Morning routine- First to rise varies somewhat.  Lots of times it’s iPhone alarms of different tones bellowing and being tapped into snooze mode.  Sometimes the silence breaks with a slow, low “AAARRRNNNN” coming from one of the other rooms.   Some days it's the metallic clunk of my bead chain light switch pull cord that lets everyone know it’s soon time.  When the days shorten the Darkness is sometimes broken with the entry of “Groundskeeper Billy” as the light from the porch illuminates the character saturated space.  First up usually stirs the coals of the fire, adds a few sticks, and opens the draft to warm things up for our morning huddle.  We all try to be considerate of the others and often choose to conduct our first few moves in the dark, not wanting to burn someone's eyeballs out by hitting the lights.  Things need to move slowly at this time of day when you live in close quarters.  We then arise, go for coffees and breakfast and rendezvous back in the shack, everyone falling into our non-verbalized seating arrangements and starting about our day.

Topics of discussions vary greatly at this morning meeting.  There are no boundaries as to what can be discussed, but often times its Past, present, and future of on-river topics.  The bite, water level, what rain did,  what rain will do, we need rain, rocks to watch out for, where a fish came from the day before or maybe a place to check today.