We Have Been Busy! And Momma Got A New Ride!

Hi All! It has been busy around here the last couple of weeks. I am not going to write a whole lot but I do have lots of pictures to show you what we have been doing. The upstairs started out with just OSB and plywood floors. Oh and a crooked chimney for the woodburner!

Looking toward bath and craft area

Looking toward the bedroom area

Roger cut and put up firring strips over all the seams, enclosed the ugly beams and pole, and after I was finished painting, put down linoleum in the bath area and carpet in the bedroom area and my craft area.

Bedroom Area

Bath with Craft Area to the Left (Oh and a Straight Chimney!)

We still need to build a wall around the bath area but the weather turned nice finally so we have been outside trying to get the outhouse built. 

Roger just came inside and says the outhouse is almost "poopable!" Some days I really wonder........

The Tarp Ma Hall

Hey it works!

The weather has been really rainy the past couple of weeks, like rain every day so thank God for blue tarps! We put up the "Tarp Ma Hall" to use as a temporary workshop, and that is about the only reason anything has gotten done. Roger has set up his saws etc underneath it and it has worked well, until today when it got really windy so we had to re-secure the tarp to the woodshed and also parked the ATV on the one side to hold it down! 

All of this has been happening while also making trips up to the Post Office house to pack and move stuff here, find homes for the stuff we are bringing, which we don't want to move a lot in yet as we still need to do the flooring and kitchen on the main floor. Oh and a day of digging potatoes in the rain and muck, brought home about 70 pounds so I have been canning them....and Roger went moose hunting for a couple days with a friend from Texas that has a cabin near ours. And.....and.....and.... everything takes longer in the bush!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.........Momma got a new ride today! We were down to one ATV and it is in need of some repair and our friend Craig from Alaska Backcountry Adventure Tours was selling his ATV's as he is replacing them in the spring. So Momma is happy! 

Momma's Ride

Well about time to get this posted and head to bed, tomorrow we have to be up in Skwentna by 10 so have to be up and at em early. I leave you with the puppies, and some beautiful clouds from the sunset a couple days ago. God bless you all and thanks for taking the time to share our adventure as it continues. Myra

Camera Hound

Playing Shy

Picture doesn't do the colors justice but it is still pretty.

