Thursday 10.26.23
Mouse Trapline Tally: 5
(Total to-date for this year!)
Let's catch up! My apologies that I have been remiss in posting since the spring....I decided to embrace this summer and hard core live it with few distractions. And boy, do I have some stories to share! Let's get started!
Kevin took off to work at a remote village early May. So in my defense, I was left unsupervised for most of the summer! At that point, our water line to the house was still frozen so I was hauling water from the spring to the house on a sled every few days. It was hard but great exercise Don't recommend it if you don't have to do it but it certainly kept me from being bored! I also learned how to "slime" a tire on our wooden trailer. There are some things that I just don't care to know about but knowledge is power, right??
As spring sprung, I became aware of some of the beauty surrounding our property...
I don't know what this bush is? It looks a little like a lilac bush but I'm pretty sure that's not it...
By the time we moved in here last August, a lot of the flowers had already disappeared. But THIS year, I got to experience the wild roses by the house...
One cool thing about these roses is that they are VERY abundant in the woods all around. They are all up and down the trail when we go in and out to town. They're beautiful!
Here is the Alaska state flower, Forget-me-nots....
Although we weren't able to get a greenhouse up this year, I was able to grow some potatoes...
I had a couple of tubs going and success!
I figured as long as I pulled out more than I planted, we'll call it a win!
At one point early in the summer I had a visitor on the front porch and in front of the house...
I yelled at it to "get out of here!" and it jumped up and ran off like a little girl. I felt very brave with my head peaking around the front door and one leg still in the house...😝
Late summer, I experienced pure joy at picking wild blueberries from the woods. I know it seems like a silly, little thing, but the idea that God just dropped them in there for all of us to enjoy for free is amazing to me!
I also picked some Salmon berries and harvested some Fireweed blossoms which led to LOTS of jelly and jam making...
The day I made the Fireweed jelly, I had the kitchen window open and looked out to see this picture...
There was actually a third cub up the tree. We had encountered them on the trail at one point too. I guess they smelled the sugar in the jelly and were hoping for a tasty treat. Move along little doggies...
As you may know, we've learned that there are two seasons in Alaska....1. winter, and 2. getting ready for winter. And when you heat with a woodstove, that involves lots of wood cutting, splitting, stacking...
Ok, I confess. I hired a high school kid to come up on the train for the day and stack these rounds in the wood shed. I did stack the rest, though. I would much rather get that kind of workout than go to the gym! And it keeps you warm twice--once when you're working it and again when you burn it!
We had a lot of rain this summer and by late August, the three rivers that converge at Talkeetna could no longer stay in their banks. There was a lot of flooding. Our neighbors, Brad and Sarah were out here for the weekend and heard that the parking lot where we all park our vehicles was in danger of getting under water. So along with our other neighbor, Bernie, we all decided to ride our four-wheelers to town to move vehicles. We rounded the corner about three miles from town and saw this....
It was nearly knee-deep on the machines but we were able to push through it to get to the parking lot. Frankly, it was super scary and definitely pushed me WAY out of my comfort zone. Luckily, the parking lot wasn't flooded but the water was still rising so we moved vehicles to high ground. The idea of going back through that water was terrifying so Bernie and I stored the machines in town and took the train back home. At that point, we were stranded until the water decided to recede!
This all happened on a Sunday. The next day, Kevin called to say he was getting a few days off and was coming home! He had only been able to come home for a few days in July and I hadn't seen him since. The problem was that now I couldn't get into town to pick him up! So we called an Uber...
While he was home, the water started to go down and we were all able to make it back to town to restore order in the parking lot. Scary stuff!
As of today, he is now home for the season. We've decided to put small diesel heaters in the main cabin, the guest cabin, and the barn/shop as a backup to the woodstoves.
Isn't this a funky little fuel tank??
In preparation, we ordered some heating fuel and gas to be delivered via the Tundra truck by the railroad. It came today. So today's task? Figure out how to get four 55-gallon drums of fuel up the hill from the tracks. I don't know how much gas weighs per gallon but I know water weighs eight pounds per gallon (I worked for two different water departments in another life). So, challenge accepted!
Step one: Get them off the pallet, and rolled away from the railroad tracks so we can assess the situation...
Step two: We have a plan...
Step three: Ok, so I have to insert something here. Kevin is so smart about this stuff and gets very creative when we're moving heavy things with just the two of us. At our ages, we have learned to work smart instead of hard. So I have to admit it was actually MY idea to roll the barrels up into the trailer this way. I'd done it once before...he was skeptical...
It worked! Yeah! I'll admit, getting them OUT of the trailer was a whole other story...maybe we'll save that one for another day....
After we got them all loaded, we decided to take a quick break and climb down to the river. It's right below our property and across the railroad tracks. This is what we saw...
It was beautiful with the ice floating on it! It won't be long before it's frozen solid. Winter's coming...
Stay tuned!