We're gonna need a bigger freezer. . .

I got a call at the cabins last night at 11 from a private number. I figured it was a lost guest or wrong number, so I picked up. It was a guy on the other end saying, "Tara, are you awake?" I was confused for a second, not knowing who it was. Turned out it was a guest that was down here the other night - the one that just came up to Alaska on a whim. He checked out that morning and had been fishing since then. That's a loooong day of fishing! He had to drop off some fishing gear he borrowed and also offered his catches to me because he didn't really have a way to get them home or to cook them. He said he was going to give it away regardless, so of course I accepted it. He caught several throughout the day, but only kept two. I gave Frenchy one and kept one. We'll have to cook it up on the grill tonight.

I have a feeling the fish are going to be rolling in. Everyone here talks about how many they caught. The plumber, Lee, caught over 70 the other day! Residents can go dip-netting, which obviously ups the number caught by quite a bit. Every time someone's talking about the massive quantity they caught I always ask them why they didn't bring me any. I'm joking, really, but I definitely wouldn't turn it down. When I asked Lee if he was bringing me some fish the next time he comes he told me only if I'm nice. I just said, "so much for that."

The Bustamante group showed up last night after fishing with an entire cooler full of fish. It was all just filets, too, not entire fish, so they must have caught a LOT. I now understand why people are so obsessed with having freezer space up here.

And one more thing, I finally have hot water again in Spider Cabin! I didn't really mention it on here, but there were issues with the propane. Ron the plumber checked it out early in the season and lit the pilots etc and said I was all set. It always smelled like gas in the cabin so I knew something wasn't right, even though the plumber checked it out and gave the OK. I was always checking the pilots because of it. I kept thinking that if there isn't a gas leak then there must be a pilot out someplace. The pilots were always lit, which made me feel better and worse at the same time. Better because if the pilot is lit and it smells like gas, chances are there isn't enough gas for me to explode. ha. Worse because that made me think there had to be a leak someplace. One day I came into the cabin and checked the pilot on the hot water heater and it was out! I went outside and stupidly shut the gas off before checking the other pilots. I should have checked the others first because then I'd know if the hot water heater pilot went out for some reason or if I was just out of gas.

So, long story short, I filled the propane tank and Lee came over to check everything out. There was, in fact, a leak! So I'm not crazy afterall. The fun thing was that he found that the exhaust from the hot water heater was also pouring into my cabin because the vent wasn't correctly hooked up. How nice, huh? I was getting exhaust and gas fumes and people were trying to tell me the cabin was all set. Ha! I wasn't really sleeping in the cabin much when it was smelly in here and every time I did sleep in here I kept the windows open becuase the smell freaked me out. Good thing, huh? So that was a little surprising to us all.

In the words of Lee, "what's a little carbon monoxide among friends!" He's a hysterical guy. He could say anything and it'll be funny because he's so animated. The stories he tells are also funny because you're never sure if he's exaggerating or not. His wife also sounds like a character - we all want to meet her after all we've heard.