July 23 -28

July 23, 2005

After a night in town cooling off in a hotel with AC and a pool, I’m back at the cabin, where it’s warm and the mosquitoes are feasting on my legs and feet. On the drive back from Grants Pass, about two miles from the Dutch Henry road, I saw a fire burning and got a bit worried. It seemed awfully close to the homestead. While unloading my groceries I saw a helicopter fly down the river canyon, a big balloon hung below it. I called the fire dispatcher in Grants Pass and she said that there was a fire burning but that they had it under control. Just in case, I gave her my latitude/longitude coordinates and the radio phone number. Then I called Dave Reed, a retired BLM officer and long-time friend of the Brothers and Margery. He said he hadn’t heard about the fire but that he’d look into it. He called back later to say the fire was down near Marial Lodge, on both sides of the river. Marial Lodge is about five miles west of here. The firefighters have been dumping water on the fire since yesterday. All afternoon and evening (I can hear one right now) planes have been flying over, too. I plan to leave the phone on all night just in case the fire spreads and I need to be evacuated. Pretty scary, especially with the forest as dry as it is.

While in town on the WiFi, I started researching my relocation back East, scanning Craig’s List for apartments and looking into a flight in September, and the whole thing threw me into a deep funk. The prospect of apartment life feels a bit like awaiting sentencing at Sing-Sing. It occurred to me I probably won’t even be able to grill! At my house in Fo’Mo’, I grilled year-round, even in two feet of snow. And neighbors. I’ll have neighbors. Probably right on the other side of my bedroom wall. So, of course, I started second-guessing this decision to live close to school. Maybe another house up in Orange county is the answer. I don’t know. In any case, I can’t buy a house in three days, so I’ll be living in an apartment to start. Maybe I’ll spend the winter in an apartment and start house hunting in the spring. The thought of that life makes me appreciate this place a bit more.

My puzzle came out in yesterday’s USA Today! That was fun. I gave a copy to Angela at the coffee shop, and one to a guy named Rick I chat with sometimes at Dutch Brothers. I’m mailing one off to Neil Curry, too. Sharen, visiting her folks at the Ohio lake house, was text messaging me for help on it. She said she saw a woman at the airport reading the paper, and there was my puzzle staring her in the face. It’s neat to think that people all over the world were doing my crossword—a far bigger audience (and better pay) than any poem of mine will ever receive.

Judy Montgomery, whose chapbook I published in 1999, called me yesterday to work out details for my mid-August reading in Bend. Gus and I will be staying with Judy and her husband Phil for two nights. She’s got a fenced yard, where Gus can run around. I’m excited to finally meet her. She’s one of the nicest people I know in the poetry world. Bend is supposed to be a fun town, too. I’m looking forward to reading some poems from my book and some of the new stuff I’ve written out here. It’ll be the first time anyone’s heard the latter.

I’ve been running the sprinklers all day out in the garden, trying to keep everything green and growing. Despite the ever-encroaching weeds, the garden is looking great. Nice-sized squash and zucchini are ready to pick. I’ve got a few small eggplants. I harvested my first tomato today. My various salad greens are all thriving. And the strawberry patch is still producing berries. I’m going to pick my first bulb of garlic tomorrow.




I received e-mail replies from John Daniel and Emma Brown (next year’s resident). John says he’s going to come out when Emma visits the weekend of August 19th. That should be a fun time, what with the Brothers being there, too. Lots of personalities. Emma wrote asking about the solitude and loneliness. Reading my blog, it occurred to her that she, too, will be out here for six months essentially all alone. I’m going to give her all the tips I can on everything from gardening to making fires to coping with the loneliness. She recommended I read Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, and there’s a copy at the cabin. It’s a book I’ve been meaning to read and just haven’t gotten around to. Anyway, I hope it’s as good as she says. I look forward to meeting Emma later in August.


July 24, 2005

I finished Blood Meridian and highly recommend it to anyone who can stand the violence. It’s a superb read, McCarthy at his best. I’m just about finished reading Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, a copy of which Lang left here twelve years ago. It has indeed helped bring me out of my funk, especially with regard to my writing out here, my solitude, my desire for companionship, my future. Rilke was so full of wisdom, especially for a man of 27. I think this is one I’ll keep coming back to during my remaining months here.

Aside from reading, the only productive thing I did here today was to create two more crosswords. I’m completely hooked. Lately I’ve been beefing up my database of clues and words, which makes the construction of puzzles a whole lot easier. I’ve come closer to figuring out the full potential of Crossword Compiler, the handy program I purchased to assist me in making puzzles.

The weather is much improved. In the 50’s this morning when I got up at 6:00. I made a small fire in the woodstove even. The highest I saw the mercury today was 92. By dinner it was 76. Much more to my liking.

The ticks seem to have disappeared. Haven’t seen one on Gus or on me for a few weeks now. The bane now is the burrs, which are worse than ever with the grasses having all dried up. Every time Gus goes outside, he picks up a new assortment of them. His “soft-coated” hair doesn’t stand a chance! And he so dislikes me brushing them out. Sorry, pal.

The daisies are gone, along with all the other wildflowers, except for a few Brodiaea in shady spots. The hot days have turned everything brown. One upside to this is that I won’t need to mow nearly as often. But I’d rather look at flowers. They were so abundant and varied in the spring.

I’m looking forward to chanterelle mushrooms in the fall!

July 27, 2005
I haven’t written in the blog for a couple of days because the heat’s been so bad I hate to turn on the laptop. It only adds more heat to my lap! The helicopters have continued to battle the fire downriver and today, while hanging out at my beach, I smelled smoke and looked up to see the whole river canyon filled with smoke. I got a bit worried, packed up my stuff, and made the steep and hot walk back up to the cabin, only to find that the smoke was up there, too. I put a call in to Bradley, who’d said he’d try to monitor the fire on the Internet, but he said he hadn’t found much. He assured me it was probably just a wind-shift and that if there was trouble the fire dispatcher, with whom I left my number, would call. I’m not so sure about all that. In any case, I’m going into town tomorrow to get Gus some shots at the vet and to buy plane tickets for my trip back East in September. I need to arrange to board Gus, too. I’m looking forward to the hotel pool and the air conditioner, too. After the couple days of pleasant weather, it’s turned hellish again. The mercury in the big thermometer outside my kitchen window read 108 today!


I’ve been reading a lot—the only activity I can sustain for any length of time. I read Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love in about two days. It was a real page-turner. I’m sending it to my mom. Now I’m reading Midwives.

Can’t wait for the fall and the cooler weather. I know, I’m sounding like a broken record. But what else is there to talk about?

July 28, 2005

I just listened to the news and picked up some info on the fire. It’s about 200 acres in size and not yet contained. There’s very little smoke in the canyon this morning, because the wind has died down. While I’m in town today I hope to make some calls and get an evacuation plan in place, just in case.