Alaska: The Last Frontier + Halloween with Olga

Date: 10/26/2021

Hours: 4

Event: Homestead with Olga and Debbie

This week me, Julia, Diondre, and Debbie walked around Olga's property as well as saw the homestead and met Otto from the tv show Alaska: The Last Frontier. When we first arrived at Olga's, she called over the horses and they came running. Along with her horses, she also has Otto's and Ivan's horses. We fed them some alfalfa cubes. There is a foal named Shooting Star who we got to pet, and Teddy played with her.

After that, we walked down to the Kilcher Homestead with Teddy and Sushi. The view was amazing! You could see across the bay and there was a deep canyon. We walked on the Homestead and Olga was explaining how Otto's parents were buried there. She also pointed out where Ivan and Eve got married.

We saw a lot of cool cabins and Olga was explaining who lived there and who built what. We came across a house where Olga used to live with Otto which is now a small museum. As we were taking a picture, Otto rolled up in his ATV. Olga said that we should take a picture of me on his ATV, but he suggested that I ride on it with him. My mind was blown. So, we drove down the hill and back up it. It was so fun!

After that, we talked outside for a little while and he asked us where we were from. He also showed us a bell which he said his mom would ring when it was time for dinner. He then asked if we wanted to see inside his cabin/museum. It was super cool, and he had a lot of cool pictures.

Olga showed me a clay pot she made back in the day, and she couldn't believe that is was still there. She also told us how they used to use coal to heat up the stove so the house would be really hot. Otto told us the history of his family and said that his dad came over from Switzerland and walked from Seward to Homer and bought the homestead. It was really interesting to hear how his family ended up living here. He also told us that there is a lot of coal on the beach as well. Since this house is now a museum, there is a map that shows where people are from, and it shocked me to see that people come from all over to come visit the homestead. It's crazy to me that people come all this way to see this family, and Olga gets to go over whenever she wants. She said Otto put a large piece of equipment in her yard and she can't move it because it's broken. Otto told me on the ATV that he doesn't think he is that special of a person just because he has a tv show. After that, Otto had to leave, but I'm so excited that I got to meet him. He was funny and nice to talk to and Olga was surprised that he stayed to talk to us that long and showed us the cabin because he doesn't usually do that for tourists.

After he left, we walked down to the orchard. It was super cool. They had so many fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, gooseberries, strawberries, and black currants. I never had gooseberries or black currants before. I liked the gooseberries, but not the black currants, Debbie said they make wine from them. Debbie was also feeding Sushi apples which was cute. Julia took a bunch of apples to take home. They were really tiny, but super good.

Then we went to see a Kilcher's family member's cabin that was recently renovated. It was really nice. After that, we walked back to Olga's house and ran into someone with a puppy on the way. She was super cute and tried to play with Teddy and Sushi. As we were walking back, she got loose and chased us up the hill. Back at Olga's we saw her chickens and she collected 2 eggs from them. Debbie then left to talk to Kathy Burek about the upcoming necropsies.

Back at Olga's we took out life jackets and other things from her boat and put them in her garage. We cleared a space for her boat by moving her kayaks out of the way. Diondre helped direct her to put the boat in place. After that, we walked to her house. She had cool whale bones such as a skull, ribs, and vertebrae. We also got to see her cat. Before we left, she gave us her SD card so we could get her pictures/data to put in the Google Drive. She also gave us a book that she made which was about the many uses of a Sarong. Ivan and Eve were in some of the pictures as well as her kids. After that, we went back home so Diondre, and I could talk to Caroline Cummings and Jen Cate for the sea otter internship for the spring semester. We ended up having to reschedule due to Wi-Fi issues.

Link to more homestead pictures: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GbUoPYGM606Pm_DxfaoNcjNMpkthTy8i?usp=sharing

Date: 10/31/2021

Hours: .5

Event: Halloween

On Halloween, Diondre went to go return Olga's SD card to her. He called Julia and I and said that we have to go see Olga because she leaves on November 2nd to see her mom in Connecticut and she and her friends were all dressed as witches. So, he picked us up and we went over. It was so fun! All her friends were wearing witch costumes and they gave us candy. Then they all put on a performance for us where they all danced. It was super fun and I'm glad we got to see Olga before she left.

Overall, I had a super fun week and I already miss Olga. Next week I am ready to work more with the Google Drive. I am excited that we got Olga's data so we can add that to the drive, as well as identify the whales we saw. Julia said she finished adding the coordinates to the map, so we can also get started on making a solid map like Liz did for previous years.