Myra wears a Gun

Yep, that is Myra wearing a gun while she is working on the trail. The black straps over her shoulders and the case on her front is her "body front" holster which holds her 44 magnum revolver with hardened point 255 grain bullets.(translation, Big hand gun, with big bullets).
Sorry, I did not realize how small her image would be on here. This is the ONLY picture I have of her working, and she was a long way away from me. Yes, I wear a gun too, but for a different reason. I wear mine just in case she gets mad at me. I am not sure why she ever would though. Lol
Below is the reason Myra wears her gun (I Think). These bears are right at the back of the blue tarp "work shop

Myra will tell you her version of the story but I got to the blog first so I gotta tell you mine.
We were working on raising the cabin AGAIN today and she was hauling things around and moving some dirt. She went by me on the atv heading toward the back of the property, I was jacking up the back corner of the cabin on the opposite side from the work shop. All of the sudden I hear Oh OH and the brakes of the atv. I jumped up and looked at her and she is pointing and saying Bear! (No camera at hand) This time it is at a back trail where we worked cutting down a tree yesterday. I looked where she pointed and a cub came out of the tall grass and headed away from us. That was not the first one she had seen at that spot, but the only one I seen. The bears were about 75 feet from us at the back of the "yard" we have cleared.
I did not see all of them at this point but we knew it was a Mother (sow) with cub. If any of you have read much about bears then you know a sow with cubs is about as unpredictable as a hormonal mother of three toddlers. Anything can happen at any time, and probably will.
The cub I saw ran into the brush in the area Myra said the other bear went that she saw. We watched and talked (and hollard at the bears) for about a minute and the brush just kept moving and cracking in the same area, they weren't leaving. I finally fired a shot high in the bush over them and we heard them run off. This was about 2:00 I am guessing.
We came in for supper about 5:00. We had the big generator running so we could use the microwave oven to heat soup for supper and charge the batteries some. We had eaten and decided we were going to relax for a few. I went out to shut off the generator. I rounded the front corner of the cabin toward the work shop and there is a cub standing right by the back corner of the work shop (40').

It did not see me. I turned around, back into the cabin and Myra and I started snapping pictures thru windows. This is Momma and 3 cubs, she has her head in the burning barrel. It appears that when we burned trash yesterday that not all things burned completely. I don't think this mattered though because when we got back from town and they had rifled through the burning barrel and there was not a thing but ash and char in it.

The cub really wants Bushes baked Beans. See its paw wrapped around the can.

Mom, get out of the can, It's My turn.

This one wondered off about 30' from Mom. The scarey thing is Never get between a sow and her cub. If we were to come around the corner of the cabin and get between them by accident?

She is standing up here because I was yelling at her from an upstairs window and she was looking for me, with no luck. She could not see me and wouldn't leave. I finally put my revolver out the window and fired right beside her (Not at her) and she took off, cubs close behind. We are planning more target practice tomorrow, and I think the 12 gauge shotgun will be close by all day, maybe the rifle too if we are in seperate areas. (that Hormonal Mother thing) More power!
We do not want to kill this bear. If we should have to do it because she won't leave us alone then we need to kill the cubs also. They are one year old(s) and will not survive on there own. They will just die a much slower death. This is the rules out here. Then we have to report to State Game control and do a bunch of paperwork and and and. Let's hope she learns to stay away.

A Good day to experience,

Thank you for letting us share with you, Sincerely, Roger

Gifts from God, Lessons for Me

I wrote this two nights ago. We did not have Internet for a while so I could not post. I wanted to write it while it was still very near to me, and hopefully the feelings come through.


Gifts from God! Blessings in disguise! Two lessons I hope I learned. Two near tragedies, both will turn out OK, one already has.
I received this email from a neighbor a couple of miles away, this morning. I had also received a couple of phone calls before this.


