Bear Viewing at Brooks Falls

It is fun to be a tourist in our home state of Alaska. 

My husband came up with a full itinerary when friends from Texas

 scheduled their vacation with us last winter. 

Hubby is a commercial airline pilot but he also has two small airplanes.

 Our first adventure was only accessible via a float plane so good thing we have one of those. 

We went to Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. 

We were on the early side of the season for major numbers of bears fishing at the falls but we saw

 25 different bears throughout our day.

There are a series of raised walking paths and viewing platforms as you make your way to the main platform at the falls. It seemed like every step we took brought a bear into view. Here is a sow with her two-year-old set of three cubs.  

A bit of a better view when we got to the first platform.

There were parts of the walk through ground level wooded areas which was very unnerving to me. We saw this sow with her cubs taking a nap within 10 feet of the main trail. Yipes...I couldn't believe Mama Bear didn't rip our heads off but she was fine with all the traffic. There were no barriers protecting people from the trails bears use to walk around the area.  Park rangers where sometimes present to keep people quiet and moving. I felt extremely vulnerable.

We had to get on a waiting list to access the main viewing platform at the falls.

While waiting, we squeezed our way onto the viewing platform below the falls and saw plenty of action. The younger bears who aren't ready to take on the mature bears at the falls are the ones we watched in this area.

Step one was to rip all the skin off the salmon.

The bears all ate the skin and then left the rest of the salmon for the birds.

Below, this young bear was so entertaining. He ran all over the area.

We saw him again when we finally made it to the platform at the falls.

Right at the base of the falls were these two large bears who knew right where to sit and catch salmon without moving much.

We waited an hour-and-a-half for our turn on the main viewing platform and then had 30 minutes to hang there. We left after about 15 minutes as the action seemed to hit a lull.

But there was lots of action as we walked back to the main park ranger camp.  There were eight of us on the trail when we went around a bend in the path and saw a young male bear walking toward us. We tried walking into the woods off the trail but he started to follow us.

No park ranger in sight, We did have a canister of bear spray.

The bear wasn't aggressive but he was more than just curious.

So we raised our hands and started saying forcefully that the bear should leave. We didn't yell but spoke confidently. The bear watched us for a while (which seemed like an eternity), then turned and walked into the woods.

We were headed toward the lagoon where all the float planes park on the beach. Problem...Mama Bear on the beach with two cubs born this season. We didn't go anywhere for 40 minutes. The park rangers stopped everyone from going to the float planes.

On of my sons worked for a float plane operation out of Anchorage for two summers and he warned us this happens pretty often. The park rangers try to give the bears time to move on their schedule...not people schedules.

When the Mama Bear finally decided to leave the beach she headed directly toward us. We were right outside the visitors' center. We went inside to wait for her next move. She sat right outside one of the center's windows. The screen makes the photo a little odd but that's how close she was. 

From there she headed back to the beach and finally went far enough away for us to get to the airplane and leave quickly.

It is a very full day to fly back and forth from Anchorage to Brooks Fall so we spent two nights at Port Alsworth in first class accommodations, Wilder B & B. Really, it was half of a duplex we had to ourselves with a full kitchen stocked with breakfast making options. We even had WiFi...amazing. There is only cell phone reception for Verizon due to a local communications company that has a monopoly on the wilderness areas of Alaska. No AT&T  service which is what all of us on the trip had. We did carry a satellite phone which is a great safety tool to have when flying around the state.

There are no grocery stores of restaurants in Port Alsworth. There is a coffee stand where you buy aviation fuel. We packed in all our food and took advantage of the excellent propane grill at the B&B.

Our cabin sat on the edge of a large gravel runway. All the fuel for this town must be flown in as there is not a road, railway or water access for shipping. We watched the Everts fuel airplane landing the morning we left. This plane has been on several reality tv shows that feature living in Alaska.

Time to leave our sweet cabin.

This is our Cessna 185 that took us on our grand adventure. Prepping it to take off for Anchorage and our next adventures that will also be on the water. 

You can view the bears at the falls live via this Bear Cam link.

Flowers, Flimsy and a Finish

I'm getting a big kick out of the progress my perennial flower bed has made this season. I think this is the third year for most of the plants. 

Finished this flimsy. This border came together pretty quickly with the help of a rainy day.

And I finished cross stitching a snowman ornament, a Jim Shore design.

Morning Visitor

About 7:30 this morning...this critter came to call.

He didn’t seem to mind the dogs barking hysterically at him nor was he bothered by my presence. 

Simplifying a Quilt Design and Gardening

I thought I'd start with some quilting news...

gee...

that just hasn't been in the forefront of my activities for some time.  

I thought the "knot" border was going to be great for the scrappy top center I finished a few weeks ago but it is very time consuming to make those blocks and I was going to need 148 of them for two quilts. After two weeks of stitching a few minutes a day I have 16 done. Not enthused about making these blocks the entire summer.

