I received word that one of my fellow pilots passed away. Early the next morning Heaven turned on the lights to welcome him home. Rest in peace Cornbread.Earthquakes close by since midnight.We are the blue dot.
The View from the Outhouse
From Silty Slough, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!
I woke up about 6:30 this morning to take Cooper out. Nothing doing for the little bear, Teddy is a sleepyhead. I was catching up on the fan mail from yesterday’s post, both replies. Shortly after 8 o’clock an unforecast earthquake started shaking the asylum here at Silty Slough. I say unforecast because the dogs and cat give usually me a 1 to 2 second warning when they hear it coming before I do. Earthquakes are pretty common here, so it is usually no big deal to jiggle around a little bit. Our cabin is on 19-6″ diameter steel pilings driven about 10′ into the ground, so it doesn’t shake often. The design comes from wanting to be a civil engineer before I caught the flying sickness. The earth started to move at 8:11, Cooper and Oden just started looking at me. The initial jolt was pretty firm, then continued as a slow rolling rumble. Normally they don’t last that long. I didn’t time it, but it lasted at least 40 seconds. It was long enough that I was starting to get concerned that another big shake was on the way. The cabin was shaking more than I have seen it shake before. What I really noticed was the Christmas Tree shaking. It isn’t decorated yet, but I spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get all the lights working. I had my whole arsenal of testers and tools and MacGyver still couldn’t get them to work. This pre-lit tree is now pre-booked on the next ride out of here to the MatSu Landfill. Did the earth move for you too?
Back up to yesterday morning, the boiler didn’t light off and posted an error code. Kari called the boiler repairman. Luckily, he was in the area, so she got him out of bed to change a temperature sensor. The Silty Slough Plumbing, Heating, and Hardware store happened to have one in stock. Mam that is going to cost you a coffee cake and a pumpkin roll for all the trouble. She made 2 pumpkin rolls but insisted the wood rack be filled. Three loads up the stairs and stacked in the rack, we don’t even need a fire it’s hot in here.
It’s coming up on 4 o’clock, I’ve been helping Kari rattle pans all day. My biggest chore was watching the dough rise for the rolls, with a short break for a snowmachine ride to assess any earthquake damage. The only thing I found was a roll of paper towels that fell off the shelf in the commissary. Time to eat a good meal of ham, garlic butter sweet potato stacks, honey butter corn, fruit salad, and the rolls that I helped watch the dough rise.
Everyone have a very Happy Thanksgiving and stay safe.
Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings whether we recognize them or not.
The mountain is wearing a hat since it is cold today.Time for a wave. I’d be hanging on.South bound and down. Mayor Cooper is thinking speed trap.Mayor Cooper thinking up the next scheme.Teddy dreaming of the new biplane to chase the eagles.
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.
Here is a slide show that shows the daily changes in the river at Silty Slough. Frame #1 starts on October 23rd and runs through November 23. The ice stopped moving on November 15. Next year or even breakup this spring I will try to do better and get more uniform images.
Good morning, from Silty Slough. It’s 26 degrees at 9 am. The forecast is for a high of 33 this afternoon, but I don’t think it’s going to make it. The sun is just peeking under the overcast. Sunrise at 9:31 and sunset scheduled for 4:09, total daylight 6 hours and 37 minutes. We will continue to lose daylight for 31 more days. The river is showing a few more wet spots than yesterday. Sometimes in years past we were able to travel in the local neighborhood to get together with neighbors for Thanksgiving dinner. It doesn’t look like the river is going to co-operate this year.
That makes an annual event that happened last week really important this year, The Alaska Turkey Bomb. Years ago, just before Thanksgiving Kenney Hughes would drop turkeys to residents in this area. I believe he passed away and the residents did without turkey for Thanksgiving. About 3 years ago a lady from town that grew up out here in Skwentna resurrected the event. With the help of donations and volunteers it has expanded and covers more area now. Turkeys are dropped from airplanes to families that are out here and are unable to travel to town to get one for Thanksgiving. This year a nice burlap coffee bag was dropped that contained a turkey, candy, and coffee. I tried to place a link to a YouTube video for the story. https://youtu.be/k1YHGrHQwPU
Yesterday a neighbor showed up in a helicopter completely full of Amazon packages, fresh fruit, vegetables, a turkey, and a Starlink Mini to test out on the trails.
