Saturday November 27, 2021

All previous views are at http://www.siltyslough.com

The view from the outhouse

Saturday November 27, 2021

Good morning from Silty Slough. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
It was 1 degree this morning, been cold for too long. A few days ago it was 13 below when we woke up. Speaking of woke, when are these wokes going to wake up?
Still no snow. I’ve included pictures of today and this same date last year. On Monday Roger and Corey rode their snow machines up the river to the slough and delivered the mail that was dropped off at Bentalit airstrip. We had some Baileys and then a late lunch. I must have had too many Baileys, because I agreed to attend a wood splitting party at Rogers the next day.

Tuesday Kari and I woke up early. She made a breakfast of Spam and toast to fuel me up for the day. Have you seen how much Spam costs now? Over $4.00 a can at Costco. My thanks to the handful of voters that actually voted for Brandon. Anyway I’ll circle back to that. I plugged my snowmachine in to warm it up and got all bundled up for the 2 mile trip. My machine started and I let it warm. It’s about 5 degrees now. Then I headed through the woods and down the ramp to the slough. There were a few scratches in the ice from Roger and Corey’s machines yesterday. I went down the smooth ice in the slough and out onto the river. The river has smooth areas that froze last but most of it is chunks of snow and ice. Pretty rough. My glasses are fogging up so I took them off and put them in my pocket. I could see a little bit of the route they took the day before, then I would loose it. I decided to get across the river to the north side and follow the smooth ice hugging the shore to Rogers ramp. I wish I had pictures but no time for that. Just trying to stay out of the pucker brush. Now it is a short ride to Rogers place. They have a lot less snow here than we do. We split wood for a few hours with a break for lunch. Sunset is a little after 4. I left the party at 4 so I’m not on the river in the dark. Same trip in reverse. The skis and track make a lot of noise on the rough ice even for a deaf guy. In no time I’m back in the slough and at the cabin. The boys were excited to see me. It was like I’d been gone for days instead of hours, but after all we have been together 24/7 for several months. Kari wasn’t quite so excited, at least she didn’t climb up on the snowmachine and lick my ears. I’m not super excited about riding on the river Thursday to go to the Thanksgiving gathering at Bentalit.

Kari baked most of the day Wednesday, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and a couple pumpkin rolls. I rested up from yesterday’s party and ate the extra pumpkin roll filling spread on graham crackers.

Thursday morning we got up and around, Kari made a green bean casserole. Soon we carefully packed all the food carefully for the trip over the rough river. We left the boys and the cats in charge of the asylum and headed over the river and through the woods. I wasn’t sure how the trail through the swamp was so we decided to take the back trail by Corey’s and then along side the airstrip to the lodge. The trail is more dirt than snow. I don’t know how we made it without overheating our machines.
The meal and visit was very enjoyable. Only a few people made it due to the trail conditions. 6 plus our wonderful hosts Tom and Patty Brion. All too soon it was time to leave to get back up the river before dark. We took the swamp trail this time, much better. Hopefully this is my last trip on the river until we get some snow.

Kari and I have been talking about an outdoor wood boiler to heat the cabin. Tom has one at the lodge and we talked about it after Thanksgiving dinner. Friday I called a manufacturer in Michigan that I have kind of settled on. I can’t get down there until late May or June to pick it up but want to lock in the price before steel continues to increase to near gold prices. He answered all my questions. He also said that steel prices have gone up 300 percent in the last year. Seems they are going up about the same rate as Joe and the Ho’s approval ratings are going down. Their ratings are lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut. By the way that’s Kamala on the bottom, on her back, giggling. I got a boiler locked in, I just need to get it up here and installed. Is there anybody in America that knows anything about the supply chain other than the Peter Puffer from South Bend. Brandon has circled himself with incompetence. The Secretary of Energy doesn’t even know how much oil we use a day. Who elected this administration anyway? So far I figure Brandon only got about 4 dozen actual votes, not 81 million. Not one of his supporters will tell me he is doing a good job. I’m waiting….

Since there is no snow and the temperature is forecast to be about 10 degrees I have talked Roger and Cory to come over and frame up a greenhouse. The base is in and the woman is after me to get it done. We will get started Monday or Tuesday. If I were down south and it was 10 degrees I wouldn’t even go outside. This cold weather wears on you. My brain must be freezing.

The other day Kari was on the phone when a black fox came strolling through the yard, the boys went nuts, someone invading their domicile, or someone new to play with. I thought they were going to rip the curtains off the door. I didn’t want to let them out. Not in the mood to play a game of fox and hounds with it cold outside and starting to get dark. I can see me out on the snowmachine looking for them for an hour or so. The next night they went out and chased down a shrew. I wouldn’t let them kill it. They have plenty of food, maybe the black fox is hungry.

I know I jump around a lot. Sorry. I guess I could try to be a real writer and make an outline and rough draft, etc. But I just say whatever comes into my mind at the moment, just like I would if we were talking. “Let’s go Brandon.”

Last night the generator failed to autostart. I think i may have figured it out. It is speaking to me to let me know that the fuel is getting low, not out, just low. It will start if I go out there, but it knows that I would rather fill the tank during the day than go out and visit with it in the middle of the night. Today Kari and I added 47 gallons to the 50 gallon tank. I keep records of fuel and maintenance in my phone. The last 24 days the generator ran twice a day for 2.5 hours each on average. It burns .404 gallons of diesel fuel an hour at about $4 a gallon without freight cost to get it out here. That’s $8 a day or $240 a month for electricity since the sun isn’t shining for free solar electric. Thanks for the high fuel prices Brandon.
As I’m writing this paragraph I received a call that came up on the ID as potential spam. I was just telling you how expensive Spam is. I figured they may just be giving some away. I usually get rid of those callers by asking them what color their underwear is or something to that order.
This one is from MEA, the electric company. Who says big brother is not watching. They want my opinion of electric rates, etc. When they found out I’m 30 or 40 miles from the nearest electric line they didn’t value my opinion at all. I think the reason why the Brandon approval ratings are as high as they are is they are polling the dead voters.

I fooled around with the infrared camera the other day. Some picts are posted.

See all the looters and shoplifting gangs in the cities. Mayor Cooper put out a shoot to kill order for any looters of the root cellar. So far no takers. It’s too cold to dig a hole in the ground now with the backhoe anyway.

That’s about enough for today. Still waiting on the Biden supporters to fess up.

From the Silty Slough, have a great day. Stay warm and healthy.

Thank you Lord for your many blessings.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

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