Thursday October 27, 2022

More heat to go upstairs. Proves heat rises.

The View from the Outhouse

Hello from Silty Slough. I woke up at 6am to put more wood in the stove. Still haven’t resorted to using the propane boiler. 25 degrees outside this morning. Can’t see the river yet to check on the ice. It will be daylight in several more hours.

The cell still isn’t working. This is the longest I can remember it being out. Maybe the cell tower repair man is in Florida helping those people out. If so I understand and I’m fine with that. I’m beginning to think it is my phone. Ever so often a stray roaming signal pops up, but it is too weak to do anything. Must be from the Willow or Anchorage area towers. I know you must be tired of me whining about it. If you are, just give me a call.

An airplane flew over yesterday and made a couple circles. Some is checking on me. Probably the guy that has been calling about my extended car warranty. At least he could see that there are no roads and no cars here. Still no chicken sandwiches or root beer floats falling from the sky.

I have managed to get some meaningful work done other than the necessary cabin chores to keep the heat and lights on and meals on the table. Yesterday I adjusted the shims around the front door to get it just right. I have learned a few things in my 70 trips around the sun on this big ball. Some being how to use a highlighter and how to tear long computer printer outputs into even sheets when I was flying at the airline. Now laser printers have made it another one of aviations lost arts. Another thing I learned, I think by watching an episode of “This Old House” is how to hang a door. I take the time to get it square and plumb, and the margins adjusted so it closes and seals just right. I also adjust the seal on the threshold so no air passes under the door. So what happens, the first person through steps on the threshold. After a while with people walking on it all the time you can throw a cat through the crack under the door. A major propane leak and at todays prices I can see dollar bills blowing out under the door into the wind. Besides it is unsightly to have a threshold that looks like a swayback horse. People get it right, you step over the threshold, not on the threshold. Google it. Everyone should know this. You carry a new bride over the threshold, not on the threshold, don’t you? Light airplanes have placards on places that you aren’t supposed to walk on. They say “No Step”. I’ll have to get some on order for my doorways.

When I got the door just right, I decided to seal all the gaps around the downstairs doors, windows, and anywhere the insulators couldn’t get to. Bring out the canned foam, the window and door, the non expanding kind. Truly a misnomer. It says somewhere in the fine print to fill the gaps to 50%. But this is the “non expanding” variety. I have seen the expanding foam used before and it consumed most of the wall and made the windows and doors so tight you couldn’t open them. Might be a good prank in a divorce, if any of the ceremonies performed at the Silty Slough Wedding Chapel should take a turn south. Anyway, I guess I could have filled the gaps a little more than 50%, maybe 90% to stop all that cold from getting in. More is better, right? I went upstairs to have a cup of tea with Cooper and Teddy since the pets are the only ones I have to talk to other than myself right now. At least I think they agree with most of my opinions. Oden the cat talks to me, but usually he is ordering me around. Piper the only female here has a soft quiet voice. She grew up around Moochie and begs for table food like a dog. They are all good company right now.

Back downstairs and holy moly, the foam has risen like loaves of bread around the windows. I guess like in some other cases, more is not better. About a third of the foam is where it needs to be sealing the gaps. One of my tasks today it to trim the other two thirds off before the woman comes home and sees how much expensive foam I’ve wasted. I’ll fill the upstairs gaps at 50% or less.

The last project for the day was to remove the temporary construction stairway to make room for the finished one. Not sure if Cooper and Teddy comprehend what the old guy was doing. Now we have this 4 foot wide gaping hole in the floor and no steps to bounce the ball down and retrieve it when dad is too busy to play.

Just waiting for the internet to be available so I can draw the details in AutoCAD to get the new stairs just right so the ball will bounce perfectly. I learned about stairs from Bob and Norm, no actually I bought a couple books and read them when I did the mahogany stairway at our old house in Chugiak.

8 am and still dark. I think I’ll take a short nap. Hope I don’t have a nightmare about expanding foam consuming the whole house. Maybe I’ll put some in one of Kari’s bread pans and let it rise into a nice looking loaf. I’ll start with 50%.

Just waist’in away in “No Service” land.

Wait’in for the helicopter to fly over.

From Silty Slough, I wish you well, my friends.

Thank you Lord for my pets.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

This and all previous posts are at www.siltyslough.com

Wednesday October 26, 2022

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning friends, from Silty Slough. Amazing what no communication from the outside world is like. Now I know how Gilligan felt on the island. I’m a day ahead on writing my post. First time ever. I hope everyone is ok. A few airplanes flew by Sunday, so I figure the Russians haven’t attacked or anything. I think the airplanes may have been at the Skwentna Pumpkin Drop. On their way they, could have practiced here at Silty Slough by dropping a KFC chicken sandwich and a root beer float to me.

The indoor toilet is awesome. I don’t think the boys like it since I don’t go outside as much. I liked it so well and decided it was such a convenience that I installed the other one on the main floor in the half bath. Now it is really nice I don’t even have to go downstairs when nature calls. If anyone is thinking about coming for a visit you may want to pack a long raincoat in case you need to use the bathroom. The walls are just studs right now. When Kari gets home we are going to start the sheetrock and tile. For now it is just me and the dogs and cats, they don’t mind. I can’t wait to get the shower tiled. No more showering over the garage drain from a shower head that I plumbed into the ceiling.

We have all kinds of food out here. Kari’s trip to Michigan was unplanned and just popped up. We had already stocked up for both of us to make it through freeze up on a previous boat trip. Now it is just me so the menu choices are what is going to spoil first. I spent an extra week in town, so when I got here I had 6 dozen eggs, lettuce, celery, 3 pounds of carrots, 6 avocados, 2 pounds of cherries, and a container of blueberries that needed to be eaten post haste. Today I have 18 boiled eggs and 25 uncooked eggs left. The boys have been helping me by having their eggs for breakfast. I have polished off the cherries and the blueberries will be gone tomorrow. The celery is gone. A lot of carrots are gone. I grilled a ribeye the other night and had a Caesar salad with it to use some of the lettuce and have been eating the fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse. I had leftover steak so I had steak and eggs for breakfast the next morning. Two nights I had a bowl of vegetable curry with nan bread. One night I had a fillet of cod sandwich with lettuce and tartar sauce. I’ve been getting along pretty good with no chance of starving in the near future. Right now I have a surplus of sour cream so I froze two containers.

