Hamming it Up

Sunday ham baked with pineapple rings was the order of the day. Mooseless this year for our household but not from the lack of trying. Theres always deer hunting til Dec 31st which is a good wild game meat back up.

Got to have bones for Roxy!

Cable Fish

Get organized with the CableFish cable-winder!

Excess flex and cabling for lights, computers, DVD, TV, office and household equipment can be easily organized with this cable winder.

Wind excess flex around the Cable Fish and fixate the wire in the openings.

The Cable Fish is capable of handling a maximum of 32 in. / 81.28cm of flex or cabling.

Material: Plastic

Size: 5.5 in. / 14cm long.

I thought these Cable Wraps were not only cute but handy!

"Looks like another fall

And my friends don't help at all. And I'm feeling kinda cold and small. Think I'll look up my rainy day man." - from Rainy Day Man on Streetlights by Bonnie Raitt.

This song was in my head all day.

Sometimes you feel like a nut

Ran into a bunch of bananas that were screaming to be made into bread. One with nuts and one without. The nutty one is the loaf in front that over flowed enough to burst a bit. I don't know how many cups of crushed walnuts I put in there. At least one. The recipe I used was one that called for a cup of sour cream, 3 bananas, and a couple of hours of time on your hands. More if you bake one loaf at a time, whether or not you are using glass pans and your elevation to sea level. See picture.

Bedroom Bouquet

My friend with the green thumb flowers still look great. All the pictures I've been taking of her beautiful handiwork this summer I am putting on a cd for her to enjoy this winter.

This is what the sky looked like tonight when we got out of swimming. Clearing up nicely for the full bright moon thats out there right now.

Should get some good pictures of the fall colors tomorrow. They are changing fast. Soon it will be dark when we get out of swimming.

Puppy Dog Tales

Pictured on the left is the new Whole Wheat Radio Chocolate Lab puppy, Beta. I love the white markings on her chest and paws. The perfect new addition to the new Wheat Palace.








The black pup is Dallas. A Lab/Pit mix that my young friend brought home to his house to keep and his dad wouldn't let him. I think his dad his right. A teenager just starting high school won't have the time to train a puppy properly. Luckily, the deal depended on dad's approval and the owner took the puppy back. But not until we had fun playing with her and took a few pictures. This is one of her on my new desk.

I can't leave my dog Roxy out of a puppy post. I tried Blogger's video upload for the first time. This is an un-edited clip of Roxy playing with the cat's ball.

Tanker Traffic

Took this picture from the Bettye Cato "Bridge to Nowhere" over Mineral Creek Canyon this afternoon. In the distance is a super tanker being escorted out of Prince William Sound.

This is my third week straight of swimming M/W/F nights and it just keeps getting funner and funner. Tonight I was swimming two laps in under five minutes. I'm still using the flippers and I'm up to 2 boogie boards now. I swim backwards with them one way and forward the other. Much better as my neck was killing me trying to keep my head out of the water. I can't stand going underwater. I had 3 years of swimming lessons as a child and never got out of beginners. But I am enjoying swim nights and my body shows no more signs of sacrolitis. Besides that my jeans are fitting better!

Whispering Giants

Humanitarian Artist Peter Wolf Toth has donated his Smithsonian recognized Giant Indian Statues (20-40ft tall) to each of the 50 states and Canada. They were made to honor all Native Americans. Even beyond this they honor the struggle of all mankind against injustice. Peter creates smaller statues that he sells, from $27 to $27,000, the average price of $200-$600, to pay for his philanthropist endeavors. To contact Peter, send mail to 102 Arthur Ave/US 1 Edgewater, Water, FL 32141 For a quicker response email peterwtoth@yahoo.com. He's in Valdez right now giving our Whispering Giant a facelift.

On the other side of town the guy in the manlift on the left was topping the old growth cottonwood tree by the Totem Restaurant and Inn.

Warm Weekend

Today was HOT! Went to the Valdez Buccaneer football game for a bit. They played the Barrow Whalers. The American highschool football team that has the northern most artificial turf (Mission accomplished for Barrow football)after some lady in Florida saw them playing on muddy ice. When I left the score was 7-0 in favor of Valdez and it turned out the Buccaneers won in the end 20-12.

Found me a new desk on craigslist http://anchorage.craigslist.org/fur/428643631.html that I'm picking up tomorrow! I'm so happy to see Valdez folks posting there. I also picked up a small upright freezer for a good price ($100) a couple weeks ago.

I would put my old desk on there for FREE but I already gave it away.

My Drive to Work This Morning

Coming down the mountains

Signs of fresh snow are appearing through the hanging clouds in every direction. You can't look out a window in Valdez without seeing mountains.

The little blue roofs are the cabins at Eagle's Rest RV Park & Cabins right as you come into town off the Richardson Hwy. The big blue building in the lower right hand corner is the new Valdez Animal Shelter. I took these pictures from the Food Bank parking lot about 5pm tonight.

The rain has stopped and its clearing up now.

the LPW Mermaid

Docked on A float is the steel hulled tug the L P W. No longer a working boat, in her day, she was a shrimper, a long liner and a fuel hauler. During the Exxon Valdez oil spill clean up she was a garbage boat. Now she is pleasure craft used for deer hunting in the Sound and the occasional sea cruise.

