Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 Where in the heck are my pants? How often have you heard or said that? You could substitute socks, underwear, shirt, jacket or assorted and sundry other items. I was getting ready to take a shower this morning and was looking for a clean pair of jeans to wear. Off to the left of the closet I have some that are in no-man's land. They're visiting the dress slacks and I have orders from my wife that I can't wear them for working in. Amongst the better pants I even have a pair of white jeans. What the heck...? Why? Why do I have a pair of white jeans? I'm sure I must have bought them some time back, but whatever for? You can imagine that five minutes after I've donned them they'll be covered with salsa, grease, dog hair or a combination of all three. I don't like light colored pants anyway.They always show everything. I can't tell you how many times I've turned on a faucet in a public restroom and the stream of water is like all of Niagara Fal...

  For all intents and purposes, the 2012 fishing season is pretty much over for most of the troll fleet. There will still be a few hard noses who will go out to catch some winter kings after the season opens in October, but most of them are located where there is more access to the ocean. Here in Hoonah  the stalls are filled with the boats that have been out fishing all summer. The last of the tour ships has come and gone and the charter operators are secure in their slips. Some of the guys are working furiously to build frames over their boats to support the tarps that will keep the snow off. There are last minute oil changes and leaders that need coiled up. Spoons and flashers are stowed until next spring and there are handshakes and farewell greetings as different ones go to places unknown to spend the winter. Hopefully someplace warmer than Alaska. I keep thinking that some day I'll join the exodus and spend my winters where I don't have to s...

At one time we had nine souls living in this small house. Nine. That's no small number even if you had a place as big as Michael Jackson's. Of course this home doesn't even remotely resemble a mansion, so as you can imagine, it got crowded. With nine people, you  have nine people's belongings. Some of them were treasures and some was junk, but somehow we made room for it all. What is truly amazing to me is that now that there is only Jan and I here, it still looks like we have nine people living here. There isn't a flat surface anywhere in the house that isn't cluttered with some manner of stuff... magazines, cooking utensils, plants and paperwork to name just some. Part of the reason we have so much stuff is that the kids, being the generous folks they are, periodically send us something they think we'll enjoy. The most recent gifts came from my youngest daughter Autumn. The coffee I love, and Jan really likes the candy. I...

It's fall again... no surprise there. Happens every year about this time. Actually here in Alaska it happens sooner than in the lower forty-eight. About mid-August you wake up one day and feel the chill in the air or while you're out walking you notice that some of the leaves on the ground are tinged yellow and brown. You try to ignore it like that first twinge of a toothache. Maybe if you don't pay it too much attention it will go away. "It's not time yet." you declare, but like the first grey hairs that show up one day or the wrinkles that makeup won't cover, change is happening, like it or not. Fall is a time of reflection for me. On the day I took this picture it was an ideal fall day. The sun was warm, there weren't any bugs bothering me, I wasn't thinking about fishing or charter boats or how aggravated I was with the politicians. I was just sitting in one of those comfortable chairs rocking back and forth enjoying the sunshine and r...

I spent the last two days of August fishing at Homeshore this year. It used to be the place to go from mid-August to September for cohos. Some years back it was fairly common to see fifty to a hundred boats dragging the area. Usually boats that came in from the outside would pass through, maybe spend a few days and then head on home. This year though the fish haven't shown up on the inside. I don't know where they are. When I went over there, I was the only troller along the whole shoreline. It should have been an indication that there weren't any fish around, but for some reason in the back of my mind I'm always thinking that, wouldn't it be great if there were cohos jumping all over and I was catching them as fast as I could pull them in and there was no one else around to get in my way. Of course it would be great if I was six foot two, ruggedly handsome, wealthy and always lived the golden rule too. Anyway, I fished all day for eleven fish and decid...

The Elfin Cove Post office/ School building The inner harbor and tidal grid  Low tide at the outer harbor area  The dock leading to the outer float    The old XIP buying scow It's taken awhile to get around to doing this post. I've been out in  pursuit of the wily and I might add, elusive Coho Salmon. Actually elusive might be too generous of a description- they've been almost non-existent on the inside this year so far. Anyway, here is part two of the Elfin Cove post. The top picture shows the Elfin Cove Post office/ school building. I'm not sure how that works. I would imagine that they have the mail sorting going on in a different part of the building than the school. I'm not sure how many kids go to school there, but I suspect that there wouldn't be too many. I spoke to a former teacher from Hoonah who moved out to Pelican, the next  closest town to Elfin Cove. He said that there were nine students in...