I’m still jumping through hoops to get my FAA medical back after my heart surgery. The surgeon that rebuilt my heart included in his post op report that I had been previously diagnosed with cancer, asthma, and arthritis. Never had any of these. He must have cut and pasted from someone else’s report. Would be an easy fix but he has retired and closed his practice. So I guess my heart warranty is no longer valid. He also reported that I had a couple episodes of A-fib when they were taking me off the pump and getting my heart cranking again. Must be like when you rebuild an engine and it misfires a couple times the first time you start it up until everything gets straightened out. Guess what, the FAA has me wearing a heart monitor for 30 days to make sure I’m not misfiring. This is all good but the monitor reports back to my doctor via a cell phone that they gave me. Well I guess they didn’t give it to me, I’m sure it is in the price of the test. They did mention that if I lost or damaged any of the equipment it would be $2400. Sounds good but when you live past the end of the road the wicket gets to be a bit sticky. The monitor is taped to a shaved patch on my chest and reports to their cell phone via blue tooth then sends the data via AT&T. Except AT&T doesn’t work out here. So I have to create a hot spot on my cell phone and WiFi the data from their phone to mine and then to the tower via Verizon. My Carhart bibs are full of phones, chargers, and monitors. So with the cell tower inop now, the folks monitoring aren’t getting a report of my heartbeats and they can’t contact me by phone. They probably think I died and they won’t get their money or the $2400 of equipment back. I expect a chopper to land in the slough at any time to check on their equipment. If they do I hope they bring the cell tower repair man along. It’s only another 15 miles to the site. At least I’ll have them carry a few dozen armloads of wood up the stairs like I have been doing, so I can check their hearts out. I wish I could contact them ahead of time so they could bring me my KFC chicken sandwich and root beer float.

It snowed about 5 inches last night and was warmer this morning about 25 degrees. The wood stove is keeping me and the boys warm without using any propane yet. I have been keeping a tea pot on it so I can have afternoon tea and crumpets while watching for the helicopter.

I have quite a slug of data to upload when the cell gets fixed. 3 Views from the Outhouse and over a weeks worth of heartbeats. Hope it doesn’t overload the system and break it again.

Standing by in Silty Slough waiting for “Verizon LTE” to pop up on my phone. I wish you well my friends.

Thank you Lord for watching over us.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

This and all previous posts are at www.siltyslough.com

Tuesday October 25, 2022

The View from the Outhouse

Hello friends. I would say good morning but no telling when the cell tower will get repaired, so you may be reading this in the afternoon or the next day.

On thing I forgot to mention in the last post. A few weeks ago while Roger and Kari were milling logs, Cory and I finished up the drain field for the septic system. Now that the work is finished, we are complete from the bathrooms to the septic system. The next thing is to set a toilet and connect the water line to the existing cabin. The guys can’t get here now so it is yours truly. I set the toilet in the main bath downstairs and connected the cold water to the system. A few minor leaks to tighten up and we are good to go, if you know what I mean. I mentioned in an earlier post that once this happened, The View from the Outhouse should change to The View from the Septic Tank but I don’t think that will attract many readers. Never know, like the septic tank pumper told me one time, Buddy it may be poop to you but it’s bread and butter to me.

The wood stove. It was an after thought for Kari and I. First consideration was an outdoor wood boiler. Still not out of the question, but the glycol antifreeze to fill the system could be almost the cost of the boiler. So the only place for the stove was on the second floor. We went to the Vermont Castings stove store in Anchorage and ordered what we needed. The double wall pipe to run 20’ from the stove,through the roof to the top of chimney was almost the price of the stove. Kari and I had a fire going in the stove before she went to Michigan and it kept the upstairs plenty warm, but it was 30 degrees outside. I have had it going since I came back out on the 12th and it has kept both floors warm. It helped that Roger installed 2 ceiling fans to help push the heat down the stairwell to the lower level. I try to get things warmed up to 72 before I go to bed, then if I sleep too long and the fire goes out it still won’t be too cold before I wake up. So far 18 degrees outside and 64 in the morning.

Carrying wood to the second floor is part of my get in shape program. Every time I go downstairs for something I try to bring up an armload of wood. We don’t have good seasoned oak here just spruce and birch so it takes a lot. The best part is how good it feels to come up the stairs without an armload of wood.

32 degrees in the greenhouse yesterday morning with 18 outside. That foam insulation really works. Next year I will try to have a heat source to extend the season on both ends. Cory and I brought the tamaders into the great room the last day he was here. Hopefully a few more will ripen on the vine.

The other part of the get in shape program is the treadmill. Our neighbors at Wolf Lake gave it to us and it had been in the shed here at the cabin. I have it facing the windows upstairs looking at the river and Mt. McKinley. Makes the time pass quicker as I look at the mountain thinking about Marty Rainey of Homestead Rescue fame, telling me about carrying a guitar to the top so he could play a song he wrote, “Strum it from the Summit”. I knew him back when he wasn’t so famous. I also think and try to calculate in my head how many gallons of water goes past in a minute or 20 minutes while racking up steps on the mill. It would be like Joe thinking about”How many wheels would a canoe have if a duck lived in a doghouse?” Just the way he runs the administration. Stupidest man to ever enter the Oval Office, bar none.

Anyway current about 3.5 miles an hour, river maybe 100 yards wide, depth maybe average 4 feet. 3.5 miles per hour equals 308 feet a minute times 300 feet wide times 4 feet deep equals 369,600 cubic feet. At 7.48 gallons per cubic foot equals 2,764,608 gallons of water. That’s at low and slow water conditions. What does that weigh? Friends that is one heck of a bunch of water to strain with a fishing lure hunting for a salmon.