So I took the time to make a mock up of the completed design using the Electric Quilt program.

It's a lovely border but after seeing it I didn't think it really worked with my center design. I also noticed it made the quilt pretty large, 84 x 100-inches.

After stewing on the design for a day, I dedicated some time to playing with EQ and here is my new plan for the border. 

I love this border idea...which I think is an original. I haven't seen it before so I'm taking credit for this discovery. Still a large quilt, 80 x 96-inches but this border should be much quicker to sew together.

Now back to what I have really been spending most of my time doing...extreme gardening. 

The sun has finally been making a regular daily appearance. But new this year are afternoon thunderstorms. Every afternoon for almost a week, gray clouds line up on one side of our mountain valley and make a lot of racket. Below is the road I turn off to my driveway. This is my regular dog walking view. Yucky gray clouds to the left.

My latest project is the entrance to my driveway. Clearing out brush right now and hoping to get a rock garden started.

I got my veggies planted last week. Lots of broccoli! 

And every year I have to share pictures of my Blue Himalayan Poppies. If these weren't expensive plants I would have them everywhere! 

We've seen lots of critters. I saw this small black bear on my way to workout one morning. 

 

Most of the critters are pretty camera shy.

May Projects

In the evenings and maybe an hour in the mornings, I have been working on a few crafty projects. 

I have finished the stocking front from the Plaid Bucilla kit, "Santa Says Hello." This is a design from Mary Engelbreit which means it has a bit more challenging work that the norm for these kits.

I really like making stocking kits as they seem to come together so quickly.

 

I have been steadily working on the scrappy set of twin quilts. 

After sewing a few cream strips together to make the first small border on both quilts I decided that just wasn't going to work so have started changing my plan. 

I am "Bonnie Hunter-ing" my design. If you've ever made one of her mysteries you can appreciate how truly scrappy she approaches her designs. I've made one of her mysteries and I think it is influencing my take on this project.

So the first step of ripping off the cream strips and adding a border of  2 1/2-inch squares has been done on one quilt. 

Making the blocks for the second border is probably going to take me all summer!!!

I am going with a teal batik border. The batik print I ordered just didn't make me happy for the border and after much searching on the internet, I gave up trying to find the "Spumoni" Bali pop set from many years ago. At least the teal Hoffman 1895 batik is still available.

I did a mock-up first with my scrappy 1 3/4-inch HSTs from the quilt tops. Everything is always more cute in smaller sizes. 

I started working on a cross stitch project and found this pattern in my bag that I bought while in Wichita Falls, TX, at an adorable quilt shop, The Enchanted Quilt. They only had a few bolts of batik fabrics but I did find this pattern which I thought would look great with a reversal of values...white bunnies on a dark background. Our rabbits turn white in the winter and brown in the summer. 

Several quilts by this designer graced the walls the quilt shop. 

I had not seen her patterns before. Very cute stuff!

May Happenings

I started May with a major project finish, 50 animal ornaments. Bucilla kit, "Noah's Animals," from 1999. I started the kit in 2014 and didn't even finish one animal when I decided to start a different kit. I'm so glad I stopped shuffling this kit to the back of the line and finally stuck to it. A normal ornament kit has six ornaments so this one kit was like finishing eight ornaments kits. It makes me feel so much better to think of it that way since I usually make 10 to 12 Bucilla kits every year.

I'm moving onto another kit that was opened several years ago with the intention of starting it but the white felt in the kit had horrible brown ink smear marks on it. I found out that kits from this time period had washable ink and I was able to wash the ink off and very faintly see a white stamp.Very difficult to work with the white felt...actually I just make it up as I go! So far not too difficult but there are two candy canes with lots or red stripes to stitch...not feeling good about getting to that part.

I missed the third retreat of the Material Girls quilting season the first weekend of May. (We meet monthly, September through May). At the February retreat the group decided as a challenge project everyone needed to complete a UFO by May. Ooops...no way was that happening in my world. So I am aiming for the October retreat...and I am tackling two quilts and a small quilt from the scraps. I finished the two center sections of blocks for two twin quilts.

I had two Spumoni Hoffman Batik Bali Pops I bought at a great price that were the inspiration for these quilts. 

Too bad this colorway is so old now that I had to seek the "retired Hoffman batiks," section of the online shop Batiks Plus. I have ordered from this site several times and love how quickly they get orders in the mail...and they cut a generous 40-inch yard. Greatly relieve to find enough yardage in stock. 

I ordered the middle blue fabric below for the outer 6-inch border. I had to fight my tendency to design a pieced border. These quilts really need to get done and on twin bunk beds in one of my guest rooms. 

