Category Archives: Alaska

Of Moose, Rivers, and People

It’s taken my mind awhile to get to writing this post. There has been a surreal poignancy to the world for many months, causing normal activities to seem abnormal, bogged down, and harder to sustain. The COVID-19 pandemic and abysmal government leadership cause enormous stress, as does the unusually high degree of political divisiveness during this election year. Work levels have been high, too, and I hadn’t taken enough days off.

So when September came, and with it hunting season, I looked forward to getting away on a float trip with a couple of friends to hunt for moose. Just getting outside and off the grid would be therapeutic—and it was.

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More Moose Candy

Rose had a gorgeous bunch of Swiss chard growing this summer.

 

Just days before Rose was going to harvest it, a moose came through and got it all. And it had most of our peas for dessert. We blame Gertrude.

 

Firewood Isn’t Free

Since fuel prices went way up in 2005, we’ve been burning 3-4 cords of firewood every winter to augment our fuel-oil boiler heat. Along with energy related upgrades and a better wood stove, it’s really lowered our heating costs and carbon footprint. Before 2005 we’d been more lax in our wood burning, using it mostly on really cold days. But we’ve been cutting our own firewood for well over 20 years.

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Ghost Manuscript Fragment and More Distancing

Earlier this winter I obtained an interesting book from an auction in Europe, a theological work by Thomas Aquinas that was printed 530 years ago this month (1490).

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Antisocial Distancing

Man, I was preadapted for this. My to-do list is perennially at cubic light-year proportions and is diverse enough to have kept boredom an abstract concept for decades. And we live in a home in the woods with neighbors we rarely see. We did have some unexpected guests drop by the house a couple times last week, but they were welcome, kept their distance, and didn’t stay long.

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