Japan Trip Memories

		Japan Trip 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Calm Between Storms

The past week has been quite rainy and stormy. The clouds broke and the sun came through this morning, however – a respite before another storm system is forecast to hit this evening.

I went out to the beach and walked to Hungry Point and back. Click on image below to view the album.

Mushrooms

A couple of Sundays ago I attended a mushroom workshop where we learned to identify a few of the easily identified edible mushrooms in the area. I’ve gone out since and collected some of them.

Winter Chanterelles

Angel Wing Mushrooms

Hedgehog Mushroom

The Winter Chanterelles are fairly plentiful nearby. On the trail I use, I’ve only seen the Angel Wings in three locations. I happened to stumble across the Hedgehog along the path.

There are real Chanterelles on the island – just farther away and I have to find them. There are also supposed to be larger Hedgehogs also, but again, requires a longer drive.

Turning off IPv6 might fix WiFi connectivity in Windows 7

I got a call from our daughter on her way to Fairbanks, panicked when her new Windows 7 notebook wouldn’t connect to WiFi on the plane or at the Anchorage airport. She also said she had the same problem with one of our routers at home.

After sleuthing around on various tech support FAQs, KBs, and forums, I learned that Windows 7 and some routers don’t get along with the default Windows 7 network installation of IPv6.

I have a WiFi adapter on my desktop and voila! I experienced a similar issue. I hadn’t ever tried WiFi on the desktop because it is wired to the network. With the default settings I could see the router, but whenever I tried to connect to it, it would say it could not. As soon as I went in and turned off IPv6 protocol for the adapter, I was able to connect.

So for anyone needing step-by-step, here it is:

1. Go to Control Panel –> Network and Internet –> Network and Sharing Center

2. You should see something like the following.

3. On the left side, click Change Adapter Settings. You should see a window with a list of network adapters.

4. Right-click on the Wireless Network Connection item. If you see more than one, you should select the hardware one (not any that read “virtual”). Select Properties from the popup menu.

5. Deselect the TCP/IPv6 item and click OK.

6. Try to connect. Hopefully this will solve the WiFi connectivity issue you are experiencing.

Summer Sunrise

I wasn't planning to be out at sunrise, but Shelley discovered she had left the car switch on overnight. (She was going out to work.) I got up to hook up the battery charger and saw the colors in the sky. Running up to the house, and then back down to the beach, running over the uneven rocks, barnacles, muscles, and seaweed, I was able to catch the sight of this sunrise

Album

Pink salmon and roe

Today’s catch was two pinks – one male, one female – 21 inches, and 22 inches.

While fishing, after I had caught the first one, a ferry went by at a fairly rapid clip. I know that ferries displace a considerable amount of water, resulting in large swells and surf along the shore. I miscalculated how much surf would come crashing through. I had my tackle high enough, but I thought the fish would be fine where it was. When the waves came in I realized I would have to hold on to the fish to keep it from getting washed away. As a result I was hit with water from head to toe. I was wearing a long jacket so it kept most of my uppers dry, but from about thigh down, my jeans and shoes were completely soaked. (I still have water in one of my ears from getting hit with the water.)

Pink salmon roe is noticeably larger and lighter in color than the silver roe. You can see the huge color difference in the photo below. If you look closely, you can see the size difference as well. I needed a jar for the new roe, so I had to finish off the silver caviar (on rice) from the first silver catch from last Thursday.

I also baked some of the silver from Saturday. This is one of three filets I baked tonight. Cook’s Illustrated had simple oven-baked directions – start in a very hot oven (500F), then immediately lower it (275F) and let the filet bake at the lowering temperature until done (about 9-13 minutes). I must say it turned our quite well – better than my previous attempts using the broiler.

Sermon: Serving God

This sermon was given at the Presbyterian Church on July 31, 2011.

MP3, 6.5MB

Sermon: Our Healer

This sermon was given at the Presbyterian Church on July 10, 2011.

