Blog has been moved

I have moved the blog to a different host site. www.foreveralaska.wordpress.com Click on this link to get there. Hope to see you there. Thanks, Jared.

Wi-Fi extension to the lake cabin!

After talking about it for about a year, Doug finally took a chance and ordered a point to point wi-fi antenna kit. His original idea was to set up a wireless cam system around his property. At one point to keep an eye on the 4 wheeler on the other side of the river and another to view the trumpeter swans that nest somewhere around the lake every year. Since I already have a small power setup at the lake, he figured that was a good place to start. Doug has worked with wireless boosters in the past without much success so he didn't have too much faith in this latest antenna setup. This system works by plugging a network cable into the internet router at Doug's cabin, that feeds into a little black box, and is plugged into a power source. From there a length of coaxial cable is attached to an antenna/dish that is mounted on the outside of the cabin. When attaching the antenna to Doug's cabin I had to estimate where to aim the antenna being you can't see the lake cabin from his property. Mean while down at the lake cabin the antenna setup is just reversed from the host/Doug's site. After experimenting with several different antenna locations and working out a compromise with signal strength versus cable length, so the coax would reach the cabin, the antenna ended up on a tree about 35 feet from the cabin. And to my surprise after passing through a pretty thick stand of spruce I still get about 70-80% signal strength! This setup should give Doug and I a good start on setting up a wireless camera setup around the property. And as a bonus to that, I in turn get internet service at the lake, whenever Doug has the internet turned on. The pics above show the the antenna setup at the lake cabin and the progression of the signal into my netbook computer. I forgot to snap a photo of the antenna at Doug's but this should give you a good idea of how it works. On final note I will be moving the blog to a different host site soon due to a lot of issues with blogspot, one of them being the formatting which you can see in the previous post which I cannot fix. The name will be changing and when I have the new site up and running I'll leave a link to it on this site.

Too Much Rain!

Due to an excessive amount of rain early this summer a lot of the the trail leading out of the Chatanika valley has washed out. As a temporary fix a couple short diversion trails have been cut, but the long term solution is to cut about a mile of new trail from the river up the hill.

Doug had started a new section of trail from the river a couple years ago but it needs to be connected to the main road about a mile up the hill side. We have started a new trail from the road a ways up the hill that we intend on connecting to the old trail Doug cut a couple years ago.

Right now the trail is Doug's main focus so he can start hauling freight to the river to stock up for freeze up and the beginning of winter. Of course freeze up is still a few months away, but cutting trail is a very slow and labor intensive process. A good day of cutting trail may mean only making 50 to 100 yards a day!

I have helped with some of the trail work but I have also fired up the saw mill, finally, to get some lumber cut for both Doug and I. We got a late start on the saw mill due to all the rain this summer and I have spent some time in town looking for work as well.

The photos above show the major damage to the trails from water this summer. In a couple pics you should be able to make out the ruts left by the 4 wheeler tires showing how much trail washed away.

New additions to the family

Another thing that happened while I was in town was the geese and the swans both had babies. Doug's geese started out with three new born chicks but the local raven population dropped that down to two. The older geese are ever vigilant now, and always keep one eye on the sky.

I thought for sure the trumpeter swans, that nest on the lake, wouldn't have any babies due to all of the traffic during the fires, but I was wrong. I'am happy to report there are five "little," swan babies floating around on the lake feeding with their parents. Don't have a good picture of them yet but I'll keep trying.

Garden update

Here's a look at the garden after spending a few weeks in town and letting mother nature run it's course. To my surprise the local wildlife didn't touch any of the plants while I was gone. A couple days after I left the river it began raining and continued to rain almost everyday, for a few hours a day. The rain lasted for a few weeks and made my time in town a little miserable but on the up side the garden got watered everyday! As you can see even with out any fertilizer things did pretty good.

The radish plants were definitely ready to come out, and doing so opened up more room for the carrots. Iceberg and romaine lettuce plants are doing fantastic but the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower didn't seem to take off. Doug pointed out that they require a lot of nutrients to keep them going so I probably won't be getting any of those out of the garden this year.

