The view from the outhouse
Friday May 7
Hello from Silty Slough. We are continuing the transition from wintertime stuff to summertime stuff. I’ll get right to the daily blow by blow and I don’t mean like Kamala.
Tuesday April 27
Enough snow has melted so it is time to put the snow machines away and break out the 4 wheelers. I pulled the batteries out at the end of last summer and kept them inside for the winter. We have been charging them up during the day using some of the excess solar power. Now it is time to load them and the air compressor into the tub sled for the last snow machine trip of the winter. The person that designed the terminals on the 4 wheeler batteries needs to be taken out and horse whipped. It shouldn’t be that hard. Just ship a longer screw that will reach the little nut inside the battery post. The batteries are located in the very easiest place to get to anyway. I was not in a good mood by the time I had the batteries in the 3 machines. Air up a couple tires. All 3 started up and we are ready to ride. There is some slushy deep snow to go through on the trail back to the cabin and the ride is a little squirrely. Kari is following with Teddy riding shotgun. Cooper doesn’t ride. I took the second snow machine back and swapped it for the last 4 wheeler to come back to our cabin.
Wednesday 28
Kari thinks we should do something meaningful today. The least stressful thing I could think of was adjusting the door on the root cellar so the it could be opened without a pry bar. It went better than most projects. Take the screws out of the lock side and use a sawzall to cut the expanding foam out of the gap between the frame and the opening in the wall. Screws back in. Door opens easy now. I’ll get some non expanding foam to seal the small gap the next time I go to Lowe’s. That’s not enough work for one day so we decided to take the 275 gallon water tanks that we filled from the spring for our water supply out of the root cellar, now that we have a well. They are way bigger than the door opening so I cut both of them in half with a sawzall. One was still full of water so we had to pump it out first. The sawing went easier than expected and soon we had the 4 pieces moved outside. These will make good raised beds for Kari’s garden.
We haven’t eaten much of the salmon we caught at the fish wheel last year so we need to get with it. Kari made salmon patties with red salmon and a Cajun remoulade sauce to go with them. She hit this one out of the park. I thought I was eating crab cakes at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.
The river is looking very thin it won’t be long now before the ice starts moving. I hope it doesn’t start in the middle of the night and we miss it.
Thursday 29
This morning it was slightly below freezing and warmed up to a high of 47. It was overcast for the first time in several weeks and spitting a little rain. It’s a good day to do laundry since we will need to run the generator anyway to power the electric clothes dryer. 3 loads and that is done. I warmed up a salmon patty and ate it on a bun for lunch. Batteries are all charged up so life is good.
The ice started to break up and move a bit on the main river a little after 5 pm. Then after a while someone hit the pause button and everything stopped. I just know it is going to happen while I’m sleeping.
Friday 30
When I went outside this morning the river was still jammed with ice, nothing moving. Good, we didn’t miss the breakup. Shortly after noon I went out on the deck and the river was on the move. Grab the camera, get a FB post on Friends of the Yentna. This is exciting. Friends you have to understand who you are dealing with here. We have been sitting around watching snow melt for the past few weeks. We can now see something happening that isn’t in slow motion. FB post are alive..moving here…stopped there….river rising…river falling…the creek is running the opposite way. This breakup is way more important to us than the Bill and Melinda Gates breakup. This means we will be able to travel again, soon we can get to the post office, the mosquitoes and bears will be waking up, and we can once again begin to get ready for winter.
Saturday 1
The ice chunks continued to flow in the main river and the huge piles of ice on the island and riverbanks are melting away in the sun. The river is rising and falling like a yo-yo as the ice jambs up and let’s go up and go up and down the river. Reports are that the Susitna River and Deshka Landing are still blocked with ice. Where does it all go? Amazing the power of Mother Nature moving millions of tons of ice in a short time. The Yentna River flows into the Susitna about 40 miles downstream from us and then out into the salty inlet water just Northeast of Anchorage airport. I don’t recall how far the ice makes it into the inlet from my days of flying over that area in the 747. Our friend and neighbor Steve arrived this morning from Seattle. He is going to get his boat ready while he waits on the river to open up. Steve is our chariot out of here so we can get the Wine Down out of the hangar at Wolf Lake and get on the river. Tom Lord is coming on the 21st to drive the pilings for the addition to the asylum and we need some supplies.
Sunday 2
The sunny days are doing a number on the snow piles around the yard. Cooper is going out and just laying in what’s left. Teddy is content laying inside on my bed. I wonder if they know the snow is going away and it will be back in a few months. The yard is continuing to dry out. Our wood chipped path to the outhouse is firm and dry. What more could you ask for? We found a few more steaks when we cleaned the freezer last week so tonight is steak night with a side of homemade mac and cheese. Dessert is strawberry shortcake with the last of the berries from the patch. Kari baked the cake at the prescribed temperature and time, checked it with a toothpick like she always does, when she flipped it on the rack to cool the uncooked portion of the batter ran out of the bunt pan and through the rack into the pan below. Don’t know what happened, the flour must have still been frozen from the winter or it thawed and then she unthawed it. Kari was a little upset, the boys and I were heartbroken, and the cats didn’t care because the don’t eat cake anyway. What do we do now? Dump that batter back in the pan with the rest of the partially baked cake and throw it back in the oven. It came out just fine, actually very good. Another cats ass trophy narrowly averted.