Well that occupied 20 minutes on the treadmill.

Another thing I do is to think about what to write in the view from the outhouse. I have ideas go through my mind while treadmilling that would split a normal man’s skull wide open. Luckily by the time I have finished my cool down I have forgotten most of them.

Now as I promised. How is Pete Butigeg qualified to be Secretary of Transportation? He has been rear ended numerous times.

From the treadmill high above Silty Slough, I hope you were entertained and or enlightened. I wish you well.

Thank you Lord for your beautiful creation.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Monday October 24, 2022

The foam insulation is being sprayed from the top. Then the last of the purlins will go on followed by the metal roofing.

The View from the Outhouse

Hello all from Silty Slough. I know it has been a while. I post about as regular as I did my homework in high school over 50 years ago. I squeaked through with good test scores. Some things never change. Please don’t refer to my post as only “The View” when you are sharing it with your friends and family. I wouldn’t want to be mistaken for the program on the main stream media and my ratings go down. I copy most of the posts to my blog on WordPress at siltyslough.com. I have to get a pitch in because it is time to pay up to renew my domain, so I hope both of my readers will kick in a little bit. I also thought about paying for the app Grammarly to improve my grammar. Mr. Whitenack would have been happier, but the rest of you would have thought it wasn’t me doing the writing anymore, so I decided to save the money.

I’m not sure where the last post left off. I can’t go and check the archives at Mar-a-Lago because the FBI confiscated them in the raid. No, in all seriousness the one and only cell tower we get a signal from has been down since the 18th. It is on top of Shell Hill and they have to fly there by helicopter to service and fuel it. They fixed it, it worked about half a day then it ran out of fuel, then they flew fuel out, it worked for about an hour, then it failed, then the fog rolled in and they couldn’t fly. It finally cleared up Sunday. I guess they don’t fix cell towers on Sunday. I watched all day today Monday for the helicopter to fly by. Must be waiting for parts for the helicopter or the cell site. Maybe tomorrow. My Spot emergency locator is supposed to be able to send and receive text messages but so far no joy. So, it’s pretty lonely out here. BTW did I mention Kari went to Michigan for family stuff on the 12th. I have a couple more weeks before she gets back. So far I can’t find the onion soup mix so I can make dip with the sour cream that needs to be eaten before it spoils. I also cannot find the fingernail clips or my mini-iPad. Now I have to clip my nails with diagonal cutters from my toolbox. They are called dikes but I can’t say that. I also have to type this post with my index finger on my iPhone 7plus. We like to keep up with the latest technology here in the slough.

I’ll pick it up with the foam insulation. Statewide Foam came out and foamed the roof, walls, underside of the first floor, crawl space, septic tank, and greenhouse. I wanted to have the underside of the second floor foamed over the hydronic heating plates and also have the root cellar done, but that got screwed up. I talked them into leaving their equipment and having a guy come back the next weekend to do the underside of the floor for only a thousand bucks extra. The root cellar didn’t get any foam. I think I can get a couple foam packs from Lowe’s and do it for about another $800. Too many cooks usually spoil the broth. Anyway the foam is in, the metal is in place above it, completing the roof. In the dry, feels good. After about 3 months of dry weather the rains started the next day. I can’t remember how long it has rained, but trust me, a long time. The river stayed high enough all summer that there was only one time that we could not park our boat in the slough.

Roger took off 3 weeks to guide a fishing trip then another month to work on his honey do list. Kari and I were in town part of the time for FAA doctor stuff. We made a couple trips in the boat hauling more material. When we were at the cabin Cory, Kari, and I did a bunch of interior work while it rained. During the dry spots we finished the porch over the front door. Kari and I tiled the wall and floor in the great room to make a place for the wood stove. We all three hoisted the wood stove up the outside of the deck with a chain hoist, Amsterdam style. The front of the buildings in Amsterdam all lean out. I thought they were just slowly settling into the canals. But they were built that way because of the narrow stairways, the furniture is hoisted up and down the outside of the buildings. Each one has a beam and pulley sticking out. Cory also hoisted a treadmill upstairs for us. Wait till Kari brings the piano out.

A few days during the last couple weeks Roger worked on the electrical while Cory and I tied in the heating for the addition to the boiler and plumbed the rest of the drains that were stubbed through the foam in the crawl space to the septic tank. We also did some outside chores to get things ready for winter.

Late last week Roger’s boat had to come out of the river because the ice man is coming to get us. So no more crew until at least Thanksgiving depending when the river is solid enough to ride snow machines on.

It was 18 degrees this morning with ice chunks floating down the river. They thinned out a bit when the temperature got up to 37. I’m sure they will be back thick in the morning. I’m hoping the snow will hold off until Kari gets back out here so she can land in a plane on wheels. That’s a lot to wish for. Otherwise it’s a helicopter trip for her to get home.

That’s about enough, actually too much for now.

Next post I’ll talk about the wood stove, the treadmill, and why Pete Butegeig is qualified to be secretary of transportation.

Thank you Lord for watching over us.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Monday July 4, 2022

The View from the Outhouse

Happy “Independence Day” from Silty Slough. It’s been 3 months since my last post and a lot of water has gone down the river since then. We have been working a hard to get the Asylum ready for the foam insulation. We are headed to town today with three boats to pick up the equipment and crew. We brought the material out 10- 55 gallon barrels winter before last and have been “babysitting” it to be sure it didn’t freeze. It will be nice to have it out of the shop and in the walls and ceiling stopping the propane leaks this winter. We only need two boats but last trip out our boat started making an unfamiliar noise so Cory is going to come in with his boat along with Roger in his boat, and me in our boat, just in case. Quick trip, in today and back out at 8 tomorrow morning. The weather has been very dry, one small shower in the past 3 months. Pretty unusual for here, but we are happy since we had to open up the cabin roof for about a week while we tied in the roof to the addition. As soon as the roof is foamed from the top we can get the metal on and be in the dry.