I am Trying

Hi There,
   I am trying to keep you up to date and not fall further behind in writing new post so I am not taking a bunch of time to do this. That means I don't have pictures to insert as of yet. SORRY. Mra has been snapping pictures though, and You will see them!
   Since my last post Myra and I have spent 4 long days in town. We purchased supplies for about 4 months of Freeze Up and we bought a bunch of stuff to remodel the cabin. We bought so much that we brought out over a thousand pounds on our boat and hired a barge to bring out the rest, another thirty one hundred pounds. We got to the cabin last Monday (a week ago today) and have stayed here all but one night. We still have the vast majority of our stuff at the Post Office house for now.
   We have been sleeping on an air mattress. We have no TV. The radio only comes in some of the time and I just got the Internet working last night.
   After not living here for twenty months or so there have been a few things that are in need of repair. The water heater still had water in it when the cabin went cold when we moved out (by accident). That has caused a rupture in a copper line inside the unit. I still have to repair that. The snow that laid on the satellite dish for the internet apparently bent something. It took a long time to re-aim the dish to find the satellite. In the process of finding out what was wrong I was checking the cable connections and one of the connectors broke on the dish transmitter unit. That required taking the very sensitive electronic unit off of the dish, take it apart and re-solder some connections onto the printed circuit board inside it and then re-assemble everything and re-point the dish a little. The guy from Alaska Satellite in Fairbanks was a great help but I did some repairs even he has not done. You are not supposed to work on the inside of the transmitter thing on the dish but I did it, and it is obviously working.
   On our trip to town we bought about $2000 in groceries & supplies and about $5000 in cabin remodel and fix up supplies. An example of supplies is we have 300 lbs of dog food. One of things we bought was a 24' x 40' tarp to make another temporary work work area. I stretched a rope from the peak of the back porch out to the peak of the wood shed and draped the tarp over it and added some side supports. That has given us a large dry area outside to set up saws and tools for doing the work and storing items. We bought new wire shelving for the Cold Storage unit and the Back Porch (installed). We bought paint for the Up Stairs of the cabin and various other places (up stairs is already primed and ready for final coat). We bought new trim wood for Upstairs (already installed). We bought all new chimney parts to relocate the wood stove (relocation work is done, waiting to re-install until other work gets done). We bought new Linoleum for the Bathroom area (waiting on the final coat of paint before installation). We bought new carpet for the upstairs (waiting for paint) We bought new Laminate Flooring and Tile for the Down Stairs. We bought supplies to build new kitchen counters, and supplies for a few smaller projects. We also bought supplies to build (finish) the new Out House. All of the groceries and supplies have been stocked and organized. The back porch and cold storage look great for now. We will see how they look after we get all of the other stuff from the house.
   To go along with the work you see listed above that we have done and still have to do, we have made two trips to the house up river this week, to get some of or personal items and tools as well as other supplies that we had there. To say the least, it has been busy out! We still have a lot to do on the cabin to get it the way we want it before we move all of our stuff in BUT; The water level has been dropping in the river and we need to get the rest of our stuff hauled down here from the house very soon or we are not going to have it until after Freeze Up some time in December. With that being said, we have a small Jet Barge scheduled for Wednesday to go to the house and get at least 2 of our snowmachines and what ever else we can fit on the barge, then bring it to the cabin / river landing.
   We have been working 12 to 14 hours a day, then dropping like a rock onto the air mattress for a wonderful night of air mattress sleep. At his point we have no hot water or running water for that matter. We are eating with all plastic and paper dishes for the time being. Cooking is minimal to save time and mess (We are loosing weight).We only have the Toyo heater for heat in the cabin. It has rained at some point every day and the temps are in the 50's at best for the high. It is Fall and winter is coming fast. At least we have a good supply of Fire Wood already here and we are ignoring the outside work that needs done. The grass is about 3 feet tall or more (no exaggeration). I may have to shovel snow to build the Out House and I want to get pilings in the ground for a new work shop before the ground freezes. I am sure I will have to shovel snow to work on that project. We will make several more trips to the house with our boat (hopefully) before the water drops too low, and will get most of our stuff here. (With all the rain this week the river will probably raise for a little while.)
   To go along with all of the work there is a little more time required. It is Moose Season! I am going on a 2 to 3 day Moose Hunt with a friend from Texas and a neighbor from up here. I have to take time to do the little things you know. Also, a little more meat in the freezer never hurts. Hopefully one or more of us is successful.
OK, now you know what I know. It's time to get to work, again!
Talk Ya Soon,
Thanks for being here.
Roger

It's about Time I did this again!

   It has been a really long time since I have done any writing on here. I guess I just got into a routine of life up here and thought you all might be getting tired of hearing (reading) the same old thing. Well, things are not the same old thing in many ways as I have been so politely reminded by one of my dear friends. (Yea, you know who you are.)
 
   I am not going to try to re-cap an 15 month period in one post but I will give you some highlights. I will get into more detail in the future.

   Currently Myra and I are still living at the Post Office property in Skwentna. Myra has been working part time at the Skwentna Roadhouse and I hauled "winter freight" with my snowmachine and have been guiding for fishing all summer the last two summers. My quote "new" snowmachine now has 11,690 miles on it and is in need of suspension rebuild and a new stator before this winter. We have put two new fuel injectors in the boat this summer (at the same time) and the machinery has been getting a work out.

   I have started guiding at a new lodge and river location on the Talachlitna River about 16 miles up stream from Skwentna. This river is totally different from where I have been guiding. It is Very Remote and challenging to get to with a boat. There are few fishermen that make it that far so it is peaceful and the fishing is plentiful. I will post pictures and many more details later.

