Transistion Time

Well, the snow has been on the ground for about 5 days now. We get an inch or so more every night, then a little melt and settling during the day. We are up to about 6 inches of wet heavy snow pack on the ground. It is time to transistion from ATVs to Snowmachines.
I found it necessary to do some playing the other day before it was time to put the ATVs away and Myra took a bunch of pictures. I had a good time tearing up the yard. You might notice the black straps under my Bibs. There are still Bears wondering around out here, so my gun is still strapped on. I am told that on years like this (late winter arrival)we should expect to see bear sign for another month at least, Oh yea, and they get hungry, tired and discontented.
Today I got out the Snowmachines from under their tarps. They both started right up, as expected, and away I went on the test runs down the trails. All went very well with the little sled,it ran well, handled a little stiff but loosened up and back to the cabin I came. I hooked up to the groomer that I have built and pulled it around a little bit and it works very well also. The snow is so wet and heavy that the short track machine did have a problem pulling it so I parked it and emptied the snow out of it and declared, all is good.
I jumped on the two person 800cc machine and took off down the trail. This machine has a history of bucking, unexpectedly, like a pony we had when I was a kid. The ponies name was Lucky and I was never sure if the pony was Lucky because my Dad did not kill it with the two by four, or if the rider was Lucky that the pony did not kill them? Oops, got sidetracked, back to the snowmachine. Well me and the 800cc Lucky rounded the first tight corner and caught the side of a little mogul and over I went. "Luckily" I had just rounded this corner and was only doing about 2 mile an hour. It was a slow motion tip over, with plenty of time to recall my mistake. I even had time to watch the machine tip onto the mirror on the left side. "Luckily" it was the mirror on the left side because this machine has broken 3 mirrors on the right side. One of them was less than two hours after being replaced from the previous rollover (ask Myra, I can't tell). Anyhow, the left mirror flexed on its' spring loaded mount and snapped right back into position. No Harm, No Foul, the machine is perfect and hopefully it got its' bucking out of its' system for the year. I drove it back to the cabin and hooked up to the "Skwagon" that I built.
Definition: "Skwagon" vowel, meaning; ATV Tow behind Wagon that Roger made Skis for and strapped them to the wheels. Another story, another time, with pictures.
OK, I hooked up to the Skwagon for a test run with it. The Skwagon performed flawlessly but, the snow is so wet and heavy, when I had to run slow with the Skwagon I could not kick up enough snow to cool the radiator and the machine overheated. I caught it quick and again, No Harm, No Foul. Another lesson learned and another challenge to overcome. We had planned on pulling the Skwagon with "Lucky" to haul our water. Now the snow is deep enough using an ATV is not feasible and I can't pull the Skwagon until it gets colder, the little snowmachine has no hitch, a short track and I don't believe enough traction to pull a skwagon full of water up the hills around here. Here in lies the challenge. It is not easy to just strap a full 50 pound water jug on a snowmachine, let alone 9 of them. We have about 35 gallons of water in the barrel and 9 empty jugs now. I have got some "Sifering" to do in the next day or two to figure this one out. Or maybe we will get "Lucky" and we will get a good cold powder snowfall and the problem will be solved. I REALLY don't want to carry these jugs by hand for a long distance and it is a very big slope on the bank of the river to try to strap them on a snowmachine, the machines are tippy enough with out more top heavy weight. The neighbor water is still about two miles away and to make that trip five gallons at a time on the snowmachine might be the only option, we will see.Oh yea, we can always melt snow on the wood burner. It takes about 11 gallons of snow to get one gallon of water (I looked it up). That should only take about 4 hours a gallon. Ya think?
Always remember, Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. I have been asking for snow, I got it, AND I get a new opportunity to solve a need. I guess this is Gods idea of a Bonus gift ay?
I am really not complaining, just sharing the thought process.
Thanks for listening, and being here with us.
Life is good,
Roger

First Snowfall

This post is going to be short but I wanted to share these pictures of the first snowfall. It has changed the landscape immensely. The river is still not frozen and if it doesn't freeze soon we will be out of a few things but not the basics. Wait a minute popcorn is a basic for us! And it is starting to run dangerously low. Might have to check out the mail order grocery deal. Of course still have to get the stuff from the Post Office which is upriver about 10 miles. Hmmmmmm..........

