Saturday November 3, 2025

The hangar hasn’t been this empty in 15 or 20 years.

Jody delivered rafters for the fuel shed. They are unloaded and up on the bank. We will put them up when the rain stops.

Adam coming into the landing in the skinny water. He had made a trip to Skwentna and stopped at Silty Slough on his way back to pick up the rear side by side wheels so that I could get the tires mounted. I will ride upriver with him in a few more days.

The fuel shed framed up. Kari made a solo trip in the Sea Ark with the metal roofing for this side.

The View from the Outhouse

Hello from Silty Slough. It was about 30 degrees outside when I made it upstairs. Kari was already having her coffee and soaking up some heat from the woodstove.

When we bought the stove, they said it was a convertible. I didn’t think too much about it. I never owned a convertible before. When I was in town this fall, I went by Alaska Stove and Spa to get a couple spare glass panels for the door just in case someone gets wild with the poker. I inquired about the convertible option and ended up buying one for $300. That’s really not that much in a bankruptcy of this size. It laid around for a few months, a couple of weeks ago I decided to install our new Cadillac converter. I don’t want to say catalytic converter because they are hot items for thieves in town…no pun intended. I don’t understand why they can’t quickly solve this problem; the thieves have to sell them somewhere. Find those people buying them and lock them up, they are just as guilty as the thieves. Anyway, the Cadillac converter was simple to install. It really evens out the temperature, and the stove puts out more heat with longer burn times. The 13 plus full chords of wood that Kari and Thor have in the shed will last at least two winters with some left over for a third

My last view promised to continue accounting for past activities over the summer and fall. Here is the second installment. BTW I asked for suggestions for naming the new ballroom at the White House in the last post. Teddy came up with “The Michelle Obama Memorial Ball Room” What do you think?

In the Summer I decided to go to our 55th class reunion in Indiana,so I booked a ticket to Chicago, rented a car, and made hotel reservations. Everything set, I never book anything when I travel, just wing it, this is a first. Thor wanted to come along since he has never been anywhere except Alaska and Hawaii, so he talked me into it. A couple weeks before we were scheduled to leave I came down with a case of shingles, I’m not talking about a bundle of cedar shakes but a full-blown case of shingles. It was the weekend of course, Captain Kari hustled us into Palmer to the urgent care place and I got some medicine. It took several days for the pain to subside and a couple weeks for the sores to heal. I had gotten the vaccine 8-10 years ago, the single shot one that is only 51% effective. As soon as I get to town in January, I’m getting the two shot Shingrix vaccine. I wouldn’t wish shingles on anyone….except maybe a few liberal Trump hating Democrats.

Summer of 24 I traded for a boat, motor, and trailer. It sat around until this summer when Kari wanted Steve, Thor, and I to inspect it. We pulled the floorboards out and found a lot of bad welds and cracks in the tubing where it had been repaired. I took it to Greatland Welding and they said that I could save hundreds of dollars if I bought a die grinder and ground the bad welds out. After about $400 worth of die grinder and burs and a week’s time, Steve and Thor had the welds cleaned up. Now it is back at Great Land to be welded, along with a flat diamond plate aluminum floor, flotation pods, air ride seats, and a beefed-up transom. Should make it into a great boat to support the compound at Silty Slough. The boat trailer is another project.

Late this fall I got the wild idea to rent out most of our hangar. I called a friend, and he jumped at renting the space, one slight problem the space he wanted was occupied by treasures that I had been collecting and hauling up the Alcan over the past 25 or 30 years.

The river was dropping so Kari, Thor, and the boys headed out in the boat for Silty Slough. I stayed back and started selling my treasures out of the hangar and hauling things i really didn’t need, but had been keeping around for 20 years to the dump. Scrap lumber, old parts that I had replaced with new, you never know when I may need them, empty containers, pieces of wire….you know the drill. Hangar cleaned out.

