It’s been a cloudy and breezy day today. The high was in the mid-60’s and nighttime lows are still mostly in the 40’s. Just over a week ago, we got down to 37 degrees during the night. In spite of this, most of the garden in continuing to do well. I’m not sure how well the roots of the root vegetables will do this year as the soil is very rich with old poultry compost. However, the leaves are all bright and colorful and I’m quite sure, filled with good nutrients just waiting to be harvested.

I just ate a bowl full of fresh, sliced nectarines with some homemade almond-oat milk sweetened with dates. Wow, was that good. Dinner will be a bit late tonight. My husband and I went to a Chinese restaurant after the parade today. The food was good, although I know there was an avoid or two in the mix.

This was an unusual parade for us as the grandkids weren’t in it or even spectators. My husband and I were part of the Crime Stoppers float and candy distributors. This was our first year to participate in the parade and it was fun seeing so many people we know. My eldest son was also a participant; however, he was with the newspaper group. Kenai has a parade during the Fourth of July and Soldotna has their parade, aka, the Soldotna Progress Days Parade on the fourth Saturday of July and has for 46 years, now. Many people and organizations participate in one or both parades each year. And, each year the list of entrants becomes longer. Today’s parade was over two hours long…and there were still many, many spectators. We gave out over 2,000 candies mostly to the kids.

Most of the fishing has been closed for the Kenai River because of lack of returning red salmon. Commercial fishing was curtailed for yesterday and the dip-net fishery ends tonight at midnight. Sports fishermen are allowed one salmon daily and only one in possession. Fortunately, my husband was able to bring home 15 reds at the beginning of the run so I have enough vacuum sealed salmon packs in the freezer for two meals per month. We still have some canned salmon and some smoked salmon form last year, so we shouldn’t be hurting too much if the season doesn’t re-open. The fish seem to be running a couple weeks late this year due to the colder water temperatures. The kings came in late and now the reds. If the escapement goals are met, the fisheries will re-open.

The tally for moose hit and killed on the peninsula highways from July 1st last year through June 30th this year is only 211. The snow wasn’t very deep so the moose didn’t spend much time on the roads. That does make a big difference. The Matanuska-Susitna area above Anchorage had quite a few more hits this year. Meat from the road kills goes to charities and some to the people who came out to take care of the carcass. No meat goes to waste. Whatever may be left behind is eaten by the ravens, eagles, or magpies.

I need to go start thinking about dinner. I spent a lot of time reorganizing my kitchen this week and making dinner should be a bit easier. There is some Black Angus beef, ground, in the refrigerator. I also have fresh broccoli and carrots to steam. That’s probably going to be the bulk of dinner. I want to make some cookies or a quick bread using the “waste” from making my soy and almond-oat milks yesterday. Experimentation is in the fore-cast.

Well, this is about all for tonight. Take care. Till next time….