Cannery to coffee — Wards Cove warehouse gets new life in restaurant

File photo. The warehouse at Kenai Wards Cove was dismantled in summer 2012. Much of the lumber is being recycled into a new Kaladi Brothers restaurant opening around Thanksgiving in Anchorage.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

When the old Kenai Wards Cove cannery warehouse at the mouth of the Kenai River was torn down in the summer of 2012, fishermen like Pat Dixon bid it a sad farewell, figuring it was like something lost overboard — never to be seen again and only existing in memories.

And he has a lot of them, as the building figured prominently in his, and many others’, fishing history. Kenai Wards Cove was the last of the early 20th-century salmon canneries on the Southcentral road system, starting operation in 1912 as a Libby, McNeil and Libby cannery. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1921, became Columbia Wards in the 1950s and Wards Cove Packing in 1988, continuing operations canning, and later freezing, salmon until 1998.

For all of Dixon’s 20-year career commercial fishing in Cook Inlet, the cannery was his summertime home base. As he writes in his blog, Gillnet Dreams, “Far more so than Indiana, where I spent my childhood, (the cannery) was really where I grew up, and it had always been a second home to me.”

The 40,000-square-foot wood warehouse, in particular, was a regular haunt.

“Where my locker was, where I stored supplies, used the crane to haul shackles of web up and down from the loft, where I’d driven my truck to grab gear, driven forklifts to haul it, where fishermen for decades hung their nets, where I’d walked hundreds of times with my camera,” he wrote.

Haze beware — Pellet gunshot thought to cause moose death

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

Moose are best viewed from a distance but they don’t always observe that rule, sometimes showing up on roads, in parking lots and around homes. But even if they’re the ones getting too close for human comfort, people are still the ones held responsible for managing those interactions.

“A moose that is attacking you — or your family, or your dog — you can defend yourself and kill that moose, but you have to be willing to defend your actions for a DLP (defense of life or property kill),” said Larry Lewis, wildlife technician with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “But, a moose just being in the yard isn’t a justifiable reason to kill it.”

Jimmy Dean Rice, of Soldotna, found this out the hard way after being charged by Alaska Wildlife Troopers for a Class A Misdemeanor for illegally taking a moose during a closed season, after he allegedly shot at a moose with a pellet gun this summer.

With a court case pending, Dean Rice declined to comment on the situation. According to a report filed with the Kenai District Court, at about 11:30 p.m. July 16, Rice used a Beeman Model R9 pellet gun — a .177-caliber firearm that shoots at approximately 1,700 feet per second — to shoot a moose that was acting “weird.”

According to court documents, Rice said he planned to shoot the moose in its “ass” to just scare it away, but after shooting the moose it ran a few yards, fell down and died. Large amounts of blood were reported coming from the moose’s nostril and mouth.

Trooper investigation found the dead moose to be approximately 20 yards from Rice’s residence in the tree line, and according to Rice’s own statement the moose did not pose a threat to life or property at the time of the shooting. Troopers noted that Rice’s yard was well manicured with flowers and bushes, which might have drawn in the animal.

Rice stated to troopers that a number of things could have happened to the moose prior to him shooting at it, but added that, while he had “no intention of killing the moose,” he was likely the “culprit,” and added that killing a moose with one shot from a pellet gun qualified him as either the luckiest or unluckiest person in the world.

Lewis said that this is not the first time he has heard of someone killing a moose with a firearm they thought would only haze the animal.

“I remember taking a pellet out of a moose a few years ago that had bled out on a driveway off of Poppy Lane after it had been hit in the femoral artery,” Lewis said. “People need to understand, anything that comes out of the barrel of a firearm has lethal potential.”

Eat locally for sustainability globally — Family lives a year off only local foods

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Saskia Esslinger, of Anchorage, her husband and infant son took part in the Alaska Food Challenge to eat local for an entire year, and shared her experiences during the Harvest Moon Local Foods Week.

Redoubt Reporter

Eating a banana for breakfast is a relatively new phenomenon, at least in Alaska. For thousands of years Native Americans, followed by explorers and traders, followed by homesteaders, made up the bulk of their diet from what they could grow, catch, hunt and trade.