Dan Kramer, a Wasilla artist, painted the mermaid on the door.

The L P W, along with the mermaid, is For Sale.

Quaint Little Harbor

Picture perfect day. The calm before the storm. High winds through Thompson Pass and raining in the mountains and the valleys. Time to button down the hatches.

Over the Seas

This is the pretty new Valdez harbor lift in action. Pictured is the M/V Faithfully descending safely into the harbor on a bright Monday morning.

Rumor has it the Govenor is coming to Valdez and the Dividend amount to be announced on Wed. at 2pm.

My guess is she's going to take a little cruise on Prince William Sound while she's at it.

Valdez Fire Hydrants

Most of the fire hydrants in Valdez are higher up than normal. They also have flags attached to let snow plowers and the fire dept. know where they are in deep snow.

The school kids of Valdez went around and painted all the fire hydrants in town as an art project.

So not only do we have high fire hydrants with flags they are decorative.

Unfinished Houses

Here is a free ticket for all of you to Whole Wheat Radio for Esther Golton's CD Release party and the Grand Opening of the Wheat Palace. Starts tonight at 8pm Alaska Time but you don't have to wait til then to tune in.

This is Esther's long awaited CD "Unfinished Houses" and tonight is the live internet broadcast we've all been waiting for. I would love to be there, but listening to it on WWR and hanging out in the chat with the rest of Wheaties unable to attend, is the next best thing.

See you in chat!

From the Land of Peter Pan

This is the West High School volleyball team from Anchorage visiting the Valdez Buccaneers this morning. They stopped walking towards Valdez High School, for me to take a picture, in front of John Harris's house. He is our District Representative and Speaker of the House in the Alaska Legislature. Thats right folks, John has a little pink house. He's also a working Teamster when not in session.

Today was last day Peter Pan Seafoods in Valdez was open for business. I remembered about 4 o'clock and went to buy $50 worth of rockfish. A friend gave me $50 to pick up some for him, too. The vacuumed packed fillettes were $4.85 a pound. They didn't have a hundred dollars worth left in the freezers out front so the gal went to look for more. After 20 minutes of waiting I thought she forgot about me. She came back with the box of fish above saying I hope this is the right stuff. When we opened the box it was flash frozen fillettes like a restaurant gets and not individually packed. I asked how much a pound? $3 dollars she said. I said I'll take a hundred dollars worth. When weighed it was $120. She let me have the whole box for a hundred bucks which was $2.50 a pound! I came home and split it up and delivered my friend his $50 dollars worth of rockfish. He was so happy he gave me a big hug! I let a small fillette thaw out while I went swimming. Came back and fried it up. It tastes like chicken of the sea.

Spruced Up Green '55 Chevy

Its not every day you see such a nice "spruced up" 1955 chevy truck in my favorite color. In Valdez, of all places, at the Old Town Burger joint thats closing down for the winter.

Stopped out at Boys Town today to see what was cooking. Frying in the old cast iron pan were tasty Spruce Hen morsels. Who needs a burger joint?

"Canned Salmon"

" I was wild...free...living life to the fullest! I never thought I'd end up in the CAN!!!"

Here are a couple of my favorite entries in the Wild Salmon on Parade. I voted for "Canned Salmon" but there are other great ones. Check out the Salmon Gallery to see all of them and vote for your favorite. The clever salmon below is "Silverware Salmon".

Indian Summer

After the almost six and half inches of rain we got over the weekend Monday and Tuesday have been beautiful fall days. We are due for an Indian Summer. That would be so nice. As long as its nice on the weekends too and not just during the week.

If you want to see a close-up of the sign on the far right you have to go back to a Soggy Summer Solstice in 2006.

Buccaneer Waters

Started up with lap swim at the Valdez Buccaneer's pool tonight. The price went up a buck from last year but still worth it. I forgot how much fun swimming is and how good it makes me feel. As an added bonus I won't wash my hair til morning and maybe it will turn blonde.

Budding Roses

Took this picture last week before the BIG rains came. Its making up for August being the driest month on record in 30 years. We need this rain to fill up the reservoir so our electric company doesn't have to turn on the diesel generators that will raise our bills by a third. We don't need the rain to raise the Lowe River which as of early this afternoon is a foot from cresting over the Richardson Hwy at 4 mile. No reports from Keystone Canyon which last year flooded into a raging river.

A good weekend to stay put and cook up a big ol' bone-in ham butt, sweet potatoes, beans and cole slaw. Roxy enjoyed the bone!

Caught Fishing

Photo by John Fischer Jr. on 9/7/07 in Valdez

Meet our Newest Family Member

Little Fred was born at 6:28 this morning! Weighing 7.5 lbs and 18in long. Mother, grandmother and baby are doing fine. My new nephew's first name was my dad's name. I am so happy for my sister and my niece. Cigars for everybody!

Froggy Morning

Stellar day on PWS with the sun shining through the early morning frog.

Still some diehards hanging out fishing on the dock getting skunked. Enjoying every minute.