Friday, October 31, 2008

Fall Melancholy




"If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of skunk-cabbage buds already advanced toward a new year. Their gravestones are not bespoken yet. Who shall be sexton to them? Is it the winter of their discontent? Do they seem to have lain down to die, despairing of skunk cabbagedom? “Up and at ‘em,” Give it to ‘em,” “Excelsior,” “Put it through,”—these are their mottoes. Mortal human creatures must take a little respite in this fall of the year; their spirits do flag a little...I say it is good for me to be here, slumping in the mud, a trap covered with withered leaves. See those green cabbage buds lifting the dry leaves in that watery and muddy place. There is no can’t nor cant to them. They see over the brow of winter’s hill. They see another summer ahead."
Henry David Thoreau Journal, Oct.31, 1857

I am truly enjoying the "shoulder season," the time between the busy-ness of employment as summer paddling guide and that time in early December when I begin guiding with ski and dog team. The shoulder season is where I remember the long days of sun and the thankfulness for the long soaking rains of spring and early summer - Superior was finally rising, after being at an historical low point. The shoulder season is also looking forward to clean snows, dressed in warm and lightweight clothes and mukluks to keep off the frigid air; ski and snowshoe travel, sled dogs pulling on the narrow trails and blazing wood fires to be warm by.

The one human event that, for so many years threw me off my rhythm and made me feel the cruel finality of winter was the falling back of an hour with daylight savings time. Those years in Alaska, it was like losing an hour of daylight, and right in the late afternoon when outdoor chores had to be completed in darkness after a day in the classroom looking out at daylight. In the places I lived most of the time I would put on my trusty headlamp and it would be on my head until I got ready for bed. Living with kerosene lamp light and Coleman lanterns in Anaktuvuk Pass and for many years in Eagle, I am reminded of a poem that I know of from those days that captured the experience of living an Alaskan winter without the convenience of electricity:


A Winter Light
By John Haines

We still go about our lives
in shadow, pouring the white cup full
with a hand half in darkness.

Paring potatoes, our heads bent over a dream---
glazed windows through which
the long, yellow sundown looks.

By candle or firelight
your face still holds
a mystery that once
filled caves with the color
of unforgettable beasts.




Headlamps and later, mini-mag lights were indispensable tools. They brought light to the shadows! And what a convenience! To have bright instant light on your person with a twist or flip of a toggle switch. Thoreau would have been envious, especially if he could see the wall-mounted floodlights that I now use for outside chores in the winter.
There was one October, in Anaktuvuk Pass, when for no reason that I was aware of, the fall-back of daylight savings was not observed and the coming winter held no dread. The shortening days were better balanced in my life without the falling back of the clock. By mid-January I would have at least a sky-lightening at mid afternoon outside. I wondered why daylight savings time didn't keep on their summer schedule. I guessed the reason was because of the bulk of the population in the more mid- latitudes commute to work in morning daylight, working while the day is light, commuting home in light were some of the reasons. But for Alaska it doesn't make the same sense. One ends up going to work as well as coming home in darkness during the dark months of winter. Better, in my situation, to have mornings in darkness but having some light after work to be outside with daylight.
Nowadays it is less of a concern. As a guide of dog team trips,I operate with a concern toward utilizing the daylight with less regard for the clock time. When I'm at home I schedule most of my time to be outside in the daylight. I am blessed to not be tied to an inside job during the dark months.

Lynn, in being home with the children, and having a real need to be in the light of day for psychological well-being, would always get outside with the young kids during the height of the day. Bundling up the kids sufficiently to keep them warm in far sub-zero temperatures for sled rides into town tried most parent's patience. We never ran a motor vehicle other than a snow machine (which was a real benefit to living a village existence), so the half mile trip to the library, store, post office or friend's cabin was a journey that needed prepared for. Lynn made much of the baby and toddler outerwear because most of the store-bought clothing was not warm enough for 50 below. Those years of village life are fond memories now, but concerns for keeping little kids warm, the worry and struggle to get our young ones dressed, was a serious daily affair; one can make few mistakes with the imminent threat of cold injuries on young bodies.

