Archive for the ‘Enviroment’ Category

Among the many odd things I’ve done in my life, I used to work at the International Crane Foundation.  It was there that I learned to impersonate Mama Crane.  That allows me to occasionally get up pretty close as in the picture above.  Here’s that story.  (Just in case you didn’t see it before) One thing I can tell you.. Mama don’t whisper!

And the truck comes by on Friday, and carts it all away.
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay. Oh…..

Garbage, garbage, garbage….
We’re filling up our seas with garbage (garbage, garbage…)
What will we do when there’s no place left to put all the garbage (garbage, garbage……)
– sesame street

And speaking of disposable, I received an email from Tacoma, WA when reader from a paddleshop there read my post about Starbuck’s wasteful packaging at the Sheraton Hotel in Madison. Ken Campbell told me this pile  (see the picture) came from a delivery of 30 mostly plastic kayaks. You can read his thoughts on waste here. You may notice the Necky logos, but we don’t mean to pick on Necky specifically. There’s plenty of trash to go around. The problem is getting more companies in our “green” industry to be green behind the shop as well as on the show floor. Read the rest of this entry »

Busy day at Canoecopia.  I’ll have more pictures for you tomorrow.  Foolishly I took all today’s event photos in a format I can’t open on my laptop!  (You can bet I’ve taken care of that now.) Well, with the couple hours I have available until the premiere of Justine Curgenven’s DVD, ” This is Canoeing“  I thought I’d take a moment to ask you to ponder this… Read the rest of this entry »

Jack, do you never sleep — does the green still run deep in your heart?
Or will these changing times, motorways, powerlines,
keep us apart?
Well, I don’t think so —
I saw some grass growing through the pavements today.
Tull

Today on my Skillet Creek Journal I’m contemplating nature’s end.  Sometimes I when we ride the train we spend so much time involved in looking out the window, complaining about the food, and reading the newspaper that we never actually consider that the ride will soon end.  I think this is why conservation is both a hopeless endeavor, and yet an important act of desperation.  Sea kayakers are lucky in a sense. No matter how many humans we fill the land with there should always be oceans and wind to create waves. Even if all the sea life is long dead.

So deep, so wide, will you take me on your back for a ride
If I should fall, would you swallow me deep inside
– gabriel

In yesterday’s post I mentioned stopping along the roadside to wrangle some apples only to end up cleaning up a bunch of trash.  The photo above is from that very spot.  What looks like a swamp in the image is part of a vast network of small streams, bogs and sloughs that make up the lower Wisconsin River valley.  Somewhere out there past the swamp is the river proper.

You can’t depend on your teacher
You can’t depend on your preacher
You can’t depend on politicians
You can’t depend on superstitions
– donnie iris

So tomorrow I hop back in my kayak to paddle the Upper Dells of the Wisconsin River along with a group from Rutabaga.  Well, that is if the new Jeep starts. It seems to be having one of those battery/alternator/starter issues that simply leave you confused and going nowhere fast. Story of my life!  Right now it’s at the mechanics.  She’ll hook up the computer and like roulette wheel on a Mississippi River Boat Casino, it will tell me which of the 3 options I’ve selected to experience.  It can’t be the battery as I’ve already made that purchase.  However if my little wheel of misfortune does happen to land on “Battery”, it will be met with a long list of expletives loosely translated as, “Spin Again!”…

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And now a road connects the cul-de-sac
To the adjacent development
But there used to be trees stretching back
And there was no way through
- Cymbals Eat Guitars

So a friend noticed by new black Kokatat MSFit.. I actually left it in the box for a few days before I opened it.  I’m giddy as an 8 year old over it and so thankful Kokatat could make it happen.  Ah, now the thing is who do I refer people to who want a black MSfit of their own?  Sorry, but you knew that was  gonna happen! (What with slippery slopes and all that…)

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