Springtime in Alaska

It’s been an incredible second week of May here in Juneau town. In the 70’s during the day and light winds. It got to 80 a few days ago in Ketchikan and Craig. Meanwhile, it’s been snowing back in my hometown of Bolivar, NY.

I boated over to check the crab pots. Nothing but a couple small tanners in 4 pots!

I got a Lazyboy rocker recliner on Craiglist that was the exact same model we had in the house, and I packed this in to the cabin. The woodpile on the porch had fallen over, so I restacked it, ate some African food Andrew gave us for lunch, then took a sweet nap in the new recliner.

I planned to pick devils club buds today, but when I got down to the beach, I saw I was too late. The leaves had burst the bud sheaths and were past picking. But wait, I looked some more, and here and there were a few that were still good. So I spent some time and got a half a nut container of buds.  I’d noticed lots of devils club along the road near the boat launch, so I headed back home and thought I’d try there.

In any other year, there would be whale watching and other tour boats galore out on the water.  Now, just me and another local on the glassy water as there’s no cruiseships this summer due to the corona virus. Perhaps the first time there are no cruiseships or steamships coming to Juneau since before the gold rush in 1898.

There were some good stands of devils club by the boat ramp that still had pickable buds, and plenty of stands that were too far along. I picked down the road for a quarter mile or so and got maybe a couple quarts of buds.

Later, I drove up to look at the pasture where we get fiddleheads and nettles, expecting it to still be snow covered, and I was surprised to see it had all melted and there was even some green starting to show. So time to get up there.

Subscribe to Mark's blog via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.