Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

It's May 31st and what a May it has been! With the exception of just a few days, we have had more sun than we've seen for quite a while. Of course the few days that it rained happened to be days when my boat was hauled out and I was trying to paint, but that's ok. There have been so many good days this month that it's hard to complain. The bugs haven't even been bad yet, which is a real blessing. Usually when I'm trying to paint the boat, either the no-see-ums are so thick you can hardly breath without sucking a dozen in at a time or the horse flies are waiting for me to put my guard down so they can chow down on my flesh. I'm pretty diligent about keeping an eye out for them though. I don't get much painting done when they are around, but you should see all the dead horse flies littering the water around the boat. Today is another sunny day and it looks like in the next few days it's going to get really, really hot! The forcast is for 80 degree pl...

If I can get some pictures to finish uploading to the web page you'll be able to see what I have been working on for the last few weeks. The page says that it's uploading pictures, but I don't believe it. The internet around here has been incredibly slow lately. For a couple days we didn't have any internet service at all. Apparently the internet provider has an antenna on top of the cold storage roof, and the cold storage is getting some electrical work done, so that knocked out our internet. Sometimes living here is like being in Bizzarro world- from the Superman comic books. In that world everything worked backwards. I don't know very much about how the internet works- and frankly, I don't really care. I do care about having a reliable internet service here though- something that has been exceedingly difficult to obtain. I can't understand why. I know that we're kind of in the bush, but we're not that isolated. It kind of boggles the mind. I c...

It's May 12, and so far spring has been all that anyone could ask for. What a contrast to the past several years. It runs in my mind that there were only about 18 days of sun last spring and summer. This year has far exceeded that already. I love this view. There is a dirt road above the town that stretches for several miles. There are only a few breaks in the trees like this one.As you can see, the view is fantastic. On the left is the entrance to the small boat harbor. The breakwater extends all the way to Graveyard Island. I'm not sure how many people are buried there, but it I believe the city is looking for a new site. The mountain off in the distance is Seagull Mountain. Like all the area around here, it has been extensively logged, which is evident by the large bare patches on the sides of the mountain. The area on the other side of the breakwater is shallow and supports a healthy stock of Dungeness crabs. Quite a few of the locals keep crab pots in the area. It'...