Just Another Chapter

Well, as most of you know, I'm home!!! I got back from Alaska last Sunday night and was greeting by my little sister Katherine, dressed up like a total redneck. It was good to see. Everyone came over for dinner and we spent a nice evening catching up.

It's weird being back. I went from working 60+ hours per week to...well not working at all. I have no car, and I'm sharing a room with three of my sisters, and my closet and dresser are in my little brother Josh's room. If you had asked me in the middle of my summer if I thought I had any privacy or space on the island, I probably would've laughed very loudly and said HECK NO!!! But, looking back and comparing..... I had more than I thought. All in all it was a great summer. Obviously it had its rough and tuff moments, but hey, that's life. I liked it enough to re-up. I'll be going back next May for another 4months! I had a great time with co-workers and can't wait to have another summer with them. It was definitely hard living in such a small area, but really, we were kept so busy that it didn't really matter all that much! We went into town when we could, but for me at least, most of my down time I was either napping or journaling or doing photography/sketching.

My body is still on "Lodge Time", so I wake up at about 5am every morning and after a little bit of confusion, I realize I can go back to sleep and can get up whenever I please :) .....which still is fairly early.

I decided I needed something to occupy all of my down time, so I went and joined the womens club (the gym) with my little sister Katherine. I'm taking Katherine to England at the end of October for three weeks, and we of course have to go fall shopping before hand, but before shopping, one has to be in good shape! So we've been at the gym everyday for about an hour. It feels great actually, mainly because we get to swim whenever we want! Besides jumping into the freezing cold Alaskan ocean, I didn't do any swimming this summer.

This coming weekend I will be going to Nashville to visit my friend Emily and the following weekend I will be in Kansas City Missouri visiting my friend Melissa! I'll be home for most of October waiting around for my sister to have her baby!!! And then England for three weeks. So I'm keeping myself as busy as possible.

Not sure if I told everyone yet, but I'm going to be attending a photography school in Kona Hawaii this January. It's run by University of the Nations YWAM and is three months long. I'm very very excited for this. That will take me through till the beginning of April, give me a month of "whatever" and then I'll be back in Alaska!!! It all goes by so fast!!!

I'll still be updating every now and again as my travels go. Hopefully starting a photography blog as well as soon as I can. I'll keep ya'll informed!

6 WEEKS AND NO COFFEE

I can't believe we are almost at the beginning of August!!!! Time is flying by and home is drawing close. It has been some time since my last update for which I apologize. Our Internet has been VERY stubborn.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July, mine was spent working as usual but our chefs made us a wonderful meal which we all enjoyed and then went back to work. It rained all week so they canceled the firework show in Sitka.

July 7th I got to go out salt water fishing for the first time and had a blast! I had the captain and deckhand laughing in shock when I pulled out my tobacco pipe. I've been tagged as the 'old man' of the crew. I walk around in my wool slippers, a blue cardigan and my pipe. I have my rain boots and I like whiskey, scotch and beer. So I apparently am an old man. Our fishing day was a beautiful sunny day. I caught Cod, Flounder, Black Bass and a Ratfish!

I went out fishing again only a few days ago on another wonderful sunny day and had much better luck! I caught 5 salmon (2pinks and 3silvers). Its such an exciting time, the salmon fight like crazy and just when you think you've got your fish ready to pull in it runs and you can hear your line go "ZIIIIIIING!!!!" and you reel like crazy! But the salmon doesn't just run straight out, it swims around the boat trying to tangle it's line with everyone elses lines on the boat. So you have to run around the boat under poles, over pulls all the while reeling in your salmon and trying to stay on your feet. I was running around the boat at one point fighting with one of my salmon, crossed the stern and slipped on a fish!!! Hysterical. At another point I was reeling in a salmon and it decided to run, so I'm reeling in really quickly and all of the sudden I look down and my pole is in my left hand and my reel is in my right hand completely disconnected from the rod. I'm screaming "Travis! TRAVIS! (he's the captain) I lost my reel! I lost my reel!!!!" He came running up the side of the boat dodging people and poles and got my pole fixed, but I lost that salmon. Still, such a wonderful time. I love living by the sea.

We have two new chefs with us for the duration of the season. The head chef is called Woody and second in command is Eric. On Eric's second day, he was lighting the propane in the oven and it exploded in a ball of flames directed at his face. He's lucky to have his eye still, but thank God for the wonderful reflexes he gave us!!! Eric is doing fine now, it was a bad burn but I was able to find some natural burn medicines at the small health food store in Sitka and he is back to normal. He did however fall 10ft and landed on his back, which is bruised to the shade of black, please keep him in our prayers, he hasn't seen a doctor yet.

Now for my big news...................................................................................................................................................

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I'm no longer moving to Pennsylvania this fall. It took a lot of prayer and battling back and forth with myself and a lot of confusion about the direction my life is taking but I finally decided that for multiple reasons Pennsylvania is not in my best interest, at this time. BUT, I've been re-accepted into the School of Photography in Kona Hawaii!!!!!!!! This means I will be home for the majority of the fall/winter. I'll be home to be with my sister Dani and the birth of her second little girl and also for the holidays.