In one of the packages were a couple thermometers to monitor the woodstove. Since I added the Cadillac converter (catalytic…see previous post) there has been a learning curve on operating it with the most efficiency. There are a few good YouTube videos for our particular stove that I have been watching. One thing about YouTube is you have to be able to sort the flyshit from the pepper. Anyway, one thermometer monitors the top of the stove (also good when Kari is using the Alaskan crock pot) and the other monitors the stack temperature or EGT in airplane talk. When the catalytic converter lights off the stack temperature will run 1100-1200 degrees. I don’t think you want to go to Wal-Mart for your stove pipe. One good feature of the thermometers is that you can set a temperature for them to alarm in case it gets too high. Setting the parameters with instructions translated from Chinese is a college level course. I think I may have gotten a passing grade. The next time in town, I need to bring my infrared thermometer from the hangar out here. Not so much for the stove but to check the temperature of the ice and the flowing water in the river. May be interesting.
I would like to go fly the drone and check the river, but things may be more peaceful if I go out and pump 220 gallons of electricity into the diesel tank for the generator. Kari always helps and it is a nice enough day for it.
We let the fire go out this morning since it is fairly warm outside and we need to clean out the ashes. I guess the biggest reason is that Thor is in town for Thanksgiving, so that puts me on wood duty. Conserve, conserve, conserve.
Mayor Cooper had a birthday a couple days ago, 7 years old. He and Teddy are cooking up a new scam. The Silty Slough Ice Classic, and The Adopt a Yentna River Iceberg program. They are working on a waiver for the definition of iceberg. Google says it has to be 15 meters long so ours may not qualify. If you have access to Google you know it all.
That’s about all the happenings at the Slough. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
Thank you, Lord, for watching over us and for giving us enough.
Hello from Silty Slough. Last Tuesday and Wednesday there was a huge solar storm. On Tuesday evening a friend text and said to look outside. The Northern Lights were out but fairly dim. Through the phone camera they were much brighter and magnificent. Kari, Thor, and I spent he next two nights photographing and posting on the local FB group. These are the best I’ve seen in 30 years here.
Here is the photo dump. Enjoy!!
Tuesday Night
Wednesday Night
Thank you, Lord, for creating such magnificent beauty.
Good morning, morning, hello sunshine. Our resident eagle.The hangar hasn’t been this empty in 15 or 20 years. Jody delivered rafters for the fuel shed. They are unloaded and up on the bank. We will put them up when the rain stops.Adam coming into the landing in the skinny water. He had made a trip to Skwentna and stopped at Silty Slough on his way back to pick up the rear side by side wheels so that I could get the tires mounted. I will ride upriver with him in a few more days.The fuel shed framed up. Kari made a solo trip in the Sea Ark with the metal roofing for this side.
The View from the Outhouse
Hello from Silty Slough. It was about 30 degrees outside when I made it upstairs. Kari was already having her coffee and soaking up some heat from the woodstove.
When we bought the stove, they said it was a convertible. I didn’t think too much about it. I never owned a convertible before. When I was in town this fall, I went by Alaska Stove and Spa to get a couple spare glass panels for the door just in case someone gets wild with the poker. I inquired about the convertible option and ended up buying one for $300. That’s really not that much in a bankruptcy of this size. It laid around for a few months, a couple of weeks ago I decided to install our new Cadillac converter. I don’t want to say catalytic converter because they are hot items for thieves in town…no pun intended. I don’t understand why they can’t quickly solve this problem; the thieves have to sell them somewhere. Find those people buying them and lock them up, they are just as guilty as the thieves. Anyway, the Cadillac converter was simple to install. It really evens out the temperature, and the stove puts out more heat with longer burn times. The 13 plus full chords of wood that Kari and Thor have in the shed will last at least two winters with some left over for a third
My last view promised to continue accounting for past activities over the summer and fall. Here is the second installment. BTW I asked for suggestions for naming the new ballroom at the White House in the last post. Teddy came up with “The Michelle Obama Memorial Ball Room” What do you think?
