Heading out fishing soon

Hello to all of you kind blog readers.

Let me tell you about my week.

Monday was a good day, I stayed in Ninilchik and worked on a net which can get tiring, but there wasn't much to do so I finished it in about 4 hours. And I was able to listen to my music while I worked so that made it go by quickly as well.

After working on the net, I came inside and worked on burring a CD with the pictures from the 90th birthday party. (mentioned in the previous post) And then I updated my blog. Yey. Rick came to the house to get some things and then we all went to bed.

Tuesday was a long day, Rick wanted to be out the door and gone by 5:30 a.m. So I got up at 5 and got my stuff ready and we left at 5:23. We got to the boat and worked until 10:22 p.m. Long and tiring day.

Wednesday was pretty good, I worked on the boat until about noon and I went over to Rick's old boat, the Deacon, and helped a man named Jason, a fellow fisherman and friend of Rick's. Rick had hired Jason to rewire the Deacon, and so I helped him with that. Jason is a good guy, but he uses language that I don't use, nor do I ever intend on using. And he likes to talk a lot, which is not that bad because he's pretty funny. He won 2nd place in Alaska for Archery, and 3rd in the Country. He is coming very close to having his own hunting TV show. Anyway, he's big into hunting, fishing is just his way to make a living so that he can hunt.

Anyway, Jason Iand I worked on the Deacon's wiring, which I enjoyed because I enjoy those kinds of technical things. Making sure all the hot wires go to the "+" , and all the ground wires go to the "-", and making sure that they don't touch in the process because you get fireworks if they do. :P

We packed up and went to Ninilchik for the evening service. I thought that I was going to go back to the big boat first to get my stiff, but Rick decided just to pick me up. And Rick didn't think about grabbing my bag, so my sleeping bag, and my clothes, and my computer were left at the boat. Thankfully I had a change of clothing in Ninilchik, and Rick had an extra sleeping bag, but my computer couldn't be replaced so easily. Oh well, it was sad not being able to get on Facebook on Wednesday, but That's how it goes.

Thursday started off early, Rick wanted to leave Ninilchik again at 5:30. I worked with Jason until about 2 in the afternoon, then I went back to the big boat, The Guidance. The rest of the day, I would think a certain word that Jason used all the time whenever I wanted to say "Stink", or "crud" like I normally do. But thankfully it only lasted that one day. :)

Friday was a harder day, I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was the 10 and a half hours spent down in the engine room pumping , cleaning and draining engine oil. (not my favorite job for sure) Or maybe I was just feeling homesick and lonely, but either way, I wasn't feeling so great and wasn't too happy with my circumstances. That night I got online and instant messaged with a couple of my friends and that helped quite a bit. :D



Saturday was great, I decided the night before that no matter what happened I was determined that I would have a good day and find God's blessing in everything that I had to do. Whether I enjoyed it or not I would praise God for it because He give us only what will be good for us. (Romans 8:28)

It warmed up to 53°F and I took off my sweatshirts because it was warm enough with just a T-shirt. :O And I wasn't even doing anything physically demanding, it just felt warm. I thought it was 65°F or something. I was very surprised when I saw that it was only 53°F. I guess it's that Alaskan blood in me. ;)

I was feeling very good all day Saturday, even though it was a long day as well I had a much better attitude about it. Thank you so much everyone for your prayers.

The refrigeration guys are being quite slow, we still aren't done on the Guidance, but we are planning on heading out fishing on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully we can get the refrigeration done tomorrow and head out on Tuesday.

Right now I'm back in Ninilchik for the day, I'm heading back to Homer either this evening or tomorrow morning, I'm not sure. Rick is taking the Harpazo, (smallest boat) to Whitter so that we can get started fishing on it this week.

I've been very fortunate to have internet for so long, I was surprised when I heard that Rick and Etta had internet, and then even more surprised that there was wireless internet at the dock in Homer. But once we start fishing, there for sure won't be any internet out on the water. (There won't even be any power because the Harpazo doesn't have 110 electricity.)

So, this might be the last that you hear from me in a while.
Please continue to pray for me, the endurance contest is taking its toll on me. And the fishing hasn't even started. :) God will supply all me needs, so I will survive.

Good bye all (I'll make sure to take pictures)
Tim

Still working on the boat

I know my mom has been asking what's going on so I thought that I should update this.

We had a lot of rain off and on last week. It sort of slowed down our progress somewhat, but not too bad. Mostly everything is ready to go on the boat, the only major thing that we are still waiting for is the RSW system. (Refrigerated Salt Water) The refrigeration system is on the big seining boat, The Guidance, and it is to keep the fish holds cold so that the fish stay fresher longer. We have to have a specialist come and set up the refrigeration, so that it is up to code and all that. And the guy that was supposed to come, didn't show up, so we had to get another guy and he was pretty busy and couldn't make it for a couple more days, and then he had some delays too. Anyway, he should get it done soon.