October 21st I'm taking my younger sister Katherine on a trip to England and hopefully Italy! We will be gone for 2-3 weeks. We are both VERY excited. I can't wait to see all of my friends and family in England and explore Italy!

Montana friends and family, I can't wait to see you all!!! Only 7 more weeks :)

Much love to you all.

P.S I'm looking for a car still. If anyone knows of a 2002- 2005 Toyota Rav4 being sold let me know!!!!

72 days and counting!

I've been here a few days over a month now, which means 2 and 1/2 more months before home!!!!

Everyday is pretty much the same. Wake up, breakfast service, clean, sleep, dinner service, clean, sleep and on to the next day.

So far the guests have been pretty easy, a few picky people here and there. We've had a few kids come through with the parents and that always throws in a whole new dynamic! But the fishing has been great and people have been happy with their results for the most part.

I've made some great connections with people in California, Hawaii, Cabo, Guam, New York etc. So if I'm ever in need of work anywhere else, I'm pretty set I guess :)

I've had fresh crab, I've filleted fish, I've eaten home made tamales (which were delectable) and today I ate Octopus...it was a bit too chewy for me.

World Cup has been taking up all of my spare time, sadly the only Red Sox game I'll be able to watch is on July 3rd, it's the only one they are actually airing on Direct TV....lame....

Today is my 13th day off coffee!!!! I'm still working through the withdrawal headaches and all, it also screwed up my sleeping pattern, but in the long run it needed to be done for sure.

The weather has been pretty pathetic. Wind, Rain, Clouds, Cold, No Bueno. I need sunshine.

Missing everyone back home and anything that isn't on this 8 acre island.

Fact: The other day I was told to grab my camera and come outside, only to find a sailboat floating by with a hot tub being pulled behind carrying 3 people inside!!!!

Day 19..... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!!!

It seems like I've been here for FOREVER! Not in a bad way, just that I'm very familiar with my surroundings, I'm in a routine and it feels like I've been here waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than just 19 days. 91 more days to go....wow.

We've just sent off our third group, which was also our largest group thus far with 18 people. And our 4th group will arrive this evening holding only 13 guests I believe. This last group was a bit of a rough start, but after the first day and getting to know the guests a little better, I started enjoying their presence a bit more :) It was definitely our "high maintenance" group for sure! Part of the group were these 4 people, 1 40yr old Asian woman (Jessica) who at ALL TIMES, wanted hot water ready and waiting for her to drink, and then 3 guys all in their mid to late 40's who worked for Monster and Redbull. Jessica is the provider of caffeine for all of these companies. After figuring out how to please Jessica (the guys were pretty low key) it all went smoother.

It was my first week running the bar all by myself as well and I do believe it went quite nicely. People didn't have any complaints and I was able to make all the drinks correctly without to much cheating (Mr Bostons Bartending Guide)

Yesterday was my day off and I was not looking forward to it AT ALL, mainly because the 3 previous days all it had done was storm! But after waking up at 4:30 am because my body clock hates me, I slept until about 5/6 on and off. I opened my door to find that it was a FREAKING GORGEOUS day!!!!!! Sunny and at least 70 degrees. I spent my day out in the sun watching the chefs fillet fish and playing with my new buddy, Duke, down at the beach and running through the woods. I also got in some good art time as well. Very relaxed.

Today is, as I was saying, the day were one group leaves and the next rolls in. We call this "transition day". So after cleaning all the rooms and the lodge and getting rain gear ready for the next group, we have a long afternoon off!!!!!!

Not too much out of the ordinary has happened really since my last post. Friends of Phil and Gwen (Boss and wife) have been here for the last week and will be staying another week. Doug is a photographer and came here with Chef Sam Choy and Meg (Doug's wife) just came along for the ride. It's been great having them around, they're a ton of fun and Meg bought me 6 of the Starbucks Double Shots, so she's definitely a favorite ;)

Sam Choy was here for about a week and joined our two chefs in the kitchen. The man is amazing!!! He also offered all of us girls jobs at his new restaurant in Kona. He has 7 other restaurants world wide and has some serious skill. He kept us all very entertained whilstl he was here and the stress levels in the kitchen were at there lowest level yet.

Oooo I learned out to make a new kind of margarita! Instead of just Tequila and lime and all the usual stuff, it's Tequila, Frozen Limeade, half of a beer! and then triple sec and sugar, all blended! Amazingly tasty. The whole beer thing put me off at first, but you can't really notice it.

Tim (the lodge caretaker) just brought the mail from mainland and I got my package from home!!!!! Very excited :)

Hope everything is going well with you all. I miss you all a ton! Write me!!!!

