HERRING! Part II

By the time I got finished whipping my friends at pickleball, the fog had diminished.  

 I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Chikimun across the channel.  My friend Stan owns and captains the Chikimun.  He comes down from Hoonah to pack herring for the fishermen and it's great to see him.  Stan played basketball and was in my classes in the early 1980's in Hoonah.  To be honest, I'm pretty proud to call him my friend.  He also seines salmon, fishes red and tanner crab, and longlines black cod and halibut.  I think he has troll and dungeness crab permits that he doesn't even fish.  I love it because he lets me ride along on the boat.

 I strolled down the docks to go visit Stan.  The herring and herring eggs have traditionally marked the end of a long winter for traditional peoples.  Herring and herring eggs are packed with protein and oil.  A hundred years ago and more, it must have been glorious to stuff those eggs into one's mouth after a lean winter  - maybe with a bit of seal oil if you were lucky.  In this picture, a boat came in with a pile of eggs (people put hemlock branches in the water and the herring lay the eggs on the branches).

It's a community event, and lots of people came down to get their share of herring eggs.  

Most of the boats are big 58 footers.  Here are three boats lined up with pumps and nets ready to go.  Unlike most netted fish,  the herring are surrounded by the net, but not brought aboard the boat with the net.  Instead, big hydraulic pumps are put in the water and the fish are pumped into the hold of boats that are standing by.  That's where the Chikimun comes in.

A boat with the net on the stern ready to go.

This photo doesn't give you the scale I wanted, but these are three big boats - 80 to 120 feet.  They can pack a lot of herring pounds.  They looked BIG standing where I'm standing, but the photo just doesn't give you the scale I wanted.

HERRING in Sitka

The end of March and the beginning of April is the time when herring come to spawn in Sitka Sound.  It is an exciting time of year.  The dark and rain of winter opens to an eruption of ocean life.  Sea lions and whales follow the rich nutrients of the herring.  King salmon show up in greater numbers to feed.

This year, I followed the herring into Sitka too.   I knew from the webcams that the weather had been glorious.  But the morning after I got there, it was a bit foggy.

I rode my bike over to play our traditional Sunday morning pickleball on Japonski Island.  The sun was glinting behind the fog.

 The bridge piers were barely visible in the fog.  A herring seiner was at the workfloat goofing around with the net.

When I looked down from the bridge, the water was milky and tinged with green.  Various flecks of foam dotted the water.  That means that the herring had spawned.  The females lay eggs in the water and the males spread their sperm all over the place.  It's not very specific like humans and mammals, but it works.   When I came in on the plane, I saw miles of spawn that looked  so white, green,  and foamy that it almost looked like frozen sea.

Here's a photo in the fog looking the other way from the bridge.  Streaks of white meander in the water.  The boats are packed into ANB harbor on the right, as well as all the harbors.  Humans follow the herring too - and the town comes alive with people and fish.

Countertops are in! We have water!

We have a usable kitchen!!!!

Alex and Jose arrived to install the countertops.  There was a minor glitch when they realized that they had the sink, and we did not.   But, they found it in the shop and arrived about 11 a.m.


They're just about finished in this picture.

Looks good to me.  I asked if they'd help me with the stove and they said fine.  It was worth the tip, which we would have provided anyway.

It turns out that they are subcontractors of the Home Depot countertop subcontractors: it's their own pickup, trailer, tools, etc.  Plus, no insurance or job benefits or guarantee of work.

Here's looking toward the dining room.  I put the computer on the countertop because it looks like a ikitchen - sleek and somewhat monotoned.

 

The stove took no time to install.  ML figured out all the rest and took off the myriad pieces of tape and plastic and set the time.  Nice, huh?









Of course, the sink, faucet, and garbage disposal were another story.  But, in my defense, it didn't take more than two hours, and best of all, NO ADDITIONAL TRIPS TO HOME DEPOT.  Surprisingly, I had gotten all the parts I needed.  I only have 3 to return!

Everything works!  Now to mess it up!

Recap and take a breath - kitchen

I have to give you a look at our temporary kitchen "living" quarters.

Not bad, eh?  The porch serves us well with a table and "kitchen" area complete with Coleman stove, water jug, and microwave.  The "Little Smokey" is just outside for grilling purposes.







There's still lots to do on the kitchen:

• get the countertop installed
• tile ordering and install
• stove hood install,
• deciding on what to do with undercounter lights and ordering those
• buying the right color light switches and GFCI plugs and wiring those
• deciding on, buying, and installing a ceiling fan
• building a custom shelf between the dining room and kitchen
• trimming out the opening between the dining room and kitchen
• buying and installing the wood floor transitions
• trimming out the door
• building a custom shelf to the right of the garage door and another small one for cookbooks just to the left of the dining room "door" opening

Whew, that's enough!  I'm tired already.