Missing anything? Andy says he retrieved your boat as it drifted past his place this AM.... I advised him to bring it over to our lake for safe keeping till the water goes down a bit. Looks like we had at least a 3 foot rise overnight.....
Tom 733-2716 or 863-5428 cell


As you may have guessed, our boat came loose while we slept and it headed down river, all by its self. This can easily turn very bad in a hurry if it gets caught on a tree along the edge of the river or goes into a gravel bar, the fast current can easily overturn it and sink it. Andy owns King Bear lodge across from Lake Creek about 6 miles downriver from us. They saw our boat drifting about 6:15am and called us as they headed out the door to go get it; we slept thru the phone call. Andy and his son got our boat and luckily I had left the key in it so they could start it. They don’t have a boat big enough to tow our boat in high water and they would have had to just tie it to shore somewhere. Anyhow, they got it and brought it up to Fish Lakes Creek, which we can drive to on our ATV’s, over at Bentallit Lodge, aka the air strip. Tom owns Bentallit and shot me the email you see above. We went down to the river at our landing to look things over, the rope that we tie onto was fine and the anchor point was good. The river was indeed, over 3' higher than when I tied the boat the previous evening. We went to check out the boat and the other rope that we use from the boat to the shore rope was good. Conclusion, I did not tie a good knot when I got back from fishing. It was raining like heck, I was in a hurry to show Myra I was the great provider and had caught my first Silver and I did not tie it right. The boat was un-touched, not even a scratch. This is our first gift from God. PS: We left the boat in the lake until this water level goes down some. There are many floating trees coming down the river and no sense in giving one of those a chance to catch on our boat. We received a second call about 2 hours later that another boat was floating down river and did we know who might own that one. We didn't!

Gift number 2! Over the last week I have jacked the cabin up to with-in a few inches of the final desired height. Today I was taking it up that last few inches, nearing five feet high on the down hill side.




I had taken the picture above about noon, before I started lifting the cabin today. I had taken the cabin up the first lift and was half way through the final lift, it was going to be as high as it is going; when the supports let loose and the cabin fell. It went five feet west, two feet north and about five feet down. It crashed hard!

With all the rain we had yesterday the ground had softened and I was obviously not taking the right precautions with how high I had the cabin in the air. It is right now (as I type this) setting flat on the ground and debris, tilted about a foot down hill to the south (above picture). Here comes the gift part. Myra was outside, she had been moving dirt around getting started on the root cellar and using the dirt to level the trail to the boat. She had finished for the day and had just decided to watch me finish the last lift. The dogs were under the cabin while I was lifting it, as they usually were. I had lifted one corner a little and was walking to the other corner when I stopped to talk to Myra. Jeff came out from under the cabin toward us. We spoke for about 15 seconds, I don’t remember what about, and all of a sudden the cabin took off on its spill. We saw Hans run for the back of the cabin toward us, the cabin went forward and crashed. Hans had slid into one of the holes I had dug to get under the cabin when I first started the project. He slithered out from under and took off down the trail. It took us 3 or 4 minutes to get him to come back, but he did. No ONE hurt. The cats were shook up, mentally and physically, but OK.
The cabin was a mess inside with things thrown all over. Only one broken dish and it was one that was left here by the previous owners.

No windows broke, the door still opens and no holes in the floor where it crashed down on things. The little generator is under the cabin but I can see it and it looks like it may have survived, time will tell. I am typing this on Word and will have to cut and paste this into the blog (obviously have). We do not have satellite at the moment; Ya think the dish might have moved a little?
By the time you read this, I will have already leveled the cabin and begun to pick it up again. I won’t reset the dish until the cabin is level, just too much hassle. I will have found a new way to set the cabin temporarily, as I lift, so I don’t have to depend on the same system that just failed. I don’t think I want to do the same thing over again and expect a different result. I will do it different.
It was a day full of lessons, followed with blessings. The weather was gorgeous, the boat is un-hurt, the cabin will survive and no one got hurt! I have learned a few things today. The lessons may be tough to receive but I obviously needed them.
I am Grateful for many things today and I am glad to be able to share with you!
Thanks for being here with us. (and yes, I cried a little too) Roger

I need to add a few more notes, It's a day and a half later now: The cabin is on it's way back up. I have got some things out from under it and still can't get a couple of things. The little generator still runs but looks a little worse for wear. The gas tank is a little smaller now because it got crushed a little.

