Saturday October 25, 2025

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.

Wild winter on the river. First time on wheels. Not typical at all.

My ride to work sometimes. Pollux Helicopters.

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!!

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!

Saturday December 30, 2023

The View from the Outhouse

Good afternoon from Silty Slough.

-25 now up from -30 when I went outside at 4:30 this morning.

I shot myself in the foot with my post on Friday. I said I wasn’t going outside unless the generator failed to autostart. Guess what….Saturday morning Kari looked downstairs and a light was flashing on the autostart controller. I better check it out. -27 when I went out to check it and reset the control box on the generator. I attempted one start, didn’t start. Ok save the battery. This job is going to take more clothes. The heater in the generator shed that also semi warms the outhouse was flashing a 33 code. I made several attempts to reset it but I can’t get it going. I’ll get the Honda 2000 that I keep in the shop because it is almost impossible to start cold. I try it inside and it won’t start. No problem I have an outlet powered from the house system in the generator shed just in case. Under the deck I have a new bullet heater. Feels light when I pick it up, so I know it needs fuel. Carry it out to the diesel tank. The fuel hose there is so stiff it won’t bend or twist to get the nozzle in the filler. I finally get the heater jockeyed around enough to fill it. I know when it is cold the nozzle sticks and won’t shut off, so I quit early. Let the handle snap. The fuel slowly stopped flowing and the handle fell out of the nozzle and promptly rolled into the snow. I shut the tank valve off, will get to the nozzle repair on a warmer day. Ok take the heater to the generator shed. Plug it in and it fires right up. Position it so I don’t burn the place down. I’m not cold yet so I might as well try to see how much propane is in the 100 pound bottle for the heater. It is frozen down, so I picked up a chunk of 4×4 and give it a couple whacks. The tank rocks, the frozen rubber hose cracks and starts shooting propane at me. I rock the tank back and it stopped, so I shut off the valve. I guess the tank isn’t empty. I took the rubber line off and looked for a replacement in the greenhouse, which is 3 degrees inside without any heat source. Maybe I should move the generator into the greenhouse. Anyway the one copper line I have has too small of a fitting on the end that connects to the regulator. I have another rubber line with the end broken off. I’ll use an air hose barb and clamp to make it work. Ok now I have a good hose with a POL fitting on it to connect to the tank. Do you know why it is called that? Prest-O-Lite is the company that developed them and set the standard. Enough education back to trouble shooting and problem solving. I installed the hose, hooked up the POL fitting to the tank and turned it on. It has been long enough so I tried a start on the generator, started but died, second attempt it ran. We are in business….cooking with gas, diesel, and electricity. I’ll go in and google the 33 code on the heater. With a smartphone, an internet connection, and Google anybody can be a know it all. I need the model number so back out to the shed and photograph the data plate. I’m sure I have a photo in my phone but I don’t want to look through 30,000 picts. Has anyone heard from Kamala lately? She hasn’t checked in with me about this cats-ass-trophy I’m faced with. Probably couldn’t handle it anyway.

After some study a 33 code is a $6 switch. Of course it is a holiday and I can’t get one shipped until Tuesday. I’ll order a couple to have an extra one on hand to be assured that some other part will fail next time.

I’ll leave the generator run until bedtime so it won’t need to start until Saturday afternoon. What’s a couple gallons of diesel fuel in a bankruptcy of this size anyway.

The women are still cooking like some army is coming over.

Needed to get the prime rib to room temp to cook it last night. I guess sewing and quilting got in the way so we had Portillo’s Chicago style hot dogs. One twist, Kari had some relish made with green tomatoes that she canned a couple years ago. Awesome!! Jess made bearing sausage gravy, sausage patty, biscuits, and scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning.

-21 now. Couple more degrees and I will attempt a start on the generator. Their sewing and ironing have sucked some juice. Made sure they took the prime rib out. I’ll carry in a couple loads of wood. Surprisingly we aren’t using very much. It stays about 70 in here. I suppose all the cooking and baking helps. Rattle those pans ladies. Next week is going to be diet city for me.