Mayor Cooper and I are always looking for ways to make this place tax deductible. Last trip to town we came up with the ultimate scam, I mean plan. Everything will be in Cooper’s name. They don’t send dogs to prison do they? I guess not Hillary.

Anyway when we were in town last trip, Kari and I went to the courthouse to get me registered to be able to marry Jenny and Ben in August. Special thing in Alaska.

I thought you were only ably to perform the ceremony for only one couple once in your life. The court clerk printed out the paperwork and said it was good for a year and an unlimited number of marriages. The Silty Slough Wedding Chapel is born. Some people say the asylum looks like a church from the river anyway. We can have destination wedding packages. Transportation to the Slough, catering, maybe line up a fishing trip or bear hunt on the side. We can rent out the neighbors cabin on the sly to the newlyweds. I think I can design an inflatable steeple for the roof to be inflated on wedding days. We will deflate it while we are having wild parties on the deck. Wouldn’t want to tussle in a church. This makes everything deductible. The new suit I bought. The $25 to get registered. The trips to town. Cooper, I can see a new boat and maybe even a new airplane in our future. BobbyRay will be having Joe and the Ho sending us money on April 15th. This is just about the ultimate scam, almost as big as the Clinton Foundation. If any of you have friends that want to get married let Cooper or I know. We have been listening to Neil Diamond’s “Dr Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” just to get into the spirit.

I’ll do a quick overview of the happenings at the Slough.

February 24

Had cataract surgery on my left eye. Got the patch off the next day. Now my distant vision is 20/20. Near vision not so much. 3 different eye drops 3 times a day, no lifting or straining for a week or so. Same for right eye 2 weeks later.

As soon as I could drive and ride the snow machine Kari headed to Minnesota, Indiana, and Michigan for 3 weeks.

I started jumping through the hoops to get my FAA medical back. Cardiologist appointments, sleep doctor, hospital records. Got everything together and went for my medical exam. Squeaked through the eye test without my final near vision eyeglass prescription. Everything ok. Still waiting to hear from Oklahoma City on their review.

Cory kept the fire burning and took care of the cats while we were in town. Kari got back from Michigan mid March and we made the last trip on the snow machines for the year. Her one and only trip BTW.

April

Cory suggested that we harvest some more logs while we can drag them with the snow machine, so he and Roger came for a few days and now we have almost a hundred logs to mill.

Now we are just waiting for the river to thaw.

May

The river level is low so the breakup was very gentle. It is different every year. Kari and I started working in the addition now that it is about 40 degrees. We got the tubing in for the in floor heat on the second level and roughed in the plumbing drains and vents.

May 18

Kari and I were watching a movie. Cooper was outside. He came to the door and laid quietly on the step. We didn’t pay much attention and about 20 minutes later she let him in. He had a nose and mouth full of porcupine quills. What now, no boats in the river yet, no way to town except by helicopter. Call Roger. Take needle nose pliers and pull them out. Be careful and don’t break them off because they will migrate through the body over time and can get into the heart, lungs, or other organs. Kari held Cooper and I pulled. He didn’t make a sound. Got 32 out, one may have broken off. Pulled one out of his nose from between his nostrils and the blood squirted. Still Mayor Cooper didn’t make a sound. I know he is tougher than Joe Biden, smarter too.

Roger got his boat in on the 20th and ran us to town. Direct to the vet. They checked the Coop and didn’t find any more quills.

Gave him some medicine and said to watch him for a week.

3 weeks in town this trip.

The next day we met up with high school classmate Claudia Huddleston and her husband Dale for a short visit. Later in the week they returned to Anchorage and we met them and their traveling companions again. Very enjoyable.

While we were waiting on Cooper to be sure he was ok, we got the boat ready to launch. At some point I started coughing more than normal so I went to the doctor. Kari was coughing a bit also. I tested positive for Covid. Doctor prescribed some meds made by Pfizer, yea that’s the same people that make the vaccine that doesn’t work. No cost to me, all paid for by the government. Goes to Pfizer then back to Joe and the Ho to get there cut. Remember folks nothing is free. Where is the Ho anyway haven’t seen anything about her. Must be working nights.

Kari and I are healed Cooper is ok, although we pulled another quill out that was sticking pointed end out of his lip.

June

Back to the cabin. Fixed the slow fueling problem on the boat. Ran fine. Don’t get me started about fuel. Boat holds 96 gallons. Don’t see too many Biden supporters by the gas pump. If I did I would probably punch them in the face. I know I can’t do that. Cooper could bite their balls off, but they don’t have any, so I guess that’s out too.

The weather forecast still looks good. Still no rain. Can’t put it off any longer. Time to take the roof off the existing cabin and tie in the addition. It took Roger and Cory about a week to get everything done and ready for insulation.

Cory and I are working in the crawl space on the tubing for the heat and the water lines. Roger is doing electrical. He and his grandson Keith are milling beams and framing the front porch. We are quickly approaching the deadline to have everything in the walls and ceiling before Tuesday when the foaming starts.

It’s been pretty hectic for a while but the new deck is usable. Nice to sit and look at the mountain, watching the river while sipping on a Bloody Mary or margarita after work.

Other than that not much happening in the Slough.

From the Silty Slough Wedding Chapel, I wish you well my friends.

Thank you Lord for no rain. We could use some after Thursday.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Monday May 9, 2022

The river ice is starting to move. It is totally different than last year, very calm, no chunks or icebergs

Still frozen. 3 machines went by about 2 days before it was open water.

The ugly overflow quagmire. We have the freight sled out already.

You can see my footprints in the snow. Yes, the water is over my boots.

Steve Butts and I stopped to check our load.

