Myra went berry picking today. We discovered the bears know when they are ripe also. There were about half the berries today that we seen the other day. Anyhow, she picked plenty of rasberries for a fresh fruit dessert and they were good. It does not get any more organic than growing wild out here. We went together after she picked rasberries and we picked a few cups of watermelon berries. It might have been more than a few cups but we kept eating them as we went. They are a neat berry. They grow underneath the leaf of the plant and are kind of hard to see unless you see the plant from a distance. The berry its' self is shaped like a watermelon only about 1/2" to 3/4" long and when ripe it is the color of a purple grape. It does taste like watermelon and even has little white seeds. We took a nice approx. one mile walk while doing this and had a great time out with the dogs.
We also went to the post office today. This was the first time in 5 weeks that we have gone there. Since it is a twenty mile round trip by river to get the mail and we don't get any bills (or checks) that need paid there is no reason to go real often (electronic banking is wonderful). I was hoping our new power inverter would be there so we could hook up our new really big batteries but no luck. The Postmaster (80 year old Joe) said we have only recieved about half the scheduled planes of mail the last couple of months because of the very irratic weather conditions.
The rest of the story about Joe the Postmaster. He has been in the bush since he was 18 and he is now 80. He still crosses the river twice a week every week (when the plane comes in) to get the mail. He even crosses during Ice Up and Ice Out and nobody does that (except him). He told us today that he and his wife have bought a place in Anchorage and he is trying to retire but no one wants his job. I ask him what it paid and he said A Whole LOT for him since he has been with the postal service for 62 years. Can you imagine! The post office is pretty cool, we should take pictures. It is a log building, Fuel Oil stove heat in the lobby, a swing down window between the lobby and his area (you can see it all) and dogs, smoking and guns are all welcome. His dog (a bassett hound) is with him all the time and we have taken ours with us (of course) and into the post office both times. Today we sent things out via fixed rate boxes, He was out of labels so we wrote on the boxes and got no receipts. We told him our change of address did not go thru according to North Baltimore postoffice (we did a change of address form with him 5 weeks ago). Today he is out of Change of Address forms, so he has me do it on a registered mail form and says he will send it thru. Think that'll work? Joe can't hear well anymore, he says it is because of so much shooting at a younger age, then he tells us about nearly killing his first wifes boyfriend (caught them in bed) after a short hunting trip. I guess he was a hunting and fishing guide for about 50 years when he took time off from the postal service. Anyhow, doing business with Old Joe is a trip. Oh Yea, he handed us a rate form for the fixed rate boxes and we bought a stamp. He had us figure our own bill and tell him how much change we needed. Pretty cool hey. They don't do that in Ohio.
The cabin went up a couple of more inches today, only a few more to go. It is getting pretty shakey on the temporary pilings being this high. I am ready to get it done and get it one a solid set of perminent pilings. I have a lot of other stuff I would rather do and it does not involve climbing in holes and under the cabin.
This is a picture of somebody getting a big delivery bill. I could not make out what it is being delivered but when it takes a helicopter and it is about the same size as the chopper I think it's going to be expensive.
I think we will stick with boats and snowmachines.
Thanks for sharing our adventure,
Talk to you soon,
Roger
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