Well, it has been our first summer in our new home. It has been event filled and educational. We talk a lot about being busy so I could not help looking for pictures of what we were busy doing.
I am not going to do a lot of typing this time, I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking.
When we arrived the first look was pretty Intimidating!
It was exciting to begin to see Some progress.
Today we have a little space to work with.
This is the best picture I have of the Back of the Cabin. When we arrived, come to find out, the area was sooooo rough Myra did not venture around there to take pictures.
This was the back of the cabin after the rear "Lean To" was removed and we had the cooler box in the ground that the bears dug up.
A Little difference here Aye! Notice the "Burl Log" post I put near the porch corner, this is to protect people from running into the roof when the snow builds up. The Burls are Huge on this log.
I always have more wood to split in my spare time, do you want to come help?
It was a Challenge just getting to the cabin when we first arrived. The squiggly seperation in the weeds on the right side of the picture is the walking trail from the river. This is the trail we pulled the wheel barrow to and from the river to bring in the first couple of loads of "belongings"
We opened up the trail so that we could use ATVs to get back and forth to the river.
Today we have a fairly major Highway going to and from the river. We have named areas such as "Stairstep Hill"- so many roots to step over and on it is difficult to walk, "The Flower Garden" - Wild Roses and Rasberries grow in abundance here, The Valley" - just what it says, "Roll Over Pass" - we kept dumping the trailer there until we did some leveling and "Torture Hill" - about 100 yards of continuous uphill (BOTH ways, I swear!) along the edge of the river, this is the first portion of the walk from our landing!
This was our Front yard upon arrival. The left side of the picture is where our clearing is now to look out to the river and mountains
The clearing had begun!
I still have wood to collect up in the clearing for next years wood burning pile. This picture is from our bedroom on a hazy sky day. See the river through the clearing? My cheap camera again (or my photography skills) it could be a better picture. The plain Eye View is much better than this.
This is the View from our livingroom on every Clear day.
There is actually a burning barrel about 30 feet out past the cabin in this picture! We did not find it for 2 weeks after we got here!
The shop and barn are setting on the area where the burning barrel was at.
The area where the Bear Cub is, is now about 15 feet out the back door of the cabin.
The wood pile is just a continuous work in progress. I threw in this picture for general purposes only. Notice the 12 gauge leaning agains the saw buck? It is hard to wear the pistol while splitting wood so the shotgun is usually close by during that process.
We are now in the "Freeze Up" period of the year. The boat is out of the water, most all summer work is complete. We are unable to travel anywhere except the local couple miles of trails unless we choose to fly. The rate for flying is about $225 each way so I don't see that happening. Can you imagine the cost to go get a gallon of milk right now! Anyhow; we have canned milk and LOTS of other groceries and supplies. We may not be traveling out of here until sometime in December, it is hard to predict. Once the river freezes over we will be able to travel at will, and weather providing, to a lot more places along the river system. We will be able to go to some of the remote lodges that are fly in only in the summer etc. We will have more time on our hands to go enjoy the area, even if only for day trips because of animals to take care of.
For now it is continue to work outside when weather allows and inside when it is nasty outside.
We did get the bottom of the cabin insulated the snowmachines are pretty much ready to travel (still have to grease all the zerks) and the cabin is getting more organized by the day.
Life is Good Today! What a blessing to have the health to do all this stuff, even though I hurt like a Fifty year old most days. At least I am not a Fifty year old hurting like a Seventy year old right? Thinking of that stuff, I got out an old pair of jeans and I am down 4" in pants size since I got here. That does not count that the big ones were uncomfortable when I got here and the small ones fit well now. I think I left the additional pants sizes in these pictures somewhere.
Life really is good Today!
Thanks for Being Here,
See Ya Soon,
Roger
PS: Kevin Williams, you were right when you ask about "Why isn't there any snow near the cabin" when you looked at the original pictures. The insulation under there was junk. It's done now though!
Our "LET IT SNOW" sign is posted.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
The other day when we insulated the underside of the cabin Roger spent a good share of the day sliding around under there on his back and sides. Well when he got done he went for a short walk to the river and then came in for supper. He says to me, "Look at my side would you, there is something in it." Yep sure enough there is something in it! Apparently he had slid through some porcupine needles. We put ice on it, I grabbed it with pliers and pulled it out! Lucky for Roger it had not gone real deep and there wasn't even blood! After his shower I did put some antibiotic cream on it though as it was kind of red all around the area. 
This is the best picture I have of the Back of the Cabin. When we arrived, come to find out, the area was sooooo rough Myra did not venture around there to take pictures.
A Little difference here Aye! Notice the "Burl Log" post I put near the porch corner, this is to protect people from running into the roof when the snow builds up. The Burls are Huge on this log.
It was a Challenge just getting to the cabin when we first arrived. The squiggly seperation in the weeds on the right side of the picture is the walking trail from the river. This is the trail we pulled the wheel barrow to and from the river to bring in the first couple of loads of "belongings"
We opened up the trail so that we could use ATVs to get back and forth to the river.
Today we have a fairly major Highway going to and from the river. We have named areas such as "Stairstep Hill"- so many roots to step over and on it is difficult to walk, "The Flower Garden" - Wild Roses and Rasberries grow in abundance here, The Valley" - just what it says, "Roll Over Pass" - we kept dumping the trailer there until we did some leveling and "Torture Hill" - about 100 yards of continuous uphill (BOTH ways, I swear!) along the edge of the river, this is the first portion of the walk from our landing!
The clearing had begun!
I still have wood to collect up in the clearing for next years wood burning pile. This picture is from our bedroom on a hazy sky day. See the river through the clearing? My cheap camera again (or my photography skills) it could be a better picture. The plain Eye View is much better than this.
This is the View from our livingroom on every Clear day.
There is actually a burning barrel about 30 feet out past the cabin in this picture! We did not find it for 2 weeks after we got here!
The shop and barn are setting on the area where the burning barrel was at.
The wood pile is just a continuous work in progress. I threw in this picture for general purposes only. Notice the 12 gauge leaning agains the saw buck? It is hard to wear the pistol while splitting wood so the shotgun is usually close by during that process.
Our "LET IT SNOW" sign is posted.
