I'm always intrigued with how one can make a boat from a tree. My father built a boat in our garage so I am familiar with the process, and yet, he didn't do it quite like this.
"The Indians still make these dugouts. They take a cedar log the required length, and by eye alone they adze and shape it - keel, bow, stern. When the outside is finished, they drive in wooden pegs, their length depending on the thickness they want the canoe to be. They then adze, or burn and chisel out the inside until they work down to the wooden pegs. Then comes the work of shaping the dugout, which at this stage is too narrow and high amidships. They fill it up with water and throw in heated stones until the water boils. The wood is then pliable and easily stretched, and they set in the thwarts - spreading and curving the hull to whatever shape they want. The prows are high and curve forward, the tip often carved. This one had the head of a wolf, ears laid back to the wind."
Picture your dugout today, your river and journey. What is carved on your prow?
We again have clouds and rain. I could be living in the Pacific Northwest. All continues vividly green.
To life and understanding, to shaping and carving the boat of our dreams.