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning from Silty Slough. It is 7am, the boys and I have already been outside. The ground is a little crunchy and the puddles are iced over. Temp is 29 and is forecast to hit 50. The days are getting longer very quickly. Sunrise was at 5:24 and will set at 10:37. 17 hours and 13 minutes today. We are already making free electricity and will be able to make quite a bit more than we can use. The new batteries are working out fine. We use less than 20 percent of their capacity overnight before the sun starts to charge them back up. The generator has only had to start once in the past 6 weeks or so. That was to run the electric clothes dryer on wash day. It has been mostly sunny for as long as I can remember with only one light rain shower. The river started flowing a little over a week ago, actually it has been flowing all winter, we just can’t see it under the ice. Anyway, the ice has melted, broken up, and floated downstream. It is open for 25 miles or so then the ice has it blocked up. The slough still has a lot of ice in it especially on the shady side so we are still unable to travel off our property. A lot of the snow has melted in the yard so we put the snow machines to bed and brought out the wheeled vehicles, 4 wheelers, side by side, and the Kubota tractor. We still have a few more days to go until the snow is gone and everything is dried out. With the slough not being open, to get to the main river we have our own wade versus row decision to make. Cooper is watching the Democrat cats to be sure they don’t leak anything ahead of time.

Cooper and Teddy have been enjoying being outside in the sun. Cooper gets a lot of deck time watching for eagles, seagulls, and airplanes that invade the airspace. Then it is a chase until they are out of sight.

Cooper and Teddy hatched up this plan to take a helicopter into town just before the river opens up enough to get in on the first barge trip. Then we can get our boat ready, get the cats to the vet, and get more building materials rounded up to bring back out on the boat when the river opens. Sounds like a plan, just need to get the timing right and $575 for the chopper. They are in discussions with the Silty Slough Comptroller of the Currency as we speak.

Mayor Cooper and Teddy have been busy with government affairs here in the slough. Just to be ahead of the game they drafted a proclamation. Anyone applying for employment at Silty Slough that has had a student loan forgiven will not be considered. Cooper says it is an ethics issue. If you take out a loan and weasel out on paying it back, how good of an employee would you be?

I’m tryin to decide on the activity for the day. The things I want to do vary greatly from the things I need to do. The to do list is long.

The last post left everyone at the end of January. The knots on my head have gone down since the birthday cake episode.

February was pretty uneventful. Steve Butts and I made a few trips hauling fuel with the guys before he headed back to Seattle mid month. After looking at the calendar the second half of February was a little bit eventful. We have been having snow machine problems for some time. I suspect bad fuel.

Friday Feb 18

Cory, Roger, and I were in Rogers shop working on one of my machines. Alcohol may have been involved. Cory suggested we go to Imms’ Inn to get something to eat. Ok alert the women, and soon we had a quorum of 5 headed 8 miles down river. Kari and I have never stopped there before, when we rode into the lot it was full of snow machines. Big crowd inside, nice place. Roger ordered whatever they were cooking that night for the group. Italian beef and a couple bottles of wine. Roger and Cory were playing ping pong and thought they were doing great, I think it was just the alcohol playing. Pretty soon the rest of the crowd got tired of retrieving the stray balls and things settled down. Food was good and we finally decided to make the 10 mile trek back to Silty Slough.

The boys were glad to see us and had to give us a thorough sniffing to see if we had been with any other dogs and to check what we had to eat. Teddy always licks to see if I dribbled on my shirt. Tonight is the farthest Kari has been away from the cabin since we came up on the boat last fall.

Saturday Feb 19

Today we are packing up to go into town. I’m going to get my eye surgery and then Kari is going to Michigan for 3 weeks after I’m able to ride back out to the cabin.

Sunday Feb 20

It is Kari’s first trip to town in about 5 months. I’m pulling a sled with the boys in their kennel, some empty propane bottles, and a few totes. Kari just has her machine. It isn’t running good, I have my SkiDoo this time since the Arctic Cat is also running bad. There is overflow in the normal spots since it has been very warm. The last trip I made with the guys was pretty mushy. Everything was going pretty good for the first 30 miles, then Kari’s machine kept loosing power and she would have to shut it off, then restart it and it would be ok again for a mile or so. About 5 miles from the landing she had enough and we swapped rides. Now she is pulling the sled with the dogs on board.

It was just starting to get dark and about 3 miles out of the landing was a really ugly bunch of overflow. The slush looked deep and there were big water holes. I couldn’t see any way around it. It is a long way back to Silty Slough. I tried to pick the best spot I could see to go through. Here goes. Through the mush and then immediately up an incline to get on top of a sandbar. Now I’m about 8 or 10 feet above the mushy hole. Kari followed, she almost made it across with her machine and the sled was stuck in the mush with water up to the deck. I’m about 20 yards away. She is yelling “My dogs are drowning”. I can’t run because I’m sinking up to my knees in the snow, so I lay down and roll. I got to here machine and walked on the tongue to get to the dogs. They are still dry. I opened the kennel and let them out. Everybody is ok but we are in a real quagmire.

It wasn’t long and some guys came up behind us. Dave Miller and Nick Scott. Dave is calling me by name but I’m not sure who they are. The they said they were at Imms the other night. Oh man I’m thinking, did I get to much einsteinium and do something stupid. Dave said he knows me from reading the view. Nick came across the mush and tried to pull my machine out. No workey. Dave came over and hooked his machine on also. Several tries and both machines together were able to get me out. Dave had already hooked to the sled and pulled it out backwards. I’m thinking I sure hope one of them pulls it across the mush for me. They did. I all but got down on my knees and thanked them. They said just buy them a drink next time at Imms. There are a lot of good people out on the river. I’ll have to be sure to pay it forward. They went on ahead. We got the sled hooked back up and the dogs back in the kennel. It took us a while but when we got to the parking lot they were still hanging around to be sure we made it. Thanks again Dave and Nick!! Kari sure had a wild trip for the first one of the season.

Tuesday Feb 22

Today I have an appointment with the cardiologist to get scheduled for a nuclear stress test to get started on getting my FAA medical back

Wednesday Feb 23

Into Anchorage early to get a Covid test for my eye surgery tomorrow. I’ll put that in the next post. This one is getting way to long.

Thank you Lord for watching over us, especially when we are in a tough spot!

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Saturday April 30, 2022

The View from the Outhouse.

Saturday April 30, 2022.

