Alaska Originals

One of the cool things about having the stick-to-it-ness that I have is that in this area now I have old friends...and I've had the honor of knowing the homesteaders that have mostly passed, I wish all the guides had known some of the characters that I have. So I get a call from my old friend Bonnie Koerber who I've known since the 70's when she ran The Rig Bar in old town Kenai. Me and her cousin Jerry Chapman would sneak in there on our escapes from Soldotna and Bonnie made the The Rig not just fun but a community center.  In those days if you needed work that's where you connected, my old boss Wayne Passe hired Mert Gertin in the Rig and Mert mentored me on the ways of carpentry....and then when I started to be busy guiding Bonnie was in the Car Rental business at the Kenai Airport and I sent her customers and she sent me customers. To this day we are pretty loyal to Budget Car Rentals, it's how she and us live.

So Bonnie tells me she needs Silver's which coming from her is a whole different perspective than my usual fishing friends. You see she is born and raised here and has lived off the resources for generations. Here father Alex Shadura recently passed away at the age of 96, he was a community leader back when Kenai was a village....and now a 1st class city. This morning in a semi-rain me her and her daughter Julia ' put up ' some fish for them. Here 's the two of them in the boat horsing around as usual.

Of course the focus today was to do some harvesting and we got that done....and chuckled all the way through it. They were pretty happy to have fresh salmon, Julia won a Blue Ribbon at the State Fair for a salmon salsa recipe so you know they are into it. I filleted them out, bellies for the smoker and fresh tail pieces for the barbie. Here's a pic of the ol ' who caught what ' deal.....hehehehe.

As we were saying our good byes, just for now that is, I asked if I could get a pic of Bonnie's truck and of course it's no problem. She just loves ol ' Roscoe' the truck which is a little like a red Ford I had years ago. When I asked what was special about the truck she told me that she's just attached and of course it has the 302 engine with locking hubs, a great drive line....man, now whats more Alaskan than a woman that knows all that eh ?

What a cool way for me to wind down the season of 2015, thanks for coming Bon and Julia. I only have a couple more trips on the books here and it's kind of a shame as the fishing all and all is pretty darn good. I fished my old friend Nate Morton and 2 of his 3 sons on Saturday and we just were a bit out moe-joed by this ol river. It was terribly windy on the lower river and we had to retreat but Lucas here managed some fish and whats better than the smile on an 8th grader. So Nate buddy, good lord willing and the creeks don't rise we'll so it all again in 2016....On your b-day Sept 4th.....

I see on my counter that I'm closing in on 90,000 reads.....holy moly. Thanks to you all for having interest in this crazy life me and MPeasy lead. Thanks for keeping the faith, I got the feeling that a whole bunch of you view this ol world through the same unfiltered lenses that I do , fidelity, fun, steady and honest, a little risky and having the  faith that everything will turn out alright.....oh....and don't forget the world always needs some raw sung country songs.