Critter camera — Refuge installs surveillance to catch sight of cougars

By Joseph Robertia

Photos courtesy of Todd Eskelin, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. A rainy spell in June brought this lynx on June 6 by one of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge trail cameras set in the Skilak area to try to capture photographic proof of a cougar to substantiate the sightings that have increased recently.

Redoubt Reporter

Sightings are very rare, but growing more common each year. Sometimes it is drivers in Sterling who see them, or sometimes hikers at the Russian River are getting a glimpse. The reports are the same — a feline flash of tawny gray-brown. That’s not necessarily out of the norm in a countryside covered by lynx, but what makes these descriptions unique is that, following behind these cats, is a long tail.

This can be only one animal, but is a species that goes by many names — mountain lion, cougar and puma. Regardless of what it’s called, these large felines for many years have been thought to not be present in Alaska, and especially not found on the Kenai Peninsula. Sightings were regarded as mistaken, or at least questionable, until recently.

“We have been receiving reports of mountain lions for as long as I have been here, but there was a real cluster of sightings in the Skilak Loop area for the past couple of summers. Some of the sightings were from very credible sources and the description provided left little doubt,” said Todd Eskelin, a biologist at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Mountain lions range through 16 states in the Lower 48, as well as throughout western Canada, but they are not officially recognized as existing in Alaska. However, in December 1998, a wolf trapper reportedly snared a mountain lion on south Kupreanof Island, and in November 1989 a mountain lion was shot near Wrangell. There also are numerous sightings across the state annually.

“Yet, to my knowledge, there has yet to be a single irrefutable picture taken, and with cellphone cams you would think there would be at least one blurry one showing a long tail,” Eskelin said.

The dirt on local produce — Experts advise to play with growing, saving, cooking your own food

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Sunflowers grow tall in a hothouse at Don Thompson’s garden off Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kenai. Local gardeners dispel the myth that certain plants — like corn or sunflowers — can’t be successful in Alaska.

Redoubt Reporter

In any other setting, calling someone “the compost king” might be grounds for taking offense. But when it’s said in the middle of Don Thompson’s garden off Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kenai, amid expanses of potato plants that produce 4,000 pounds of spuds annually, a thicket of knee-high strawberries, hearty berry bushes and wrist-thick fruit trees, and hothouses holding Alaska wonders of corn, sweet potatoes, beans and sunflowers, the comment was said and received with the utmost sincerity.

“I just love dirt,” said Kay Gardener, a volunteer with the Central Peninsula Garden Club, wiggling her bare toes into the nutrient-rich soil Thompson produces in his

Don Thompson offered his expansive garden as a stop on a Central Peninsula Garden Club tour Saturday.

hay-bound compost heap for use in feeding his expansive garden. “And he is like the compost king. Look at his pile there, he’s gone to a different level.”

Composting is how Thompson and Gardener met, years ago at a workshop on the topic sponsored by the club. On Saturday, it was a club- and Soldotna Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event that brought them together again. Thompson volunteered his garden as a stop on a Central Peninsula Garden Tour, and Gardener volunteered to be a tour guide to greet the steady stream of people stopping to marvel at the extent of his green thumb.

A barefoot Kay Gardener acts as tour guide for visitors.

“To go in there and see sunflowers and corn in Alaska is amazing,” said one visitor.

That kind of response is exactly why the club wanted to do the tour, to dispel the myths that Alaska isn’t suitable for any agriculture beyond potatoes and cabbages.

“We’ve had a lot of people, all different levels, come by. Some who are gardeners and some who aren’t, and are just coming to see. That’s what we do is inform people of what grows here and how to do it. And there’s so many talented people around here — it’s amazing,” Gardener said.

Dream house up for auction — Owners sell off Alaska lifestyle

By Naomi Klouda

Photos by Naomi Klouda, Homer Tribune. Robin and Margareta Lipinski have put their custom, unique house and lot in Anchor Point up for auction.