In the Summer I decided to go to our 55th class reunion in Indiana,so I booked a ticket to Chicago, rented a car, and made hotel reservations. Everything set, I never book anything when I travel, just wing it, this is a first. Thor wanted to come along since he has never been anywhere except Alaska and Hawaii, so he talked me into it. A couple weeks before we were scheduled to leave I came down with a case of shingles, I’m not talking about a bundle of cedar shakes but a full-blown case of shingles. It was the weekend of course, Captain Kari hustled us into Palmer to the urgent care place and I got some medicine. It took several days for the pain to subside and a couple weeks for the sores to heal. I had gotten the vaccine 8-10 years ago, the single shot one that is only 51% effective. As soon as I get to town in January, I’m getting the two shot Shingrix vaccine. I wouldn’t wish shingles on anyone….except maybe a few liberal Trump hating Democrats.
Summer of 24 I traded for a boat, motor, and trailer. It sat around until this summer when Kari wanted Steve, Thor, and I to inspect it. We pulled the floorboards out and found a lot of bad welds and cracks in the tubing where it had been repaired. I took it to Greatland Welding and they said that I could save hundreds of dollars if I bought a die grinder and ground the bad welds out. After about $400 worth of die grinder and burs and a week’s time, Steve and Thor had the welds cleaned up. Now it is back at Great Land to be welded, along with a flat diamond plate aluminum floor, flotation pods, air ride seats, and a beefed-up transom. Should make it into a great boat to support the compound at Silty Slough. The boat trailer is another project.
Late this fall I got the wild idea to rent out most of our hangar. I called a friend, and he jumped at renting the space, one slight problem the space he wanted was occupied by treasures that I had been collecting and hauling up the Alcan over the past 25 or 30 years.
The river was dropping so Kari, Thor, and the boys headed out in the boat for Silty Slough. I stayed back and started selling my treasures out of the hangar and hauling things i really didn’t need, but had been keeping around for 20 years to the dump. Scrap lumber, old parts that I had replaced with new, you never know when I may need them, empty containers, pieces of wire….you know the drill. Hangar cleaned out.
We were assigned our permanent spot in the storage lot at Deshka Landing so I decided to clear it off and get Newman’s to haul in a couple loads of gravel. I took the hangar Kubota to the landing to level it out,
then decided to leave it there for the winter fuel hauling. I’m too old to move 55 gal full fuel barrels around, so as Tom Brion would say, “Trade oatmeal power for diesel power”
I made a final Costco run, found a couple rear tires that were take offs at AMDS for the side by side and had them mounted. 2 tires $50 each and $50 to mount both at Diversified Tire. The best deal I’ve had in a long time. They didn’t have any take offs to fit the front, so i think some agency in the government owes me 2 front tires. The very least they should subsidize the difference between $50 and the actual cost. What do you think?
On October 2nd I headed up the river with everything in the barge with Adam and Joe Gabrazak. “River Dan’s Boys” Iron Dog Team 23. Our neighbor Jody Peyton is also running on Team 34. Let’s support our Yentna River friends and cheer them on February 14th.
October 3rd we pulled the Sea Ark out of the river, maybe a bit early, but better early than late. Even with the strong river current, Captain Kari put it on the trailer the first try. Like the “Dreaded Side Wind” in aviation.
No pictures were taken, in case we are captured I wouldn’t want to have to eat my phone. I dont think the government would give me a new one. Now we are committed, here until it is possible to travel the winter trail, probably after Christmas.
I have some things to do outside and I don’t want to get fired from my job, so I better get going.
