come back to the lab with us. We have had one week of field work so far with many more to come. It has been fabulous to be out in the field again. The group of people I work with are a lot of fun. The site is just starting to green up, but the surrounding mountains are still covered in snow. I look forward to watching summer take over at the flats.
Besides all the fishes we catch there is a lot more wildlife happenings, gobs of birds, and even the occasional wolf track. I hope to see more than just wolf tracks this summer.

Meet the Fraurer Kitten

We got a kitten a week ago. Lots of fun and entertainment. We were told that it was a girl, but yesterday the vet informed us that this little fuzz bucket is actually a boy. So as much as we liked the name Alta, we decided it was a more girl name than boy name. Which means that Thor is an option again, although we are leaning towards Zin. He is a winery kitty after all.

The Traditional Archery Journey Continues

I have been attempting to get a rabbit this winter with my traditional bow and recently...I succeeded! The Homer area has experienced a rabbit boom this year so they are plentiful. I have been going on walks around the neighborhood getting attuned to the habits of the rabbits. I have certainly had some failed attempts and flung arrows that did not meet their mark over the past few weeks but fewer than I would have thought. This particular rabbit did not make it easy. I had to perch in a tree to get elevated enough to have a shot over a hump and initially only the rear 3/4's of the rabbit presented a shot. I ended up shooting wide and spooked the rabbit. Lucky for me he only moved five feet or so and presented a similar shot but this time it was its head 3/4's that was exposed. I shot my second arrow and it found its mark. Rabbit stew for dinner! This is the first animal that I have taken with my traditional bow and it was very satisfying. I kept the skin so that I can try to tan it and maybe make some slippers. The fur has tons of soft down in it seeing how it is winter time.

Happy trails to everyone.

Winery new building

Here are just a few pictures of the new production building for Bear Creek Winery. It is a beautiful timber frame shop, just up the road from the original building. The tasting room isn't moving, just the production side of the business. There isn't enough room to make and store all the wine they need to meet demand at the original site. So far, they have only moved in cases of wine that were made in the original building, but in the very near future they will start making wine almost exclusively in this new building.
As you can see the building gets lots of natural light. Our days are now about 11 hours long, equinox is just a week away. They have a forklift to move around pallets of wine, which is a lot better than moving them by hand.
The wall behind the forklift in this photo opens to the space that will have a walk in freezer for all the berries. Right now there are many pallets of wine being stored back there.

The forklift has been jazzed up with this spiffy Bear Creek Winery decal.
Here is a picture of most of the Bear Creek Winery crew, missing are two of the winter employees and my Grandma who makes lunches for everyone. They are standing in front of even more cases of wine along the opposite wall of the shop from the last pic. The building has a lofted office space too. It is going to be a different summer with the new building up and running. Between people coming in the door for tastings and the distributors orders they keep busy around here. It is awesome to go into Fred Meyers and see Bear Creek Winery bottles on the top shelf of their liquor store!

Out my window

This photo was literally taken out the window by my desk 5 min ago.

Life in Homer has been moving right along. Lou is busy working in the winery and just this morning I taught my first lecture of the semester. After lecture I got in a ski under blue bird sky's. It has been so sunny around here my face is starting to tan. Back at my desk for the afternoon and life keeps making me smile. Two young bull moose are helping themselves to the frozen grass on the lawn. They are mostly getting along, but I have seen them push each other, just a little, with their antlers to get a better angle at the grass.
Before these bulls showed up we've seen two sets of cow and calf every day.
I went outside to get a few nicer shots. The moose in the front isn't just closer to me, he really is bigger than the other guy. FYI Jake - neither of them are legal....yet.

North to Alaska

After a year of playing around in various parts of the world we have settled in Homer, AK. We arrived here on Dec. 2nd after driving the Alcan/Cassiar highway. As it turns out it is hard to drive that highway without experiencing some adventure. Here is how it broke down.
Day 1: Mostly uneventful. Highlight = unreal scenery on the Sea to Summit Hwy.
Day 2: Roads covered in snow and ice all day. Highlight = glare ice corner that put the car in the ditch
Day 3: 18" snow storm, chains, and slow going. The next morning Lou had to shovel us out of the hotel room. Then we had to uncover the car and shovel a path to the gas pump. Day 4: Temperatures bottoming out at -30 F. The car started in the morning, wahoo! It was a battle to keep the windows clear of ice, even with the heater on high. We found an abandoned set of golf clubs on the road. Seemed a perfect time to hit a few. Notice the long shadows, this was about three in the afternoon near the town of Tok, AK. The sun isn't getting very high here this time of year.
Day 5: Arrive in Homer! Our new home.

For the time being we are living the Jasmine's parents. True to form Lou enjoys the short commute to work each morning. We will be getting our own place eventually and everyone has an open invitation to come and visit. It would be great to see you. The first week home was a good kind of busy. Lou is making wine and learning all aspects of the business. Jasmine got certified as a xc-ski coach and is practicing with the Women's Nordic team as well as prepping for classes.
It is shaping up to be another wonderful winter.
It is unlikely that we'll get around to posting about our trip on the Grand Canyon, but check out Josh's Blog (Dec. 2 post) for great photos and narrative on that trip.