In more modern times, the types of foods consumed are not so limited, but eating a tropically grown banana in Alaska means a lot of resources were used to get the fruit this far north. But not everyone believes this type of eating is environmentally friendly or ecologically sustainable.

“There is a misconception that Alaska can’t support its own food needs,” said Saskia Esslinger, of Anchorage, who, along with her husband and infant son, took part in the Alaska Food Challenge to eat local for an entire year. She presented her experiences last week at several venues on the central Kenai Peninsula as part of the Harvest Moon Local Foods Week.

Esslinger is not entirely new to the concept of being “green.” She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master’s in regenerative entrepreneurship from Gaia University. She was certified in permaculture design in 2004 and as a permaculture teacher in 2010. Most recently she founded the Williams Street Farmhouse in Anchorage, where much of the food for her challenge was grown.

“People think you need 5 acres to grow enough to sustain yourself and your family, but that’s not the case,” she said.

Esslinger and her family transformed a few hundred square feet of lawn in an urban neighborhood into their garden. She said that this was a great way to start saving money, since lawns — with a need of water, fertilizers and mowing — use a lot of resources and give little back, while a garden could be used to grow food, rather than grass.

Esslinger and her family grew a variety of crops, including rhubarb, cabbage, cucumbers, kale and other greens, zucchini and other gourds, and carrots, potatoes and other root crops. They also grew a variety of herbs to use in the dishes they would be eating for the next year.

“The total harvest was 1,622 pounds,” Esslinger said.

Hooked on poetry — Festival celebrates fishing life

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Poetry, the art of Maya Angelou, Robert Frost and William Shakespeare, can be an intimidating thing, especially for a novice presenting one’s compositions aloud to others.

But intimidation is a relative thing. Powering through 30-foot seas, banking on unpredictable seasonal income and working in a world of sharp hooks, slippery metal, tangling nets, constantly swaying footing and a cold, deep, unforgiving ocean isn’t exactly comforting.

It’s dramatic, inspiring, exhilarating, beautiful and idealized, but can just as easily be dull, discouraging, heartbreaking, harsh and vilified. And all of that makes commercial fishing fertile grounds for poetic creativity.

“When you start thinking about commercial fishing — whether you’re a set-netter or you’re a drift-netter or a seiner — whatever type of commercial fishing you do, you’re associated with the water. That presents its own set of challenges but it also presents its own unique beauty. So whether you’re trying to catch fish on a calm sea with an orca surfacing near you or you’re riding up 30-foot breaking waves trying to survive the day, there’s a lot of inspiration to write about there from the struggles that you go through,” said Pat Dixon, keynote presenter at this weekend’s Kenai Fisher Poets gathering.

Fisher Poets began in Astoria, Ore., as a way for fishermen to gather, catch up and share the stories, songs and poems the season inspired, along with, perhaps, a beer or a few. Since the first in February 1998, it’s been an annual tradition in Astoria, and other Fisher Poets gatherings have sprouted up in fishing communities along the West and East coasts, as well as in Alaska. These regional, on-the-road events are a great way to introduce newcomers to the Fisher Poets scene, and even to each other.

It’s this social aspect that Dixon particularly enjoys about the events, as that’s what drew him in the first place. After commercial fishing for 20 years in Cook Inlet in the summers and teaching photography in Kenai in the winters, Dixon took a teaching job at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., in 1997, sold out of his commercial fishing operation and relocated south with his family.

“It didn’t take me very long to realize that I really, really missed being in Alaska and I very much missed commercial fishing,” he said.

A friend introduced him to the second ever Fisher Poets Gathering in Astoria, and he was immediately hooked.

“It felt like going home,” he said, since Astoria was a commercial fishing town. He walked into the bar hosting the Fisher Poets events, “And all of a sudden there’s these folks that have had fishing history who look a lot like fishermen I’ve known, even though I didn’t know many of them. And they’re reading their poems and singing their songs and telling their stories.”

Singing celebration — Concert offers tribute to Verdi, Wagner

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

In their day, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner would not have shared a birthday party. Their differences — in politics, philosophy and musical style — were far more divisive than their commonalities of sharing 1813 as a birth year and both being masters of operatic composition, as celebrated in the 19th century as they still are today.

