The view from the outhouse.
Thursday March 4
Good morning from Silty Slough. 8 degrees at 9:30 this morning. Sunrise was at 7:52 and is scheduled at 6:38 showing itself for 10 hours and 46 minutes today. Before you know it the days are going to be longer than the nights. They tie on the 21st, guess that’s why they call it the equinox.
I’ll back up to Saturday the 27th to keep things in order. We planed to make the trip to the cabin today. I woke up and was checking FB when a post came up that the wind was 30 gusting to 50 out at Shell Lake about an hours ride on past our cabin. I turned Kari’s alarm off and started texting with Roger. It is a stay home again day. I downloaded an AutoCAD book and retreated to the loft in the hangar to continue to try to learn to draw. Later, Kari and I finished the choices for the bathroom fixtures. Well mostly Kari I have very little choice in the matter. I know we are not quite ready for plumbing but everything we can haul out here for the construction saves 25 cents a pound freight for barging it up here in the summer. We will have to barge the windows and doors because they won’t be ready before the river trail breaks up.
Sunday 28
We are going to give the trail and the weather another day or two to straighten up. Roger has made a couple trips to check on the cabin heat and the cats. I continued to to work on the drawings. We went to dinner for Kari’s friend Jess’s birthday at Evangelo’s in Wasilla.
I always think of Lemonjello or Orangello, the Jello brothers when we eat there.
Monday 1
I have a 10% off coupon at Lowe’s good to use one time so I have everything I can think of on the list. The visit was pretty painless, we just handed them the list and they rounded everything up. A few items had to be ordered and will be here in time to haul on our sleds. The dogs are ready to get back to the cabin. They have their ways to let us know.
Tuesday 2
Today is the day. Roger is on the way in to the landing and is there when we arrive. We got the machines warmed up and fueled. It is a nice day sunny maybe 20 degrees. We loaded the totes, propane, and dogs on Kari’s sled. My sled is already loaded with sheet rock and the last of the plywood. Roger said the ice road is great but the 14 miles from the landing to it is terrible. He has to take the Su to Scary Tree and then up the Yenta to mile 26 where he will head for Alexander Lake to deliver his freight today. We stayed on the river trail for 28 more miles until we were in the Silty Slough. The trail to Scary Tree was pretty rough. My new shock absorbers are at the Skwentna post office not doing much good for my back and shoulders. When we turned up the Yentna the trail was very good. The good light in the sunshine made for a very pleasant trip. The sleds pulled hard today. I racked up a couple more miles than the normal distance due to the track spinning slightly along the way. The ramp had some drifts so I dropped my sled on the river and made a trip or two to the cabin. The outside light at the outhouse is still on so that is a good sign. Tom Bodet must be here. I went back down and hooked on to Kari’s sled since it was lighter. I picked up as much speed as I could and headed up the ramp. At the top I really bogged down and just made it. I tried to accelerate as much as I could while making the 210 degree turn to head up the hill at Al’s. It is steep at the top and I was pretty slow. One more big pull by the sawmill and I’m on top of the ridge. It’s downhill to the cabin from here. I would have never made it with my heavier sled. We have two trees down on the north side of the cabin from the wind. Firewood for the Iditarod party bonfire down on the river. Meanwhile back in the slough I hook back up to my sled and hook Kari up in front of me with a short strap. Here we go. Give it hell Kari. Up the ramp in good shape around the turn in good shape with out pulling me over. The reason for the short strap. On up to the top of the ridge and we stop and get Kari unhooked. We have about 6” of new snow in the yard so I hooked up to the tub sled loaded with propane and rode around the yard and trails for half an hour to pack things down. The snow that I moved will freeze up overnight. Tomorrow I will groom the yard and trails and run the groomer to Skwentna and back to get the mail. The boys sure are excited to be back at their cabin.
Wednesday 3
I talked to Roger this morning. He wondered if I was going to groom the trail 5 miles up to Skwentna. He said he was going to go up and pack the snow down around the checkpoint and make a spot down on the river for the Iditarod workers tents. Sure I will help. We rode round and round in circles packing down the almost 2 feet of snow that was on top of all the other snow that has fallen this winter. It will freeze up and be firm enough to walk on and groom. I had a good time. Didn’t get stuck but close a couple times. Another beautiful sunny day. I headed back for the slough while Roger picked up the mail. I only groom at 10 mph so he should catch up with me. The boys were happy to see me when I got home. It was like I’d been gone a week or so. Maybe they just wanted a chewbie. Always working me.
Thursday 4
Almost caught up on the timeline. We are planning to go into town tomorrow and need to do some cabin chores before we go. Kari wanted to do the hardest thing first so we unloaded the sheet rock and plywood. That wasn’t so bad. One of my least favorite things to do is transfer fuel from the barrels to the generator tank or the overhead storage. I remember when we did it with a hand pump, now we have an electric one. We dug the barrels out at the outhouse and transferred 39 gallons into the generator tank. That should take us until the solar panels produce most of our electricity by the end of March. There are 6 barrels over by the big tanks. The three barrels of gas transfer pretty quick. I have room for one more barrel for the stash. We will get another load hauled before the trail breaks up. This will get us through until next December when we can haul again. There are two almost empty barrels buried in the snow and frozen to the ground. I put a strap around the first one and Kari backed her machine up to it and hooked it up. Give it hell Kari!! I expect the barrel to crush but it popped out like a loose tooth. She drug it over by the cabin to load on the sled. Repeat for barrel number two. One barrel of diesel is left. It is on top of the snow and in the way. We might as well move it over by the generator tank. Hook up th strap. Kari pulled it over and it slid nicely on the snow. She said she wanted to make a another lap around to get closer. Up the hill behind the root cellar and here comes Kari down the trail pretty fast with the barrel gaining on her and the dogs close behind. Made it, then the barrel slid around and was in the same place she started. We were laughing too hard for her to make another lap so we just slid it on the snow and stood it up. I groomed the yard and the area in front of the fuel tanks. Gives you a good feeling like planting flowers in the spring.
Roger texted and said to come over and we would change the shocks that just came in the mail on my machine. One shock was doing nothing, one was leaking and doing about half what it should be, a part was broken and missing, so I had virtually no front suspension. No wonder I feel beat to death after a hundred mile round trip to the landing on the bucking bronco. I can’t wait to find some big bumps to try but the trail is too smooth right now. Never thought I would say that. We celebrated the repair with a couple Baileys. I haven’t been drinking for a few weeks to see if that is what is causing the gout in my big toe. It is already hurting again today so I figure what the heck, may ease the pain. One more and it will be hard to keep my machine between the white lines on the trail. We got ready to leave and when I put my right boot on it really hurt. No more drinking. When I got outside in the light I figured out that I had my boots on the wrong feet. I switched them and it feels better now. I guess it is still no more drinking for different reasons to keep my toe from hurting.
That’s about all I have to report on life at the asylum for now.
Stay safe and healthy my friends.
Thank you Lord for watching over us!!
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!
The picture is the loft in the hangar wher I’m trying to learn AutoCAD.
The View from the Outhouse 