Fishing update.....

Finally, we're back in town long enough to get some photos posted.

a LOT of driftwood!

Here's a few pictures from where Levi and I have been fishing. Places with names like: Kamashak Flats, Rocky Bay, Port Graham, Windy Bay, and Chinook River. Really out of the way places, FAR from any towns, remote and beautiful. 

Sorry we don't have any pictures of the fish....yet, we have been catching them, it's usually just too chaotic when we're bringing them in to pull out a camera. But, I promise we will post some evidence soon that we're not just out there sightseeing :)

Thanks for checking in with us!

one of the boats we're fishing with

fishing alongside the locals :)

Bald Eagle

Bears fishing

Ready n rain gear

miles and miles of wilderness

Staying busy in Alaska

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post.  We are all keeping busy here in Homer.....and trying to fit in!

The boys are out fishing most of the time but we have been able to seen them on the occasion when they are coming and going to a new area or if something breaks that needs replacing.  They are doing great and learning loads.  Erik and Levi have the jobs of "line stackers" (guiding and stacking the nets as they come in and go out),  which is a physical job.  The net is about 3/4 of a mile long and would fill up a  12 x 12 living room 4 ft. high.  All of the "crew" are taking turns cooking so I am expecting "new" recipies and volunteer kitchen help in MY kitchen when the season is over:)   

Maggie is still busy with her jobs and feeling independant.  She has also found some great friends who she works with.  All the girls got together and celebrated her 18th birthday!  Something about...cupcakes,  concert on the lawn,  and hippies....you'll have to ask her what that was all about!  Thanks Maggie,  Sierra and Katie! (I hope I didn't forget anyone)

The other kiddos and I  have been busy with activities from the library and school.  We have meet some great people and are having fun with "local" activities!  Recently Emma won a drawing and recieved FREE movies tickets and Zoe also won a drawing for FREE ice cream!  Sounds like a movie/ice cream afternoon for the all of us!

Canning Salmon

I have officially turned into an "Alaskan Mountain Women"  this week!  I have been learning to can.  And although I have been a gardener in the past I have never learned the art of canning.  so...Linda has been teaching me and since it is fishing season.....we are canning Salmon.  Pink and Red Salmon more specifically.  

The process takes about 3 hours from start to finish.  Starting with sanitizing the jars,  then cutting up the fish,  cleaning them and fitting them into the jars.  From there we add vinegar and salt and then wipe and seal them.  Then they are ready to go into the pressure cooker and must maintain 10 lbs of pressure for 1 1/2 hours. 


After they are done and cooled down,  all the jars must be cleaned again before being stored! We canned for a few days and in total I believe we ended up canning about 50+ fish.  (Linda did most of the work!) But I was grateful to be a part of it and to just learn! 

Thanks Linda:)

"The Fisherman's Widows Club"

Yes, I have officially joined the group of the many women here in Alaska known as the "Fisherman's Widows  Club" (hypothetical of course!) The fishing season is in FULL swing and the fishing boats and  crews are coming and going.  Our crew has been gone for over a week now but we have been able to talk to the boys a few times.  They are doing great and trying to stay warm!  This has been a tough adjustment for our family for the obvious reason that we have been traveling closely for the past 3 1/2 years together on a boat the size of most peoples garage.  So, although we are missing each other we are all staying busy which helps!

Maggie has been working like crazy at 3 different jobs.  She is loving the independence and is learning a ton! Recently she got her driving permit! It think I was more excited!!  Like she puts it...."Only 2 years late,  but hey,  that's what living and traveling on a boat does!" So guess who does all the driving when it's the 2 of us?

Emma also got a job 2 times a week helping a friend down the street clean house.  She loves it too!  She feels independent and is learning a lot also.  We are focusing on school,  school,  school......but she is not too excited about that! 

The little's,  Emma and I have been involved with the summer library reading program.  There are activities once a week and the kids have been able to make some friends.  Last week we were a part of making 4th of July decorations for the Library, and then the girls got to march with the "Big" parade through town. Miles and I sat, watched, waved and caught candy!  Miles was thrilled!  His new phrase was......"Momma,  open!!

So for now we are enjoying Alaska and trying to keep warm.  

Thanks for reading  - Rachel!   

Off to sea!

I know......I know.......I can hear it already. "You get a real job and the blogs come to a screeching halt!"

On the boat!

It has been a busy few weeks, with Levi and I working 50+ hours a week, working to finish details on the fishing boat(s), but no excuses! I know some readers are wondering what we've been up to, here in Alaska.  There has been an endless list of things to prepare and fix. I mentioned the net mending in the previous post, and all is well, nets are mended and on the boats. 1/2 mile of net is a LOT of net (not to mention it weighs about 5,000 pounds dry.....more when it's wet!) There have been loads of other projects as well, but it seems we have gained on it, and the list is finally short.

One of the chores to get ready was an all day trip to Anchorage (Erik and Emma) and filing 6 carts with enough food for 2 1/2 months' long season. We're planning on being more than a little hungry after fishing all day, so we need our 'sustenance' :)   Most of the food stays in Homer, and when we need to re-stock while we're out there, Linda sends it with the fish tenders that come and go from us, bringing our catches to the fish processors. The tenders are huge ships that literally vacuum the fish from our boat (sometimes straight from the net) into their hold and make the 10 hour trek back to town. So we can just keep fishing!

So, we are planning now to leave the day after tomorrow, and are heading out to an area on the way to Kodiak Island, about 10 hours from Homer by boat. It should take us one overnight trip and then we'll be waiting for the schools of fish to start "running"....schooling back to the same creeks and rivers where they were spawned 3-4 years ago. 

