Tracks and Scat: Noticing Nature

Engagement with nature is the same as with people. It requires slowing down and paying attention to details. It isn’t driving past and enjoying the view. It isn’t jogging through a park while chatting with a friend or listening to music. Engagement means walking, looking, pausing, noticing, analyzing, comparing, and appreciating.

In this regard, one of my favorite pastimes in the remote part of Alaska where we live, is to identify and interpret the scat and tracks of the wild animals that live here. In winter, the tracks are clear for several days in the snow, but the warm excrement slips below the surface and disappears, so that clue is lacking.

In summer, ground cover obscures the tracks, other than in mud. But I see vague footprints in gravel along creeks, and of course our forest is riven with myriad animal trails and the occasional matted grass where one bedded down for the night (or day). Among bushes and trees, I notice branches stripped by moose, berries scattered by bears, trees gnawed by beavers, and tree trunks rubbed raw by bull moose as they shed their velvet and paddles (antlers). Bears leave swatches of coarse hair where they rub against trees (and our cabins). In summer, animal scat lasts for days, and I can infer how recent it is and what the animal ate.

By paying attention, I learn about my largely silent neighbors: where they travel, if they are moving fast (in fear or in pursuit) or slowly (feeling safe), what they have been eating, how recently they have passed through, and the conditions for their respective dens.

In the spirit of the season, this article focuses only on WINTER TRACKS. A summer article will describe SUMMER clues.

Every afternoon above about 0 degrees F, my husband, dog and I take a walk. We prefer the frozen, windswept lake for easy walking in shallow snow, but we also go into the woods on snowshoes (to cut firewood). Either way, we look for tracks, point them out to our chocolate lab mix dog, Buddy, and try to interpret what we see.

VOLES, HARES, WOLVERINES, BEARS, MARTENS, WEASELS, LYNX, ad WOLVES

VOLE

This week, in the flat light of an overcast day, we barely saw the close, shallow tracks of a vole (meadow mouse) heading away from the woods and out toward the middle of the lake. Why? Any dark colored creature on the white expanse would be an obvious appetizer to an eagle eyed carnivore – avian or otherwise. Usually, we find their serpentine trails in spring when the snow melts, in long stretches dug slightly into the mud and slightly into the lowest layer of snow, where they are insulated to a balmy 33 degrees F. Why would one venture out into the cold exposure of a windswept lake? I do not know.

Our dog and other animals hear or smell the voles beneath the snow. Buddy sniffs and digs where he can reach under the chicken coop, where I am sure voles hole up during the winter and gather occasional bits of food and straw.

MARTEN

A more dramatic occasion occurred with a marten. These animals (whose fur is the ermine you associate with royalty) are about the size of a cat, but with shorter legs, all brown/black, with cupped ears. They have been referred to, evocatively, as “nature’s most adorable assassin.”

Moose on our frozen lake

My husband was soaking in our outdoor, wood fired hot tub mid-winter. I happened to be looking out our kitchen window and saw the following, too. A black marten left the shelter of trees (which they can climb) and trotted out to the middle of a meadow. There he stood for a moment and then jumped up into the air and straight down into the snow, emerging with a vole in his mouth. He returned a while later for a second course, but the voles had skedaddled. Instead, he was attracted to the sound of Bryan splashing water over his head in the tub. Did he hear another meal? The marten bounded toward him and even climbed up the lowest two steps to the deck surrounding the tub! Adorable or not, my husband was disinclined to be so close to those sharp teeth, so he splashed water onto the marten, who ran away into the woods. He has his space; we like ours.

HARE

Hares, being a prey species like voles, usually stay in the woods, but one time we watched from our front porch as a hare raced out of the woods and along shore, as fast and straight as I have ever seen one move. Sure enough, a predatory marten was chasing. Before they disappeared beyond the trees, it looked like the marten was gaining. It is a dog eat dog world out there. When we walked down to the lake to analyze the tracks, the distance between the leaps of both creatures was greater than we had ever seen, reflecting their speed.

Usually, hares stay in the woods, sheltered among the roots of birch or under the snow weighted boughs of spruce or a thicket of alder laid low by the snow. When they venture out for forage, like dead grass or berries, they move from one sheltered tree to another. Their tracks are distinctive from the way they jump – their big back feet tend to obscure their smaller front foot prints, like a frog jump.