We fired up the wood burner yesterday and are having an interesting time learning how to regulate it. And then when it gets colder outside we will have to relearn it all over again. Never a dull moment when you live here. There is always something to do or to learn or fix or build.



Trail to River

These were taken from our bedroom window this morning. If you look at earlier blogs you will find this view in other pics. I will continue to take pictures of this view just to show how things change. I love to look out and see the river, even if I am ready for it to freeze so that we can go places. Oh well, in God's time not mine. Well that is all for tonight. It is time to head for bed, busy day tomorrow. Need to make bread, want to fix some chicken noodle soup to can and then there is always the usual daily stuff that needs done. It will be a full day. Blessings to all and Thanks for sharing our adventure, Myra

Morning Walk

I took another walk by the river today. I told Myra I was going before I left so, I DID NOT get into trouble. I walked up river this time instead of down river. The slough (side shoot of the river) just north of our landing (200 yards) has all but dried up so I was able to cross it in just a few inches of water, and continue up river as far as my heart desired. One of the first things I got to experience was a pair of Trumpeter Swans setting at the end of "our" gravel bar. I stopped and listened to them for quite some time and I took this video. It is hard to see the Swans because I can't zoom in while on video, but this will give you an idea of the quiet and the sound.(It will get you close anyhow., I don't know why my little camera makes that ticking sound on video, and I guess I should have held my hands more still) This is another one of those experiences that can take you (me) to heaven right here on earth. Oh wait, I am already here / there, where am I? I am so confused. No, Not confused, Blessed to be in the grips of Gods creations. There is heaven on earth! It is going to be hard for me to tell when I die. Oh wait, have I been a good boy? It might be easier to tell than I am hoping for.

After stopping for the Swans I came across these Grizzly Tracks. I laid my 410 gun down beside the tracks to give a reference to size and gate of the animal. The size of the bear is usually figured by the width of the paw plus 1 equals the size of the bear. I would guess this bear to be about 7'. These tracks went on along the bank for a few hundred yards, walking to the waters edge then back toward the woods etc. After the Grizzly tracks I seen Wolf tracks, Coyote tracks,Porcupine tracks,also Black Bear tracks and Cat tracks (probably a linx). I seen a half dozen different animal trails from the forest to the waters edge that were so heavily used they were worn to mud.I guess I know which way to go hunting now, for everything but Moose. Not a single Moose track on this walk, but I see thier tracks all the time back behind us near the swamps, plus they have been using our trails too, recently.

Along the bank of the slough, I came across an area where there was many water seeps coming from the bank, causing erosion, then in the middle of all this water, there is Oil seeping out of the ground. (Nope, it's not on our land) I have seen this Oil in another place over on one of the Fish Lakes, but this is the first time I have seen it along the river. Can you see the difference in the color? The gold stuff is the sludge and the oil is very shiney, unlike the water in the other seeps.

After getting past the seeps and erosion I came across this Den. You can see the digging to the right and the tracks down low in the approach. I have no idea if it is occupied. My Momma always said to keep my nose out of where it doesn't belong, and I heard her from the grave on this one.
To finish my walk, the dogs came across a Grouse and flushed it up into a tree. Since I was carrying my trusty "new" 410 for just this purpose, I flushed it out of the tree. Guess what's for supper!
To put a few peoples mind at ease, Yes, I still carry my 44 with the bear loads while I am carrying the 410. Shooting a bear with a 410 would be like giving it a Bee sting, just enough to piss it off. Now, onto a few other items just because it has been so long since I have posted.

If you want to send us cookies You might consider individually wraping each one in tissue paper. These are some Butter thins from Myra's favorite child hood Bakery in Muskegon Mi. Not one cookie survived the trip whole. The flavor was great but, We ate them with a spoon. Thanks Mandy for sending them! Who knew the post office could be so rough.
Myra and I took a drive down the river bank a few days ago. I caught a few good pictures of her in action. She is driving down the bank we usually walk to our boat. Where Hans is standing in the first picture is EXACTLY where our boat sat most of the summer give or take a foot or two. If you can see the gray stick by Myra's front left tire (our right) that stick is the high water marker for this year. I am standing down near waters edge taking these pictures. I hope this gives you a better perspective of how much the river has dropped and how steep the bank is that she is driving down. I think Hans is about to attack in this second picture.

