Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

    One doesn't need a tide book to realize that this is a minus tide. Minus tides are ones that are below the zero mark. Tide heights are referenced with a base height set as zero. When the sun and moon are exactly opposite each other in relation to the earth or on the same side, the gravitational pull of the combined heavenly bodies has more of an affect on the water, so that the high tides are very high and the lows are very low, as in a minus tide. When minus tides occur, more of the beach is exposed, so it's a good time to go clam digging, as the fellows in the top picture are doing. I'm not real sure that I would be digging clams right where these guys are doing it. They're not all that far from the cannery where some years back the net house burned down. All the seine nets were burned up and the leads used to weigh down the bottom of the seines were scattered over the beach and in time most were buried. Several days ago my daughter Jennifer...

Door post with a goat head carved into it Shark backbone doorpost Killer whale doorpost Octopus doorpost Gordon Greenwald with one panel painted and carved Herb Sheakley carving a cedar panel It's been more than a few months since I last dropped in on the school auto shop to see how the Glacier Bay Tribal House project is going. I have to admit, I was pretty well blown away by the amount of work that's been done there. I love to see skilled people at work and it's obvious that the three carvers, Gordon Greenwald, Herb Sheakley and Owen James have carving skills in abundance. I regret that I was unable to sufficiently capture the detail and beauty of the carved objects. It was a little bit hard to get around in the building, and the fluorescent lighting leaves a greenish cast to the pictures. As you can see in several of the pictures, the upright blue lifts are still in place for raising cars  off the floor to work on. The shop hasn't been used ...

Behind Lumbago Way Frozen mud flats Spud Creek's frozen     For most of the three weeks that I was in Juneau for jury duty, the weather was clear and very cold. For the better part of the first week I knew it was clear, but we couldn't see the blue sky above because of fog. It was so severe that the commercial jets were forced to fly over Juneau and of course there were no small commuter flights between Juneau and the outlying areas, which meant no mail or freight that would normally be sent via airplanes. Jan always gets a little claustrophobic when it gets like that. It's a terrible feeling to think that you can't get out of here if you need to. When I finally got back home, I decided to go out and get a few pictures of the mud flats that surround Garteeni Creek. The creek itself was still flowing somewhat and the Mallards and Canadian Honkers were availing themselves of whatever there was to eat in the stream. I've heard stories of ducks being froz...

      As I mentioned in my last post, I was on jury duty. Note the past tense- was.  We finished up the trial last Friday. I've never been on jury duty before, so it was a learning experience for me. Now that it's all done I can speak about it, although there isn't all that much to say. There were four defendants and multiple charges regarding transporting big game across boundaries from the United States to Canada. We found all the defendants not guilty with the exception of one charge of falsifying documents. Believe me, it could have been much worse. The men got off, not because of any exceptional work by their lawyers, but because the government failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that crimes had been committed. I'm quite certain that the prosecutor was disappointed. There was a lot of time and money that went into this case to say nothing of the effort. I'm not sure how many of my fellow jurors were from out of town, at least f...

     For the past two weeks I've been involved in the process of jury duty. Since no cameras or cell phones are allowed in the courtroom, I have no pictures to accompany this post. One of my fellow jurors took  a picture from the top of the federal building in Juneau, but I can't make it work right now, because I'm on a computer in the hotel lobby.  Like many of my fellow citizens, I wasn't overly enamored with the idea of being picked for jury duty. Frankly, I didn't really expect it to happen. I was one of 100 people who were summoned to show up for jury selection. That means I had a one percent chance of being chosen. Imagine my surprise when I was. Go figure. It doesn't make much sense to me to be taken, given the expense of having to  house me in a hotel, give me per diem for food and provide an allowance for transportation. It becomes a pretty spendy ordeal. I can't say I'm enamored with the whole process of being away from home and eating fro...

  The picture in the upper photograph is of some stairs at the top of Hill Street that connect to the upper road. I think it's Douglas Drive, but I'm not certain. I seldom go up there and never pay any attention to the street names. When we first came to Hoonah, there were no street signs; everyone just kind of knew what street they lived on I guess. Strangers to the area could be lost for days trying to find where someone lived. To this day most of us still don't have numbers on our houses. We live at 265 Hill Street. It used to be 73 Hill Street I believe, but for some unknown reason it was changed. I guess it doesn't really matter. Most of the folks in town know where I live if they need to see me. Anyway, back to the stairs. For as long as I can remember the stairs have always been known as Jackass Pass. I have no idea why. To the best of my knowledge there have never been any mules or donkeys here. I checked on line and the definition of a ...

 I received a package yesterday from my son Brian. He had ordered some fishing gear for me for Christmas but he was in Spain at the time and postal freight being what it is and whatever other factors were involved, I just got it yesterday, which I think is kind of nice. In fact, I think it would be a great idea if everyone went shopping when they could get the best sales on things, and then sent part of the stuff after Christmas, so that you're not so overwhelmed at one time. It's kind of neat to not know when a gift is coming and it arrives out of the blue. All of this gear was packaged in a shirt box, so I figured he had bought me a shirt, which of course I'm always in need of because I have a tendency to be hard on my clothes. I don't know how one person can get a shirt and still have it five years later and it looks good enough to wear to church, and I get a shirt, and six months later my wife is telling me I need to get rid of it because it mak...