Watch the work — Cabin repair revives old techniques

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Volunteers Bill Nelson and Bud Crawford unload logs in front of the Watchman’s Cabin, which is being restored at the Kasilof Regional Historical Association’s museum property on Kalifornsky Beach Road. The cabin is being restored to preserve it for future generations to learn about the history of this area.

Redoubt Reporter

Measure twice, cut once is a rule all carpenters know when working with boards. When working with logs, even more precision is required. This is particularly true when attempting to replicate not only the style of craftsmen who have been dead more than 100 years, but when trying to duplicate their unique notches for holding old cabins together.

“It seems like you’ll get it figured out, but then another problem comes up, but it’s fun to solve the problem,” said Bud Crawford, one of a handful of volunteers who have been spending their winter weekends restoring the historic Watchman’s Cabin, which now resides at the Kasilof Regional Historical Society’s McLane Center Museum.

In October 2009, the cabin — built between 1882 and the late 1890s — was moved from near the mouth of the Kasilof River’s northern side to the museum on Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kasilof, where roughly six other historic structures — in addition to numerous outbuildings and caches — already reside for preservation purposes.

“We’re getting there,” Crawford said. “We’re making progress, but it’s a challenge trying to match what the old-timers did.”

E-mail scam hits home — Assembly, school board members accounts hacked

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Hal Smalley spent his Thursday night being transported to the magical realm of Neverland while attending a preview performance of the Kenai Performers’ winter musical “Peter Pan” at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School. When he turned in that night, it was to his bed in his Kenai home.

But when Smalley woke up Friday morning it seemed he was still in the land of make believe. He was in London, stranded in a traveler’s nightmare with his bag containing his passport and credit cards stolen. At least, that’s what everyone in his Yahoo e-mail contacts list was told, as they received a message from Smalley informing them of his plight and asking that they e-mail him or call his hotel at the phone numbers provided for details on how to send him money, so he could buy a plane ticket and settle his hotel bill in order to get back home.

Smalley was unaware of his supposed vacation, much less the disastrous turn it had taken, until he logged into his e-mail Friday morning and saw messages from several of his contacts asking if everything was OK, if he really was in London, if he really needed help, or if he was aware that his e-mail account had apparently been hacked.

The message was apparently sent far and wide, judging from the responses he got. Smalley is a member of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly and a previous member of the Kenai City Council, resulting in a lengthy contacts list.

“They didn’t say they were going send money, but there were a couple who were wondering if it was true. They hadn’t seen me for a few days. And some who had seen me at ‘Peter Pan’ were wondering, ‘My gosh, how could you get to London so quickly?’” Smalley said. “I told them I got a little bit of ‘Peter Pan’ pixie dust on me. That will do it every time.”

On track — Cooper Landing club sets base for recreation

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Kayce James, of Cooper Landing, tries out skate skiing on the freshly groomed Russian River Campground ski trails.

Redoubt Reporter

Up until this winter, skiing in Cooper Landing has meant a backcountry experience — slogging through snow to break trail along the Old Seward Highway, Kenai Lake or Bean Creek area, bumping along over rocks, roots and iced-in ruts from snowmachines, or navigating stands of brush on downhill runs.

“When we moved down here most of your skiing in Cooper Landing was thrashing through alders. There were a lot of primitive trails people put in over the years but no groomed trails. A lot of it was more like hiking with skis on,” said Ed Holsten.

On the trail of mushing legacies — Young mushers seek to continue family traditions in Jr. Iditarod Sled Dog Race

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Merissa Osmar, a third-generation musher from Ninilchik, will be defending her title in this weekend’s Jr. Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

Redoubt Reporter

It won’t be long until the big dogs begin the Iditarod, but this weekend the young pups get a chance at the trail, running 160 miles during the Jr. Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

Among the youth, ages 14 to 17, are three Kenai Peninsula dog drivers.

Merissa Osmar, 16, of Ninilchik is the defending champion, having won the race last season for the first time in two attempts. She said she’d like to have a repeat performance in this, her third season.

“I’m really looking forward to the race,” she said. “I’m going to try my best to keep the title.”

Osmar is the daughter of Tim Osmar, who is the 2001 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race champion, and a three-time Jr. Iditarod winner himself, having dominated the race from 1982 to ’84. Her grandfather, Dean Osmar, is the 1984 Iditarod champion. Her sister, Nicole Osmar, also won the Jr. Iditarod, in 2004.

With so many in her family already famous in the mushing world, the youngest Osmar said keeping up the winning streak often weighs on her.

“There’s always pressure to win it,” she said. “I’ve done that, but now there’s the pressure to defend it.”

