Toksook Bay, Ak

So Jay had to fly to Bethel, AK and then charter a plane to Toksook Bay for work.  This was an easy job, the logistics of shipping Hazardous Waste from a remote Yupik village of 300 people was not so easy.

This is our plane.  While in Bethel I was approached by a producer for the TV show "Flying Wild Alaska"  they wanted to film our day, we could not get any answers from our clients boss or mine so the answer was no.  I did let the camera man ride with us to film the flight.  Hey, might have been my last moments...might as well document it.

I have only flown in small planes a handful of times.  This is really flying, you are tossed around, you feel every bump, and we landed in a crosswind on a gravel runway on the Bearing Sea.  I was also to hold to hold my breakfast down too.

 Toksook Bay, AK

 The small clean up job for the National Guard

 My helper

 Riding on top of HazMat on the back of a 4-wheeler.  No Cops, Troopers or DOT round these parts.

 Lets fill this death trap of a plane with Flammable Liquids.

Back in Bethel, all the "plumbing" is above ground because of the permafrost.  However it just leads to an open air pit out in the tundra.  I left Anchorage at 7am and was back in Anchorage at 10pm., sure was a strange day.  Seeing these remote places is really humbling that "American" citizens live like this.  I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to the little planes but it really was not a bad flight.  Back to the office...can't wait to work remote again.

Kenai Peninsula - Memorial Day Weekend part 2

We had bear spray, Amanda had the machete under her sleeping bag and Jay had the rifle next to him.  however, we did not have any trouble with the bears.  We did see some sea lions and harbor seals and did not find any salmon on the end of our lines.  So, we ventured over to the Sea Life Center for some learning.

Kenai Peninsula - Memorial Day Weekend part 1

 Jay got in late friday night from Ketchikan.  Amanda had the gear ready to go for the weekend of camping  and fun.  On the way south to Seward we stopped off in Hope to visit Brendan and his dad Dennis as they were working on the new Maguire beach front property.  Jessie was out of town but it sure was nice to see how happy hard work and their own land can make a couple.
 The weather was not looking too promising and neither did our booked campsite.  We showed up to a full campground and our tent site was a gravel parking space, it was raining, and there were noisy rednecks.  We got our money back and now had no place to stay.  We drove around and of course all the campgrounds were full.  The last place in town was the Air Force Campground, we had to give it a try.  With a smile we heard "NO" for an answer...however both of us have contractor badges for the Department Of Defense and we were greeted with a "welcome, pick any site you like"
  The next morning we drove 5 miles to the Kenai Fiords National Park and to Exit Glacier.  We geared up, spoke with the rangers and heard there was a little snow on the trail and that the dog could not come on our 8 mile hike.  Leaving Phinn in the truck we were off.

Marmot

the way down was much more fun than the way up

ptarmigan

Green House

So with an afternoon free and seeds to plant, I devised a blueprint, spent $21.00 and 2 hours and now have more plastic in our yard.

Busy Spring Part II (be sure to read Part I!!)

My computer is not cooperating, so I have to do the pics in 2 blog installments. Sorry!

 Yup, lots of snow in the mountains still

 Super tastey kettle korn at the MS Walk and free too! Much better than the dumb little 1 ounce cup of Ben and Jerry's you get after the 20 mile Walk for Hunger in Boston.

 Very happy :-)

 Airplane...

Rainbow!

 Real life Deadliest Catch

 Airplane.....again...

Nature's airplane (I know, I'm hilarious)

My very first fishing pole. I only lost one lure. I was fishing for mammals on the other side of the river apparently....

Busy Spring Part 1

So here we are May 8th, and Jay and I are getting out and about enjoying the spring while it lasts. The sky doesn't get dark until after 11pm and it's up by 5am. So we officially aren't really seeing a night sky much anymore....very cool. Last weekend we staid busy cleaning up the yard, planting a lawn in the back (it's actually growing too!), and getting the HOG up and running. This past week, we wrapped up our birch syrup experiment (see pic below!) and we got some veggie sprouts! But the real Alaska fun went on this weekend. Yesterday was a really pretty day, I did the charitable thing and walked the Wasilla MS Walk (trying to mingle!) and Jay went hiking and skiing (yup you can still ski in these mountains) up at Hatcher Pass...he mingled too and met skiiers from Massachusetts and Vermont, go figure! Today we got our first official Alaska resident sport fishing licenses with King Salmon tags so we went fishing in Alaska! I think that's on like a lot New Englander's bucket list or something too, CHECK! And in regular Jay and Amanda fishing fashion...we didn't catch a damn thing LOL. It's a good thing someone invented grocery stores cause we'd starve. Well enjoy the pics below. Happy Mother's Day! Go Bruins! Go Celtics! Happy Birthday Ashley! and Safe Travels Karl!

 Syrup on the left (maple tastes way better, but I'm gonna eat every last drop) and birch candy on the right.

 The lettuce and broccoli are coming in hot

 MS Walk

MS Walk this weekend (Warning, blatant uncomfortable solicitation to follow)

In case you missed it on my Facebook I'm doing a Walk for MS this weekend. If you're feeling charitable feel free to toss a couple bucks my way :-)

https://secure3.convio.net/nmss/site/Donation2?idb=727827029&df_id=32845&FR_ID=16046&PROXY_ID=9459569&32845.donation=form1&PROXY_TYPE=20&JServSessionIdr004=ws3rsew1a1.app323b

See that wasn't so bad.