The two new sheds.I ripped all the fixtures out of the bathrooms to get inspiration to get back to “The View from the Outhouse”. Not really, just to finish painting and flooring.Great meal. Excuse the serving dishes. Don’t like to wash any more dishes than necessary. No paper plates this time. Fine dining.Bumper crop of potatoes. Ready to store. Should last until next year’s harvest.Thor slayed the fish.Kari at the fish wheel.Wild winter on the river. First time on wheels. Not typical at all.My ride to work sometimes. Pollux Helicopters.Thor milling lumber.Some people are tougher than others.
The View from the Outhouse
Hello from Silty Slough. I’ll bet some of you may be thinking that I passed on, taking the final flight West. I’m still around. I check the In Memoriam section of ALPA magazine every month to confirm. It has been so long since the last View, I scrolled back to review my previous post from the outhouse, just to keep the lies straight.
I finished up flying on December 14. It all started several years prior when I told Lars “Too bad I’m too old to fly the jet.”. Well guess what, now I am too old. 73 is old enough to hang it up. I had a great couple of years flying around North America, not sure where all we went but Lars and I sure saw a lot of stuff. My favorite places were Yellowknife, NWT and Iqaluit, NT..300 miles from Greenland. When I first started flying I had about $624 in my checkbook, now 55 years later I have $324 in my checkbook. What a wild ride for only 300 bucks. Now it is back to the real world at Silty Slough, no more commuting to Anchorage by helicopter or Beaver on floats.
Mayor Cooper, Teddy, and I have been laying low since Elon ginned up DOGE. Some of the grants we applied for, EV charging station for cars and snowmachines in the slough, funds for Silty Slough Power & Light, and the converting piss to electricity project were somewhat questionable. We are still sweating the student loans for the boys to go to K9 University. It seems to have quieted down somewhat and now with the government shut down I think it is safe to come out of hiding. BTW, is the government still shut down? I haven’t missed them. Anyway, what could they possibly do to a 73-year-old man and a couple dogs. On that note I read where the average life expectancy for men is like 75.6 and women is like 79, so now I’m going to identify as a woman. If DOGE comes after us I’m going to identify as a dog or a grizzly bear. Even ICE won’t screw with a grizzly.
It was quite a winter traveling on the river. We made the first trip Jan. 3. It was glare ice with no snow for most of the winter. The river was the flattest I’ve ever seen it. You could go as fast as your gonads would allow. We got everything hauled and made the last trip back to the cabin March 24. Then we hung out at the cabin during the river breakup working on various cabin projects to try and giter done. Try being the keyword. Always more projects than time or money.
Sometime in the spring we were in town and I went to the ER for lower abdominal pain. They did a scan and decided that I had a bladder infection and by the way do you know you have triple A. I figured ER doctors were paid fairly well and didn’t think they needed to be selling AAA or extended car warranties. I misheard, is that a word, like misread. Kari cleared it up, an AAA is an abdominal aortic aneurism, a bulge in my aorta down where it splits to go to each of my legs. I’m thinking this isn’t good, so I hung around in town and went to a couple of specialists. Another scan and they decide it isn’t big enough to repair, they don’t do it until it is 5 centimeters. But you don’t understand I live in a cabin 60 miles from the end of the road. Are you sure it is ok?….no problem…any restrictions on lifting heavy things?…NO, come back in 6 months and we will do another scan, but if you want your FAA medical back we will fix it right now. I’ve been milling logs, lifting heavy chunks of wood and everything else. So far no problem. Scan scheduled in Jan.
We decided to bring the Wine Down out for a trip since it only made one half a trip the summer before. Thor and I were in the Wine Down following Kari in the Sea Ark. About a mile into the journey I told Thor to bring some weight forward. We were in a slight right turn when he brought one tote up and I reached over to move it. I also pulled the wheel to the left at the same time. When I looked up we were heading directly toward the shore several boat lengths away at about 30 mph. Hard right with the wheel but I couldn’t save it. We are off in the pucker brush high and dry. A nice gentleman came by in a barge and gave us a tow back to the landing. I was very sore the next day with a couple big bruises on my leg. The worst thing hurt being my pride. Lesson learned, mind the store, pay attention, do not get distracted.
