Unexpected happenings today...

Above, hot tub area with assisted living dining room window in the background. I forgot to wear my belt today, and my britches were falling down for most of it.  Hopefully the residents weren't permanently damaged by viewing my crack too much...

Below, hot tub area facing lower yard and dog kennel.

Horseshoe pit area.  This grass is as thick as any I have ever seen.  I used a big pick-ax to break through the sod and 8 inches of root system - then filled in the holes with gravel from the puppy yard.

So yesterday I got my first legitimate halibut in Katchemak Bay.  I learned that in a minus tide (water levels change by over 20 feet and current is STRONG), the best time to fish is at the peak - before it reverses.  Yesterday, I met Jane - who lives across the bay and is a friend of Maria's.  Jane and her husband have a bunch of gill nets in one of the bays across Katchemak (that's their permit area), and Jane invited me to moor my boat to one of their buoys in order to anchor my boat. This helps and is more productive than drifting.  Anyway, at high tide, I caught two nice halibut and two big cod before the tide reversed and current made the fishing lowsy again.

Today, I was planning to go out again at the afternoon high tide to see if I could duplicate yesterday's good fishing, but I wound up getting distracted by a project at the B & B - which took me all day long.

So down on the main level, below the deck - there is a hot tub area that needed a mans attention.  Maria advertises the hot tub, and the other day, a guest was asking about it - but it wasn't ready.  So when I asked Maria what the next big project was that I could help with, that was it.

I should have taken a before and after picture - because the concrete walking stones were all uneven, and the grass was growing up tall in-between the stones.  The hot tub was very dirty, and needed to be drained and cleaned.  This whole deal sits in front of the lower level picture window where the assisted living area is.  Sabine is the nurse that was working today (she's a german lady from Switzerland), and she said all the residents were enthralled - watching me work all day.  One new resident - Dottie, has been having trouble adjusting to living here, and hasn't wanted to bathe or shower for over a week.  Sabine said today Dottie was so happy that she agreed to shower early this afternoon.  Dottie, Libby, and Bob all came outside to watch - and Bob supervised a bit and kept telling me how good it looked.  Sabine cooked the cod that I caught yesterday for all the residents, and I guess they really enjoyed it.  Sabine said that she can't remember the last time she saw all the residents so happy and perky, and she thought it had alot to do with the "entertainment" - so that made me feel good.

It was a long day, but I finally got all the grass and weeds pulled, removed all of the stones and raked/leveled the ground, replaced the stones, and then went to work on the hot tub itself.  I got it drained, scrubbed out, rinsed, and refilled.  While I was waiting for it to fill, I put in a real basic horse shoe pit on the flattest part of the big lawn.

While I was working today - I thought often about the residents: what it must be like to be in their shoes.  Most of them are in some stage of having dementia or alzheimers - and most of them get visitors daily.  I talked much of the day with Bob and Dottie, and whenever I asked questions, they just kept saying that they didn't know, or they couldn't remember.  I couldn't really tell, but I can only imagine that this might be frustrating for them - so I avoided asking questions after that.  Instead, I just carried on a conversation with them about what I was doing, the beautiful day, the surroundings, etc. - and answered their questions - which were many. I found that as long as you smile alot and include them in what you're doing, they will go right along with you.  This is my first real experience being with elderly people with alzheimers - and I think it's great experience that I can use in the future when counseling families who are dealing with this terrible disease.

This evening I blogged, and visited with the new guests - which is something I really enjoy doing.  Maria has 16 guests tonight from Texas, Anchorage, Vermont, and California.  It's fun to hear about where they have been, and what they have planned to do while they are here.  They usually have all kinds of questions for me too - and it's fun to share information, help them with their questions, and even offer fish.  Hey - it's what I've always done at home, and just comes naturally up here too. Most of Maria's employees have brought home meals of fish (everybody loves it up here), Maria and I eat it two out of three days, and now the residents are eating it as well.

All in all, a great day that "just happened".