Fighting fires with a helicopter

Today I have a short video clip one of the fire fighting helicopters at work. The lake makes for a great fill station, but unfortunately the deepest part of the lake is where the beaver lodge is on the lake property. When the helicopter flies over and hovers at the lake to fill it's water bucket it can be quite noisy, and when I'm working in the yard I have to wear ear plugs. They seem to make trips from the lake up the ridge for several hours to tame down some hot spots, then the wind will pick up and it will start all over again after a couple hour break. Last night and most of today I could hear chainsaws way up on the ridge so the fire crews must be making some kind of fire break up there. Today I also hiked up 7 mile, over half way, to get a better view of what the fires are doing and what they have done. From the north slope I had a pretty good view of the south slope and ridges of the Chatanika valley. I could see a lot of different spots that have been burned out and how close the fires have been to Doug and I.

The Garden and other Work

Here's a look at the current state of the garden and some of the other work I have been doing around the lake property. Some of the veggies I have in the garden were started in Doug's atrium and green house a couple months ago. That has to be done with some plants due to the short growing season here in Alaska. All of those plants, and the ones I started from seed in the garden, seem to be doing very well.

One of the other things I have done is move the battery bank out side and closer to the solar panels. I am trying to absorb every milli-amp of power I can get from the sun and one way to do that was shorten the cables from the panels to the batteries. It was also time to make a small shelter for the generator. The purpose of the shelter I made was also to shield the noise while it's running.

The video is just short clip of some of the clean up I have been working on around the property. You can never have too much firewood saved up. The trees I had taken down helped expose my solar panels to several more hours of sun and in turn reducing the time I need to run the generator.

With just 25 watts of solar panels and the amount of direct sun we are getting right now I am able to watch a DVD every night before going to bed.

Wild fires everywhere!!

Yikes, fires are burning all around Doug and I. After several days of fire crews battling many different fires it seems most of them are under control. The fire that was burning closest to the lake cabin was up on the ridge to the north of the cabin. I met quite a few fire crew guys that were working on cleaning up around the other cabin on the lake. They were also setting up a water pump plumbed from the lake up to that cabin. They were a little more concerned about the other cabin off the lake because it is a little further up the hill side making it closer to the fire. They did ask if I wanted any work done around the property but we determined it looked pretty good and if the fire made it this far down the hill it wouldn't have a lot to burn.

As it turns out some cabins up river have not been so lucky. A cabin in between Ralf and Bill's cabin's burned to the ground. One of Ralf's cabins had some fire damage but nothing major. The fire crews were able to get it out before any of Ralf's burned down. The pics above are of the fire growing over the ridge coming from Ralf and Bill's headed toward Doug's cabin on the hill side. Since I took the photos they seemed to have that fire under control. Right now I think the only one they are fighting out here right now is many miles up stream somewhere past Ralf's place.

No bears yet, but...

I woke up the other morning, looked out the window and there staring back at me was a big fat porcupine! I'm glad I spotted it before I let Sammy out, I don't feel like pulling quills out of her again. Where the porcupine was in the yard was well out of reach from Sammy while she is chained up and I was able to get the chain on her before I let her out of the cabin. I think she remembered what those quills felt from the last time, because she didn't seem to want to have anything to do with it when she got outside.

I couldn't seem to do anything to scare it off until I split a little firewood around the back side of the cabin. And then it only went down the hill about 20 feet and hid under a spruce tree I cut down this spring. It spent the whole day and late into the evening just down the hill between the cabin and the lake.

When I finally went to bed it was still down by the lake milling around one of the beaver lodges. The next morning I did a quick survey around the yard before I let Sammy out and didn't see it anywhere around the cabin. I went up to Doug's cabin later in the day and made sure Sammy was right on my hip the whole time just in case it was still hanging around.

In other news it's been very hot and dry lately and wild fires are popping up everywhere. Right now airplanes are fighting one somewhere over the ridge to the east of Doug's. Fortunately the wind is working in our favor right now and blowing it away from us.

The first couple pics are of the porcupine in the front yard right next to my scrap lumber pile. And the other shows how hot it's been lately. It was taken about 12:30 pm a couple days ago while the thermometer was still in the shade.

Busy as a Beaver

Looks like I'm not the only one at the lake getting some work done. I spotted a beaver in the slough a while ago and was able to snap a pic of it. As of this morning it is still hanging around so I'd assume that it has taken up residence in one of the old beaver lodges on the lake.

After getting the cabin and yard cleaned up I started right in on putting in a garden. There was a spot at near the cabin where a garden once was but hasn't been used for well over a decade. The soil was mostly all compacted silt which unfortunately won't support much plan growth. So my plan was to trench out rows into the rock and silt and manufacture my own soil and replace it in the trenches.