I have not been able to get a few things out yet. This is a tote and other things still under the cabin (below).

This is the new support system for the cabin going back up again, and the cabin on it's way back up; To stay this time, I hope and pray. This is a very long post, Thank You for taking the time to let me share. I truly am blessed to be here today.

Roger

Now that I am finally done shaking and can breathe again I just have to agree with Roger that we are truly blessed. What could have been a horrible tradegy wasn't. It has been a real rollercoaster ride the last couple of days emotionally and hopefully this particular ride is coming to an end soon. I am truly grateful and blessed to be typing this today. Blessings to all of you, Myra

Salmon for Dinner

We have been at the cabin since June 10th and I finally put a fishing pole together today and went fishing. It was raining very constant and sometimes very hard all day and about 58 degrees. There was a very thick fog laying right on the river and it was very difficult to see, but like any dummy, I went anyway. Sounds really bad but it is actually a very comfortable temperature. I wore jeans a shirt under the rain suit, no gloves, no jacket or sweater and was comfortable. The dogs went with me and got soaked, playing up on shore while I floated a creek. They are wiped out tonight.
I went to Bottle Creek about 3 miles up river from home. The fish were so thick in the creek you could walk across them. I accidentally snagged a couple I had to release, they were so thick. I casted a few different lures and finally found the right one, it caught all the fish. I caught a Steel head Trout, a Pink Salmon (aka Humpy) and a Silver Salmon (aka Coho). I only kept the Silver. I filleted the fish right on the bow of the boat, put it in a Ziploc and headed for home. We had about the freshest Salmon possible for supper. It was Awesome. We have no Tartar and that's OK, we did not need it. This fish was not fishy, it did not smell when I cooked it and the texture was great. We only had Ramon oriental noodles and canned corn to go with it, Kind of low on fancy side dishes around here. (Don't buy Ramon oriental noodles, yuck.) I did not weigh or measure the fish but I cut up and cooked one fillet and it was double the amount of fish we could eat. We have cold cooked fish sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and another whole fillet for supper tomorrow night then cold fish for lunch on Friday, if we use the whole fish. That should be enough to hold me over for a few days before I need more fish.

I took a picture but my camera got wet and quit working. I can't even get the picture off of the card right now. Anyhow, since there is no picture I will tell you it was WORLD CLASS Huge (about 30" & 15 lbs whole really I guess) it was a good catch. Now I have to go buy a freezer so we can keep some for winter. Problem with the freezer is our new inverter is not here so we would have to run the generator a lot to keep a freezer going. I really don't want to do that. Once we get the big inverter and I install the big batteries we can go 2 to 4 days on one charge of the batteries. Right now all we have is two deep cycle marine batteries and we have to charge them daily just for the satellite, computers and one light fixture (compact fluorescent) to be able to function. the inverters we currently have are not big enough to even turn on a freezer, it would have to be direct to the big generator. That would make fish saving very expensive in a hurry.

Anyhow, I WENT FISHING today, HURRAY! It was too wet to plow and I can't dance, so fishing seemed like a good alternative to crawling around in the mud to jack up the cabin. It was nice to take a real break from the work and running and just fish. Myra encouraged me to go when I mentioned it (Thank You). I am not sure what she did all day and didn't even ask. I see a little work and sorting done but I think she mainly sat around watching soap operas and eating Bon Bons'. We don't get TV and I am not sure what a Bon Bon is but she tells me this is her favorite past time.

No work got done today, (by me)

Thanks for being here with us,

Roger

Still wet, and whooped! Fishing is HARD WORK!

