The view from the outhouse
Saturday November 13
Hello friends from Silty Slough, Alaska. As I sit here at the asylum on the bluff high above the Yentna River I finally have time to think of something to write about. It is warm inside the cabin and the electricity is on. Not a good time for “free” solar electricity with the sun so low on the horizon. We made .3 Kwh and used about 7 Kwh yesterday. That was with 6 of the 8 solar panels with snow on them. Kari and I coated them with RainX this fall and it seems to help. I noticed a few more have shed since the sun is out. The generator runs once in the morning and again in the evening.
It was a bit warmer than the 1 degree forecast for this morning. 11 degrees at 8am when I took the boys outside. The sun will rise at 10:14 and travel a shallow arc in the trees. Then it will slip over the horizon at 5:25. 7 hours and 11 minutes of daylight loosing I think about 3 minutes a day until December 21. There is more ice in the river this morning.
Mayor Cooper and Teddy have come up with a plan to help take some slack out of the supply chain. Up here we have a few more links than they have in the lower 48. Anyway they think the pride of Indiana Mayor Pete could use some help. Talking about an incompetent piece of work. The country is best off when he is home letting his baby feed on his fake boobs. Anyway back to the plan. I have been surveying and drawing plans to build a port for container ships right her in Silty Slough. This is the perfect government boondoggle. It will fit right in and help with the infrastructure spending bill. Cooper figures that we may as well get our share from the ignorant liberals. This is our most robust scheme to date. It doesn’t matter that ships won’t be able to get to our port. No problem that there aren’t any roads here, no electricity, no fuel, no trucks, and no people to work. Brandon’s administration is so incompetent they will send us the money and we won’t have to build anything. I plan to do an environmental impact study for a few million bucks. I think it will show that we need a couple more outhouses so that if Joe comes up for a visit he won’t have to shit his pants again. He may even like to go bear hunting.
Mayor Pete says the reason for the supply chain problems are due to childcare issues. Teddy is going to get a grant to open a daycare center for a couple thousand kids of the port workers. Don’t worry we won’t have to build it. Mayor Pete is the poster boy or girl for the Peter Principle. He has been promoted to the height of his incompetence. Look at all of Brandon’s administration, what a collection of freaks. A regular circus menagerie. All of the wokes got rid of the circuses and sent the weirdest ones to the White House.
When I mentioned free electricity earlier it made me think of all the “free lumber” we have been using. Let me tell you something if you haven’t figured it out yet, nothing is free. That free stimulus money you got, you will pay it back 5-10 times over. Just go to the gas pump or grocery store. I figured out free lumber ain’t cheap either. There are tens of thousands of dead spruce trees in Alaska. We have several hundred around our property. Beautiful trees that are more than 100 years old all dead from the spruce bark beetle. To get this free lumber you need tools, chain saws, spare chains and parts, a tractor to get the logs to the mill and haul the milled lumber, spare parts for the tractor and mill, a sawmill, and a 4 wheeler or two to ride around and scout out the best trees. Since I’m almost 70 I can’t do everything by myself so I need to hire help. Labor to find the trees, fall the trees, limb them out, cut them into logs, drag them to the mill, saw them into lumber, haul the lumber to the cabin, stack and sticker it to dry, and tarp the stacks to keep them dry.
I’m not complaining, there are benefits, we don’t have to freight the lumber 60 miles on the river, it got trees down that might fall on us or the boys, it helped eliminate some of the forest fire hazard, and we will end up with a beautiful post and beam structure. We most likely would not be building what we are if not for the spruce bark beetle.
Kari and I have been laying low since it has gotten colder. We try to do a project every afternoon when it warms up. One of the things we did was re arrange the garage so that we could cut a door through to the addition and run a couple electric circuits to the lower level. We move some lumber up on the deck and moved the rest of the windows and door for the front wall inside.
We put osb up temporarily on the cabin ceiling where we prematurely removed the knotty pine so we could tie the addition in. Makes it warm again. Still no words from the Brandon supporters. I guess they are copying his modus operandi hiding out in their basements.
Here is a brief day by day. If I miss some days it is probably that I screwed something up and don’t want to come clean about it. Big gap between Nov 4 and 10. Lot of alcohol missing from the storeroom. I remember now. We were celebrating the shellacking the Democrats got in Virginia and across the country.
Wednesday October 27
We saw the first ice in the river today. 30 degrees outside. Kari and I milled up some 1” slabs into free lumber and hauled it to the cabin.
Thursday October 28
There is more ice in the river. It snowed less than 1” overnight. Today we milled some beams that were cut off into 1” boards and stacked them on the deck for interior paneling.
Friday October 29
1” of snow today
Saturday October 30
28 degrees. 8 inches of snow during the night. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For the benefit of all you wokes let me be the first to tell you “Merry Christmas”
Sunday October 31
39 degrees rain windy at 430 when the generator failed to autostart and I had to go out in my underwear to get it going. I know I don’t have to go out in my underwear but it is that time of year I need to toughen up.
Monday November 1
Rain
Tuesday November 2
Rain again. It is not looking a lot like Christmas anymore
Wednesday November 3
34 degrees today. River is up with very little ice. False alarm on freeze up
Did one of my least favorite cabin chores, filled the generator tank. I’ll like it less next winter. I bought this fuel under the Trump administration. I’ll have pay through the nose to replace it with fuel from the Brandon administration. Thank you morons that voted for him.
Thursday November 4
I think it rained again, very depressing
Wednesday November 10
Cooled off a bit. It was 1 degree at 830 am. There is a lot of ice in the river. Kari and I finished the door into the garage.
Thursday November 11
There is less ice in the river than yesterday.
Kari and I replaced the wiring we ripped out to install the door and ran 2 outlets to the addition
Friday November 12
12 degrees more river ice. We built a stoop for the new door. Changed the propane bottles because I don’t want to run out in the middle of the night and be changing bottles in my underwear and slippers.
It is sunny today. Kari has been helping me everyday in addition to housework, making Christmas presents, and cooking some good food. She works very hard, I think most women wouldn’t be able to carry her lunch bucket, as the saying goes.
We have been eating good. Moose and noodles, homemade pizza, ribs, homemade mac and cheese, pineapple upside down cake, and homemade frozen custard to name a few items. I don’t have pictures because I’m usually too hungry to take the time. Today she is making homemade bread, potato soup, vanilla ice cream, and brownies with raspberry sauce. I don’t know why I can’t loose any weight. Oh well it takes a lot of fuel to run a big engine.
We only have a few days left before Thanksgiving for the river to freeze so that we can ride to the neighbors for the big gathering. Otherwise I can see the Thanksgiving turkey floating away down the river. We don’t have one in the freezer so I guess we will have to smoke a beef brisket. Turkeys are easier to smoke since you can light the feathers.
In case we are out of touch between now and Thanksgiving, let us say.
From the inmates at Silty Slough we want to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Kari, Don, Mayor Cooper, Teddy, Piper and Oden the cats.
Thank you Lord for your many blessings even spruce bark beetles.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!
The View from the Outhouse 