When life serves you lemons....make....

Bokashi.....Theres a lot to love about MP, one of the biggies is her indomitable spirit. She doesn't get down and if she did she wouldn't let me know, she wouldn't want to bring me down. So with the wheels falling squarely off the cart here at Mile 14 she decides too keep herself busier with a science project...building Bokashi. If you don't know what Bokashi is you obviously missed the June 1972 edition of Mother Earth News. Here's what I know about it.

That's exactly the kind of thing I wanna see sitting on my kitchen counter. You get yourself a pickle jar and mix some sugar and I'd guess some yeast along with some other stuff so it gets to growing real well. You stick in the dark basement for exactly two weeks and walla....a gelatinous mass. I kinda figured that the sludge part was the good stuff but nope....it goes to the dump on saturday toxic waste day and the liquid makes Bokashi.

Then you go down to the farm store and you buy some oats or wheat or grain of some kind that smells alot like my grandpas's house in Norfolk Nebraska used to. Then you mix it by hand with what used to be a slime ingredient.....mmmm.

Then its back to the same place in basement for two weeks as the whole deal festers really good. The black Costco bag is closed so the smell stays put but every now and then I think I can see that thing moving....no worries, you wait another two weeks and its time to dry it out, let er cure. Of course for this step you need a sunny day so I have the feeling that Mile 14 isn't the ideal Bokashi industry start-up location.

Now on this particular Bokashi curring day it was only sunny for 2 hours, about the extent of our summer. So, the stuff had to come into my garage. The good news is that MP kept the heat on for it so my rain gear actually got dry for a change.....And, the usual fish smell that's been lacking a bit this year was replaced by a kind of  'arm pit' odor that reminded be a lot of the locker room in Helena's YMCA.

So then the finished product ends up on my prep table with all the other important parts of my empire. MP says she can get 10 bucks a bag for it at the farmers market so she's starting another batch. I guess its kind of like sourdough starter that once you have it going you're a biscuit eating fool.....Now you're most likely wondering what you do with it, I certainly was. I figured it might be for the dog or maybe fertilizer for the pumpkin or ....well....you put it in your compost pile and all your yucky stinking table scraps turn into good stuff for the mad gardener in your life. It makes your compost really good. Yahtzee, that's what I was needing.

Now when it comes to the Kenai River I'm a rules guy but when it comes to life I'm really not. So I decided to bend the rules just a bit so you could see one of the 3 Kings we encountered yesterday. We're not supposed to take them out of the water in our catch and release fishery but trust me, it was only a mili second and ol slimey swam off just fine. If people have a problem with that arrest me...I could use a break.

My friend Roger Langford caught that 35 pounder. It was a cold blustery day on the Kenai but we had a great time. Very few boats, lots of eagles and seals and we had an impromptu trivia contest that I think I took top honors on....Do you know why they call the bad part of town Skid Row?....well I do. And at the end of the day in our Bokashi drying room I felt like playing a couple songs for the guys, a little Kevin Fowler and when they left I belted out a good Jimmy Buffet song.

I got a roof over my head

someone to love me and a 4 poster bed

and I can play this here guitar

and thank my lucky stars

I'm gonna thank my lucky stars.....