From New Zealand to Nebraska!

Sand Hill Cranes cruising to their night-time haven on the Platte River, NE

I suppose it has been a minute or two since I've written here. Write back! It encourages me to write more when I get to read too! So, here is an attempted FF catching up with my journal here... Hang on tight! Half a dozen entries all at once!

From New Zealand to Nebraska!

Angie and I left NZ together for the wide open sunsets of her home town Lincoln. Tickets in hand (expressively speaking), we realized I was leaving a day earlier - to meet Ang's parents for the first time, in a state I've never even been to before! Luckily, they are some wonderful folks and I got on with them immediately. I even ended up moving a couple hundred bails of hay before Angie even got back in the country! My first time in Nebraska – my first Runza (sandwich), my first Old Time (beer), and my first time to see the great migration of Sand Hill Cranes on the Platte River. This is an amazing migration that recurs every year in farmer's fields and river flats. Millions of birds. Everywhere. The book end of my Midwest visit included dozing with my new Nephew and running on and around a bunch of big Trains at the Transportation Museum with his big brother!

Big Boy, always a crowd pleaser, but the highlight as ever is the lady!; My nephew - clearly following in a long lineage of engineers.

Following NE, I made the pilgrimage home to family, friends and familiar places along the mid-atlantic (PA, VA, and NC). Farming, swimming, building, bicycling, and cooking and sharing food is always the highlight of my time and sharing this with the people I have known and loved the longest is the best. Keep warm and healthy this winter! I'm thinking of you!

Roadtrip!

Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming. The ten states I had not been to got whittled down to six this year. Partly through necessity, and partly for the sights, Angie and I made our way back to the summer hunting grounds of Lummi Island this year by automobile. We made stops at the world's largest hot spring, my first real live moose and buffalo, and a dinosaur my father slept under in his youth!

OK..., my father isn't that old. The dinosaur is a model; Sand Hills Beautiful

Yellowstone

On Island

Angie, Stew, and Loren keep Pig company on the beach before a day of fishing.

Ahhh. Yummi Lummi Island. Time moves so much slower on the island. 1 store, 1 speed limit (25), 1 restaurant, 1 Inn, and of course the last surviving culture of reef-net fisher-people.

Flying in the face of the Lummi pace, Angie and I began the season, with loads of help from the older fellas, setting up a gear start to finish. We hung most of a new net (a once in 25 years activity) , got the boats in the water, winches working, built the reef, and managed to do some Major repairs to a new cabin in order to move out of our tent! Craziest week in recent memory!

Here I help the Pacific Salmon Commission measure, tag, and sample a sockeye. They take readings on where each fish goes and how far upstream they make it; Another day on the fishing boat waiting... But waiting with my new wide angle lens! One of our several Bobs watches the fish TV under the sun protection of Umbrella. This is the latest and greatest Reef-net Technology!

The Sockeye Salmon run was amazing this year. The nets were heavy. The Pacific Salmon Commission increased the run estimate over and again, and some fishermen went home rich (for fishermen). In our spare time during this busy season... Angie and I bought an Airstream!

With a little love and some pruning equipment, we removed the coating of blackberry brambles and did a preliminary gutting. Next - the real deal of renovating a 1961 Airstream Camper! ()

Roger Granger gives a filleting lesson on the beach to a newbe; Angie wielding her pruners.

There she is! 28 ft long and tires still up to pressure!

All in all it was a great summer on Lummi again, although a short season for yours truly – this year I signed up for the winter flight to Antarctica – and though I pushed myself back onto the last flight, I still had to leave a couple of weeks before the season was through. Se la vie. I got to cheer on my reef-netting companions from afar as I made my way to the southern continent yet again, this time for the changing of seasons from dark to light.