Taking Advantage of My Air Drop Working Again

 My phone asked me to log in with my Apple ID today.  On a whim, I tried Air Drop after and it worked.  So, in what I hope is a long window, I'll put up some pictures.  

Grow North is the farm in Mountain View where the Refugee Assistance and Immigration Service of Anchorage Catholic Social services grows food for the summer and operates a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with once a week pick ups and sells fresh vegetables and some baked goods as well during the week.  You can't get much fresher food in Anchorage unless it's from your own garden.  

The garlic and the picture of the farm are from last week.  

This week's box includes:

• Classic cauliflower,
• Crunchy kohlrabi
• Unique malabar spinach,
• Tasty bok choi,
• And some lovely sage for the herb of the week!

From the email that CSA subscribers get:

"Malabar spinach seems like it would retain similarities to that of regular spinach. The plant uses the name spinach in it, yet the ironic part of that the two could not be more different. Malabar spinach grows on a vine, granting it the nickname of vine spinach, whereas regular spinach grows from the ground (like many leafy greens)."  

This Goose Lake as I rode by  The ducks hang out here because its's  spot where people feed them.

On a completely different bike ride, out past Taku Lake, they've had the big blue sign up much of the summer, but the little one just popped up.  If you can't read the small sign (which I'm guessing you can't) it says, "We are upgrading the skatepark!"  It also says the construction budget is $1.2 million. I know we've had inflation over the years, but really?  $1.2 million for curved concrete?  Curious how much profit the contractor, also listed as "Street Maintenance and Grindline Skate Parks LLC" is making.  I realize they may be doing more than just the skateboard park, but it would be nice if there was a watchdog group which gathered all the data on summer construction projects and evaluated how the money was spent.  

In other construction news, the ACS fiber optic team was out on Crescent in Geneva Woods today.  We're on the Lake Otis side, but all this area is getting wired.  That bright orange wire is popping up all around the neighborhoods.  

And it's mushroom season.  Here are some making appearances in my yard.

Don't have time now to research these.  The orange one is an amanita - hallucinogenic and al over Anchorage now.  It can also make you really sick.  Not planning on eating any, though I'm waiting for the King Boletes and the Shaggy Manes.  

But I have started eating the olive bread I made last night.  It came out well.  The one in the back is a dill experiment.  (We got lots of fresh dill from Grow North Farm last week.)

Meanwhile J got off the phone this evening with her long time friend (does 45 years count as long time?) who lives on the Haleakala foothills in Maui.  Her house is far from Lahaina, but there is also a fire up in that neighborhood as well and she's been evacuated and is staying with friends.  If I recall right, Maui has its share of eucalyptus trees, and their oil burns easily.  May the fire be quickly extinguished and your house survive.  

Bears, Bison, Glacier, And Sun

My daughter and granddaughter are visiting and Thursday was our day for an adventure.  We headed for Girdwood and checked out Virgin Falls, that I first learned about earlier this summer.   

Soup and sandwich at the Bake Shop, then down to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  I'm not a zoo fan.  Well, as a kid I was a zoo fanatic.  Between the old LA zoo and the stuffed animal tableaux at the County Museum, I got to know about animals from around the world.  It was only later I became aware of how difficult it can be for the animals.  

The Center, as I understand it, only takes in orphaned, injured, or other found animals.  And for the larger animals, there's way more room than at most zoos.  Wikipedia says there are about 800 acres and these are only Alaska animals.  But the small animals - porcupine particularly - the cages are way too small and they were pacing pathologically.  There were two, in separate cages.  One only had three legs so it probably wouldn't survive on its own.  And the bald eagle was in much too small a cage.  I couldn't look.  These shouldn't be in cages, but I'm guessing it was injured as well.  

But the brown bears have a large area.  I found a 200 acre reference to the wood buffalo habitat, so I'd say the bears probably have roughly the same amount. 

  Nevertheless, Thursday they were up against the fence close to the people watching.  I suspect they find the people as interesting as we find them.  