We were assigned our permanent spot in the storage lot at Deshka Landing so I decided to clear it off and get Newman’s to haul in a couple loads of gravel. I took the hangar Kubota to the landing to level it out,

then decided to leave it there for the winter fuel hauling. I’m too old to move 55 gal full fuel barrels around, so as Tom Brion would say, “Trade oatmeal power for diesel power”

I made a final Costco run, found a couple rear tires that were take offs at AMDS for the side by side and had them mounted. 2 tires $50 each and $50 to mount both at Diversified Tire. The best deal I’ve had in a long time. They didn’t have any take offs to fit the front, so i think some agency in the government owes me 2 front tires. The very least they should subsidize the difference between $50 and the actual cost. What do you think?

On October 2nd I headed up the river with everything in the barge with Adam and Joe Gabrazak. “River Dan’s Boys” Iron Dog Team 23. Our neighbor Jody Peyton is also running on Team 34. Let’s support our Yentna River friends and cheer them on February 14th.

October 3rd we pulled the Sea Ark out of the river, maybe a bit early, but better early than late. Even with the strong river current, Captain Kari put it on the trailer the first try. Like the “Dreaded Side Wind” in aviation.

No pictures were taken, in case we are captured I wouldn’t want to have to eat my phone. I dont think the government would give me a new one. Now we are committed, here until it is possible to travel the winter trail, probably after Christmas.

I have some things to do outside and I don’t want to get fired from my job, so I better get going.

Thank you, Lord for watching over us.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue Skies!!

Don

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!!

Wednesday November 27, 2024

This fire bomber was parked next to us on the ramp at Dickinson, ND. That would be a fun ride.

We took a road trip from Dickinson to Deadwood on our quest to efficiently waste time on a layover.

This will never fit in the helicopter…. but it did along with me and a couple more coolers. The pilots say I have the record for packing the most stuff in a helicopter.

The View from the Outhouse

Hello everyone, from Silty Slough.

I made it back to the Slough last Friday after about a month of flying, just in time for the start of “Digging through 6 inches of Carharts for 2 inches of pecker season”.

The river is freezing up but still has some open water. A few snowmachiners have gone by. I think I will wait a while longer until it freezes a bit more. We need some snow to cushion the ride. There was about 4” of snow when I pulled the groomer on the trail through the slough a couple days ago. I groomed a few rocks and decided to wait. Kari and Thor have the trails around the property packed and groomed like freeways. I can still drive the Kubota anywhere. This time last year when I got home from flying I think the snow was about knee deep or more. Temps have been good in the 0 to 20 range.

Since I was flying on November 5th I didn’t get to see the election results. Did Trump win? Been pretty quiet on FB, so I suspect he did. I’m so happy that Brandon and the 81 million that supposedly voted for him paid off my student loan for my lesbian literature degree just before the election. I sent the extra money I had left over to the Trump campaign.

…. Back to the slough. When I came out in the helicopter I only took one picture because I was busy taking everything in. This time the pilot landed right up by the cabin, talking about door to door service. Sam and the Pollux guys had the R66 filled to the brim with me, a trash pump, hoses, a turkey, and the rest of the groceries for Thanksgiving, along with repair parts to fix a few things at the cabin. The two Costco pumpkin pies and five dozen eggs made it all intact. Except for one piece of pie that came up missing. That could have happened in the truck on the way from Anchorage. Too bad I’m too old or I might try this helicopter flying stuff. I should be careful, the last time I said too bad I’m too old I ended up flying a business jet. Maybe I’ll ask Santa for a drone for Christmas and start another adventure.

It’s sunny 12 degrees and the wind is blowing about 5, so I guess I should get my Carharts on and find something that needs to be done outside. I don’t have to look far, just open the door and look in any direction.

From Silty Slough we wish everyone a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!!

Thank you Lord for everything you have blessed us with.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue Skies!!!

PS. Does anyone know of a position for someone with a PHD in lesbian literature? Just in case the judges block the new administration from kicking all the illegals off Social Security, before it goes bankrupt.

Sunday January 7, 2024

Look at the amazing color and the view of Mt. McKinley.

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning from Silty Slough. 27 degrees at 7 am when I went outside. About 2” of new snow. Sunrise is 10:20, we are gaining a couple of minutes a day.

Last Thursday Cory, Jess, and I headed down the trail to Deshka Landing. Jess has been here about two weeks and needs to get back to the uncivilized world. Cory was in the lead. I was next with a sled load of empty barrels, totes, and a dog kennel with Jess and Steve’s dog Artie in it. Artie is short for Artemus daughter of Zeus, she is the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, nature, childbirth, and the care of young children. A name befitting a black lab.