Homer Tribune

Robin and Margareta Lipinski put their combined talents into a five-story log home near Whiskey Gulch, dubbed a “Log Mahal,” and now they intend to auction it off.

Whoever ends up buying the property will have purchased an Alaska lifestyle off the grid with energy independence.

“An auction with no premium starting price is a fairly unusual procedure,” said Robert Maney of the Grubstake Auction Co., out of Anchorage.

“What it means is that I’m serious about selling. No games, no shenanigans,” Lipinski said. The event is already gathering steam on the website Williams and Williams, and will be formally completed Saturday. Beginning bids start at $1.

The five-story home took seven and a half years to build. It was built using 26 truckloads of spruce bark beetle-killed logs. It is powered by three windmills and 36 solar panels. Rental cabins and RV slots are included in the 10.5-acre property, which Lipinski and his wife didn’t initially want to rent out because they were aimed primarily at creating a home.

Later, the Lipinskis paired up with a local guide and provided his clients housing in the unique cabins on the grounds.

“The question I’m asked most is, ‘Why?’ Why am I selling this? It boils down to life is too short and dreams are too big,” Lipinski said. “I’m going to throw my hat in the air, and whichever way the wind blows it, we’ll follow it.”

Peak of misinterpretation — Truuli name has truly interesting evolution

By Jenny Neyman

Courtesy of Bare Distillery

Redoubt Reporter

Like its namesake mountain, Truuli Peak Vodka presents a striking image — a tall, slim bottle covered in a frosted white expanse capped by jagged blue mountain peaks with crystal-clear glass extending above to the blue-and-silver wrapper securing the cork cap.

Truuli Peak exhibits a similarly striking visage. At 6,612 feet above sea level, Truuli is the highest peak in the Kenai Mountain Range, situated to the southeast of the eastern end of Tustumena Lake. Looking out across Tustumena on a nice day, Truuli juts its peak up from snow-covered shoulders into the clear blue expanse above.

The creators and marketers of Truuli (the vodka) were hoping to capitalize on the Alaska cache of Truuli (the mountain). The vodka, released at the end of 2011, is produced by Bare Distillery in Anchorage, and is made with all-Alaska ingredients — 95 percent Delta barley and 5 percent wildflower honey. Marketers hope that the aura of an American-made spirit, particularly one flavored with the majestic image of Alaska, helps it compete with other midrange and top-shelf vodka brands, such as Grey Goose, Absolut and Belvedere.

“We really wanted to affiliate it with peak performance, top of the line. There really isn’t an American vodka that’s authentic and that’s out there at this level,” said Monika Elling, with Foundations Marketing Group in New York City, the company that did the naming, branding and marketing for Truuli Peak Vodka. “We wanted an authentically Alaskan product and we wanted an authentically all-American vodka, and so we did some historical research and essentially spent two weeks on identifying what would make sense with our direction and a top, high-end product. It really didn’t take all that long — once we identified Truuli Peak we knew that we had a winning name, and it’s obviously close to the distillery so there were multiple reasons why we thought that the name would correspond beautifully with where we were going with the vodka.”

Top shelf, top elevation. Symbol of made-in-Alaska pride, symbol of Alaska mountain majesty. But there’s one other similarity between the Truuli mountain peak and the drinkable Truuli Peak — both names were co-opted from a more original source. As a result, both names are an incorrect misinterpretation of the local Native language.

Soldotna to Safari: Packing makes perfect in Safari preparation

By JP Bennett, for the Redoubt Reporter

By 30-day increments, my temporary contract in Tuntutuliak, a Yup’ik village near the Bering Sea, had been extended to encompass nearly all of this past winter. On a particularly brutally cold and windy evening in March, I had been scheming some delayed gratification for enduring months of no running water and temperatures hovering near minus 30, when an email from my Australian friends, David and Julie Maddock-Jones, suggested that I join them for an African safari.

I had met the Aussie couple when David came to Kenai and Mountain View Elementary School on a teacher exchange in 1994. Since then, we’ve shared some adventures on the planet, including time on Badu Island in the Torres Straits and in Chang Mai, Thailand. In the instant it took to read the message, living in a remote village had a specific purpose.