   The winter freighting has been going very well. The snowmachine has not left me stranded to where I had to walk over 2 miles. That's another story (or two) as well. I have been hauling very nearly 6,000 miles a year. The machine has paid for it's self. I have two freight sleds now and am contemplating buying another new snowmachine and giving Myra the other one. The new old one is still looks like new and is in overall very good shape but with 12,000 miles of hauling, how much can it be trusted on long heavy hauls at -20 degree temps? Walking in those conditions is no fun!

   The dogs are doing well. Jeff has developed a little problem with getting "Hot Spots" that need washing and care, but they don't seam serious. We are going to try changing there diet and see if that helps him. Hans is over three years old now and is still just a big puppy. He weighs nearly a hundred pounds and bounces around like a rat terrier. I don't think he will ever grow up. He is well behaved but he talks back a lot. He does not take off and swim the river as often as he first did when we moved up here but we still don't trust him not to go adventuring for very long periods of time.

   My Dad past away in July. We had been home in May and had seen him then and he seamed fine for being 81. a few weeks later he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and three weeks later he passed away. I did get back to Michigan in time to see him the day before he died and I was with him when he passed.

   I have spent about 8 days over 2 trips up to Shell Lake to work on a cabin for a "week ender" named Bob Bell. (If you get a chance google or go to Amazon and search for Bob. He wrote a couple of books titled "Oh No, Were Gonna Die".) Anyhow, I straightened his pilings (foundation) on the cabin and braced it up, built a deck and re-roofed the sauna / shed building. Shell Lake is fly in only in the summer so Bob had to pick me up in his float plane and fly me up and back both trips. If you read his book(s) you may come to realize I was taking my life in (his) hands to do this. Over all everything was fine and he seams to have learned from past mistakes.

   As a result of a good year of freighting and fishing we have a little extra money. Myra and I are heading to town for a few days and picking up or supplies for freeze up (4 months worth of stuff) and we are buying several things to remodel the inside of our cabin. We are buying all new flooring, paint, supplies to build cupboards and counters and other things. Our goal is to get it remodeled very soon and then move back into it.

   Enough for Now,
Thanks You for still being with us after all of this time!
I will try to talk to you again soon,
Roger

Where Does the Time Go?

Ok so it has been more than a week since I posted. Sorry.....


As I sit here thinking about writing this blog it has dawned on me that it was 2 years ago today that we left Ohio. Wow.....some days it seems like yesterday and others it seems like it has been forever. So much has happened in the last two years. Most of what has occurred has been chronicled here on this blog. The good, the bad and the ugly......


Anyway back to what has been happening. The last post was pretty much about the Iditarod so I will try and pick up from there. I continued to work at the Skwentna Roadhouse part time and Roger spent lots of time on the snow machine hauling freight and also doing tours. I will let him tell you of his adventures. 


I made another trip back to Ohio in March which was unplanned. On the 17th I received a call that my dear friend Louise was in the hospital and it did not look good. She had been battling breast cancer for about ten years with metastasis to the liver and spine. I made arrangements to go to Ohio flying in to Anchorage on the mail plane on the 22nd. I was hoping to get to Ohio before she passed away but it was not to be. As we were at the airstrip in Skwentna waiting on the mail plane I received the call that Louise had passed. I went on to Ohio with a heavy heart to celebrate her life with other friends and family. The one great thing out of that trip was spending time with the grandkids and kids and being there for Easter, coloring eggs with the kids, Easter egg hunts, going to the park and ball practices. I returned to Alaska on April 10th, did a little shopping and flew back out here to Skwentna on the 12th. 


April 14th Roger and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. We went over to the roadhouse where Cindi fixed us an awesome dinner of king crab and halibut cheeks with sides. It was great. The snow was slowly starting to disappear, the river was still OK, not good enough for freighting anymore but still able to cross.