Levi and I have been like sponges, learning everything we can about the whole process, and are excited to see the boats start filling with fish. We get paid a percentage of the season's catch.....so the joke is: NO fish will escape on our watch!!

Meanwhile......Miles and the girls are enjoying a bathtub at their disposal!

Getting Settled

Well, we've been in Alaska for a bit over a week now, and we're still getting our bearings! The strangest thing is the sun not going down until after 11:00 pm, so it never really gets dark before the sun is coming up again. It's been difficult for the kids to adjust because they don't want to get in bed when the sun is shining in the windows!

Levi and I have been working a lot getting the boats ready for the season. This means everything from mending nets, to welding, to framing, to plumbing, to cleaning, to painting, to siphoning old fuel from last season, and on and on. We thought Mehari was a lot of work! These fishing boats are MUCH larger, and have way more systems than we have on our little sailboat. 

The main boat we'll be fishing on, called 'Stardust', is 58', sleeps 10 and has a 550hp diesel motor (Mehari has 2 motors that total only 36hp!!) 

It also has a sea water chiller, for keeping the salmon we catch and store in the fish hold down to 33 degrees (chilled seawater.......fascinating) and two separate diesel generators as well. It has an engine room as big as the saloon on our boat, and it's nice to be able to walk around everything instead of trying to turn a wrench.....crammed into a "phone booth". The boat also has 1/4 mile long fish net that we use which weighs over 5000 pounds.....without fish! So, as you can imagine, everything on the boat is BIG!

Two large piles of fish nets to mend. 

The "fish hold" is below decks and can hold about 60,000 pounds of fish and we hope to fill it as often as possible! Well see. We're still about two weeks from fishing, and everything is totally new for us. If we get our projects finished, we hope to go out for some practice 'sets' before the official opening of the season so we can at least LOOK like we know what we're doing. 

Rachel and the kids have been settling in as well. The have been into Homer a few times, poking around town and are already set up with a library card and have been there a couple of times. It's a great way to have a free outing and the kids like getting a new stash of books for home. Emma is into craft books and readers, Lily has just started getting into readers, Zoe likes picture books, and Miles is happy with any books with cars. Maggie if course, just gets a pile and devours them quickly. She's just happy for some more variety than the books that get passed between cruisers. 

Homer Sweet Home

Well, we thought the BOAT had it's hard moments! Whew! Road travelling with 8 is tough. 

Most of the photos we put on were of us smiling, but there were a lot of not smiling times. All in all, it was a great adventure, and we lived to tell about it. Actually, I'm mostly joking, but it is what it is. 

It is just difficult with all of us, some as large as adults themselves, in a car....any car, for 12-14 hours at a time. The best solution we found was to drive all night. Not much fun for Rachel and I, but oh well, better in the end. 

We arrived several days ago, and are just getting settled into our new routine for the next few months. The house where we are staying is gorgeous. The people we are fishing with, Mark and Linda, kindly offered to let us all stay, knowing Levi and I would be gone most of the summer and it would be Rachel and the kids here with Linda. It is a big house with stunning vies over the Kachemak bay, just up the road from the town of Homer. They are on 5 acres, and the first morning after we got here, I went out to get something from the car, and there was a moose in the front yard, munching away on the grass.......welcome to Alaska!

Here's the view from the living room

The house has a big loft room where all the kids will sleep, and Rachel and I have a room downstairs with a bathroom. We're all adjusting to all the space, and it's going to be interesting to see if we can cram everything back into the suburban and trailer when it comes time to leave. For now, we're just enjoying the time we have here and enjoying God's amazing creation that is all around us!

Love you all, talk to you soon! 

"The Last Frontier"

Welcome to Alaska

"Sign post forest" over 70,000 signs!

Early morning fog from the road

A river runs through it.....om the way to Homer

1200 miles down.....

Hello from the road,

Well, we got some miles under our wheels, but still have a LONG way to go. We ended up packing all day last Sunday, getting the boat ready to leave for several months. It was a very strange feeling, cleaning the boat, and looking at all the memories we made in there. It was also a bit sad as we drove away and looked back at Mehari, sitting on blocks, and all the decks cleaned off. We had to take down all the sails and tie everything that was loose, down tight, as she will be sitting there through hurricane season, and you never know......last year they had a small hurricane go through Beaufort area and there was some flooding in the marina, but no damage. We are praying for the same result this year!

So, once we had the car loaded, and I mean over-LOADED, it was 10:00 p.m. and way too much work to try and stay on the boat again, we decided to just set out on the road and see how we felt. The kids (and us) were all excited to get to our first stop in Rolla, Missouri with Rachel's sister and family (they have 6 kids also) and so we ended up driving all night and the next day, 1100 miles straight! Rachel and I took turns driving and napping, so it wasn't too bad. The kids, once they were wedged in and comfortable, slept all night. It was actually somewhat peaceful, as it rained almost the whole way, and they were snuggled in. 

We've been here in Rolla for a few days, and have had a great time hanging out, playing lots of games, and even worked in a canoe trip down a beautiful river near here, the Current River. It's a really pretty and the water was crystal clear and super cold when the canoe flipped!! It gave us a LOT of motivation to make sure it didn't :)

It's time for us to say goodbye, or more accurately, see you later, as we will be coming through here again in the fall on our way back to North Carolina. So......some tears, but not too many. The next stop for us is probably a campsite tonight, depending on how far we get towards the Black Hills of South Dakota. We are heading to Aaron and Darla's house (Erik's brother) so we will write more from there! 

~eight explorers?