Between trips to town, Cory came to help us work on the cabin, mill some logs, and get a fuel/storage shed framed up. I bought metal roofing at a good deal for the woodshed we built previously. There was some left over, so I felt compelled to use it, thus the fuel shed. There was only half enough metal for the roof, so I had to buy more. Now I just have a little left over to start another shed. Looking for ideas…wood fired oven shed… maybe Mayor Cooper and Teddy could get a SBA loan to start Silty Slough Pizza.
I submitted the draft to the censor, and she reminded me about my tooth, so back up a bit I went to town late October to fly. Several, meaning up to 5, years ago Kari gave me one of the big Hershey’s kisses. One evening I decided I needed some chocolate and proceeded to take a bite out of it. Big mistake, I broke my upper right front tooth…on a candy kiss. The next morning I got in to the dentist he said it couldn’t be repaired, needed to come out. Ok, they could do it the next day. No problem I have dental insurance so the dentist gave me an estimate for the treatment plan. Like taking your wrecked car to a body shop for a damage estimate. Extraction, bone graft, implant, new tooth to screw into the post, and only $700 for a fake tooth to wear while all this is happening. Total estimate about $8000. Lets see if you had all 32 teeth done that could run into some money. My insurance has an annual $2000 maximum so that was quickly used up. Tooth extracted, a very poor fake tooth made. Looked like a Chicklet stuck inside a mouthguard like I wore playing high school football. You had to remove it to eat so I ended up wearing it only once. So I waited until June for my insurance and the bone graft to heal up and went to a specialist that drilled a hole in the bone and inserted a titanium post to screw the new tooth into. Now I’m waiting for my insurance to heal up again so I can get my new tooth in 2026. Bonus, I got to look like a Jack-O-Lantern for two Halloweens.
Back to business. I think it’s great that our President is adding a ballroom to the White House. Presidents have been remodeling it for decades on the taxpayers dime. Mayor Copper and Teddy also agree. Mayor Cooper is going to write the President and suggest he name the addition “The Monica Lewinski Memorial Ball Room”. Any other suggestions?
It’s time to give everyone a break and continue this saga at a later date. Kari cooked a great meal, red wine braised beef shanks on the wood stove, home grown mashed potatoes, green beans, and fresh baked sourdough French bread courtesy of “Hoochie Mamma” that resides in our refrigerator most of her life. I told Kari that I really liked the green beans.
Time for a nap after such a good meal. I’m sorry for such a long post but think of all the post you didn’t have to read the past 47 weeks.
Thank you Lord for watching over us and your many blessings!!
This fire bomber was parked next to us on the ramp at Dickinson, ND. That would be a fun ride.We took a road trip from Dickinson to Deadwood on our quest to efficiently waste time on a layover.This will never fit in the helicopter…. but it did along with me and a couple more coolers. The pilots say I have the record for packing the most stuff in a helicopter.Door to door service. Pollux Aviation.
The View from the Outhouse
Hello everyone, from Silty Slough.
I made it back to the Slough last Friday after about a month of flying, just in time for the start of “Digging through 6 inches of Carharts for 2 inches of pecker season”.
The river is freezing up but still has some open water. A few snowmachiners have gone by. I think I will wait a while longer until it freezes a bit more. We need some snow to cushion the ride. There was about 4” of snow when I pulled the groomer on the trail through the slough a couple days ago. I groomed a few rocks and decided to wait. Kari and Thor have the trails around the property packed and groomed like freeways. I can still drive the Kubota anywhere. This time last year when I got home from flying I think the snow was about knee deep or more. Temps have been good in the 0 to 20 range.
Since I was flying on November 5th I didn’t get to see the election results. Did Trump win? Been pretty quiet on FB, so I suspect he did. I’m so happy that Brandon and the 81 million that supposedly voted for him paid off my student loan for my lesbian literature degree just before the election. I sent the extra money I had left over to the Trump campaign.
