12.14.22 Wednesday

Measurable snow YTD: 57.00" (and expecting several inches overnight!)

Hello again!

The weather has been cold and we've gotten several inches of snow over the last few days.  When it quits snowing and the sun comes out, it makes everything appear to glow...

Last weekend, we had an awesome mechanic and his wife come up overnight to work on our big generators.  They came up Saturday on the train...

We are super blessed that they were able to get both of them running on Saturday so the rest of the time was left to visit!  On Sunday, it was snowing and cold.  Kevin hooked a propane heater up in the "bus stop" to wait...

The train arrived and off they went...

That was Sunday.  So for the next adventure....remember me mentioning that we had a very special guest coming this month?  It's Everett, Kevin's dad, all the way from Missouri!  So Monday he flew into Anchorage in the middle of a bad snow storm then they closed down the airport!  In the meantime, Kevin had to snow machine out the trail..

Not sure if Nova was bored or thoughtfully watching over the packing...

When Kevin got to the trail head, he found both vehicles covered in TWO FEET of snow!  By the time he got them dug out, he wasn't even sure he would be able to get out of the parking lot.  He launched the pickup through it and was able to slowly make his way to Anchorage on barely plowed roads and white-out conditions.  

By the grace of God, he met up with his dad at a motel in Anchorage.  They spent the night and headed back toward Talkeetna on terrible roads and continued white-out conditions.  By that time, we'd had almost a foot of new snow on the trail and he was a little concerned about the weight of the machine and freight sled on the fluffy snow.  His dad is 81 years old and in great shape so Kevin gave him a crash course on hanging on and leaning to keep the machine upright.  It was still snowing when he called me from the trail head and said they were going to attempt it.  That was around noon on Tuesday.  Ideally, they should have been home in about 45 minutes.  So I waited...

A little over an hour went by...and here they come!

I guess the ride was pretty sketchy, to say the least!  Everett is a trooper and Kevin is a warrior, so they were fine.  His mom (she's back in Missouri) and I had been worried and praying like crazy that they would be okay.  I think Everett was in shock more than anything because Kevin said there was no slowing down the whole way...

We look forward to relaxing and enjoying Everett while he's here.  We have a special surprise booked for him later in the week...

Stay tuned!