Landing on their feet — Fliers survive crash after engine stall

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part story about a local airplane crash in 1967. Part One introduced the key individuals involved and described the crash scene. This week, part two describes the crash itself, the rescue attempt, and the aftermath of the event.

By Clark Fair

Photos courtesy of the Gaede Collection. Friends of Elmer Gaede’s effect repairs to the doctor’s Maule Rocket, which crashed a short distance from Forest Lane near Soldotna on Aug. 2, 1967.

Redoubt Reporter

The cause of the engine failure in the single-engine Maule Rocket is still open for debate — despite the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board — but the result of that engine failure remains irrefutable: The plane plummeted to the ground with its three occupants inside.

A few minutes earlier, at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 2, 1967, Dr. Elmer Gaede and his two passengers had been returning from Seward and were flying low and slow over the middle portion of the Kenai River drainage, eyeballing the terrain below for game. They had just crossed over the high bluff near the France and Thomas homesteads, heading for a final approach at the Soldotna airport, when the engine stopped.

“It was like you turned off the switch,” said Lee Bowman, a Soldotna pharmacist who had been hunched in the front passenger seat next to Gaede. “It was just humming along fine — and then nothing!”

The propeller stopped turning, and there was nothing to be heard but the sound of air rushing past the wings and fuselage. They were no more than 500 feet above the ground.

The plane’s nose dipped as its airspeed dropped. The flyers had just passed over the dirt airstrip owned by France and Thomas. Below them now was mixed foliage, head-high brush and occasional large trees — most likely a remnant of the 1947 Kenai Burn — and, beyond that, a copse of mostly mature aspen and spruce.

“Elmer had to make a choice: straight ahead into an absolute sure crack-up that was not very manageable because of the scattered trees and the crummy conditions, or try to turn — and if he turned, there was the airstrip and two different roads, potentially,” Bowman said.

Fleshing out a memory

Editor’s note: “Almanac” writer Clark Fair and Redoubt Reporter publisher Jenny Neyman are often asked where the ideas come from for this section and how the information is gathered to form a narrative. Since Clark had some minor personal involvement in this story, this seemed like a good time to provide an example to answer those questions.

By Clark Fair

Redoubt Reporter

One of my most visceral memories from my early days as a homestead kid involves two related images: a bloody human face and a broken airplane.

The bloody face belonged to Dr. Elmer Gaede, who was a partner of Dr. Paul Isaak (our usual family physician) and who practiced medicine on the second floor of the Soldotna Medical Clinic, while my dad practiced dentistry on the first floor.

The broken airplane also belonged to Dr. Gaede. It was broken when it crashed into the woods just a few dozen yards off Forest Lane, and about three-quarters of a mile down the road from our home.

I saw the bloody face when Gaede was carried on a stretcher from the woods and placed into the back of an ambulance parked on the gravel. I saw the broken plane later when I walked into the woods — noting a broken spruce tree and flattened brush, and spotting the landing gear (especially one of the wheels) broken and scattered away from the rest of the aircraft.

Night Lights: Spring — coming to a sky near you

By Andy Veh, for the Redoubt Reporter

Graphic courtesy of Andy Veh

The constellation that always catches my eye in March is Leo. Its shape quite closely resembles that of a male lion lying leisurely, watching the savannah, looking west, in the direction that it will move during the next couple of months. Its right front paw is the bright star Regulus.

While Leo should move across the sky as gingerly as any constellation week after week, it seems to be much speedier than most. What aids or produces that perception is that sunset occurs later and later, about 20 minutes each week. Thus, with it getting darker later every evening, it seems that Leo keeps progressing across the sky faster, because we look at it later when it already has moved further west.

As a result, I perceive Leo as the harbinger of spring. When it appears in the east, winter’s end will soon be here, and when it reaches the western horizon, flowers are in full bloom and deciduous plants will have regained their leaves.

Halibut ports lobby for fish tax change

By Naomi Klouda

Photo courtesy of the Homer Tribune. Fishing boats ply Kachemak Bay outside of Homer, the halibut capital of Alaska. Even though more halibut passes the Homer docks than anywhere else in the state, it gets less revenue from the Fisheries Business Tax than communities with fish-processing plants.

Homer Tribune

A redistribution of the Fisheries Business Tax could net the city of Homer $800,000 to $900,000 a year, if amendments to a current law get passed by the Alaska Legislature.

The process has just begun as one of the top tasks assigned to the city’s new lobbyists, Linda Anderson and Yuri Morgan. The first step is to build a coalition of support from towns in coastal areas that would also benefit from the tax restructure, City Manager Walt Wrede said.