We are going to head out to start fishing either sometime this week or at the beginning of next week. Depending on when the refrigeration gets done and how the fishing is doing in Prince William Sound. When we do go fishing we will go to Prince William Sound, with the smaller boat, The Harpazo. Right now, at the beginning of the season, they are letting the fishermen fish for 24 hours on, 24 hours off. Or 48 hours on, 24 hours off, or 24 hours on 48 hours off, depending on the number of fish that have been caught, and how many have made it to the river already.

Once we start fishing we won't be coming back to the house on Wednesdays and Sundays. We might come back for Sundays sometimes, depending on when we are allowed to fish.

We will be gill netting until about the middle of July. Then we will start seining.

Seining is a little different, I can't really describe it because I've never done it, but if you search Youtube for some videos of seining you can see what it looks like in action.

Rick went back to the boat yesterday, (Sunday) but left me here so that I could go to the Sunday night service and work on the net this morning. Etta was going to have to drive down to Homer today anyway because some parts for the refrigeration were going to come today and she was going to drive them over to the boat so that they can have them right away. So, since she was going to be going to Homer anyway, Rick decided that I just ride with her when she goes down. But today Rick decided that he is coming home tonight, so Etta doesn't need to go down to Homer after all, because Rick will be here and he can take the stuff down tomorrow. So, that means that I am here in Ninilchik for the day, and have some free time, so I was able to get some things done, which was nice. :D

Yesterday, we had a 90th birthday celebration for Mrs. Leman, the mother of one of the missionaries that Calvary Baptist (in Ninilchik). So, I grabbed my nifty fifty and attached it to my camera. Now, Abby would know what my nifty fifty is, but for the rest of you I'll explain. My 50mm lens in also sometimes called the nifty fifty, and it is good for 1 or 2 person portraits, but not good for groups because it isn't wide at all, and it doesn't have any zoom. At the time I wasn't think about the fact that I would probably become the "official photographer" for the family reunion group shot. :P


Anyway, I went around got lots of pictures of the guests and the birthday lady. But when they wanted a group shot, I thought to myself, "Oh, great" I tried to back up as much as a could, but I couldn't fit them all in, so I took the camera turned it on it's side and took a panarama with several shots, hoping that I would be able to paste them together with Photoshop. And I was able to paste them together with quite good success, I think. The lighting wasn't very good either, it was dark in the room and most of the light was coming through the window behind them, thankfully I had my good 'ol speedlite flash and did a partial bounce off of the ceiling, and fixed that problem. Good 'ol flash, where would I be without you?

Well, that's that.

I hope to write again sometime.

This is Tim, signing off.

Well, to give you an overview of the what's happening.

Rick and Etta got a house since last year. Last year, they had a cabin with no running water. This year they have a full house. Kind of smallish, but big enough for 3 people. Overall it's a very nice house. It's nice to see Rick moving up, even though he says that he misses his cabin.

There is another deck hand here, Dave. He is in his mid-late 30's. He's a Christian, but he has some interesting beliefs, it should be good to work with him. He fished for a couple years as a teenager, and then he started fishing again last year and liked it so he wanted to do it again.

Dave and I are sleeping on the Harpazo (one of Rick's boats) which is parked at Rick and Etta's house.

The temperature is about 30 at night and 60 during the day. So I go from wearing two sweat shirts and two pairs of socks at night (There is no heating on the boat, so when it's 30 degrees OUTside, it's 30 degrees INside. :P ) to wearing just a tee shirt and only a singe pair of socks during the day.

For the next week or so Rick and I are going to be working on the big boat, The Guidance, ready. It needs a lot of work. :) Today, (Monday, 18th of May.) I did a lot of grinding, cutting and little odds and ends.

Tuesday I spend all day (6:30 a.m. through 9:23 p.m.) tying a net. With a total of 2 hours of breaks for meals. It was a very long day.

Wednesday, I did pretty much the same, but we finished sooner so that we could go to the service at the church.

As far as birthdays goes it wasn't very special until church time, because after the service we had cake and sat around and talk. It was very nice, it wasn't a big thing, but it made the day special. :) and that made me very happy.

Thursday, I finished up the net and Rick and I are going to work on the boat in Homer. We are probably going to stay there until Sunday.

I'm not sure when we are going to start fishing, right now we are working on the boats and nets and getting stuff ready. I think that Rick wants to start fishing about mid June, but we'll see.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Tim

Fire!