To make plantable soil I had to dig up some tundra down to where the silt and rock layer began, about 6 inches deep, sift through the tundra, add some sand hauled from the river and throw in some old stove ashes. It would take about 2 to 3 days digging, hauling and sifting to make enough dirt for a 12 inch wide by 8 foot long row.

This has been an ongoing project for almost two weeks but I'm coming to the end for this season. According to Doug anything that I want to plant needs be be in by the end of this weekend to have a harvest in the fall.

The photos after the pic of the beaver are the progression of the garden. It's not much of a garden but I hope I can get some good veggies out of it.

Hiked out to the Lake cabin

To follow up on the last post, Ken and I did end up finding a little gold but it wasn't enough to get really excited about. Since then we have traveled farther and farther up the Steese highway, that parallels the Chatanika river, looking for un-claimed creek beds to dig into. A lot of the spots we wanted to go were not quite thawed out from winter yet or were already staked mining claims.

I had really been itching to get out to the Lake cabin on the Chatanika. Doing some gold prospecting with Ken was a great way to kill some time waiting for the trail and river to become passable. On Friday the 13th I decided to take a chance and hike out to the cabin. The hike in was actually quite nice and crossing the river was not too bad either. I didn't get in touch with Doug, to let him know I was coming out, so I had to wade across the river instead of using a canoe. I figured I was going to have to walk across the river so I brought an extra pair of shorts and shoes. The water was cold, really cold, but the crossing went without incident. When I approached Doug's place the geese started making quite a lot of noise so Doug came outside and was quite surprised to see me walking up the hill.

I was so happy to be re-connected with Sammy and I think the feeling was mutual. Since I have arrived back at the lake cabin I have been hard at work doing some spring cleaning and am also working on putting in a garden!

The weather has been nothing short of spectacular since I've been out here so lots of work is getting done. Unfortunately I will not be out here to long because I have to head back to town to start a summer job. My plan this summer is to still spend as much time out here as I can when I am not working. Since I have decided to start a garden I'm sure that will need a lot of attention.

I have a pic from one of the days Ken and I were 8o miles up the Steese highway, digging into the Chatanika river shortly down stream from where it begins. The weather turned sour on us all of a sudden and started dumping quarter sized snow flakes! Before we knew it there was a couple inches of fresh snow on the ground. You will have to look really hard to see Ken digging in the river in the center of the picture. I'm not sure if that material had any gold in it because right after we brought back what we had run through a sluice box I took off for Doug's and the lake cabin.

I have some pics of all the work it takes to put in a garden out here and also a few pics of a new lake resident! Those things coming up next.

Back in Fairbanks, a new adventure begins

Ahh, home again. After being back in Fairbanks just a few days I have met a new friend that drove all the way here from New Hampshire! His name is Ken and he is here not only for a job but is also hoping to make some money doing some gold prospecting.

I was hoping when I got back to Fairbanks that I would be able to catch a ride up to Murphy Dome and then hike down to the Chatanika. But it sounds like the river is still flooded and that there is still a good amount of snow on the north slope of the trail. I hiked out there last spring in these same conditions and a trip that should take 2 1/2 hours took 6 hours! I figured it would be a good idea just to wait and in the mean time I could work on getting a job in town for the summer.

As usual I am staying in a tent at Billie's hostel while in town to save as much money as possible. While hanging out in the common area of the hostel Ken and I struck up a conversation and eventually he needed some help getting his GPS to communicate with his computer. That turned out to be a great "ice breaker," and later that morning he asked if I wanted to go for a ride to scout out some potential gold prospecting spots.

We eventually ended up about 50 miles north east of Fairbanks on a minimum maintenance road that had a creek running across it. Ken thought that the creek would make a great spot for a sluice box and all we needed was some dirt to run through it. So we picked a hill side near by and started filling some buckets. After running a few buckets through the sluice we took what was left in the box and made our way back toward Fairbanks. We needed to find some calmer water to pan out what had been left in the sluice box.

All along the highway, we had taken out of Fairbanks, piles upon piles of old material that had been processed by miners years ago cover the landscape. About 15 miles outside of Fairbanks there is a spot to pull off the road into an area that is a old gold claim from 1902. There you are welcome to pan for gold all you like but can't camp over night. Ken had stopped at this spot the previous day and did find a few flakes of gold, panning out some material from an old tailing pile(tailing pile is what is left after being processed for gold).

