The view from the outhouse
Wednesday April 21
Good morning from Silty Slough. The boys let me sleep in until 7 this morning. It is 28 degrees and sunny and will be warming up to the high 50s like it has been doing for quite a few days now. 15:30 daylight today. I just read a post that in the last day or two we started a period of not getting totally dark, just twilight. This will continue until August 25 when the sun once again goes far enough below the horizon for it to be to be dark. We are making as much solar electric as we are using now and have been for a couple weeks. I’ll pick up the adventure on Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday April 4
We went to Northwoods Lodge for a get together with friends and neighbors and enjoyed a wonderful meal and a good visit with everyone. Roger and I made plans for our last trip to town on snow machines for the season.
Monday April 5
Roger and I headed to town in the afternoon. He is going to have his right knee worked on and will need a ride to and from the surgery. The trip on the river is painless. Roger has a tub sled and I have a freight sled with a tub sled hooked behind. All I have going in is some trash, an empty propane cylinder, and two empty fuel barrels. The plan is to head back out to the cabin as soon as Roger is up to it. He is optimistically thinking Friday or Saturday. We plan to pick up the stakes marking the river trail on our way home so he can reuse them next winter.
Tuesday April 6
When I sent my right hearing aid in for repair last trip they removed the custom molded earpiece, put it in a plastic bag, and handed it to me. Normally they keep it. A thought flashed through my mind… this is the last time I will ever see this. The good news is that the hearing aids are still under warranty for one more month.
Roger has some tests today so I’m heading into Costco to pick up my right hearing aid and drop off the left. Yes you all ready know it..the custom ear mould is no where to be found. I have looked everywhere, in all my pockets, in the dryer, in Roger’s truck, in all the places where I find my lost glasses, it is gone.
They were very busy at the hearing center and just traded me hearing aids and gave me a soft plastic dome to replace the missing earpiece. No time today to take a new impression to have a new one made. I’ll have to make an appointment. Thursday at 10, Roger should be ok to be left alone by then. They can mail everything to Skwentna when it arrives.
Wednesday April 7
Roger had to be at the surgery center at 8:15. I couldn’t stay there and wait so I headed to the Sunrise Grill in Palmer to kill some time with the hungry man’s breakfast. Then I went back home and worked on drawings for the steel gusset plates we need for the addition to the asylum. Shortly after noon the nurse called and said Roger was waking up. 20 minutes later I’m in the lobby, here comes Roger and the nurse, walking, no crutches, no cane, no wheelchair, nothing. I was figuring on picking him up in a wheelchair at the back loading dock. He just walked out front to the Yukon and got in a little slower than normal. We got back home and Roger took it easy while I went upstairs and worked on my drawings. Looks like the Friday or Saturday plan is out the window, he has a follow up appointment on Tuesday.
Thursday April 8
Tony from Builders Choice called first thing. Our windows and doors have arrived. I stopped by there on the way to Costco to get my earpiece ordered and measured the crate. 5 feet tall, 8 feet long, 30 inches wide. Now the diarrhea, no dilemma, do I haul it standing up, laying on its side, or wait and put it on the barge this summer? Top heavy standing up on a sled, not sure about hauling the glass laying flat hanging off the sides of the sled. I’m only betting about half of what I bet on the foam insulation trip to the cabin. The windows are all on one sled though so I won’t have anyone to blame it on if I screw up and roll it over. Let me think about it for a while.
Back to Anchorage and Costco to get my earpiece ordered. I sat down in the booth and the lady asked how old they were. Same as hearing aids almost 3 years. She makes a phone call to the place that makes them. Now they scan the impression and print the earpiece with a 3D printer. They keep the scans for 3 years. So happens they still have mine on file and will print one up. A needless trip to town. So while I’m there I pick up a heaping cart of supplies to take back to the cabin from Kari’s AnyList app. I added a couple things like ice cream, a 4 pound bag of miniature candy bars, and several other items that I felt like we needed to get through breakup. A few hundred schickles lighter and I’m on my way northbound on the Glenn Highway toward Wolf Lake. Roger is a little stiff today, the ice machine that circulates cold water around his knee is helping. We figured that some internal cooling may help so we got in the Yukon and went to Wasilla A&W for a root beer float. My toe is sore again so I figure some cooling will help it also. I’m not at liberty to say how many cooling trips we made until heading back up the river. We talked about a road trip to Sterling to visit our neighbor. He has a steel fabricating business and can make the gusset plates we need. Roger called him and we are heading down tomorrow for a visit and a tour. I have to get the drawings finished tonight to take along. These plates are a crucial part of the post and beam puzzle.
Friday April 9
Breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe and on the road to Sterling. It is a beautiful day for a drive in the sunshine. We headed down along the Turnigan Arm with a stop for Roger to walk a bit, then on into Turnigan Pass with a stop at the rest area for more exercise. On past Hope Turnoff and soon we are making the turn onto the Sterling Highway passing Cooper Landing and the Russian River Ferry. Now we are into the burn area from last years fires and soon we are at our turnoff to visit our cabin neighbors. They have a beautiful place. We went over the plates we need, took the tour, and had a nice visit. The plasma table that the plates will be cut on was impressive. I hope my drawings are correct. Soon they will be turned into steel.
We had a late lunch at a Mexican place in Soldotna. Very good. Don Jose’s. They also have a place in Homer and Anchorage. My hearing aid battery died so I went into Walgreens to get some, running silent, just to see if I could. I can hear a little bit and along with reading lips I can fill in some of the blanks. Problem is masks make lip reading difficult. Anyway I made it out with fresh batteries. I’m on one ear operation but this aid is tuned up fresh from repair and on the side Roger is sitting. Headed back north for home. Can’t remember if we made a detour for more internal cooling but probably so since we were close, meaning within 5 miles.
