Boy, the real ones look tiny compared to Mom's! Here's a few more pics of our adventures! The big fish and the dock were in Homer, and the fish were the ones Pat actually caught on Sunday morning at the Russian River. The beach is at Captain Cook State Park. It is the northern-most point that you can drive to on the peninsula except where you drive from Anchorage. In fact, there was a sign that said "End of Road!" Apparently, someone thought the road continued on through the forest?
Sorry it's taken me so long to post! I've been a little busy! We have had my mom and aunt here for the last week or so and have travelled around and done some real serious fishing!! Pat and I have both brought in fish, mom had a great time perfecting the art of "flipping," and Lissa had the opportunity to capture us on "film!" Our fishing was on the Russian River where it meets up with the Kenai River, and the other photo's are overlooking the Katchemak Bay in Homer! We finally had decent weather over the weekend, but today it's raining - again!
River Canoe trails which are north and east of the Swan Lake trails that we went on over Memorial Weekend (which I still haven't gotten my film back yet). This weekend was a little cloudy and rainy so we only went on 12 lakes! We do have this nice lighter canoe and less gear so we only portaged once most times. It was still quite heavy with all the gear in one trip! As you can see, we did get a little close to some critters! We first came close to the loon on Lure Lake while we were fishing. It kept swimming around & under us to see what we were and what our spinners were! It 
was pretty amazing! 
We camped at a great site that had this fabulous view! We didn't see this bear until we were driving out today. It was actually the 3rd black bear we saw off the road! He didn't seem too bothered by us, as he was mostly interested in eating the dandelion heads! We stopped in the road and took a few pictures and still he ate! It was incredible to be so close to him! I guess there really are bears out here!!
Monday night I came home to the smell of something sizzling! Pat made this smoker at work over the spring and brought it home the other day. (He unloaded it himself and consequently, the 1/4" steel plate box was bent slightly as it was the piece that hit the ground first out of the truck!) Let me tell you that it cooks/smokes just fine! This chicken was absolutely mouth watering! He thought it wasn't as good because of the charcoal and not wood fire. I thought it was great! Where the charcoal is sitting is also where the grill function can be utilized! You didn't think that we'd go without a smoker/grill here did you?!! Oh, yeah, in the background you can see our new canoe hanging over our car!! It's an Old Town Penobscot 16, for you canoe enthusiasts! It's 22 lbs. lighter than our Coleman! We'll take better pictures when it's out on some water! Should be soon! I hope to get our pics of the last trip soon, but we'll be out on another back-country trip this weekend! A little more back than the last time! We'll be breaking in the net!
I made myself a landing net this month. I cut a spruce sappling for the hoop and another for the handle. I used 180 feet of braided nylon for the net. It took about 580 double- overhand knots to complete the netting.
I brought home this fabulous fuchsia from the greenhouse yesterday! Isn't it gorgeous?!! It has to come inside overnight until it's hardened off. It still gets into the 30's overnight here - yuck! I'm ready for WARM!!! Warm being relative, of course! You may be asking why I didn't put this into the greenhouse? Well, my greenhouse is full of other plants! My previous effort of starting plants from seed has failed miserably, but I still have lot of other little plants growing well! My seeds died from neglect when we were off on our canoe trip!! Perhaps next time...! Oh, and for anyone wondering, Pat's "chin" will likely not grow any longer as it sticks out of his helmet and below the face-shield and tends to burn off!