This was a good spot to pan through our material left from sluicing up the road. Before we new it it was 9pm and we were both pretty tired. We didn't quite make it through all of the material but figured we could pan out the rest somewhere in town the next day.

Ken did find a tiny flake of gold, but for 3-5 gallon buckets that's not a very good ratio. So our plan for the next day was to head back to that old claim just out side of town and dig a little deeper into one of the tailing piles. I should mention that the 3 buckets I spoke of were run through the sluice box and what was left was only about an inch thick in the bottom of 1 bucket. Just that little bit still took the two of us several hours to pan through!

The old mining claim that they allow you to pan for gold doesn't want you to use any "mechanical assistance," like sluice boxes or dredges so we came up with a plan to work our way around that. While filling our buckets we used a classifier, which is just a fancy name for a screen, to filter out all of the big rocks leaving us with only quarter inch and smaller material. Any gold that is larger than that has probably already been cleaned out from the mine in the past.

When we had our buckets filled with nice fine material we loaded up Ken's truck and made our way up the road to a different location to run it through the sluice box. Ken has a pair of sluice boxes so we both took a bucket and spent several hours filtering down our potential gold bearing dirt. Setting up a sluice box is quite tedious and I think it took longer to get it set right than to run all of the dirt through it. Ken is a great teacher and has made this new learning experience a lot of fun.

After getting all of our material run through the sluice boxes it was approaching 9pm again and was time to head home. We are only getting a few hours of darkness right now and it is getting hard to tell what time it is later in the day.

The pics are of Ken and I in the Chatanika river, many many many miles up stream from the lake cabin, running our buckets of dirt through the sluice boxes.

Today we'll head to out to our little panning spot in town and take down the material from yesterday and hopefully score a little gold.

Putting new saw to use

Since moving back down to the lake cabin I have been putting that new chainsaw to good use. First off I have started to stock pile a good amount of firewood for next winter as you can see by the first photo. I cut the chunks of wood into chainsaw lengths, making some of the larger diameter ones as much as I can lift by myself. I will cut them down to stove length and split them at a later date.

Next, I also have been cutting some wood for the saw mill. The woods off the lake shore is not very accessible by four wheeler during the summer months so I have been trying to get as much wood from that area while I can. The next photo shows a pile of logs pulled to the mill by dragging them, chained to a sled, with the snowmachine. The logs are 9 to 12 foot lengths and hopefully with be a good start to a stock of lumber for construction at the lake cabin this summer.

The last photo was taken back in the woods off the lake, a place I liked to call my candy store because of all the trees that need to be cut down in that area. The trees that I'm talking about are very large and are leaning so bad that they will eventually pull themselves out of the ground. This is due to the melting perma-frost under the root system. By removing all of the leaning spruce trees Doug and I are hoping the birch tree populating will take off and draw beavers back to the lake. The pic shows the snowmachine and two trailers loaded full of wood to be taken back to the cabin.

Along with gathering firewood for the cabin and getting logs to the mill I also spend part of the day hauling firewood up to Doug's and splitting it for him. The plan is to get him enough wood to last the rest of spring so he won't have to stain himself with that type of work, allowing his back to heal from surgery he had while he was traveling.

All of that work makes for a pretty long and hard work day and I am looking forward to the 3 week vacation in Minnesota coming up in a few days. That being said this will most likely be the last post I put up until I return from my trip, at the end of this month.

Doug has returned

About 10 days ago Doug returned to Fairbanks after traveling to southeast Asia and visiting his mother and friends in the lower 48. I continued to stay at his cabin for about a week to help him get back in the groove of the bush life. As of now I have moved back down to the lake cabin and will stay there for couple weeks. On April 5th I will be catching a flight back to Minnesota to visit for a few weeks and return in time to catch the beginning of summer.

While I stay at the lake I will be spending a lot of time cutting trees around the cabin and on the perimeter of the lake. Most of the trees I will be taking down are about to fall into the lake or are leaning very badly. There are also handful of trees that need to come down to allow more sunshine to hit my solar panels throughout the day.

When I return from Minnesota I am planning on getting a job in town or in the surrounding area and am hoping to spend the weekends out on the Chatanika. I do plan on purchasing the lake cabin from Doug and there is a lot of work I plan on doing to the cabin and property.

