Chores are easier if forethought is given to them and they are looked upon as little pleasures to perform instead of inconveniences that steal time and try the patience. -- p. 30

To look around at what you have accomplished in a day gives a man a good feeling. Too many men work on parts of things. Doing a job to completeness satisfies a man. -- p. 53

These were two quotes I came across while reading One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey, a book based on the journals of Richard Proenneke, a remarkable man who built a log cabin on the shores of Alaska's Twin Lakes nearly forty years ago. He would live there, by himself, for the next thirty years, returning to the lower forty-eight late in his life, when he could no longer handle the winters. The book covers the first sixteen months of his adventure and I am halfway through it. The two quotes are representative of his writing: simple and sensible. I'm quite taken with his words and photographs (there is a night shot of his cabin in the snow that would make a beautiful poster). I wish I could express myself as well as he did.