A Full Summer

We had a really good summer!  Once again we went on a fishing charter in mid-August with our favorite guide.  It was a very stormy day and we weren't sure if our fishing trip was still a go but our guide knows the Ocean better than land so we trust him - and he was so right.  We had our charter with him last year with another company but this year he has purchased his own boat and we were happy to be one of his first year customers.  While there was wind, rain and thunderstorms on the land we went fishing about a 45 minute boat ride from Comox and the sky opened up, it was sunny and after being initally a bit rough the water calmed right down.  The fish were biting our hook like crazy.  We caught 14 fish in total, only could keep 5 (there is a limit of one per person plus I caught a hatchery fish so that doesn't count in your limit).  We were actually tired of reeling them in so had our guide catch one of the last ones for his family.  The rest were too small or species we couldn't keep.  Our guide filleted and gutted them for us and we ended up going home with 28 lbs of salmon!  I really wanted to catch a ling cod but no such luck - there is always next year.  Now I won't worry if the forecast is for lousy weather, often conditions are completely different out on the water. By the way, I do know how to gut a fish as did so many times as a kid but we would have been there all day if we did it including the filleting part, he is such a pro it only took him about 10 minutes.

Hubby, our guide, me and Mom 

We ended up buying a foodsaver machine from Costco to package up the salmon.  We have already used it for other things so worth it for the investment.  After only having caught one large fish last year we were not expecting to have to package so much fish!

The seals always hang out at the fish cleaning station waiting for the spine and head.  They don't seem to like other bits. Picky eaters lol.  The salmon were absolutely full of 3-4 inch herring which made it easy to fish for the salmon as we just looked for the large schools of herring on the fish finder and sure enough, we caught our limit.

We had a large family barbeque of salmon when my stepson and his girlfriend came.  That tasted fabulous - we use a Cookina grilling mat for all our bbqing ever since I nearly had an incident with a metal piece from a bbq brush in early Spring.  Fortunately I felt the metal in my mouth so was able to spit it out - but for anyone who still uses metal brushes, please stop.  We use crumpled tin foil and cookina mats now for all of our bbqing and they work great, especially on fish as it keeps the moisture in.  

Hubby made a salmon chowder last weekend, and to be perfectly honest I don't love salmon.  Hubby and Mom do so they will eat most of it.  This recipe changed my mind though, it was excellent and I hope he makes it again - it had chicken broth, dill, potatoes, cream, butter, corn, chives, and peppers and was simply wonderful.

BC had it's worse forest fire year ever unfortunately but we were some of the lucky ones as had none near us.  Still, all the smoke from the many fires drifted over the island, making for this eerie picture of the sun at midday.  It looks like an orange moon instead.  I am not complaining though as many in the Province had day after day of heavy thick smoke that hurt eyes and hampered breathing.  We only had a few days like that as wind off the ocean cleared it away from us most of the itme.  Many in the Province lost their homes and livelihoods again to fire, so sad.

The smoky skies did make for this pretty sunset picture taken at the Comox Marina.

The blackberries this year are plentiful and scrumptious and I could have easily filled my freezer up more than I did.  There will be a jam making session shortly to use some of them up but I also enjoyed them almost daily for breakfast.  The strawberries were from my small patch and BC produces some of the tastiest nectarines in the world.  

  Buddy was up to his usual cuteness - here he is relaxing.  I was supposed to be working but he ws trying to distract me.

We had a really nice visit with my eldest Stepson (age 26) and his girlfriend.  They met just over a year ago and now live together in Ottawa.  She is the loveliest girl, and likely will be our future daughter-in-law.  It was the first time meeting her and after a few days she certainly felt like part of the family, only time will tell.

 My mini-garden is producing although my tomato plants were a bit of a dissapointment this year.  Next year I will stick to beefsteak and grape tomatoes.  All were small although plentiful and I should have tomatoes until about October 1 as it doesn't frost here until November.  There are a few cucumber babies on the plant, not sure if they will shrivel up and die like last time or grow into full cucumbers but next year with several plants I will be in cucumbers all summer.  They grow fast and are so incredibly tasty right off the vine.

 This shot was taken at our local farm market, they planted sunflowers in their pumpkin patch.  This was taken mid August, the pumpkins are much larger now as I was just there on Friday.

I have a couple of major work projects this month so although I will be back to blogging, it may be a few days between posts.  Cheers everyone, I hope you had a fabulous summer too!