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Firewood in the temperate rainforest

When I was growing up, as a teenager, we lived in the bush in Alaska. To heat our 100 year old cabin through the long winter we needed to have 13 cords of wood. Which is a lot! It was a national forest and it’s illegal to cut down trees. So we took GIGANTIC driftwood logs off of the beaches. The whole family would set out in the skiff, a picnic lunch and snacks packed. We’d find a beach with a good supply of logs that had been deposited and mostly buried in gravel by the waves. We’d start by shoveling them free, then we’d latch onto them with logging pikes and work them into a slow and hard won roll down the beach to the water. There they would be linked by rope into as long a train as we could manage. Then a long slow towing home would commence. Other days would play out the almost unending labor of bucking up the giant logs into firewood and then stacking all in the large woodshed. All this needing to happen late in the winter to give the saltwater logged wood enough time to dry before the next winter. I was reminiscing about all this when we visited the Petrified Forest recently and thought I would share it here.

Grand Canyon

We went to the Grand Canyon! For some reason I never thought I would see it. Then a few weeks ago we realized it is only a 6 hour drive from our new home! It was amazing.

This is me living in the Alaska wilderness at about 16 yrs. old.

Summer in Prince William Sound is not usually very warm or sunny. It’s a temperate rainforest and it generally rains most days. It is however supposed to be that way and you get used to living in rain gear. The precipitation starts and stops throughout the day, the waterfalls turning on and off in response. There are about 30 sea otters living between the bay and the tidal lagoon behind it. Lots of Eagles, Great Blue Herons, Ravens and Steller’s Jays are always there. Visitors include Sea Lions, Orcas, Humpback Whales & Golden Eagles. When the big migrations of the spring & fall happen, hundreds of thousands of Cranes, Geese & Ducks flew over our island headed to the north slope. When the sun did emerge you tended to stop what you were doing and enjoy it. This overturned rubber Zodiac boat would soak up the sun’s rays and create a micro climate of warmth.

2023 highlights.

2023 was filled with change and was pretty much entirely building out our new life. At the end of 2022 we had sold the family farm where Mom, my brother Kipp & I had weathered the pandemic. We packed our two poodles & ginger cat in the car and drove across the country to New Mexico! Both mom & I have had the worst time with Lyme disease in Maine and we had hunted all over for a place where we would not risk further exposures, plus thought we would enjoy living.

New Mexico & Santa Fe! Having lived at nearly sea level in both Alaska where I grew up and Maine, high altitude was a lot to get used to, especially with a chronic illness. But living over 7,000’ has benefits for your health as well and it feels like a big plus now we are a year down the road. It also keeps the temperatures pretty close to what we had come from but without the humidity. I love low humidity! Even the hottest part of the summer was lovely. The only thing to be careful about in daily life is the UV. We walked the dogs early and late and I went through a lot of sunblock. Brim hats and bandanas also make a ton of sense. I drank lots of water, applied lots of lotion, swam in the pool nearly every day and gradually felt quite a lot better than the twenty years preceding!

Having left my glass working studio behind and conferred with my new doctor about melting glass maybe not being something I should continue doing, I considered what creative work I might do from my new apartment life. If you’ve followed me for long you know I’m a lover of colorful accessories. I have a simple capsule wardrobe myself which I accent with Rothy’s points, silk scarves & my colorful jewelry. When I started to design my own silk scarves I fell into creative flow immediately and I haven’t really come out of it since.

I had been drawing on my iPad through the pandemic and it’s perfect for my illness ravaged body. I can easily fix the many mistakes I can’t help making and can set the drawing software to smooth out the shakes my hands usually have. I still incorporate my body’s reality into my drawings. You might notice a looseness to my style and some squigglyness that I embrace.

Rose & Ren

I have two poodles. My sister rescued a mini poodle named Jasper and for eight months when she had to take a no pets apartment, he came to us. I rapidly fell in love with him and when he went home I set about finding Rose. She is my first small dog at just 14 lbs. As a poodle she doesn’t shed and so is allowed on the furniture and sleeps in my bed. 🤎 A couple of years ago we brought home her brother Ren. He has ended up a little bigger at 22 lbs. Ren is the first puppy I’ve raised who is reactive. At about nine weeks old we thought we’d do some socializing and bring him to Mainescape, the local garden center where we lived. You can meander through the plants and meet a few people. They have a lovely friendly shop dog who was friends with Rose. So we are getting out of the car and Ren begins to yowl. And not in a small way. He quickly builds it into loud screeches, making it sound to people a mile away like we are stabbing him. 😱 I will tell you honestly I was a bit apprehensive about how he would turn out. It’s been rough but with a lot of research, I’ve learned how to bring him along and though we still have a ways to go, we think he is and will be an excellent dog and not just at home. With a slower pace, giving him lots of distance to get used to new things, many very mini outings, lots of patience  and some willingness to allow him time to mature, he is becoming a very fine dog. 🖤 Then there is the fact that he is pure love and affection making up for the many public mortifications and frayed nerves he has put us through. It won’t be long before we barely remember the trials of his puppyhood. He has come so far, including moving across the country and figuring out how to be an apartment dog. I’m really so impressed with him.

Santa Fe

I moved across the country December of 2022! For the past 25 years we lived on the Blue Hill Peninsula in Maine. Before that I grew up in Alaska. I’ve always lived in very rural places until now. The most remote was through my teens when my family ran an oyster farm in the Alaskan bush. I went to town just twice a year! My younger siblings went just once a year for a couple of weeks in the summers.

Santa Fe is a beautiful little city! Everything is adobe style and there are trees everywhere. Just last week the plum trees were blooming, all along the roads and through the neighborhoods. I love blooming trees, there are non in Alaska. There are fantastic trails everywhere, for biking, walking and even horseback riding. Lots of horses even in town.

Each weekend we set out in the car to explore an area we haven’t seen yet. There are gorgeous environs everywhere from semi arid step, rivers ensconced in cottonwoods, tree covered mountains, and striking colorful rocks.