Saturday April 10
We need to make a dump run sometime before Wednesday our next target for returning home. Roger asked if there was anything to work on. Since we are going to the dump I would like to maybe throw some things away from my shop. These are real treasures. Since they are of no sentimental value to Roger I figure he can talk me through it. These are things that I may need in the future, pieces of wood and metal that I have cut off from other projects, the old wiper motor from the boat, a wireless WiFi router that doesn’t work, old truck parts that I have replaced, old parts from a boat I sold 5 years ago, you get the drill. Speaking of a 9.6 volt drill that I don’t have a battery for. I’ll wait until he goes to sleep and retrieve some of the best stuff and put it in my stash upstairs, with all my old cell phones, power supplies, chargers and hundreds of cords that one day I will need.
There was a bag from Duluth Trading from our last trip when Roger bought the shirt I wanted out from under me. You remember from a previous view. I’m thinking I should go through all the garbage and look for my earpiece. I looked at the Duluth bag and low and behold right on top of everything was a clear plastic bag with my earpiece in it. Now I will have two right ones and only one right ear. I guess if Bill Gates gets his way with these vaccinations and I grow another right ear I’ll have an earpiece for it.
Sunday April 11
Roger overdid it yesterday so we are going to have a day of rest. Our wonderful neighbors have been feeding us dinner almost every night since we came in. Roger wasn’t up to walking down there this evening, but that didn’t stop me from going. I wonder how long I can milk this? The food is gourmet off the charts. They always send a plate for him. Most of the time I stash it in the hangar and eat it later.
Monday April 12
Roger is limbered up today. He insisted on going with me to the dump. I am thinking he thought I may rent a mini storage for my treasures that he was throwing out. There was a tear in my eye as I pulled onto the scale to weigh out. I think the lady felt sorry for me and only charged for 160 pounds. I know we had at least 400. On to the Sunrise for breakfast. That’s the only sunrise I want to get up early enough to see right now. I must have waisted away most of the rest of the day. Not sure what Roger did.
Tuesday April 13
Roger has a couple appointments today so I hung out at the house and drew some more. I’m not sure why at 69 I’m trying to learn AutoCAD just to draw a cabin plan. Maybe I can get a job when I grow up and figure out what I want to be. Keeps me out of the bars but so does the gout.
Wednesday April 14
Roger has one appointment in the afternoon. Then we are going up by Talkeetna to look at a puppy. A and W is on the way so we swung in for some preventative medicine. I wouldn’t want him to be in any pain on the long drive. At Talkeetna Roger liked one of the pups and soon it was the three of us on the way home.
Sometime in all of this it has snowed 14” at the cabin, now it is very warm and the river is getting soft in the afternoon. It is supposed to get below freezing Thursday night so we are planning to head out early Friday morning while the river is still firm.
Thursday April 15
I took a long shot and called the hearing center just to be sure my hearing aid hadn’t come in. It had and they were waiting for the earpiece to come in before they called me. Roger, the pup, and I headed in to town again. I picked up my hearing aid and as if by magic the latest Costco coupons became effective today. Kari had updated AnyList because a lot of items we use had coupons. Roger and the pup waited in the truck while I shopped. We headed home planning our gala farewell dinner like you do on the last night on a cruise ship. Must have been good but I can’t remember what it was. The totes are all packed and all that is left is to put the cold food in a cooler in the morning.
Friday April 16
We are up early. Loaded everything in Rogers truck since I will be leaving mine at home this time. One last trip to the Sunrise for breakfast. We were too early for A and W. To the landing and we loaded everything on my freight sled. Lowe’s called to inform me our bathtub is ready for pickup. Too late, I’ll float it up behind the boat in June, any takers for an adventure?No fuel, windows, or propane this trip with the river conditions. It was below freezing overnight but warming up fast. Roger volunteered to pull the freight sled and I didn’t argue. We started picking up trail stakes right out of the landing. Quite a few had been run over and broken. A few were frozen in the ice. In the 16 miles to Scary Tree we picked up less than 60 stakes. Roger averages putting about 16 stakes per mile to mark the trail so there should have been about 250 stakes. It is a shame that so many are run over. After Scary Tree there were a few more stakes left. When we got to mile 22 or 23 the river was getting soft so we gave up recovering stakes and picked up the pace toward home. The river had some patches of overflow but nothing too long or too deep. Soon we were turning into Fish Lakes Creek to get off the river and take the back way to Rogers. All is well as we headed along the swamp runway. At the turnoff I ran off the left side of the trail just a little bit and started bogging down in the soft snow. I was able to get on the throttle to keep moving and ride it out. When I got back to the trail I went too far off to the right and was stuck. Roger had no place to turn around so he dropped his sled and backed up about 300 yards to yank me out. We went on to his place and unloaded his things off the sled and left the pup to play with his new brother. This morning leaving the Sunrise I called the pup Gridley. Roger thought I said Ripley and said I kind of like that. So the pup finally end up named Ripley. We headed for Silty Slough and I got stuck one last time on a tree that fell across the trail from Rogers back to the river. Soon we are at the asylum. Roger is ready to go home and get his leg up. Kari had the trails and yard packed, the deck shoveled off, and a good dinner of ribs, homemade bread, and a Caesar salad. I think she and the boys were happy to see me. I know I was happy to see them. We sat on the deck in the sun in our short sleeves, with snow all around, very comfortable. Reminds me of people in shorts at the ski lift. It’s good to be home.
That’s enough for now. I will pick up the final segment of this adventure in a few days when we make the transition from snow machines to 4-wheelers.
Thank you Lord for keeping us out of the river.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!!
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The View from the Outhouse 