I got a little carried away with the bear pictures.  

There were musk oxen from Northwest Alaska.  

And wood bison. Turns out, the world was down to about 300 wood bison at the turn of the 20th

Century, all in Canada.  
 

This very wildlife conservation center played a big role in bringing them back to Alaska and building up the herd before they began returning them into the wilds of Alaska.  Wikipedia says that they devoted 200 acres to their habitat.

My granddaughter's picture

There were a number of other animals as well - wolves, caribou, and smaller animals.  Also elk - which we don't see in SouthCentral Alaska, but are in other parts. 

No mountain goats or Dall sheep, 

Then off to the Byron Glacier hike at Portage Lake.

Here's a similar picture from last year.  

Needless to say, there's a lot less ice and snow here than when we were first here back in 1978.  It even seems like a lot less than there was last summer.  

Anchorage's Refugee Farm Market - Great Fresh Produce And More

 Catholic Social Services has a host of programs to help various communities.  RAIS - Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services - is focused on new refugees coming to Anchorage.  They help them get housing, English lessons, jobs, into school, and other help as needed.  One of the most visible activities is the Grow North Farm, on 

Mt. View between Bragaw and Airport Heights.  

As you can see from the sign, they are open weekday afternoons from 4-7pm.  

The growing season seems to be in its prime now.  These are pictures from Thursday when I went to pick up my CSA box.  CSA is Community Supported Agriculture.  Community members subscribe to get weekly produce boxes.  Details vary from program to program, but the RAIS program pick up is on Thursdays.  But there are lots of vegetables for anyone to buy, even without a CSA subscription.  

                                                                               

The vegetables on sale are picked that day.  

A number of the refugees are from African countries such as Somalia and Congo and Ethiopia and they are growing greens they know from home.  We got sorrel and dodo in a recent box.  Fortunately RAIS also has a cookbook with recipes for some of the produce that are not usually available in Anchorage.  

                  

I was told these were pickled radishes. There are other goodies available from different vendors - spices, sweets, and other surprises.  

Potatoes.

The vendors get the benefit of tents and umbrellas which they have definitely needed in August.  

There's also a food truck and every Thursday there's a dinner offering from a different culture.  This Burmese coconut chicken soup was great.  And last week we go an Arabic rice dish that had a wonderful sauce.  

Getting to meet the folks who grow and sell the food is a big part of attraction of this market.  We've got fascinating neighbors here in Anchorage with lots to teach us.  

This is a summer only market.  It's scheduled go through the end of September.  

Too Much To Think About, So Relax A Bit With Nature

 

The liatris is blooming as it usually does this time of the summer.

I haven't dabbled in dahlias for a long time.  This one plant zoomed up about five feet with a stem at least an inch of diameter.  All the others are between one and two feet high with no blossoms.  I have no clue why.  I would assume it has to do with the soil, but this one is in a pot with two others that have done nothing much.  

And, with the rain that we've been having this August, the mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

Even on gray, rainy days the bike trails (this one through UAA) are beautiful and refreshing.  Though on this stretch it would be nice if the huge bulges were smoothed out.  Someone has marked them with blue paint, but four to six inch humps at the bottom of a hill are more excitement than I need.  

Am I stretching the nature theme here?  The eggs we buy at the market are hardly natural.  The peaches may be a bit more so. Probably not.  The bananas? Don't really know.  But the raspberries are from the back yard and get nothing but compost and water.  

Jacob asked in the comments in the last post about whether the US was headed for another civil war.  I'm thinking about that.  We probably need to consider the concept of civil war beyond the US Civil War.  At this point I doubt we'll have a civil war in the last US Civil War style.  The split among people is not nearly as regional, and from what I can tell, the craziness has been stoked a lot by Russian compromised politicians and social media bots that whip up extremist fervor.  More like, if democracy is defeated, it will come from the long term Conservative campaigns (Kochs, Federalist Society, wealthy) to capture the courts and local and state governments in order to gerrymander elections to keep Republicans in control in states, and to have enough influence on redistricting to skew Congressional elections to the right.  The Senate, because every state has two Senators, is already skewed to the right.