CATCH UP - KITCHEN remodel

I imagine you're getting a bit tired of kitchen information.  I am.  After the time pressure of the countertop measure, it's time to be more leisurely.  But there's still lots to do!

 First on the agenda, paint.  The "behind the scenes" is always more challenging to consider.  We took a cabinet shelf, a piece of floor, and a countertop chip to the place where we found some tile that we liked for the backsplash.  With paint color cards, we got help in choosing a paint color.  In fact, you can see it on the left!

I wired the fridge plug, checked the water connection and ran some water into a bucket (the PVC glue tends to jam things up if you don't run it out first . . . .), and ML and I connected and fought the refrigerator into its spot.  When I get some time, I'm going to build a custom cabinet above the fridge for storage.  

Now the wall cabinets.  The right side of the sink is the easiest, so I started there.

They're pretty much done and ML has the unenviable job of putting the shelves in.  The worst part is deciding where they go, but I don't have to worry about that!!!

The wall space on the right and left of the sink is different, so I had to cut a spacer on the left side - plus the cabinet is 12 inches and the one on the right is 15".  I think it looks OK.

The glass doors are in and the cardboard is up until the countertop installers come.  I threw in the old kitchen sink for temporary use - both of us are tired of using a small bathroom sink to wash dishes.

I spent all too much time aligning cabinet and drawer doors.  I still have the spacer to cut to the left of the sink base.  Maybe today  . . . . .

It looks good with a vacuumed floor!

Kitchen - Countertop measurer - technology!

Steve showed up when he was scheduled.  I didn't observe a tape measure or a level.

What I did see was a laser and an IPAD.  If you look at the top left of the cabinet on the left, you'll see the red laser dot.  He aimed the laser at all the major points on the base cabinets.

Pretty soon he had an exact diagram of the countertop on the IPAD, which I had to sign off on - on the IPAD, of course.  He also went around taking digital pictures of the stove model and instructions, the sink model, and the faucet model.

I didn't see a pen, pencil, or paper.  Kind of makes a person feel old.

Kitchen - Cabinet install and CATASTROPHE

Our schedule has been dictated by an appointment to measure our "countertops."  That means the base cabinets have to be installed.  So today is the day for the base cabs.

The process is slower than usual, because I don't do it that many times - and I'd rather not make any big mistakes.  Plus, the doggone cabinets cost $8000 - a large investment for our construction projects.

They go in reasonably well, UNTIL . . . .

The last cabinet, the sink base, was the last one - about 7 p.m.  Tim and Jude had been over for dinner - which was actually supplied by Tim (thanks!).  Just before he left, I asked him to help lift the sink base over the plumbing.  In order to get to that stage, I shut off the water main and cut the stub outs, lifted the cabinet over the stub outs, and then glued the PVC pipe back together with a junction.

I was pretty happy with the result, and went immediately to turn on the water main.

WHOOOOSH!  The hot water stub popped off and water all over everywhere!  LOTS of water.  Off goes the main.  I stuck the stub out back in, grabbed towels, ripped the filter out of the shop vac, and we mopped, sucked, and did everything to get the water up fast.  Then the patient person, ML, kept wicking water out of the crevices at the wood floor junction with paper towel after paper towel.

I turned on the water and everything held fine.  It just needed 10 more seconds.

We put the halogen light on the area and ran the fan and went to bed.  I wasn't going to be very happy if the BRAND NEW floorboards warped, but there wasn't going to be anything I was going to do about it now.

Plus, the countertop measurer was due at 8 am. the next morning.

Kitchen - new wood floor!

Our original intent was to use the original oak floor, which you may remember was under tile and plywood and linoleum glue.  But, it had a million nails pounded in from some other floor that had been used.  It was just unusable.

So we put in a new dark oak floor to match some of the boards in our existing family room and dining room wood floors.

 There are times when things click - although these floors where nailed.  After we figured out how to make the transition from the dining room and keep things square, we started rolling.  ML was outstanding at laying the boards out with staggered ends.  That meant that I could just hit the nailer and not think - something I can do.  On the bottom of the picture, you can see she's laid out a couple of rows for me to move over and nail in.




In a very long day, we got it finished and the nailer rental back to Home Depot before they closed at 9 p.m.   We were smart enough to stop for a beer and hamburger on our way home. 

Kitchen - Prime it up!

Here it is with primer.  Not very interesting yet.

But we can't quit yet.  The deadline we're working for is the countertop "measurer" is coming on March 7.   We have to have the base cabinets in by then so he can measure.

Now for the wood floor.

At this point, I confess that we've been working all too hard - mostly 10-11 hour days.  I'm ready to get to the point that I/we can slow down.