So celebrated as to warrant birthday tributes worldwide, including one to be performed this weekend in Soldotna, as the Performing Arts Society’s first classical music concert of its 2013-14 season. Soprano Kate Egan, mezzo-soprano Nancy Caudill and pianist Juliana Osinchuk, all of Anchorage, will celebrate the 200th birthdays of Verdi and Wagner in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna.

“There’s been a lot of focus this year throughout the musical world because of their birthdays, and what’s very interesting is that both of these composers were giants in the 19th century, they were giants in the opera literature, they’re very different musically and also extremely different as people — totally, totally different characters. But I guess that’s what makes the world go around — variety,” said Osinchuk.

Through his operas, often skewering rulers’ abuses of power, Verdi was an important voice in the 19th century movement to unify the feuding regions of then-disparate Italy. His music was a soundtrack of revolution. As such he faced censorship by the powers that be, but also received such wide acclaim and respect that his career flourished. His operatic style was grand, producing spectacles for the eyes as well as ears. He wrote his rich, soaring melodies in the “bel canto” style — meaning “beautiful singing.”

Night Lights: Summer triangle lights way to winter

By Andy Veh, for the Redoubt Reporter

Compared to September, the scene in the night sky has shifted somewhat toward the east, with Bootes setting in the northeast. Its brightest star, Arcturus, can be seen in the early evening on the northeastern horizon.

Prominent constellations and stars this month are the Big Dipper low in the sky, and the Little Dipper (part of Ursa Major) high in the north, Cygnus with Deneb, Lyra with Vega, and Aquila with Altair still high in the west. These three stars form the summer triangle. It’s perhaps comforting in Alaska that we can see this summer triangle all winter along, albeit on the horizon.

Cassiopeia appears overhead, near the zenith, and Pegasus’ square/diamond is high in the south. Very late in the evening Orion rises with Betelgeuse and Rigel in the east, following Taurus with Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster.

Mercury, Venus and Saturn are not visible this month because they are setting and rising at about the same time as the sun.

Jupiter rises in the east between 10 and 11 p.m. Due to its glaring brightness, you can’t miss it. Jupiter will be visible during the late evening and into dawn all month and all evening during the entire winter. The third quarter moon joins the giant planet Oct. 24 and 25.

Plugged In: Smaller is better, but some more than others

By Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

In our prior article, we discussed some of the most important factors to consider when purchasing a new camera as a Christmas present, buying a higher-end system to supplement an easily pocketed Canon S90.

The most important major factors are, I believe, that it be compact, light and easily portable, cost not more than $700 and provide very high-quality images. Balancing these factors tends to rule out very large, full-frame cameras and the larger digital SLR cameras using APS-C sensors. That leaves small d-SLR cameras, compact-system cameras incorporating large sensors, and some higher-end compact cameras.

The illustrations in this week’s article make a series of progressive comparisons that depict the quite large variation in size and weight from the smallest suitable camera, the S120, through Nikon’s D600, one of the smallest full-frame, interchangeable-lens dSLR cameras. All illustrations are courtesy of http://www.camerasize.com. Remember that larger cameras require larger lenses, as well, which magnifies the comparative bulk.

Brown bear hunt makes grisly scene — Hunters shoot, harvest bruins in closed Russian River area

File photo. Brown bears frequent the confluence of the upper Kenai River and the Russian River in the summer and fall. The area is closed to the discharge of firearms, but that didn’t stop hunters Sept. 5 from shooting and harvesting two brown bears in the area, in view of anglers and other people in the area.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

It can be picturesque — the golden leaves of the trees bordering the fast-flowing waters of the Russian River, that is itself teeming with crimson-bodied sockeye drawing brown bears there to feed on the spawning salmon.

However, anglers, outdoor enthusiasts and tourists alike were treated to anything but an aesthetic spectacle earlier this month when a few hunters shot the bears that have been frequenting the waterway for weeks, and then proceeded to gut, butcher and skin the animals on site.

On Sept. 5, U.S. Forest Service technicians observed two bears being taken by hunters within the developed recreation site, and within an hour of each other, said Bobbi Jo Kolodziejski, Russian River Inter-Agency Coordinator for the Chugach National Forest.

Kolodziejski’s office received several angry calls and emails from people who witnessed the bears being shot in what some of the callers knew was a closed area. Brown bear hunting on the peninsula opened Sept. 1 by state regulations, but the north side of the Russian River falls under Chugach Forest Service regulations, while the south side falls under Kenai National Wildlife Refuge regulations.

