The view from the outhouse
Sunday March 14
Good morning from Wolf Lake Alaska. My thermometer says -40 but it like the mainstream media it is just lying. The battery in the sensor has been dead most of the winter. I just don’t want to get up on a ladder to change it. Actually it is 15 degrees or so.
I haven’t seen one post or received a single comment about how President by cheating Biden is making your life better. Just saw gas is $3 a gallon in the area. Teddy is going to raise his price on the liberal pump at his Silty Slough gas station to $7 a gallon so he can keep the conservative pump at $2. You will need proof of cult membership to pump from the $2 hose. It’s ok Cooper and Teddy can spot the liberal Trump haters a mile away. All of the Biden supporters justify it in their small minds that demand is up. The other side of that equation is Biden policies are destroying the supply. Figure that out.
Friday 5
We cancelled the trip we planned to town today. It was going to be right back out tomorrow.
Now we need to go in on Tuesday.
Saturday 6
I completed my 69th lap around old Sol today. Thanks to all of you for the birthday wishes, I tried to thank each personally, sorry if I missed anyone. One from a Captain I flew with in olden days said “You people are gluttons for punishment.” Some days I have to agree, more and more as I get older. I’m blessed to have a wife like Kari that helps me with most of the things I attempt. She is really tough and a very hard worker. Most of you snowflakes couldn’t even carry her lunch bucket, men or women.
Sunday 7
Today is party day. The first Iditarod musher should be coming through about 7. We are going a couple miles downriver to a bonfire at the neighbors. Kari has been cooking most of the day, chicken wings and macaroni salad. There should be about 10 people there so she made enough for 30. With all the other food there tonight we won’t go hungry. We loaded everything on our snow machines shortly after 6 and locked the boys up. I’m sure that if we had taken them they would have joined the race. We were just in time to see the first team pass. Then every few minutes we would see the headlamp of the next musher coming around the bend in the river maybe a half mile away. I think they are traveling 8-10 miles an hour so in a few minutes they are coming by the party. “Good luck…..safe travels…who are you” Cheering them on. Some want to know how far to Skwentna, some don’t say anything, I’m sure they are passing the time listening to music. The dogs are quiet unless they have to stop. They just glide silently by with the steam from their breath and body heat making a haze above them. They are doing what they love to do. It is warm out unlike some of the past years. Last year we froze out and didn’t see a single musher pass until we were back up inside the cabin. Another year it was so cold that the mustard froze while we were roasting our hot dogs over the fire. Kari made me a birthday cake, white cake white frosting which happens to be the same kind Cooper and Teddy like for their birthday’s. They told me to let Kari know. It’s warm enough to take my hat off but Kari cut my hair Friday and said maybe I should wear it for a couple weeks. I even wear it to bed so I don’t scare the boys at night. In the past she has done a sterling job, I don’t know what happened. I know the boys didn’t line up for a haircut behind me. We had a great time visiting with our neighbors and about midnight we had to give up and head back to the cabin.
Monday 8
We are planning to head into town tomorrow so the sleds are mostly loaded. About noon Kari showed me the latest weather. Storm warning starting tonight through tomorrow night. It’s a sunny day today so we hurriedly loaded the last totes and the boys on Kari’s sled and headed out. I had 4 empty fuel barrels and a 100# propane bottle. The trail was good on the Yentna until we turned onto the Susitna at Scary Tree. Still not bad with my new shocks. My machine was a totally different ride. We passed lots of spots where the mushers had put straw down where they stopped the night before. They cook up their dogs hot food and check there feet. The dogs wear cloth booties to protect their feet. Usually we find them along the trail. They are a consumable item and the mushers will go through several thousand during the race. After 4 hours we were at the landing with Kari’s sled unloaded and on the road to Wasilla. We’ll leave the barrels on my sled for another day. Good run today.
Tuesday 9
The weather reports from along the trail were not good. Cold wind howling, trail drifted over. We made a good decision coming in yesterday. Weather is ok here so we went to the store to get some food for our stay. Nothing exciting today. Just worked more on the addition plans. Even the big dogs are staying home today.
