The New Job

So I keep getting asked what i do now for a new job, so thought i'd share.....
I now work for Barlean's Organic Oils. We create products using both Flax seed oil and fish oils, both focused around Omega 3, 6, and 9 fats (all good fats). We make everything from the fish oil capsule's that many of you take every morning, flax seed, flax oil, fish oil's ie: cod liver oil, and one of the most popular Swirl....wich is a blend of fish or flax oil made to taste like a fruit smoothie. This was created for people who hate to swallow the fish oil pills, or can't stand the taste of flax oil or fish oil products.
Barleans has flavors such as mango peach, orange cream, choc. rasberry, blueberry, stawberry banana, lemon, and Pina colada....to name a few.

Where i exactly fit in at this place is in the Bottleing department. I started out in the clean room learning a fairly complicated and interesting machine that is designed to bottle Barlean's swirl products in an array of different sized bottles.

Here is a picture of what the entire contraption looks like. (there are actually two bottle machines operating in this room, the other bottle's true oil such as flax oil/fish oil it is located just on the other side of this machine in the picture) This room would be known as a clean room.

The bottle's start here, in what is called the bottle sorter. We run sizes ranging from 8oz, 12oz, 16oz, 24oz, and even 32oz.. The sorter can hold approx. 400 bottles and can process them in about 5 minutes.....

This is where the action happens. The touch screen control's everything for the most part. You can see 4 nozzles in the picture, we typically run 6. The box with the blue touch pad is a nitrogen doseing machine. Each bottle gets a dose of liquid nitrogen, to elimante bottle's from panneling (sides being sucked in due to pressure changes)

From there the bottles run down to the capper, pictured below. They spin around in the rotary chuck and a cap is placed on and then tightened and then conveyered to another room where a label is put on.

Since i started my job has changed from operating this machine to learning a multitude of different equipment. I've been promoted to a different position with a main task of elminiating down time, allowing for more bottles to be produced in the end.

So the new job is a far cry from the world of Land Surveying, but i can honestly say i enjoy the New job and has allowed me and my family to begin a new chapter in our lives.

So, Signing off from the North.....Where things in bottles not only taste good but are good for ya....which is nice....

Mark...."The Iron Skillet"

Back by Request

Well, i'm back by request.

I haven't posted in about 4 months now. A lot has happened in that time and i just haven't found the time to post on the blog. Not that i didn't want to mind you, but it just hasn't been high on my priority list. So, i'll try and get back on track......

So....in a short quick recap.....over the last 4 months i've landed a job, landed some fish, and as of yesterday turned in my pole building plans to the city of bellingham (the pole building is to house the boat's). So that's it in a short nutshell.

I've got more stories but, this will have to do for now.

I'll end with a couple of pictures of the end of "Cod" season.

The elusive..."Blue" Lingcod

One of 3 nice sized Cabazon we caught that day.
So there you have it, i've finally posted once again, and hopefully i'll keep it up!


From the North.....Where fish are landed and......Jobs are too....which is NICE!


Mark....."The Iron Skillet"

Fish On!

Mark hasn't posted in awhile and there have been several requests, so I kidnapped his blog to post some pictures!

These fish are from his last fishing trip last Saturday with Chuck.

He had quite the catch, even including a BLUE lingcod!
All for now, but maybe I can get him to post about:
- our family fishing trip
- digging clams
- his trout/kokanee fishing trips
etc/etc/etc!

Boot Beach 2010...Day 3

Day three had all three of us fishing together. The water looked promising, and a day of fun fishing was about to begin. It was nice to be laid back on not really care if we caught fish or not. Day 3 was about enjoying each others company and having a good time. It's not often anymore that the 3 of us are able to get together and fish.

Here is Dad and Ben at the start of the day.

After a little hole hopping, we ended up in some unfished waters, and the old man of the river struck hard and fast......out of no where Ben and I both looked up to see, yet again, Dad's rod doubled over and him fighting another fish!

It didn't take him long, and this little lady was at the bank, with my meat hooks wrapped around her tail. She was a beautiful fish and fought well. Once again, another wild steelhead, so......out come the pliars and a quick dehooking.

A little quick admaration of such a beautiful fish before she was then sent on her way.

