Postings from 20 August 2010 to 2 November 2010

Tuesday 2 November 2010

      Nice to see the election news tonight. Limited government is always a good idea; Jefferson and John Stuart Mill said it better than me. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Alaska senatorial campaign when I wake up tomorrow morning.

      In more prosaic news, we have a resident robin at the bird feeder. The poor guy. This is not very favorable robin territory in the winter, and I've tried my best to help out by leaving sunflower chips and raisins. He's sitting there in a corner, forlorn, pecking away at the seeds while the gray jays come in sometimes to harass him. We also have a dark-eyed junco, which happens every once in a while.

      Take a gander at Joe's pumpkin. The face is an orc warrior from World of Warcraft. It looked really cool in the middle of the night on the porch. The photo of the river up above was taken on 21 October near the boat landing on the river; the ice stopped moving a few days later.

Friday 8 October 2010

      I'm in Fairbanks and just got back from the doctor's office concerning the CPAP machine and the impact that it's had on my body. He told me that the real reason to eliminate the apnea is that it also radically reduces my chances for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. He looked at the weight and heart rate and blood pressure and said, "Congratulations on saving your life." A pretty powerful moment, certainly, and one that puts into perspective the pettiness of interpersonal politics, the minor stressors of working in government schools, and the pile of responsibilities which I've imposed on myself.

      Afterwards, I went to Hot Licks and got a hot fudge sundae with pomogranate sherbert and chocolate sprinkles. It tasted good.

Our unsuccessful moose hunting trip

      It was a beautiful day completely unpunctuated by any moose. Joe and I went out really early in the morning, got caught in the thick fog on the Yukon River around the islands outside Bear Creek, and finally got to the happy hunting grounds. The only thing we successfully hunted was a single spruce hen, wandering the shore of Bear Creek when I went to take the photo below. That photo of the creek was shown on Channel 2's weather forecast a few days later. The only moose we saw was already cut up on a blue tarp. A beautiful day, though. I'm learning and maybe next year we'll finally get something.

Garden pickings at the end of the season

      From left: Convolvulus, cauliflower "Amazing", cabbage "January King"

      We finally learned how to grow pumpkins up here at the edge of the treeline! They were nice, too - some of them came in at 10 to 15 pounds. We had a glorious September and the cabbages, turnips, kohlrabi, and potatoes came out great, too. We must have about 200 pounds of potatoes. Nice stuff all around.

In honor of Mario

      One of the saddest news in a long time came with the news that Mario has passed away in Durban. Sitting with Mario and watching the 2006 World Cup was one of the best memories from our trip back to Isa's home, and I really wanted to return to South Africa and watch a match or two or three with him down there. He was a good man. I will miss him.

Fall's early arrival in Galena

      We went out driving to the end of the road on 20 August to look at the scenery, running into some yellowing cottonwoods, a somber grayscape along the side of the slough, and this big old bad boy at the dump, (sadly) eating the debris of the community.

Garden scenics from 20 August 2010

      It's ending up to be a great garden year, even though it rained literally for a month straight after the middle of July. The brocolli are doing beautifully and we were able to collect many raspberries and peas. The frost is coming, but we should be able to fill the root cellar and freezer. Maybe all that rain actually helped out.