Monday 3
I’m having trouble accounting for my whereabouts today. Actually I know where I was I just can’t remember what I did. I guess I’ll have to take more pictures to jog my memory. That may not be so good though, I may not have even gotten dressed. I think I fired up the laptop and revised the piling layout for the porch we need over the newly added front door. That’s my story anyway.
Still watching the snow melt and the yard dry up. In Indiana I always had to water the yard. My how things have changed.
Tuesday 4
The snow from the roof on the north side of the cabin is in a huge pile in the crawl space I dug last fall for the addition. It is not in direct sunlight so it will be July before it all melts. We need it out of there to drive the pilings in two weeks. I’ll try to get the Kubota down the ramp I dug to get the rig down into the hole to see how firm the ground is. Not too bad. The actual hole has a gravel bottom so it is easy to maneuver once I’m down there. I hauled a few bucket loads of snow up the ramp and dumped them over the bank. It’s a little squishy but not too bad. Next bucket I can’t get up the ramp. I dumped the snow where I picked it up and back bladed the ramp a couple times. Maybe if I back up the ramp. No work. Multiple attempts and I’m dead in the water or mud in this case. I’ll wait until tomorrow morning when it has frozen back up. That’s enough fun for today. I waded up the ramp sinking about halfway up my boots and finally made it out of there. I went into the cabin and Kari let me know I had mud on the legs of my bib overalls. I’m just glad I had boots and overalls on. Normally I would be in underwear and slippers except now mosquito season is starting so I need clothes to help defend myself. Welcome to another shitty day in paradise.
Wednesday 5
I think today was the day there were rumblings on the river telegraph aka FB that a barge is on the way upriver. I know you are thinking Mississippi River barges but our river barges are boats that are bigger than the Wine Down. Some are 30, 40 maybe even 50 feet long. They haul everything that is big and heavy that is needed up the river. Dozers, trucks, barrels of fuel, building packages for cabins, and in the case of the addition to Spruce Manor windows and a bathtub. As soon as our pilings are in and the river level cooperates a barge will haul the rig out. I tried to get the tractor out of the hole but I slept in too late and the mud was too soft. We need to get it out to do other things. The chief engineer said we need to lay boards down to get through the mud. I guess someone with a sawmill should have a lot of slabs laying around so that’s what we did. It walked right up the ramp. The chief engineer also cooks. Today she slow roasted a corned beef brisket glazed with mustard, honey, and brown sugar. We have boiled it before with cabbage and potatoes. Tonight’s dinner was awsome along with homemade potato salad and the bread she bakes in a big cast iron pan. If she keeps cooking like this I will need to redesign the addition with wider doors.
Thursday 6
This winter we unloaded 3 stacks of lumber and metal roofing on top of the snow. We put ratchet straps around the stacks to hold them together when the snow melts on the sunny side first and wants to tip over. The snow is melting and some of the stacks have the material we need first on the bottom so we decided to restack the material onto terra firm-a. The first stack has drywall on top so we put the forks on the Kubota bucket and slid the 20 sheets off onto them to start a new stack. Then it is 3/4 plywood for the deck followed by 1 1/8 plywood for the subfloors. I’m thinking this is $125 a sheet now. I thought I was getting robbed when I bought it in January for $76. I would really like to thank all of you morons that voted for President by cheating Biden. None of you are saying anything because you are to stupid or to ashamed to know what you have done to this country. You never comment on how good things are now. Maybe you had to cancel your internet service so you could fill your car with gas. What has Joe and the Ho done to make you proud today? Don’t get me started.
Friday 7
More meaningful work today. We hauled some things we don’t need right now down to Al’s for storage to clear a way to drive the Kubota into the shop. Project is to haul 10 five hundred pound barrels of foam insulation outside since temperatures are remaining above freezing now. Kari is the operator and it goes pretty well with only a few screaming interchanges. Now we have our shower room and family room back again. Too tired for dinner tonight, chips and dip and shortcake. Steve called, the landing is open for residents and annual pass holders but not for day users because they want to protect their parking lot. I guess annual pass holders don’t park in the lot. Steve would just launch his boat and park off site like he always does but that is a no no until the magic day of May 15. So it looks like we can’t get back to town until after the 15th.
That’s about all the happenings for the last 10 days. Sorry watching snow melt was so boring.
Take care everyone. Stay safe and healthy.
Thank you Lord for watching over us.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!
You can see the whole view on siltyslough.wordpress.com
I posted a link on FB Friends Of The Yentna when the river broke and had 53 visits. Next day I had zero. Must have been interesting.
The View from the Outhouse 