This evening I'm taking Leah, Chris, and Leah's long-time Juneau friend, Kira, to Zephyr for supper. Chris got in from Portland late Wednesday and yesterday Leah and Chris hiked up to the John Muir Cabin in Spaulding Meadows to spend the night. Tomorrow they're going to take the fast ferry to Sitka and will return to Juneau on Sunday. They head back to Portland on Tuesday. I very much enjoyed Leah's company this summer.
A couple of days ago I received an email from Tim Milnes, one of my best buddies from high school days. I have tried several times to find an address for him online without success. Apparently Kurt Ahrensfeld, a mutual high school pal, sent him a link to this blog. It still amazes me that people actually read this damn thing...
KURT - DON'T BE BASHFUL - WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU TOO!!!
Tim and his wife, Mary Lou, live in Tenino, Washington - just south of Olympia. I am trying to figure out how to pay them a visit next week. Tim, Mary Lou and their five kids (now young adults) were in Juneau ten years ago for a visit and we all had a great time.
It sounds like Tim is a serious gardener with a LARGE formal Japanese garden. Way cool!
Finally, another anecdote from dad's archives...
While dad was in the hospital this past week the Kensington Mine folks were running an ad in the Juneau Empire announcing the beginning of recruitment for positions at the mine which is scheduled to open next year. The Kensington Mine is located in Berner's Bay at the site of a mine that previously operated there early in the 20th century.
Dad recalled a trip to the area with Fred Newman who had a room at the boarding house Grandma ran (he subsequently became my father's step-dad after the death of Eli Lindstrom). Dad and Fred walked around the old mine - this would have been in the 1920s and it was already closed - and were invited to supper with an old codger who was living at the site and eeking out a living panning for gold. They had a very tasty stew. Compliments were given to the chef who graciously accepted the accolades saying something like "you just can't beat fresh porcupine."
Dad laughed like hell at the recollection which prompted another short story.
Dad fondly recalls his aunt, Annie, the sister of Eli Lindstrom. Annie and her husband, Jack, lived on the beach on Douglas Island across from Sunny Point. Dad would spend time with them in the summer when he was quite young. Auntie and dad would slog across the wetlands, cross the Gastineau Channel Bar, and leg-it to the dairy on the mainland to get fresh milk. Seems to me that would be quite a hike with a pail of milk...but I digress.
One summer Auntie was amusing herself by feeding a marmot that would appear at the cabin most days. She became fond of said rodent.
One night at supper, Auntie commented that she had not seen her furry pal in several days. Her husband commented that Mr. Marmot had been featured on the dinner menu several nights previously. Dad laughed like hell again...
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
3 comments:
The next time you nail a porcupine on the highway process that thing and get it into your crock pot. Slow moving herbivores, they have to be tasty.
The last time I nailed a porcupine in my car was over twenty years ago. As I recall I was driving back to town from Louie's Douglas Inn. It was a black and rainy night... Wasn't sure what I hit. Pulled over and saw the carcass - then dragged the poor beast to the ditch. Didn't want to get any quills in my delicate bureaucrat hands...so I used your coat (which for some reason was in my car) as mittens.
Ah..those were the days...
I told that story, or a reasonably similar version of it, to Doug and Gary while we were out fishing today. Gary bagged a nice coho. No quills.
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