Not 10 minutes later i hear warhoops comming from Ben. It was his turn to do battle. He did a great job, even if Dad and Brother Mark were full of lots of fish fighting advice. Ben reacted like a pro., and i'm sure bit his tounge due to all of our suggestions.

We got a quick "grip and grin" of Ben, and this pretty little lady was sent on her way too. What's that on Ben's head you ask? A camera, of all things. Yep, he got both dad's fish and his fish on video! Have to admit, as we watched it later that evening it was prettty darn cool! Hummm, fishing video's could be in the near future!

After that last fish, Ben was satisfied as we all were. Mission acomplished, over the course of the last 3 days we'd all caught a fish and had a great time. We ended up back at camp and had a good lunch and the decision was made to hang out and finish the trip off with a short hike down to the river from the camper. By the time it was deemed to go fishing, Ben was preocupied with building a fire and a bike jump so Dad and i headed off for the last witching hour of light to make a few last casts.

It didn't take long and once again i felt the surgeing headshakes of a fish and watched as it came to the surface. Only to have me gear come flying back to me. Leaving only a scale on my hook as proof that i had indeed had a fish on, which was to be the last of the trip.

Dad and I fished till dark. I just soaked up the peace and solitude that only a river can provide while makeing those last few last casts. Color faded to black and white, and the orange glow of the sun was about to disapear, as i snapped one last picture. My favorite picture of the trip.

I'll call this one "Old Man of the River"

Thanks "Dad" for such a great trip. I'll think of it often, as i anxiously await our return to such a special place.

Signing off from the North

where rivers make things right in the world....and we catch a few fish too...which is nice!

Mark .....The Iron Skillet

Boot Beach 2010.....Day 2

Day 2 of Boot Beach 2010 started out with questionable conditions. We'd recieved lots of rain overnight, and the river rose quite a bit, but hey we were here to fish. Lucky for use we'd brought along a few secret weapons and they paid off!
We started day 2 up river in one of Dad's favorite spots, we'd fish though the hole once, and we're going back through some less likely spots when i looked down to see dad's rod doubled over and it was fish on! This battle was exceptional for a fish that had been in the river for awhile, another hard fight and another fish with an adipose fin attached. Here he come's headed in.

A soft landing, and a quick pop of the pliars, and this guy was turned right around on his way. A healthy splash of his tail, and sailing back to the depths of river deserved high fives and a feeling of satisfaction for dad.

We fished awhile longer here, and i managed to loose 2 fish, seeing both breifly. Guess i'm just a little rusty. We headed back to the camper for some lunch then a quick trip into town for some gas and ice and a plotting of where we should fish this evening. The river was on the clear and dropping meaning for some more promising fishing.

Once back we headed down river into where i'd caught my fish the day before. Within a few casts i hear the rustle of boots on the beach and look down river to find dad doing this once again!

Another fish on! And this one was making a big splash....indicating a BIG fish!

Ya, it's a big fish!!!! Gotta wait for it though.....

WOW! Now that's a HOG and a hatchery fish to boot! Gutted and gilled this fish tipped the scales at 13 pounds, so if you add 2-3 pounds for the guts and gills this steelhead was in the 15-16 pound class. That's a nice winter fish in any river!

So, that ended day two of the trip. Just as we arrived back at the camper brother Ben arrived and we had a great dinner of fish taco's, cold beer and an evening filled with a lot of bullshit!

Stay tuned for day 3.......

From the North where we head south to see big fish too...which is nice

Mark...The Iron Skillet

Boot Beach 2010.....Day 1

Well once again February has rolled around and the annual Boot Beach Camping trip was finally here. I think this is the third year we've fished during presidents day weekend, and it has never let us down yet. This year was no exception......so, here is how the story goes.....

My original plan was to come down thrusday afternoon, but those were changed since i had a JOB interview, and i wasn't about to pass up anything with the word JOB in it, so i did my interview on Thursday, and Friday morning i headed down to meet up with Dad for some fishing, while hopeing to here a ya' or na' on my hopefull job before cell phone service was lost........
At 11:30 cell service was lost and i arrived to find dad in the camper tying up some jigs, and getting things ready for some fishing. He told me how great Thrusday had been, with him catching 3 steelhead, with two being hatchery keepers...this trip was looking good already!