With the intention of doing a lot of building and tree cutting I decided I should get my own chainsaw. In the picture above I am holding my new pride and joy, a Stihl MS 362. It's a pro grade saw and is the same saw the forest service and fire crews use. The 362 is a step up from the Husqvarna saws I had been using the past year. I wanted a little more power and low end torque, but that came at a price. The saw is a little bigger and heavier than Doug's saws and cost me over $700! I am hoping that it will be a one time purchase and will last the rest of my life.

Well, I'm off to tear down my generator, since the pull start destroyed itself last night, and hope to get something rigged so I don't have to rely 100% on my little solar setup.

Work with a little play

I have decided not to post the Aurora pics due to their poor quality and instead move on to some of the other things I have been doing lately.

Since the weather has been warmer I decided to take a break from wood cutting, something I'd been doing about every other day and put the snowmachine to use hauling something else. That being a trail groomer. My friend Bill, that helped me out when the snowmachine broke down, has had a groomer that he made stored over at Ralf's cabin that was begging for some use.

The trail up to Murphy Dome had not been in the best shape after extreme winds and snow fall came just after my return from getting the snowmachine carburetor repaired. After being up and down the hill earlier this winter on a "smooth as glass" trail I knew something had to be done.

Several times in the last two weeks I have taken the snowmachine over to Ralf's cabin, picked up the trail groomer and hit the trail. My route took me from Ralf's cabin, up the Blueberry trail to where it intersects with 7 mile and then up to the Dome. After reaching the trail head at Murphy Dome I would head back down the trail, taking 7 mile instead of the Blueberry trail where they meet, get to the river, then pull the groomer upstream the few miles and store the groomer back at Ralf's.

The trail is MUCH better than it was but it still needs a lot of work. Unfortunately Bill wanted the groomer back, to smooth out some trails closer to town, so I had to give my new favorite toy back, for now...

The first pic was taken going up the Blueberry trail pulling the groomer during a rest stop. The rest was not for me but for the machine. With the warmer temps, above zero, pulling the groomer up hill puts a lot of strain on the machine and doing all I can to keep it cool, it still will over heat.

One of the other projects I tackled this week was cleaning out the stove pipe for the big wood stove(the main cabin heat). I did not have too much fun doing this job but it really needed to be done.

The stove had not been burning the way it should for a while and I could see some creosote residue running down the outside of the stove pipe coming out of the cabin. This lead me to believe that there was some build up inside of the pipe limiting the draw from the wood stove.

Since the stove pipe extends so far from the the top of the roof I had remove the pipe from the wood stove and work my way up. Whew, what a messy job! I got most of the build up out using a couple sticks screwed together with a small coffee can at the end, plunging it up and down freeing up the creosote so it fell down into a bucket I had placed under the pipe. That worked for most of the pipe but then the coffee can got stuck way up in the pipe and I had to get on the roof and remove some sections of pipe to get it free. I wanted to avoid taking the top sections of pipe off because it involved leaning a 6 foot ladder against the pipe, standing on top of the ladder and somehow pulling the pipe apart without falling off the roof. But I ended up having to do that anyway. Luckily my plunging with the coffee can loosened up the top part of the pipe a bit and I was able to yank it out, drop it down to the snow covered roof without damage and get off the roof in one piece. I say drop it down because the 5 feet of pipe I pulled out must have weighed 40 lbs! The 6 inch diameter pipe was now narrowed down to about an inch and a half with all of the build up inside!

I'm glad I cleaned out to stove pipe when I did and also am very fortunate that I didn't have a fire in the pipe itself.

The other two pics are of the aftermath of the pipe cleaning. The pic of the stove is after I swept up a little. The bucket on top of the stove is almost full of what came down the pipe during cleaning. The other pic was taken in the front yard where I cleaned out the top two sections of pipe.

In total I think I scrubbed about 7 gallons of creosote out of the stove pipe and I will be consulting with Doug when he gets back on how to avoid this in the future.