My travel plans usually are sketchy, at best. I do have a general sense of what I want to see and do, but I prefer to be spontaneous and let adventure unfold as opportunity and discovery allow. With this particular journey, a bit more preparation was required.

My friends had already winnowed possible safari adventures down to three options. Two choices were with companies that would provide transportation to and within various parks, as well as arrange all of the permits needed. The third option was to rent a Land Rover and travel independently.

All three of us eschew guided tours, but the price of renting a vehicle and arranging for places to stay as we traveled about proved expensive and daunting. Instead, we opted to book with Absolute Africa (www.absoluteafrica.com), an outfit that combines small-group travel and self-sufficiency.

Book it — ‘Pitchapalooza’ is opportunity for aspiring Alaska authors to get book idea published

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter, at the Kenai Community Library

Redoubt Reporter

Want to read a book? Go to a library.

Want to write a book? Turns out you can go to the library for that, too.

Libraries throughout the state are participating in a “Pitchapalooza” program this week, giving aspiring authors in Alaska an opportunity to pitch their book idea to two experts in the field. Not only will Alaska writers get the experience and feedback of putting together and delivering a book pitch, but the event is a contest with an intriguing prize. Sort of the “American Idol” of authors, as it’s billed. Three up-and-coming Alaska writers will be chosen as the winners of Pitchapalooza and will get an introduction to an agent and/or a publisher for the opportunity to see their book idea in print. Perhaps one day it will be on a shelf in the very same library that hosted the launch to their publishing career.

“Alaska’s got some great writers. Alaska’s got some great writers that no one’s heard of, yet. Libraries and authors are a perfect match. I’ve always loved the idea that libraries can be cradles of that creativity,” stated Amy Marshall, director of the Craig Public Library, which is hosting the Pitchapalooza event.

Any armchair writing critics out there might be sensing a plot hole in wondering how this will work. Surely a literary team isn’t going to each and every participating library in the state to meet with prospective authors? Well, no, not in person, but the event will still have a personal touch as its being delivered through the next best thing to in-person communication: videoconferencing.

The Kenai Community Library is part of the statewide Online With Libraries network, which equips libraries across Alaska with the technology and bandwidth to connect via videoconferencing with any other participating library in the state (the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Library in Soldotna, being under construction, is not yet set up with the OWL program).

Pitchapalooza is being hosted at the Craig Public Library and sent out to any OWL-connected library in the state wanting to participate. Kenai was happy to make the most of the opportunity.

“It’s a really good opportunity for writers to bounce their ides off of published authors and literary agents and get constructive criticism,” said Reilly Conway, with the Kenai library. “It is really nice for, especially isolated communities, to get a chance to participate in something like this. The Alaska OWL software is very cool for communities that otherwise wouldn’t have opportunities to be able to experience all this.”

Art Seen: Something to say — Rowley mines Africa trip for imagery in art show

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoube Reporter

Artwork by Claire Rowley is on display at Odie’s Deli in Soldotna this month. Rowley uses mixed media to explore imagery from her time spent volunteering in Africa.

I was pleased to find Claire M. Rowley’s works at Odie’s Deli again recently (she has shown her work at Odie’s many times in the past), as she has something new to say to the world.

Rowley is an artist concerned with both form and function. She loves the mediums with which she works, and she is intent on saying important things with her work. The body of work was inspired by time she spent in South Africa, and the pieces are lighthearted enough to be appropriate for a coffee shop, but have substance beyond what you typically find in those venues.

There are no tags with the art, but the accompanying write-up states, “In the beginning of 2011, I spent about seven months in South Africa and Sierra Leone working on the world’s largest nonprofit hospital ship, the HMS Africa Mercy. If I were to say that I came back a different person, that would be putting it mildly. In seven months I saw some of the most spectacular things, but also some of the most horrific things I may ever see.