As it is now, 50 percent of the raw fish tax goes to the state and 50 percent to towns that have fish-processing plants. But ports where the activity amounts to icing down fish and hauling it out receive no tax.

“This amounts to changing an antiquated law that was written when we had a lot of canneries,” Wrede said. “Now the market is for fresh fish. The law was written at a time when every town had a cannery, with the idea the state keeps 50 percent and 50 percent goes to the municipality. Our problem is that in Homer, we are a huge halibut port but we don’t process halibut here.”

Art Seen: Sip up some sunny views

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

Laurie Marta’s work is bathed in sunlight at Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna.

Fiber works, photography, ink and watercolor abound around town this month.

Brenda Clyde and Sharon Hughes have some quilted pieces lining the walls at the Cottonwood Center on Marydale Avenue. Clyde has designed all of the works (although Chelline Larsen had a hand in one, apparently by allowing the use of her animal motifs), and quilted some smaller pieces, as well as a wearable vest.

Plugged In: ‘Shutter to think’: Protect photos against loss

By Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

Properly stored and protected digital photographs should still be in decent condition after we’re all dust.

In fact, modern digital photography materials may potentially outlive anything produced with film and chemicals, no matter how well processed and stored. Longevity depends on several factors. The inherent shelf life of the material used for a photographic print or negative is an obvious point. How an image is stored, mounted and displayed is also quite important. We’ll consider these technical factors next week.

First, let’s consider the physical safety of digital images in both electronic and printed forms. In many regards, protecting digitally based images is no different than securing any other form of electronic data.

There are many classic and true examples of well-preserved and important images that are no longer with us because they were physically destroyed, either by accident or intentionally. One well-known example has a particular resonance for Alaskans.

I have often enjoyed Ansel Adams’ famous black-and-white image of Mount McKinley from Wonder Lake, but wondered why I did not see more photographs taken by Adams in Alaska. After all, he described Alaska as one of the places that most inspired him, and he did have a yearlong Guggenheim grant that paid his expenses while traveling throughout the state.

The “rest of the story” could have happened to anyone. When returning to Juneau from Glacier Bay by floatplane, the large case containing almost all of his undeveloped Alaska negatives fell into the salt water. Only a very few images, the ones we see today, survived the dunking. This wasn’t his first encounter with disaster. Many of his important earlier negatives were destroyed in a fire at his Yosemite house.

Carey cuts deep — Borough mayor seeks to absorb $12 million in next budget

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

There is one thing Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey and those most directly affected by his proposed budget cuts agree on — the public needs to speak up.

Beyond that, though, there hasn’t been much common ground as Carey shares the direction he plans to go for the borough budget this year. That lack of common ground includes agreement on who the public should speak up to.

Constituent groups supporting property tax exemptions, a seasonal break on sales taxes as well as Kenai Peninsula College, Central Area Rural Transit System and other “nondepartmental” agencies the borough funds, are encouraging outcries to the mayor and Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members.

The mayor, however, while saying he’d listen to public input and pass on any written comments he receives to assembly members, suggested that anyone at odds with his suggestions for balancing the budget direct their vehemence where it has more potential to garner results —legislators in Juneau.

“I need all these groups that are concerned about funding to be communicating with Juneau and say, ‘Please help us.’ I believe it greatly that it helps when you have a community, and we’re 60,000 people, if you have people from all different parts of the borough as well as all different user groups saying, ‘This is a one-time need we have,’” Carey said.

Ocean Beauty pulls out of inlet

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

Ocean Beauty Seafoods, a major salmon buyer on the Kenai Peninsula  both on the Homer Spit and at Nikiski, has ceased all its Cook Inlet operations.

Ocean Beauty sent the news out in letters to commercial fishermen telling them of the transition, said Vice President Tom Sunderland. Pacific Star will now handle all of the buying transactions.

Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC, a pioneer in the Northwest and Alaska seafood industry, ranks among the largest and most successful seafood companies in the Pacific Northwest. It began as a Seattle seafood business in 1910 and has operated in Alaska nearly that long, Sunderland said. Ocean Beauty will continue its operations on Kodiak Island and Cordova, as well as its canneries at Naknek, Kodiak, Alitak, Cordova, Excursion Inlet and Petersburg.

“The economics of processing hasn’t been as positive (on Cook Inlet) as in other areas of the state,” Sunderland said. “We will employ more people statewide this year than last year. But salmon processing economics for us on the Kenai haven’t been very good. The canneries that are left are good business.”

A salmon processing plant at Nikiski owned by Ocean Beauty for now isn’t going to be sold.

“We could sell it or re-open it at some point, but right now it is sitting dark,” he said.