I’m getting things ready for another Stephens adventure. Tomorrow we are heading up the river to our cabin at Skwentna with a couple friends. Going to cut a bunch of trees and mill them into lumber. There are thousands of them. Oh, don’t worry they are already dead and are just a fire hazard. I have a couple theories on how they died. Some have been here for a hundred years or so. As soon as Trump was elected they all started to die. Got to be his fault. But then I started thinking it may be Al Gore’s global warming. It just got too hot for them and they just dried up. But it is 51 degrees here this morning and rainy. The lumber is still wet when I mill it. Then I thought that maybe all the tree huggers came up here and just squeezed them too hard. Don’t know. I talked to a few of my neighbors that are knowledgeable of the Forrest and they say it is these little bugs called spruce bark beetles. They bore into the bark and the trees die. They say it is a natural cycle that cleans out the mature trees and allows the young healthy trees space to grow. I’m just not sure.

Anyway today’s project continuing from yesterday is to get up enough strength and energy to put the transfer case back in my truck. It needed a simple mod to correct a design flaw. I need the truck to get the boat in the water tomorrow to get to the trees. But what I’m really doing is getting the truck ready for my 25th plus trip down the Alcan to Georgia to pick up an enclosed cargo trailer next week. I had nice one last year but because Trump’s economy is improving so much, this guy had a good job and came by with a wad of cash that I just couldn’t refuse for my trailer. Now I have to drive all the way to Georgia to get another one like it. There must be some government program to at least cover my expenses since it is Trumps fault that I am inconvenienced. If anyone knows of one please let me know.
I have run out of people to accompany me on the road so I have to do this trip solo. I will try to keep my location posted as best I can if anyone is interested.

Oh by the way for my pilot friends the electric company must not have turned on the windmills at Fire Island today so it should be a nice calm day to fly. It always gets windy when they are turned on.
Blue skies!!

Monday July 16, 2018

The mini adventure starts today. Going up the river today 52 degrees and light rain. The weather is really screwed up. Too warm in the winter and not enough snow. Too cold in the summer and rain. My observation is the weather was just fine until Willard Scott stopped doing the weather on the Today Show. He took care of it for us. I don’t think Al Roker knows a front from a back and doesn’t know how to do anything about the weather like Willard did. I’m sure glad I replaced the wiper motor on Kari’s side of the boat on Friday. I had a string tied to it on the last trip in, giving the motor a little assistance. She always wants to be the captain and drive which is just fine with me. I’ll sit back, relax, and keep pulling the string for 2 hours.

Yesterday I finished getting the truck ready for the really big adventure next week. I needed help lifting the transfer case back up over my head. I used-to-could by myself but now I think I need one of those rotator cuffs or at least a transmission jack to help me out. I got up early opened the hangar door and caught my unsuspecting neighbor Craig to help me when he came out of the house to fly to work. Anyway it’s all finished now without any cuts or bruises. I think that is a first for me when doing mechanical work.

I made a big score with yesterday’s post. Found an unsuspecting volunteer to go with me, Rod Alvarez. The only thing I promised was an adventure requiring MacGyver like skills. It will be a great trip.

It’s time to load the beer in the boat. Trees to cut tomorrow. I’ll be in touch.
Blue Skies!!

Mini mission scrubbed for today at 730pm. Started out great, everybody up and dressed, beer loaded, out of the driveway on time at 930. Quick stop at Carl’s and the grandkids and I agreed on everything from the mix and match menu. Had to drop off a couple bear hides at FedEx to send to the Indiana boys. Pulled out on the Parks Highway and our friends that were travelling with rolled up behind us with their boat in tow. Drove about 40 miles to the launch put both boats in the water. Friends boat started but came off the trailer hard with a lot of reverse. Our boat wouldn’t turn over. Found a loose cable on the starter tightened cracked plastic housing on the solenoid. Jumped solenoid with a screw driver started right up. I took truck and trailer up to the parking lot and walked back down to the launch. Friends boat won’t even turn over. Tried jumping battery posts were hot. He finally removed both wet exhaust manifolds so he could get the spark plugs out of the 351 Ford Redline marine engine. Engine had sucked water into cylinders and hydro locked. Turned it over a few times put it back together and it started. Ready to go. Got across the new sandbar at the mouth of the launch in good shape now headed down the Big Susitna Susitna River on the way to the cabin ready to play lumberjack and harvest some trees. 5 miles down river friends boat starts running rough. In a true act of MacGyverism (that’s a new word I coined explicitly for Stephens adventures) he took out the newly installed electronic ignition and reinstalled the points and condenser. All this anchored up in the strong current in the middle of the river. Underway again.
We go around a couple bends in the river everything ok. Then the friends boat drops back. We turn around and go back to find them stuck on a sandbar. We try to get close enough to throw them a line and we almost get stuck on the bar. Now something is jamming our steering and there is crud in the jet intake. Current is very strong I think at least 5 mph. Throw the anchor get everything cleaned out under way to get friends off bar. Repeat of last attempt. Get cleaned out and steering again. Friends managed to get off bar on their own now.

