Morning walks, reading, and reflection - December 14th, 2021

Hello, Hello,

Welcome back to the DuckHill Journal, I know I haven’t been very consistent about writing to you, but I appreciate your time for reading!

Earlier in the year (January 6th) I posted to our Instagram that I was going to start reading more, and initially I did, tunneling through Aldo Leopolds “Sand County Almanac”, Nick Offerman’s “Gumption”, Stephen Lyons “Going Driftless”, and Trent Prezlers “Little and Often”. Now that really is an increase in books read compared to the year before, and maybe the year before that, but it’s a far cry from the reading I used to do, or the way my wife voraciously devours books for her classroom.

Recently, a good friend, and former roommate, Damian, recommended “The E - Myth” by Michael E. Gerber. In fairness he’s recommended it several times, and I have yet to read. So I finally checked the website for our local book store, Content, and they have a great website for a small independent bookseller, showing what all they have in the store, and what was available but needed to be ordered. Thankfully this book was in stock, and, since I have an illness that requires me to spend at least fifty dollars at a bookstore, I started poking around for what else caught my fancy and was also available for in store pickup. Well, I found “The Singing Wilderness” by Sigurd F. Olson, and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” , and they came home with me too!

Of course, after bringing all three books home, I started reading “The Singing Wilderness” because why would you start with the book that was recommended, and the whole reason you went bookshoping in the first place… that’s just silliness.

Today over my morning cup of tea, I started in on the essay “The Loons of Lac la Croix” which was exciting, as I’ve been to Lac la Croix in the Boundary Waters, and here was someone writing about a very similar trip fifty years prior, paddling down the Moose River, presumably from what is now Entry Point 16, (Though when he was writing this in the 1950’s the BWCA did not yet exist) to Nina Moose Lake, Lake Agnes, and ultimately into Boulder Bay of Lac la Croix. Now I’m pretty sure that Sig goes further north into Lac la Croix than we did, having stopped at campsite 1820, and setting up our little slice of heaven for four days, Sig writes about petroglyphs and a rocky hillside that First Nations warriors would race up and then back down to their canoes. That wasn’t something we experienced, but it certainly makes me want to go back!

Now the real thing that captivated my attention was the way the author describes the sights, sounds, and scents, of the world around him, and that made me want to go for a walk in my own little slice of paradise. Not far, not even a mile, but to be outside, bundled in wool, surrounded by sunshine, watching my dog, Moose, romp through the snow, laughing as she foxdives after small creatures in the drifts, breathing fresh, crisp air, and feeling energized for my tasks ahead, (which I’m putting off by writing these things to you) it was refreshing, and something, not unlike reading, I should do with far greater frequency. Perhaps over this holiday season, and into the new year I can work to make that a daily habit, of greeting the world outside before starting my tasks. We shall see.

Until Next time, enjoy the photos from my trip to Lac la Croix,

-Ben