Photo Diaries
Pictures and Words
by Noah Jackson
click on image for blowup
December 13, 2005
November 30, 2005
| Several of you have been clamoring for updates but we've been busy.
The entire gang of Peace Corps folks came out for a potluck. Our editor removed the photo of the gang from the daily take-- to many scars-- I think. John's mom came into town and helped out in the woodyard and supervised our Thanksgiving turkey and daily operations. We took advantage of her consultant skills and the free labor and reorganized our entire kitchen. All of our eating systems are much more efficient. In addition to grilling a Hetturite turkey on Thanksgiving Day that we almost had to fight for we also made our first batch of smoked sausages. In the photo, the newest member to our team is pictured. He is the one with the mouth open: an old hunting dog from a good friend. His name is ROBO. The day after Thanksgiving a neighbor volunteered to burn three of our slash piles in addition to the wood-yard bonefire we started. Our flares burned for days- four in all. I'm sure we could have done something else with the carbon credits but it was nice to drink beers, let the dogs roam, and feed the fires outside in between typing sessions inside. |
November 14, 2005
Yesterday, high in the mountains on the border of the Scapegoat
Wilderness, the pulling season began. We are being ushered into the
seasons. John got a job which means Backdoor Conservation Init will
soon go interstate. As the snow begins to fall, my thesis grows
longer; it sits next to a pile of job applications.
November 9, 2005
Canning. A new series of experiments at the backdoor. We are now
accepting applications for an intern. If you are interested, please
send a letter describing how you would use 36 quarts of carrots.
November 8, 2005
We went for a walk this morning and wound up getting a mule deer.
Photo is of us all walking home. Mule deer is riding in the bicycle
cart.
October 31, 2005
October 23, 2005
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October 19, 2005
Returning from firewood gathering in the ponderosa forest behind
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October 16, 2005
Outside the Rattlesnake Wilderness Area,
a forest nymph plays.
October 14, 2005
At home under the bigsky from the 'Slob-aru' window.
Somehow, the back-seat driver made it into the daily takes again.
October 9, 2005
Sausage grinding, mixing & spicing, and taste testing at the ranch.
October 7, 2005
We've been busy getting wood.
These were all taken in the yard yesterday.
October 3, 2005
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Killer Cord |
September 25, 2005
First Kill
September 25, 2005
| Mortal fall rain diesel logging trucks hammer past I can feel it in my bones up and down highway 200 doug and ponderosa rattle roofracks and ranch glass along the draw of the road where life moves too fast and close to blood stained deer remains along white road guide marks and up bar oiled-stained pants across thirty inches of the Stihl blade and in workgloved sawdusted gasolined softened fingers and along the brow I didn’t shave where there’s a new scar one more since last year some kind of growth, maybe maybe some allergy a sign of mortality I swing the axe and the maul continues commuting through wet cold recycled air from a hunting camp in Maine or, maybe some hypothermic peak just above snow-line some place between decay and preservation today air comes from The South to The North from Catrina or Rita female names pretty names more mortality makes me feel old and miss friends traveling conquering peaks working in refugee camps ashes resting sifting, decomposing sawdust or ash from one of those fires gets in my eyes when I’m staring at the bark-beetled infested tops swaying white flecks against blue storm sky I feel vertigo in the silence the dog is nuzzling under some slash pile she’s found something living or dying while ash is falling making the scene a grainy, time-slowed analog movie in this moment when life is up for grabs it’s fall things living and dying slicing and dicing I think about writing some ethical will or at least re-editing nagging questions that set-in this time of year will the wood be got in? should I get 14 inch tires or 17? do I have enough logging orders to get a hitch for the Subaru? how do I get all the burs off my pants? will my clutch make it through winter? will I be sleeping with anyone other than my dog? I know my questions should be different I’ve been wrong before falls ago when I fell asleep in a closed DC subway and at the end of the summer when I thought death was upon me fighting icy river current a tree falls the forest laughs things reigning in the air continue one cold day ends another begins to begin one commute meets another tire hum greets sunrise rain mortality lives |