Hello from Silty Slough. It has been 4 months since my last post. Several readers have sent messages asking where we have been and if everything is ok. Kari, the dogs, cats, and I are doing just fine.

Someone started a rumor that the boys and I cut down some black spruce trees. The BLM, Antifa, and a few tree hugger groups have been after us. So Mayor Cooper, Teddy and I have been laying low, spending a lot of time in the root cellar bunker. We didn’t cut any black spruce because they won’t work for us. We only mill white spruce that have been killed because the tree huggers squeezed the life out of them. I guess that makes us racist or something. Cooper thinks that since Elon bought Twitter with the money he made from selling electric cars to mostly liberalites it may be safe for us to surface again. Mayor Cooper was sort of waiting for Brandon’s disinformation officer Jen Psaki to leave the White House so he could hire her to put a different spin on our excuse for not posting the view. Coop thinks she is the very best spinner. Teddy doesn’t care as long as he has food and someone to lick on. The cats are Democrats so they don’t count.

Anyway on to the blow by blow, no pun intended toward Kamala.

Our friend Jess and our grandson Thor were out for Christmas. We all went to the Christmas Eve get together at Bentalit Lodge for a great meal and visit with neighbors. Christmas Day Kari and Jess cooked a wonderful prime rib dinner. Cory, Roger, and Myra joined us for the festivities. Jess stayed another day or so and the flew back home from Silty Slough International. With the help of Cory and Roger we managed to get Thor’s 1978 Arctic Cat Lynx snow machine going. More parts arrived in the mail and the new windshield set it all off. Thor can terrorize the neighborhood trails now.

Thor has to be back in school on Jan 3rd so he and I made our first trip of the winter to the landing on the snow machines on New Years Day. I think I made my last trip out here in the boat on Sept 22nd. About 100 days straight at the cabin. Roger went with us because he didn’t want us to make the trip alone. I don’t think the trail was marked yet but we know the way. It was warm and the wind was blowing about 30 with higher gusts. The trip was pretty good, but the wind was blowing a lot of pieces of the crusted snow. Roger got cut by one when it hit him on the way back home.

At the landing we got the truck out of our stall and put the snow machines away while Roger refueled his machine for his trip back home. I left the truck running and I guess in reverse and jumped out to fold the mirrors back out. I pulled Thor’s too far and when I pushed it back it was just enough to get the truck moving slowly backwards in the snow. I was hanging onto the mirror and yelling for Thor to hit the brake. He couldn’t see and hit the gas instead. I’m yelling NO, turn the key off. Finally things are back under control. Another cats-ass-trophy narrowly averted. Now to sneak around the corner to make sure Roger didn’t see any of this. All clear.

The wind is really blowing now for the drive home. When we got to Wasilla the traffic lights were out and it was pretty dark. Thor says Boompa, that’s what he calls me for some strange reason, we may not have any electricity at home. Hadn’t thought about that yet. So it’s cabin generators 3 home 0. When we got there the garage door opened so everything was ok. Wind is really blowing now I think about 50 or more. Lots of limbs down. Most of the snow has blown away, I don’t know where but it is gone. There is no food in the house, haven’t been here for a long time. Thor and I decide to brave the elements again and head to Palmer to find something to eat. I found where a lot of the snow went, drifted in the road to Palmer. It is blowing harder now, down to one lane in spots, whiteout in other spots. Not many people out but a few headlights can be seen. The Sunrise Grill is open so we got some food. We went back outside and I thought we were going to blow away on the slick streets before we could make it to the truck. Once inside I checked the Palmer aviation weather, gusting to 76 knots. Add 15 percent and that will give you miles per hour. Lucky we made it to the truck between gusts.

Sunday Jan 2

It is still windy. The wind is on again off again for the next few days. I’m in no hurry to head back to the cabin. There are semi trucks blown over by the highway and at one point the wind was measured at 120 knots just as the anemometer was blown away at the Palmer airport. Airplanes were blowing all over the place and they were asking for anyone with a heavy truck to bring it to tie them down to. At one point I was worried about the garage door blowing out of the opening.

Cory and Brandi stopped by and brought us a root beer float from KFC/A&W. Later Ben and Jenny stopped by to pick up Thor and also brought root beer floats. A couple hours later I read on the internet that the whole west wall of KFC blew over and they were shut down. Must have happened just after we got the last floats. Glad I had two.

Sunday January 9

I joined up with Roger or Cory to haul a load to the cabin. Kari and I need a lot of supplies for the building along with fuel and food items for the next year. I estimate at least 15 sled loads. We haul everything that we can that is heavy and has a long shelf life during the winter. Dog food, kitty litter, distilled water, margaritas, beer, canned goods, etc. I think I hauled fuel this time. We are out of gasoline and I dropped the three barrels so I could head back to town in the morning with empty propane bottles.

I’m going to stay in town for a few days and gather up more things to haul out to the cabin. I have a Doctors appointment on the 13th.

January 14, 2022

Ben and I met Jess and Steve Gahan at the landing for a trek to the cabin for the weekend. Ben and I are each pulling a load. As I remember it was a nice uneventful trip.

January 17, 2022

We had a good time over the weekend with Ben, Steve,and Jess. I think it was bitter cold yesterday so we delayed the trip back in until today. We took a load of trash to drop at the landfill along with empty fuel barrels. You can’t make/spend any money unless you are loaded both ways.

January 18

I headed back to Silty Slough with a load of fuel. Somewhere in here our friend Dave Reed joined in for a couple trips hauling fuel with us. This really helped out. One trip with Cory, Dave, and I was forever long. Cory was hauling a new side by side that hung over the sides of the sled and was a bit top heavy. Dave and I were hauling 3 barrels of fuel each. About at mile 21 on the trail it was dark and Cory came to a climb up on a sandbar that fell off to the left. About a par 4. It looked like for sure his sled was going to roll but he made it. I let off watching him and didn’t have enough steam up to make it and fell off to the left into deep snow with my load. It didn’t roll but the sled was stuck. I unhooked my machine and rode it out. Cory and Dave hooked to the back of the sled and drug it out. We got all hooked back up and underway again in less than 30 minutes. I think we would still be there if Cory’s sled had rolled.

