Me bride and I have made a tradition out of putting together a picnic on our anniversary and going down to the creek and enjoying a little time together.
We always have the same thing.....fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and something to drink.

It's a simple, silly thing, but we like it. A little alone time to ourselves. Normally we lock the dogs on the porch, but this year, what the heck, "Sure they can come."

Ah, fried chicken, potato salad, beans....mmmmm



and then the "kids" show up and I remember why we lock them up.

Happy Anniversary!!!!
Thanks for sharing your special day with us. Loved the pic with the pooches. Here's to many more.

That lab has locked on......

Good story And Happy Anniversary.

Tomorrow the Mrs. and I will be celebrating our 20th W/A.

Mf

Thanks for sharing Slab! Still got all your digits?

cool

coho run up that crick? or does it get the chums like the crick next door?

Funny you should ask, Mark. Just got the numbers to date of outbound smolt.

coho: 12,678
steelhead: 298
cutthroat: 21

There will be more, but it's tapering off.

wow thats still pretty impressive! you think poisoning the lake that one time screwed up the crick at all?

"It's a simple, silly thing, but we like it."

It may be simple but it's not silly. We've been married since '72 and sometimes it seems we get to going in two different directions. Taking the time to share simple times together are the best.

Looks to me like the pups are tag teaming you.

Happy anniversary Slab!

The lab knows what he's doing. Got his eye on the fork not the plate.

Mark,
the poisoning of Crocker Lake is a sore point. Not so much the poisoning, but the way the whole thing came off. WDFW claimed to have notified the owners around the lake, yet the guy who lives right next to the launch heard nothing, as did no one else. The "crew" swept in here like a swat team and poisoned the lake "because there were pike in it"...."no one knows how they got in there"...."we will restock the lake when we are done"...."the bass will be transferred to Lake Leland" It's possible that some of the last quote was the only truth. We were told that the reason no one was told but the County Commissioners was because they didn't want anybody transferring the pike to other waters.

Let's just say that the whole thing was handled very badly, and there is much doubt as to much of anything I was told. Here's a quick for-instance. Who has control over pike in this State?....only one entity...WDFW. Have they had pike? yes, to breed with muskies to create tiger-muskies used to control other unwanted species of warm water fish. So let's see then, if WDFW wanted a "rearing pond" for salmon enhancement reasons, could/would they plant pike in order to have an excuse to sterilize a lake in order to remove it from the public fishing roles? Hmmm....

One might also ask, "Why would anyone.....anyone....choose to get pike, transport them across many states, to plant them, in all places, in Crocker Lake? Crocker Lake?, you kiddin' me? A mud bottom, shallow, nothing of a lake? Makes no sense for any individual to do such a thing, IMO.

Any way, the poisoning of the lake, was botched as well and the rotenone got into the creek and killed many fish of all varieties far down from the lake outlet. Again the results were downplayed, and likely would not have been revealed at all except that a land owner, no, it was not me, called in the press and caught some of the results.

The end result has been, after a "public meeting"..one of which I was very verbally present...was that the WDFW aquired a private rearing pond, which has been quite successful in nurturing young salmon. Too bad the whole thing wasn't just handled in a wide open, "this is what we want to do" fashion. Would have left a lot of folks much more receptive to the idea and increased the trustworthiness of an outfit that certainly could use it. There are few things I hate more than "sneaky". Done.