The Map and the Slug

The village of False Pass, a 2nd class American city, and the pass in general sit at the cross of fifty four degrees fifty five minutes north latitude and one hundred sixty three degrees thirty minutes west longitude. Due south is the northern Hawaiian island of Nihoa. Due north, Bristol Bay, Norton Sound, and Kotzebue Sound of the eastern Chukchi Sea. Also just south of the fifty fifth is Londonderry, N. Ireland, Newcastle, England , central Denmark, and a line through the Baltic Sea landing in Estonia.



We presume this slug is native (unlike those surrounding Puget Sound). I've seen it beneath the fall time salmonberry twigs and cowparsnip canes. It looks content and full. It also likes the greenhouse, or rather all that's in it. Pea pods, radishes and carrot tops, the fallen leaves of romaine, and finally the budweiser death trap in a cup (photo to be posted later.)

The first few days of the next eight months!

Windy view from the back path looking West across the straight at Unimak, the first Aleutian Island (99% wilderness, 100% wild.)



The Fort


The house is really just as I anticipated. I guess pictures really do help you to conceive of a place. That is not to say I was not happy with what I beheld. All the buildings along the beach…the guest cabin, smokehouse, outhouse, workshop, sauna/mudroom, water-wheel house, battery house and greenhouse. Then it’s a relatively steep climb up to the main house. The front door opens to a mud room and a small cold room, our refrigerator, the laundry and the pantry (which is fully stocked!) off to the left. To the right you walk into the kitchen, to my delight it is painted purple, then the living room. Both of these rooms face out looking over Isonotski Strait and Unimak Island. Behind the living room is the office and bathroom and then stairs up to the loft bedroom (also with a view).




Open this up to view the western tip of the peninsula and the eastern shore of Unimak Island. We are in the center, where the "pass" is narrowest, on the east bank (Stonewall), where the currents gets squeezed.




Stonewall (and the premises of the rest of the stories)