January 20, 2022

I rested a day and then headed back in for a Dr appointment on the 24th and to pick up our friend and part time neighbor Steve Butts at the airport. My Dr appointment was to get the process started to get my FAA medical back and get started on another exciting adventure. More about that at a later date. As Jen would say I’ll circle back to that. It is always good to see Steve, I can’t remember where we ate but I’m sure it was good. We always eat good.

January 25, 2022

Eye appointment today for new glasses so I can pass my medical exam. Optometrist said I have cataracts, I knew it was coming, I thought about it a couple minutes and said let’s do it. So she referred me to Ophthalmic Associates in Anchorage for surgery.

January 29, 2022

Steve had some things to take care of and we made several trips to the landing hauling fuel and propane to be loaded and ready to depart on Saturday. We also did some work on his snow machine. I went shopping for a cheesecake to take out for Kari’s birthday on Sunday and picked the nicest one in the case at Three Bears.

Saturday morning Steve and I head out. It was another good trip. Didn’t get hurt, break anything, or get stuck.

Sunday January 30, 2022

It’s Kari’s birthday. We had a good meal and some refreshments, then it was time for the cheesecake. I had carefully packed it and it made the trip in great shape. I opened it up and started to cut it. It wasn’t a cheesecake at all. It was a white cake with white frosting. It just so happens that my favorite is white cake with white frosting. This really looks bad, but it was really a mistake. The other time I screwed up the cake was when the bakery put “Karen” on the cake instead of “Kari”. I can definitely tell you she is no Karen.

That about does it for January. It’s good to be back. I’ll still keep Cooper and Teddy watching for the BLM or any tree huggers.

Thank you Lord for watching out for us!!

From the Silty Slough, take care, stay safe, and healthy.

I’ll be in touch

Blue skies!!!

Friday December 24, 2021

The trail through Silty Slough heading toward Skwentna. The airstrip is marked on the left with lath and black garbage bags.

Thor is in there somewhere among all the packages.

The view from the outhouse

Friday December 24

Merry Christmas friends from the inmates of the asylum at Silty Slough, Alaska

We have had a busy week. The shortest day of the year has passed and we are on the increase. Picked up a couple minutes already. Cory came over a couple days and we scouted out a few beetle killed spruce trees. He dropped them and I drug the logs to the mill to saw into lumber next spring. We found several on the river bank. Cory and I packed the snow so that it would freeze up overnight and be a good place to drop them. Decided we needed Rogers help the next day. Dropped them in the slough and drug the logs to the mill. Roger had a set of skis to strap onto the front of the log so it wouldn’t dig in and plow snow. The back just slides along. The logs were good size and most took two machines hooked together to get them out of the slough up the ramp to the mill. I should have taken a few pictures but didn’t take the time.

Kari, Cory and I have been grooming and packing the airstrip the past few days to have it ready for our friend Jess and grandson Thor’s arrival on Thursday. Our neighbor at Wolf Lake did a flyby in the mail plane while we were cutting trees in the slough. He sent a text, nice airstrip, but couldn’t land since he was on wheels. Must have not had his snow tires on.
This is the first mail plane to arrive in over a week due to bad weather. They are making two trips today to get all the packages here for Christmas.
Cory and I have been working on a 1978 Arctic Cat Lynx snow machine for Thor. It runs some of the time, about 5 minutes of running for ever hour we spend working on it. Hopefully we will get all of its issues worked out.
Kari has been making presents and food for the Christmas Eve dinner at Bentalit Lodge.
Teddy has been trying to jumpstart his latest venture “Build back better” hats. He is offering buy one get 10 free, but so far no takers. Meanwhile Mayor Cooper is covered up in orders for “Put it back like you found it” tee shirts. He is trying to find more help but the cats are the only ones available. They must be Democrats because they won’t work as long as the free handouts continue.
Jess and Thor arrived yesterday in a Maul on skis. We were down by the strip to meet them. The plane was packed with presents and food for Christmas dinner and beyond. Couldn’t even see Thor in the back seat. You couldn’t have gotten another stick of butter in that airplane. While we were at the strip, 3 of our neighbors came each with a sled load of packages from the post office. Looked like Santa and his elves delivering.
Later Cory, Thor, and I made a trip to the post office. We didn’t have much in the way of packages. Mayor Pete still hasn’t figured out what a supply chain is. My coat and bibs came so now I’m good to -40.

I moved downstairs to sleep while we have guests. The dogs stayed upstairs so Oden the cat is keeping me company. He doesn’t like me on my cellphone typing the View. I guess he doesn’t agree with my opinions. He still has claws but is gentle as long as I take a break every paragraph and pet him. It’s cool to pet him down here where it is pitch black and the air is dry. It really lights him up. You can get the same effect peeling masking tape off the roll in the dark.
Today’s activity is the Lynx again and maybe I’ll try to groom the trail 5 miles to Skwentna before the neighborhood gathering this evening.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Silty Slough. Stay safe and healthy my friends.

Happy Birthday, Jesus.

Thank you Lord for your many blessings.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Remember to tell your friends about http://www.siltyslough.com Thank you.

