The Chilkat Indians, regarded as among Alaska's greatest totem carvers, have been here for thousands of years. Bob Goldberg is chopping firewood when we arrive. Among other getting-ready chores still to be done is repairing a gate that a moose dismantled on its way to the fruit trees. I look at my print and decide I should keep my day job. City utilities stop far short of the Goldberg-Catotti property.
Rainwater is collected for bathing and dishwashing.
Every stop on a Spirit cruise merits a fanfare. Spires of St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral stab the sky over Sitka, reminders of the time when Alaska was Russian-American. It was atop Castle Hill, in downtown Sitka, that the czar's flag was lowered in 1867 as Russia transferred Alaska to the United States. Petersburg is not on itineraries for the big cruise ships, and doesn't want to be. Indian-carved totems, masterpieces in cedar, rise from evergreen forests around Ketchikan.