Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 For most of my life I've lived in a Northern climate, so February has always been an  unpleasant month to me.It's like a filler between January and March. It can go either way, giving little hints and hopes of the coming spring or unpleasant reminders of winter. In a lot of ways it's kind of like me- wishy-washy; unable to set a course and stay with it. I could almost handle knowing that the month was going to continue to be cold and miserable, like January. You expect it to be nasty then, but February is unpredictable. One day it's blowing forty knots with wind chills well below zero, and the next day the sun has come out and the icecicles on the roof are melting.  Last week it was one of those brilliant sunny days and I was enticed out of my cave for a little walk down at the cannery. As you can see, I was the only one foolish enough to be out there. There was a pretty good Northeastern wind whipping up the whitecaps in Icy Straits. As long as I stayed in front of t...

 For some reason birds hold a certain fascination for me. Perhaps it's because they are like fish in that they come in such diverse colors and shapes and each one fits perfectly well in its environment. A few weeks ago a pair of Stellars Jays showed up on the scene. They usually arrive sometime around February and stick around until the snow is gone and then I  don't see them for a long while. I'm not sure where they go. It's the time of year when I start seeing a Varied Thrush or two- like the one in the middle picture. I've heard them called Telephone Birds because of the sound they make later on in the year, kind of like a phone ringing. Last week there was a Magpie hanging around. They are a beautiful bird, brilliant black and white with a hint of teal green and a long, squarish tail. I wanted to get a picture of it, but as soon as I reached for the camera, it took off. Go figure. That happened to me last year too when I heard the dog going cr...

 I can't really remember why I took this top picture.Several weeks ago I was out and around with the camera just enjoying the day and the reletively mild weather. I guess I wanted to show anyone who might be interested, a shot of the booming metropolis of Hoonah, Alaska. This is Front Street, the main drag. Actually, it looks pretty good compared to what it looked like when I arrived back in 1976. Back then the road was about half the width and was an unpaved,muddy, potholed disaster. The only cars I saw were the ones that other people from Mt. Bether had brought up here with them.  They  had to leave them in town  because there was no way to transport them to the farm; even if there was, there was nowhere to drive. Now it seems like there are almost as many cars as there are people. It's really apparent when  you're trying to get into the parking lot at Hoonah Trading. Lord knows how many accidents there have been in that lot. I guess it was fine...

 It's February 15 today, the official opening day of the Tanner Crab season here in Southeast. As you can see there are three boats tied up at the cold storage and another half dozen or more at the downtown float. I was both pleased and surprized when I looked out this morning and the boats were still tied up. I thought that I had missed my opportunity to get a few pictures of them. I spoke to one of the captains who said that the season had been delayed for forty-eight hours because of the weather. Apparently it's blowing pretty good in Lynn Canal. I can't recall Fish and Game delaying the season on account of weather before, but I don't stay on top of those things very well. I know that years ago when the halibut season was open to everyone and the season had been reduced to twenty-four hour openings, there were more than a few lives lost because of poor weather. I'm glad that they delayed this opening for a bit. When the wind blows the spray up onto the rigging o...

I spoke to my daughter Autumn the other day,and like her sister, she too felt that I was slacking off on the blog posts. The fact that I posted a record eight times last month seemed to have no impact on her at all. Perhaps I should give up trying to do any kind of work that pays and spend my entire time trying to entertain my family members. Lord knows what will happen when I die. I should probably buy a cell phone and a computer to take to the grave with me.  I had all manner of witty thoughts passing through my brain earlier in the day, but when I sat down to do the post, the pictures wouldn't upload. The Blogger site decided to do a different format or some such thing and it threw a wrench in things. Now I'm left with whatever I can wring out of my tired brain at ten P.M.- sorry about that.  This is a picture of the table next to my overstuffed chair that Rigby occasionally lets me sit in. As you can see it's piled high with an assortment of books and magazines as well...