Too Hot, Too much Going on!

Hello Everyone!
I have missed all of you, Sorry I have been away for so long.
It was 83 degrees yesterday. That is the first time I have seen that temperature in nearly 2 years. It did not even get that warm while we were in Florida last winter. It is much cooler today and only expected to get to mid fifties. That's more like it. Many Many things have taken place since last we spoke.
Myra went to town for five days with Jean and mainly ran a whole bunch of errands and did things with Jeans kids.
Ok, Ok, Ok,,, I am getting ahead of myself.... We put the boat into the water, oops, back up just a little farther.
The river broke up and Ice went out on May 5th. The ice flowed out of our slew where we park the boat on the 6th. We actually watched both events happen and it is just as neat as freeze up, only it is in reverse. Instead of watching a river stop flowing and turn solid, we watched over a period of a couple of hours, a solid block of ice turned into rubble then a clear water flowing river. As the ice would jam the water would back up and the river level would raise 4" to a foot then, whoosh, it would flush the jam and start flowing again and the level would drop. Then it would do it a gain.
This is the river on the morning of break-up.
This was about 2 hours after the first picture. The river is flowing a jumble of crushed ice. It is very noisy. The solid snow area in the middle is the gravel bar in front of our place which separates our slew from the main channel of the river.

Our slew did not break up until the next day. You can see the open "leed" of water in our slew but mostly solid ice. Ok, next adventure. We went for a 4 wheeler ride on some trails we had never taken before. We went with Willie, over to Fish Creek via these trails. They had not been traveled all winter so we took a chainsaw along. We ended up clearing 11 trees off of the trail with-in 1 mile. It turned into a lot of work, but, we got thru it and made our way along.

This is Myra's First water crossing on an ATV. We had to cross this little creek to finish our trip out to the mouth of Fish Lakes Creek. The dogs followed like troopers but boy were they a Mess when we got home. It was a very muddy trip but a whole lotta fun.

When we were on our way back to the cabin from the four wheeler adventure we went by the boat landing over by the lake (where we took our boat out). Tom happen to be there looking at whether he could put his barge in the water yet. He had decided against it with his big boat but we looked it over and decided we could put our much smaller boat in. I went home and got the battery and some gas and life jacket etc and headed back over. He got his bull dozer and hooked onto our boat and took it to the launch. I did some prep work on the boat AND---We attempted to back the boat into the water. There was still ice on the edge of the water and the trailer broke thru the ice and dropped down some. No Harm No Foul, so we thought at the time. Anyhow, we could not get the trailer into the water far enough to float the boat so we had to go to plan B. We pulled back up on the shore and slid the boat off of the trailer onto the ground at waters edge. Plan B.

Click on this picture then look under the boat. You will see chunks of ice under it.

We then took a board and a bull dozer and pushed the boat into the water. You can see ice floating around the boat and on shore. The boat started right up and I drove it a few miles home. Life is good!