Friday December 17, 2021

The view from the outhouse

Friday December 17, 2021

Yesterday we had our big outing, a trip to the post office. This is the farthest we have been from the cabin for several months, 5 miles. Roger and Cory are going to go also so we agreed to meet in the slough at 9:45 so we can get our packages and letters on the twice weekly mail plane that is scheduled for today. We were up early and got our gear on for the trip. It is fairly warm, about 10 degrees so the snow machines started right up. While they were warming up we strapped the packages on them for the trip. We rode the quarter mile down to the slough where Roger and Cory were waiting right on schedule. Roger is the lead dog followed by Cory, then Kari, with me bringing up the rear. There is a trail up the Yentna River where a few machines had already made a trip. We have had about 20” of snow so I expected a smooth trail. We have had some wind off and on the last week or so but it is fairly calm today. I was surprised to see bare gravel on some of the sandbars after so much snow. There weren’t any drifts, where did it all go? Just evaporated like the tax dollars we send the Brandon administration, I guess. After about 3 miles we go through a small slough and come out the end at the confluence of the Skwentna and Yentna Rivers. I know from boating here in the summer that the river is about 30 feet deep at this spot. I’m not overly concerned crossing here but it is always in the back of my mind. The trail on the Skwentna is non existent so Roger is picking his way through, blazing the trail for the rest of us. We need more snow to smooth things out. You can still feel some small logs and gravel spots that we cross. We made it to the post office. It had started snowing by the time we went into the tiny post office. The oil stove in the middle of the lobby makes it feel like it is 300 degrees in there with our winter gear on. Postmaster Steve gets all the neighborhood mail around for Roger and Cory to deliver and gets our packages ready to send. The phone rang, no mail plane today, mission is scrubbed due to bad weather. Maybe it can make it tomorrow. The plane is a Cessna 206. In addition to the mail it also carries passengers if there is room.
Our winter caravan headed back down the river, split off in the slough and headed back to the asylum. We are going to go to Roger and Myra’s later this afternoon to do some maintenance on our machines. Later we are going to have tacos and beverages, if you know what I mean.
Meanwhile back at the cabin, Kari is getting things around for the party, taco shells, lettuce, tomatoes, and a bottle of Costco’s finest premixed margaritas. It contains what I call “Einsteinium” so I can get really smart later. Funny “Einsteinium” is in my spell checker, I must use it a lot. Anyway one of the packages has a book for me, oh wow, an early Christmas present. I opened it. The title is “I’m Dead. Now What?”. Is there something Kari knows and isn’t telling me? Or does she have plans? For now I’ll keep walking and riding in my Z pattern and checking my 6.
Turns out it is a place to record all your financial information, your funeral instructions, who you would like to give that special pair of pliers to, etc. She is younger than me so I notice she just got one copy.
We locked the boys in and headed out for the Phillips. I know the boys could run the two miles over there, or Cooper would run, Teddy would ride on the back of the snowmachine as usual. We just don’t want them to get into that habit. I don’t want to be chasing them down with the snow machine, dressed only in my underwear at 10 o’clock at night when they decide to go for a visit.
Roger and I cleaned the RAVE valves on Kari’s machine. I was just going to change oil in mine but Kari got to the shop door first. Anyway nice to have that task finished.
Time for tacos. I might add the Einsteinium seemed to work. I kicked butt in a game of Rummikub. I like that game because I know all my numbers but not all of my letters yet. Maybe, just maybe I need some more Einsteinium. Kari says no, it’s time to go home you’ve had enough, to which I eloquently replied “Yes, dear”

I woke up very early 4:15. It will be daylight in a little over 6 hours. The thermometer said plus 2 but in a couple hours would change its mind and put a minus in front of the 2. It is going the wrong way if it wants to make the forecast of plus 9 by sunset.
We got 2 or 3 inches of fresh snow overnight so it may be a good time to pack and groom the local trails and airstrip. I’m going to head to Rogers later to change oil in my machine to get ready for the hauling season. Lots of freight to move. Propane, building material, food, gasoline, diesel, Sakrete, to mention a few of the things we need out here for the summer and next winter. I figure 15 trips if not more. It ain’t easy running a big asylum like Spruce Manor. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I think it is time for a nap.

Stay safe and healthy my friends, and please stay out of Walmart. Buy American, Be American.

Thank you Lord for your endless list of blessings you have given us.

I’ll be in touch

Blue skies!!

Wednesday December 15, 2021

The view from the outhouse

Wednesday December 15, 2021

Good morning from from frozen Silty Slough, Alaska. I spell out Alaska because a lot of people think AK is Arkansas. Sometimes the postal services thinks the same thing and our mail ends up there. Speaking of mail, we had a big outing planned for today, a trip 5 miles up the river to the Skwentna Post Office. The mail plane comes tomorrow and we have some cards and packages to go out on it. I say had because at 10am the actual temperature here is 24 degrees F below zero that is -31 Celsius for readers of the view that are on the metric system. I must tell you that it is freeze the hair in your nose cold. Pretty chilly taking the boys out in my slippers and underwear. On a day like today I have trouble comprehending global warming. These green liberal snowflake wokes blame every problem from the border crisis, inflation, street violence, racism, and erectile disfunction on global warming.
Personally I think they are so full of shit their eyes are brown. I’ll have to check in with BobbyRay for the science on that.

A short pause while I have bacon and eggs with homemade biscuits.

Sunrise is at 10:23 and it will hang just above the horizon until it disappears at 3:36. Only 5:13 minutes of sunshine for Old Sol to warm us up. I mentioned in a previous post that on December 21st the earth will start turning in the opposite direction and the days will start getting longer. BobbyRay Howard explains it very well since he is a man of science. It’s called the yo-yo effect. The earth is actually on a big string and spins one way until it gets to the end of the string and then winds itself back up. Cycles twice a year June 21 and December 21. When the earth is headed toward the end of the string it spins faster and the days get shorter. When it is headed back up the string it naturally turns slower because it is up hill and the days get longer. Remember follow the science.
Another thing the green liberal snowflake wokes that I was talking about earlier came up with “My body my choice” when trying to justify abortion in their minds. But when it is getting vaccinated for the Chinese virus it is not your body or your choice. Which way do you want it?

Not much is happening at the slough on such a cold day. I’ll try to find some inside projects for today. The boys are outside trying to track down the culprit that got into the garbage. Unlike the Democrat run cities, Mayor Cooper runs a tight ship. He has a policy of nipping crime in the butt. They have a shrew cornered. I hope they have their collar cams on so we can record their performance.

From Silty Slough my friends, I hope I have informed, entertained, or insulted some of you. Keep the likes and comments coming. Stay safe and healthy.

Thank you Lord for watching over us.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

See all the posts and pictures at
http://www.siltyslough.com