Thursday November 20, 2025

The View from the Outhouse

Good morning, from Silty Slough. It’s 26 degrees at 9 am. The forecast is for a high of 33 this afternoon, but I don’t think it’s going to make it. The sun is just peeking under the overcast. Sunrise at 9:31 and sunset scheduled for 4:09, total daylight 6 hours and 37 minutes. We will continue to lose daylight for 31 more days. The river is showing a few more wet spots than yesterday. Sometimes in years past we were able to travel in the local neighborhood to get together with neighbors for Thanksgiving dinner. It doesn’t look like the river is going to co-operate this year.

That makes an annual event that happened last week really important this year, The Alaska Turkey Bomb. Years ago, just before Thanksgiving Kenney Hughes would drop turkeys to residents in this area. I believe he passed away and the residents did without turkey for Thanksgiving. About 3 years ago a lady from town that grew up out here in Skwentna resurrected the event. With the help of donations and volunteers it has expanded and covers more area now. Turkeys are dropped from airplanes to families that are out here and are unable to travel to town to get one for Thanksgiving. This year a nice burlap coffee bag was dropped that contained a turkey, candy, and coffee. I tried to place a link to a YouTube video for the story. https://youtu.be/k1YHGrHQwPU

Yesterday a neighbor showed up in a helicopter completely full of Amazon packages, fresh fruit, vegetables, a turkey, and a Starlink Mini to test out on the trails.

In one of the packages were a couple thermometers to monitor the woodstove. Since I added the Cadillac converter (catalytic…see previous post) there has been a learning curve on operating it with the most efficiency. There are a few good YouTube videos for our particular stove that I have been watching. One thing about YouTube is you have to be able to sort the flyshit from the pepper. Anyway, one thermometer monitors the top of the stove (also good when Kari is using the Alaskan crock pot) and the other monitors the stack temperature or EGT in airplane talk. When the catalytic converter lights off the stack temperature will run 1100-1200 degrees. I don’t think you want to go to Wal-Mart for your stove pipe. One good feature of the thermometers is that you can set a temperature for them to alarm in case it gets too high. Setting the parameters with instructions translated from Chinese is a college level course. I think I may have gotten a passing grade. The next time in town, I need to bring my infrared thermometer from the hangar out here. Not so much for the stove but to check the temperature of the ice and the flowing water in the river. May be interesting.

I would like to go fly the drone and check the river, but things may be more peaceful if I go out and pump 220 gallons of electricity into the diesel tank for the generator. Kari always helps and it is a nice enough day for it.

We let the fire go out this morning since it is fairly warm outside and we need to clean out the ashes. I guess the biggest reason is that Thor is in town for Thanksgiving, so that puts me on wood duty. Conserve, conserve, conserve.

Mayor Cooper had a birthday a couple days ago, 7 years old. He and Teddy are cooking up a new scam. The Silty Slough Ice Classic, and The Adopt a Yentna River Iceberg program. They are working on a waiver for the definition of iceberg. Google says it has to be 15 meters long so ours may not qualify. If you have access to Google you know it all.

That’s about all the happenings at the Slough. Thanks for listening and have a great day.

Thank you, Lord, for watching over us and for giving us enough.

I’ll be in touch.

Blue Skies!!

This and prior posts are at siltyslough.com

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

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

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!!!