A cord of wood is a quiet winter comfort representing centuries worth of stored solar energy from ninety-one million miles away. Woodshed Nation releases that energy gradually knowing that whatever happens in the world outside, a home with a few cords won’t freeze for lack of fuel. It’s February, we’re […]
Yearly Archives: 2018
52 posts
There were two excellent natural gas articles in the paper at the end of February. One was that AEL&P/Avista’s plan to bring natural gas to Juneau is on hold indefinitely. AEL&P is Alaska Electric Light and Power, our hometown power company that has been phenomenal since 1893. They’ve been innovative. […]
Back in the early eighties, when Juneau’s waterfront was between the mining boom and the cruise ship boom, Puggy Nelson and I would ignore the ‘No Trespassing’ sign, go around a chain link fence and walk out where the abandoned docks rotted on their pilings. There at the end of […]
When I was a kid my grandfather built a tool shed at his camp. I thought that was the coolest thing. Someone in my gene pool could decide to put up a building, by himself, and do it. It was big, clean, orderly and pleasing to the eye. And it […]
Part V in a series of outstanding volunteer run assets in the Capital City Do not turn away a poor man, even if all you can give is half a date. -Muhammad When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be […]
Wealth is different things to different people. When September rolls around two of the best things in the world are a freezer full of fish and enough seasoned firewood for two winters. All told it’s around a thousand dollars for what you need to go on wood safari: chainsaw, […]
Part IV in a series of outstanding volunteer run assets in the Capital City “JYS changed my life. The caliber and manner of people and activities I was exposed to in this program-or as a direct result-had no end of positive impact on my well-being and future. It is the […]
The old timers say to split a little every day And stack it away to season well, but from March to November I rarely do remember December will find me in a rut… traditional folk song* A couple from down south gives me a lesson at the wood pile: […]
A few weeks ago my neighbor and I were talking firewood. Specifically, we were talking about whether to stack with the bark up or the bark down. He’s a rugged, quiet, mid-western Norwegian type. “Well, you know,” he said. “The most popular show in Norway was about stacking firewood. […]
In Alaska running a chainsaw is a social skill. You go out with the gang, buck up some downed trees, bring them somewhere, pitch them off. It’s a good day. The thing is, with a few exceptions,* if you don’t know how to use a chain saw standardized how-to […]
The junk mail du jour was one of those women’s sportswear catalogs where trim, angular-jawed yuppies peer intently into the distance as they trot on a beach in eighty dollar jog bras made by poor women in the third world. On the cover, rear end facing the camera, was one […]
A fish walks into a bar. He looks at the bartender, puts his glass on the counter and says, “fillet.” Magazine short lists of quintessential ‘Things Men Should Know’—like how to start a camp fire, throw a punch and connect jumper cables—include how to fillet a fish. The funny part […]