Struggle in Alaska Aug 23, 1012

My rule of thumb for three summers has been to do something to the cabin every day. So it is noteworthy that for the last five days I have done absolutely nothing on construction. Instead we went whale watching with neighbors on their boat one morning, and I have gone fishing every day for the past five days. It’s a tough existence. And I may have to do the same thing again tomorrow. _________ Pink salmon are running, and silver salmon are getting ready. We caught our first silver yesterday. Leaves on the trees are starting to turn and a few are already falling. I noticed two flights of geese moving south yesterday. The heater came on for the first time in weeks this morning. All are signs of fall approaching soon. But the long rains of mid August have so far not materialized. I worked in shirt sleeves getting the boat ready for salmon trolling. Paulette reminded me only 24 days until we follow the geese south. Amid my photos of whales I have a few neat shots. This is of a whale spouting about 100 feet away. We are not allowed to approach the whales, but they can approach the boat. In other words we kept our distance and they came to us. One feels a bit intimidated when the whale is twice the size of the boat. I also shot about ten minutes of HD whale video, but have no way to post it from Alaska. I will probably wait until I can edit the video with my grandson in November. The walls are painted in the living room. The homestead looks better all the time. Kitchen sans cabinets. We don't know what we are going to do about kitchen cabinets yet. We'll see what the Lord brings along. Alpenglow on the Fairweather Mountains when we had to catch an early tide and dawn found us already fishing. An exceptional day of fishing this week. The big one, caught by Bob S., is 104 lbs. The smaller one only 56 lbs. By posting the pix of nice halibut I don't mean to give the impression that every day the fishing is this good. We had to stretch last year to buy the boat, but zero regrets.