Maggot Fish!

Spawned out fish! Missing eyeballs! Very smelly! Bears! This was a fun outing, and all I wanted to do was just run around and make grossed-out noises like when I was a little kid.
This fish is completely full of maggots. And was half-buried by a bear. Listen closely and hear them eating and moving:

Yea for nature!

Bee Day!

Taylor is now 26 years old, and looking very chipper indeed considering he is quickly approaching old age.
There were almost too many candles on our mini-cake. I could feel the cake crying under the weight, but then it didn't feel anything, because we ate it.

Luminous Lighted Lodge.

One last view of the lodge we work at. We shut it down a couple of days ago. Nighttime and an old camera that won't focus make everything prettier:

Hair!

I think the best thing about making jam is lining all the jars up when you are done and admiring your work. Actually, I think the best part about doing anything is admiring what you have done after it's all done:
Taylor and I went to Portland last week for our good friends' wedding, which Taylor was in. While Taylor did all the pre-wedding things guys do together, Marie and I reacquainted our Chickenscratch dolls (my Chickenscratch brought his pet whale, Targon McFlubbers, along as company) and we all spent some real quality time together:
Then, at the wedding, Taylor and Brett also reacquainted themselves with each other. Those little gems. By the way, my favorite thing about wedding pictures or party pictures are the poses that dancers are caught in. This picture has several great ones in the background:
During all of this great bonding and special time, my eyes were freaking out. I couldn't stand any light at all, and they hurt all the time. So I went to a doctor and was told I have blisters on my eye! And ingrown blood vessels! And a virus! What the heck?! Now I get to go back to my younger days and wear my extra-thick glasses:
And apparently when I bring out my glasses, my crazy hair comes back too. We didn't have a mirror so I was unaware of my looks until I walked into the lodge and saw my shadow on the door. Pretty scary stuff:
But luckily, throughout everything, our guard polar bear makes sure we're safe:

Of Kilts and Kayaks.

Six of us from work took two days to do part of the Swan Lakes National Canoe Trail (oh so very impressive), which eventually empties into the Moose River, which we live on, much farther downstream. Taylor and I have been wanting to do this trip for three years now, and now all we can talk about is future kayak trips, into more remote areas.
It was really fun, and involved many portages. At first, we were all carrying our kayaks, but after several of us almost lost our temper doing that (these portages were all at least 1/2 mile long, and hilly), we discovered that we could just drag them along, and all became well again.
And it didn't rain on us at all! Twas a miracle! So, here are some pictures from those lovely two days of bliss (and sore bodies):
The last portage ends at the Moose River, which that far upstream is really narrow and there are lots of logs sticking in the water. Taylor got flipped over by such a log, and had to stand in the river emptying out all the water. We all laughed heartily, and for a long time:
So even though the end of the summer is coming fast, our casbah is still being rocked mightily by it.
By the way, I tried to see if I could ruffle our bosses unruffable feathers, and said to him "I'll be there in two shakes of a lambies tail," and he didn't even flinch. That man is my hero.

We've Gone Cran-Crazy! Ood-e-lah-lee!

The other day Taylor and I went looking for adventure, and we found a literal mother lode of cranberries! One of the hills next to our place is crawling with low-bush cranberries, also called lingenberries. Already I've made cranberry-orange relish and cranberry-blueberry bread, but I haven't even begun. I picked a whole gallon in only one hour! I never really liked the taste of them before, but fresh ones, with lots of sugar, are so good.
We've also spotted loads of animals lately- which isn't odd at all, but the good thing is that we've had our camera ready. So, here are pictures of moose and sandhill cranes and sockeye salmon:
These cranes were doing a sort of dance, and we think they might have a nest right there because they haven't moved from that location in a week or so. But it seems awfully late to be starting a nest, so we could be wrong:
Taylor saw these spawning sockeye when he went fishing at Quartz Creek:
Taylor declared that his day of fishing at Quartz with our friend Drew was the greatest day of fishing he's had in many a year. Here is a huge Dolly Varden trout he caught (and then released, of course):

Succesfully Startling the Tourists.

Although it is raining and poopy today, two days ago it was sunny and oh so very hot. So Taylor and I took our aunt's little dog Alice to the Knik River for a lovely day of listening to barking and playing baseball with rocks.

