Kodiak Daily Mirror - Daily newspaper of Kodiak, Alaska
  
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Hank Pennington
Outdoor Kodiak: Halibut making their way out of the depths
I haven’t poked a thermometer in the water to confirm it, but I’ve read accounts that there is more to our cold weather than snow on the ground. The water is colder, too. Water temperature is a huge influence on fish feeding, movement and distrib...
May 15, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Outdoor Kodiak: Disappearing snow is signal to go outside
Hooray! The snow has retreated from the lowlands and it’s time to head out the door. Sure, my spring chore list is long, but there’s more on my to-do list than chores. It’s high time to get off the road and enjoy your favorite activities in the...
May 08, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Outdoor Kodiak: Tinkerers never stop looking for better lure
You can spot the gear tinkerers of the fishing world. They’re the guys huddled in the fishing tackle aisle, flapping their arms and wiggling their fingers like fighter pilots discussing aerial strategy. I count myself in their league because I l...
May 01, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Marion Owen
A late spring snow doesn’t mean the death of hardy flowering plants like this primrose. But when the forecast calls for freezing or near-freezing temperatures, protect tender seedlings like nasturtiums and marigolds, bring tomatoes in from the greenhouse and cover up newly planted seedlings like cabbage, kale and onions. (Marion Owen photo)
Garden Gate: Sifted debris and other spring garden tips
Gardeners who sift soil are perfectionists, taking the extra step to remove sticks, rocks and shells; leaving shreds of leaves, grass, kelp and other fluff for their plants to gleefully wiggle their roots in. For greenhouse and hoophouse crops, no...
May 14, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Jimmie Wilson focusses on primroses during a field trip in Marion Owen’s photography trip on Saturday. While primroses, daffodils and crocuses are starting to bloom through last year’s dead leaves, avoid tidying up by pulling the mulch away from the plant. Do this later, if you must. Meanwhile, the leaves, bits of bark and twigs provide nutrition and protection from late frosts and cold breezes. (Marion Owen photo)
Garden Gate: Snake poop compost
When I was about 8, my brothers and I loved to play with garter snakes. We found them in great numbers by the stand of cattails circling the swamp, a pond where frogs and tadpoles lived. We gathered dozens of snakes and set them in a pillow case (...
May 07, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Lon White of Strawberry Fields Nursery explains the art of raising seedlings to a group of students from Marion Owen’s organic gardening class on Sunday. Most independent nurseries around the world no longer grow their own seedlings, making Strawberry Fields a minority in the industry. (Marion Owen photo)
Garden Gate: Carrots love Kodiak
Eliot Coleman, author of “The Winter Harvest Handbook,” says carrots have an almost “legendary popularity” in their markets. “We cannot grow enough of them to meet the demand. While delivering in our stores we have seen little children rush to the...
Apr 30, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Laine Welch
Fish Factor: Fishing destinations compete for votes, prize money
Several Alaska towns are vying for the title of “Ultimate Fishing Town,” which comes with a $25,000 check for local fishing projects. The annual competition is sponsored by the World Fishing Network, “a 24/7 television network dedicated to all s...
May 14, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Fish Factor: Tsunami debris trackers ask for public’s help
Soccer balls, motorcycles … reminders of the massive tsunami in Japan a year ago are now appearing along Alaska’s coastlines. “It’s safe to say that tsunami debris is here,” said Merrick Burden, director of the Juneau-based Marine Conservation...
May 07, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Fish Factor: Council to hear from Kodiak on halibut bycatch
It has taken a quarter of a century, but fishery managers are finally poised to take action to reduce the 5 million pounds of halibut taken as bycatch in Gulf of Alaska fisheries. Industry watchers are hoping public comments will sway them to ma...
Apr 30, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Mike Rostad
Dr. A. Homes and Fostina Johnson (Photo courtesy of Kodiak Historical Society)
Kodiak Tapestry: Recalling Kodiak's original library namesake
Buildings are named after people for a purpose. The A. Holmes Johnson Library obviously has something to do with Mr. Johnson, who was not a librarian, but a doctor. Plans are under way to build a new city library this spring. It will be near the ...
May 18, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Rostad on Religion: Kodiak Island Outreach employs ‘servant evangelism’
Under the umbrella of Kodiak Island Outreach, churches of Kodiak Island are working together to bring the love of Christ to neighbors far and wide through servant evangelism. Serving in Jesus’ name sometimes opens the door to sharing the Gospel,...