We made a couple of trips down to our cabin to get the "last" of our stuff during the first part of April. I think we may finally be moved in here but we all know what thinking does. We have finally gotten everything out of the totes and put away. My craft stuff is "organized" and I have been able to do a few cards. Roger has been busy working on things around here, getting a boat repaired and usable, cutting and splitting wood, sorting stuff and the list goes on and on. 


The ice on the river went out on April 29th this year. The dogs actually had crossed the river that morning and came back about 2 hours before the ice moved out. Whew.....that was too close for comfort in my book. 


Here are some pictures of our location.

View from the front porch of the house

The above picture was taken standing on the front porch of the house. The buildings from left to right are the "old house", wood shed, post office (way back in the trees, just barely visible in this picture) the cache with the gen shed/workshop behind it.

The "Old House"

The Wood Shed with PO in background

The old house is the Iditarod checkpoint headquarters for Skwentna. This is where the cooking, planning, etc takes place. 

The Cache and Generator Shed/Workshop

As you can see there is still a lot of wood to be split and stacked into the wood shed for winter. 








Roger has been busy pulling snow machines out of the woods around here and amazingly many of them started! 

The Mutts

The picture with Roger reaching up to the window was taken on May 20th. As you can see there is still a small little bit of snow there on the ground. The snow right here had been so high that Hans was able to look at us through the window and we could see his paws about where Rogers hand is. Part of the depth was due to snow sliding off the roofs right there but the snow was deep enough when packed that you could not see this porch that Roger is standing by. The snow in the yard is finally all gone and we are looking at getting a spot tilled up for our garden in the next day or two. I have some plants started and Roger is going to pick a few up in town next week when he goes in to get his fishing supplies. That is something I am not going to get for him! No way no how!!!!!!!!!!

The house with guest cabin in background

This past Tuesday we went down to our cabin and got our boat, visited with the neighbors there and I did my first solo in the boat. Roger had taken our 4 wheeler over to where our boat was and he and Tom got it put in. He then came around with the boat and got me from our cabin with the boat as the trails where MUD, MUCK, YUCK! He had trouble getting through and there was no way I was going to do it as I am not "aggressive" enough on the 4 wheeler so I ended driving the boat around to our landing while Roger brought the 4 wheeler back. And then I drove the boat back up here to Skwentna following Roger in the boat we had gone down there in. That was my first solo in the boat and the boat came through unscathed! I will be using one of the boats to go across the river to get to the roadhouse this summer so I better keep practicing. especially my "docking" and securing the boat. It really sucks when a boat goes for a trip without anyone. 

May you all have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend.  Thank You to those who serve and have served our country. 


Thank you to for taking time to share our life with us. Talk to you soon,
Myra

Busy Busy Busy

Ok so it has been brought to my attention that there hasn't been a post in quite some time. Sorry about that.....things have been crazy busy. 


When Roger last posted we had just moved up here to Joe and Norma's place in Skwentna, and I was in Ohio to see the kids and grandkids which had been planned for a while. After Ohio I went to Florida for a week to see my mom and returned to Alaska on February 15th. I hit the ground with my feet running!
I got home to our place on Thursday the 16th and started working at the Skwentna Roadhouse on Friday! February and March is a very busy time of year up here with tourists, snow machine races and sled dog races.


Anyway the first weekend I was home was the Iron Dog snow machine race which goes from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks. About 2000 miles in all. There are a couple of "classes" that the riders can choose from: trail class which is a laid back kind of ride from Big Lake to Nome or the pro class which goes as fast as possible from Big Lake to Fairbanks hoping and praying to be the first ones there. The pro class rides in teams of 2 and both riders have to check in at each check point before they can continue on. 