MP3, 12.4 MB

Two more cohos and a rainbow (not trout)

I went down to the beach this afternoon to see if I could grab any more salmon. Turns out I ended up with two cohos (silvers - 銀鮭). Both fought hard. With the first one the line got caught in some large seaweed. It was also high tide with the water line into the rocks, so I couldn’t just slide the fish onto the beach. Just as I was trying to figure out how to land it, someone came by to dump some stuff into the water. He helped grab the fish. With the second one I had gotten it tired and weakened, but still couldn’t figure out how to land it on the rocks. As I began to work it into a nook, it jerked and snapped the line. I jumped into the water, slipping a bit, and getting wet from about thighs down. But the fish was too weak to go anywhere and I was able to grab it and bring it onto the rocks. Both were females and I got a large amount of roe as a bonus. All this makes up for losing a brand new lure today.

Two cohos, on the rocks. Both about 26 inches long. Top one weighing in about 5.5 lbs., the bottom one about 6.0 lbs.

Ready to be fileted. But I didn’t feel like doing the work at the time so I wrapped them whole and placed them in the refrigerator. Maybe tomorrow.

Roe (筋子) curing in brine.

When I went down to dump the fish guts into the water, I saw a nice rainbow. I ran back up to the house and ran back down with a camera, but the rainbow had already faded considerably. You can still see some here.

It’s been cloudy and rainy all week, but the clouds broke for some sun today.

A good run of salmon

After returning from Hawaii, I’ve been out fishing an hour or so each day. I’ve caught three pinks and one silver during the last three days. I heard that there were orcas in the waters today, feeding vigorously. I think I’ve already nearly equaled the salmon catch I had last year.

Here is a pink (カラフトマス) that I caught today – 22 inches, 3.5 pounds.

Here is my first silver (銀鮭) of the year – 27 inches, 6.5 pounds.

Here is the same silver, fileted and it was a female with roe so some ikura (イクラ).

Maui vacation photos

Here are links to photo albums of our vacation to Maui, July 13-25.
Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4
Album 5
Album 6
Album 7
Album 8
Album 9
Album 10
Album 11

Three Lakes Hike

Okay, we didn’t make it to all three. We got to Crane and Hill Lakes. Instead of going to Sand Lake, we decided to venture out to Ideal Cove and back.

The day was sunny and very, very warm… Okay, it was HOT. On the drive back home, the outside temperature reading hit 80F. But it was definitely a good day to go on a long hike.

Outing to LeConte Glacier

Today was Memorial Day. It was a warm and sunny day. My dad, sister, Shelley, and I went out with Gerry to LeConte Glacier. Unfortunately there was too much ice at the mouth to allow us to get very close. We managed to push through the ice to get in enough to at least be able to see the glacier.

We saw sea lions, sea gulls, seals, and bald eagles along the route.

Sermon: More Stubborn Than a Donkey

I filled in at the Presbyterian Church today. Here is the audio of my sermon.

Sermon Audio – MP3 – 13.8MB

Baccalaureate Sermon

Tonight, the Petersburg Christian Ministerial Association sponsored the Baccalaureate for the graduating class. I had the privilege of giving the sermon.

Audio Link – MP3 – 9.3MB

Word Document – 50KB – the last page is something I had thought about using, but found the social network research that I used in its stead.

Little Norway Parade

Here is video from yesterday’s Little Norway Parade.

Senior class parade through downtown

The seniors were taken from class for an early lunch period. The theme: Magic School Bus. A noise parade through downtown and then they went to Sandy Beach Park where they were given invitations to Op-Grad.

Caught my first fish of the year

Three of them, that is.

I caught a cold and started feeling ill yesterday. Today was a sunny and warm day and I probably would have gone out on the bicycle if I felt better. But no fear – I don’t have to waste a perfectly good day. I can just go fish.

I’ve gone out a few times in the past several weeks. The last couple of times out I hooked one, but it got away, one hit the lure but didn’t bite, and I saw a couple of fish chase the lure. I knew there were fish (Dollies) out there, so it was just a matter of time.

