Wanted - cabbage thief

With the cold and rainy summer everybodys gardens did not do as well this year. The only vegetable that was able to grow was the cabbage. I had 3 plants that did great. The day before Brent left we picked one head of cabbage and it was great. I was hoping to get the other two picked this week, but as luck would have it - the moose beat me to it! I found evidence of the leaves that they didn't get and the footprints in the bed. Although Brent is hoping that they come back during hunting season so he can get them. Speaking of hunting season, it opens on September 1st, the day Brent gets off work. So on his way home from Delta he will be keeping his eye out for Bullwinkle. We'll keep our fingers crossed for a full freezer this fall.

One heck of a hike.

On our last day of being in the park we went for one heck of a hike. Mary Vail and I mentioned that if we would have known that our ending point would have been where it was, we would have not even gotten off the bus. As we were heading back down the mountain we noticed that we passed about three of our "hell no" hills. While hiking up the hills we got to one plateau and caught up with the boys only for them to take off again, Mary Vail called that rabbit chasing. But each time we decided that we could make it to the top of the nest hill, and sure enough slowly but surely we made it. Although the picture of the GPS show 5149 feet we started out at just over 3400 feet. But still, it was an awesome accomplishment. The 3rd picture shown is the view from the top looking down to the road where we started. The last picture is of Brent standing on the road and where his finger is pointing is where we finished - wow!

Squirrels, Cairibou and Bears .. oh my!

Last weekend Brent and I joined my parents and some family friends on a camping trip to Denali Park. We camped at a campground about 29 miles into the Park and we stayed there for 4 nights. During the day we would hop on the buses that take the tourists in for sightseeing and we would get off the bus where we wanted to go hiking and off we went. This blog will show some of the animals that we saw. Luckily a majority of the bears (with the exception of one) we were able to observe from the bus. It was incredible to see all the animals. One afternoon when we were watching a large caribou Mary Vail and I kept hearing from Mark and Brent about how great of a shot they could get on it. Good thing it was in a national park, they will have to wait until this fall to get their shot at a caribou. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy Solstice!

On Saturday, June 21st, the longest day of the year and the sun does not go below the horizon. A tradition in Fairbanks is going to the Goldpanners baseball game. The game started at 10:30 pm and is played without artifical lights. We had a great time. There was an alumni pitcher from the Goldpanner's who came back and pitched for the team, keep in mind he was 62 and was throwing strikes against kids who could be his grandkids. We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to next years game. (Note: This picture was taken at midnight and the sun was still shining.)

Dog days of summer.

Friday was a nice and sunny day. Brent was going out bear hunting in the evening so we decided to take the boat out for a drive to make sure it was ready. We took Roscoe along for his first boat ride and he loved it. The weather was awesome and it was a great first boat ride of the year.

We have neighbors.

Earlier this spring we noticed a robin building her nest in the eaves of the garage. Whenever I would go out and water the lawn she would fly away from her nest. When we got back from our fishing trip I went out to take a look and check on the status of the nest and I saw 3 beaks with their heads poking up out of the nest. Mama bird has been keeping busy flying around the yard and catching bugs to feed to her hatches. It has been fun to watch them, before long they will be learning to fly out of the nest.

Gallon of gas $4.04; Cheeseburger and fries $10.25; Fishing charter $90; Cooler full of fish - PRICELESS!

Brent and I made it down to Chitina, Alaska for our second annual Copper River Red fishing - and we were able to net 26 red salmon and 1 king salmon. We actually caught 5 kings; but we are only allowed to keep one. Brent got the first one and the debate was do we keep it and know that we cannot get another one or try for a bigger one? We decided to keep the first one and the picture is of Brent and the king salmon. I ended up catching another one shortly after that and of course I have to say it was bigger, take a look at the picture and see for yourself. Of course we will have the ongoing battle of whose fish is bigger. But it will keep us going back each year. Overall we were very lucky to catch the fish that we did, in coming back on the boat we were told that some people were out all day and only caught 2! We chalked it up to the determination of keeping the nets in the water and the fact that Brent dropped his favorite pocket knife in the river just after he caught his king. We decided that it was an offering and it paid off.

There are some people who get permits and do their fishing with the fishwheels, it was neat being able to see them in action. Attached is a picture of the fishwheels in action.