Beginning of July update (beary scary)

We're still having a great time and things remain fun and exciting.

SHERI'S TOURS
Sheri's first tour was a great success with 9 nice and (more importantly) non-complaining travelers. Actually, they had nothing to complain about as they saw lots of wildlife (moose, caribou crossing the road, eagles, Dall sheep, orcas, Humpback whales, porpoises, etc.) and had wonderful food (lots of fresh Copper River red salmon and local halibut) and excellent weather. She will be working nearly non-stop from 19 July until the end of August doing mostly camping and hiking-based tours.


MICHIEL'S ODD JOBS
Michiel has been cleaning cabins and babysitting, as well as, making planter boxes for the garden, sanding our landlady's canoe, and doing other odd jobs. We are particularly excited to watch how fast all of the vegetables grow with all this sunlight. It seems that the bean plants grow an inch or two each day!

WILDLIFE REPORT
While watering the hanging fuschia plant, Michiel discovered a nest with 4 eggs. The nest is well guarded by a little junko bird, who hops up each log on the end of our log cabin to reach the nest.

We also have two bald eagles hanging around our property and often see them flying low over the driveway with something in their talons.

The moose are still around but the dog has managed to not pester them too much so the mom and her calf enjoy munching greenery in our landlady's backyard while we watch from a safe distance away.

Most excitingly, however, was the appearance of a juvenile brown bear on the propoerty yesterday evening while we were enjoying cocktails with Sheri's bosses. The bear was curious and quiet enough to get within 40 feet of us until Barb noticed him and scared him a bit further away. He hung around, though, oblivious to the rocks Todd was throwing at him.

Interestingly, Michiel didn't sleep well the night before because he thought he heard something strange walking around the cabin. He didn't think it was a moose and the strange bite marks on the bags of fertilizer and steer manure for the garden were troubling.

We were pretty nervous after the bear left the first time and brought the dog inside for the evening. After dinner, Michiel heard some noises outside. The bear had returned and was playing with the dog's water bowl and a large plastic container. When Michiel opened the door, the bear moved under the back deck and flipped over our landlady's canoe. We couldn't see the bear but knew it was underneath us as we stepped out onto the deck. The dog was going bananas - pacing, sniffing, growling and whining, so we knew that the bear was close. We starting yelling and the bear rushed out from under the deck...amazing close to us...and we pelted it with firewood and more shouting. It ran quickly into the woods and we haven't seen a trace of it since.

In case you're starting to worry about our safety, please be assured that we did exactly what the Department of Fish and Game advises - make noise and discourage the bear from being around your stuff. We pulled the BBQ and anything else that might have a scent inside the house and we are very cautious when walking between our cabin and the landlady's house. We now sing and make noise when walking over to go to the bathroom. Good thing for that midnight sun - it makes it much less likely to surprise any hiding critters (or vice versa)!

ANTARCTICA
We are still both considered alternate candidates but have to go through all of the medical and dental exams required of regular candidates. We have lots of appointments this week for full dental x-rays and an exam, medical screenings, including full blood, HIV and drug testing, an EKG, and mammogram (for Sheri, only - obviously). At least if we don't go to Antarctica, we will both know for sure that we are 100% healthy at no cost to ourselves.

HIKING and FUN
We have been doing lots of hikes around Hope and Seward and have taken more photos than we can post on the photos site, but we have or will post the best of them. We also helped out the runners in the Mt. Marathon 4th of July Mountain Race by providing water and gatorade to the women racing up and down the 3,022 foot (approximately 1,000 meter) high mountain. We stood a little more than halfway up the peak to give some liquids and encouragement to a few of our friends and lots of others.

We hope everyone is having a great summer and we'll update again soon.