May 11, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 4 4 recommendations | email to a friend
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Ginny Shank poses with dancers in Woodland Dance Studio’s 2007 production of “Aladdin,” from left, Alexandr Savinov, Shank, visiting dancer Nikolai Morschakov, Thandeka Carros and Hallie Wall. (Photo courtesy of Ginny Shank)
Kodiak Tapestry: Dance teacher ready for next steps in life
All good dance lessons must come to an end. Ginny Shank, instructor and proprietor of Woodland Dance Studio, announced that she will close the studio doors she opened 25 years ago. Shank said she felt 25 was a good round number on which to bring ...
May 04, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Suzanna Bobo
Scuttlebutt: A vacation in the round
I didn’t plan a pie theme for my recent vacation. It was supposed to be a medical vacation with a heaping measure of time-with-extended-family. It turned into a repeating cycle that started with me holding a rolling pin and ended with everyone of...
May 14, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Tom, right, and Jimmy Emerson prop an aluminum rowing dory on sawhorses as they consult over details about the craft’s finished dimensions. Emerson Boat Works is producing a new Kodiak version of the legendary Gloucester Gull for customers wanting to combine the convenience of a kayak with the capability of a dory. (Suzanna Bobo photo)
Scuttlebutt: Emerson Boat Works gives new look to classic dory
A 1968 article by Bill Prosser in the Rockland (Maine) Courier-Gazette described the new-model boat as “slim, low and graceful.” Peter Spectre, former editor of WoodenBoat magazine, pronounced her “the most elegant of light rowing dories.” To boa...
Apr 27, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 0 0 recommendations | email to a friend
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Scuttlebutt: The beginning of the end for Down syndrome?
She has colonized the table with her notebooks, CDs and a box she uses for colored markers. She’s wearing headphones, so my presence at my desk across the room doesn’t disturb her. We are storytellers, she and I, two writers sharing the same writi...
Apr 13, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Above: Fran Hartman displays the story necklace she made to record her adventures sailing around the world in a 48-foot sailboat with her husband, Jim. (Suzanna Bobo photo)
Scuttlebutt: A sailing story in beads
How do you tell the story of a life? Or a culture? Or even a journey? Do you write a memoir or sew a quilt? Do you make a movie? Washington teacher Fran O’Rourke-Hartman didn’t choose her medium: her students did. Mrs. O’Rourke-Hartman would tell...
Mar 30, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Switgard Duesterloh
Amazing Nature: Underwater gardens filter harbor
On a nice spring day in Kodiak it is a delight to take a stroll along the harbor and let your gaze wander past the mountains in the distance, the breakwaters lined by sea birds and the boats gleaming in the sunshine. Strolling along the docks, y...
May 11, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 0 0 recommendations | email to a friend
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This hooded shrimp was taken from a sample near Ugak Bay. (Switgard Duesterloh photo)
Amazing Nature: Tiny animals feed the biggest ones
What’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner? How about 660 pounds of shrimp? That is about the amount a grown gray whale scoops up per day. Why so much? Because the gray whales that are just now swimming past Kodiak on their northward migration have fa...
Apr 27, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 0 0 recommendations | email to a friend
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Amazing Nature: Sharks that swim in Kodiak waters
Whale Fest is just around the corner, and again there will be the popular shark dissection at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center. A few fifth-grade students had a sneak preview of the shark be on the table this year, a fully grown 6-foot male sa...
Apr 13, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend
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Synthetic rope lies tangled with organic matter on a beach, but will remain to harm the ocean for hundreds of years after the plants decompose. (Switgard Duesterloh photo)
Amazing Nature: Tsunami of plastic killing off sea life
If you expect an article about marine life, you’ll need to read to the end. This article is all about our oceans and the blue planet that is our home. A couple of weeks ago, the Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center held a film festival. One of the films ...
Mar 30, 2012 | 1 1 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Capt. John Quinn
Another Day in Paradise: Different days bring new perspectives
I know that I am officially an old man. I hear negative reports in the news on TV, see a couple of examples of the people that they talk about, and accept it as fact, when the only real fact is, I’m wrong. I know the hardships I went through gro...
May 18, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Another Day in Paradise: God is still in charge
This past weekend, the vice-president said that he was “comfortable” with same-sex marriages. On Wednesday, the president proclaimed he thought that they should be able to get married. The television media, which has been pushing this agenda for...
May 11, 2012 | 1 1 comments | 4 4 recommendations | email to a friend
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Another Day in Paradise: Working on our reflection
The weather that we have been enjoying lately has tested my work ethics to the limits. After a long winter, the temptation to get outside is stronger because the limited opportunities of the season have finally given way to almost limitless days. ...
May 04, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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Another Day in Paradise: Sunshine makes it too easy to forget
It’s official! Last week we had a couple of nice days. That was Spring. This week we’ve had some more gorgeous days. This is Summer. For those of you keeping score, Winter can’t be far behind. If this was Facebook, I’d have put a smiley face at th...
Apr 27, 2012 | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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