"In the incoming Senate, Democratic senators will represent at least 20,314,962 more people than their Republican counterparts — and that’s if we assume that Republicans win both runoff elections in Georgia. If the two Georgia seats go to the Democrats, the Senate will be split 50-50, but the Democratic half will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half."

That's from a November 2020 Vox article. 

To The Folks Who Don't Come Here For Redistricting News

 Let me say I appreciate you all and I'm sorry for my obsession with redistricting.  This may or may not be over soon.  

Here's a post for you.  About other things I've been doing.  

I stopped at Loussac Library after dropping off my taxes at the post office and checked out the new book section.  

Between the Lines  is a bunch of short encounters with people who recommend a favorite book.  Lots of them.  This is probably a good book from which to get ideas for books to read.  

I was going to share the table of contents here, but I think it's too small to read so here are some of the sections:

• Arrivals
• 
  Trees
• Matriarchs
• Legacy Food
• Power
• Reality
• Big Brother
• Character
• Image
• Fabric
• Old New York
• Movement
• Access
• Space
• Time
• History
• Music
• Design
• (True) Colors
• Questions
• Migration
• Love
• Compassion
• Home
• Memories
• Waves
• The End of the Line 

Here's one from the food section.  Jody Scaravella.  It starts out, 

"I own a restaurant on Staten Island where different grandmothers cook every night."  

Imagine!  From all different cultural backgrounds.  I want to go to that restaurant.  

I couldn't get a sense of this book at a glance.  It's recommended by the guy who told us we were at the end of history.   And the use of the word aristocracy raises questions.  Is that good or bad in the author's mind.  There is a lot to be said for the meritocracy, where tests, not family connections, qualify you for college and jobs.  Where the smartest people rise to the top.  But smarts in certain areas don't mean a person is smart in other key areas and when people rise to the top, there are other problems.  Often they use their own rags to riches based on talent story to fault others who haven't made the same rise.  

I haven't read the book, but the reviews online seem to be from places like the Wall Street Journal and other business, right-wing outlets.  

Try this one, for example, from Minding The Campus/Reforming Our Universities:

"From Greta Thunberg to Black Lives Matter, activists are fond of pointing out society’s imperfections, but are completely clueless when it comes to proposing alternatives. Meritocracy—and related concepts, such as IQ—is a case in point. When Michael Young coined the term in his famous 1958 book The Rise of Meritocracy, many people shunned the idea that privileges should be allotted on the basis of merits. And sure enough, “meritocracy” is a word that is all too frequently tossed around to justify the status quo, which is admittedly far from ideal.

But what is the alternative? Activists have not considered enough what a world without meritocracy would look like. Adrian Wooldridge’s The Aristocracy of Talent is a powerful reminder that while meritocracy may have its shortcomings, the lack of meritocracy is far worse. Wooldridge looks at the historical record of past civilizations and draws a definite conclusion: without meritocracy, injustice runs rampant, and life is miserable for most people. Furthermore, as he sees it, “meritocracy is a golden ticket to prosperity,” even more so than democracy."

There's a definite sense here of dictatorship of the talented.  First he dumps on Greta Thunberg and Black Lives Matter, and then he thinks China is a good example.  

"Last month, Brian Buma, PhD, associate professor of integrative biology, released his first book, The Atlas of a Changing Climate (Timber Press, $35). The 280-page book is filled with more than 100 maps, charts, and infographics to help readers without a science background envision the shifting reality of our imperiled ecosystems. Buma, who is a National Geographic Explorer, covers climate change, shrinking wildlife habitats, rising sea levels, and vanishing species."

The quote is from an interview with the author in CUDenver News. 