One more thing… the dogs were going crazy, barking, and carrying on. Jess looked out and 3 coyotes were running down the river. Must have missed the roadrunner.

Everyone stay safe and healthy, and stay out of Walmart.

Thank you Lord for watching over us!!

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Thursday December 21, 2023

The View from the Outhouse

Ready to depart as soon as I move the snow machine.

Turning these on has to waste a lot of electricity.

Hello everyone from Silty Slough. Today is the first day of winter 7 below zero at noon on the shortest day of the year. The sun rose at 10:28 and will set at 3:37 5 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. Tomorrow we gain a few seconds and the salmon turn around and start swimming back toward Alaska.

After Thanksgiving Kari and I trimmed out the beadboard walls and ceiling in the master bathroom.

I plowed snow and did other cabin chores.

I figured flying was over until spring but received the welcomed call letting me know I had won an all expense paid trip to Kelowna, BC, overnight, then to Yellowknife, NT and back to Anchorage. The river is still not frozen good enough for travel so Chris from Pollux Aviation came out and picked me up in one of their R44 helicopters. Life isn’t all skittles and beer flying the jet. Up at 2:30 am to show up at 5 for a 7 o’clock departure. Short day though only a little over 3 hours to Kelowna, have lunch then take a nap before dinner. A lot of my job is efficiently wasting time between flights. Next day, non stop to Yellowknife. It is dark and cold when we arrive. Bought some fuel and the crew we are transporting arrives. They jump off their plane and hop into ours. Back home to Anchorage and in bed by 11pm. Could have been a little earlier but I made a stop at the Country Store for a scoop of butter pecan ice cream. I figured I owed it to myself. Day after tomorrow we do a quick day trip to Fairbanks. That should do it until spring.

I’m going to hang around Wolf Lake a few days. I need to dig the trailer out and go pick up my new snow machine in Anchorage. It has snowed a lot this year and my main chore is blowing snow followed by replacing shear pins in the blower. Got 3 at once when I picked up an 18” piece of 2 x 6 that the trailer tongue I plowed out was sitting on. The stupid operator makes the snow blowers life a hard one. A lot of things are like that with machines and life. I have a few more days to wait to fly back out to the cabin. Our grandson, Thor has a test on the 14th so I’m flying out on the 16th and he will fly back in to go to Hawaii to visit his family there for Christmas.

Kari has a list of food and supplies for the holidays along with all the packages that arrived in the mail. I’ll take the R-66 helicopter back out. It has a turbine engine that takes up less space and leaves room for a baggage compartment. I spent a couple days shopping at Costco and Fred Meyer. I hit the mother lode, Friday is 4x fuel points.

Saturday morning the 16th Jess and Steve Gahan showed up to help me pack everything and get it to the other side of the airport to Pollux. I think they just came over to make sure I was really leaving, since they have been feeding me almost every night. Chris did an amazing job packing the helicopter. You couldn’t have fit another popsicle stick in. Nice flight. Still quite a bit of open water on the rivers. Glad I took the helicopter. Kari and Thor were waiting when we arrived at the landing spot at the top of the ramp.

Chris left it running while we unloaded. Do you ever notice how much taller you feel when the rotor blades are spinning over your head? Everyone always ducks. We load Thor’s bags and give him a hug. He is off for Hawaii. Meanwhile in Silty Slough there are things to put away, snow to plow, things to repair.

While I was away they turned the Northern Lights on. Thor took pictures and wanted me to post some.

There is some traffic on the river now. Mostly iron doggers, no heavy freight haulers yet. Temps are colder now so it won’t be much longer until we can start hauling.

Jess is coming out for Christmas since Steve has to work. We have the R-66 loaded again with food, supplies, and quilting fabric.

Roger and Andy are going to try to make it to the post office today. First trip in almost 3 months. We are going to try to head to town by snow machine right after new years.

