We returned to Whale Pass the middle of June, ready to work on the house, apartment, and garage. We even had reinforcements come to help. Some of our family members came to work and to recreate. The only problem was that our family could only stay for two weeks and we were waiting for another shipment from Home Depot to arrive by barge with the materials for the improvements we wanted to make to the house and to finish the interior and exterior of the apartment. Home Depot was having difficulties filling our order. We had ordered some items that they did not have in their Seattle store, so they had to either have them transferred from another Home Depot or special order them from the manufacturer. So instead of working on the house, apartment and garage, we went fishing and site seeing!
When we returned to Prince of Wales, we picked up our boat in Craig. Glenn purchased the boat when we were on the island during the Spring, but did not want to take possession of it until June. The dealer had it ready for us to pick up when we returned in June.
We fished in the Whale Pass bay for salmon and then went outside the bay for halibut. We were much more successful catching halibut than salmon. It was a little bit early for the silver salmon to come into the bay.
This is a picture we took as we traveled out of Whale Pass bay to an inter-island passage. We were headed out to do some halibut fishing.
Some days the ocean was like glass. This day it happened to be especially calm and peaceful. We really enjoyed our time fishing with such beautiful surroundings.
As mentioned above, we were much more successful with our halibut fishing this day. Our daughter-in-law caught this halibut which was about 48 inches and weight about 53 pounds. That was an Exchange Cove Lodge record.
We visited Sandy Beach on the east side of the island. We have been told that this is the only beach on the island that has sand rather than rocks. We happened to be there when the tide was out, so we were able to collect sea shells as we walked on the beach bare footed. We even rolled up our pant legs and waded in the water. The tide pools also provided us a glimpse of some starfish.
It is amazing how many different wildflowers are here on the Prince of Wales Island and how long they last. Below are a number of some of the wildflowers we took the time to photograph.
There are many beautiful creeks and rivers here on the island. This is 108 Creek which empties into the Whale Pass bay. These two pictures are taken from the same spot. The first picture is taken looking downstream and the second one looking upstream.
We visited Cavern Lake and the cave below it. The cave is the outlet of Cavern Lake and the upper end of 108 Creek (the pictures above).
This is looking downstream from the place the previous picture was taken.
This picture is taken inside the cave. You can walk into this cave about 50 feet without getting wet.
The barge with the materials finally arrived a week later than we had hoped for. Our next problem was trying to get the materials from Thorne Bay to Whale Pass. When we contacted Northland Services, who delivered our first shipment, we were told this was their busiest time of the year and could not guarantee when they could deliver our materials. We needed help unloading the materials once they were delivered to our home in Whale Pass, so we needed them delivered before our family went home. Glenn contacted the gentleman, who lives in Whales Pass and who picked up our lumber order from Thorne Bay at the beginning of this project, to see if he would be interested in picking up our shipment. As before, he agreed to pick up our 9,000 lbs. of materials with his dump truck and trailer.
One of the first projects we worked on after our materials arrived was to continue the vinyl tile to the other part of the house. When we bought the house, there was a piece of carpet laid on top of plywood on half of the living room area and then white vinyl flooring in the kitchen, bathroom, and bunk bedroom. The white vinyl flooring was really hard to keep looking clean and the carpet was pretty worn and dirty, so we decided to continue the vinyl tile we put down last year through the rest of the house. We all worked together and in no time had the new flooring down on the other half of the living room and in the kitchen. Oh-h-h-h-h-h-h, it looked so good!
One of the items that arrived on the barge was a new area rug for the living room that adds a woodsy look to the house. We replaced the piece of carpet that had been in the living room with this new area rug. It looks so much better.
The kitchen appliances that we did have in the house were very poor and needed replacing. We had been using a camping stove with an oven, but it was becoming more and more difficult to regulate the temperature in the oven. The refrigerator was too small to hold the food items we needed when having guests. The microwave was not very powerful. Because of these issues, we decided to include new appliances in our shipment from Home Depot.
The cupboard space in the kitchen was very limited, so we also included additional kitchen cabinets in our Home Depot order. We were amazed at how well they matched the old cabinets. Our family members helped to install the new cabinets and appliances. It is amazing how much more functional the kitchen is now.
It is so nice to have a larger refrigerator to hold the food we need to serve our guests.
The next project was to tile the floor in the apartment, so four of us worked on that project while others were working on miscellaneous other small projects.