With the signs of winter showing hereabout, and with so many of the aging and younger population oriented toward indoor and warm weather leisure activities, it is understandable but troubling that so many who are consigned to higher latitude areas become so unhappy as signs of winter appear. Life is too short to be unhappy for so much of the time.





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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Waiting For Apocalypse

Looking out over the valley... The Pilgrim River valley, or actually a little bend in the river near my home.



I received a call from an old friend of mine who lived in Alaska for many years. He was written of by John McPhee in Coming Into the Country. Since those days, Mike, a man once known as the toughest trapper with or without his fists on the Upper Yukon and Glacier Peaks, had a fundamentalist Christian religious conversion. He became a changed person, as far as his life goals, read the Bible when he had never read any books except pulp westerns, left Eagle with his wife and daughter as a missionary (with work done in Alaska, Wyoming and Mongolia), inherited a bundle from his father after years of financial support from his parents, and now has a sailboat on an island in Hawaii from which he wants to conduct a ministry to anyone he meets on his sailing travels. Mike knows that the Lord will bless him if he is faithful...
He spent much of the summer on the island in Lake Vermillion in Minnesota that his family has owned for 3 generations. He is now down in Arizona with his daughter and grandkids until he and his Native wife Adeline fly over to Hawaii for the winter.
When Mike called, it took me about 20 seconds to begin to begin to feel that Mike was listening carefully to what I said and was critically scrutinizing my speech to see if I had fallen away from the faith that he holds so dear.
On the National election, Mike is true-red Republican. He places stock in what Sean Hannity says on Fox News and holds tight to the doctrine that Jesus will come again to earth and reclaim the degraded planet for those who remain faithful. What happens to the planet is important only in the context of the theological and spiritual battle of good and evil as determined by his sectarian fundamentalist world-view. Firmly a backer of pro-life as the main issue in American politics, nothing more really needs said. When I said that Fox News pundit, Sean Hannity reminded me of a mad dog, Mike laughed and said that he agreed with Hannity "on most everything".
I hung up the phone feeling depressed about the smallness of the my fundamentalist friend's world. This is the Mike that many years ago said that if there is one service that a country should help its citizenry with in life, it is health care. This is a non-issue for him now. His wife as an Alaskan Native receives free health care. He receives it due to his inherited wealth buying it for him. This is great for Mike and Adeline, and I would wish such good fortune for all Americans. Not to say that Mike is against socialized medicine nowadays, but the topic doesn't concern him. Spreading the gospel and converting others is what drives him.
With our materialist world cracking and eroding down, with the Republican non-change agents trying to keep the status quo for themselves, I now have to count Mike as one of them. I'll be thinking further about the Republican faith-based voters of our country; and praying that they go to a new level of understanding and compassion for all creatures great and small.

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Don, walking it off on a woods trail, mulling over the world's problems.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A Fall Day...







The day feels like this picture - A burst of sunlit color as a copse of young maple culminate their year of growth. The maples, being durable hardwood, have driven above the disturbed canopy of apple and aspen. After the struggle to rise above other vegetable growth, nature's competitive quest for survival, dormancy, and a long winter sleep await. For now all is glory for them. Next spring will bring more challenges - among the copse-mates as well as from without. This is what I see adjacent to my woodshed.
We had another hard frost last night . As we go toward winter, many homestead chores must be halted, that is a seasonal surety for me. Time to look and assess with a bit of contentment my world. Our heating wood is in, seasoned and stacked. The chimney extension with its mortar and insulation is nearing completion, with supplies for the rock facade paid for and ready for spring. With the climate teetering on the cusp of cataclysm and the world financial systems receding into crisis, there is assurance that nature's seasons are still guiding my life. What has always been my inspiration and compass - nature - continues on with me a small part of the whole.
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

October Colors Ebbing...



