WASILLA — The Wasilla High School freshman missed class or straggled in around midday.

From 2001 to 2007, Lee Post’s single panel cartoon series, "Your Square Life," presented a weekly parade of existential disappointments in The Anchorage Press. Failed superheroes, dysfunctional robots, everyday folk whose obsessions, inadequacies or terminal unlovability had worn through their facades to reveal a fundament of bitter, snarky truth.

Sculptor/carver/artist Franklin Matchian, originally from Chevak, now living in Anchorage, made the news some years ago when he discovered an ivory point incongruously embedded in a piece of ancient whalebone that he was carving. The piece was shown to experts and carbon dated, leading to the conclusion that the whale had been harpooned — and escaped and survived — hundreds of years ago. Something similar happened more recently. Matchian had sculpted a kayaker, again out of whalebone, "maybe three feet long," and upon inspection discovered an antique lead bullet. Gun guys thought it might be from a big gun manufactured in the 1890s. He had the piece X-rayed, and seven bullets were revealed to be lurking in the bone.

A few days ago, Steve Hasiotis found a crayfish burrow in Denali National Park and Preserve. The discovery was somewhat unusual, because the nearest living crayfish is now jackknifing through a stream in southern Ontario.

The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Does your idea of romance and fun involve riding the rails through scenic countrysides and along endless winding coastlines? Train vacations are the perfect way to sightsee and explore the many landscapes of the world. Hop aboard, relax and enjoy the ride.

ANNUAL PICNIC: Unity Church of Anchorage, 1300 E. 68th Ave., welcomes the community to a potluck picnic, 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Meet the new ministerial candidate, Paulette Hogan. (346-2824, www.unityofanchorage.org)

I’m lucky to have good friends in other towns who are eager to share their horticultural knowledge and great finds with me when I visit. Early last summer when I visited the Kenai Peninsula, Rosemary Kimball and Kathy Wartinbee escorted me on a greenhouse and nursery tour. (There are many, each is different and they are all good.) This year, Rosemary wanted to bring us both to visit a garden at a home off the grid in the Clam Gulch area.

For me, these are the slow, slow days of summer. The gardens are in and all that pent-up gardening energy that propelled me through spring and out of early summer projects is spent. Now I am finding that it is just as much fun to sit on a chair in the back yard and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

It’s hard to beat fresh Alaska produce. It’s pretty much impossible to beat that produce when it’s free.