I suspect this and the previous book reflect less the Bronson attempted takeover of the Anchorage library system, than the fact that the library has always had a collection of conservative as well as other political viewpoints at the library.  

“Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?’” Esther 4:13-14 (NASB)  From Proverbs31 Ministries.

I'm afraid I saw more than enough her when she defended the disgraced Donald Trump.  But put this under your "know thine enemy" reading list.  

"Throughout America, structural problems are getting worse. Economic inequality is near Gilded Age heights, the healthcare system is a mess, and the climate crisis continues to grow. Yet most ambitious policy proposals that might fix these calamities are dismissed as wastefully expensive by default. From the kitchen table to Congress, debates are punctuated with a familiar refrain: "How are you going to pay for that?"

This question is designed to shut down policy pushes up front, minimizing any interference with the free market. It comes from neoliberalism, an economic ideology that has overtaken both parties. Proponents insist that markets are naturally-occurring and apolitical—and that too much manipulation of the economy will make our society fall apart. Ryan Cooper argues that our society already is falling apart, and the logically preposterous views of neoliberalism are to blame. Most progressives understand this instinctively, but many lack the background knowledge to make effective economic counterarguments.

How Are You Going To Pay For That? is filled with engaging discussions and detailed strategies that policymakers and citizens alike can use to assail even the most entrenched lines of neoliberal logic, and start to undo these long-held misconceptions. Equal parts economic theory, history, and political polemic, this is an essential roadmap for winning the key battles to come."  From Overdrive.

"The political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita also makes bold claims. The title of his book promises that he will explain “The Invention of Power”; his subtitle, more modestly, “The birth of the West”. He sets out his stall in the preface: Western (or European) exceptionalism means the “tolerance, prosperity and freedom” found in the West, and its “foundation” was laid in the Concordat of Worms of 1122.

At first glance, this claim seems highly improbable. The Concordat was an agreement between the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor that regulated the procedure for appointing bishops (similar settlements had been made with the kings of France and England shortly before)."  From TLS.

"The Privatization of Everything chronicles the efforts to turn our public goods—free education, public health, open parks, clean water, and many others—into private profit centers. Ever since Ronald Reagan labeled government a dangerous threat, privatization has touched every aspect of our lives, from water and trash collection to the justice system and the military.

However, citizens can, and are, wresting back what is ours. The Privatization of Everything connects the dots across a broad spectrum of issues and raises larger questions about who controls the public things we all rely on, exposing the hidden crisis of privatization that has been slowly unfolding over the last fifty years and giving us a road map for taking our country back."

This quote comes from the book's website, so read it with that in mind.

Besides the library, I've baked some bread.  The sourdough starter is a much less demanding pet than a dog.

And as part of my moving into to spring and summer activities, I'm nurturing a couple of trays of seedlings.  The pansies got planted early and have been doing nicely.    The broccoli (left) just got planted and the sprouts were up in two days.  There are more still waiting to sprout.  

Outside, the tulip greens are up and the daffodils (left) have poked up this week.  Bleeding hearts and one of the lilies are poking out of the ground too. 

I've been biking.  Last summer's mental trip was Chiang Mai to Bangkok.  I'm trying to work out a trip for my Anchorage riding that goes roughly from Istanbul to, I'm not sure where.  Kyiv?  Or just through Turkey.  Last summer I did about 750 kilometers, so the goal is a little further than that.  I've got about 50 k done already.  Here is Campbell Creek, awakening from winter.  

And a hairy woodpecker - well there were actually two - visited this week.  We've got a number of dead trees on the ground, presumably full of insects.  This is my bird feeder.  

Some of the smaller aspen have been woodpecker targets for a while and have died out.  This one got tangled in the phone and the electric wires going to the house.    I did call Alaska Communications but after a week, I got out the clippers on the pole and cut off the parts that were making it hard to get it untangled and now it too is grounded woodpecker feeder.  

So that's just some of what I've been doing instead of sitting at the computer.  And, I also spotted these license plates this last week.  

So that's it for now.