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I’m picking berries every day now as they ripen. Look at these peach berries I picked today. They are beautiful and so good!

There’s a lot of good stuff growing in the garden now but it’s buried in chickweed! I pulled a sled full and there’s still lots more. It rained like crazy today. I wore my hat but should have worn a jacket too. Got very wet!

It’s berry season! This raspberry patch is exploding with ripe berries!

A little rain and a little sunshine is just what our garden needed. It’s our little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

Mosquitos are not the only problem bugs in Alaska. Here is a swarm of midges also called no see ums or sand flies. They are at least as bad as mosquitos – actually their bite can be much worse leaving bigger welts that last or days and itch like crazy. They get you running for shelter!

The name, Susitna River, is said to said to come from a Denai’ina Indian word Sushitnu meaning “sandy river”. You can find nice beaches to walk on like this one. It’s fun to look for rocks or driftwood but you have be willing to share the beaches with bears and moose and other critters. You also often find planes using them to practice their river landing skills so be ready to duck! Sandbars can occur anywhere in the river and can be a hazard to boaters who are not aware the sandbars are under the water until they get their boat stuck on them! It’s interesting to see people standing in the middle of the river river trying to push their boat off a sandbar! They look like they are walking on water.

Cliff swallows dig holes in the sand banks of the Susitna River where they build mud nests. It’s fun to see them flying in and out as you pass by in the summertime. In the second picture you can see a few sitting in their nests.

Since silvers and pinks aren’t the best eating salmon we decided to smoke them and then can them. Haven’t tried them yet but they sure look good. We’ll make salmon salad or dip or casserole out of them one day when we need a fast dinner.

We went dipnetting again and this time managed to catch a few fish without destroying any of our equipment. Interesting weather, it was hot and sunny then it poured rain then the wind howled. We fished through it all! We found mostly pinks and silvers in the river, not my favorite to eat. I love reds. I guess I’m spoiled. It’s hard to tell the difference at first but it has a lot to do with the spots. Pinks have spots on their tails (when you dipnet you have to cut the tips of the tails off so they are hard to see in this picture) and silvers have spots on their bodies and reds have no spots at all.

It’s so light out in the summer. The other morning I woke up at 2am and this is what it looked outside from my bedroom window. The sun goes down at 12:30am and comes back up at 3:30am! Never truly dark!