Skolai Images

hey Folks,

Sorry about the delay .. no internet access in the cabin. We do have fresh snow on the ground, after a good dusting all day long, and more on the way tonight, it appears.

Nothing really new to tell - I’ve been trying to shoot some night-time photos, start trails, to no avail. Digital really sucks for that.

Thanks for all the comments in the interim, I need more computer time to reply to all of them. For now, just ‘thanks’.

If you haven’t read ‘The practice of the wild’, by Gary Snyder, check it out. Great book!

I’ll try to get something more postworthy up soon.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s a follow up to my recent post on proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Whilst that post concentrated on facts and figures and data and so forth, I think greater arguments ought be made. As you can see from a cursory read of that post, it’s too easy for folks to cut up a pie in any way they choose in order that it might yield the slices that best fit their appetite. I suppose part of the reason for this is that the pie itself is, ultimately, generated by our cultural institutions, our way of living, our way of seeing the world. The potential number of barrels of oil the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may yield is somewhat of an abstraction - what constitutes a “barrel”, for example? How large is the footprint of a drilling rig? How many caribou will that impact? Any measurements we choose to use are simply yardsticks of our own worldview (I guarantee you, for example, that the Porcupine Caribou Herd would, if asked, probably give a very different answer to even our cleverest scientists). What if we don’t look upon the world with that viewpoint, however? How else might we be able to see the world, and in what ways might we possibly benefit from a different angle? (more…)

Hey Folks,

A recent thread on global warming and other environmental issues posed the question: “Are we having fun yet?” What a fantastic question to ask of ourselves in the year 2008. This question hit me square between the eyes; that’s really the issue here, isn’t it, I thought. That’s exactly what’s going on. Recent years have given more people more access to more goods and services, more art, more sport, more information, even to more other people, than ever before. With the internet we have access to the entire world at our fingertips. I can learn about almost anything in a matter of minutes. I can order plated Patagonian Alpaca Wool rugs in a few seconds, with the click of a mouse. I can order Goat’s Milk chocolate from Israel in the time it takes me to write this sentence. Figuratively, we have everything, literally we have more than anyone has ever had before. We live, in every sense of the word, in a time of abundance. And yet we seem bent on ‘more’. Why aren’t we happy yet, I wondered. (note: before you read on, this gets kinda long) (more…)

Hey Folks,

Well, guess where I’m headed in the next day or so? Back to the shack. I believe, and am putting my trust in, that the van problem is solved. Running some errands here in town on friday brought on the ole ‘cut out and die’ problem yet again .. of course, sitting in traffic in Anchorage, which is always nice. Fortunately, it started again, and I headed straight for my good friends at the Dealership. I’ll spare you all the sordid details, but when I got there 5 minutes later, it ran fine, started right up, etc. No problems. Fortunately, as I was set to leave, yet again, it wouldn’t restart. I walked back inside, told the Service guy it wouldn’t start, he called the mechanic out, and we walked back outside to the vehicle. The mechanic hops it and starts it right up. Beautiful. Now who looks like an even bigger idiot? So the mechanic sat in it a few minutes, turning the key, watching and listening to it, and then, miraculously, it wouldn’t start again. It finally did the problem in the hands of a mechanic. I love my van!!!! He looks at the lights, etc, for about 2 seconds, and says, “let’s pop the hood - I might be able to save you some coin”. (more…)

Hey Folks,

Here’s my first attempt to bring an mp3 (Dad, that’s an audio file) online.

 

 Slow Turning: Play Now | Play in Popup

I have no idea if this will work. This is a tune I recorded with a few friends of mine years ago, for an album a group of John Hiatt fans recorded, called We Love The Jerk. The album is named, tongue-in-cheek, after one of his songs called “She Loves the Jerk”. Each person who wanted to recorded a song, and submitted it to the group, where the compilation was put together, including a cool album cover, and CDs shipped out to the John Hiatt fan club. Kind of a fun little project.

This tune is me playing guitars, my good friend Steve F playing bass, Steve Lusk singing his a** off, Chip Lunsford playing drums and Randy Hoexter playing piano. Randy recorded it at his studio. I really need to get in and do some more recording/writing and get some tunes online — maybe that’s another project I should finish. The song, Slow Turning, is the title track on John Hiatt’s “Slow Turning” album .. one of his best efforts, IMO. Definitely check out that album.

The photo is a friend of mine, Nate, way down in Futaleufu, Chile, right now, about to run the 3rd rapid of the Baker River, or Rio Baker - big, big water. Nate got smashed!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

I was going to write tonight about another company that I’ve had great dealings with, and do a little plug for them, but I’ve changed my mind. The news has been all about the Exxon Valdez case, so maybe I’ll make a few notes here about this subject. For those of you who haven’t been following it (and I haven’t followed this latest round too closely), the US Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments from Exxon and the plaintiffs, folks from the the Prince William Sound, Alaska area, specifically concerning punitive damages. I’m no lawyer, so my comments are worth the price you’re paying to read them - but I’ll share them here regardless.

