Happy Turkey Day

We celebrated the day by being thankful we didn't have to cook! We joined friends at the Coast Guard base for a turkey and ham dinner with all the trimmings. Between the two of us, Robin and I ate 6 pieces of pie: pecan, pumpkin and cheesecake. Now we have bellyaches but it was worth it.

Last weekend, our friend Liz celebrated her last night in Kodiak (at least for now) with an ice-skating Olympics at the awesome public rink. Right here in Kodiak. What a great rink! I dusted off my skates, pulled out my roller blade pads, donned my poncho and skated away.

Here are some photos of skating, our boat and Robin's deer hunt on Raspberry Island.

Failure to appear: Juror number J62324

The stupid City of Lakewood court wanted to have me in contempt for "failure to appear for jury duty" on October 28.

Not that it hasn't been almost 5 years since I lived there.

I e-mailed them a copy of the muzzleloading newspaper article, with the date, and told them that I now live in Alaska.

That wasn't sufficient for the "Judicial Specialist" and I was not excused. Librarian!

I served on the court as a juror once about 6 years ago. The case was a riveting, he-said, she-said thriller and someone's pet rabbit died in the middle of an apartment dispute.

Stay tuned ... I hope they don't press charges!

Fall trip to East Coast

We traveled to D.C., WV, MD and PA in September. Most of the time was spent at Robin's training facility in WV. We traveled to Robin's home town near Gettysburg, visited with friends and Robin's brothers.

Robin took some time and went hunting for whitetail deer, bagging 3 or 4 and carting the frozen burger back to Alaska.

I took some time and visited battlefields, Harper's Ferry (home of John Brown) and the National Apple Museum. That's where you can get your own personalized tour for $2 and spend 8 hours with the old couple who do the tours. (Yikes, I don't THINK so!)

See pictures of our trip out east.

Leathermans make headlines again

We made the front page of the paper again ... this time for a muzzleloading class. It was a two-day class and a cheap $20 to pour powder down a barrel, pack it with a roundball and fire at a target. Robin fired off his rounds and qualified before everyone else had even loaded their guns.

It was fun and we both passed. The instructor did accuse me of cheating on the written test because Robin and I both missed the same question. I said, "Wow, that's weird. I didn't even cheat on that question."

Read the article.

The Possible Bag

For those of you who know Robin, you ~know~ he is a hunter. For those of you who don't know Robin: he's a hunter. And I do mean a hunter. He has a particular passion for archery and muzzleloading (aka black powder). Muzzleloading involves more of an old-fashioned approach where you actually poor black powder down the barrel of a gun, followed by a round ball/bullet/or whatever you want to call it.

A necessary tool of any muzzleloading hunter worth his flint is called a "possible" bag. When Robin first talked about it, I asked why the name, "possible bag."

He responded with, "Because with this, anything is possible."

I am compiling a list (for my book) of what should be in a Possible Bag...and not the typical muzzleloading Possible Bag. I'm talking about a Possible Bag for getting by in Life!

Please comment on what you would pack in your Life Possible Bag.

Moose on the loose

I received this came at work from the regional office in Anchorage (intended for Anchorage employees as there aren't any moose here in Kodiak):

Reminder: Watch out for moose

Moose have been seen on our campus recently. Please be extra cautious, especially during the dark hours, and keep a watch out for them. If you see a moose, please alert Security and stay away from it.

Robin makes headline news

Robin built a public use cabin on Uganik Island in August/Sept. and the local paper covered the story.

The total cabin materials weighed about 6,000 pounds. Robin and crew moved those 6,000 pounds at least four times: once from the shipping container to the transport boat, from the transport boat to the little ferrying boat, from the ferrying boat to the shore and then from the shore to the building site. Whew!

The cabin itself was a kit consisting of 22 wall panels (weighing about 120 lb each), 30 roof panels and some other pieces parts. It took five people three days to build the foundation and another four days to build the cabin. If Robin had not been crew leader, it would have taken another 3 weeks and 10 people to complete!

See the presentation Robin will be giving at the Refuge Visitor Center.

Read the Kodiak Daily Mirror article.