2.14.23 Tuesday

Measurable snow YTD: 105.50" (8.79 feet)

Hi again!

I know, I know, it's been awhile.  The only excuse I have is the truth...This first winter of truly remote living is so different for us.  It seems as though we learn something new every day. 

We continue to enjoy the snow...as you can see at the top of this page, we've gotten over eight feet and we still have a lot of winter left.  The amount of snow is nothing new to us.  We've seen several feet every year since we moved to Alaska.  What IS new to us is learning where to shovel it, pack it down, and move it around for the least amount of damage to buildings.  Our first casualty was the front porch roof...

When snow and ice shed from the upper roof of the main cabin, it hit the front porch roof and destroyed it.  Now we have holes in it that will have to be patched after the snow lets up and before the spring rains set in.  In order to avoid another casualty, we decided to spend several hours one day trying to get the snow off the back porch, or the "carport" as we call it....

Despite several attempts to remove the snow using the roof rake, then throwing a line over it and see-sawing back and forth, it wasn't budging.  So Kevin rigged a pully-system to a couple of trees, hooked it up to the snow machine and tried to pull....it still wouldn't shed!  We decided to insert some temporary braces under the roof until the heavy weight of the snow disappears.  It may take awhile...

In the end, we decided to bring in the big guns!  I called a local high school senior who had done some work for us at the last house.  He's a good worker and very trustworthy.  He agreed to come up on the train last Saturday, worked on several roofs for us, and went back on the train Sunday.  He was definitely a God-send!

Thank you, Ethan!

I recently had a rude awakening when I realized how long it had been since our little Shitzu, Samantha, had been groomed.  She looked like a mop and I could barely see her eyes.  

Am I a terrible dog-mom, or what?  And once that was realized, well, how do we get her to the groomer??  Good thing she is such a trooper.  We stuffed her into her little dog kennel, put her between us on the snow machine, and off we went.  I have to admit, she wasn't crazy about the ride but she did okay.  It had to have been more fun than being stuffed underneath an airplane seat like we've done in the past.  And now she can tell all of her dog friends that she rode about 25 miles on a snow machine!  

We continue to be able to get our water from the spring below the house.  It seems as though it slows down by half every time we go down there, but it hasn't frozen YET.  We realized (based on the prints), that a moose may have collapsed the holding tank under the ground.  We won't know the extent of that damage until the spring.

We had a little excitement yesterday...We'd ordered a new refrigerator and a gently-used full size washer and dryer.  They were delivered via the railroad tundra truck yesterday!  

We hauled them up to the house with the snow machine and a couple of different sleds.  Kevin will work on hooking up the dryer in the next few days.  The washer will have to wait until spring.  The refrigerator, however, took a little more work...

This is the pantry in the kitchen where we think a refrigerator used to be at one time...

We have plenty of other pantry space in the back of the house so out with the old and in with the new!

It's electric, so we'll have to run the generator a couple of hours every day or so to keep it cold and minimize getting in and out of it.  It may not get cold enough in the freezer to make ice so I've ordered a countertop ice machine that makes ice quick when the electricity is running.  It's all do-able, it just takes a lot of thinking and planning and working it out.

The challenges are real and we are learning as we go...stay tuned!