I'm typing this while sitting on our dock. Seven canoes full of French-people just paddled by, and I think they were very weirded out by me, as we are only the second building they have seen in probably seven days of paddling the canoe trail in the refuge. And here I am, stealing an internet connection like it's the most normal thing in the world. At least I assume they thought my presence was a little odd, because they all started staring at me and jabbering away in French, in what I take to be a confused tone of voice.

Are We Not All Americans? Do We Not All Weep and Whine?

Our normally sedate lives have of late been interrupted by lots and lots of cool things. And not so cool things- like lame guests who called us 'uncivilized.'

But even that is alright, because those rude humans have inspired me to write a treatise on the American psyche, with special emphasis on how Americans behave when vacationing. This paper will include, but not be limited to, these themes: One, the utter disregard of manners and common courtesy, replaced with an inconsiderate and selfish attitude. Two, the unbelievable self-righteousness mentality, mixed with a healthy dose of bland middle-class morality. Three, whining as a natural course of conversation. This last point is the most fascinating, because as a culture we all whine almost constantly, even when we are a having a good time. It is as if whining and complaining have become a positive way to talk. Mine eyes have been opened, and I'm bewildered by our common behavior. Our grand President exemplifies this behavior: blame everyone else for everything, never take personal responsibility (especially when faced with the facts that you are to blame), whine constantly about things that cannot be changed, and fear anything and everything that is even a little bit different or more difficult (i.e., not having electricity, or running water- because as everyone knows, only uncivilized backwards losers live like that!). Ahh, but here I am complaining, proving my status as an American.
But really good and weird things have happened as well. I recently rode a fish in a local rodeo:
And the weather has been really lovely, so Taylor played Le Banjo for hours in the sun:
I got to go see this really cool, and really old, Russian Orthodox church. There is a huge Russian Orthodox population on the peninsula, left over from when the Russians ruled the roost:
We have a volcano up here called St. Augustine, and it is an island unto itself. It looks almost exactly like those paper maché volcanoes you made as a kid, and then you would add baking soda and vinegar in the middle and create an awesome explosion. This volcano makes real explosions, though. And it was steaming on the day I saw it:
And this is a little odd: two days ago we woke up and it was foggy out, which isn't weird at all, but then a lot of forest-fire-smoke mixed with it and we couldn't see anything at all when we drove our boat downriver. We almost got lost on the river. And then who knows what would've happened to us! Awful things!
Finally, last night we went with some friends to see the band Cake, a high school favorite. And it was so, so great. Alaska doesn't get very many really good bands, and so when anything resembling a decent show comes up here, it sells out immediately, and people come in from all over- we drove 120 miles to see it. And since we all loved the band so much, they loved us, and played three encores. Everyone was dancing and the drunks were having the time of their most likely short lives. This was the first concert we've seen in three years, and one of the guys we were with hadn't seen a show since the last Rage Against the Machine tour in 1999! So great, so great, so great:
So there is a week's worth of us, with an abnormal amount of activity in it. We feel so normal, and busy, and American.

Proof of Our Not-Lameness.

I have been thinking lately that you, our dear reader, most likely believes our life to be really boring, consisting only of building things and cooking things. You couldn't be more wrong! We happen to be one with nature as well: just yesterday, I was guiding a family on a hike that ends at a waterfall, and we saw a momma bear and her baby fishing in the waters and eating salmon. But, of course, I didn't have my camera.
And last week Taylor and I were sitting on our dock and a moose came charging down the hill out of the woods and into the river and starting splashing around like he was going crazy. Again, our camera was nowhere around.
Then two weeks ago Taylor was eating lunch in the lodge, and a lynx strolled up and looked in the window at him, like it was nothing. I just wanted to reassure you all that we actually do have cool lives, filled with interest and glee, but since great moments are by nature spontaneous, they are hardly ever on camera.
And the other night we paddled our kayaks up into the refuge and picked a LOT of blueberries:
So last night I made a great blueberry and peach pie, which is the first pie I have ever made- and it worked! And tastes so good! My pride cannot contain it, so here is yet another picture of something I have baked:
I can't promise that this blog will become action packed, with more photos of us spelunking and ice-climbing than cooking, but I hope this helped to put your worried minds at rest: we are not as lame as you thought.