Roger worked at the checkpoint here in Skwentna helping out and I was working my buns off at the roadhouse cooking for spectators. It was a bit of a challenge since it was my first day really working the kitchen there and I had no clue where most stuff was and Cindi was outside at the checkpoint! But hey we made it through and no one yelled too loud when things took a little longer than normal.


Roger stayed very busy this winter hauling freight on the snow machine and also shoveling roofs up at Shell Lake.....now any of you that know Roger very well should know that he really doesn't like heights! But he did good and only fell off one roof! The amount of snow they had up there was even more than we had and I know that we had 177 inches of snow here! I stayed busy working at the roadhouse and trying to get settled in here. 

River Crew "Planning Meeting"

The first weekend in March was the Iditarod Sled Dog race. The volunteers started showing up on Friday morning and I was kept busy running back and forth to the air strip with the snow machine and sled hauling people, supplies etc etc.... There is a group of ladies from the Anchorage and Mat-Su Valley area called the "Sweeties" that come out and cook all weekend for the other volunteers and the mushers. There is another group from the Tacoma, WA area that come every year called the "Darlings" aka "The River Crew". Most of these volunteers have been coming to this checkpoint for many years and it was like watching a well oiled machine at work the way they got things done. 

Getting Water for the Dogs

Saturday was spent packing down the snow on the river where the dog teams would be and gathering supplies that would be needed on Sunday. By the time we all sat down to the special "Pre-Hersal" Dinner that the Sweeties had planned for Saturday night for Kelsey (part of the Tacoma gang) and her fiance Carter who were getting married later in the month there was 47 people here! And then a couple more showed up on Sunday morning, another vet and the teacher on the trail. 

Putting out the Straws Bales for bedding down the dogs

The "Dog Food Depot"

Sunday......RACE DAY! While the Sweeties were busy cooking and cooking the Darlings got busy down on the river getting the checkpoint set up. This involves cutting through the ice to provide water for the mushers for the dogs, setting straw bales out for them to bed the dogs down on, putting up the checkpoint banner, digging out the steps for the mushers to use to come up to the building for some food and sleep if wanted and many other items that I am sure I am forgetting. 

And then you wait......watching for the first head lamp coming toward the checkpoint out of the night. This night though we had the Northern Lights giving quite an awesome display to entertain us while we waited. At one point there were hundreds of dogs just below us down on the river. Most all the 60+mushers start the race with 16 dogs and usually still have all of them when they get here as it is early in the race. We did end up with 6 "drop" dogs here that are then flown back to Anchorage until someone comes from that mushers kennel to get them. 

A team checking in

The checkpoint was busy busy from about 8:30 pm until noon on Monday. The first musher arrived shortly after 8:30 pm and the last couple of musher headed out around noon on Monday. 

Looking down on the "checkpoint"

Lance Mackey

One Tired Musher!

On Monday morning some of the vets and communications people started leaving which meant getting them and their gear over to the airstrip. All of the comms people and vets, dropped dogs and race judge were scheduled to leave on Monday but the weather turned and the Iditarod air force couldn't get all of them out so we ended up with no vets but still had drop dogs here. We did still have a couple of comms people and a great race judge who used to mush to help with the dogs. We ended up bringing the dogs up off the river on Monday night though as there were some wolves howling in the area and no one wanted the checkpoint to make the news for dogs being attacked by wolves. 

Monday AM Still have a few teams here

And exhaustion wins!

The "Darlings" Getting ready to head home

Finally got everyone including the dogs on planes just after noon on Tuesday and man was it quiet around here! It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad we were here to be a part of it. 








Well I think I will call it enough for now. There is much more to tell about what has been happening over the last couple of months and I will try to post again in the next week or so. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog and I promise we will try to get back in the habit of posting. 
Blessings to all, Myra

Relocation Experiences

Hello to all from near downtown Skwentna Alaska. Downtown of course is across the river and it is not a town. It is hard to describe Skwentna. It is the name of our Zip Code for the postal service, it has .3 (Point 3) people per square mile according to the census bureau, there is a Roadhouse that has rooms and cabins for rent and they sell food, and an air strip that is maintained by the FAA. The Post Office is in our front yard today. Myra and I have relocated to Joe and Norma's property to take care of it (the property) for an undetermined amount of time. We have nothing to do with the post office.