In spots illuminated and warmed by the sun, the older tracks (of any creatures) expand in the snow, looking much larger than is true. This is one way to assess how much time has passed. Tracks in shaded areas tend to remain true to size longer.

The tree canopy protects the hares somewhat, but since the deciduous trees shed their leaves in autumn, they are particularly vulnerable to predators in winter. One year, we spied a bright red (so fresh) blood pool at the base of a tree, and a light blood trail leading away, but no footprints at all! Our interpretation was that an eagle or hawk dove down to grab a fleeing hare just as it emerged from its sub-nivian hideaway. I doubt it was an owl because those birds are so light. I have seen them dive to break a duck’s neck, and then sit there to feed on the large bird that it could not lift.

LYNX

Here, the lynx/hare population follows a predictable 10 year cycle: more hares = more lynx. Last year was the trough, so we anticipate seeing more of both in upcoming years. Only once have I seen what I think were lynx tracks. Their feet are so insulated with tufts of fur that you can barely see the toes and claws. The tracks looked to me almost like a big softball shape slightly indented into the surface, surrounded by a softened snow edge.

MYSTERY DECODED

Perhaps the most joyful discovery occurred shortly after Freezeup this year. When the lake ice was thick enough to support our weight (4 – 6 inches) and barely covered with an inch or two of snow, we ventured out, wearing ice cleats since the ice was so slick, and carrying a rope in case one of us fell in. Can you can interpret what we saw before I answer the question?

Along the perimeter of the lake, maybe three feet from shore, we saw what looked like a single tire track that scraped the snow down to the ice. It was about 6 inches wide and 6 feet long. Then a gap of 10 inches of snow, and then another track of ice, then snow, then ice, for 1/3 to ½ a mile! Two or three times, the track veered right up to the shrubbery along shore. What was this?

We bent down to get a clearer view, because in the flat light of winter, there are no shadows to illuminate nooks and crannies. Then we saw it: two small foot prints at the end of each icy track. Of course! This was a river otter sliding and then leaping and then sliding along shore! Wouldn’t you have loved to see that in action! How fun! Perhaps its forays to the shrubbery were to find any remaining open pools of water. On the far side of the lake, two such pools remained liquid for another week where little creeks drizzled into the lake. Sure enough, we found evidence that the critter slid into the water and disappeared into the woods. What a delightful discovery and happy memory! Had it snowed before our walk, we would have missed the evidence.

WOLVERINE

A few years ago, a wolverine hung around our place. These are creatures that look like small bears and are noted for their fierce temperament. We used our scat and tracks book to identify the animal by the size of the feet and the distance between steps. We found two trails, on two different days, where it wandered out of the woods, in a loop along the lake, and then back into the woods about ½ mile north of our cabin.

A night or so later, our dog alerted to an exterior visitor. The next morning, we found that the wolverine’s tracks led from the woods north of us, under our cabin’s front porch, out the other side and down to the lake. Because of the dusty dirt beneath the cabin, its dirty paw prints left a clear trail in the snow where he exited. We even saw sharp front claw marks in the icy snow berm that he had to climb up from under the cabin. Did it smell the gray water line under the sink? Did our dog leave a bone somewhere? I do not know why it paid a visit, but I am glad that we did not let our dog out that night. He surely would have lost his life to this apex predator.

MOOSE

Moose prefer riparian landscapes where rivers offer open water longer than our lake in the winter, and shore plants like willows can feed them. When they travel through snow, they, like we, travel along hard packed snowmachine tracks for easier walking. Imagine the caloric stress for a 1200 lb pregnant herbivore laboring through belly high snow, looking for food for 6-7 months! They are understandably ornery and often unwilling to cede the trail to an oncoming snowmachine or dog sled. For this reason, it is common to carry a gun to startle the huge ungulate into moving away a few dozen yards so we can pass.

For the same ease of transit, moose are often seen walking on roads in Alaska. As you may imagine, collisions can be fatal for both beast and driver. In the populated area around Anchorage, volunteers are on call to collect the enormous road kill, butcher it, and deliver it as food to homeless shelters and other food charities. Nice.

In winter, we see moose when we near rivers, and less often on our lake, especially now that we have the dog. I recall seeing one curl up, rather miserably, it seemed to me, out of the wind below our cabin, after nibbling whatever she could reach on low birch and ash branches. The next morning, we saw that she had traversed the snow paths on our property, sampling adjacent tree branches, before heading into the woods, which protect her from wind. Off the path, her footfalls in the snow were so deep that we could see her belly scrapes in between them.