Myra here. Just a note that I haven't seen a soap opera since way before we left Ohio and I'm not sure either exactly what a Bon Bon is. (I am sure someone out there will tell us LOL). I did reorganize stuff in the kitchen again to try and figure out what we need to get to go with what we have. Trying to stock up for freeze up as it can be any where from 3-6 weeks that you cannot go ANYWHERE unless you want to pay for a plane to come. And that is not cheap! Anyway hopefully our inverter will come tomorrow and we can get the bigger batteries set up and go get the freezer. (I am hoping we can bring the fridge out too). That would really expand our choices of foods! Right now we keep minimal refrigerated stuff as it has to go into a hole in the ground that Roger dug and put a tote in. That is then covered with Styrofoam (3Layers) and a piece of wood. Kind of a hassle to use but at least we can keep a few things like some cheese and eggs and leftovers now and then. It is time for more! At least I think so. Oh well. Time for popcorn and a good book. Blessings to all, Myra

Rasberries for desert

Myra went berry picking today. We discovered the bears know when they are ripe also. There were about half the berries today that we seen the other day. Anyhow, she picked plenty of rasberries for a fresh fruit dessert and they were good. It does not get any more organic than growing wild out here. We went together after she picked rasberries and we picked a few cups of watermelon berries. It might have been more than a few cups but we kept eating them as we went. They are a neat berry. They grow underneath the leaf of the plant and are kind of hard to see unless you see the plant from a distance. The berry its' self is shaped like a watermelon only about 1/2" to 3/4" long and when ripe it is the color of a purple grape. It does taste like watermelon and even has little white seeds. We took a nice approx. one mile walk while doing this and had a great time out with the dogs.

We also went to the post office today. This was the first time in 5 weeks that we have gone there. Since it is a twenty mile round trip by river to get the mail and we don't get any bills (or checks) that need paid there is no reason to go real often (electronic banking is wonderful). I was hoping our new power inverter would be there so we could hook up our new really big batteries but no luck. The Postmaster (80 year old Joe) said we have only recieved about half the scheduled planes of mail the last couple of months because of the very irratic weather conditions.

The rest of the story about Joe the Postmaster. He has been in the bush since he was 18 and he is now 80. He still crosses the river twice a week every week (when the plane comes in) to get the mail. He even crosses during Ice Up and Ice Out and nobody does that (except him). He told us today that he and his wife have bought a place in Anchorage and he is trying to retire but no one wants his job. I ask him what it paid and he said A Whole LOT for him since he has been with the postal service for 62 years. Can you imagine! The post office is pretty cool, we should take pictures. It is a log building, Fuel Oil stove heat in the lobby, a swing down window between the lobby and his area (you can see it all) and dogs, smoking and guns are all welcome. His dog (a bassett hound) is with him all the time and we have taken ours with us (of course) and into the post office both times. Today we sent things out via fixed rate boxes, He was out of labels so we wrote on the boxes and got no receipts. We told him our change of address did not go thru according to North Baltimore postoffice (we did a change of address form with him 5 weeks ago). Today he is out of Change of Address forms, so he has me do it on a registered mail form and says he will send it thru. Think that'll work? Joe can't hear well anymore, he says it is because of so much shooting at a younger age, then he tells us about nearly killing his first wifes boyfriend (caught them in bed) after a short hunting trip. I guess he was a hunting and fishing guide for about 50 years when he took time off from the postal service. Anyhow, doing business with Old Joe is a trip. Oh Yea, he handed us a rate form for the fixed rate boxes and we bought a stamp. He had us figure our own bill and tell him how much change we needed. Pretty cool hey. They don't do that in Ohio.

The cabin went up a couple of more inches today, only a few more to go. It is getting pretty shakey on the temporary pilings being this high. I am ready to get it done and get it one a solid set of perminent pilings. I have a lot of other stuff I would rather do and it does not involve climbing in holes and under the cabin.

This is a picture of somebody getting a big delivery bill. I could not make out what it is being delivered but when it takes a helicopter and it is about the same size as the chopper I think it's going to be expensive.

I think we will stick with boats and snowmachines.

Thanks for sharing our adventure,

Talk to you soon,

Roger

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

It's August Already!

Holy Guacamole! It's AUGUST already! Winter will be here soon!