I am not really sure how to go about telling about this whole experience so I am just going to do my best. I may ramble on a bit or be a little out of chronological order or off by a day or two. I will do my best to be accurate.

Joe and Norma were due to move on 1-2-12, Alaskan weather made sure that did not happen. The arrangements were for the Iditarod Air force to fly out there belongings and them. The Iditarod Air force is a group of private pilots that fly supplies and people for the Iditarod dog sled race each year. Joe and Norma Delia have hosted a checkpoint for the Iditarod every year since it's inception in 1974. It took a few days for the weather to cooperate enough for the planes to fly and be able to come to Skwentna. When they were finally able to get here a few of us loaded our freight sleds and toboggans with Joe and Norma's boxes of items that they were moving and take them across the river to the air strip. It took 7 planes loads to get all of their boxes out on the planes. By the time the last plane took off with moving items the weather had changes and Anchorage got fogged in and no more planes were able to fly that day. Joe and Norma and their two adult kids that were here were unable to fly out. It took three more days before the weather cleared enough for Joe and Norma and family were able to fly out. I think it was 1-9 when they finally reached Anchorage. The Air force had made arrangements for a U-Haul for Joe and Norma's stuff and everything was ready for them to take to their new home.

The day Joe and Norma finally flew out was Extremely challenging for me and others. While Myra and I have not lived here in the bush very long, it was very easy to develop a special relationship with these extraordinary people. Myra and I spent each day with Joe and Norma while we waited on the planes to be able to fly. During the final morning waiting on the planes everyone started experiencing various emotions. There was nothing to do but think, talk and wait. The plane was delayed for a few more hours because of a heavy snow fall and the runway had to be cleared before they could fly in. a very nice face-book post came through that stirred a lot of emotion, saying fair well to Joe and Norma. Then the time came for the trip to the air strip. We got out Joe's snowmachine for him to drive to the plane. After more than 60 years of Bush living this man drove himself to the airplane for what is in all likelihood his last plane trip to town. We all loaded on snowmachines and followed Joe to the airstrip. I could not stop myself from crying on the trip over. I was following an icon, a living legend out of the territory and it tore me up. It stirs me deeply as I type this now. My respect for Joe and Norma can not be spoken. Live well you two, best wishes for a good quality of life in town.

Myra and I did not pack a thing or move an item until the day Joe and Norma flew out. We now only had a few days until Myra was doe to fly out for Ohio. Myra and I headed home and packed some clothes and personal care items and came back up river with the dogs. Hans happily ran the whole eleven miles and Jeff rode on the snowmachine about ten of the miles. Over the next few days we managed to move most of the food and items that should not freeze and we got the cats here etc. Most all of the furniture was left here as well as most household furnishings. We basically only have to bring items we want of our own as Norma left the home almost fully stocked and equipped. We did bring Myra's favorite cooking ware and our recliners. We will bring more items as time and weather allows.

Myra spent the rest of her time here sorting threw the kitchen cupboards etc removing items we won't use and packing them up and organizing the place the way she wants. I spent almost a week in the work shop going threw box after box after coffee can and box after coffee can full of misc. stuff. I now have a work bench to work on and some additional floor space to work in. I still have many boxes and cans to go threw, mostly full of hardware items now. I was barely able to find a tool when I got here, now I have large boxes of screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers and more. the hand tools were all mixed in with the boxes of stuff.

We will package and label all of these items and put them away. I will be bringing my tool boxes etc on here. I will only leave or take tools to our cabin to do projects that I want to accomplish there.

We have our work cut out for us here for a while. There are several repair and maintenance items that need attended to along with all of the sorting of a collection of 50 years of stuff. Norma has instructed us to treat the place as if it is our own so we will be making a few adjustments around here to become more comfortable.

