It's February ~ Never Too Late to Start Early

Ho! What a day. The sun brings everything into rich, startling relief.
My sled is loaded with sleeping gear and all the snow-shoe trails reconfigured to allow me to tow. It's Spring Camp, just down river. It's nearly within shouting distance of home on a high point where the Klehini can conspire with Mt. Bigger to sing into my dreams for a few nights. Maybe I'll hear the Great Horned owl as well.

Feel Spring stirring? There's two months before this Fool celebrates her 60th. The time is now.

Reflections on Ground Hog's Day ~ 2013

January was a gentle beginning to a new decade, though last week, the Klehini Valley was visited by intense NW wind.  All my familiar trails were erased, buried beneath sculptural-ly fabulous whiteness. Snow country teaches to value impermanence and the unexpected.

This winter, to mix things up I've perfected the art of tree climbing with snowshoes. Because of unusually low snowfall, there's not enough to cover the tree sized brush that edges the forest and river-flats. Smaller deciduous species, alder, cranberry, rusty menziesia, blueberry, all generally bend over by mid-November creating great habitat for the smaller forest folk and a wonderful upturned basket effect for the snow-pack to build upon. So far, thirty-nine miles up-river from Haines, the snow is powdery and hip deep, but not deep enough to easily travel through the forest.

Tree climbing with snowshoes...I wonder if this activity might fall with-in the definition of sisu, (though gratefully, I doubt it could be marketed.) I discovered sisu from an interesting project shared online, by Dougald Hine. Here's a sample:

Someone has to have asked about sisu before.

‘Perseverance, persistence, resilience…’ The librarian reads off a list of possible translations, but by now I realise that what I am looking for is more than the English meaning of the word. I want to understand what it means to people here in Finland.
‘Years ago, when we didn’t have any electricity and we were into darkness for half of the year, you had to just bite your tongue and do everything that you had to do.’
So sisu was the spirit that got people through the dark times of the northern winter?
‘Yes, I think you could say that. But it gets exaggerated, too. It has become part of this nationalistic story.’

Ketchup

A sweet winter so far.

We had a great visit from Micah, (our oldest of three) and his mate, Jerin. They made the trek to Alaska from NYC in time for Solstice. Both events we honored with due fanfare.  Dec. 21, 2012 unfolded near the heart of our deepest stretch of winter cold; sunny, sub-zero and incredibly gorgeous. Using his production knowledge and newly acquired camera and sound equipment, Micah spent a lot of his time filming the Chilkat and upper Klehini river valleys. Here's a little of what he caught.

Capturing the soundscape

Hannah also rallied north for the holidays.  Her senior year is focused on writing plays, staging and producing events resplendent with masks, puppetry, and spectacle. Off time, back home, she focuses on replenishing the reserve; catching up on reading, family, and being outdoors.

INCOMING!

Godzilla is ALWAYS in the tree!

Middle daughter Merrick, her honey Joe, and their first baby, Yarona Blue stayed south, happily hunkered down, following mama's chemo treatments focusing their energy and undisturbed time on being a new family. We missed them terribly but happy they have a comfortable setting for this oddly awkward first winter.

They're plucky. Can you tell?


A first New Year's Masquerade Ball was held at The Chilkat Center, put on by our radio station, KHNS. Good music by three local bands, the result of endless hours of practice, made dancing on the main stage a gas.

The costumes, refreshments and decor were decadent. Haines knows how to do winter. Here's Hannah and Jerin. You can tell by the swishing going on in the background that everyone, indeed, had a ball.

Da Band  # 1

To the nines!

I've spent January putting in snowshoe trail. There's not quite enough white stuff yet to hike up to my secret haunts even though I'm dancing nightly to encourage the Ice Gods. They're playing tough now that it's 2013.

This week we're seeing dank and drippy. Perhaps they're cooking up something spectacular for Feb-April. Hey, in these radical times, who knows what to expect?

New Stories

This summer melted far faster then that last stretch of snow.

Our newest family member and first grandchild, Yarona Blue, was born September 18, 2012, on Douglas Island to parents Merrick Ann and her sweetheart Joe Jacobson. She's a spirited delight and, like her parents, proving to be an intrepid traveler. In two months of life this little kiddo has covered vast territory, back and forth across Alaska for oncology appointments. It's a big state!

At present, Yarona is keeping her mamma, poppa and grandma on their toes in Bellingham, Wa.  Her momma's undergoing chemo sessions for Hodgkin Lymphoma, (detected a year after her first treatments). Bellingham is a somewhat easier climate. But, gad... it's wet!

Writing, as always is good medicine for the entire clan. This season, it's best approached in a private manner. I'll share, soon, when I return home to Alaska. Until then.

   It's a family!

Shapes of Summer

I've been away from writing and I miss it.

In late May the snowshoes were repaired and put away just as a green grandness unfurled. May and June have been quite cool, in the low 40°'s. Not a gardening summer. The Kluane-Chilkat Bike Race last weekend had calls for snow in the Chilkat Pass, twenty miles beyond our place. I tuck in at night with a cozy sweater and socks.

But, that green explosion. Again I value the intelligence of hooves and horizontal movement through a summer rainforest. We wind through reaches that gently open to the herd as we nip and nibble shoulder width paths so inviting that the rest of the forest dwellers share our route; bear, moose, coyote.

This summer, we consist of four Oberhasli goats; Mom, her two teen does and their impressive older, wether-brother. The three young adults all sport full horns, muscled, agile and beautiful! Two middle-aged ewe sheep join us as well, (we have both browsers and grazers.) Both dogs keep aware of our periphery; Mason, the ancient and wise and his lady, Tupher, the new trail boss/apprentice. Each scout ahead. The tail runners are two white and orange kitten boys from the Hay Ranch at Dezdeash. Life is extremely large for those little fellows and they love it!.

We're a well oiled team, a silent presence. We are the watcher in the woods.