The run in was good, trail was fairly smooth. The light was flat in the middle of the trip and a few moguls appeared out of no where. I came off one sandbar headed down pretty steep to the river thinking “This is going to hurt.” Everything worked out for a really good trip. Cory gave us a ride to Wolf Lake since Jess and I came out to the cabin via helicopter.

Jess got her truck warming up while we broomed about 10” of snow off both the trucks. Then she and Artie headed home. I fired up the Kubota to snowblow the driveway. It is getting late and my big plans of shopping, buying fuel, and heading back to the landing to get the sled loaded for the trip back to the cabin tomorrow changed. Now it is Jersey Mike’s for a sub, Lowe’s for some bolts, and Carr’s for prescriptions and seltzer water. Last week I received a message from the bank that someone tried to charge $700+ dollars at Target and Best Buy on my card. I dismissed it as a scam. Guess it wasn’t, my debit card was declined at two stores and an ATM. I’ll fix it when I get back to the cabin.

Traffic is horrendous now. Wasn’t like that 28 years ago when we first got here. I’ve made a few observations about winter driving in Alaska. The posted speed limit is the minimum it takes to blast through the snow on the unplowed roads. It is best to draft off the vehicle in front of you to get through. You need to get right on their bumper and turn on all the brightest lights you have. This will blind you so you won’t be scared when the vehicle ahead of you has had enough and hits the brakes. If you come to an intersection and want to turn right on red after a stop. Don’t stop or you will be assessed a two stroke penalty and have to wait for traffic, let alone having the drivers behind you honking horns and flashing their lights. If you are driving a big lifted pickup with two snow machines on the tall rack in the bed all rules are suspended. You have the right to blast through red lights, pass on double yellow, and run little old ladies off the road just to get you to the trails quicker. There you rip up the groomed trails with your machine to make them miserable for civilized riders. I won’t get into the 80 mile per hour minimum speed limit for trucks pulling an enclosed snow machine trailer. If you happen to hit a moose you really need some momentum to knock it out of the road and not block traffic for the rest of the convoy to the trails. I’ll write about pickups with snow plows some other time.

I thought I woke up early enough Friday morning but time slipped away while I was packing up 16 eight packs of seltzer water the woman ordered, the mail, and a few other things in 3 coolers. I was planning on steak and eggs for breakfast but was running late so it is a hot dog and a root beer at Newmans in Willow for breakfast.

At the landing I loaded the coolers on the sled and filled the two 55 gallon barrels with gas, suited up and I’m ready to go. Cory and I had a good trip out, it was warm, the trail smooth, and the sun shining. When we got past Fish Lakes Creek and by Roger’s, Cory waved and split off for home. I have about a mile to Silty Slough. Kari has been out packing our trails, she and the dogs were happy to see me. I had stopped and picked up a few dog booties that had come off along the trail from the dog teams we passed. The boys like them and will add them to their arsenal of doggie toys. I’m hungry again. There is leftover prime rib for a sandwich on sourdough bread that Jess made. First we need to unload the sleds.

Saturday afternoon Kari and I went to the Phillips for a visit and to pick up Al’s Arctic Cat that Roger put a new track on. Then we went to Cory’s to pick up Dave Reed’s freight sled for our next trip to town. I managed to squeeze in a few minutes on the treadmill. Studying for the stress test the FAA requires for my medical exam in March.

Everyone stay safe and healthy!!

Thank you Lord for watching over us.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Sunday December 31, 2023

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning from Silty Slough, everyone. I slept in this morning, let the fire go out but there is little change in the indoor temperature, about 68. The outside temp changed big time overnight. I knew it would be good when I turned the porch light on and saw snow falling. It is 35 degrees warmer than last night. Plus 10 degrees now. I started a fire in the stove, turned on the burner for the coffee pot, and started this post. The women woke up had some coffee and Jess started breakfast. Bacon, scrambled eggs, home baked sourdough toast, with a glass of tomato juice for $13.75 plus tip.

Prime rib and shrimp turned out excellent.