A little bit about sandbars. The rivers are very wide but a lot of places are very shallow. There is a narrow Chanel to follow in some places. We run about 30 mph so the depth finder is only showing history to remember for the next run up the river. The water is always the color of cement. The silt is moving and the bars are ever changing.
The EPA controls the outdoors in Alaska. Since Trump was elected he has curbed the EPA so now I think there is a lot more silt in the water making more sandbars and narrower channels. With the tax cut and all the other cuts the Coast Guard doesn’t mark the channels. I am blaming my bad trip on the river on Trump. While he is over on a European vacation I’m stuck in the mud. There has to be a way that the government can send me some money to recoup my losses on the river. Then again I’m thinking my problems could have something to do with the Pebble Mine.

Anyway our friends boat is running rough so we tow them back to the launch, boats on the trailer, nobody wants to cook so it is dinner at Arby’s

Speaking again about the EPA. I can’t believe how much money they must spend on electricity to run those big white windmills to blow the pollution over to Russia. There are thousands of them around the country. In Europe too. No wonder electricity is so expensive. This has to be creating an oil shortage

Found a new starter in the hangar for the boat. Think I will change it and try again. Should be a better day. I will be in touch.

Blue skies!!!!

Tuesday July 17, 2018

Update Stephens Mini Adventure…..Tuesday I took a good look at the starter I found in the hangar. The previous owner gave it to me when I bought the “Wine Down”. Then I started thinking the guy took it off and spent $300 for a new one for a reason. Closer examination show dents where someone had been hammering on it to get it to work on one of their adventures. I call this malletizing the last step befor bringing in MacGyver to get it going.
I took a trip into Anchorage to Auto Electric. Very helpful business. The owner pulled a new starter out and ordered a replacement solenoid for my inop one. I could have ordered one from Amazon cheaper but that would have waisted 3 days that I could be at the cabin. Also I don’t speak Chinese so if I have a problem I can’t just run over to Beijing to get some help.
I fully believe in taking responsibility for my actions. I felt it was my responsibility to let the owner know that if I should end up on a sandbar or have any other problem with the boat or trailer it was his fault for selling me a good starter making it possible for me to get in a situation.

Wednesday July 18, 2018

Woke up early. Beer was still loaded in boat from Monday. Added fuel to truck and boat. Grandkids up and fed. Life is good. Great 2 hour run up the river. Smooth ride, no wind, water level in the river is going down so no logs or other debris floating in the water. We arrived in time for lunch. Hauled all the beer about a quarter mile to the cabin. Don’t worry we have some 4 wheelers and trailers to carry everything. I’m to old for what I call the arm-strong method to do anything I can use a tool or machine to do easier. BTW I people in the lower 48 call 4 wheelers quads and they call snow machines snow mobiles.
Rode around some of our trails on the quads with the grandkids. Started picking at my to do list. Time for a margarita on the deck while looking at Mt. McKinley 20,321 feet. Dinner. Check in on the Kardashian’s so that I can take a nap. Most of the trips go like this. Thank you Lord for another wonderful day!
A few friends replied about Monday. Some said they were sorry that we had trouble. I appreciate that, but I post not looking for sympathy. I do these for enjoyment. I’m just trying to give people some insight how it is in the great outdoors. The farther you get up the river the harder Murphy works and the harder MacGuyver has to work. I love kicking Murphy’s ass.
I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Thursday July 19, 2018

