June

It seems as if the trade off for the long winter was a sunny and warm June, the likes of which no one in Homer has seen in 20 years. Mid 60s doesn't sound all that warm, but it felt like it. We had consistent warm sun and blue skies for an entire month.

 

That is really my car parked in our driveway (above) and Kate sunning herself on the deck (below).

We spent a lot of time in our yard and on the deck because unlike the beach and park, there was no wind. The kids played in the yard with the hose and even went for a dip in the ocean with some friends.

I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, with the hood up, while taking the above photo. Here they are looking a little cold after 20 minutes of running around in the water.

The dynamic has shifted among siblings this summer as James is now old enough for some organized sports/activities and Kate has come to value a completely unstructured summer day. James is playing soccer and taking swim lessons and Kate is perfectly happy to run around with the older siblings in lieu of being on the field or in the pool.

Kate, however, is now old enough to participate in HoWL (Homer Wilderness Leaders). So far, she has been canoeing and stand-up paddle boarding on the resevoir, swimming (with a wet suit) in Kachemak Bay, and learning to cook on the beach. I'm pretty sure the last one involved a serious amount of chocolate and marshmallows though. She is leaving next week for a week at sleep away camp and I hope to have her do a future blog post about camp.

We've had great success with our garden boxes. I am eating salads regularly from our garden and the carrots are just about ready. The snap peas are the only thing that didn't like transferring outdoors. These photos were taken in late June.

Salad greens, spinach, & mesclun

Container gardening proved a good method for us as we did not do any fall prep to our yard or the wildly overgrown garden plots that came with the house. These garden boxes do not require any weeding and are inaccessible to moose, rabbits, porcupine, etc. So far, they have also been slug free.

Broccoli, carrots, and some rough looking snap peas.

Below, the kids are planting a few variety of potatoes. This bed was full of weeds and a lone raspberry bush, so I attempted to clear it and turn it over. We are hoping potatoes will be easy enough to keep track of and weed around.

I started clearing another bed until I ran into pushki (photo below). It is ever present in Alaska and our yard. On the Kenai Peninsula, pushki, known as cow's parsnip in the lower 48, can grow over 6 feet tall. It produces a large white flower in July, but the plant can cause blistering rashes if you touch it (or the liquid in the stalk anyway). The plant is photosensitive too, so the blisters are much worse if your skin is exposed to the sun after you touch it.

Needless to say, I just threw wildflower seeds in that bed and decided it wasn't worth my effort. Once the plant has died in the fall, it is safe to dig up, but I think it is really difficult to clear it all. I think I'll stick to what I've got so far.

The week of summer solstice found me reading in bed until 1am without any lights on. The master bedroom in our house is a loft, so it never really gets dark in the summer. I often stay up until well after midnight and it's still light when I climb in bed. I've also been up with James to hit the toilet around 3:30am and it's as if the sun is just rising. Finally, a 2:30am trip to the lou proved it does get darkish here in the summer. It was, however, a full moon so it wasn't too dark. It was actually a super moon with extreme high and low tides. We went to do a bit of tide pooling the next day.

 

Low tide is great for finding all kinds of cool stuff, and Kate is really good at it.

Sea anenome

Teeny tiny flounder (no idea how she spotted this one),

Below, Kate digs for the elusive clam

Brian came home in mid June and immediately went to work on a fort for the kids. We found a couple shipping pallets with a large note that said FREE last month and have had them in our yard (true Alaska style) for a while awaiting construction. His vision for turning the pallets into a fort was pretty amazing.

As you can imagine the kids want to live in the fort. Kate made several traditional and original games with rocks and scrap wood to play in the fort. Below they are tyring to move in before we finished the floor.

We have since completed the siding, floors and screened in the windows, but this is the only photo I have and I am feeling pressed to publish this June blog post since I'm about to turn the calendar to August. I fear if I don't post something soon I will get buried and not want to dig myself out.

June also brings the first run of sockeye (red) salmon. Friends told us they went 2 hours to the Russian River for a day trip and caught 3 each. They said the fish were bumper to bumper in the river and the water was crystal clear. The next few days were booked for us, but we hoped to catch the tail end of the 7-10 day run. I suggested we go for the day, but Brian felt strongly it was time for our family to camp. I noted the name of a hotel with free breakfast and a pool enroute and prayed all the campsites would be taken. This particular river is arguably the most popular salmon fishing site in Alaska and there are only two salmon runs each summer. I had a shot. Alas, there was one site available at one of the three campsites near the river. We set up the tent and headed for the river.
We knew the confluence of the Kenai and Russian Rivers was the combat fishing zone pictured in post cards. We knew that the Russian River was notorious for bears, but somehow I expected to catch fish and not see bears. It was quite the opposite. Shortly after leaving the parking lot, we followed the wooden stairs down the the river and followed the boardwalk along the river. We walked only a few short steps when we saw 3 brown bears eating salmon from the river. Are you shitting me? A bear eating a salmon out of the river! It was like everything you expect from this enormous state 20 yards in front of me. Completely wild.