If reincarnation exists, I do not want to become an arctic moose. It seems to be an arduous and vulnerable life.

BEARS

Bears hibernate, of course, so we were astonished to see the unmistakable footprints of a large bear in a glen low on our property one New Year’s Day. Naturally, we were disinclined to follow in our bulky and cumbersome snowshoes, so we retreated. I called Fish and Game after the holiday to inquire, citing measurements for the footprints and the stride length. A warden explained that the bear was likely old or ill and left a den to die outside somewhere. Somehow this strikes me as both sad and noble. How about you?

These excursions illuminate my environment. From animal tracks, I discern (or interpret) evidence of joy, thirst, hunger, fear, confusion, illness, and dying. Human footprints surely yield such clues, too, to attentive doctors, policemen, and forensic analysts.

We just need to pay attention.

Are You Prepared? For What?

I previously posted my article to www.survivalblog.com.  I highly recommend this website for people interested in practical, "how-to" articles for self-reliance.

 

Throughout the country, kind people volunteer their time and talents to help others harmed by natural or personal disasters.

Photo courtesy of vecteezy.com

We can only help others if we are first prepared to take care of ourselves and our families.

Below are real situations that have happened to us, or people that we or our friends and relatives know.


What would you do?  I hope that these real situations and questions can prompt useful and interesting discussions among family or other groups.

1.  In ice fog conditions, your car goes off the road and down into a ditch where people cannot see you.  You are injured.  What do you have within reach to call or attract attention for help, keep warm, and care for your injuries?

Considerations:  Cell service is spotty in large swaths of rural America, and often depends on line of sight to cell towers.  Take note of locations in your vicinity where cell service is unavailable.  Do you have any other means of communication in your car, such as whistles, flares, or ham radio?

2.  On a winter morning, you and your family members are away from home. Some are at work, school, supermarket, a doctor’s appointment, etc.  The power goes out in a broad region, including the buildings that each of you occupies at that moment.  What do you have on hand (in your purse, backpack, desk, or locker) that will help you get home or to your family’s predetermined rally site (if you have chosen one).  How will you keep warm where you are or where you are going?  How can you communicate with your loved ones to ensure that all are safe?  How far will you need to travel?  Do you have apparel appropriate for the season’s conditions?

Considerations:   Without electricity, your cell phones, elevators, electric keyed doors, ATMs, cash registers, traffic lights, heat, and water will not work.  If you work in a high-rise building, can you get to the stairs and leave the building safely? Do you know in advance if your car can get through the exit gate of the parking lot? Do you have ham radio to reach others in your family?

3.  You awaken at home one winter morning to discover that the power went out during the night.  Your home is getting cool.  What can you do to preserve or produce food, water, and warmth?  Do you know how long your refrigerated and frozen food last if you do or do not open the appliance? (Often, the website can tell you… in advance) What food do you have on hand that can be cooked or prepared without electricity?  How much water do you have that does not require an electric pump?    

Photo courtesy of vecteezy.com

Considerations:  If your municipal or well water requires an electric pump, it will cease to run.  Do you have a hand pump for your well and have you attached it, primed it, used it? (Mine takes about 100 pumps to prime and get a few gallons from a 62 foot well.  It is tiring!).  Do you have jugs of stored water?  How old and tasty is the water?   If you have a generator, how many watts can it power?  Given the gas you have on hand, how many hours can it run? If you can power only a few appliances, what are your priorities and how much power do they need?  Note: for many appliances, the run rate wattage is much lower than the necessary START UP wattage.  So check this out. (A great source of information is www.generatorist.com.)   

Will your gas grill or stove ignite without electricity?  How many bags of briquettes do you have for a non-gas grill?  If exterior temperatures are below 45, you can store refrigerated food outside.  If it is below freezing, outdoor shelves can function as a freezer.   

4.  Your region is devastated by a natural disaster that physically isolates you from resources you need (perhaps roads are impassable because of a tornado, hurricane, flooding, landslides, earthquake or extreme snow storm).  You cannot get to the pharmacy, supermarket, or hospital.  However, your home is intact. With the supplies you have on hand, how long can you wait for access, how can you help or support nearby emergency service personnel, or how can you create your own access to resources you need?

