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





Awesome View

Well Roger has managed to raise the cabin some more. And even kept it from moving farther south! He does want to go up a little more, like 6-8 more inches. That will make it possible to store things underneath and at least walk bent over rather than crawling around.

The Yentna River

Here is the view from our bedroom when the clouds allow. It is amazing and ever changing. I am looking forward to seeing it in all the different seasons. You can just see the mountains beyond the trees on the other side of the river. We need to do some more clearing out of the trees but that will happen in time.

Not much else right now just keep plugging away at the chores that need done around here. I have gotten quite good at doing 2-3 days worth of dishes in under 5 gallons of water. It is amazing what you learn when you have to haul water and not just turn on a tap and let it flow. I figured out real quick that I could that many dishes in the same amount of water as 1 days worth so why be wasteful? (Plus I really don't like doing dishes everyday).
Time to call it a day so thanks for sharing our adventure and we will "talk" to you soon. Blessings, Myra

Our Walk to the Boat

Every day at least once and sometimes twice I or We must go to the boat and check on it. We decided to take our cameras along tonight and show you a little of the trip. There are two reasons for the trip to the boat. Number one and most important is because the water level on the river changes so dramatically. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the river level can fluctuate 14" in one day, maybe even more but I have not put out a measuring stick and don't want to tell you wrong. With this much change in depth the boat ends up setting on the bottom, or floating to high against the shore. It Literally has gone from floating in the morning to me struggling to get it off of the mud in the afternoon and back to floating loose on the rope the next morning.
The river is fed from a glacier and if the sun hits the glacier or it gets real warm the glacier melts and the river goes up real quick. If it rains alot in the valley the river raises slowly. If It only rains a little or it is cool and cloudy the river drains just as fast as it goes up. I have set in the river with the GPS unit in the boat and drifted as slow as 3 MPH and I have set in the same area of the river and drifted as fast as 8mph. That is an amazing change and it can happen in under 12 hours.
So anyhow, I - We walk to the boat once or twice a day to tie it shorter or push it off the mud and let rope out or just do nothing depending on the river. Reason number two to walk to the boat twice a day is to check and see if bears have decided to visit and tear things up. Not that we could do anything about it by then unless we catch them in the act, but if we go there often it tends to keep our scent fresh and the bears away.
The dogs are hiding from us along the side of the trail. They do this then jump out at us, or come out behind us and run up on us. It is a neat game.

Myra is walking off to take a picture of the flower you see up close. Look at the height of the flowers compared to her. NO SHE is NOT that short.

The brown strip is the trail that we cut in for the ATVs and us, the weeds in the middle just insist on growing even though we travel this trail multiple times a day.

There are other wild flowers that I failed to take pictures of while they were in bloom and we will be making Jam from one of them, we will show you pictures of it when the time comes.

The mess in the yard behind Myra is from Peeling the logs for the Pilings. We only have a few left to do.

It is a great day to be alive,

Thanks for sharing this with us,

Roger

The walk to the river/boat is nice. There is always something beautiful to see, even if it is just the way a tree twists and bends or the bees gather pollen from the wildflowers.

I am looking forward to getting the pilings done as then maybe it will seem like things are moving a little quicker. At least there will be "visible" progress i.e. building the back porch, putting in the door to that porch. I am ready to get things "organized" LOL. At least somewhat.

Guess that's about it for me today so Take care and we will do the same.

Blessings, Myra