Moose hanging around Doug's

Here are a few pics of the moose that has been hanging around the cabin. The first two I took just after getting out of bed in the morning, on my way out to start the generator. Luckily I spotted the moose before the dogs did so I was able to keep them from running up the hill after it. I had been up that part of the hill previously looking for firewood and had seen several spots where it had been bedding down along the ridge-line. The third pic was taken right out the atrium door at about one o'clock in the morning. I had been up late reading in bed and just as I was turning out the light Aggie, who was laying on the floor next to the bed, started woofing. She made her way down stairs and kept barking but I turned off the light and hoped whatever it was would just pass through. After a few minutes Aggie was still barking so i figured I better see what's going on. With flashlight in hand I went down stairs and looked out the living room window, didn't see anything, walked towards the atrium and looking back at me right next to the window was a big moose! I went right for my camera and by the time I had it the moose had walked a little further into the front yard. I opened the atrium door as quietly as I could, reached around the corner and snapped the pic you see. Right after I took the picture the moose proceeded to munch on some of Doug's favorite trees so I ended up clapping my hands and yelling until it slowly made it's way out of the yard. With the warmer weather we are having I probably won't see it up here again, but that was pretty cool having it stay right around the cabin for a couple weeks.

Last night there was a spectacular northern lights show and I made an attempt at getting some pictures of it. Unfortunately the moon was out at the same time messing up my exposure so the pics didn't turn out that good. I'll sort through the photos I shot and see if I can find a few that are worthy to show you.

Troubles over, back on track

Whew, what a winter! Shorty after my last post things started to go wrong. The first issue I had was with the generator. It started running really poorly and I tried to trouble shoot it but couldn't find the problem. No big deal I figured, I'll just fire up the back-up. I swapped out the generator, started it up, it ran good so I made my way back into the cabin. About an hour later I looked out the window and saw smoke pouring out of the generator building! After throwing on some clothes as fast as I could I ran out and into the building to see what the problem was. The generator was pouring out oil from somewhere on top of the engine where I couldn't see. This was a major disappointment being that we had that generator in town this summer to repair that exact issue. I was now down to my last option, the BIG generator. I got that one gassed up and started and it didn't seem to be running very good. Not only was it not running well but that generator is fairly large and uses a lot fuel, so I also was concerned about using up all my fuel. Eventually this lead me to dig further into the original generator because I figured running the big generator was not an option. After a couple days I did finally find the problem, a clogged fuel line, and got back to par as far as power goes.

During the troubles with the generators the snowmachine started to develop an issue as well. After days and days of working on the machine, sometimes taking up to 2 hours to get it started, the problem got so bad I couldn't use it at all. This meant I was left to hauling firewood to the cabin on my back! I spent a couple days snowshoeing around the cabin trying to find some standing dead and finally came across a good stand of timber I could burn. Unfortunately to get to it, would not be easy. It was located in the creek valley to the west of the cabin and the trail in and out of there was only about a foot wide. This was because it traversed the hill side and eventually switch backed down to the valley. Since the trail was so narrow, using a sled was not possible, so I had to hike down to the lake cabin and pick up the pack board I used to haul water buckets with during the summer. I would not recommend hauling wood this way, man it's tough and very hard on your back! It would take me a few hours of cutting and hauling just to get one days worth of firewood. By the end of the day I was exhausted and couldn't bring myself to put up a new post on the blog, this was the main reason for the lapse in the blog.

After almost two weeks of hauling wood this way and continuing to trouble shoot the snowmachine, I finally narrowed down the problem with the machine, something wrong on the inside of one of the carburetors. At this point I had been in contact with my friends Ralf and Bill in town and got a plan together to solve my snowmachine issue. I had to wait for some good weather and then I would hike out with the carburetor from the machine, get it to town and then borrow one of Bill's machines until it was repaired.

I had hiked in and out before but this trip was nothing short of epic! The hike out took about 5 hours, 2 hours longer than usual, because I was pulling a very large sled meant for a snowmachine. I figured since I was going to town I might as well pick up a few things. I eventually met up with Bill and we got the carburetor to a tech in town that had it fixed up that afternoon! After taking care of business in town I got back up to the Dome, with Bill's machine and prepared for the ride back out to Doug's. At this point it was already dark and I was very tired and just wanted to get home. Unfortunately the trail and the snowmachine had another idea. At two different places coming down the hill I slid off the packed trail just enough to fall into a snow abyss about 4 to 5 feet deep! Just what I needed more work! I did finally get myself out both times but I didn't arrive back at the cabin until 10 pm. That made for a 13 hour day and I was more than spent. As soon as I pulled into the yard and shut down the machine a blizzard hit, boy was I lucky.