In late March 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil tanker dumped nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. These estimates come largely from simple math - 53 million (the number of gallons originally onboard), minus what was later reclaimed from the vessel equalled 10.8 million gallons missing, i.e., spilled. Many watch groups argue these estimates, though widely accepted, are underreported, because much of the oil recovered from the ship was diluted with sea water. The accident occurred, investigations found, primarily because the ship’s captain was drunk and sleeping at the time. (more…)

hey Folks,

So whilst I’m locked down in the dungeon of Anchorage, waiting on the mechanics to tell me my van is fine, and any possible breakdowns were/will be my own doing, I’m dealing with another issue. My backpacking/guiding website, www.alaskanalpinetreks.com was set up, with the help of a friend Bugsy, a fantastic artist from Atlanta (now in LA), years ago, and hosted, at the Bugs’ recommendation, on digitalinet.com. Well, it’s been an adventure, but digitalinet can go to he**.

Their website indicates 24/7 tech support, and toll free phone support. Their website fails to provide any phone # or contact information, other than a standard form to fill out, at all. Not even an email address. I did, via extensive Google searching, extract a few of phone numbers that were supposedly related to digitalinet.com .. 2 of them were no longer working, the other 2 both yielded immediate voice mail messages, and I couldn’t get anyone to return a single call from either of them. (more…)

Hey Good People,

Well, here it is, the long-ago promised and highly sought-after follow-up to my dad’s earlier notes about my parents and my recent trip together here in the US. I’ll post it below, only this time, for integrity’s sake, I’ve interspersed a few points along the way, to verify and clarify some of his words. The prequel to this, tales from the first part of our trip, can be found here.

Final Jottings on Our North America Trip

My apologies for the delay with the second instalment. Unfortunately I had some serious affairs of state to attend to, and if you knew how serious our state’s affairs are, then you would understand. Another factor was my agonising over what to buy my wife for Xmas, but I think she really liked her Mars Bar (candy bar) – and it was the extra large size. (more…)

Hey Folks,

My humble abode. This is after I shovelled all the snow off the roof. There’s about another 6-9 inches of snow on the roof already!

The original part of the shed is the part covered by the sloping roof. The porches, the flatter roofed sections, were add-ons later. The main area is probably 14′ x 16′ or thereabouts. There’s a little platform, like a loft in the roof, which really warms up when I’ve had the fire running. I’ve been doing a few little add-ons here and there myself, mostly with just odd bits and pieces of timber I find laying around, in my downtime, here’s a look at the new Shaq, a la Carl style:
(more…)

Hey Folks

I hope this finds you all well.

Whilst I sit here and delete spam, I’ll add a short post. The other day my generator busted. The 3rd time I used it. Don’t you just love modern technology and manufacturing! The hose from the fuel tank to the carburettor split in half … so it leaked a whole tank of gas .. which TOTALLY sucked.

However, the fellow who owns the cabin, and has lived here in McCarthy since 1955, totally hooked me up .. we (mostly he) mended it and replaced the hose (I still can’t believed he happened to have a piece the right size) .. Jim’s amazing. Then the axe busted .. the handle split right down the middle .. I glued and taped that sucker up and kept on a splitting .. I ain’t gunna get cold because of a split axe.

I’ve gone looking for a particular shot of Mt Blackburn twice now and both time been thwarted, due to weather .. yesterday was SO close .. all but the peak of the mtn was out. It was beautiful, and I did get a few other images that were nice, but I really want a great shot of Mt. Blackburn. This is the only time of year it gets alpenglow on the southside, as during the summer the warmer light happens when the sun is on the northside of the mountains. But the soutside view is spectacular. Try and try again. I did get some nice images the previous evening as well, but the best light on the mtn is in the morning.

I shovelled all the snow (about 3′) off the roof off the cabin, as it was starting to ice up on the bottom .. the heat from the inside of the cabin melts the underlayer of the snow, which then refreezes, and gets icy ..or it melts and comes thru the portch, and gets ice on everything on the floor .. it’s a hassle. But - now it’s all clean.

I cut down another tree the other day .. landed that sucker on a dime. Fortunately, the dime didnt happen to be the one in my back pocket. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the dime I was hoping it would land on .. in fact, it was about 180 degrees from the direction I was hoping it would go. So that sucked - I had to trim the fallen tree, and carry all the logs up this crappy snow-covered hillside, and over to the cabin. took some work, for sure, but now I have tons of firewood to keep me warm at night!

Now that I have the generator working again, I recharged my laptop and downloaded all my photos, and backed them up to another HD. It’s definitely a hassle trying to shoot digital images in a cabin with no electricity. I’ve thought of buying a film camera again and some film to not have to deal with it. I wish I’d saved one of my film cameras, I spose.

Well, that’s about all for now. I’ll try to get some images online and post a few before too long .. a week or so I hope.

Take care and stay warm.

Cheers

Carl