Sunday, June 17, 2012

Homer Post Four


Saturday, time to head out to the Farmers Market. On our way we notice that the landing craft has been moved away. We will take a walk over to the harbor to see if we can find it in a dry dock.

The Farmers Market was small but fun. We met Jen who has a friend Wendy who is the manager of  Diego's in Grass Valley. We will say hi the next time we are there. We bought eggs, greens, green onions, radishes, rhubarb, jam and salsa. We bought the radishes and rhubarb from Jen.


Next stop after Safeway was the Pratt Museum. We are to meet Milli here for a talk about the gray whale project. Homer and the book store owner have become famous for their self taught expertise in assembling animal skeletons. Lots of marine animals live around here and many do wash up on the shores dead. They harvest and treat the bones and assemble wonderful skeletons. Hanging in the entry is a fairly rare Bering Sea whale with two very large teeth. They have done other whales, but this would be their first gray whale. The plan is to work in volunteer teams starting July 1 and finishing the end of August. The display will be finished in February.


Model of how the display will hang

Milli had a surprise for us. She found her copies of the tapes done by Albert. These are about his adventures in the Aleutians during WW II. We will have a cd made and send a copy to Milli.

We lunched at the Cosmic Kitchen. Great food here. Lots of Mexican choices along with local delicacies.

Back to the Pratt to spend the rest of the day all the way until closing time of 6PM. This is a very dense museum. Intense interactive displays with everything extremely well labeled. The Pratt has a lot of dedicated volunteers.

Outside is a compact nature trail. Many of the flowers are blooming already. Plants just go double-time up in Alaska once the snow melts.


Across from the museum is the Harrington Cabin. Many people used this cabin before it came to live here. We will have to come back as it is cooling down.

Maybe a traveler needing a place to stay

All the comforts of home

The first Troy-built rototiller 

On our way back to the campground we stop to take pictures of the ship graveyard on the spit. Someone lives in the large boat.
Someone lives here?


Friends of the old Josephine at Burwash Landing

Class K housing. There might be some building codes somewhere in Alaska, but I don't know where. I know Milli said there were no codes for her house. Old Bob, our driver to McCarthy, had a problem about the no code building. It means you cannot get insurance. So I guess you give up some security with the freedom to build your house any way you want. Also you give up the ability to get a bank loan. Old Bob was having trouble selling his house on Silver Lake. Win some, lose some.

1 comment:

Mimi said...

Milli commented in an email "A couple things about your pictures and comments. The pictures of the "boat yard" along the Homer Spit, with the lived in boat. That is private property, and has been collected by the person who lives in the boat. Homerites consider it a huge eyesore and wish it would disappear!
About building codes. There are very strict codes in the city of Homer, but, not in the borough. They have some for the septic systems but don't have anyone to check on it. The saving grace, is that bank loans require state inspected septic systems, as well as inspections of the home construction. But ofcourse, we, and many others built out of pocket, therefore, no inspections, no codes.
When and if this house sells, it will probably have to have some inspections to qualify for a bank loan. (and I have no doubt will all pass. My ex was very good at the work he did.)"