Camp Kill 'em & Grill 'em

There is no shortage of pheasants in North Dakota. We had a great time, got lots of birds, and the hospitality was what you'd expect in the heartland. Fischer hasn't lost his touch, although he's a little older and did a lot of sleeping when he wasn't hunting. The midwest is still super, and i found out that "hot dish" is actually a casserole. Also, jello is a course in the main meal, not for dessert.  Jan and Duane, Roger, Mitch and everyone, thanks for a great trip!

 

Who's your daddy?

I've been meaning to post this for a while ... tell me there isn't a resemblance in these two dashing fellers ...


Who love you, baby?

Trick or Treat?

We got our first snow on Sunday and have been getting ready for
Halloween and the bazillion little monsters that are going to show up
tonight. We had an early "trick" last night, though. We heard a loud
thump at about 10:30pm and when I went to investigate, I found a small
bull moose about 4 feet from the front door eating the pumpkin that I
carved. He then went across the street and took a nap in the neighbors
front yard.

Finally, the cabinets are in

Countertops!

Jorge and his crew from Mckinley Countertops came by today and installed the surfaces in about an hour. They look fantastic!

Remodel Progress

Ok, here are the latest photos. Fischer is down in North Dakota with Curt, so Yianko feels the need to be in some pics. Countertops may be here tomorrow, the ceiling gets done Monday/Tuesday, so we may be close in 10 days or so. Props to my peeps in Maine ... thanks for everything, Mr. Byrne. You are keeping me on track.

sheetrocking does not rock ...

well, the rock is up and the sanding begins. I don't enjoy sheetrocking, unlike my brother.

Kitchen Remodel, Part 2

and the walkthrough to the living room was the next to go ...

Kitchen Remodel, Part 1

The outdated kitchen at 2822 Illiamna has vanished. We are slowly making progress with wiring and sheetrock, not as quickly as we'd like but we'll get there ....

Special Family Members

every family has certain members that are more ... special .. than others. This is Jerrold, the "special" member of the day in the Alaska Olsons Blog.

here fishy fishy fishy ....

a picture from several weeks ago that was stuck here on the computer in Homer. At this point in his life, Beck is about the size of a small halibut. Keep checking back for other Beck comparisons to the animal kingdom

I'm talkin' to YOU!!!

Our nephew Beck is a real cutiepie, although a little demanding. In this photo, he was telling me to get more sweet potato baby food for him. He's not so sure about more green beans.

Whew, I feel better now ....

an inconsistent blogger ...

it's been weeks since I blogged. I don't think it is a character flaw, only a sign of my schedule. SO, since I don't have a picture comparing the size of Beck to a halibut, I'll post a few pics of some killer whales from my trip to the Bering Sea last year ...

Anchor River Kings

A late update on our fishing trip two weeks ago. We went to the Anchor River for a little bit of king salmon fishing and were pretty successful, as the picture shows. John and I each caught four or five kings over the weekend.

Preparing for Denali

We're getting ready for our big adventure of the summer (other than having james/jen/beck, bill/billy/mikey, jennifer/lauren/mason, & bill/maria for visits!). We are taking the bus back to Wonder Lake in Denali on Friday morning and then riding out, which is about 85 miles. We're planning on riding at night when there are no buses on the road and the animals are the most active. The first leg should be about 32 miles to Toklat rest area, then to Sanctuary River the next day and the last 20 miles out on Sunday morning. More to come!

a new arrival ...

our friends Greg & Megan welcomed Elias Reid Soule into the world last Thursday. I think his eyes were open at birth - he's a cute little fella. Not to take anything away from mr. chubbycheeks (beck), who has a bit more of the telly savalas thing that the little babes love ...

Bother ... er ... Brother ....

James has been bugging me to put up some new posts, but we are waiting on some photos from last weekend. So just to hold James over, here is a fine photo of the brothers Olson

The Pribilof Islands

At the beginning of May I got to take a trip to the Pribilof Islands to do some tech support for our field office there.

It was a pretty incredible trip - very few people get out to "the Pribs". It's a three hour flight in a twin-engine Saab turboprop from Anchorage, mainly over water. Almost 3/4 of the entire population (~600,000) of the Northern Fur Seal breeds on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, but only the big males were on the beach when I was there. When the breeding is taking place in July/August, the entire beach under the boardwalks are covered with seals. NMFS does counts from the boardwalks during the summer. I know Bill has already done some research, but here are some links for the rest of you ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pribilof_Islands
http://www.pinnipeds.org/species/norfursl.htm

House Projects

This weekend was spent working around the house. A new fence, garden boxes, and the greenhouse were the main projects. We had a horrible spring, but things are looking up .....