Category: My Photos

Caveat: Fishing Report #(n+3)

Banalities & Journaling / Fishing Report / My Photos

We went out fishing today. Joe and his friend Paul came along.
We intended an early start, but a dead battery in the boat slowed our departure, and we didn’t leave until about 8:30.
The forecast was for “light wind” and “seas 1 ft”. In fact the wind was at least 10 knots, and maybe 15 in the afternoon, and this kicked up the water into 2-4 waves.
First we headed for the northeast corner of San Ignacio Island, and we trolled for salmon. Nothing. From the southwest corner of San Ignacio, we motored southward to the west side of Suemez Island. Trolling there, still no salmon, but a hefty lingcod bit Arthur’s hook off San Jose Point. We also caught some small black bass – most were thrown back but a few were large enough to decide to keep. “It’s a fillet,” is how Joe phrased it.
We trolled some more, across Port Santa Cruz. The swells were wide and slow, about 3 feet, with open ocean to the southwest of us.
Giving up on trolling and salmon, we tried for halibut in the center of Port Santa Cruz. Joe caught one small halibut, and several rock fish. Art caught the bottom with his hook – twice. The second time he got really angry. He was kicking the boat. And when Joe and I tried to help, he yelled at us and was pretty scary. I felt awkward and embarrassed.
Finally, Joe wanted to find another halibut, and we tried bottom fishing in two more spots, one on the northwest corner of Suemez and again back at the north end of San Ignacio. But the wind was picking up and it wasn’t easy keeping the boat still.
We headed home and by the time the boat was cleaned and the fish all cut up and in packages for freezing, it was dinner time.
I’ll make some fish soup tomorrow.
Here is Arthur’s lingcod.
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Here is the view toward the south end of Baker Island off the bow, from Port Santa Cruz.
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Here is an eagle, looking for handouts (thrown away too-small fish).
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Here is the blue sea off San Ignacio Island’s north end.
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Here are Arthur and Joe cleaning some fish.
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Caveat: Tree #545

A Daily Tree / My Photos

This tree is having a treehouse attached to it… very, very slowly.
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picture[daily log: walking, 1km; lifting/chopping/leveraging, 4hr]

Caveat: Tree #544

A Daily Tree / My Photos

There is a tree above; there is a small yellow flower in the lower left.
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picture[daily log: walking, 1km; wood-splitting, 1hr]

Caveat: Progress – Brought to You by Bacon!

Banalities & Journaling / My Garden / My Photos / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

… Francis Bacon, that is.
A historian and author, Ada Palmer, has a long-form essay on her blog, from a few years ago, on the subject of how Francis Bacon “invented” the concept of Progress in the 17th century. I also find that in general, the essay is quite well-written and fundamentally optimistic about the human condition, a la Steven Pinker but less controversially so.
Anyway, I recommend reading it if you’re looking for a dose of philosophical optimism.
In other news, an interesting mushroom showed optimism amid my latest cohort of lettuce.
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Caveat: Tree #540

A Daily Tree / My Photos

I took this picture of a tree in November, 2008.  I believe it’s in front of the district prosecutor’s office a few blocks east of my apartment building in Ilsan, Korea. Sorry for the small size.
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picture[daily log: walking, 1.5km]

Caveat: Fishing Report #(n+2)

Banalities & Journaling / Fishing Report / Life in Alaska / My Photos

Art and I went out in the boat today. I hoped it would be a relatively low-wind, no rain day.
It’s true there was no rain. But it was mostly cloudy, and the wind from the west was quite strong relative to the forecast, at between 10 and 15 knots.
We left at 7:30. We went out to the east side of San Ignacio Island.
Here is a view looking back east toward Craig and Sunnahae Mountain, shrouded in clouds. The foregrounded island on the right is the north end of San Juan.
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This is a view southward as we approached San Ignacio. Foreground on the left is the flank of San Juan Island. I like the smooth curve of the dipping ridge between the two distant mountains on the south end of Baker Island, on the far horizon near the center. The slightly closer island on the right is San Ignacio.
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We trolled down San Ignacio’s shore and saw some eagles eyeing us. We caught nothing. From the south end of San Ignacio, we crossed eastward to Tranquil Point. Arthur has strong associations with fishing success there, but I’ve never experienced it since I’ve been up here. We trolled along the north shore of the Prince of Wales mainland there all the way to Caldera Bay. There were quite a few commercial fishing boats trolling around, all of them looking as fishless as we were.
In Caldera, we put down hooks for halibut. I do vaguely recall we might have caught some halibut here the fall when I first got here. But maybe not. Anyway, we caught absolutely nothing, the ocean was sloshy and choppy, the wind was chilly, the sun never showed up. Arthur seemed quietly bitter on the way home. I was proud of my boat-docking job, though – completely smooth, not even a gentle bump, I grabbed the dock as we approached and stopped the boat simply and began tying up.
So. Salmonless and only one halibut so far for the 2020 season.
I washed the salt spray (from all the wind-kicked waves splashing) from the boat. Clean boat.
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Caveat: Luck o’ the driveway

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos

My loyal blog-reader and once-upon-a-time college roommate, David, had observed in a message to me a while back that he easily finds four-leaf clovers where he lives.
I have therefore been on the lookout for four-leaf clovers, among the patches of clover that have sprung up in our driveway.
I found one today. Here is the plant in question, in the center.
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Here is its location in the drive way – the green patch of clover below and left of center near the rim of the retaining wall.
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Caveat: Tree #529

A Daily Tree / My Photos

This tree is not actually a tree. It’s a blueberry bush. But its comportment is decidedly arboreal, in my opinion. The skunk cabbage at its base makes the whole scene look weirdly tropical.
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picture[daily log: walking, 2km]

Caveat: Tree #528

A Daily Tree / My Photos

This tree is on the neighbor’s lot, where the house burned down and which is now for sale. Anybody wanna be my neighbor?
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picture[daily log: walking, 1.5km]

Caveat: Tree #527

A Daily Tree / My Photos

This is a little one-foot-tall western hemlock that I tried to transplant to the gravel hillside of the new driveway.
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I’ve messed some with planting alder saplings, and they seem to do well enough on average. But something about the hemlocks makes them resist transplantation – they all seem to die. This, despite growing like weeds everywhere. I think they have fragile root systems.
Anyway, this little hemlock gives me hope, because it put out some green buds just these past two days. Like maybe, it has decided to live.
I’m struggling, lately, with feeling stuck and unmotivated. I’ll wait it out.
picture[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: Tree #525

A Daily Tree / My Photos

One of these trees is a rebel. I’m worried that I posted it before. But if I did, just consider it the price of arboreal notariety.
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[daily log: walking, 1.5km]

Caveat: Tree #524

A Daily Tree / My Photos

These are two trees. Actually, only the middle part of two trees. But there was this fat-looking raptor lurking there on a branch. I wasn’t sure, but when I showed Art the picture, he said it was a fledging eagle. I could buy that based on appearance… but if a fledging, it’s a fat, well-fed one. It looked larger than its mama.
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picture[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: Tree #521

A Daily Tree / My Photos

The tree in the center of this photo is noticeable, stark against the horizon. We went out trying to catch fish this morning. Not much luck.
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picture[daily log: walking, 1.5km]

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