What a fall color tour it has been, close to home in the UP. With so much great colors close to home, we stayed around with a few forays out a few miles. The color change seemed to keep going on much longer than usual. There has been some wind and a bit of rain this fall, but the colors prevailed.
With the presidential campaign in full-on drive, with the Republican John McCain negatively muck-raking (and not finding much) on Democrat Barack Obama, I had some time and did some volunteering at the Houghton Democratic headquarters. McCain has pulled his campaign out of Michigan for weeks now due to polls showing he has lost the state - you would never know it here in the Copper Country. Calls I've made to the older residents in the area show that conservative republican voters are alive and well in the UP.



Lynn with our 2 dogs, Gabe and Dixie, on an autumn walk.



Looking through a fiery maple to the firmament


On the 19th, a sunny Sunday morning, Lynn and I headed into Marquette for a presentation by the Will Steger Foundation on the effects of global warming in the polar regions.The presentation was sponsored by the Superior Watershed Alliance, which I've worked with a bit, learning how to test and sample for water quality of streams. SWA is a sponsor of the Will Steger Foundation. Another organization that I'm a member of is Earthkeepers and I was invited to attend a mid afternoon roundtable with Will Steger where participants would get to know him and talk with him. Lynn dropped me off at the meeting site and I was the 3rd person there. Will talked to our little group of 10 people for close to an hour about his upbringing and 64 year-old life, then he took questions and finally the meeting broke down to informality with simple talk. I had a chance then to talk to Steger about places we had in common and his life now in a houseboat on the Mississippi River.
Lynn was waiting for me in her car and we went looking for a dinner-to-go, as she wanted to have a picnic in a pile of leves at Presque Isle Park looking out on Lake Superior. The food, from Vango's was good and Greek; the large leaf windrow, formed from the wind blowing them to waist-high was soft and warm. After the picnic we drove over to Upfront and Company where the Superior Watershed Partnership meeting was being held. It went on for a long time. I was mentioned by Carl Lindquist and asked to stand as a member of the Partnership who had experience living in the arctic. One of Steger's expedition partners, who was Norwegian talked after Will's slide show on his findings on the impact of global warming. Students talked about the Energy Action Coalition, organizing that is taking place on campuses to influence the start of green industry and awareness of the need for society to change to save our planet and its biological diversity. After a panel discussion by all of the speakers, the evening was over, and we headed out of Marquette and arrived back home at a bit past 11:00.


Lynn relaxing during our Presque Isle picnic.



Will Steger in Marquette

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Autumn Already...



Spirit Tree, North Shore, Lake Superior, Minnesota

What a busy summer it's been! I seldom had time to even think about this blog, but now I will have a bit of time to write, or at least the state of mind to do so. Since my blog is basically to me, I don't feel compelled to write in it regularly. If there is anyone out there who has ever checked this, all I can say is sorry for your futile bother... In looking at my list of posts I noticed that I didn't ever post some in May, simply left them in a saved state. I'll remedy that in short order and the writing and any pictures will appear in back of this entry. After a busy summer of guiding sea kayak trips, life hasn't slowed down all that much. So much left for later at home. My inherent laziness on new projects at home, with winter closing in, leaves me with a lot to do but with basics covered.

Perilous times we are living in politically and economically. A world-wide monetary crisis that is looking more like the Great Depression all the time. Inflation continues to rise here at home. A presidential race getting down and dirty with the Democrats again and again being the brunt of Republican dirty politics. I have been volunteering at the Democratic party office in Houghton, and calls to mostly right wing voters have tested my cordiality. Though I don't agree with the Democrats on some important social issues, these issues pale when I look at the state of the middle class, the environment, the way that the neo-con Republicans have taken our country since Reagan and under Bush for the last 8 years.

We have been having a wonderful color change here in the Copper Country for the last couple of weeks. Now a bit on the ebb as we slide toward late autumn, the vibrancy seems to hold on still. I don't know when I've seen the trees blazing so colorfully for so long.

I've invested in a 27 ton log splitter and have been making short work of hardwood knotty rounds that were so tight grained that maul and wedges were foiled. All but the really old and punky ones (that I gruntingly rolled aside years ago) are going to be burnt in the wood stove like chunks of coal. A new 10 cord logging truck load of sugar maple is being whittled down fast into next years split and stacked fire wood with the use of the hydraulic splitter.

Life goes on...





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