SNOW IN JULY

Yesterday the city of Anchorage woke-up to snow!! That is right more than termination dust on the mountains, and the bigger problem it is staying!2 days and counting!

This has been the worst summer most people can seem to remember, some think we are just spoiled from above normal temperatures in the last two summers, two weeks of rain is no friend of mine! Riding a bike in rain boots, pants and jacket not to mention gloves! Stink.

Sun was reported being seen if only briefly

Well, this weekend we begged for sun and had it for about 25 minutes I believe. Seth, Ash and I headed to the Van Hemert's cabin for a little R&R. We brought 3 dogs and a very full car but had lots of fun. Ashley and I eked out a little suntan time on the floating dock, Seth set-up the mini sailboat and held a one man regatta, setting no time records. Geronimo followed us everywhere in the water, flailing in the water, jumping in awesome belly flops off the dock and came to check on us girls on the floating dock every 15 minutes, all this means that yes, again his tail is broken, that is right, no movement, not even a wag, as Ashley says,"He just has no sense of self preservation."

I on the other hand didn't break anything, it being my birthday on Saturday woke-up to good friends, Ashley's lovely German pancakes and wonderful presents oh my!

Thursday night ball and pie

This Thursday Ashley and Seth did some tricky planning had a little birthday for me, Bonnie. Delicious halibut, steak, salad and veggies, lots of beer and tasty raspberry margaritas. After dinner we headed to the park for some kickball and than home for rhubarb pie, it was a really great time! We head off now to the Van Hemert's cabin tonight, the fish counts are very low on the Kasilof so no dip netting this weekend.

These pictures will reflect us doing a lot of negotiating, how to play the game "Pickle" and how to get the deaf dog out of the middle of the field.

Booze and Bottle Rockets

We went to Bob and Diane's Cabin at Watana Lake for Indipendence Day and for a mini family reunion. Even in Alaska this is a remote isolated cabin. The three days that we were there we saw only one plane, the one that dropped us off. The flight is over an hour north from anchorage over the Talkeetna Mountains near the upper Susitna River. We were in the company of swallows that nested in the eaves of the cabin, caribou, wolves and loons, of and of course arctic grayling.

Fishing will never be the same. If we went three or four casts without a fish it was definately time to move spots.

On the 4th we had 80 degree temps blue skys and in honor of our fuel rich state dumped gasoline in to the lake. latter around the fire after a giant gourmet meal of encheladas we had a great time launching bottle rockets in to the lake. Bob snuck the last 15 rockets into the flames, we all hurled ourselfs behind sheds and old snowgo's hidding from the blasts and reports that followed.



Forrest and I went on a hike up Mt. Watana. in direct view of the cabin so that all could keep tabs on us and yell cat calls to us from the lake. From the top of Mt. Watana we had views to denali, the eastern alaska range, and the alpine plateaus below.




After we a quick refereshing swim in the lake we headed off to the kosina river, all thirteen of us on our own mini migration. Bob calls it the Death March or the Ho Chi Minh trail, following caribou trails throught the tundra to the final 500' plunge to the river valley below, we renamed it the Bo Fe Man Trail (Bob Fejes Man). Hotdogs and a fire on the river were a great idea until we had to crawl back out of the canyon and almost lost Katie and Erin to the tube sausage syndrome.

The Garden

Bonnies pumpkins never grew since may so we had to think of anouther plan for the dirt paths that we created in the front yard and that all the neighbors have been woundering what we would do with and when. I took over one of the beds and mulched it with newspaper, compost and straw. Didn't look the best but was better than pure dirt. eventually we brought back lots of monks hood from Harlod and Junes farm and filled up one of the beds with tall leafy monsk hood. We also came home with 300+ pounds of compost to cover the other bed. Bonnie went around town to all of the perennial sales and scored lots of perrenials. Now everything is looking just great. Lots of green leafy plants and since summer is about three (maybe 4) weeks late we might have flowers blooming sometime soon. All I have to do now is sneak in wildflower seeds so that next year we have beds thick with plants. Not what Bonnie wants.

We brought back three bags of blueberries from the mountains and planted them in a corner of the yard where mostly moss grows. Hopefully they survive and we have a little berry patch. at least they will remind me of the mountains even if they don't fruit.