Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

Well, it's happened again. My daughter Camille called and let me know that she wasn't happy with my last blog entry. Apparently it wasn't entertaining enough for her. So now, I have to provide entertaining blogs on a frequent enough basis to satisfy her or I will be getting an unfavorable review. Oh, the pressure. I explained that there are only so many things to write about and she suggested I do a blog on cheese and crackers, one of my favorite snacks. Of course throwing a little Pace Picante Sauce into the mix livens it up considerably. As you can see, I have the large economy size. Several years ago I asked an artist friend of mine to paint a picture of me in my rainpants holding a king salmon in one hand and a bottle of Pace in the other. I love this stuff. I wanted it painted on the top house of the boat. Unfortunately, she left before she could get around to it. Bummer. Jan keeps telling me all the cheese I eat will clog my arteries. She's probably right. I'l...

There is a general feeling in the writing community that you should write about what you know. If I limited myself to that, I'd have very little to say indeed, so I'm kind of stepping off the deep end here and writing about something I know almost nothing about. The totem poles shown here are located in the Hoonah City Schools parking lot. I'm not sure how it is that they came to be there, except that it was a large enough public area to house them. I do know that they were carved by Rick and Mick Beasley, twin brothers who have a lot of ability when it comes to the art of carving. I can't really recall when these were put in place. I believe they are probably made out of red cedar, which of course lasts a long time. Several weeks ago I spoke to Gordy Greenwald about the totem poles, but unfortunately, he was either somewhat vague or I've forgotten most of what he told me. I suspect the latter. Gordy taught wood shop here at school and also taught a course in Nort...

As you can see, I have a bowl of macaroni salad on the counter. It may not look like macaroni salad, but it is. It actually looks better in real life- the picture isn't doing it justice. Every now and then I make a bowl of it to go along with the rest of some meal or another. Tonight we're going up to the church for a pot luck, so that's what I'm bringing. A few weeks ago, I was in Hoonah Trading when one of the single fellows who works at the forest service came in and was lamenting the fact that the store didn't carry any cold salads any more, like macaroni or potato salad. I said, "just make your own." Well, apparently he doesn't know how, so I said, "next time I make it,I'll bring you some." So that's what I did. He was all excited and thanked me and even gave me a "God bless you", so I left his office feeling all good about myself. As I was walking home the thought occured to me- what if for some reason he ate it and g...