We had some lunch and fished a few spots, and then headed back to the camper and hit one last hole before calling it a day and heading for some dinner.
Luck was on my side and within just a couple of casts it was "FISH ON!"
This guy put up a great battle, lots of big powerfull runs and more than a couple of great jumps. After a few minutes, he was getting tired, and a quick visual inspection showed an Adipose fin still attached, indicating a wild steelhead that must be released.

A quick flip of the pliars, and me manageing to dump everything out of my pockets....He was ready for a quick "Grip and Grin" photo, and sent on his way back up river.

And that concluded fishing for day one.
We headed to "town" and along the way came into cell phone service once again. Low and behold i had a message from Barlean's with them wanting me to call them regarding my interview. With some phone tag and left messages, i finally got a call back just as dad and i were getting ready to eat some good looking Pizza! A short minute later it was a high five with dad, i had been offered the job!
What a day.....what a year! For the first time in over a year i felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders! I was to start on Wednesday at 8 a.m.......man...what an awsome day!



Stay tuned for days 2 and 3.......


From the North where things are looking up....which is nice

Mark...."The Iron Skillet"

Welchs' Bet's

Well, today found me home again with Isa. Thankfully she is on the mend and should be headed off to "school" in the A.M.. I'm amazed how fast a little medicine can work it's magic. She made a drastic improvement between yesterday and today! She felt well enough to help me work on the boat. She wants to go fishing, you know! As does Dad, but it's hard to justify with the work situation and all. The reality is, the boat has almost 2 year old gas in it (it does have a double dose of fuel stabilzer in it) and needs to be run. So, the last few weeks i've been chipping away at adding things in preperation of a fishing trip. I think after today, with the help of Isa, "Welch's Bet" or is that "Welched Bet" or "High Five" or "Big Red" ..........is ready to go on it's first fishing trip with me at the helm.
I know this may bore most of you, but this has been my bright spot as of lately, and i'm going to give you a little recap of the things that have been done over the last few weeks......so, bear with me........here goes



So the first addition to the new boat was installing my 9.9 yami. from the old boat. A great trolling motor, and i hope it will be a good fit on the back of this old gal.

In order to mount the kicker motor i had to install a new fuel water seperator system, that had two ports, and can directly draw from the 100 gallon fuel tank (yes, you read correctly, 100 GALLONS!). The nice thing about this new system is any water can be drained from the bottom of this filter system, and hopefully will ensure clean fuel.
My next big task was mounting my other fish finder/gps to the one dad left in there. At first i was just going to run one unit, but the more i thought about it, the more i liked running two. Why run two you might ask? Well, now i can run one unit in full screen gps mode, and the other unit i can run in full screen fish finder mode. Overkill you might think? Naaaaa....we're talking man talk here......more is always better! The nice discovery was the placement of the new gps antena. Notice the "hockey puck" with the cord near the window in the picture below. A little Marine 5200 and she was glued in place recieveing a perfect signal, even with my hand placed over the top! (A good thing, to say the least)!

A view from the helm postion, the cool part of these two units is the fish finder mode unit i put on a swivel base and will be able to turn it, so i can see it while running the trolling motor from the aft of the boat (Told ya i was gonna get a little detailed here!)A little more "messing about" and i discovered this old lowerance bottom reader in the dash. Dad had told me it didn't work, but to my surprise with a little bit of "elbow grease" i got this one up and running again too! Here's the proof, sitting in the driveway, she's reading 2' deep........and right she is! 2' from the bottom of the hull to the ground!Isa had a lot of fun today, She got to watch the movie Aladin up in the cuddy cabin, while i worked on the other stuff. I'd ask her quite often if she was done....and each time she'd say "nooooo dadda, i want to stay in the boat, we go fishing o'kay?". I told her this weekend, and i hope to keep my promise as long as the weather holds.And last but not least, we had to mount "woody" up somewhere. He still likes his postion on the bow. So i Think with a few zip ties we can accomodate his request!


So, from the North....

Where Boats, kids, and the promise of a fishing trip keep our chins up and we still spit into the wind too.....

Mark..."The Iron Skillet"