After breakfast I made a swing by the outhouse in my pj bottoms, t shirt, and Crocks. Figured I might as well try the heater one more time since I’m out strolling around. I plugged it in and pressed the power button. No 33 error code yet, it should appear in a couple seconds. But heater lit off, no code. I guess it was too cold for the overheat sensor to operate properly yesterday. Cancel that parts order. I don’t need no stinking repair parts now.

Jess spotted a moose across the river. I took a picture. It is the tiny black dot in the center of the frame. I titled it “Moose in the middle”.

With the warmer weather I should cross some things off my to do list.

Check the generator diesel tank quantity

Replace the shock in the rear suspension on my snow go

Dig out my freight sled

Water solar batteries

Carry in wood

Treadmill

That’s all crossed off. I’ll get to them later today or tomorrow.

Maybe time to take a nap so I can stay awake until midnight New York time.

From the Silty Slough, I hope everyone has a Great New Year!!

Thank you Lord for 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!!!

Friday December 29, 2023

A couple of the many varieties of cookies.

Make your own pizza night. Kari’s pear, ham, blue cheese, topped with hot honey.

We were hungry and ate before I could get a picture. Blackberry sourdough star.

Panettone. Makes wonderful French toast.

The women are in the house looking through the screen. Does the screen make me look fat?

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning from Silty Slough. This year is rapidly winding down. Soon I will have to be retrained to write 2024, just after getting 2023 mastered.

Woke up a couple minutes after what I read on my phone as 6 this morning. It is clear and bright out. The dogs want to go out and I might as well go to the outhouse. The snow was crunchy and I could feel the hairs in my nose frosting up. I’m in my pj bottoms, t shirt, and Crocks. No socks but I have the winter Crocks that are fur lined. I didn’t have to tell Mayor Cooper and Teddy to come in. It must be really cold out. When we got inside I checked the temperature on my phone with the Weather Underground app. Silty Slough reporting station KAKSKWEN7 if you are interested or even if you aren’t. 27 below zero and the time was actually a little after 5. Must be a different time zone upstairs. Anyway it is colder than a well diggers arse in the Klondike. I’m in trouble, I hear footprints on the stairs and I haven’t started the coffee. Jess is already in the dark kitchen looking for coffee. Luckily the coffee pot wasn’t loaded last night and ready to brew, so I get a pass. I’ll wait till later to get in trouble.

Jess arrived last Saturday on the helicopter with more stuff to cook for the holidays. She and Kari have been cooking nonstop. Cookies, cakes, ham, soup, all kinds of bread and rolls. You name it. We went to the neighbors on Christmas Day for a get together. Took a whole tub sled full of food, had a great time, and didn’t bring too much food home, so they are at it again. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast a couple mornings ago. Macaroni and cheeseburger soup-no Velveeta allowed. Yesterday morning it was quiche with biscuits and homemade jam. Last night was Carne asada. I’m waiting for prime rib and lobster night. I saw it come off the helicopter.

Last night they started making Panettone. I heard them talking about setting an alarm at 1 am to do something in the process when I went to bed. Tomorrow I have to make sure I have a full 100 pound propane bottle hooked up. I would be in deep doo-doo if it ran out in the middle of baking a tasty treat.

Jess is here until the 4th, if I keep up this eating pace I will need to walk to Deshka Landing pulling a groomer.

28 below now. Temp going down and bathroom scales going up.

With indoor plumbing I guess some of you are wondering what I was doing in the outhouse. Let me rephrase that. Why am I going outside in the cold to the outhouse. While I was on my last trip, Kari told me the toilet and shower were draining slow. Then a later report was bring a snake it isn’t working at all. I don’t like snakes that is part of the reason I live in Alaska. So on Steve Gahan’s advice I went too Ferguson and got a couple bottles of Clobber. This stuff is just pure sulfuric acid I think. Instructions are to put on a rubber suit, gloves, and goggles. Poured it down the drain it boils and bubbles a bit but doesn’t go down. I wait a couple days for the acid to neutralize so I don’t kill the snake and try it. No worky. I’ve been outside and checked all the inspection tubes, nothing frozen. So I have Jess bring 4 more bottles of Clobber. Poured one in each drain after I removed the toilets and one in each of the cleanouts outside. Still no worky. There is a clean out downstairs where the drain goes through the wall. This is the lowest point in the system. So far I haven’t been able to talk Jess or Kari into removing the plug so I can run the snake in it.