…. Back to the slough. When I came out in the helicopter I only took one picture because I was busy taking everything in. This time the pilot landed right up by the cabin, talking about door to door service. Sam and the Pollux guys had the R66 filled to the brim with me, a trash pump, hoses, a turkey, and the rest of the groceries for Thanksgiving, along with repair parts to fix a few things at the cabin. The two Costco pumpkin pies and five dozen eggs made it all intact. Except for one piece of pie that came up missing. That could have happened in the truck on the way from Anchorage. Too bad I’m too old or I might try this helicopter flying stuff. I should be careful, the last time I said too bad I’m too old I ended up flying a business jet. Maybe I’ll ask Santa for a drone for Christmas and start another adventure.
It’s sunny 12 degrees and the wind is blowing about 5, so I guess I should get my Carharts on and find something that needs to be done outside. I don’t have to look far, just open the door and look in any direction.
From Silty Slough we wish everyone a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!!
Thank you Lord for everything you have blessed us with.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue Skies!!!
PS. Does anyone know of a position for someone with a PHD in lesbian literature? Just in case the judges block the new administration from kicking all the illegals off Social Security, before it goes bankrupt.
Hello from Silty Slough. Steve Butts and I installing an ADSB antenna and a Wi-Fi link to Steve’s cabin. That’s me on top of 5 stands of scaffolding. They say at 72 you are not supposed to go over 3 steps high on a ladder.Silty Slough compound.Illegal voter.Fox that tried to vote absentee. Nunavut has pretty license plates.Iqaluit is very expensive. Most everything is flown in.The city of Iqaluit, capitol of Nunavut Territory.
The View from the Outhouse
Hello friends, I looked back through my posts and realized that I hadn’t checked in for about a year. We are still kicking.
The cabin is still coming along. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The metal siding is up, the Trex is on the front porch, the new woodshed is stacked full of wood.
Last year I decided being retired is too much work so I took a part time job flying. It gets me out of the house and lets me see some places that I have only flown over at the airline. I’ve been to Valdez, Cordova, Sitka, King Salmon, and Kodiak in Alaska. Many trips to Boeing Field in Seattle. It was exciting to go to Yellowknife, NWT and Iqaluit, Nunavut Territory, ending up about 300 miles from Greenland. It’s a great job, beats working.
I had to work pretty hard doing cabin things for a few weeks to get a kitchen pass to escape on the helicopter to Wolf Lake. I’m going to be gone about a month so Kari and Thor are holding the fort down. The good news is when I fly back out in the helicopter I can bring fresh food for the holidays and presents. From the amount of stuff I’ve collected I may need two helicopters.
Life isn’t all skittles and beer. While in town I bit into a Hershey Kiss and broke a front tooth. It couldn’t be repaired and had to be pulled. Pretty good I got to be a jack o lantern for Halloween. I guess chocolate is bad for me after all.
The latest news is that we held the Silty Slough election yesterday to beat the rush. Mayor Cooper won once again. Teddy is making noise about term limits. Our population is 6. Kari, Thor, myself, Cooper, Teddy, and Oden the cat. Piper passed away earlier but was still somehow able to vote. We received about 5000 mail in ballots voting for Kamala but they were disqualified because the mail plane arrived too late. We had a wolf, a moose, several coyotes, two eagles, a fox, and a couple ravens come up from the southern border of the slough but were turned away since they didn’t have ID. So Mayor Cooper’s political machine once again won by a landslide. He is talking about appointing Kamala dog catcher but she may not be qualified. The garbage collector position will be open since we have a lot of garbage and deplorables residing here.
Watch for an announcement from Mayor Cooper. His website is going to be selling FEMA tee shirts with their motto “Too little, too late” on them.
It’s time to have a nap to be rested for the election results. I’m in Seattle, flying, better than being in Portland where they could burn the place down.
Vote early and often. Stay safe and stay out of Walmart.
Mayor Cooper with his booty to sniff.Look at the amazing color and the view of Mt. McKinley.Piles of snow block the view from the outhouse.