Considerations: How many meals and how many gallons of water can your current supplies provide for how many people?  Do you have mechanical can openers  and sharpeners etc or only electric ones?  What are your greatest vulnerabilities? How do you handle neighbors and others who seek you out because your home is intact, for shelter and food?

5.  You are in a somewhat remote, off-road recreational situation with a friend in winter.  Perhaps you are snowmachining, dog mushing, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, biking, or camping.  Your friend gets injured or his/her transportation device is damaged and cannot travel as before.  What injuries or damage are feasible in your location? What do you have on hand to address likely injuries or damage?  Can you call for help?  If cell service is not available, what do you do?  If you need to leave your friend, what  can you do with supplies on hand to ensure safety and comfort during your absence?

Considerations:  Each of these recreational activities involves a different carrying capacity for supplies and different transportation speed.  In the situation most likely for you, what can you carry to address potential problems?   Did you let someone know your departure time, route, and expected return time/date? Does your contact person know whom to contact after you do not return on time?  (Such as Alaska state troopers?) Do you have a personal EPIRB (electronic personal information beacon)?   Are you familiar with land to air emergency signals?  At the very least, you can carve out SOS and darken it against the snow, but other signals are faster, designate specific needs (like food or medical care) with less effort.

6.  You are commuting to San Francisco (or New York) or elsewhere and are stuck in the Berkeley (or New Jersey) Tunnels when traffic stops.  Air quality is terrible in the tunnel.  Your car radio does not at first report the issue.  (It turns out that two semi trucks jackknifed on the highway ahead, and it takes many hours to clear the accident so traffic can resume.)  What do you do for fresh air, information, and emptying your bladder?  What do you have in your car to help alleviate this situation?

7.  You and your family are evacuating by car with millions of other people in advance of a hurricane.  The traffic is so thick and slow that cars are running out of gas, which further slows everyone else if they do not move to the side.  Pretty soon, your car’s gas is dangerously low and you are not yet out of the predicted danger zone for the incoming storm.  What do you do?

8.  You discover an out of control fire at your home.  Pick a likely spot: the woodstove, fireplace, kitchen stove, bonfire, or burn barrel.  What do you have on hand to deal with it?  What can you do in advance to mitigate such danger?

Considerations:  Grease fires, electric fires, wood fires,  vs. other sources of ignition respond differently to mitigation efforts.  Research this.  Examples:  water vs. baking soda or sand.   Have you ever tested your fire extinguishers?  Have you checked the gauge to see how functional they are (they degrade over time).

9.  You are on a late season float plane right before Freezeup at a remote lake.  The water is still liquid, but the air is below freezing temperature.  As the plane taxis through the water, it sprays water onto the tail where the water freezes on contact and weighs down the rear of the plane.  When the plane labors to ascend into the air, it fails, falls, and the rear sinks into the frigid water.  All passengers and pilot are able to escape the sinking plane and swim to shore, although some have to carry others who are hypothermic.  Now what?

Considerations:  The pilot wears a float coat with some precautionary items in its many pockets.  Passengers have whatever they were wearing and in their pockets.  Their bags and purses may be in hand, but are more likely, stowed in the rear.  Their clothes are sodden and starting to freeze on them.  The pilot is required to have a heavy bag of emergency supplies in the back of the plane, but it is now sunk in the lake.  The first need for all people is warmth.  How do you accomplish that?  What might you want to keep on your person for future flights?

10.  You are in a rogue (fake) taxi in a foreign country (or in the USA) that kidnaps people for their ATM cards or their cash and clothes.  You give up your money and any other valuables.  The driver and accomplice dump you in a slum with no money, no shoes, and no cell phone.  Now what?

11.   On your shopping trip to your usual supermarket, the power goes out.  You realize that since the machines will not work, the cashiers may kick out everyone, and that you do not have enough cash on hand to buy everything because you expected to pay by credit card.  Might they accept cash?  How much cash do you tend to carry and which items in your cart would you prioritize when the power goes out?  Or would you leave the check out line to look for other items?   Or would you leave the store to get home before traffic builds?

Considerations:  First mover advantage is well recognized in many situations, from sports to business.  But another well known point is “Never let a crisis go to waste.”  Somebody will take advantage of a power outage.  Given your size or age or children in tow, is it better for you to turn on your flash light to search for other items in the store or is it wiser to get out of the store with what you can buy at that moment?

12.   A storm has caused a tree to crash onto your home.  In your vicinity, this could have been a hurricane, tornado, ice storm, heavy rain or heavy snow. You now have a big hole in your roof or wall or window. If the storm was wide spread, there may be LOTS of people ahead of you to get the attention of repairmen.  What do you have on hand to patch the hole?  Can you repair it?

Considerations:  How much does a tarp cost, or a roll of 6 mm plastic? How would you attach it or weigh it down? How much does a roll of window screen cost?  How would you attach it? How do you preserve wood or walls that have been damaged by several days of rain water?  Can you put R factor insulation under a tarp over a hole in the roof? How do you address heat loss?

13.  If you are lucky enough for your home to escape a wildfire, you may still be close enough to suffer devastating smoke damage to every surface and fabric in your home.  How do you protect from that or clean it up?  How long does that take?  What is irredeemable? Is there anything you could have done before you evacuated from that dangerous situation?

Every one of these scenarios is based on real people I know or by relatives who know them. Considering realistic emergencies like these can enable one to plan ahead, possibly downgrading an emergency to an inconvenience.

I hope these scenarios will provide fodder for interesting winter discussions and planning.

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Readers may be interested in my book, Log Cabin Reflections by Laura Emerson, available through Amazon as a Kindle book.  With lots of photos, it describes the highs and lows of our learning curve to  live 40 miles from the nearest road in Alaska. 

Grief Assuaged by Nature

 

In August, my dad died.  I spent a few hours processing the news, but all I felt was an emotional maelstrom and a physical need to go outside and DO something.

So I harvested saskatoon berries. 

Berry picking has always been a calming and meditative activity for me.  It engenders feelings of gratitude at the reliable plenty of a summer’s harvest.  

 Today though, my mind was whirling with images of my dad and my siblings as I plucked the fruit.  In the process, the berries soothed my knot of grief.

I remembered when I planted these six, spindly little seedlings a decade ago. Every year, I worried when the springy boughs bowed below the snow, wondering how they would fare the following spring.  Some branches broke.  Of those, I taped and splinted a few.  Some benefited.  Others didn’t.  I pruned low branches girdled beneath our deep snow by hungry voles.  I mulched in the fall and fertilized in the spring.

Of the six trees, two are tall and prolific producers.  Three are middling, and one is the runt of the group.  

Since each tree has grown differently, I have lots of “woulda, coulda, shoulda thoughts” about my interventions. What if I had planted them elsewhere and farther apart?  Some trees hog the sun, grow taller and stronger and their boughs whip the narrower branches of an adjacent tree, which becomes stunted.  What if I had pruned them better, earlier?  Now such intervention on some major limbs might kill the tree.  What if I had watered them deeper?  What if?

All of us who are children, as well as parents, co-parents, step-parents, and siblings contemplate such what ifs.  It is hard to step out of a family or community and view it from outside.

As I gathered the berries, I reached for those of the darkest blue hue, heavy and round with juice.  Since the berries do not all ripen at the same time, I leave those that are purple or red that need additional time to mature more slowly in the sun. 

Some berries grow in ideal locations – plenty of sun, protected from the wind, with room to grow, well separated from others. 

Some are physically deformed by birds that pecked part of them.  A few look fine, but skinny larvae burrowed inside and rot the interior.  In thick clusters, a single berry in the middle is always desiccated and surrounded by a gray fluff of mold, which taints the berries surrounding it. It did not have room to grow so it died and infected those surrounding it.

Each tree, each berry, each season, teaches me a different lesson.      

That day, different from a decade of other harvesting days, my mind viewed this line of trees as a community, each tree as a family, and the berries as individual members of that family tree.

My dad has died.  The saskatoons consoled me because I observed among those trees and branches, life experiences that illuminate my own.  

 I can’t hug my dad.  But I can stroke these branches and think about his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who will grow toward the sun, strong and resilient.  He was a strong tree with, like all of us, some weak branches.  He has many progeny, who will blow and bend with the winds of the future.

We have a bench along the lake shore with three stone cairns as memorials.  When I retrieve his ashes, we will build a fourth. 

       

The Brevity of Autumn Teaches us to Pay Attention

 

Some people find autumn and winter depressing and prefer spring and summer. 

I am not among that group.  To me, the brevity of a gorgeous, Alaskan fall is a very visible message to appreciate each day, each morning, each rapidly changing view.  Part of the reason is psychological: Because THIS WILL NOT LAST, so enjoy it.  Part of the reason is practical: the changes of fall and winter contribute to the fecundity of spring and summer.

Sometimes, we need to be hit on the head with important reminders like this.  Autumn does both.  It feels transient but it is benefits are long lasting.  

Sadly, I have two friends whose cancers have metastasized.  Both are using phrases like, “I will never see X or Y again.”  I think of them as I watch the leaves drop to the ground.  Is this their last autumn? Some of us know when death is right around the corner, but others are caught off guard.   We are lucky who enjoy a springtime youth, a summer’s middle age, and transitions to autumnal and then winter’s old age.  Not everyone does.  Fall drives that message home.  

So I luxuriate in the beauties of the season.   I stare in awe of electric yellow birch and larch trees (the latter is the only conifer that sheds its needles), framed by purple mountains.    I inhale the earthy aroma of high bush cranberries and the tannic scents of crispy leaves as my boots shuffle through the accumulating piles of red, orange, yellow, and brown that  flutter gracefully to the ground.    I harvest rose hips and berries and potatoes and horseradish root.

Besides the beauty, this annual blanket of fall leaves is as important to the ecosystem as elders are important to younger members of society.  The skirts below trees and bushes blanket them from cold and add biomass to the soil.  The leaves deter weeds.  From the trails that do not need the leaves, I rake piles to strew over my vegetable and flower gardens as mulch.  Over the winter, the leaves break down under the snow weight to lighten the soil the following year.   Voles and insects burrow beneath the leaves for protection from winter weather.  With so many benefits of autumn leaves, I don’t know why anyone rakes them into a garbage bag to be carted off.  They are valuable to every plant and critter in your yard.

Looking upward from the lake shore, I see termination dust (initial snow) coating the cap of the 4600 foot mountain west of our lake and draping the 5000 foot mountain range to our north.  Each 1000 feet of elevation is about 5 degrees cooler than below.  So after each rain or fog here, we watch the snowline creep downhill until it envelops us, too.  The natural world is our thermometer and barometer.  Mine is beautiful.

October 10 we awoke in the dark to the sound of hundreds of geese, swans and cranes vectoring south.  In the early morning light, we saw a flock of a hundred or more geese resting on our lake.  They huddled so close to one another that they looked like a bright white island. I don’t think my dog, who gets very excited about individual water fowl, could even interpret what that mass was.  The timing of their flight south was clear when the light lifted and we saw the first dusting of snow in our yard as well as deeper incursions on the mountain tops.  These huge migratory departures in fall and  arrivals in spring punctuate our year more decisively than any calendar date.

In this short and dramatic season, I know that some morning later this month, we will awaken to a black and white world.  Technicolor autumn will disappear for a year.  For others, this is their last season.  So, for me and for them, I savor every image of these last few days of evanescent beauty. 

In Nature, Nothing is Straight

 

When I fly into a city, what strikes me most are all the straight lines: long grids of streets and highways bisected at neat 90 degree angles, set with rectangular buildings, miles of telephone wires and railroad tracks.   This is especially striking in flat terrain, like Phoenix and Houston.  

Civil engineers can feel rightly proud of their profession.  They have transformed these landscapes into humanscapes, capable of providing transportation, communication, electricity, water, and housing for millions of people.

Alaska, of course, is not like that.  Our land is too rugged and our population small.  Our biggest city, Anchorage, has a straight grid of streets (numbered and lettered), but for only about 270,000 people before it runs out of room, between the mountains and the sea.  Because of both the land and the population outside this one municipality, we have only three numbered highways.  Many of our homes and communities are accessible only by marine highway (ferries) or, like mine, by small airplane. 

Personally, I think this is marvelous… 

Because there are no roads or electricity or other humanscape where I live (other than my own habitation structures), I am alert to the fact that in the biological and botanical world, NOTHING natural is straight.  Everything is curved, and for practical reasons. Curved surface areas of leaves and tree trunks receive and shed more sun and precipitation.  Mountains are shaped by ice, wind, and rain.  Circuitous streams and rivers and bogs capture and carry more water.  Nothing in human and animal bodies is straight either.  Think of the walnut curves in our brains, or the elliptical nature of our intestines, not to mention the vascular system.

To me (and I bet some psychology grad students have documented this), curves are more calming and attractive than straight lines. 

 

Speaking of psychology, we use terms like, “Life throws us a curve ball.” We never say that “Life throws us a line drive.” 

I wonder if physically and psychologically, we are more naturally, positively attuned to curves than the straight lines in benches, seating arrangements, buildings and roads. 

…    

When our float (or ski) plane rises above our lake in the Alaska bush, bearing my husband, dog, and me to anyplace else, I love looking down from 1200 feet to survey the natural landscape.  Because we have no pollution here, I can see much farther (from the ground or in the air) than in cities (even from our previous 17^th floor condo in a high-rise in Houston, TX.)   Here, I can see the Alaska Range, with Denali its pinnacle, about 200 miles north.   Whether summer green or winter white, every path of water, every beach, every stand of trees and plant life is sinuous.  Every mountain range, too.

As a result, my eye, like those of search and rescue spotters, is automatically drawn to those occasions of “what does not fit” in this view.  What stands out most is a straight line and something unnaturally shiny.  This is usually a bit of cabin roof line, flashing in the sun, or the gunnels of a metal boat or the long edge of a private plane’s wing in glossy yellow or white.

Aloft from our lake,  how long does it take before I see my first hint of human construction?  After ten minutes, I see a sliver of silver roof line. The roofs of these older cabins were creatively “shingled” with used fuel oil containers.  The shiny metal was cut, flattened, and nailed onto wooden roof planks or plywood.  Good repurposing.

In twelve minutes, we peer down at a river lined with cabins set five acres apart on a bluff.  Depending on the fish runs, we see 6 or 10 motor boats, but none today.  The braided river winds slowly south around sandbars and downed trees, carrying glacial silt from the Alaska Range to the Cook Inlet.  The name is Susitna.  In the Athabaskan language, the –na denotes a river and the –susit apparently refers to the glacial silt suspended in the river, turning it a milky color. 

Over the ensuing ten minutes, I see increasing indications of population:  asphalt roads, wooden telephone poles, cleared properties populated with vehicles and buildings in various states of use, repair, and functionality. 

We glide onto a lake adjacent to a major road and taxi to shore.  I open the gull wing passenger door, wait for my husband to stop the engine (which turns off the propeller), and drop down to the float, scoot under the diagonal struts, pick up the tow line, and jump to shore, less nimbly, I must admit, than a decade ago. 

After we secure the plane, we venture out to city errands in a vehicle we store there.  For the first time in many months, I open my wallet (often) for services, like a dentist or purchases we cannot grow, like citrus, coffee, and chocolate, and modern day conveniences that we cannot make, like hoses and gaskets and coaxial cable.  After not thinking about money for many months at home, it seems to me that in a city, that is foremost on my mind.

Even here in Alaska, with its gorgeous mountains, forests, and streams, my low view along the road is of really unattractive strip centers and parking lots.  My olfactory and auditory senses are assaulted by the sound and smell of vehicles on the road.  In a doctor’s waiting room or a restaurant, I feel awkward, almost embarrassed, by how close people are and how we can overhear conversations.  But people on the road do not seem to mind these noises and smells and lack of privacy.  They are used to the population density and its intrusions. 

My home is different.

Here, if I want to hear a human sound, I have to make it.  Only one other couple lives within many miles of us, and they tend to be quiet, too.

When I return home, and walk among the plants and woods of my property, along sinuous (of course) paths among berry bushes and spruce and birch trees, I notice that I breathe deeper than I do in a city.  Partly, this is because everything smells so good.  I inhale whichever berries or flowers are peaking, as well as the spruce, clover, and sweet grass.  And partly. this deep breathing is a sign of contentment and relaxation. 

When people are stressed out, we tend to breathe more shallowly. 

I acknowledge that some urbanites freak out in nature (we had a dear friend from Mumbai who had a panic attack out here the first day due to the silence and openness. It was totally unfamiliar.  No straight lines.  No cars and honking and crowds and the smells that emanate from all of them.  She had to fly back to the “big city” of Anchorage the next day and then to a city of many million people that felt  more comfortable to her.

Cities with infrastructure are impressive social and physical constructions where populations grow and develop culturally significant arts, technologies, and skills because large populations support specialization.  I enjoyed living in cities for decades and, because I no longer do, I respect all the hidden requirements that make them work (like sewage and water treatment and electricity, and traffic lights). 

But for more than a dozen years, I have chosen to listen to different sounds, see different lines, smell different scents.  These years living in the woods have changed me.  I have a deep sense of belonging here that was lacking in all those straight places, that lead... where?