Christmas Day Roger gave me a balloon that hooks on a water hose. You put it down the drain turn on the water, it inflates, seals off the pipe, and shoots water out the end to blast the clog away. Same thing the doctors had in mind to do to my heart except it was too plugged up. Instead they split me open like a fish and did it right. Anyway back to the sewer. I put the balloon in the first clean out outside and it seemed to help. I did the second one on the other side of the tank. I guess I pushed it in too far and it hung up on the inlet to the leach bed. Anyway I can’t pull it out. So now I have a second block in the system. Can’t get the Kubota to it because the snow is so deep. Probably a good thing. I can just see ripping the system’s gonads out by its vocal cords when I hook the hose to the Kubota bucket and pull, so I cut the hose, folded it over and put the cap back on the clean out. It’s 8 degrees out here and I’m not having a good time. I guess I will wait until the end of May and dig it up. So now it is back to the outhouse and showers over the garage floor drain. I’m thinking I may have covered the outlet to the drain up, because with indoor plumbing we won’t ever shower in the garage again.

In town I could just call someone. But that’s not the way it works 60 miles from the end of the road. You the man. I could write the rest of the day because I’m not going outside, that is unless the generator quits.

I think it is time for Lars to call me to fly a long fictitious trip. (Hint hint)

I better get going. I think the women have something ready for breakfast.

I hope all of you don’t spend as much to inflict pain and suffering to myself like I do, just to say we live way off the end of the road. But after all I have a million dollar view on a sunny day. Show me the money.

From Silty Slough I hope each and everyone has a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!!!!

Thank you Lord for your many blessings!!

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 November 26, 2023

My ride to work most of the time this summer.

Kari splitting wood to fill the woodshed.

More water today. This time two years ago we were riding on the river to the post office and to the neighbors for Thanksgiving.

My ride home. Needed a bigger helicopter for all the supplies. Pollux Helicopters. Robinson R-66.

The View from the Outhouse

Hello friends from Silty Slough. I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. It has been so long since I posted a view I had to go to the hangar and retrieve the classified archives sitting beside Kari’s Corvette. I want to keep my story straight and not repeat myself. As I continue the journey around the sun I’m trying not to let the old man in. When I’m writing or talking I try to remember if I’ve already told that story. When I’m writing or talking I try to remember if I’ve already told that story.

The river started to freeze up nice a week ago then the temp warmed up and the rains started. 34 degrees today at 11am. It’s not looking good for a trip to the post office anytime soon.

The day after the big road trip adventure with brother EJ, I jumped right into my next adventure.

I may have mentioned in an earlier view that I ran into my friend and former neighbor Lars at Costco. He flies a corporate jet for a company in Anchorage. He mentioned that it was hard to keep pilots, they keep moving on to airline jobs. Now he is just using contract pilots instead of a full time pilot. I made the remark, “Too bad I’m too old”. He asked, “Do you want to fly? I thought about a half second and said sure. It will be good to have to think about something other than building a cabin and doing everything it takes to live 60 miles from the end of the road. One minor problem, since I had heart surgery I don’t have the required FAA medical certificate. I’ll call the doctor and get on it right away. So after about a year of stress tests, heart monitors, doctor visits, and letters to and from the FAA, I finally received my medical.

I let Lars know right away. We set up a time and did some training. Lars is very patient teaching an old dog new tricks. I hadn’t flown a jet in the ATC system for 6 years. Most things in the 747 happen fairly slow like a big truck, this jet is a sports car, like riding a bullet. Time for my first trip. I’m praying, “Please Lord, don’t let me screw up.” It went pretty good; Lars carried me a lot of the way. I got called for another trip, then another, and another. Most of the time the other contract pilots had commitments so I flew most of the trips all summer. The last trip was during freeze up time, when boats and snow machines don’t work for travel. I took a helicopter to Wolf Lake on October 16 to do a 24 day trip to Seattle and fly around the Northwest. I came back out by helicopter on November 16 with the turkey and everything else on Kari’s AnyList for Thanksgiving and until we can get to town again after the river freezes.