“Additional regulations apply on federal lands in the vicinity of the Russian and upper Kenai Rivers,” Kolodziejski said.

Discharging a firearm or any other implement capable of taking human life, causing injury or damaging property, is prohibited in or within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation site or occupied area. It is also prohibited across, on or adjacent to a National Forest-system road or a body of water, or in any manner or place whereby any person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result of such discharge.

“The developed recreation site in the Russian River area includes all boardwalks, access points and platforms along the Russian River Angler Trail,” Kolodziejski said.

That includes the portion of the Russian Lakes Trail that extends to the Russian River Falls viewing platform. Hunters should also be aware that these restrictions apply broadly to all National Forest System lands of the Chugach National Forest.

Reid relieved — Kenai’s animal control officer caps 31-year career

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter, Brett Reid, chief animal control officer at the Kenai Animal Shelter, holds up two wet puppies, soaked after playing in their water bowl, in May 2010. Reid recently retired after 31 years on the job.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

Brett Reid, chief animal control officer at the Kenai Animal Shelter, has for years made no bones about his feelings regarding his line of work.

“I hoped to work myself out of a job,” he said.

Meaning that he hoped to make such a difference in educating people about the importance of spaying and neutering pets, as well as responsible pet ownership, that he would one day come in to a shelter without dozens of dogs, cats, puppies and kittens.

“Well, it’ll be partially true next week,” he said on Friday.

The dogs and cats are still there, but Reid no longer is, choosing to retire after 31 years of work at the shelter. While it’s not his perfect-world scenario, Reid said he is happy to know things have improved for the unwanted dogs and cats that have ended up at the shelter over the years, particularly compared to when he started as a temporary employee in 1982.

“Things are much better now than when I started,” Reid said. “When I started, hardly any of the dogs made it. Now we work with other shelters around the state, no-kill shelters, we have the Internet, so we find homes for a lot more.”

Born in Texas but living in Anchorage for a number of years, Reid was a young and out-of-work gold miner who fell in love with the Kenai area while passing through. He tried to get on with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, but said the city of Kenai offered a little more to employees.

Shelter work in the 1980s was tough, Reid said, because veterinary care wasn’t as evolved as it is now. Parvo virus, which still is lethal in unvaccinated dogs, was just beginning to be understood when Reid started. He said it was the policy to vaccinate shelter dogs with feline distemper vaccines, because that was the closest thing they had to a vaccine that would help dogs fend off the virus.

“And, still, there were several times we had outbreaks and had to close the whole shelter down for brief periods until we could bleach everything and get through it,” he said.

Pebble CEO: Loss of Anglo American won’t stop progress

By Carey Restino

Homer Tribune

The company funding the current development costs at the Pebble Prospect, Anglo American, has pulled out, leaving many to question the controversial mining project’s future viability in Alaska.

But John Shively, CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, said Monday that the project, a proposed large-scale gold, copper and molybdenum mine in the Bristol Bay watershed, is far from dead.

“We don’t know the complete impact at this point, but there’s no question that we are going to continue to move forward,” Shively said. “This is a great project and a world-class ore body and I’m confident that 21st century technology will allow us to build and operate the mine and coexist with the Bristol Bay fishery.”

Shively spoke to one of the main stumbling blocks to the proposed mine — its potential impact on the Bristol Bay fishery, one of the largest salmon runs in the world. Opposition to the Pebble Mine began to build in the Bristol Bay area, throughout Alaska and the world as the wisdom of placing a large-scale mine in the critical salmon habitat area was questioned. Opponents, including many of the area Native corporations, requested that the federal government step in, prompting the Environmental Protection Agency to launch a Bristol Bay watershed analysis.

The drafts of that analysis, released earlier this year, stated that the development of the mine would likely disrupt the salmon run. However, proponents of the mine say the Environmental Protection Agency jumped the gun, as few specifics of the mine plan have been released to date, and the Pebble Partnership has yet to begin its permitting process with the federal and state agencies.