It was a couple of days later that we left for town. The plan is to pick up Jean at Yentna Station, leave our dogs there and go on in. Myra and Jean are to go there way and I have a lot of running to do to pick up my guide license paper work and log books and tackle and (Oh yea, Willie went with us, I was to take him to a couple of appointments also). Then Willie and I are to return home the next day , to get ready for our first fishing guide job of the year. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. While going to Yentna Station I told Myra the boat was running slow. The motor sounded fine but something was not right. We were down about 10 miles an hour on speed for the rpm of the motor. I did not remember any problem when we took it out of the water but there is an adjustment that can be made on the jet propulsion unit that can affect this. When we stopped at Yentna station I talked to Dan about this adjustment and he told me it would be best done at the landing, so I decided to wait. I did not even look at it when we were at their place. (Ooops) About 6 miles down river from Dan and Jeans I had to back off the throttle for another boat to pass. When I throttled back up the boat started to speed then Bump, Roar, Stop. Ut Oh.. The motor is running fine but we are going nowhere. We throw out the anchor and raised the motor. The foot of the motor is Gone! Crap! We pulled anchor, paddled hard to shore and re-anchored. I put on my hip boots and out into the water I go. The foot is held on by 6 bolts and they are all sheared off. Upon further review I can see where 4 of them are broken previously and two had just sheared (dirt indications at the break points). Apparently, when the trailer dropped threw the ice the foot of the motor had hit and we didn't know it. That would explain the slow speed and the sheared bolts. The two bolts that did not shear were not enough to hold the torque of the motor on the foot and so, Bump, Roar, Stop. It just so happened about 10 minutes later another boat going down river was going by. We flagged them down. Myra Jean and Willie went to the landing with this boat. I stayed with our boat. I gave Myra a list of parts that we needed and told her to send them out with a boat that is coming this way. I walked the beach and fished and looked around and waited. Five hours and four hundred dollars later the parts showed up. Another guy that lives near where we broke had found me and he supplied me with tools to remove the broken off bolts and I went to work. A couple of hours later I was under way, toward the landing. The boat ran like a million dollars, and still is. Another lesson learned!!! When you think there might be a problem, look for it, don't wait. I could have fixed this for about $20 (new specialty bolt kit) had I found the broken bolts before all the parts fell off into the river where they will never be found. I also would not have been waiting along the river for 5 hours for a parts delivery. OK, Myra spent her 5 days in town and I spent one hectic time getting my and Willies stuff done and getting back home. I have turned our boat into a very nice Charter Fishing boat. I have my Business License and my Guide License and am open for business. Willie and I spent 15 days fishing together all of the time and he has been training me about King Salmon fishing and guiding. He went out with me on my first Hired charter and I took out my second one alone. Willie has been a God Send on teaching me so much about King Salmon and this territory for fishing. I intend to work with him as much as possible this summer.
If ANYONE that reads this blog wants to come up for a free Charter trip this year, get in touch with me and we will do it. Supply your transportation to and from my place and I will supply and air mattress and food and fishing gear while you are here. Lets Go Fishing!
You Might just catch something like this or bigger!! This is my First King Salmon of the season. 30lbs and 39". I have since had a 35#10oz fish in my hands (guiding) and many more. We are right at the beginning of King season. It goes until July 15th. Then it is silvers season. Kings up in this neck of the woods get as big as 75#s, Come on, let's go find it!
I have a lot more I could write about but it is time to get some things done. I will try not to stay away for so long.

Thank You for sharing this adventure with us.
See Ya,
Roger

A Little Info

I have been having trouble getting motivated to post on the blog lately. I don't know why, and I will try to get more frequent at it.
Life has been kind of slow and routine around here lately. I have been collecting this years fire wood and getting ready to cut down next years trees.
It has been very muddy as the frost is just a couple of inches below the surface. The water can't soak in as the snow melts so the surface is just mush on any flat surface.
Myra is still trying to get all of the garden plants started but she is having a time with them. After about two weeks of very good growth they seem to take turns dying off and we can't figure out why.
I walked ( Too Muddy, don't want to rut up the trails) over to Willies place on Saturday to watch a boxing "Pay per View" that he ordered on his satillite TV. I walked into his cabin and this is what I saw. No he is not "wasted" that is just the moment I caught his picture.
The hat he is wearing is his "Boxing Hat" that he wears each time he watches the fights. I guess he got the hat at a fight club in Thiland some years ago and it just gives him good memories.

The 4 wheelers are running well. They both started right up after setting since the end of October.
I built a new trailer frame that has three attachments in the works for it. The first attachment which is done is for picking up the end of logs and making it so that I can pull them around without digging up the yard or hurting the 4 wheeler. I have been using this for collecting my firewood. I had cut down 6 trees last year for this years firewood. It is those trees I am collecting now, getting ready to buck and split them. the other two trailer attachements are a "Barrel Lift" for hauling 20 to 55 gallon barrels and the third attachment will be a large flat bed top for hauling large items that I can not haul in the Skwagon. The Skwagon, by the way, is now a wagon again, for the summer.

We do have a little experiment going. I will get you pictures soon. In mid April I plained all of the boards for building stuff around here. I had created quite a pile of saw dust in the yard. All of the snow is gone around the saw dust now but, there is still 2 feet of snow right under the saw dust pile. We are going to see how long we can "store" snow on the open ground. There is still areas of snow in the woods and on the north sides of hills etc so it is not a true test until All other snow is gone.

Fishing season starts next Sunday. I am excited for that. I have got 9 dates set up so far for Guideing. I will be a professional fisherman for the first time in my life. Wish me luck!
Now I have to get the boat into the water but there is still ice on the lake where we need to launch it and too much mud. I guess I will be bank fishing in the beggining. The Guide dates don't start for a couple of weeks. I should have it ready by then.

That's all for now.
Living the dream!
See Ya,
Roger