While I was out flying around, staying in hotels, eating at nice places, and efficiently wasting time between flights, Kari and Thor were splitting wood and filling the woodshed we built this summer along with all of the day to day cabin chores. For this I must pay on my return.

I did order in all kinds of spare parts for the generator, boiler, electrical system, and everything else I could think of. No breakdowns, so things went well. Mayor Cooper got sick and we thought he may have to helicopter in but Kari was able to nurse him back to health. I hope he didn’t have to take that awful gout medicine she makes for me. It did cure my gout or I just don’t let the Doc know I have any symptoms.

When I had to go to town for flying trips this summer Kari would take me by boat to one of the lodges to get a ride to town on Rust’s Flying Service. Usually in a Beaver on floats. That was an enjoyable way to commute to work. I think I flew about 40 days this year. It is getting easier and is quite enjoyable.

Back in the 70s my goal was to fly a jet for a company. I guess I finally may have made it.

During the summer when I wasn’t flying we cut trees, split wood, built a woodshed and did everything necessary to get ready for winter when we can haul everything we need up the river for the next summer and winter. Still working on finishing the cabin. Some projects like siding were delayed due to weather and flying.

That about sums everything up since the last post.

From Silty Slough, a below average guy, just trying to do an above average job.

I hope everyone is safe, healthy, and happy.

Thank you Lord for your blessings and for giving us enough.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!

Thursday July 6, 2023

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning from Silty Slough. It is 51 degrees at 7am with more light rain. I read yesterday was the hottest overall temperature for Mother Earth ever recorded. Well they need to fire up all those windmills and spread it around a bit, but I guess that would take too much electricity. The plus is the cool temperatures keeps most of the riffraff out of the area. River is high and running fast, nothing like the current in the Yukon though. Now to post the last day of the trip and close out this adventure so I can start another.

Monday June 19

Ed and I are up early again. Places to go and things to see. 290 miles home today. We are cruising down highway 1 from Tok. It is pretty good with only a few frost heaves and loose gravel patches. Better than most years.

Alaska highways are just single digits since there are less than 10 and most have names. No interstates. I found it odd that Oahu Hawaii has interstate highways. Actually after extensive research (Google) Alaska does have interstate highways designated A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4. The are however exempt from interstate standards. The segment of A-2 from the border to Tok must carry a double exemption.

On down Interstate A-1 near Gakona we pass a big building off in the bushes. This is HAARP- High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project. Supposed to be studying the ionosphere. Some think they are controlling the weather, causing a drought in North Korea etc. I think it is how the Northern Lights are powered. Just my humble opinion. The scenery is beautiful along this stretch with Wrangle-St. Elias National Park off the left. It is clear and the mountains are beautiful. Check with my brother Ed, he has all the pictures.

Then it is on to join H-4 for a dozen or so miles to Glennallen. You want to tanker enough fuel to get through here because the fuel is approaching Canada prices $4.84 a gallon. I’ll be glad to get to Palmer Fred Meyer so I can get a dollar off a gallon with my Kroger fuel points. Didn’t stop at Glennallen. Shortly after turning right and leaving H-4 we crossed the Trans Alaska Pipeline. It is above ground off to the left and right side of the road. On past Slide Mountain and Eureka where we spent a lot of time snow machining before we started the cabin at Silty Slough. Now our snow machines are always pulling sleds of supplies in the winter. Gunsight Mountain comes into view. When you see it you will know why it is called that. Soon we are passing Matanuska Glacier off the left. This warrants a photo stop. Then it is on to Palmer and a lunch stop at the Sunrise Cafe. 5 more miles home and Steve is there to help us unload the trailer. He needs a ride to the airport at 8 o’clock. I think we will let him drive alone and pick his truck up tomorrow when I go to the airport to start my new job and next adventure.

Nice leisurely trip, left June 10 arrived June 19. Could have trimmed off a few days but I had stops to make to purchase much needed treasures along the way. 3945.6 miles from North Judson, Indiana, 427 gallons of diesel fuel for 9.24 miles per gallon. Trip number 36 in the ships log. I still need a few more things from the lower 48.

From the Asylum at Silty Slough, friends I wish you well.

Thank you Lord for a safe journey and for giving us enough.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue skies!!!