It was on the bucket list, but I kind of hoped I didn't see it, but then again I really wanted to see it and not in some bear preserve or from a bus. My heart was beating crazy fast. You won't believe this, but I actually was carrying my fancy camera too. All bear encounters are a bit scary, but it helps when the bears are happily eating salmon out of the river and Brian and I are both carrying bear spray. I most certainly would not want to meet these bears in the fall as they try to put on weight by eating berries (or god forbid me) because the fish have stopped running. There was a mama bear and two juveniles. By the time I processed and got out my camera, mama was in the tall grass supervising the little ones as they ate. She paced back and forth watching the whole time and when they took off to follow her, they were really, really fast.

The fishing pole is just a prop here. I had to hold it so Brian could take the photo. We had truly just walked up to the river and no one was fishing (except the bears). Actually, most of what they are eating is fish leftovers. Anglers usually gut the fish, sometimes even fillet it, in the river. Then, they throw the carcass back in the river. Birds and bears (and our kids) don't seem to mind that the river is literally flowing with fish parts.

Above, mama bear supervises from the tall grass as baby comes closer to us to grab a fish from the river. Is this blowing your mind?

My heart was exhausted and full all at the same time. I didn't really care if we caught a fish or not. This is what you want to see in Alaska or at least this is how you want your bear encounter to unfold. Offhand, I can remember one other similar experience traveling in Scotland. We were tired and cramped after a long day of driving in the tiny car. The Isle of Skye proved farther than expected. Driving extremely narrow, country roads (on the opposite side mind you) is not easy for the driver or the person in the passenger seat who is sure they will die at the next turn. We realized we couldn't make it to our planned stop for the night, yet there wasn't really any place to stop. Baby Kate is in the car. Then, we come around a turn and see a magnificent castle, hanging out just a smidge into the loch. Donan castle has a spotlight on it and oh yes a bagpiper playing on the bridge to the castle. He isn't wearing the Ramsay Tartan, but naturally he is in full Scottish dress. I insist we stop the car so I can take it all in. I remember being so choked up and thinking the entire scene was beyond iconic, and the most insane part was that I was standing in the middle of it. I didn't need any more Tenants, fish and chips, thistle, or sheep. I had experienced Scotland. Strangely enough, I really FEEL like I live in Alaska now because I had my own little bear encounter.

Brian, however, wanted salmon. So, we walked further along the boardwalk until we hit the confluence of the two rivers. Only one person we passed walking out had fish. This was disheartening, but still it was worth the walk and a few attempts to cast out. Although you can fish from the banks, there were not a lot of people doing so. Brian is the only one with chest waders, so he headed out to give it a go.

Although busy, it's not anywhere near the combat fishing of magazines and postcards. It was kind of cool to see the two different rivers meet though. The Russian River is crystal clear. You can see if the fish are running or not. This is probably why the bears like it so much. The Kenai River is glacier fed. It is a beautiful blue and makes for wonderful photos when you drive over it, but the river is silty so you can't see the fish.

The photo below shows a make-shift fish cleaning station in the middle fo the two rivers. You can see the blue of the Kenai flowing into the Russian.

Although he didn't catch a salmon, neither did anyone else. (Well, we did see two or three during our 1 hour visit). It appears as if the early sockeye run is mostly complete. Oh well. The second run is bigger anyway, and I SAW A BEAR EAT A FISH OUT OF A RIVER.

I got what I wanted, so now the kids got what they wanted, roasted marshmallows.

Surprisingly, the camp experience was okay. We used the ship's morale tent. It fit four sleeping bags perfectly and we crammed the dog in too. The kids slept pretty well. I didn't because the camp host told us there was a bear that wandered there often. I laid awake most of the night trying to think what I would actually do when I heard him/her huffing and snorting outside the tent. Thankfully, it was a non issue. Brian and I both agreed the yoga mat was not sufficient under our sleeping bags, so we stopped on the way home to pick up some new camp mats since we already have planned to camp with some friends next week. Pretty soon we won't be able to fit all this gear in our car!

In addition to everything above, the Farmer's Market is back up and running, the hippies are back in town, Homer is overrun with RVs, and there is a new season of Alaska: The Last Frontier on Discovery Channel. This season depicts the fall and winter that we just experienced. Even though we have run into 8 of the 9 cast members in town already (I will find you Charlotte), and we know they don't all live on the homestead or live a completely self sufficient life style, I can't get enough of the show.

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