Remember When...

   Remember when being a kid meant using your muscles and mind to play?

When this opened up a whole new world for exploration!

When this was what you did when you were bored!

A whole day was spent catching these!

Getting in trouble with one of these!

Being on top of the world at the top of these!

Doing this all day!

Building Rome in an hour!

Creating new inventions!

Winning all the marbles...and Steelies!

Being Superman!

Melting these!

Building these! (and drooling)

And building these...Awesome!

Playing frisbee with these when Mom's not around! (trouble)

When this was the coolest thing to have! (Craig Powerplay)

Drooling over these and dreaming of the day of driving one!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the pooch chased his tail.

ciao

Too Much Saturated Scat In The Canned News Network

Shock and Awe reporting!

 In your face inflated facts w/pictures to regale you with the woes of the world. All to garner that almighty "Click".

 I'll take a newspaper any day over a web page, at least with the newspaper I can give it its rightful due and wipe with it when I am finished reading the feces within the lines! 

 Meanwhile, back at the ranch. the pooch is blissfully ignorant of world affairs!


   ciao

A Familiar View

 Imagine being the first explorer to see this. I would have gone no further...at least until it started raining. ;-)

 Meanwhile, back on the beach, the pooch pondered!

   ciao

Welcome To The Machine

With a few verbose modifications this would be a perfect political ascension song. Of course, one could also analogize this to the rite of passage one experiences when they pay taxes for the first time! 



 Meanwhile, back at the music shop, the pooch raised a leg to EMI and SONY!

   ciao

Free Adventures For The Imagination

 Call me old fashioned but, there is no substitute for the feel and smell of an old book in all its printed glory! An old book absorbs a history all of its own with each readers perusal of its pages of imaginative wonder and adventure for the senses. Each dog eared page and coffee stain adds character and speaks volumes of the places and people the book has enriched along the way. Just holding an old book causes pause to ponder who has shared those pages before and where they were when they escaped for a time into another world of fact, fiction, or imagination.

  Meanwhile, back at the library, the pooch read about a tree his ancestors scented!

   ciao

A Great Day To Be Alive

 9 degrees never looked better! 


 Meanwhile, back at the window, the pooch curled up by the wood stove!


   ciao

The Live View From Petersburg, Alaska

Seeking Spring

Nothing to see here today other than some wishful thinking for sunshine over the Thumb!

"If the sun don't come up tomorrow
People, I have had a good time
I’m just laid up here in a country state of mind"

Hank Jr. 

Meanwhile, back on the island, the pooch pondered the falling snow!

ciao

Rewind To '68

 First Alaskan abode - Echo Ranch - circa 1968


 Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the pooch pondered.


ciao

Picture This

 As snow flakes the size of silver dollars fill the air,
I close my eyes and visualize a happy place I wish to share! 


Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the pooch is dreaming by the fire.


ciao

Flashback

 I am SO ready for Spring/Summer and sunrises like this over Devil's Thumb!


 Meanwhile, back at the hacienda, the pooch had cabin fever!


  ciao

Alaskan Rest Stop

 A rustic stop to rest!  

"The Road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
    And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
    Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
    And whither then? I cannot say."

  Meanwhile, back at the farm, Farmer Cotton loosed the hounds!

   ciao

A Mountain Of Memories

 Petersburg Mountain, a memorable piece of granite covered with a living coat of rain forest greenery. An immovable image forever etched in my memory, always beckoning me to return.

