Don't You get Bored?

I can't tell you the number of times I have heard that Question.....

Don't you get Bored in the Bush? After all, there are no roads, no stores, not many people, nothing to do!!!

Oh My God, that could not be more wrong,,, NOTHING TO DO !

   It has been 6 weeks since we have found time and energy at the same time, to do a blog post. When there is energy available, it is used to do task that allow us to live here. When there is time, it seams like resting is the first thing on the list of things to do.
   Myra's last post was mostly about daily life and how it has been going. This one is not going to be much different.
   First of all, Myra spent 3 weeks in Ohio and Florida visiting Kids, Grand kids and her Mother. While she was away I tried working more on the kitchen and did make some progress but I did not get it finished. She is currently using plywood counter tops. God Bless here patience. I probably will not get the counters done until break-up now.
   I went to town for 4 days when Myra was due to fly home. That trip to town was exactly 5 months and 1 week since the last time I had been to town. That's right, I came home from town on August 26th and I did not go back to town until January 29th. I had not driven or even gotten into our truck. I had not seen a road except for the road at Deshka Landing's entrance.
   Freighting season with the snowmachine started in mid December and I got very busy immediately. The "new" snowmachine I bought 2 years ago became a struggle to keep going. I have put 13,312 miles on the machine. Almost every mile of that has been pulling freight sleds, usually 2 at a time, over the rough and bumpy river trail. The suspension is just flat wore out. It seamed that every trip I had some sort of part break on the suspension. After about 1300 miles of freighting and fixing this year, I could not take it anymore. I bought a 2013 Artic Cat "Bear Cat" Groomer Special snowmachine. I have already put almost 2000 miles on the new machine.

   Here's your picture.
Ooop's the picture did not come through. I have a new Iphone and an old computer. They refuse to communicate. I will try to get you a picture in the future.

This new machine does not pull as well on new or soft snow as my "old" Super Wide machine, nor does it float on top of really deep snow, BUT, Boy is it comfortable to ride. Right now we have VERY Icy conditions and VERY hard trails and the new machine is actually better in these conditions. It has Studs in the track for grabbing the ice. I am not able to put the same style of studs on the Super Wide because of machine design. As it turns out, I will end up using both machines for the correct conditions. First though, I have to replace most of the parts of the suspension on the "old" Super Wide machine. It is setting in my shop right now with broken parts that make it nearly impossible to move.
   We went through a very warm period of two weeks in the forties and lots of rain. The river was not travel-able for 10 days and it almost broke up completely. It was a very scary time for those of us that live out here. We almost ended up losing the freighting season and having to fly everything out here. That would have been a disaster for us financially.
   When Myra got home she started a new Job. She is now answering phones and emails / selling tours for the Snowmachine company that I do tours for. If she does a good job, I do more tours. If she does not, She gets fired and I haul more freight and do less tours. LoL.
   I have guided (I think) 14 tours so far this year, to go along with freighting over 3000 miles. Myra is now scheduled to work for 3 different lodges for a few days here and there over the next 3 weeks and possibly a 4th lodge entering the picture. The Iditarod dog sled race is the first week-end of March and we host the 2nd checkpoint of the race which takes up the better part of a week and I still have several loads of freight backed up from the warm spell.
   Don't You Get BORED? UH, NO!
Now let me see, We still haul every drop of water we consume, have to keep a generator running a few hours a day, burn wood for heat, make most food from scratch, are in the middle of a remodel, keep snowmachines running, answer phones for a tour business, haul freight, work at lodges, play racket ball as often as possible (to stay in shape), deal with snow, cold, rain, ice and manage to right an occasional blog post.
   Did I forget to mention, while I was in town to get Myra, the fuel oil furnace that we have for back-up heat quit working. All of the water lines froze, the water heater froze and broke, the cabin got down to about 0 degree's, Myra's plants all died, The kitchen faucet split, all the stuff in the refrigerator froze and it was a general pain in the butt.
   Today, I took the day off. I rebuilt the clutch on a friends snowmachine, Then we adjusted the valve clearance, changed a few suspension parts on his machine, changed the oil filter (not as easy as a car), and a few other maintenance items. Then another friend stopped over and we rebuilt the clutch on his machine. Oh Yea, and before that, I played racket ball and on the way home I stopped by Willies and diagnosed a problem on his snowmachine and he went and got some parts for it. (I still have Willies to fix). Then I split a little wood and loaded up the wood supply on the back porch for Myra.
   Today was just a Boring (Don't You get Bored) type of day. Myra worked her phones, cleaned house, went to two different neighbor lodges for a little bit and made dinner etc. She was bored to!
   Tomorrow, I do a snowmachine tour (She's doing her job), then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I freight.
Yep, We get bored in the Bush!
Good thing there is no roads, no cable TV and no modern amenities of being in town or we would get busy. We have lost a combined 80 pounds or so in the last year!
Thanks for being with us on this adventure!
Don't get Bored
Roger