Visiting the town dump is part of really getting to know a town. We had to take some stuff to the dump as part of cleaning up for the graduation. Yes, even this lovely town has its dump. It seems to be very well managed. Batteries and hazardous liquids are handled properly. Fridges are bled of their freon safely. What's left is densely composted and used to build a trash hill in a landfill.
The oddest thing is the eagles. There are lots of American bald eagles around Kodiak. A photo in the local paper that showed at least two dozen of them sitting on stacks of crab pots. Sometimes you see a half dozen or more flying near the seminary, and one Sunday as we were leaving church, I saw one perched atop the cross on Holy Resurrection Cathedral, the oldest Orthodox parish in North America.
But the biggest flock I've seen up close is at the dump. And they seem tame. Two of them sat on a fence as we drove by, not 15 feet away, and they didn't even seem to notice us, much less fly away. Further off, sitting on the growing mound of compacted waste, was a mixed flock of 40 or 50 large birds -- eagles along with what I took to be crows and ravens. They are there to scavenge bits of food in the waste, as the city garbage trucks dump their waste here as well. (Yes, Kodiak is a "city"; so too is nearby Port Lions, pop. ca. 250.)
We humans go to great lengths to prepare our food just so. In the animal world, you find an assortment of odd (to us) dietary preferences, ranging from the bottom feeders, to the chimps that imitate us in the way they consume bananas. To each, their preference is the perfect delicacy. There are species that will only eat one thing, like the giant pandas that require bamboo and never tire of it, while pigs and chickens will eat most anything. Mosquitos drink blood, cows eat grass, turtles devour jellyfish. Sharks, tigers, and eagles attack live prey, while some birds eat only seeds. The majestic eagles are not proud: they are happy to scavenge at a dump. All this confirms what we know, that God provides for each.
And while he grants us the gift of good food enjoyed in the company of friends, his saints, with their modest requirements, seem to take a lesson from the beasts: that we need not be picky or proud about what we eat.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Climate of Kodiak and points north
I have to confess that, growing up and living in the lower 48, I was pretty ignorant of Alaska. I thought of it mostly as a big, snowy icebox. Now that I live in Kodiak, I can see that perception was way off base, at least regarding Kodiak but also, to some extent, other areas as well.
Just finished living through my first winter here. My impression is that the temperature stayed in the 20s and 30s almost all winter long. It was milder than many a winter I've spent in PA or CT or OH or IL. Yet more than one person in Kodiak has told me this was the coldest winter in years. The water surrounding the island moderates the temperature and keeps it from dipping very low. Now and then I checked the temperature in interior and more northerly parts of AK (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, Barrow, Juneau) via Yahoo weather, and found it was often 20+ degrees colder in those places than here. And in the summer, it is very pleasantly cooler here than in the lower 48. I haven't spent a full summer here, but I know what's it's like to walk through the woods on Spruce Island on gently cool or warm days, or to go picnicking and salmonberry picking in nearby Fort Abercrombie Park.
Then there's the greenness of the place. They speak of Kodiak as "Alaska's emerald isle" and you might think it's boosterism, but I've seen the green hillsides and in summer they do shimmer. Here's this paean from an 1890s visitor: “I feel as if I wanted to go back, to Kodiak. Almost as if I could return there to live. So secluded, so remote, so peaceful; such a mingling of the domestic, the pastoral, the sylvan, with the wild and the rugged; such emerald heights, such flowery vales, such blue arms and recesses of the sea, and such a vast green solitude stretching away to the west, and to the north and to the south. Bewitching Kodiak! The spell of thy summer freshness and placidity is still upon me” (John Burroughs, Alaska: The Harriman Expedition, 1899.)
And I'm told that the largest cabbages anywhere have been grown in AK. How could that be? Ninety degree days with 18+ hours of sunlight. And that there are some fertile areas with many different vegetables farmed, and dairy cattle.
And along with it, the extremely cold and long winter in some areas, to be sure. But not in Kodiak, anyway.
These observations are admittedly from a newbie here. (Alaskan oldtimers who may read this, be patient!)
Just finished living through my first winter here. My impression is that the temperature stayed in the 20s and 30s almost all winter long. It was milder than many a winter I've spent in PA or CT or OH or IL. Yet more than one person in Kodiak has told me this was the coldest winter in years. The water surrounding the island moderates the temperature and keeps it from dipping very low. Now and then I checked the temperature in interior and more northerly parts of AK (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, Barrow, Juneau) via Yahoo weather, and found it was often 20+ degrees colder in those places than here. And in the summer, it is very pleasantly cooler here than in the lower 48. I haven't spent a full summer here, but I know what's it's like to walk through the woods on Spruce Island on gently cool or warm days, or to go picnicking and salmonberry picking in nearby Fort Abercrombie Park.
Then there's the greenness of the place. They speak of Kodiak as "Alaska's emerald isle" and you might think it's boosterism, but I've seen the green hillsides and in summer they do shimmer. Here's this paean from an 1890s visitor: “I feel as if I wanted to go back, to Kodiak. Almost as if I could return there to live. So secluded, so remote, so peaceful; such a mingling of the domestic, the pastoral, the sylvan, with the wild and the rugged; such emerald heights, such flowery vales, such blue arms and recesses of the sea, and such a vast green solitude stretching away to the west, and to the north and to the south. Bewitching Kodiak! The spell of thy summer freshness and placidity is still upon me” (John Burroughs, Alaska: The Harriman Expedition, 1899.)
And I'm told that the largest cabbages anywhere have been grown in AK. How could that be? Ninety degree days with 18+ hours of sunlight. And that there are some fertile areas with many different vegetables farmed, and dairy cattle.
And along with it, the extremely cold and long winter in some areas, to be sure. But not in Kodiak, anyway.
These observations are admittedly from a newbie here. (Alaskan oldtimers who may read this, be patient!)
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