Had to post this. This morning at 7:30am my neighbor rings and tells me a wolf is heading my way. I grab the camera, binoculars and rubber boots and run out to the point. This is the first wolf we’ve had since mid-winter.
And here’s the Lone Toad. It hopped through our garden yesterday northbound like the wolf. It’s a western toad and no one has seen one of these for years. Our nearest neighbor, Russ, saw one also–maybe the same one…..?
Ever want to take a time machine back 100 years? We got that privilege when our neighbors gave us three large photo albums full of the history of our homestead. Above is a photo that came with the house taken sometime during the 1920s showing only the net shed, boathouse and small cabin where our guest house is today. Fish and pelts are drying on racks to the left. All that remains today is the engine of the boat beached below the cabin.
Here is a photo of Frank Wyatt and the date 1960 written on the back. I’ve no clue who this person is–perhaps the former owner? This photo is taken standing where the current log house is. Early newspaper accounts state this is the ‘old Garner property’ and later the Franz Gaff Hook Factory. It was first cleared in 1927.
This is what the old house, woodshed and net shed looked like from a float 100 yards off our beach. This float is officially on the nautical charts and we use this feature to find our house in the winter in the fog using our GPS.
Remember our aerial fly-by (see prior post)? Here’s one taken perhaps in the 1960s. Note the extensive gardens and the dead yellow cedar trees interspersed in the forest. There are none 50 years later; perhaps logged off for fuel. We do have some cedar groves up near the borders of the muskeg but they are dying back fast–thought to be the result of less snow which normally preserves the root system in winter. Global warming??
Here’s Harry, the former owner, laying the first course of the cabin we currently live in. He built the sauna first–July 1967 is inscribed in the cement floor. Harry had the foresight to lay the first course of logs in yellow cedar to prevent rot. The logs today are still in perfect condition.
This photo is taken May 1969 showing both houses.
Here is the original woodshed. Harry put in new pilings on the dock/net shed from where this photo is taken. Our boardwalk follows this original path, instead of under the eave of the netshed which is a huge avalanche problem in the winter.
Getting close to finishing the logwork
The upper structure is nearly finished. This project took Harry and Emily 5 to 6 years to complete. Harry also built a 30′ water tower which stored water on the third level so it would gravity feed to the house. It still works although we’ve replumbed and pressurized the system for better flow
The house today.
We have friends over to see our garden–they read about it on our blog of course–and they suffer some serious garden envy but we have serious fish envy because they supply us with their fresh King Salmon catch.
It’s a very clear day–one of these spring days you spend all winter thinking about. They’re flying to Sitka this morning but no room for another passenger–only my camera. Here’s a photo of our house as they fly by. Note our skiff which hangs on a ‘clothesline’ like back-haul that we reel in when we need it.
Here you can see the saltchuck behind our house and also our garden and greenhouse just north of the house. The snow has just left our beach which is still brown but will green up very fast with the long days ahead.
Here’s an eastward view showing the creek behind our house. Animals parallel the shoreline and stumble into this cut–great for the wildlife and our wildlife viewing–we expect bears any day now. Their first order of business is to gorge themselves on sedge grass to clean out their system after hibernation.
Whoa! No sooner than I published this post, a black bear shows up–May 22 and stays all day–the first seen this season and a real piggy weighing in at over 300lbs. If I saw him in the lower 48, this would be a grizzly; his facial features, claws (at least 3-4″ here), shoulder hump resemble his larger cousins. Brown Bears (Grizzlies) are primarily on the ‘ABC’ islands (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof) but they are seen here occasionally.
As my camera heads off to Sitka, it snaps one more photo towards the NE–our house is just beneath the lump of trees on the near shore. The muskeg in the foreground is our winter playground and ski touring center. Devils Thumb is a ‘blip’ seen straight ahead across Frederick Sound with Petersburg Mountain on the left. My camera will follow Petersburg or Coho Creeks west (left) over Duncan Canal and eventually across Chatham Strait.
Here’s my camera nearing Sitka. After crossing Chatham Strait, my camera flies across Baranof Island. Sitka is located on the west coast of Baranof with Mt. Edgecumbe in the distance embracing Sitka Sound. This is one beautiful place–we lived here for a year.
When my camera returns to Petersburg it snaps one more photo of our point; this time looking south down the Wrangell Narrows. All Alaska-bound inside passage traffic must pass through the Narrows which are about 25 miles long and span about 60 buoys or turns. Currents can run fast here on the big tides so you have to be careful crossing to town. Stay tuned….