On a side note, I just read the truss plant roof in Anchorage caved in from snow. I thought these were the people that knew all about roof design and snow loads.

From Silty Slough, Kari, Mayor Cooper, Teddy, Oden the cat, Piper, and I wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Thank you Lord for your many blessings!!

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!

Sunday October 30, 2022

The View from the Outhouse

Greetings from Silty Slough. 24 degrees this morning with a little less ice floating down the river. Clear and sunny but pretty windy. I think it may have gotten up to 36 degrees in the afternoon. Day 13 with the cell tower down. I have sent many messages to Kari with the Spot Emergency locator. Only a couple of her replies have made it to me.

Yesterday I took my ready heater apart to see why it wasn’t working. This mornings project is to finish checking it out. When I took it apart the motor would barely turn, I freed that up and fired it up on the bench. I could see that no fuel was getting up to the nozzle, since Cory and I had replaced all the hoses last year with clear ones. I pulled the air pump off and cleaned the filters. Fired it up again and the fuel started up the line but didn’t quite make it to the nozzle. Maybe the nozzle is plugged a bit or the pump is weak. I know, I’ll disconnect the line from the pump and blow in the line to the nozzle with the air compressor. I finally found the blow gun by looking for a tape measure I lost. You know that you can’t just look for the item you need and expect to find it. You have to be looking for something else and suddenly the other item you need appears. I still need to find the Milwaukee 16’ tape measure and my good pair of Knipex wire stripping pliers. I blew in the line with the compressor and a fine mist came out of the nozzle. Why don’t I flip the switch and fire it up using the air compressor. What could possibly go wrong. Well I did. The thing lit off and blew a flame out past the end of the heater about 3 feet. Looked like the Bat mobile. Pretty cool. I got it shut down right away so nothing got on fire. Guess I’ll get a new pump on order when the cell tower starts working again.

Now that it warmed up outside the next project is to get a wood splitter going. Worked out good just filled the tank with fresh gas and it started right up. Nothing like a Honda “Easy Start”

Back inside to use the canned foam around the upstairs windows and fill some gaps the insulators couldn’t. I did a little better this time.

I was just taking a break and having a tuna salad sandwich so I could use up another boiled egg. By the way I made deviled eggs last night, turned out good and used up 8 of my boiled eggs. Now it’s Don 35 eggs 15.

I heard this rumble and the boys started barking. Probably the guys from the Air Guard checking up on me with a C-130. I went out on the deck and waited, a Cessna that I didn’t recognize came by for another low pass. I waved and it circled again this time lining up on the cabin. Just as he went over, out the window came a small black package with bright green streamers. I’m thinking it sure is nice that someone is thinking of me. Brought tears to my eyes. Then I remembered the car warranty guy that can’t get in touch with me since the cell tower is still down. The wind blew the package over the bluff about 20 feet so I had to climb down to get it. It is pretty steep so it took me a while in the snow. I’m excited, can’t wait to see who it is from. I went back inside the cabin and finally got it open. It was really packed good for the drop. Inside was a Garmin Inreach Emergency Locator and an Icom aviation band radio from Jess Gahan and Cody Kreitel the pilot. There was a printed message from Kari letting me know that our Mother had a stroke Friday and everyone was just waiting and praying for her recovery. I sent Kari a message right away with the Inreach and asked for any updates about Mother. The dreaded message came back that Mother had passed away 30 minutes earlier. She has had a good long life of 92 years, we would have liked to have had her with us even longer, it is comforting to know that she is in heaven tonight.

Kari is in Michigan with her dad. Her stepmom had surgery on the 17th and is still in the hospital not doing well at all. So she can’t leave Michigan right now.

Tonight I really feel all alone, stranded here for now. I can’t call and talk to Kari or the rest of my family. The boys can tell I’m really sad and have been hanging very close to me. I really can’t thank Jess and Cody enough for getting the Inreach to me.

Well friends, a sad night at the slough, everyone stay safe and healthy.

Thank you Lord for watching over us and for saving a spot in heaven for our Mother for all these years.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

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