Category: Banalities & Journaling

I’m not doing very well with posting interesting stuff.
I’m spending a lot of time with the moldy boxes my “studio” prepared to greet my return to Alaska. Sigh. I have a lot of “stuff” that’s hard to define. I’m stupid. I don’t get rid of stuff well. I attach little nostalgic memories to everything, reviewing these possessions later queues up those otherwise lost memories. I like that. It’s helps me maintain the narrative of my life. It can be any kind of possession – old t-shirts, knick knacks, notebooks on classes, from high school 10th grade geography to an undergrad class on astrophysics to a graduate seminar on 19th century Argentine literature. All sigh.
Here is a tree.

[daily log: walking, 2km]

Here is a new daily tree. It’s a reflection in rain-speckled water, thus a bit impressionistic.

I’m struggling with a relapse of the cold I had for a while during my travels. Not really feeling 100% currently.
Also messing with the damp, moldy boxes from my storage “studio.” Disappointed it didn’t stay as dry inside as I’d hoped.
On a positive note, Arthur made his signature chili last night. It was good.
[daily log: walking, 3km]

A twenty-second tree.

We drove into town to go grocery shopping. Arthur forgot his wallet. He was very grumpy about that.
[daily log: walking, 3km]

Here is tree number twenty-one.

This tree is quite young.
Arthur and I got the water filter fixed this morning.
I’m feeling a bit discouraged because I decided to check on the contents of my “studio” (the storage tent in the yard) and realized that although well-sealed, the condensation moisture on the inside has been substantial enough to damage some of what was in there. I’m going to have to deal with that.
But first: procrastination!
[daily log: walking, 3km]

Here is tree number twenty.

This morning, I placed the Rockpit, AK, sign that Arthur’s friend Wayne had given him for Christmas. Now our “town” is properly identified.

Midday, we drove into town because we have a leaky water filter we’re trying to fix, a problem that appeared when we reactivated the water supply after our long absence.
On our walk this afternoon, I saw Arthur sitting on a rock. He looked like a cantankerous forest gnome.

[daily log: walking, 4km]

I had a kind of reunion with Arthur’s property here.
I went on a full circuit walk around the corners of the two lots. That sounds trivial, but in the highly overgrown, damp, boggy and slashy hillsides, it’s a major undertaking. I call it “tromping” as opposed to just walking or hiking.
I found the two strings I’d placed on the southern (uphill) property lines still intact, after 2 months of neglect. You can see the neon-green bits of string in these pictures.


I took a picture of Sunnahae (“sunny hae”) mountain, with its snow, from up the hill.

Later Arthur and I resumed our daily walks down the road to the east. I found my “rock folly” (a random collection of found objects) at the mile 8 bridge still there.

I took some pictures along the road.


Here is tree nineteen.

Here are some additional pictures from the time in Ketchikan, yesterday.
A trailer park with a view.

The dam at the Ketchikan reservoir, Carlanna Lake.

Sunset from the Hollis ferry.

[daily log: walking, 4km; tromping, 500m]

A distant, daily tree.

Here is tree number fifteen – from yesterday.

Today I was too busy. Here are some horses in the next door field, saying hi at the gate.

I went to the mechanic (for the Blueberry). I went to meet my friend Raven in Portland – I went to elementary school with Raven.

I went to get the car cleaned in the afternoon. And Arthur and I went to Costco. I spent the evening packing.
Tomorrow, we leave for Bellingham, whence we take the ferry to Ketchikan. Headed home.
[daily log: walking, 1km]

The fourteenth tree. Or maybe there is more than one tree in this photo?

Arthur and I are starting to get ready for our departure back up to Alaska.
[daily log: walking, 5km]

Here is a tree.
It is under a waxing gibbous moon (upper right).

[daily log: walking, 1km]

I drove back to Juli and Keith’s. I stopped at rest area and took this picture of a tree (with other trees) in fog.

[daily log: walking, 4km]

Here is a tree from my inventory.

[daily log: walking, 1km]

Here is a tree I saw walking the other day.

[daily log: walking, 3km]

This is pretty good picture of an archetypal Oregon tree.

This is the Tualatin River. It has more water than it did during the summer.

During a walk up to the tree farm, Juli took this picture of me with the dog Walter on a stump.

Tomorrow I’m going to take a jaunt up to Seattle and come back to Forest Grove. I’m going to visit my stepson and his family there.
[daily log: walking, 5km]

Here is tree number eight.

Here is Mount Hood, seen from the tree farm.

Here are some former trees, awaiting their fate.

Here is a very lonely apple seen on a tree by the road.

[daily log: walking, 5km]

Here is tree number seven.

In the morning, Arthur and I drove to Astoria. That’s because he had a heater getting repaired up there, and apparently there was no place closer that would make the repair.
It’s about two hours up to Astoria. It was raining in a nice, pacificnorthwesty way, the whole time. It makes me nostalgic for my childhood, of course.
On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant-cum-logging-museum called Camp 18. We had a late breakfast. There are a lot of old pieces of machinery around there, as used in 19th century logging operations. This is a steam donkey – used for winching large loads up hills.

[daily log: walking, 1km; driving, 200km]

I took the dog Walter on a long walk up the hill through the tree farm.
Here is a tree in the cloudiness.

I took the Blueberry Tank to get its oil changed. There was another vehicle with an Alaskan license plate in the oil-changing bay. The poor Oregonians thought the Alaskans were invading or something.
[daily log: walking, 5km]

We drove back across Utah. This is daily tree #3 – some juniper at the side of a rest area.

At a different rest area I met this bird. It walked right up to me, utterly fearless, and tasted my foot.

[daily log: walking, 1km; driving, 700km]