This is our water source for now. This is the seep that I made a little pond (covered under the lid) and put this pipe in. You want to talk about clear cold natural spring water, bring your plastic bottle and fill it here. We only charge $.99 each instead of the convienience store price of $1.49. You do have to pay your own shipping charges though!
And Finally, after all of this, Hans is WORN OUT, he crashed!
It's a great life, Thanks for sharing it with us!
See Ya,
Roger

More Progress

WOO HOO!!!!YIPEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The new stove is hooked up and usable!!!! I made bread and some buns yesterday and it was great being able to put both pans in at the same time, side by side even! The little RV stove that was here got us by but it took some planning even for meals to make sure that everything would fit, even if all you needed was 2 burners. If you used two big pans they would be offset on the burners in order to fit. :(   It made cooking a challenge some days. Same with baking anything. The dial was unreadable and so I had used a thermometer of Rogers to at least find 325 so that I had a way to bake some things. 



The Old Stove




The New Stove

Now I know all the temps and I am starting to enjoy cooking again. I am going to have to be careful not to go toooooooo crazy with cooking and baking stuff though. (At least not until the river freezes and I know that we can get more propane LOL). I know we have plenty to last quite a while but we also have HOT WATER now too!!!! While Roger was hooking up the new oven he went ahead and did the water heater too. I'm not sure I remember what to do with all these modern conveniences, it has been a while you know. Actually I do remember and it was nice not having to heat water on the stove the last couple of days when doing the dishes. Once the wood burner is going there will be a pan on there all the time so I will use that water for dishes rather than the water heater in order to save on propane usage. When you have to haul that in it makes you much more aware of how much you use and you definitely try to conserve whenever possible.

The weather has been fairly sunny and "warm" for this time of year and there is no longer any ice on the river. I did laundry outside again today and hung it out. I had to move it to the line inside though as it was not dry and the sun was going down. We are now down to just under 10 hours of daylight and losing more each day. It does make it easy to see both sunrise and sunset though. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the sunrise yesterday.




 



<><>

<>

<><>

A Fall Sunrise on the Yentna River

Roger is now working on converting the ATV trailer into a "sled" that we can use behind the snow machines. There were a couple of skis here from a machine and he has added some scags to them and is working on the attachment and turning mechanism etc. He is also going to building a snow groomer for the trails around our cabin. Every one pitches in and works on the trails to keep them usable for all. 

Of course first we need some snow!

I think tomorrow I will do some more rearrangement on the back porch. There are some things like the canning stuff that really don't need to be on the shelves out there and can go in a tote and be stored in the "barn" for the winter. When space is limited and winter is coming you don't need that kind of stuff taking up room if you have somewhere to go with it. After I get done with that I think I am going to go visit one of our neighbors for a bit and then come home and get started on some curtains. We are going to want them when winter really hits. I am going to "quilt" them on the machine for added warmth.

Thanks for reading and sharing our adventure. Blessings to all, Myra

Odds and Ends

Well another week has come to an end. Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday it was June and here it is already the middle of October. It doesn't seem possible that the end of the year is in sight already.

Thursday evening we went to dinner at Shan and Eric's. They have Northwoods Lodge which we will be taking care of for them between Thanksgiving and Christmas so that they can take a vacation together before they lodge gets too busy with snowmachiners, mushers etc. Shan fixed us a wonderful dinner and we had a very enjoyable time just getting to know them better. We rode over and back on the ATVs and it was a little chilly on the way home but not awful. Right now it is a guessing game on how to dress as the weather changes. Layers are good but sometimes even that is a guess.



Friday morning when we got up it was 15 degrees outside and there was ice formations floating down the river. We rode down to the river, right down on the bank which in the summer is underwater and went down river a ways. You could literally hear the ice formations swooshing against each other and the rocks as they headed downriver. It was a really neat sound that they made. Hans was an absolute nut with the ice. He thinks it is a wonderful toy. And funny as all get out when he did a big ol' four paw sprawl when he hit a patch of ice on shore. We rode down the bank a ways to where Roger had found a water seep on his "in trouble walk" a while back. He had wanted to see if he could get there on the ATV to fill water jugs. Yes to the ATV, no to the wagon going also. 