We started the day like any other Sunday, had breakfast, then got ready for church. Church went normally, I said hi too many people that I met last year when I was up here. I noticed David Pherson had his radio with him. Pastor Pherson and many others in the church congregation are volunteer responders to fire/medical emergency/accident. So, they get radios and if they hear anything, then they go to the site and help out. They have to go through training first though, so that they can get certified. Anyway, Pastor Pherson was the first to get involved with that; it is a good way to get out into the community and help out.

Anyway, the morning service went well. Afterwards, the Cobbs came over the Rick and Etta's house for dinner. And things were going along well until Sarah Cobbs's radio went off with a beep and then we hear over the radio, "There's a fire. . . " Sarah and her mom scrambled to action and are out the door in no time. We just kept on going as normal until Mrs. Cobbs called Mr. Cobbs and asked him if he could come. So, he asked if anyone else would come, so Rick and Dave (one of the other deckhands), and Jim (Etta's dad), Mr. Cobbs and I all got in the truck and drove over there.



I was able to help get a pump set up to help get the water from the river over to the truck. I helped run the hoses from the pump to the trucks and I helped with other things too. And then at the end I helped clean up, and roll up the hoses and put them in the trucks.

I didn't have my camera for most of the time because I didn't want to bring it with me at first, because I didn't have anywhere to put it, so I left it in the truck and then the truck got driven over to the fire station and got left there. So, I had to wait until I was able to catch a ride to the fire station, before I could retrieve my camera and get pictures. I caught a ride back because they had to go back to refill the air tanks. I helped refill the tanks, that was pretty cool, it was a lot like filling paintball CO2 tanks.

I was there for a little over 4 hours, most of fire men were there for just under 5 hours.

It was tiring, but definitely an interesting experience that I won't soon forget.

I have pictures on Facebook, they tell the story better than words.

Tim

Back to Alaska

Well, first year of college done with, now what?
Fishing in Alaska! :D

Well, I made it safely to Anchorage, AK. Praise the Lord. :)

It has been a long trip with more delays than I had planned. It started in fact before I even got to the airport. I got a call from American Airlines, and the lady told me that my flight leaving from Tampa was going to be delayed, late enough that it would cause me to miss my next flight leaving from Chicago. (What she didn't tell me was that every flight going to Chicago was going to be delayed.) So she put me on a United flight that was going to Chicago at the same time. Well, that wasn't too difficult, they would let me check my bad only to Chicago, (not all the way through to Anchorage) so I had to go get it at Chicago and check it to Anchorage. Aside from the half mile walk I had to walk to get my bad and then check it again, it didn't hurt me any (except for my hands, which got tired of carrying the bag.)

Anyway, my flight leaving Tampa was delayed. We boarded about at 3:45 instead of 2:45. Then, once we were all on board we sat at the runway until 5:00. We sat at the runway waiting for Chicago to tell us that we could go. Chicago was having some very bad storms in the area and it was causing all the planes to be delayed.

Anyway, we finally left Tampa, and then arrived at Chicago at 7:02. I went and claimed my bag, then checked it again, went through security and then waited for my flight to Anchorage. It didn't really matter that my flight coming into Chicago was delayed because my flight leaving Chicago was also delayed. My flight leaving Chicago was delayed because it was delayed getting into Chicago, so, obviously the plane couldn't leave Chicago, until it had arrived at Chicago.

But enough about late flights. I was feeling hungry because it was about 8 o'clock my now, so I stopped at the McDee's and grabbed a double quarter pounder with cheese. Very tasty. Then found an outlet and plugged in to power and watched an episode of mythbusters before my next flight. :D

I caught my plane from Chicago to Seattle. I arrived at Seattle at 12:04 am Saturday morning, a few minutes after midnight. There I stayed the night on a bench until 5:30 when we started boarding for my flight to Anchorage.

I arrived safely at Anchorage, I claimed my bag and met with Mr. Dicks. He took me out to breakfast, and then to his hotel room, where I am right now, sending this from.

So, that's what's happened so far. This afternoon I'm catching another flight to Kenai where I will be picked up and then I'm not sure what'll happen.

I'll be at Calvary Baptist Church tomorrow for the service. Abi Dainels, and Anna Sutton, students at BJ, go to this church.

Then, Monday I'll get busy with work probably.

I'll try to keep you guys updated if possible.

Added:

Ok, Here's the plan as far as I know it. Salmon fishing season just opened yesterday, but I won't be fishing right away. The first thing that I'll be doing is working on the new boat, getting it ready for the end of the season. It's a larger boat, a seiner. I'm not sure what we are going to use it for because it is too large to fish with, it's 50 some feet long. (32 feet is the maximum length by law.) But we'll see.

Thanks for all your prayers,

Tim Petersen

Tim Petersen