October 10, 2003

• My responses to comments:

  
  

  the_nthian asked if the woodpile is all birch.

  
  

   Birch is what we ordered, and we paid for birch, but there was a small amount of hemlock included in one of the truckloads Jason brought.  That’s okay, because split fine the hemlock makes good kindling.  Otherwise, Doug just collects all the small birch chips and splits from his chopping area to fill the kindling box.

  
  

  Some of our neighbors prefer to burn spruce because it gives a crackling hot fire and is much cheaper and easier to find than birch.  I don’t like it because it burns up too fast, needs more attention.  I like to get a few hours of sleep at night, in between tending the stove.

  
  

  The boreal forests around here are mostly white birch and a fast-growing invasive poplar that locals call “cottonwood”.  The poplar is useless for building because it rots fast, and for burning because it ignites only with difficulty and produces little heat.  It is every gardener’s worst enemy around here.   In wetter areas, black spruce predominates, but it is being killed off by an invasion of Asian spruce bark beetles.

  
  

  wixer wanted to know if the pile would last all winter.  What you see above is only one end of the pile.  Jason still has one more truckload to bring us.  He had some trouble with his chainsaw and didn’t complete the order yet.  The whole pile will be about four cords and I expect to have some of it left next spring when we let the fire go out.

  
  

  rosabelle suggested contacting Robert Anton Wilson through his website.  A year or so ago, when I tried, my email bounced, “no such account” or something of that sort.  Letters mailed to his publishing company, Permanent Press, are returned “no forwarding address.”  I have gotten the impression that RAW does not want to be hounded by fans.  I corresponded with him briefly in the late ’70s, early ’80s, about ideas for a fifth Tarot suit and 23rd major Trump.  I might be able to dig his letters out of my files, and they might have a valid return address, but he seems to value his privacy and I want to honor that.

  
  

  And in Alaska news briefly:

  
  

  Bear enthusiast and companion fatally mauled in Katmai National Park. 
  A self-taught bear expert who once called Alaska’s brown bears harmless party animals was one of two people fatally mauled in a bear attack in Katmai National Park and Preserve – the first known bear killings in the 4.7-million-acre park.
  

  
  

  Katmai bear mauling recorded on tape.

  
  

  Among the last words Timothy Treadwell uttered to his girlfriend before a bear killed and partially ate both of them were these:   “Get out of here! I’m getting killed.”

  
  

  Biologist believes errors led to attack.

  • 7:08 pm
  • 3 Comments