The start of "Freeze Up"







Foraker (L) and McKinley



After we went to the river I went over to Bentalit Lodge to get our mail. Whenever one person goes to the post office they pick up every body's mail. Willy went up in his boat on Thursday but I think that was the last trip by boat for this year. Now that the river has started icing up Tom will fly up to Skwentna and meet Old Joe the postmaster at the airport after the mail plane leaves. Joe is 80 years old and still crosses the river twice a week to meet the mail plane no matter what the river is like. Sometimes he uses a canoe, sometimes an air boat, and he has been known to walk across on thin ice pushing his canoe with him in case he fell through. He talks of retiring but doesn't know what he would do. His wife wants to move into town and he doesn't so as long as he is postmaster he has an excuse not to move. Which really is OK with me as the talk is that once he retires they are going to close the Skwentna post office. If they do this we will have to go to Willow which is 63 miles downriver and then another 15 from the landing. UGH! Thank God for the Internet! It is a wonderful thing when you live in such a remote area.

Roger spent most of yesterday splitting wood so he has been TIRED today. He did finish the last few logs this morning and did some other stuff like filling generators with gas, the fuel tank for the Toyo heat stove. We listened to the race on the Internet this afternoon. It was different having an "afternoon" race. Usually we listen to it on Sunday mornings.



I have been busy finding homes for more stuff and getting ready to start sewing the curtains. That is in between cooking, cleaning, making bread, doing laundry, doing dishes, and on and on. Oh that and we have been doing a little more playing on the ATVs lately.

I did go down to the river for sunset last  night and took some pictures. Every sunset I have seen here has been so different it is impossible to describe. I also think it is interesting how the sun is basically setting in the south now instead of the west. As the days get shorter the sun will pretty much just be in the southern sky and not very high.



Blessings to all, thank you for sharing our adventure, Myra





Is it Vacation?

Summer is over, Fall is supposed to be over and Winter is supposed to be here. Well, it is not Winter yet. We are getting into the 20's at night but it is getting into the mid 40's most days. It has been Sunny with a capitol S. We have only had one day of rain for over 3 weeks. It must be vacation because the weather is never like this when there is a ton of work to do, Right?
We have been taking advantage of the Gorgeous Weather.
Myra has been doing the laundry outside (completely)instead of washing and rinsing inside and wringing and hanging outside. Yea, she is wearing a heavy Poly sweater and hat and gloves because it is about 35 degrees while she is doing this.