Several years ago I had also already started playing with the scrap HSTs leftover from block construction. I can hardly wait to start playing with what looks like hundreds of mini HSTs. I thought I would make some throw pillows or pillow shams when I pieced these but I'm toying with a wall hanging. The guest bedroom could use one of those too! 

And the real challenge to getting any quilting done is gardening season is upon us!!! Last week was all about gathering. Now the slow process of  hardening off the plants for the intense daylight and cooler temps. Memorial Day weekend is the traditional "safe time," to start putting plants in the ground.

While cleaning up around the yard I noticed a boulder toppled on top of my decorative mini Eiffel Tower. I'm going to need some wire cutters to get it out. 

And the bear pictures are starting to pop up whenever I check Facebook. One of my neighbors caught this photo of a very dark grizzly bear about a mile from our houses. This is a three-year-old that is still with its mom. I don't have a picture of her...yet...but she was there and that is how I can confirm this is a grizzly and not a huge black bear The mom is very blond so I'm guessing papa bear is really dark. I been watching this cub and its mother the past two summers so I feel as though they are almost family. I'd like them to remain rather aloof.

Checking In For April

Looks like I am only going to get one blogging session in for April. But don't think I've just been sitting around and eating chocolate bonbons all day. There is "Spring Cleaning," and "Earthquake Repair" to tackle. 

I put in some grout where two types of tile meet at my sewing room threshold. For years I have struggled with a wooden piece for this area and it never wanted to stay in place. Such a simple solution! 

There are a few large cracks from the November earthquake. My handyman started filling them. Weather has kept him from coming to finished the job last week...more about that later.

For three days I've spent most of my time with a caulking gun. Between prepping and applying, my backside has gotten a good little workout. I'm very thankful for our hot tub!

April started out so remarkably warm and sunny....for days...then two weeks. All snow was gone from our yard. My husband was having a blast flying in his little Piper Super cub. I managed to get a photo of him from our deck on March 30th.

Then Mother Nature reminded us that we live in Alaska.

Wednesday, April 17th, I woke up to this.

I've had three mornings like this with 3 to 9-inches of snow. I've shoveled the deck every day even though much of the snow melted everyday as temps got above freezing in the afternoons. Nothing worse that snow that softens and then re-freezes overnight. 

Before the snow came and all the house projects, I did work on a few quilting projects.

I finished three baby-sized versions of the March Breakfast Club project. I didn't start out with that intention but...you know how things can multiply in your sewing room. I had cut out enough blocks to make the large original version when I thought it looked too much like a baby quilt. There are always great ideas from the other quilters at Breakfast Club!

I've been collecting Indah Batiks from Hoffman for this quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. Found a great sale on the internet a while back and I have finally gotten them all ready to go. I always pre-wash any fabric fat-quarter size or larger and iron with sizing before I cut for a quilt. Sadly, I don't think I will get any farther on this one until next fall. Too many other projects in front of it!

I really want to get a quilt on the frame to start stitching. I have a patriotic top I designed and pieced a few years ago that I would really like to get quilted before the 4th of July and since my pace is rather slow I'm making it my priority. But there was a reason I had let the top age...I didn't like one particular color placement in the final top...and it really bugged me as I started thinking about how I  would quilt it. I just had to fix it! So I spent a couple of afternoons replacing one piece in eight blocks. 

Below are the pieces I removed laying on the areas where I pulled them from, marked with the "X." Not the most convenient location for making changes.

Below is the area now...just as I want it...I know...too hung up on a small issue but when looking at the whole quilt top it is kept drawing my eye and I didn't want it drawn to that area!

I'm starting to play with quilting designs. At least I have a general idea of how I want the movement to play on the top. Always a challenge to get that feel without starting and stopping a million times or making thread color changes. 

I officially finished the little wall hanging of a Carpenter's Star. I wanted to share one of my machine quilting tips. When I am all done...occasionally I find a thread loop from some bad tension. I really hate that when it happens. If it's just a little loop here and there I use this tool to pull it to the center of quilt. It's a tiny crochet hook called, "Soft Touch Thread Pic." Sold as a tool to remove dark threads behind light colored fabrics after you are all done with quilting. I also use it to pull snagged sweater threads to the wrong side. 

One last look at the Carpenter's Star quilt. I need to finish repairing wall cracks before any quilts get hung on walls.

Now I am going to do some "Mom" bragging! 

I've done lots of family trips this year and I still have one more in May. 

 Last week we went to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas to visit our son and his wife for, "Drop Night." It's a big party night three weeks before graduation when the student pilots find out what aircraft they will go on to fly after pilot training. Each class makes a satirical class video that pokes fun at their year together going through pilot training. Their class video's theme was a rock concert so my son was dressed as a concert attendee. 

My son is going to fly F-15s.

I am so proud of him!

Here he is getting an official photo on a T-38 jet used at pilot training to introduce fighter fundamentals.