Saturday November 22, 2025

The View from the Outhouse

Hello from Silty Slough.

I woke up for the second time about 10:45 Looked out the bedroom window and it is very foggy. Kari was already awake having her coffee. She said, “You just missed it”. At least one snow machine went by at 10:28. She couldn’t see it because they went through the slough. It sounded to her like they were headed downriver. Safe travels buddy. 25 degrees and foggy at 11 o’clock. River ice is about the same as yesterday.

It wasn’t long until the fog lifted at the slough. At 1:04 I heard Ken Lee, and Iron Dog Team 23 “River Dan’s Boys” go through the slough. I couldn’t get to the edge of the bluff quickly enough to see them and wave. Stay safe guys. I wonder how long it will be before mere mortals can safely make the trip.

I texted Adam at Skwentna to let us know when they were ready to head back down the river so that Kari and I could be out on the bluff for a photo op. I scrambled the drone but for some reason it did not want to cooperate. Kari could hear them coming, she would take stills, I would take a video. Soon they were coming into view. Film at 11. They are going to alert me the next practice run and I will hover the drone just above the river as they come at me. Practice, practice, practice.

Mayor Cooper and Teddy are working on a few scams… I mean ideas to generate some revenue to buy votes in the next election. One thing they came up with is the 2026 Silty Slough Ice Classic. They would have people guess the time that the ice stops moving in the river in front of Silty Slough. Not too sure how to handle the ticket sales, but for the prize the Mayor would donate a dollar for each entrant to a worthy cause such as the Alaska Turkey Bomb up to a certain amount. I know this doesn’t make any revenue for the till but that’s how big government works.

Another idea is to offer the opportunity to adopt a Yentna River iceberg. The crew will put a radio tracker on it and with Elon’s help you will be able to track your iceberg on its journey to the Cook Inlet with the magic of the world wide web. We will be offering options for solar panels and a motor with a rudder you control from your phone. A sail will be offered as another option for any of you save the earth activists. You will be able to rent or buy a solar blanket to keep your little buddy cool so that it can travel the farthest into the inlet and be king of the icebergs. It will be a bit expensive, but any profit will be donated to charity.

The last idea for the moment is a lottery, How long will Barbie remain in the Bush? For each guess The Mayor will donate $1 to his favorite charity (up to a set limit) The Alaska Turkey Bomb. Teddy is still working out the details; One guess per viewer, all guesses are final no changes, contest ends maybe June 30, if Barbie leaves before June 30 no more guesses will be accepted. If Barbie ends up not coming to the Bush at all The Mayor will donate a fixed sum.

Mayor Cooper just purchased the latest Sperry Univac computer from the 1970s to keep track of all the guesses and icebergs. I think he got it surplus from the post office or the FAA when they upgraded this year. An NGO left over from the Brandon administration funded this purchase along with a new snowmachine and a new boat. They wanted a little biplane to fly around Silty Slough to chase the eagles away, but they don’t want to take the 20-question multiple guess test to get certified to fly up here. In January I have to take a trip to Scranton, PA with a suitcase full of the left-over money to some guy named Joe.

Mayor Cooper and Teddy will have more specifics later. Void where prohibited by law.

Friday Kari and I did one of my least favorite cabin chores in the world, transferring diesel fuel from barrels into the 500-gallon tank. This is the last four barrels we have and gives us about 400 gal in the tank. That will run Silty Slough Power and Light for about 4 months, providing that Amazon doesn’t decide to locate a data center here at the slough. Mayor Cooper is looking at a nuclear reactor just in case. Maybe I should wait on the trip to PA.

Kari and I took inventory of our fuel supplies to get an idea of how much we need to haul starting about January. 6 barrels of gasoline (330 gal), 16 barrels of diesel fuel (880 gal), 6 100-pound cylinders of propane. I figure the comptroller of the currency at Silty Slough needs to come up with $5019 cash. This will be enough fuel to take us through until the first quarter of 2027. If we spend $8640 on groceries and gift cards at Fred Meyer on Fridays, we will get 34,000 fuel points that will get us a dollar a gallon off saving $1210 on fuel. It was a lot easier to get fuel points before we stopped drinking several years ago. Lowe’s gift cards for cabin building material also helped a lot. I’m glad we have “free” wood for most of our heat and “free” electricity part of the time on sunny days, otherwise this could run into some real money. I hope BobbyRay gets the details for the Silty Slough Gold and Gravel scam worked out soon. We are just waiting for regulatory approval.

It doesn’t matter much at my age if you like what I post. Although if you don’t I hope you have to pee 3 times tonight and only wake up twice

That’s about all that is happening here at the slough.

Everyone have a great day and stay safe.

Thank you, Lord, for watching over us and giving us enough.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue Skies!!!

Don