On the first cast out today I hooked and landed one, a mid-size Dolly. After gutting and cleaning it, I caught the next one about ten minutes later – a slightly larger one. I gutted and cleaned this second one. As I fished I saw a couple of fish chase the lure without biting, and then another ten or fifteen minutes later another one bit, fighting more strongly than the earlier two. After landing it I saw that it was the biggest one of the day.

Three being enough to keep me fed for a few days, I went home to wash the fish and put them in the refrigerator. The small one will probably be my lunch today.

No wildflowers yet

I went out today on the Hungry Point trail today to see if there were any signs of wildflowers in the muskeg. Alas there was none. It was an overcast day with spotty showers and I got rained upon a good deal of the time I was on the trail. I think I still managed to get a few interesting images.

		Muskeg April 21, 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I took three of the images into Photoshop for more artistic interpretations. They are found in this album:

Selected Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sandy Beach to City Creek

There is a one-mile trail between Sandy Beach Park and City Creek. The trail was renovated last summer with new boardwalks, old brush removed, and path cut through fallen trees.

Today was a partly cloudy day and still a bit chilly, especially walking through the shaded forest. A bit of a shower started to come through just as I was getting back to the car.

I went out with a Rebel XTi with a EF35/2.0 lens. I’ve always found the challenge of using a single fixed focal length lens to be useful in exercising the artistic eye.

Sandy Beach Trail VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here are a few selected images that I thought were the best of the bunch. They went through some Photoshop work.

		Selected Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

High School Spring Concert

The Petersburg High School performed their spring concert last evening. Shelley is in the choir this semester. Here are four video clips of the choir performance.

Early this morning the music groups boarded the ferry bound for Ketchikan for the annual Southeast Alaska Music Festival.

Signs of Spring

Yesterday I was looking for skunk cabbage but did not find any. Today I went out the back of our house to a place where I know is a field of them during the spring season. I got there and saw shoots coming up, the tops of most eaten off by deer. There is still residual snow and ice around, but there are a few signs of new growth. In a month or so the muskeg should be filled with spring growth and blossoms. For now it is still barren.

South part of the island

Today started out bright, sunny, and dry. There was a pancake breakfast at the hospital so we went there. I did the mid-morning devotions at the Manor. I returned, had lunch. Then the clouds rolled in and heavy rains came down. I had planned to go out the road, Mitkof Highway, towards some of the southern recreation spots on the island for more videos, but the weather turned against it.

I ended up taking a nap and when I awoke about 3 p.m. the sun had returned. I decided to drive out and see how things were. I didn’t know if the rains would return or not. I was happy I went out as the rains stayed away, the skies were dramatic, and I was able to get some good scenic images.

Another Sunny Spring Day

Forecast for today was clouds and showers. It turned out to be rather wrong as the sky was clear and the sun bright after the fog burned off. I went around towards the city and harbors and captured some video clips as seen here.

Spring in Petersburg

It was windy, rainy, and just plain stormy last night. During the day, however, the skies broke apart with some showers and sun. I went out on my bicycle and took along a camcorder to test out both it and video editing and production on my new computer. Here is the result.

Rally and March Against Domestic Violence

The State of Alaska designated today for Choose Respect rally and march. Noon was the set time for the communities throughout the state to hold events bringing awareness regarding domestic violence and abuse and to promote services that are available to victims.

In Petersburg quite a group formed outside of Trading Union. The morning had consisted of showers with occasional heavy downpours, but that did not seem to discourage people from gathering. With the city police cruiser leading and the police chief and the state trooper in Petersburg right behind holding a banner, the rest of those gathered together walked down Main Street toward City Hall and into the council chambers. Quite a number of High School students took time away from their lunch period to participate.

Inside the chambers, four individuals spoke briefly on domestic violence: a representative from the governor’s office, Mayor Al Dwyer, Police Chief Jim Agner, and a representative from Working Against Violence for Everyone (W.A.V.E.).

		Choose Respect 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL