We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves. (George M. Adams)

And, so it's happening. The days are getting longer. We still have a month until the longest day of the year and it's already twilight past 11:30pm. As I write this at midnight, it looks just like these pictures that I took last night.

I much prefer the long nights to the long days. Perhaps it is because I feel like I'm wasting time during the long days... I'm burning daylight, as John Wayne said. In the darkness, I have permission to sleep, to dream, to relax. The darkness makes it feel safe to have that second helping of macaroni and cheese, drink that next whiskey, overindulge. The darkness tells me it's okay to sleep late, to put off laundry for one more day, to cuddle up in a blanket with a good book.

However, the long days... now that's a different story. It makes me feel like I should be outside, especially on those sunny days, working in the garden, playing fetch with the dog, riding a bike to town. The 4am daylight pulls me from my bed and forces me to make to-do lists for the day. The 10pm daylight makes my dog stubborn when I call her in for the night. I need to learn to embrace this phenomenon. This will be my 3rd summer in the Alaskan light. It is time to stop rebelling and start enveloping myself in all of the bounty that Alaska has to offer. It's time to buy a salmon pole.

Clamming just for the Halibut

The clam tide this past Sunday called Julie, Marcia, and me to the beach. We all met at the Safeway parking lot, piled into the cab of Julie's truck, and headed north to Deep Creek. The word is that there are more clams the further north you go, even though the clams are bigger the further south you go. We made the decision to head north! Once there, Julie drove down the beach a couple of miles - going about 60mph in the deep sand and pebbles so as not to get stuck. Fishtaling our way down the beach, we saw an abundance of bald eagles.

We found what we thought to be our lucky spot, and began to walk the beach, bucket and shovel in hand, in search of the elusive Razor Clam dimples in the sand. For whatever reason, today was not the day. Finally, we started digging at any possible ripple in the sand, all in vain.

After 2 hours of digging dozens of empty holes, Marcia was the only one not to come up empty handed. Her bucket of treasure included 4 nice sized Razors - barely enough for one meal for one person.

I did see several Sand Crabs - cute lil buggers!

The big excitement of the day came when Julie caught a Halibut in her bucket! It wasn't quite a barn door, but it was awfully cute!


Ah well, we decided that in the end, it's all about the adventure, right? It was a great day to be on the beach - not much wind, not too cold, no rain - what more can an Alaskan Clam Digger ask for?

Oh, that's right - Clams would be nice!

DDF - a platform for greatness

Our Annual Pops Show was Tuesday at the High School. Pops is Homer's version of a High School Talent Show. Below is a video of Kate Spence, one of my DDF kids, doing her rendition of "Adventure Dog" - a piece with which she competed in the Humorous Interpretation category this year in DDF (Drama, Debate, Forensics). She is an amazing kid, as you will see! This is the kind of passion that I hope to bring to Kwethluk!