We smoked and canned half of the salmon we got. The other half we froze. We have plenty now to last us through the winter.

We dipnetted on the Susitna river near the cabin but I really wanted some Kenai reds, to me they are the best salmon. However, we never made it down to the Kenai to fish so I bought some from a family that commercial fishes on the Kenai. They delivered them to us in Southcentral. Between the fish we caught on the Susitna and the fish I bought from the Kenai we had lots of fish to play around with. Here’s Jeff filleting some of the red salmon from the Kenai. They are big fish!

The Susitna River has all kinds of salmon running in it. Red salmon also called sockeye salmon is my favorite. We caught a few reds and also caught some silver salmon – also called coho salmon. In addition we caught some pink salmon and chum salmon which we returned to the river. They are not very good compared to the silver and reds. Here’s a silver on the grill.

Salmon dipnetting season opened on the river near us. We got out on a sunny day and dipped a few. It’s a lot of work but also exciting to get one in your net. You have to get a special permit to dipnet for salmon and only Alaska residents can get a permit. It’s a real perk for me because I’ve never been very good at fishing with a pole.

It had been so hot and dry in June and the first part of July then the second half of July we got rain and lots of it. We did need it but it was a little bit of overkill. The rivers were nearly at flood stage. Then just in time it dried up and after a couple of weeks of rain the weather cleared. After all the hot weather and then all the rain Sleeping Lady is almost clear of snow now. It doesn’t clear for long. Before you know it we will have snow on it again.

Earthquakes are common in Alaska. We had two today. Although they weren’t right underneath us earthquake waves travel quite far and people reported feeling them all over the Kenai, Southcentral Alaska and the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys. I didn’t feel the first one. But other people did and were talking about it. I did feel the second one a little while ago although it was only 4.7 magnitude. To me that’s not very big just shakes the ground a little but a lot of people don’t like them when they can feel them at all.

You have to be really careful when tying off your boat to the bank and make sure it’s double secure. One of our friends tied off to one of our steel posts but it wasn’t enough to hold it and it actually pulled the post out of the ground and the boat started going downstream dragging the post. Luckily it wasn’t too long before someone noticed their boat was missing! Friends who lived downstream happened upon the boat on the way to their place and drug it back to us. It hadn’t gotten too far. Pretty lucky!

I love it when the seals come up the river. We only see them in the summertime. They spend the rest of the year out in the Inlet or the ocean somewhere. Spring is birthing season so I think after they have their pups they head up river chasing the salmon which are heading upstream to spawn. They start showing up in July and it’s fun to watch them trying to catch fish. Once the fish have gone through they head back to their winter grounds.

Dave brought his gas powered blender to the 4th of July BBQ. No need for electricity! Great for margaritas on a hot Alaskan day! And the ice you see in the photo was sawed out of an Alaskan glacier just for this event. Seriously, I’m not kidding!

Independence Day celebration with a few friends. Great company, good food, lots of fun and games and beautiful weather.