Guest Post from Brenda

My cousin Brenda lives in one town in Alaska

She went over 300 miles to visit with a friend in Anchorage.
Here, I’ll let her tell it:
I was visiting with my friend.
I went down to smoke the salmon we caught while we were in Chitina.

What an experience.

We smoked close to 40 fish in all. Most of them were reds but some were kings.
It took about 36 hours to complete a batch from filleting to packaging.

We did 5 batches.

We were working in the doorway to her open garage.

That way we had access to water from the hose and didn’t have the mess in the kitchen.

I had a great time.
All the neighbors visited while we were working.

The weather co-operated nicely.
We had sunshine only two of the 10 days.  (The sun influences the cookers.  The hotter the day the faster the fish dries and if it dries too quickly, it turns into jerky before morning.  We would then have to get up in the middle of the night to turn the smokers off).
The other 8 days were cool and cloudy but not raining.

I took the pictures of the fireweed coming home.

There were miles and miles of the beautiful pinkish purple flowers.

It is always a wonder that we have such a wonderful flower growing wild along the side of the road.

I love driving to Anchorage during the last week in July.

The weather here at home has been pretty near to perfect.  It has been in the mid to high 70’s during the day and cool at night.  If it has rained, it seems to do so after 10 PM and clears up before we get up in the morning.
The mosquitos have been few and far between.  My flowers are looking great.

Take Care.  Love, Brenda

Well, now, wasn’t that fun?  She is a retired teacher, so she knows a good story when she has the opportunity, and she said I could use it for my blog.
I love knowing she carries on a family tradition of preserving food herself rather than depending on what’s at the store all the time.

And that’s it for now, Folks.  Behind me, there’s a chair holding up a pile of papers, and a full box underneath, so who knows what I’ll find.
I’m thinking it has something to do with overdue Christmas cards.

Happy Monday!
~~love and Huggs, Diane

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