“Most of the paintings that are here at Odie’s are part of a series I am doing about my time in Africa, and about my readjustments into the culture of America. This selection from that series has been done with a variety of mixed media, including spray paint, acrylic, and fabric surface design. I hope that you enjoy what you see and remember just how blessed we are.”

Plugged In: Smaller can be better with new technology

By Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

Given a choice, most people prefer high-quality camera systems that are small, light and highly portable. If wondering about possible trade-offs in quality, though, how does the image quality of the best new compact-system cameras compare with the best midrange digital SLR cameras using larger APS-C sensors? Surprisingly well.

As a sequel to our recent discussions of current dSLR cameras, this week we’ll directly compare Pentax’s K-5 and the new Olympus OM-D. (Also termed the E-M5 by Olympus. Don’t ask me why.) They’re among the best, if not the best, camera systems in their respective categories.

Even though it’s a 2010 design, there’s a consensus that Pentax’s K-5 dSLR has some of the best potential image quality of any currently available camera using a standard APS-C sensor. In fact, when used with excellent lenses and good technique, enlarged images made with a K-5 approach the quality of images made with many full-frame cameras.

Similarly, Olympus’ recently introduced 16-megapixel OM-D is, by general consensus, one of the two or three best currently available compact-system cameras. In the near future, Panasonic will likely announce a prolevel Micro Four-Thirds camera that rivals the OM-D. However, at this time, there’s nothing tangible from Panasonic that’s directly comparable to the OM-D in practice, or even as paper specifications.

Fujifilm’s 16-megapixel X-Pro1 and Sony’s 24-megapixel NEX-7, both APS-C compact-system cameras, can provide excellent quality images that, under the right circumstances, are quite comparable to the OM-D. However, both the Fujifilm and Sony systems are significantly hampered by the limited number of top-end lenses available for those unique lens mounts. The Micro Four-Thirds system shared by Olympus and Panasonic, on the other hand, has an abundance of fairly priced, excellent lenses. In the end, I found, excellent optics are the single most important factor affecting optimum image quality.

Both the Fujifilm X-Pro1 system and Sony’s NEX-7 are also hampered by the lack of image stabilization when used with most lenses. That lack of any image stabilization is a real deal-breaker for many knowledgeable photographers.

Image stabilization is probably the most useful secondary innovation that accompanied digital photography. Effective image stabilization hardware allows you to use lower shutter speeds and, thus, lower ISO sensitivities where image quality is best. As an example, that means you can use ISO 200 in situations where unstabilized cameras must use ISO 1,600 to ISO 3,200 to avoid camera shake. Thus, effective stabilization is a major image quality advantage, more useful in many situations than using a larger sensor, at least with subjects that are not moving quickly.

Olympus’ OM-D uses a unique and highly effective image-stabilization system — the sensor itself is suspended in a magnetic field that almost instantly corrects for shake and rotation on five axes: the usual left-right X axis, the up-down Y axis, and three rotational directions. To my knowledge, no other camera corrects for image blurring caused by rotation. As a result, the OM-D can effectively correct for a great deal of complex camera shake, even at very slow shutter speeds.

Another important advantage of current Olympus cameras is that vendor’s very fast and accurate “contrast detection” autofocus system. Digital SLR cameras generally use “phase detection” autofocus hardware, which requires a separate focus sensor in the viewfinder. Until recently, phase detection autofocus was preferred because it was noticeably faster. However, the accuracy of phase detection focus is critically dependent on near-perfect assembly and calibration of that autofocus hardware. As a result, phase detection autofocus hardware is very susceptible to misalignment in manufacture and to later jarring.

Generally, compact-system cameras like the OM-D use a different sort of autofocus mechanism, “contrast detection,” which works directly with the sensor’s image. In theory, contrast detection autofocus is simpler, more rugged and more accurate. Until recently, though, contrast detection autofocus was too slow. Both Olympus and Panasonic have solved that limitation by introducing contrast detection hardware that’s as fast or faster than dSLR cameras.