A Green Thumb...Thumbs up

That's my old friend Porter Pollard with the first Silver salmon of the 2013 season. He caught that baby on July 31st and a few more, for me it's a big day. Porter was a long time Alaskan but like many this place just wore him down a bit and he needed some sunshine so he moved to Kingman Arizona, a very cool town. We miss him and his wife Gena who is MP's bike coach but ya gotta do what ya gotta do....so thanks for coming back Porter and kicking off the silver run which I think is going to be good. It's the way things go around here, it's extreme and I'm seeing a lot of fish early so hang on.....

What I really wanted to do with this blog is to give a nod to my favorite horticulturist, it's absolutely amazing what she and mother nature have done in concert this year. You know how I love people with passion, well MP has that and more. All summer long I see her watering the 'kids' at 4:00 am as she waits to park the folks going fishing here at Mile 14. Kind of like her art she doesn't like labels or organization but she's a 'master gardener' for sure. The flowers are tiring but still gorgeous, like everything in Alaska they're big and bold but only for a while, winter is always  coming.

She's supplied half the Kenai river in cucumbers. The pic doesn't do it justice but the vines are wrapping around the rafters 8 feet up. It's the strangest thing, I sometimes open the greenhouse when she's at work or gone and it just makes me feel good...it's like fresh air and I sense her energy, her passion.

The other greenhouse has the tomatoes coming on, man I dont' know what we're going to do with bushels of them. In the past I've always chided her for growing those little guys, ya know those cherry tomatoes that my mom put in salads and that I never really liked....well this year she's got mombo's, I'm impressed.

The outdoor garden has it all, cauliflower, lettuce, peas, carrots....well you know the deal.  she has what I call 'high rise' potatoes . She grows them in a bucket always adding more dirt as they grow. Then when one bucket is full she slips another one over it with the bottom cut out and continues the process.

But my favorite part of the entire complex is this pagoda I  built for her a few years ago for a pumpkin. She knew what she wanted but it kinda got lost in the blue print stage, it was kind of like working for Will Jahrig, one time I built a bathroom and had no idea what it was supposed to look like and why. They both knew what they wanted... I just couldn't picture it.

So you take the pagoda and put it on top of  a wheel barrel with a flat tire and walla....beautiful peppers grow....What a system MP, I gotta hand it to ya and oh.....I love ya.