Alaska Life

Our youngest son took a job this year working on a boat on the Toolic River in Alaska. His home base is Bethel and he travels up river about 400 miles to deliver cooking and heating oil to small villages. It has really been an adventure for all of us as he left in the midst of the pandemic. He was test 5 days before he left and then again when he got to Bethel and was in quarentine for 5 more days. Now he has been really experiencing life on the river. His boat is small and so living quarters are cramped. But so far he is enjoying it. I can say that our daugher-in-law and daughter are all that happy him being going for 3 months. He will be home the end of August for a couple of weeks and then back to Bethel until the river starts to freeze over. He will be off all winter and plans to use his time to work on his 2nd mates license. So here are just a few photos of his time spent in Alaska.

He went fishing and caught a Dolly Varden (artic char) and then he cooked it up. He is the designated breakfast chef.

He got to see a moose about 20 feet away from the boat.

And since he is in the land of the midnight sun he isn't getting much dark time sleep. In fact he is working nights. 

Here is a picture of his boat.

And he took this amazing photo of a bald eagle through the lens of a binocular.

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And as always. 

Phew!!! still not finished with garden days

This is always a busy time of the year for us with our garden veggies and fruit trees yielding their bounty. I've put up peaches in freezer for 2 days and now picking blueberries everyother day and freezing. 

These are just a few shots of our garden from the first few weeks after planting.

This is the garden from about 3 weeks ago. I'll post photos of what it looks like now on next post.

It looks quite different. We are now harvesting squash, cucumbers and green beans. I've put up pickles and dilled green beans and even squash relish. I have more of the pickles and relish to put up. Soon we will have corn and tomatoes. 

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My herb garden spot has really grown. I have rosemary, oregano, sage and basil. I planted Italian parsley but seed must have been bad. 

We have trimmed back about half the rosemary and have dried and frozen the herb.

I spent 2 days reorganizing my pantry and back laundry room. The laundry room shelves now house my wool dying equipment, canning equipment and crock pots, air fryer and cleaning tools. 

On another post later, I will post my youngest son's great adventure. Stay tuned.

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And as always........