We are listening to the Nascar race at the moment thanks to Mandy finding us an online sight for listening. This is going to be fairly short and sweet at the moment. Mainly some pics of the pup that some of you asked for. He is 3 months old, weighs 30# and has huge paws and joints. He likes to grab Jeff's collar and pull him around by it. In fact we had to get Jeff a new collar this last trip into town since Hans had shredded the old one! And had figured out how to unbuckle it. Anyway here are some pics of Hans.

Smile pretty!

Well it is now Monday. I got sidetracked with other stuff yesterday and forgot to post this. The pup is an Alaskan Husky mix. His mom lives at Yentna Station Roadhouse which is the first check point of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. She was in heat during the race this past March and we all can figure that one out. We jokingly say that one of Lance Mackeys dogs is his daddy, but have no clue truthfully. He is a lot of fun and keeps us laughing that is for sure. Oh well time to go and get some stuff done. Love and Blessings, Myra

We have a Mobile Home

Most of you know by now I have been trying to get the cabin picked up off the ground via jacking it up. I need to put new pilings under it and get it higher up because of snow levels. You probably also know that I kind of dropped the cabin once as it fell off the pilings when I first started to lift it. Myra was inside and it made quite a rucus. Well, every time the weather gets nice enough to crawl around under the cabin and in the holes I had to dig I work on jacking it up. Today was a nice day so another lift, right? What I haven't told you is that for every inch the cabin goes up it also keeps going sideways to the south about an inch. The cabin is now about two feet furthur south than it used to be and I have no idea why it keeps going that direction. I use three jacks a level and good support blocks to jack it up. I jack it straight up, one end at a time and It just keeps going south! Hummm. It moved so far today I had to figure out how to re-aim the internet satilite dish because we lost satilite communication. I am baffled!
On a MUCH brighter note, Myra found a really nice Red Rasberry patch last night and some of them are ripe enough to eat. We are going to eat some, jam some and freeze some I hope. We also have Watermelon Berrys getting ripe and Cranberries and Current Berries coming in very heavy. It is no wonder the Bear scat is full of berries, I hope to mimic them (I think).
It was a balmy 64 degrees today and mostly sunny. On days like this we work in the lightest clothes possible for the job and mosquitoe protection will allow. We sweated our behinds off today. Myra did get the wood preservitive on all the piling logs today while I was moving supports around to keep up with the mobile home, then we lifted it another couple of inches today.
Myra made barbeque boneless ribs on the charcoal grill and potatoes and pork & beans for supper mmmm.
Yesterday I worked on the boat most of the day. It runs real good since the service work but since we spend so much time in it, it needed a few creature comfort changes. I moved the seats to a more comfortable position for us (the were set for a giant) and moved the battery to allow more space for the dogs (they go with us everywhere) and I cut a hole in the dash and built in a glove box for Myra's ???? She ask for it, she got it. Also took out some un-neccessary decoritive wood pieces to increase our hauling capacity and just cleaned it up in general. It is strange to realize that this is our primary mode of transportation for 5 to 6 months a year. We haul on average over 1500# of stuff every time we come up river. This last trip for example - 4 batteries @ 113# ea. = 450#, 104 gallons of gas @7.2 pounds per gallon = 749# Atv part 30#, Oil Furnace 60#, Water Heater 50# Installation parts 50# Laundry & soaps etc"lots" 50#, groceries and supplies 155# 3 totes of stuff out of our trailer (we are still not done moving) 150# not to mention all the little stuff, Total about 1744# Then add Me Myra and the dogs. We are considering getting a kicker motor to add to the boat so we can travel a little faster up river. The boat handles the wieght fine but the motor could use some more ponies to help the get up and go.
I have learned a lesson from this, We could have got a different boat, about identical but it had a 225hp motor and I decided against it. I told myra, once we are done moving we won't need that big of motor. What I did not realize is that we will NEVER be done hauling things up the river. This is where we live and stuff doesn't just magically show up here. Live and Learn!
Snowmachines towing freight sleds in the winter will take the place of the boat, that should be interesting. The snow trails aren't nearly as smooth as the water! Wonder what we will do with the dogs then? Just thought of that, hum.
Oh Well, Talk to you later,
Thanks for being here,