Summer has returned to the Chatanika

The last couple of weeks we haven't had very nice weather in the interior. Over cast and rainy every day. The rain is kind of a blessing since it has subdued the wild fires in the area, but it makes our lives in the bush a little more difficult. The trails end up in very poor condition and with-out the sun we have to run generators to maintain power. With the trails in poor condition we can't haul loads in from town, one item being fuel, so we have to be very frugal with our energy usage. On my last trip to town i was able to meet up with my friend Travis so i was able to pick up some larger items one of them being my own generator. Now i feel really spoiled. Doug happens to have an extra LCD TV so i'll be able to watch movies at my cabin now. As i mentioned in the previous post we installed a wind turbine on Dougs cabin. We happened to install that just at the right time, while the weather was crummy it happened to be very windy as well. The turbine only has a max output of 200 watts but just that little bit helped maintain voltage on overcast days. As the title suggests the last two days have been fantastic, lots of sun and warm, hope it hangs around. The generator i picked up is just a cheap off brand so i hope it lasts for a little while. Not too powerful but it powers a battery charger that is a perfect size for my set-up. It's also pretty quiet, runs about the level of a conversation between people, so if i run an extension cord about 50 feet away from the cabin i can hardly hear it. An addition of a few deep cycle batteries and i'll have the ideal set-up for my little cabin. Doug has given me a great start with stuff just laying around his cabin but i'll continue to upgrade my electrical system as $ permits. Just a couple pics today, one of the little generator i bought. I forgot to mention it is very fuel efficient as well, burns about 1 gallon of fuel per 7 hours. And on cloudy day i only need to run it about an hour to get a full charge in my batteries. The second pic i took this morning of my cabin being over-run by green! The bush has taken on a whole new look with everything flowering and the swamp grass has really taken off, in some places it's almost up to my chest! One last thing today. About 11pm last night when i was going to let Sammie in the cabin, lay down and read, i went outside and she was sitting very poised looking at something off in the distance. So i went inside and grabbed my binoculars stepped out the door and there down the hill close to the lake was a black bear staring back at me! I yelled at it a few times and it started slowly walking off, then i thought crap i need a picture so i ran back in the cabin grabbed my camera, but by the time i made it back outside it was gone, bummer. I think it might of been the same one i saw going through Dougs garbage. A bear keeps paying him a visit, usually in the morning, probably the same one.