Land of the Eskimo

I arrived in Sitka Alaska on May 19th and started work the next day! The Island is about the size I had imagined but is COMPLETELY wooded. There are 4 main buildings: The House ;where Phil and Gwen Younger, the owners of Talon Lodge, live. The Lodge; this contains staff lodging on the main floor, a prep area upstairs along with a kitchen, a very large living room with comfy leather couches and a large dinning room with a bar at the end. The Lodge also has an upper deck used when the good weather rolls around and a lower deck which contains a pool table and a larger bar area. The third and fourth buildings are guest lodging. Seth house is the biggest and Clois House sits right behind it. Attached to Seth House is also the "Breeze way" where we keep all the rain gear.

So far we've just been cleaning and prepping the island for guests, we've been kept very busy setting up beds, cleaning windows, walls, floors, bars, rain gear, bathrooms, anything and everything. Stocking the liquor house, taking inventory of EVERYTHING, power washing and staining every single piece of wood that needs it, preparing the dinning area and the prep areas...we've been busy. BUT, that's fine by me, cause there's not much else to do. After are days are over, we usually spend some time around the pool table and kickin back to some tunes.

There's roughly 20 staff members, half of those are on the boats. The other half are the four girls; Myself, Jena (my roommate), Kelsey and Alysha. Kelsey and Jena are our massage therapists.... hopefully I'll get in on some of that action. We also have our two Chefs, David and Baron....they make magic. I will not be surprised if I become a big blimp by the end of the summer. Then there is Dickie who is in charge of us girls and makes sure we always have a task waiting for us :) Phil and Gwen are always around as well. And then there is Tim. Tim is "The Man" and does EVERYTHING on the island. He makes sure everything is always running well, if we have a problem with heating, plumbing, electricity anything... except food... Tim is the man to ask. Other than that the rest of the staff are on the boats.

The view is gorgeous! Its perfectly normal to see eagles swarming at any given moment, which is all new to me! I saw a fin of an Orca yesterday, that was pretty exciting.

Guests start arriving on Wednesday so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update, the Internet is in and out as well. But keep writing me! I love hearing from everyone! I also put up more pics in my Alaska 2010 album on facebook, check 'em out!

Peacin Out

In roughly two hours I will be flying out of Missoula on my way to Sitka, Alaska.

My new adventure will consist of three months working at Talon Lodge, a fishing resort and spa.

This Lodge is on an island 10 minutes off of Sitka and I could probably run around the entire island in 15min (I'm a slow runner). My job title for the summer will be "House Keeper, Waitress, Bartender and General Lackey".

Summer in Alaska as we all know is quite different from anywhere else in the states. It will be light out...ALWAYS!!! But won't get much hotter than 70f, most of my summer will be spent inside the lodge anyway so no summer tan for me! The fishing season ends the beginning of September so I will be returning home on the 6th.

I'll try to keep this updated as much as possible, but I'm not exactly sure how much time I really will have. PLEASE write me though, I know I'll love getting mail and hearing updates from people even if I can't always reply. Also, please keep me in your prayers as this will most likely be the most intense summer....EVER.....yeah.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer, enjoy the warmth for me! Stay safe and make good decisions :)

A First!!!!

Happy First Birthday to Avalon Elizabeth Yoder!!!

A year ago today I was being scarred for life by watching my sister Dani give birth to her first baby!

Sadly I missed out on the next 4months of her life as I went back to England, then the next 5months after my return in September as they moved to Ohio. April brought Avalon back to me (along with her parents of course) and the whole family has enjoyed seeing what a beautiful, funny little girl she's becoming!

Avalon is SUCH and entertaining baby. She totters around the house, runs sideways, and speaks fluent gibberish. She's just learned to blow kisses, waves at anyone that walks past her and gives out smiles to the nearest stranger. She absolutely loves being the center of attention and will show off her "tricks" when asked.

Ava is definitely a joy to be around (unless she's tired) I can't imagine how much she will change during my time in Alaska!!! Also this fall she'll become a big sister!!!! Yoder Baby No.2 Due October 19th!!!!

A Walking Contradiction

Last night I realized that that is pretty much what I am, a walking contradiction. I had a bath using of course bubbles and salts, as one does when trying to relax, enjoying a glass of wine, my favorite chocolates and some digestive bisquits whilst also watching Jane Austens "North Anger Abbey". That was me being an absolute "girlie girl", but every now and again I would pause my movie to check the score of my baseball game, First inning: down by one Orioles have the lead. Continue on with movie, pause, second inning Redsox score!!!!!!!! We're now tied, on with the movie....so on and so forth, I think you get the picture. "Jane Austen FANATIC" + "Redsox fan to the death"= Me "The walking contradiction".

I don't know what more to say on this matter, except that I am perfectly comfortable in my craziness and I am able to keep myself fairly entertained.

For those of you who are Jane Austen fans, I've just watched North Anger Abbey and Mansfield Park, I highly recommend them especially North Anger....I think I'll watch it again tomorrow.... told you I was a fanatic!