"And even as I wander,
I'm keeping you in sight.
You're a candle in the wind,
On a cold, dark winter's night.
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might"
~REO



Meanwhile, back on the mountain, the pooch mounted the saddle and climbed towards the summit!


ciao

Kodak Moment - A Sea Lion I Saw - You See

  As I wandered the trail, just Jake (the dog) and I, I paused at the rustic bench to have a bite and take in the beauty of the day. As I watched a lone fishing boat trolling in the sound, the sun graced us with a rare beam of golden warmth that lit up the fishing boat like a beacon on the water. In the blink of an eye an idea began to form in my head. Get the camera out John! What? GET the camera out John! Oh, yeah, that Would make a great Kodak Moment. ( Jake knows better and just ignores the smoke and grinding noises that come from my head during these flashes of insight and/or knowledge! )  Point - Focus - Click, I got it...and a little more. As I was finalizing the "click", a sea lion decided to surface and smile for the camera. He checked us out for a good minute and then slowly slid back under the water and swam away to find himself a snack. C'mon Jake, time to shuffle on down the trail.


 Meanwhile, back at the bench, the sea lion blogged about his human sighting! 


  ciao

A View For The Lower 48

  A view for all my friends and family who aren't Here! Good Morning! ;-)

 Here is the other end of Mitkof Island (the island on which I reside) looking down the Wrangell Narrows towards Wrangell. Before they changed the angle of the camera and erected that wind sock directly in front of it, you could see the lights of Wrangell at night.


Here are links to three of my favorite nearby webcams.

Devils Thumb Over Fredrick Sound

Lindberg Peak Overlooking Duncan Canal

The Other End of Mitkof Island 


Meanwhile, back on the Island, the pooch pondered his paw!


ciao

A Little Mote Perspective

When the world seems too small and I seem to big,

feeling like I'm all and acting like a pig.

I take some time to reflect on all that I am not,

and give thanks to God above for everything I got! 

~JLK

Meanwhile, back at the truck, the pooch simply pondered where to pee!


ciao

Silver Sentinels

 Two giant silver sentinels watching over their flock on a snowy Sunday morning.


 Meanwhile, back in the forest, the pooch dares not to pee on a tree!


  ciao

Just a Pic

Fire-Fire-Fire: All Hands Man Your Wienie Stick

   Nothing warms the heart and body like a good outdoor fire trying to lick the sky with it's fiery tongues of comfort and safety. Disrespect it for even a second though and it gives a harsh lesson that if you survive you never forget! Tend it, love it, and nurture it as if your life depends on it, because in the big scheme of nature, without it you probably wouldn't be here. Without it our ancient ancestors would most likely have been glacier dust or predator chow, and mighty damn chilly to boot!

   Meanwhile, back at camp, the pooch made doo with smores by the fire!

   ciao

Memorable Mountain Mornings

"Sitting round singing songs 'til the night turns into day
Used to sing on the mountains but the mountains washed away."

~Led Zeppelin 

    

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back on the mountain, the pooch pondered his position!

   ciao

Misty Meanderings In The Digital Age

   Is it progress when we are able to click-click and click to share a moment captured in time visually or are we short changing ourselves? Before cameras and digital media we were blessed with our elders and past generations to tell us stories to invoke mental images in our minds of their experiences and maybe, if we were paying attention, impart some wisdom upon us in the process. And, in return, we gave a sense of accomplishment and respect to the teller of the tale. Future generations may look back at our digital recordings and images, but who will tell the tales, relating the feelings, smells and senses of the moments recorded in time?

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the pooch silently listened to family history by the fireplace!

   ciao

A Roam With A View

   This is the view from a rustic bench along a trail in SE Alaska. A great place to stop to admire the majestic view and ponder the sum of one's existence in the grand scheme of nature! (or just to stop and take a picture)

   Meanwhile, back at the bench, the pooch pondered which leg to water!

   ciao

Roots In Nature

   This tree wanted to be a gymnast...or so it appears. Its origins are rooted deeply in the sacrifice of its fallen neighbor's nurturing carcass!

   Meanwhile, back on the trail, the pooch pondered his roots!

   ciao

Kindling Thought

   While hiking through the rain forest in Southeast Alaska I stumbled on this in the middle of the trail. Most peculiar actually. Whoever constructed it, built it around a tree stump and elevated the fire chamber. For what purpose? I do not know, but it gives pause for thought each time I pass it by.

   Meanwhile, back in the woods, the pooch ponders the pines.

   ciao