All too soon it was time for our family members to go home. We were so grateful for the help they were to us on the house and the apartment. We hated to see them go, but we were able keep our granddaughter who decided to stay in Alaska with us for the summer.
Black bears are the top predator on this island. They can be seen occasionally. As we were coming back from Klawock one evening, we were able to get this picture of a large black bear up on a hill.
We were able to get this picture at the Neck Lake creek which is here in Whale Pass. He was looking for fish in the creek and was able to catch one just a little bit further up the creek.
We have discovered a new berry which grows wild on the island during the summer--Salmonberry. There are both red and yellow salmonberries. It is hard to pick a large number of berries, because not many berries grow on a bush. However, we were able to pick enough to make a salmonberry crunch. It was delicious!
We celebrated July 4th with others in Whale Pass by joining in on a pot luck dinner down by the library. We had a great time visiting with our neighbors and enjoying some delicious food. Someone brought a cooler full of crabs to which anyone could help themselves.
Later that evening we were able to enjoy fireworks compliments of some of the lodges in Whale Pass. As you can see by the picture, the fireworks were set off on boats and platforms on the water. The water was so calm that you could see the fireworks reflected in the water. The sound from the fireworks even caused waves in the water.
When our family left, they took all the fish we had with them. We decided to go fishing so we would have some fish to eat. On our way out to do some halibut fishing, we tried some salmon fishing and caught only one. We gave up and headed for the same spot our daughter-in-law caught one a few days earlier. Our granddaughter caught this halibut. As you can see it is bigger than our 48-inch cooler. In fact, it was 51 inches and weighed 64 lbs. We declared that the new Exchange Cove Lodge record!
We also caught three other smaller halibut on that same fishing trip. We now had some fish to serve our guests who would soon be coming.
We had some guests who had been to Whale Pass many times. They worked very had at catching silver salmon and caught about 50 in four days.
We decided to create a "Wall of Fame" in our living room where we could hang pictures of our guests with their catches. We started with our family members and then continued on with each of our guests through the summer.
When our shipment from Home Depot arrived, we did not get all the paneling sheets we had ordered, so we notified them or the shortage. As long as they were sending another shipment, we decided to add to the order. One of the things we wished we had thought to order was a screen door for the front door. On warm summer evenings it would be nice to be able to open the front door and allow a breeze to come through the house. So, we added a screen door to the order. We would have to wait a couple of weeks for this shipment.
One of the things we wanted to complete before our first guests arrived, was to carry the vinyl tile into the bathroom and then replace the toilet for one that conserves water. We were really happy with the results of our bathroom improvements.
We also carried the vinyl tile into the shower room. It looks and feels so much better!
The final room to get the vinyl tile was the bunk bedroom. This was a chore because the bunk beds had been nailed to the wall. The room seems so much nicer with the new flooring.
Once everything was completed in the house, we turned our attention to the apartment. The first big job was to continue laying the vinyl tile through the rest of the apartment. Our granddaughter was a great help on this project--she became the master tile layer. She and Glenn mainly worked on this project, but I would occasionally help.
After Glenn showed our granddaughter and me how to run the electrical wires, we ran the wires to all the outlet and switch boxes while he was running the wires to the light boxes. This was the first time my granddaughter and I had done any wiring and we thought we did a pretty good job.
Our next task was to install the insulation in the apartment. Our granddaughter and I helped Glenn put it in the outside walls and ceiling. It took three of us to put the bats of insulation up in the ceiling--what a job!
Our second shipment from Home Depot arrived as expected, so we had the materials we needed to continue working on the apartment.
This couple caught a halibut that beat the previous Exchange Cove Lodge record. This halibut was about 56" and weighed about 85 lbs.
The Sunday that Glenn's two brothers were coming in on the ferry, we made a visit to Hydaburg while we were waiting for the ferry to arrive in Hollis. In the lot next to the school, there were a number of totem poles.
We enjoyed our visit to Hydaburg. It was a very nice and quiet little community.
Glenn's brothers came to help him with the apartment and to do some fishing. Now that the wiring and insulation were installed, Glenn needed help with installing the ceiling materials. We had purchased white bead board for the ceiling. They were able to get it installed throughout the entire apartment. (We did not get a picture of the ceiling done without the wall paneling, so here is one of both.)
In between their work on the ceiling, they took time to do some salmon and halibut fishing. They were quite successful with both.