Stephens mini adventure update. I spent most of Thursday repairing the Bush Hog mower, mowing around the cabin and our two neighbors cabins. Without my neighbor Steve I couldn’t have made the repair. I needed a 1 1/4 socket to change a blade that I broke on a previous adventure. We got the first blade changed with a 1 5/16 wrench and a 36” pipe wrench that I brought along just in case I had trouble. Couldn’t turn the second nut even after heating. MacGyver showed up and cut the side of the nut off with a pice of string soaked in the silty river water. No not really we used a Milwaukee M12 hacksaw. Luckily I ordered 2 new bolts and nuts along with the blades from Iroquois Equipment in Illinois. If anyone needs Bush Hog parts these are great people to do business with. BTW the Bush Hog is a great piece of equipment. We couldn’t have built the cabin without it. Used it to cut the first trails to the property. Cleared the alder from the site and used it as a rototiller to level the ground. Hit countless rocks. This is the first blade change after 6 years. I would be a good ad for Bush Hog abuse.
I spent most of Fri and all of Sat reinforcing the root cellar. Initial engineering was weak. Built a 8 x 8 x 16 foot box out of treated lumber in a hole dug out in the side of the hill. Waterproofed it, covered with foam board and then covered the whole thing with dirt that I dug from the Silty Slough Gold Mine. (That’s a whole different adventure that I can tell you about over a box of wine). Anyway I used 4 x 4s for the wall studs and over the winter they started to bow in and the roof started to sag a little bit.
When the Indiana boys were up a few weeks ago to shoot the bear, actually two bears, they helped me mill a 6” x 12” beam 16 feet long and get it inside the root cellar. We started jacking it up into place and things started making strange noises, popping and cracking, foam board squeaking so we got scared and abandoned the project afraid the sidewalls may fail and trap or kill us. The next trip up I moved all the dirt off the top and dug a trench along each side with my trusty Kubota. If anyone is thinking of building a cabin in the bush the first purchase needs to be a Kubota, before land, lumber or anything else. Couldn’t have done it without one. Then I jacked the beam in place without incident.
The sidewalls were a different story. Kari was helping me jack the sidewalls back straight while the kids were out playing. I wasn’t able to dig all the way to the bottom of the walls. We had a 4 x 6s and hydraulic jacks on two adjacent post. It took a lot of pressure to get the walls straight and get a 2 x 8 across horizontal about shoulder high. First two went fine. Along comes number 3, jack and post kick out sideways while I have my arm across the post jacking. I think I have broken my arm. Kari and the grandkids get “Boompa” into the cabin and get some ice in a margarita, no I mean some ice on my arm. I figure out it isn’t broken but I have this bruise from my armpit to my elbow. After a while it isn’t hurting and I want to go back to work to get this root cellar finished. The troops say just rest. You don’t want to get hurt in the Bush, the boys in the helicopter will have to come and get you. I don’t know why we call it a root cellar. We don’t keep any roots to sell, only tanks for our water supply, cases of bottled water, and oh yes the bread for the bear bait. We get a pickup or two load of out of date bread at the bakery, put it in plastic totes in March and haul it out to the cabin with the snow machine. About 16 totes in all. The end of May we take the bread out of the bags and put in garbage bags to transport to the bait site. The bread is still as fresh as when we got it. I tried some. What does that tell you about preservatives. Eat a loaf of bread just before you die and you won’t even have to be embalmed. I still have 7 totes for fall hunting but that is out this year with Kari’s knee surgery. BTW did I mention I don’t hunt, I don’t like to hunt, I’m too lazy to hunt. The lioness in this pack does the hunting. She also goes to the grocery store to gather the food for the pack. As it should be.
Anyway the best use for the cellar. I plan to get my still going and brew a couple barrels of whisky to have to barter with in case time get tough. The way Trumps economy looks right now I may not need it for trade so I can just drink it to supplement my urine to electricity project. (More on that in a later post.)

Back to this adventure. I ramble sorry there is so much to tell. Friday Kari was able to run the Kubota and help me mill the 28 2 x 8s and 7 4 x 6s that I need to reinforce the walls and roof of the root cellar.

Saturday July 21,2018

Woke up at 5 Sat and started working, it will be 4 or 5 hours until the rest of the clan is up and breakfast is ready. I haven’t mentioned we eat good at the cabin, I didn’t say healthy I said good. Today French toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs. I worked on the cellar all day until about 7. Have about 2/3 of it finished. The Kardashian’s are still ok so I can take a nap. Will do a little bit more tomorrow morning if I can pry myself away from Facebook.

Sunday July 22, 2018

Today is move out day. Woke up at 4:45. I have a few chores, change propane bottles, fill the generator tank with jet fuel and get some food packed to take home. Usually we get home no food. Open the refrigerator and the only thing left is a half box of wine an a stick of butter. Took everything to the cabin a week ago.
This time we won’t be back for a while until Kari recuperates from her knee surgery or until I can find some unsuspecting accomplice to fly out with me if the river is low enough to land in the slough.
Big day today, have to get everything ready for the big adventure south. Leaving Monday morning.
Did I mention the root cellar is soundproof “Boompa” can go in there and hide out for a quiet break and nobody can find him.
If this is boring let me know. I can shut up and get some work done. Otherwise I will be in touch.
Thank you Lord for another beautiful day!!

Blue skies!!

Stephens Mini Adventure. I woke up early Sunday and worked on the root cellar. Then did what I call cabin keeping chores. We won’t be back for about 6 weeks while Kari is recuperating. I may be able to fly out in September if the river cooperates. Anyway checked the water in the solar system batteries, fueled the 4wheelers, changed the propane bottles out, and added 12gal of diesel to the generator tank. The generator ran about 28 hours since the last fill on March 9, so pretty goodfuel economy for a 11kw generator. It was hot this trip so the ceiling fan and ice maker ran a lot. We leave the heat and lights on while we are away.
We got everything loaded on the boat and headed down the river. 3200rpm on the 454 Chevy Marine Power engine 31 mph. About a 2 hour run to the landing and our truck. I backed the truck and trailer down the ramp. Kari loaded the boat on the trailer. Nice job captain.
The highlight of the trip in was seeing a moose and her calf swimming across the river. I’ll attach a picture from my phone. You will have to zoom in. Didn’t want to get too close and stress them out. Arrived home about 4pm and got everything unloaded from the boat.
Thank you Lord for another great adventure!

I planned on starting the Big Adventure south on Monday morning but I just couldn’t get everything together in time. I’m all packed and ready to head down the Alcan Tuesday morning.

I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!!