I have been ask many questions about the "house" we live in now. I will do my best to describe it for you. I will post pictures some time in the future. this is not a "Picture" type of post.

The "New House" is what we are living in. Joe built this home for Norma fifteen years ago. It is primarily log construction with some plywood and lumber on the second story. The walls down stairs are full exposed logs inside and out. they are quite beautiful. The cabin is approx. 26' x 30' and has a full upstairs. The only divided off rooms are the bathroom and a couple of walk in closets. YES Phyllis, there is a well, running water, a flush toilet and a washer & dryer. No, we don't have a dishwasher and I really miss Myra right now!!!! Guess what needs done. For all intense and purpose this is a very modern bush home. There the "Old Home" over closer to the river. Joe had built that one about 30 years ago. That home does show its' age some but it is still functional for today's use. The old house needs work where it is settling. The old house is now the Iditarod headquarters during the 4 day race event that happens here and it has a lot of storage in it. There is a "Guest Cabin" out behind the new house. The guest cabin is very nice inside but the foundation needs re-worked as the building is settling and is becoming fairly un-even. There is a Generator Shed / workshop that is pretty nice. The building is heated by the water cooled generators that are inside and it has a basement area for the water system and other storage. The workshop will be quite nice when I get the shelving built and things organized. there is also Five diesel generators in there and only 2 of them function so some decisions have to be made about the old ones. There is an above ground (approx. 10') cache building for storage. This cache was originally for food and meat items to keep them out of reach of the animals out here. Today the cache is just for misc. storage. Then there is the Post Office building about 200' from the new house, out near the property entrance coming off of the river.

It is different living here as a change from our cabin. We are closer to the river so the dogs detect more snowmachine traffic and react to that. The Post Office is in the front yard so there is traffic right in the yard. As of now there is no Battery system so if you want power the generator must be running and there is no fuel oil back up heat so someone must be here every 8 hours maximum to stock the wood stove or the house gets pretty cool. Those are a couple of changes that I am going to try and make to modernize the house some more. It is not like there is a ton of traffic but, any traffic is more than what we had before so it is different.

I have been hauling freight the last few days and have been gone up to 12 hours. The house has gotten down to 43 degrees one day and that took all night to get the temp back up, of course it was 27 below zero that day. I am going shoveling up to Shell Lake this week and get some more exercise and make a little money in the process.

I have some pictures and stories about hauling freight and the weather etc but that is for another time.

Thank You for allowing me to share with you!

I will talk to you again soon,

Take Care and God Bless,

Roger

A December full of Events

It has been an event filled month of December and there are many more events to come!

We built a shelf rack on the back porch to hold a bunch of the extra totes of "stuff" that we have that don't fit into a 16' x 20' cabin. We had twelve extra totes stacked up and setting around the back porch. I built the rack big enough to hold at least sixteen totes. Of course the more space you have the more space you need. We already have the shelves completely full and and have double stacked the top but, we have a little more space inside the cabin.

I finally made it into town after a few weeks of very weird weather. I ended up flying in and catching a ride back out to the Deshka Landing to get my truck for a little shopping. I only bought 1 tote worth of needed items because I did not have a freight sled with me. All I had to take back out to the cabin was my New Snowmachine.

I picked up my brand new 2011 Ski-doo, Skandic, 800cc, 4 stroke, Super Wide Track snowmachine. I Got this machine 3 weeks ago today and I now have 896 miles on it, almost All working, money producing miles! This new snowmachine is pretty nice. It is very similar to the (new / old) one I bought last year except it has much more power and a better ride. I have pulled 6 barrels of diesel fuel on one freight sled with this one and I does not even grunt very much. That is about 3000lbs on one sled. That is more than any compact car can pull efficiently, on pavement. Of course, I paid more for this machine than several of the little cars cost.