Since then I've got Doug's machine back together, repairing some other problems as well and returned Bill's machine. Wow, February was a tough month and it took quite a fight get through it.

Unfortunately I didn't use my camera very much during those difficult times but that will change. I did snap a pic of a three and a half foot chunk of wood strapped to my back while the snowmachine was broke down. And coming up in the next post I have some video and photos of a moose that has been hanging around the cabin.

Changing things up and playing in the snow

Life is going great on the Chatanika, working hard, but also taking some time to play too. We recently got about 6 inches of snow here in the valley, so in the middle of my work day I took the snowmachine out and went for a little joy ride! Doug's snowmachine is not really meant for going out and tearing up the trails but with high and low gearing it still gets up and goes pretty good. Since the lake is located off the river trail not many people know it's there and with a couple feet of untouched snow it makes for a great playground.

I was also thankful for the snow because the trail up from the river to the cabin was in need of a fresh layer of snow. Using the trail almost everyday, sometimes a couple times a day, really wears it out, especially when I'm hauling heavy wood loads.

A few days ago I had my first visitors of the season. A couple of guys on big go-fast machines with huge paddle tracks were just out exploring and made there way up the hill. I could hear them coming up the hill and by the sound of their machines they were doing quite number on the trail. I was a little disappointed about the trail destruction since the trail just got repaired from the snow fall, but it was nice to have some visitors. They had no idea someone lived up here and when they first saw me standing in the yard they stopped dead in their tracks so I had to signal them it was ok to come the rest of the way up. After their brief visit I decided it was time to put some type of sign on the trail down buy the river to welcome visitors, but also to warn people there is a steep hill climb and not to shred the trail.

Depending on the weather I also have been changing up my daily routine so I'm not doing the same thing everyday. The temperature outside has been the warmest I've seen since I've been taking care of Doug's cabin, about 20 degrees. At that temp I was able to let the geese outside to get some fresh air and stretch out their wings. I'd have to admit it was nice to hear the geese honking away while I was working around the cabin today. I snapped a couple pics of them in the yard enjoying a nice snow bath.

I also took a photo of myself prepping to do some wood cutting, toting my trustworthy and powerful Husqvarna chainsaw.

The video today is a follow up on the winter electrical system setup. It shows the setup in the generator building and what else is stored in there in the winter. The generator itself is what heats the building and even when it's 20 below outside I still have to have a door propped open a little bit to maintain 70 to 80 degrees inside when it's running. When the generator is not running and I have the door shut tight the massive 16 inch thick walls help keep the temp above freezing for as long as 10 to 12 hours.

Evening Entertainment

I may spend most of the day doing work around the cabin and off in the woods but I also like to have some down time and lounge as well. After most of my work is done for the day I usually spend my time watching movies or surfing the web just as most people do. I do read a lot too but that I save for bed time when I share a king size bed with 2 dogs and 2 cats.

The first pic is of my "lounge station," two separate LCD TVs. Both are wired into the satellite and I have my DVD player hooked up to the large screen. The small TV is used the most because of it's small power draw and can remain on for many hours without the battery bank needing to be recharged. The large screen on the other hand takes a lot more power and requires a constant charge from either the sun or the battery charger run by the generator.

Another factor that determines what appliances I can use at the same time is the inverter. To avoid putting too much strain on the batteries and inverter I usually only run one large appliance at a time, not including the fridge/freezer combo which stays on all the time. This means I'll either use the internet and small TV at the same time or turn off the internet and fire up the big screen for movie time.

The second pic is of Doug's computer work station. I love having the two screens to use especially when I'm editing pics or video for the blog. It is an older model computer so it does suck lots of power so I can't use the big screen TV at the same time.

It may be hard to tell what the third photo is. It is a pair of flying squirrels in the the bird feeder outside the living room window! They don't visit every evening but it's pretty cool when they do. On several occasions, out of the corner of my eye, I've seen them launch off the roof of the cabin and glide down to the woods below.

In the evening the animal activity is not just limited to the outdoors. Once or twice a day I let the three ferrets out of their pen to run free in the cabin and to blow off some steam. They are quite entertaining especially since Aggie, Doug's little husky, likes to play with them. Unfortunately Sammy doesn't care for them too much an hides out while they're running around. I shot a short video of the ferrets and Aggie playing. You never know when their going to play and have to be at the ready with the camera to capture the fun, that's why the vid is so short.