Monthly Archives: August 2011

Bear grass in the meadow

A steep climb, snow fields, and lots of sun (Granite Mt., WA)

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Our recent 8-mile (round trip) hike to the lookout station on Granite Mountain was perhaps a bit more intense than I planned for. I may have grumbled my way through a snow field and some steep switchbacks, but the view from the lookout was well worth it. The hike was on the south-facing slope, which meant that once we climbed above the forest line and entered the alpine meadows we were in the sun for a solid 3-4 hours. There was also an unexpected amount of snow in the last leg of the hike. We overheard another hiker comment that this Granite Lookout hike is rated a difficulty of 4 (on a 1-5 scale). Thankfully this fact was revealed only after we reached the summit. In total the hike has a 3800-foot elevation gain, topping out at ~5600 feet.

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First Pickings

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This week I picked my first “harvest” from my potted vegetable garden: 3 cucumbers.

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I may have let them go a few days too many, as the seeds were fairly large and there was a hint of bitterness in their flavor. (No more so than the cucumbers I bought from the store, but more bitter than my dad’s cucumbers from years past.) I ate the cucumbers as part of a greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, oregano, and olive oil) so the bitterness was masked.

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Welcome to the Duck Pond

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The Duck Pond — a blog of my observations and contemplations from a pacific northwest vista

I originally intended to blog exclusively about my sustainable-me project for the entirety of 2011. This choice was based on the assumption that narrow-focused blogs were more useful [to the readers] and easier to structure [for the author]. As someone who uses blogs for tips, ideas, and reference material on current topics, it is much easier to follow someone who devotes the majority of their writing to a narrow topic, rather than having only one of their 100 posts be about the topic I seek.

That said, for the last 8 months I have often thought, “Next year I should really blog about this hike,” or “I wish I had an outlet for discussing the anthropology of this science fiction film.” In that time I began following a few friends’ blogs that successfully cover a wider range of topics, and my plan began to change.

Let me welcome you to The Duck Pond, my new blog. Where my sustainable living adventures will continue to be the primary focus for the rest of 2011 (and beyond), but there will also be other topics popping up from time to time.  All previous Sustainable-Me posts have been transferred from the other blog address and are grouped here for your convenience.

Thank you for your patience during this migration.