Fun guy and gal @ the fungus fair

This weekend Ashley and I hit up Fungus Fair in Girdwood. We went to the formal on Friday night and had a five course meal with each course containing a variety of wild and domestic mushrooms. We met up with some ol' friends and met some new ones. The guest speakers were as entertaining and charismatic as the lectures were informitive with local specialists Kate Mohatt (USFS), Dominique Collet (author)and visting from the east cost Lawrence Millman and author of Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Steve Trudell. We attended a workshop where we each made an Oyster mushroom log to grow over the winter lead by Ken Gill.
By Sunday we had our fill of mushrooms and Girdwood so we packed up the truck for a trip down the Kenai Peninsula to Seward. We camped along the banks of Exit Glacier River outside of Kenai Fiords National Park. The river had resently flooded and most of the surounding forest was still wet and downed woody debris piled against the shore lines made finding a spot in the dark a chalenge. By the time we woke up the next day a storm had moved in on us and the visibility was low with the clouds hanging at ~1500 feet. We bagged the climb up to the Harding Ice Field and did a short walk up to the face of Exit Glacier. It has been so much fun traveling with Ashley as she graciously drives me around. I will miss her during her travels back east to see her family and then down to Costa Rica for two months banding birds.

pink paws, rainbows, and creekside camping

September is here and the leaves are changing. I went up to Hatchers Pass last weekend with Ashley and we camped along the river on the Willow side of the pass. The reds from the Dwarf Dogwood/bunch berry (Cornus canadensis), Blueberries (Vaccinium Spp.)and Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) and the golden yellow from the Willow (Salix Spp.) and Birch(Betula neoalaskana and papyrifera var. kenaica) painted the mountain side with colors of the burning sunset and rainbow that we saw on our drive in.

Maggie is getting restless as she can anticipate our move to a new cabin as she got into the powdered cure that we use for making salmon eggs into bait so she has a lovely pink color on her face and paws. I just put down the deposit for our cabin up on the mountain side for next year. It is an old A-frame and a dry cabin with lots of blueberries on site. So in the next few weeks I need to dig an outhouse and plan my water system, as well as patch up some insulation and fix the roof. The swans are in at Potters Marsh south of Anchorage and Fungus Fair is this weekend. I have had fun meeting with some of the experts as they are staying in the bunkhouse with Ashley. I saw one of the biggest King Bolete mushrooms (Boletus barrowsii)from one of the guest speakers collections. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Whiskey Puppy @ the Brown Bear

Purple hands and wet boots.

The nights are getting chilly but we have not had any hard frosts yet. Ullr can you hear me?












I've been down to Old Girdwood a few times fishing for cohos (Oncorhynchus kisutch) but catching only pinks(O. gorbuscha).
Funny things have happened to me in the last few weeks like the yard sale/ car wash. I'll be working through the hard parts (not the end of the world)















but enjoy the best parts and one of those is meeting an amazing girl. The craziest thing is she likes me too. Ashley and I have been working the woods around Girdwood for blueberries, and other edibles like; nettles, and shrooms if we can find them. Spending the evenings tromping till our boots are soaked and hands purple (from the berries) and numb (from the nettles). I look forward to getting in the kitchen and doing some cooking and baking with our forest goodies with her. She took me to her plot in the community garden and it was one of the better gardens. We poked around thinking about how to make the kale and carrots grow better for next year and what other veggies and herbs would do well in our rainforest. Next year I’m in. I am starting to dream now about what I could grow.

Where did July go.

This Friday I will have worked 27 days in a row. Saturday I'm taking off and driving down to Soldotna to see some David Alen Coe with some folks from town. We had such a nice start to summer but the rain has hit and does not look like it will break for the next few weeks. Ha....................... This is why I like it here. Big pineapple express giving us 50-70 mph wind in the fiord and warm rain.

Swimming at Moose Flats

hot time summer in the city..courthouse rm. 501

Back in the courthouse this summer.

A subpoena for Mr. Whynotski’s testimony is attached to this message.

It's been hot and I'm not talking about witnessing arson, that was years ago. Alaska is like a sauna... hot , humid and smelling like cedar with the wild fires off of Funny River Road, Maggie now looks forward to her outside baths. The fests are over, Forest Fair was keen,











Melissa Mitchel & Whipsaws stold the show and back at the house it took us some time to kill the keg of Mooses Tooth











but we had a good hooping session. The days are still long and silvers are in Bird Creek!