Notice in this second picture, there is the little blue generator that was "smashed" under the cabin. She is using the little generator to run the "green" clothes wringer next to the cabin. That is actually an OLD hoover portable washing machine but the wash tub needs about 6 gallons per load so we don't use that, just the wringer. Also, see the little wash board in the laundry tub. There is also the white water jug and the she is hanging clothes on the line.
We have been doing more playing outside. We went for about a 2 hour ATV ride last night. It is great to do this, this time of year. The Forest underbrush is all dead for the winter and you can see the Forest floor, so now we can navigate the ATVs through the woods and don't have to stay on trails. I led Myra out into areas last night that I am sure she would never venture to on her own. It is truly amazing what a 4 wheel drive ATV with 25" tractor style tires will navigate over and through. We were in thick brush that you could never walk through but the machine will just drive over it, then down into valleys and up over hills that we could not have walked because of how slippery it is. These machines will cross 12" down tree logs and knock down 2" to 3" trees if needed. After spending time in the Forest we found the trail and went to Otter Lake, around a mile behind us (North). We went to the West end on one trail then back to the main trail and down to the East end of the lake on another trail. We just drove all over and enjoyed the Forest.
This is a large Muskeg (swamp)about a half mile behind our place.This muskeg is not travel able in the warm months at all. It is just a quagmire of water and soupy soil. You don't even see an animal trail through it, it is not possible. With the naked eye you can see animal trails around the perimeter of it and I am sure they drink from the pond that appear to have solid edges. I think the little island in the middle of the muskeg is just awesome.
Heading back to our place we took the "Back Trail" down to the river. We came across a fresh Pair of Moose Tracks. It appears we have a Cow and a Calf in our back yard. I surely hope we get a chance to see them this winter.
I led Myra down to the rivers edge on the ATV also. Where our boat used to set is now dry land and Myra shot this Picture from the "River", up to our landing. She thought I was nuts when I drove my ATV down the bank to the river but I talked her into following. You should have seen the concentration on her face when she drove back up, she looked like Tony Stewart concentrating on the white line during the Daytona 500. She did not go quite that fast though. The bank is now about 15 foot high at about a 45 degree angle, it is fun on the ATV. I can't wait to do it on the snowmachine.
I have been staying busy around the property. I did just put up the "Welcome" sign and I have finished the permanent phone installation and sealed up the front door and trimmed it out so it looks better. I removed the ramp on the front of the cabin and the door is an emergency exit only now. We will have to jump if we need to get out of it but, if we need to get out of it jumping will be the least of our worries if you know what I mean. I also added some supports to the porch floor, cleaned out the burning barrel, repaired some interior cabin wood work and did more yard work. Tomorrow is drive a "Ground Rod" for the electrical system and bond everything together such as the phone system, satellite dish, generator, inverter and charger. This will be the beginning of a new electrical system that I will put in this winter. I just don't want to do the Ground Rod into frozen ground or run bonding wires thru snow banks to get to the ground rod. After the Grounding work is done I will spend a few hours splitting and stacking wood before we are off to the neighbors for our first Dinner invite.
I have been trying to visualize this evening out to dinner. We will be taking ATVs through the Forest for a couple of miles. It will be in the low thirties at best for temperatures when we leave there. We must take a gun. We want to dress nice but need to wear boots because there is always water in the low spots on the trail. What coat do I wear and I did not bring any dress gloves, what's the right hat? Hmmm, getting the picture?
I am pretty sure it will be carhart work bibs, muck boots, leather gloves over decent dinner clothes and pack the house slippers! Do I clean my Gun to make it more formal?
Thanks for being here,
See Ya soon
Roger

Sunrise and Hans

It has been a nice week. The weather has been cool in the morning and then warming into the forties usually during the day. We have been busy around here trying to finish up some things and every time you start one project it seems to snowball into at least three more! So "Everything takes longer in the bush" has become our motto! But that is OK when you wake up to a view like this.




Sunrise on the Yentna River

 This is so awesome to see in the mornings. It is like God is right there saying "Good Morning I hope you enjoy this wonderful place I have created." This is also close to the view I have as I hang laundry out on the clothesline. Definitely makes laundry a little easier to do with a wonderful view.

Roger has been busy trying to finish up some projects outside like putting a roof over the fuel oil tank on the side of the house so it doesn't get buried in snow and possibly pulled off the house. He still needs to do that for the propane and the generators. That will keep him busy for a day or two. He put the phone antenna up so now we get a much better signal than when it was leaning against some logs on the ground. There are so many little odds and ends things to do, finish, etc that sometimes it is hard to see what you accomplished that day.

I have been trying to finish up the back porch and that is pretty well done now. We have hooks up for coats and stuff now as well as a hanging rod for things that are not in use at this time. The totes are slowly decreasing in number, some I can't do until we do a few more things inside the cabin, like some shelves.  My craft area is slowly taking shape. I keep getting sidetracked with all the other daily things that have to be done. There is always cooking, cleaning, laundry, going for water and on and on.





Hans and I went over to the neighbors earlier this week for water and the mail and I took some pictures of him out on the trail. He loves to run but he has not learned how to pace himself yet. He is getting so big! He now stands about 3-4 inches above Jeff and probably outweighs him. It is hard to remember that he is only 5 months old until he does something so silly and uncoordinated like all puppies. We sure do get some good laughs from him. Here are a couple of pics for comparison.



2 Months



5 Months





 Well that is about it for me for the moment. We have not seen any bears around the cabin in over a month, the fall colors have been beautiful and now we are waiting for the river to freeze. Until then we are pretty limited on where we can go. A couple of neighbors and that is it unless we fly. And that is not happening if we can avoid it. Too expensive!!!!!!!!!!!! But we have plenty of food etc and plenty of things to do yet so we will stay busy and fed.
Thanks for sharing our adventure with us. Blessings, Myra