Myra and I went back into town about two weeks later to do our big shopping trip.We took in empty fuel barrels for a customer and then brought out our own groceries and supplies.

This is the sunrise from the trail the morning Myra and I rode into town. YES, We left home well before dawn that day, as I do most days when leaving to go anywhere. Sunrise this time of year is about 10:15am, of course that changes everyday.

I have been shoveling snow off of Cabin roofs and decks and out-builds all around the Shell Lake area. I have been doing this for hire and have been making decent money doing it. It is one heck of a lot of work but it is very good exercise. It is really cool to be standing on the ridge line of a building looking out over the lake or the mountains in dead silence and just take in the experience. Look at the top of the cut off tree. See how it has curled over? The snow up here does not melt all winter (for the most part), it just settles and compacts. In this case, the snow had stood straight up until it decided to just fold over. You never see this in the lower states. The snow just hangs there now. How cool is that!
Shell Lake received over 10' of snow in 2 1/2 weeks. Since it and the previous snow has settled and compacted, I am shoveling about 5 1/2 feet of snow off of decks and roofs. It is very heavy and the bottom 2 feet is as hard as clay to dig into.

I kind of hurried on this video because they take so many Megabytes to upload but I thought you might want to see this. I tried to give you a video last year but it was too big of a file to upload. It is a little BRISK here this morning at -31 degrees.

OK, Now I am just going to give you a hole bunch of pictures of sunsets and mountains and dogs from our living room, THEN, after all of these pictures, I am going to give you some BIG news of a change for Myra and I.

Look at the clouds blowing right off of the tips of the mountain tops. Isn't that awesome. Blow up these pictures, they are amazing.

OK, now for the news. This has been developing for quite a long time and it has now come to reality. Oh Wait, before I tell you about that let me tell you about this.
Myra will be flying to Ohio on January 18th for a few week visit, then on to Florida for a week to see her Mom, then she will be back home.
Now on to the big news of a change. You probably all have read the stories I have typed about Joe and Norma Delia, our post master extraordinaire(s) and our neighbor and friends. Oh wait, before I say anymore, let me tell you this.
While I was off shoveling roofs at Shell Lake I had one of the dumbest damn things happen too me. I had looked at my shop building before I left and determined it was fine, we only had about 4 inches of snow on it and it would be good until I got home. Well, the damn thing collapsed while I was taking care of other peoples property. Someday maybe I will learn to take care of myself first, before I go do for others!
OK, back to the Delia's. Joe retired from the post office back in mid summer. Norma retired from the post office on Dec. 22. NO, No, No, we are not becoming the new post master(s). Steve C., a long time resident up here took over the post master job. Joe and Norma are moving to town tomorrow, 1-2-2012. Myra and I are going to be moving into Joe and Norma's house up on the Skwentna River and taking care of it as if it were our own. Joe is suffering from some issues that come from aging and they must move to town and Norma is not able to sort through and de-cipher 50 some years of Joe's collection of STUFF. Myra and I are to go through and sort and organize etc while we live at their place. What an experience this will be, to see what 50 plus years in the bush can bring together. We will winterize our little place over the next couple of weeks and move a lot of our belongings up to their place for now. Their homestead is for sale but the activity has been very low. If any of you have and extra $400,000 laying around and want a really nice property let me know. I will hook you up with Norma.
I will continue to come to our place and make improvements etc on our place, AND it looks like I will be building a new shop building soon.

Myra and I have never known why we felt so compelled to move up here. We had no idea what was in store for us, if this was a God thing for sure or human will. At most points of time in the beginning we were sure that God had a plan for us up here and as time has passed, honestly, we each begin to wonder if it was more of an illusion of human will. Today, I don't know if this assistance to Joe and Norma is why we are here or if there is still larger plans in process for this adventure but, today there is a bigger reason to be here, than just us.

Thank You for allowing me to share with you,
God Bless you all,
Roger