Before we knew it, it was time for Glenn's brothers to go home. Our granddaughter also went home. She left with them on the ferry and they helped her to get to the airport and get checked in. What a blessing it was to have Glenn's brothers and our granddaughter to help us this summer!
One of our main goals was to get the garage/apartment exterior completed this summer. We had a number of people help us with the vinyl siding. Glenn, our granddaughter, and I were the first to work on it. When Glenn's brothers came they helped him do a lot of the siding. When they and our granddaughter left two of our grandsons came and they helped Glenn. Then Glenn and I worked on it until we could no longer reach. Then we hired a man to help us get the top rows of the siding completed and the soffits installed. He was able to get up that high with the help of scaffolding.
This is a picture of the completed exterior of the apartment/garage.
Our grandsons were our last guests for the summer. They came to help us and also to go fishing. In addition to helping Glenn with the vinyl siding project on the apartment/garage, they helped him start installing the wall paneling in the apartment great room. They were able to get about half of the walls paneled. They did a great job and we really appreciated their help.
One of the highlights of our grandsons' visit was when we took them salmon and halibut fishing. They had the opportunity to see how to catch both kinds of fish. We caught a few salmon and then headed out to try our luck at halibut fishing using the highly effective Halibut Scent System from
www.northpacifictackle.com. Shortly after we started a very large fish came on one of the grandson's lines. He quickly and wisely handed the pole to his older/larger brother. Within ten minutes or so the fish could be seen under the water as it was being lifted toward the boat. As soon as it saw the boat it returned at a high rate of speed to the bottom. We had several lines tangled together by this time and one got hooked on the bottom while still attached to the fish. So we then had the fish and the bottom. Deb drove the boat as we tried to get directly above the fish and pull the second line off the bottom. After another 30 minutes of this activity we did unhook the bottom and the fish was again coming toward the boat. We were not sure whether to laugh or cry by this time as all were exhausted. The fish came to the boat and like Captain Ahab we were ready with the harpoon. The attached video shows what happened next. The fish was about 64 inches, about 135 pounds. We declared that the new Exchange Cove Lodge record!
This halibut was too large to hold up, so our grandsons laid down on the doc with the halibut so you could see how large it was in comparison to them.
When our grandsons left Glenn and I went back to installing the wall paneling. We completed the great room and proceeded onto the bedrooms. We were contacted by the missionaries serving in the branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here on the island. They asked if we needed help with anything. They were looking for a service project. We gladly said we could really use their help on the apartment. They came one day and helped Glenn install paneling in the bedrooms and to carry things upstairs. It was so nice to have their help.
As a finishing touch on the ceiling and wall paneling we installed cedar strips throughout the apartment.
The kitchen cupboards and appliances were installed. We were very happy with how nice it looked.
Across the road from our property were three old pickup trucks that were left by their owners because they stopped working. The bed of one of the pickups was filled with beer cans. There are many more old cars, trucks, busses, boats, motorhomes, and vans left all over Whale Pass.
During the last two weeks of August, one of the residents of Whale Pass who owns a front loader, a trailer for the front loader, and a dump truck moved many of the old vehicles to a place where they will be put on a barge and sold for their steel. This picture shows him pulling the pickup onto his trailer. We were glad to see the old pickups disappear.
One of the goals were had for the summer was to have a porch built on the house. As you can see from the pictures below, it was sorely needed.
This is a picture of the stairs we were using to get into the house. The were old and weather-worn and not very sturdy.
This is a picture of another set of stairs that we banned from use after our grandson fell through the top stair.
Late in August, our builder was finally available to begin work on creating a porch for the house. At his recommendation, we decided to have it made with cedar. He cut down some cedar trees on his property and then cut them into the needed boards for the porch with his portable saw mill. We went over to watch him as he cut some of the boards.
The work on the porch finally began!
Once the builder had completed building the porch, we took over and installed the vinyl siding and soffits. We also painted a protective coat on the cedar.
This is a picture of the completed porch along with the completed vinyl siding on the house. We were so pleased with the final product! It is so nice to be able to sit out on the porch and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
As we stood back and looked at the two buildings that now make up Exchange Cove Lodge, we said with great joy, "It is good."
Exchange Cove Lodge is accepting guest reservations for the summer of 2015. For information, please contact us at exchangecovelodge@gmail.com.