The View from the Outhouse
Good morning from Silty Slough. 27 degrees at 7 am when I went outside. About 2” of new snow. Sunrise is 10:20, we are gaining a couple of minutes a day.
Last Thursday Cory, Jess, and I headed down the trail to Deshka Landing. Jess has been here about two weeks and needs to get back to the uncivilized world. Cory was in the lead. I was next with a sled load of empty barrels, totes, and a dog kennel with Jess and Steve’s dog Artie in it. Artie is short for Artemus daughter of Zeus, she is the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, nature, childbirth, and the care of young children. A name befitting a black lab.
The run in was good, trail was fairly smooth. The light was flat in the middle of the trip and a few moguls appeared out of no where. I came off one sandbar headed down pretty steep to the river thinking “This is going to hurt.” Everything worked out for a really good trip. Cory gave us a ride to Wolf Lake since Jess and I came out to the cabin via helicopter.
Jess got her truck warming up while we broomed about 10” of snow off both the trucks. Then she and Artie headed home. I fired up the Kubota to snowblow the driveway. It is getting late and my big plans of shopping, buying fuel, and heading back to the landing to get the sled loaded for the trip back to the cabin tomorrow changed. Now it is Jersey Mike’s for a sub, Lowe’s for some bolts, and Carr’s for prescriptions and seltzer water. Last week I received a message from the bank that someone tried to charge $700+ dollars at Target and Best Buy on my card. I dismissed it as a scam. Guess it wasn’t, my debit card was declined at two stores and an ATM. I’ll fix it when I get back to the cabin.
Traffic is horrendous now. Wasn’t like that 28 years ago when we first got here. I’ve made a few observations about winter driving in Alaska. The posted speed limit is the minimum it takes to blast through the snow on the unplowed roads. It is best to draft off the vehicle in front of you to get through. You need to get right on their bumper and turn on all the brightest lights you have. This will blind you so you won’t be scared when the vehicle ahead of you has had enough and hits the brakes. If you come to an intersection and want to turn right on red after a stop. Don’t stop or you will be assessed a two stroke penalty and have to wait for traffic, let alone having the drivers behind you honking horns and flashing their lights. If you are driving a big lifted pickup with two snow machines on the tall rack in the bed all rules are suspended. You have the right to blast through red lights, pass on double yellow, and run little old ladies off the road just to get you to the trails quicker. There you rip up the groomed trails with your machine to make them miserable for civilized riders. I won’t get into the 80 mile per hour minimum speed limit for trucks pulling an enclosed snow machine trailer. If you happen to hit a moose you really need some momentum to knock it out of the road and not block traffic for the rest of the convoy to the trails. I’ll write about pickups with snow plows some other time.
I thought I woke up early enough Friday morning but time slipped away while I was packing up 16 eight packs of seltzer water the woman ordered, the mail, and a few other things in 3 coolers. I was planning on steak and eggs for breakfast but was running late so it is a hot dog and a root beer at Newmans in Willow for breakfast.
At the landing I loaded the coolers on the sled and filled the two 55 gallon barrels with gas, suited up and I’m ready to go. Cory and I had a good trip out, it was warm, the trail smooth, and the sun shining. When we got past Fish Lakes Creek and by Roger’s, Cory waved and split off for home. I have about a mile to Silty Slough. Kari has been out packing our trails, she and the dogs were happy to see me. I had stopped and picked up a few dog booties that had come off along the trail from the dog teams we passed. The boys like them and will add them to their arsenal of doggie toys. I’m hungry again. There is leftover prime rib for a sandwich on sourdough bread that Jess made. First we need to unload the sleds.
Saturday afternoon Kari and I went to the Phillips for a visit and to pick up Al’s Arctic Cat that Roger put a new track on. Then we went to Cory’s to pick up Dave Reed’s freight sled for our next trip to town. I managed to squeeze in a few minutes on the treadmill. Studying for the stress test the FAA requires for my medical exam in March.
The View from the Outhouse 