Wednesday 10
I have an appointment in Palmer at 4:30 so I need to pick up a few things. Corned beef is on sale at Fred Meyer so picked up 3. 1 for St. Patty’s Day and a couple to freeze. I also filled the propane bottle while I was in town. We had planned to head back out tomorrow but the weather and trails are still bad. We will just sit tight.
Thursday 11
Lost in space. I can’t account for myself today. I must have been in the hangar loft drawing. I remember now, got the email about our 51st class reunion. I guess the big topic there will be choosing a new high school mascot since the Bluejay is the bully at the bird feeders. Any suggestions?
This afternoon I finally got the clock in the hangar set to the right time. You know fall back.
Friday 12
Roger texted that he would be at the landing and heading back to the cabin at 1pm. I’m thinking about going with a load of fuel, but I just can’t get it together in time. I spent the afternoon blowing 8” of snow off the driveway and the apron in front of the hangar. Tried to move the trailer load of metal roofing out of the driveway but it was stuck. Kari came out to give the truck and trailer a pull with the Kubota but we can’t move it. Unhook the truck put a chain around the tongue and slide it sideways about 6 feet with the Kubota. The pickup without any weight in it won’t pull a sick Kamala off a pee pot. If you know what I really mean. Hooked the truck back up and pulled it right out. You can’t leave things sit around up here in the frozen north, they either get covered up or frozen down or both. You have to keep moving to the top of the pile. Tomorrow we will head up to the landing and load the metal on our sleds.
Saturday 13
To the landing today after a detour to the Sunrise Cafe in Palmer. We can’t get the trailer in the lot where our sleds and machines are at the landing so we are going to park in the big lot and make the transfer. I made the loop around the subdivision to get back out. The road is plowed single lane and the snow is way higher than the top of the truck. Kari dropped me off on the way out and I got my machine. I only saw one of our sleds. Oh no, someone took the other one by mistake. I get hooked up and my sled is stuck. I rode back to the truck to get Kari and told her one sled was gone. We pulled in the lot and she asked if that was our other sled with the barrels on it over by the fuel pump? Duh, emergency cancelled. We hooked both machines to the stuck sled and it came right out with a little jerk. Then we got lined up with the last of the lumber in our pile. We dug it out from under the snow 6-2x6s and 16-2x12s and loaded it on the sled. Some of the 2×12 were stuck together so I was down crawling in the snow to get them apart. It’s ok it is still a nice day sunny and about 20 degrees. We hauled both sleds over by the trailer and rearranged the lumber to have some under the metal and set the rest off to put on top of the stacks. It took quite a while for Kari and I to get the metal moved from the trailer onto the sleds. 21 bundles of 6 pieces a foot wide and about 17 feet long. I’m thinking about 125 pounds each at least. They got heavier as the stack on the trailer went down and our hands got colder.
The sun is going down and so is the temperature about 5 now, finally we are loaded and strapped down. Sometime in all this the propane made it to our stall and the 4 barrels jumped into the pickup. This is the first time in a long time that I can pick up a 167 pound propane bottle from the tailgate and carry it to my sled. Usually I have to drag them. Maybe I’m getting stronger in my old age.
Now all that is left is to get the sleds into the lot by our stall and get them turned around headed out toward the driveway. Kari hooked to my sled again and yanked me around the turn. We went back and got the other sled and repeated the process. She and I rode double back over to the truck. We can’t leave it running while we are away, the boys know how to use the power windows to get out. They also know about power door locks so we keep a key on one of us. She warmed it up a minute or two and came to pick me up after I put my sled away. My fingers are really cold. 8:30 pm I’m glad this chore is done. Maybe we are gluttons for punishment.
Leaving the landing we can see that the good Lord has turned on the Northern Lights for us tonight. Makes it all worth it. 44 miles and we are back home, tired and sore. I have made this drive a hundred times or more and never checked the mileage. I just checked it on Google maps.
That’s my story for the past week or so, some of the facts may have been changed to protect the guilty. I guess that’s the norm here in America anymore.
Stay safe and healthy my friends.
Thank you Lord for your beautiful creation.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!
The View from the Outhouse 