I returned from the river and immediately went to the lake for two weeks. I have been working on getting a place to live. I think I will be able to camp out come August sometime, probably no kitchen but hopefully a shower and toilet. Insulators have been there, sheetrockers are there now. They should do the texture on Friday, let it dry and paint it up. Moving in then.
June 17, 2011
The final stretch
We prepped all the meals for tomorrow and saturday breakfast. I leave tomorrow. I am fatigued and ready to go home. Want to get my house done and get moved. Camp has been wonderful, lots of good friends, great fellowship, many many cookies. The new bath house is all framed, the final section in the back needs roof. The goal was to get it dried in with plumbing and electrical. There will be crews in the fall to finish it out, with flushing toilets by next year-looks like they will make it. Electrician and plumbers will go home with me tomorrow. Weather broke and it was a beautiful day. Three members of my team from the Crossings went home this afternoon. 6 of us leave on Sat; another team comes in. The next week will be a runway crew-then the kids comes. Pray for the kids camps; that they will be blessed by the work the teams this last week accomplished.
June 16, 2011
Days in Camp
The days are beginning to run together-finish breakfast, start lunch, finish lunch, start dinner, finish dinner, start breakfast. Oh, with cookies and more cookies in the middle. The Mamma Robin sucessfully hatched out the babies, she is feeding them even with the people all around. I saw the little bodies with beaks in the air yesterday, how wonderful. I am going home tomorrow, I am ready. My feet will never be the same.
June 14, 2011
Living at Camp
The sky opened and downpoured all day. No concrete poured, they spent all day building a tent. The plumbers and electricians came in late yesterday, are working fast now. They are starting the concrete today. Gave up on the well until after kids camps, the well digger and wife left last night while the weather held. I am going to miss Debby in the kitchen, she has been so wonderful. They are coming back in the fall and we will be so glad to see them, wonderful people. Food continues in quantities and quantities. There is a move afoot to limit each of the the workers to 12 cookies a day. Should it come to a vote I am sure it will fail. With 46 in camp today that makes for a lot of cookies-can’t even do the math any more, we just bake and bake and bake. They still eat two sheet pans of cinnamon rolls for breakfast with 120 eggs. Such is life.
June 12, 2011
More wildlife in Camp
The change out went well. New Yorkers gone and North Carolina and Oregon are here. Most came in tired from long travel. Ashley are princess from last year had the wildlife incident; of course. She shows up in the dining hall with a satin sleep mask crooked along her head and a duck has come down the chimney into her cabin. Priceless was Roger trying to understand what she was saying. I think he thought he was hearing wrong. He kept saying, Duck??? Duck???. Finally she announces a mallard has come into her cabin. Only Ashley
June 11, 2011
The Change out.
We woke up to a very early breakfast and loaded the New Yorkers on the boat for the trip to Tanana. We will begin to see the new crew arrving in a couple hours. I am not sure how this is going to work. We have been up very late and we are really tired. The next ones in are going to come in roaring to go. Fortunately, we printed some union laws to regulate the days here. We put them up on the side of the breezeway just in case these guys coming think we are going to work crazy long hours.
June 11, 2011
Beaver Jerky
The New York boys wanted to share their beaver jerky making with Roger; hence, the beaver hunt to start with. Of course, they need my kitchen to make jerky. We dried it in the oven on low and then in the convection using the fans. They are all liking it-I am still not eating beaver. Roger wanted to see what they did to the beaver-he is going to share it with other beaver hunters. Might be anew craze on the Yukon-then again…
June 11, 2011
Hunting and Fishing on the Yukon
We took the boat out fishing tonight. I caught a large Shee fish but lost it at the boat. The Texan couldn’t fit it in the net-it really was a nice
fish. In Texas if you lose a fish but you have a picture and someone else in the boat saw it-it counts as catching it. I like the Texan rules
better than the Alaskan ones. We caught two Shee fish and three pike that we threw back. Great fun, lots of mosquitoes.
After coming back to the camp, telling out fishing stories and then heading off to bed the hunting began. We hear the Texan lady yell, Bear.
And sure ‘nuf there is a black bear running through camp. The guys say, leave him be. I , who has to go the bathroom says, we are not
leaving a bear roaming around camp used to humans, nor are you going to bed and leaving me in the outhouse with a bear. Then begins the
scramble to find a gun and bullets that go with it. Roger had gone to bed but is quickly roused-he has the gun at his house. The first shot
brings many from the cabins, but surprisingly many slept through the hunting. I got a new prospective of how tough Texans are though,
Miss Debbie sees the bear, still has to go to the bathroom, finds herself a stick and goes to the outhouse anyway. She had decided that if
the bear got close she would just smack it over the head. And I always thought Alaskans were tough. There is a possibility that the bear
was better off finding the gun than in finding Miss Debbie and her stick.
June 10, 2011
The Beaver
The large “boys” here went beaver hunting. The hunt started with four guys in a 6 wheeler, whipping through the camp, two standing up in the back and two whooping it up when everyone else was sleeping. The great question is-how many upstate New Yorkers does it take to shoot a beaver-many more than came on the plane. Thanks goodness for Alaskan’s. After chasing a beaver up and down a river most of one night I believe the beaver got tired and crawled into the boat and died. They show up in my kitchen and want to clean beaver-well, I don’t think so. There was even talk of boiling beaver tail in my kitchen-again, I don’t think so. They did serve is last night but Roger cooked it at his house and brought it over. As a Kokukon tradition he saved the best part of his hunt for the honored guests, two got back feet, one the tail. Only one had the guts to taste but most of the rest of the camp tried the rest of the beaver and loved it. I served lasagna.
June 8, 2011
The Change out-
Day 8-Tyler Texas and Rabbit Creek group leave, the New York union group arrives. I am still feeding 20; just a new set of faces. It was really neat to see these guys again. I am going to follow the menu this week just to see if we sent the right things in the right quantities. I had to wash clothes but then had to hang them in my room; just couldn’t hang undies outside, there are only two girls here this week.
