News roundup

It's been an exciting week for news, although I'm pretty sick of all the Sarah Palin stuff...let's all move on, shall we?

A small brush fire broke out a couple blocks from my workplace on Wednesday. From my office on the 7th floor I had a bird's eye view of the white smoke, and could follow the circling chopper that dropped water on the blaze. Firefighters put it out within a couple hours.

And then late on Wednesday night I was awakened by the sound of staccato gun shots, which turned out to be from ammunition exploding in a garage fire: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=10667441

The haze from numerous forest fires (71 active) is persistent. We haven't had a clear view of the mountains in days. Yesterday my car held a very light dusting of ash from the fires.

This hot and dry weather isn't helping anything -- back on the home front, I'm trying to keep our flowers, trees and bushes well hydrated.

If ya can't handle the heat...

I hope this pair is thoroughly and completely embarrassed -- hopefully they are on a flight back home if they cannot handle ONE NIGHT in our state! They weren't even hurt.

Anchorage Daily News -- Long Alaska day too much for campers from Outside

Hot hot heat

Um, can you say "BEST SUMMER EVER?!"

Last summer I only wore shorts once - yes, once. Actually, we didn't even have a summer last year...it was more of a gray and rainy extended period between spring and fall. The weather we've had so far more than makes up for last year. You should all come up and visit ASAP!

Yesterday's temp during my commute home:

Holiday weekend 2

Although the fishing was slow on Saturday, we moved to another spot on Sunday and our luck improved a bit. Many times we could see the fish fighting their way upriver -- it's just a matter of getting your fly to the right spot!

In addition to the three reds I landed, this guy ended up on my line -- he is ready to SPAWN! His head was pretty beat up and there was a wayward hook stuck in his skin. I thought for sure the fish was done for as I released him, but he appeared again near where I was standing in the river. These fish are crazy tough.

Combat fishing at the confluence.

Mim spotted this huge bull moose (complete with a still-growing fuzzy rack) walking down the road next to our campsite. We followed (somewhat) quietly and were rewarded with some neat photos.

D and his family are still down south fishing it up, so it's me and our animal menagerie holding down the fort.

Can it

It's hot here, peoples! The outdoor thermostat at our house read 80 degrees yesterday at around 6 p.m. One of the local weathercasters says it could be even hotter if the haze (from a wildfire near Denali) wasn't present. I would estimate that 99.9% of Alaskans do not own in-home air conditioning, so the heat is sort of an uncomfortable situation for us -- but I'm not complaining. This summer has been amazing!

Last night all of the doors and windows were open, and I had the ceiling fan running to move some of the hot air around. The reds we caught this weekend had to be pressure canned -- and having the cooktop running for 3 hours straight added to the indoor heat. Everything turned out great though.

My new favorite recipe: slices of onion, basil and canning salt.

Preparing to heat!

Finished product.

Holiday weekend 1

I'm tired. What should have been a jaunty 2 hour drive home turned into a slow 4 hour crawl. Our highway heading south from Anchorage is basically two lanes with occassional pullouts and extra lanes for passing, and apparently everyone was heading home after the 3-day weekend. It wasn't all bad though -- the skies were clear with bright sun and the temperature hovered around 69 degrees (even at 9 in the evening!) And no flying cargo boxes either, so everything is good.

The weekend in a nutshell: lots of fishing, sun, HOT weather, good food, great company and fun times all around. Oh, and I was able to nap in a hammock - does it get any better than that on a warm summer day?

Thanks Don & Mim for the tasty meals!

Everybody wants to hurry up and get to the fish, but first you have to walk from the campsite to the stairs leading down to the river, then over a trail of boardwalks before taking on the river crossing and another long trail to the best spot -- all in heavy waders and boots! Of course on the way back it's all uphill (hopefully with a pack full of salmon filets!) With the temperature in the (high?) 70's, I was ridiculously hot in all my gear.

The actual Russian River, before it meets up with the Kenai at the confluence. D likes to take Drift down to cool off and get some exercise in for the day.

Hanging out on one of the many stairs over the bank. At the end of the day, it felt so good to slip our feet into the water and cool down a bit ourselves.

This run of fish is waning, which meant slight relief from the crush of other anglers. We had a little more room to spread out. This area here is the ferry landing where people pay to park and catch a short ride over to the other bank - it's spendy, but more convenient than the couple miles we usually walk.

Oh yeah, and some other stuff happened this weekend too...