The Bristol Bay region is not unanimously opposed to the proposed mine, with many noting that the economic stimulation would help breathe life into an otherwise challenging economy. Pebble has estimated the project, if it were to move forward, would generate close to 1,000 direct Alaska jobs and $200 million in annual revenue for the state and local governments. When EPA administrator Gina McCarthy visited Illiamna in August, the room was full of Pebble Partnership employees, many of them Bristol Bay residents, who spoke of the need for jobs to keep their communities alive.

Monday’s announcement was viewed as diversely as the mine, with mine opponents heralding Anglo American’s move to pull out — taking a $300 million hit in the process — as welcome news.

“I think that Anglo American just confirmed what Alaskans have known for a long time,” said Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper. “The risks are too great.”

Line on success — Artist drawn to cartoon career path

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Gary Hondel at his work area in his home in Soldotna. Hondel is pursuing his love of cartooning with his new strip, “Bearly.”

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Yes, usually, bears and refrigerators don’t mix.

But we’re not talking actual bears here, nor the contents of a refrigerator. Gary Hondel wouldn’t dream of advocating anything so adverse to public safety in the real world. But he does daydream up scenarios in the cartoon world involving Bearly, his grizzly bear character, finding ways to maximize return on minimal effort. Often these include fridge-easy snacks, whether by attempting to trick-or-treat or requesting the nearsighted delivery guy when phoning for pizza — as in, the true call of the wild.

Hondel’s ultimate dream, as he pursues a career as a cartoonist, is to have “Bearly” not only read, but clipped and displayed. Skip the mantles, fancy frames and other places of honor, though. He’s got his sights set on kitchen appliances.

“The best that I can hope for is for people to have a strip or two of mine magnetized to their refrigerator. That’s better than any award, to just see that my cartoon spoke to them somehow, ‘Oh, that’s so me, or so my wife, or my husband.’ That’s the ultimate goal,” said Hondel, of Soldotna.

There are more formal accolades in cartooning — being published, getting syndicated, merchandising and the like. Economically, Hondel would be thrilled with any and all of these things. But those goals aren’t what make Hondel smile as he’s carefully (some would think, tediously) shading a panel, or reaching for a pad and paper whenever and wherever an idea strikes him, or carving out time to sit at his drawing desk. Cartooning, as a career, isn’t something that easily pencils out financially — despite the image some might have that it’s just a form of doodling.

“I remember drawing a bear putting for a miniature putting course when I was probably 12 years old. I got paid $25 dollars for it. I remember my grandfather saying, ‘That’s the easiest money you’ll ever make.’ Still don’t agree with him,” Hondel said.

It’s harder, in many ways, than a more typical career, to which Hondel can attest. He’s worked in radio for years, currently a marketing manager with Peninsula Radio Group, and has a degree in psychology. Unlike the school-to-entry-level-job-to-promotions-up-the-ladder progression, in cartooning there are no clearly defined paths, no doors that easily swing open to the key of a degree, training certification or internship.

To be a cartoonist means first finding the doors, then knocking on them over and untold overs again, and figuring out your own way to open them. It’s being as creative in marketing, networking and business as you are in cartooning.

But it’s this less-traveled path Hondel is determined to take, since his heart has long since beat its way through that particular door.

“I got about 30 credits away from my maser’s degree (in psychology) and decided that it’s not my passion. And I’m not getting any younger so I want to start pursuing what I like to do, because I don’t want to be 80 years old in a nursing home — if I live that long — regretting what I didn’t do,” Hondel said.

Art Seen: Waxing poetic — Medium gives layers of color, meaning

 

Encaustic work by Marion Nelson is on display at Veronica’s Cafe in Kenai.

By Zirrus VanDevere,

for the Redoubt Reporter

Being able to attend the First Thursday opening for Marion Nelson at Veronica’s this month was a real joy for me. Not only is she one of my favorite artists on the Kenai Peninsula, but the venue is always an interesting and fulfilling one, whether I am there to look at art, have some tea or a meal, or listen to live music.

These particular activities can, in many instances, be appreciated simultaneously. Having been in upstate New York for the last half a year where there are venues of this kind in abundance, I feel especially thankful to find it in Kenai. Most people know how much these things can satisfy the appetite of a soul.

Nelson’s encaustics are so incredibly satisfying on a very visceral/visual level, and her intelligence is in evidence whether the piece is fully abstract or has elements of a reference to the natural world. The pieces are small, which invite intimacy, and yet they hold up well to distance viewing as a grouping.