I've decided, life is great

  OK, since I was taken ill and have recovered very nicely and feel I am back to my good old self, I feel I may have made some hasty decisions. For the past week, I have pretty much sat around and have done a lot of thinking and have decided what my future will be from here on out. I am not selling my remote cabin but, come Spring and much of the Summer, I will add on to it and make it more livable and comfortable for permanent residence. I also came to the conclusion that since I retired and have spent so much time on the road system, that has caused me to make some bad decisions and has been hard on the way I am used to living. I am not sure what I will do with the town cabin yet but, it will play a small roll in my life.

  I do know that I can't leave the town cabin vacant for to long because of theft or vandalism. So, I am toying with the idea of finding someone who would like to stay at my town cabin and keep an eye on it and make repairs or some other kind of work around there. In return, that person will live there free of charge but, in a separate very small comfortable cabin, also willing to give me a hand at the remote cabin now and then. This person must be a jack of all trades.

  This would be a great opportunity for someone wanting to experience Alaska or someone here who needs a place to stay. I will let this person know, it will not happen without close a close background check.

  I'm feeling good and getting anxious for Spring and Summer to get here so that I can get started. As I stated, I am making changes. Most everyone knows I don't like clutter and so, I started to declutter and downsize all the stuff I have accumulated over time that I really don't need. I did start with the huge futon I bought as well as one of my chairs. Which has freed up my cabin of clutter. My intention is to make it a real cabin.

  This futon took up half the cabin when pulled out and it was almost half the length of the cabin.

Before

AFTER: sure makes a difference, as for the cot, I moved it back out, to uncomfortable and took up to much space. Back to sleeping on the floor which is better.

By moving the table, I am not bumping into it when doing stuff in the kitchen.

Before


After

  To me having more space makes sense. I had been feeling cramped and closed in. Many of you remember this stove I bought and I decided to take it up to the remote cabin so, I put it outside under the polebarn until I took it up. One of the legs sunk into the ground and froze there. I tried to pry it out and broke it so, hauled it inside to work on it.

I used two coats of JB Weld on it

Finished look

I let it sit for a couple of days, set it on the floor and it worked. That is until I took it back outside and when I sat it down, it broke again. I will have to take the foot to get welded the right way. Oh well.

  Last night I decided to get the grill going and grill some chicken, I do like grilled chicken. Sorry about the serious look, hopefully I will get my glow back soon,LOL

  The results

  It sure feels good to get back to real cooking and enjoyable dinners. This was from the night before, Moose Burger with fried potatoes and good ole canned Cranberry Sauce, LOL. I like mustard

  I suppose that is it for now, Anyway, I feel great and am excited to get on with my plans. I do plan to post more often and keep you informed on a regular basis as to what is going on. Take care.

A short message

Hi everyone, just wanted to write a short message letting you know I haven't forgotten to post. Been real busy between VA visits and cleaning up and fixing things. Just so you know, my health is great except for a small persistent cough I have and will be going in Monday for chest xrays. I will make a newer and longer post with photos this coming Saturday. Lot of surprises. Take care.

The photos I promised

Fixed the photo problem, just not sure what I did, LOL. Made these cinnamon rolls last night. They don't look normal but, they are good.

This is what it was like before and during my sick time.







This is my road out front.

These 2 trees leaning over my camper.

This is the leaning tree between my cabin and camper. It snapped off and landed between my car and my camper. That was just pure luck.

This is what is left of that tree.

Before I got sick, I started removing the ice buildup on one side of the cabin.



After I got sick the temps warmed up to 40 degrees and the ice on the other side slid off.

This a chunk that slid off and landed on the deck.

After Wash and her son came by to help and got me eating, I started eating a lot better.
My breakfasts now.



And dinners, Chicken Noodle Soup and Toasted Ham and Cheese. Mmmmm! Good

I did have some other visitors, someone gave me this cheese round that I really couldn't eat. so I invited the birds to dinner.



I bought this log futon for my cabin. It is solid log and heavy. It is nice and only paid $40 for it.

Unfortunately, it takes up a lot of space as it is and more so when opened. This is how the cabin looks now after moving things to accommodate the futon.





This is what the loaders with the brushhogs did to my trees. Many of them were young and didn't pose a threat.



This is a young Birch that was growing nicely and wasn't leaning at all and they put gouges in it and I'm not sure if it will survive or not. It makes me so mad.

As you can see, these are just young trees that threatened nobody or anything.

As you can see, there is no snow on the trees and they are standing straight up. All the Borough had to do was knock the snow off and they would have been good.



Well folks, I promised you pictures and here they are. I hope you enjoy them. I got to thinking, it is amazing how someone can take a small space and cram things in it that you never thought you could. As someone who use to carry everything I owned in a backpack, I suppose it is second nature. I do believe at some point in the future, I will have to put an addition of some sort on the town cabin or reduce some of the material things I have acquired. Something to think about. Take care.

I need to make some life changes, just not sure what

First and foremost, I want to thank Wash and her son for coming out to help me. I also want to thank everyone who stuck by me when I was sick and for your concerns and kind words. I have to tell ya, I never want to be that sick again. Today I am feeling great except for a persistent cough I have. Doctor seems to think I have a touch of Bronchitis. She gave me some pills for it to see if it stops the cough but, they aren't working. I go back on the 11th  and will get checked out more extensively. I have quite a few appt. coming up which, includes an MRI to check out my leg pain. The doctor seems to think it is a pinched nerve in the small of my back and may need surgery. Sometimes I think I am falling apart but, I feel I am getting stronger and stronger every day.

After I got sick, I got to thinking, what would have happened if I were at my remote cabin and for some reason couldn't get help. Recently, I decided to put it up for sale on Craigslist and got quite a few answers but, only 2 were legitimate. They were pilots looking for a remote cabin. I do know one went out yesterday to look at it.The other, not sure. I sent him a couple of emails but, no replies. To tell the truth, I kind of hope the guy who went out Tues. decides not to want it. I am thinking either to keep it or add on to the cabin that's out there or build a new and bigger cabin and work on the property a bit more and make it more desirable to sell or I just may keep it. To confused at the moment to make a hard decision. Anyway, I am just taking it easy and hanging out at the town cabin and thinking. { That could be dangerous for me }, LOL.

Here are some photos I took from the time just before I got sick and after.

OOPS! I seem to have a problem loading photos to this post. Guess I will have to figure out the problem. Hopefully, I can figure it out soon. Take care.

A new post coming

Hi everyone, just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be writing a new and more extensive post on Wednesday or Friday of this week.

I am recovering very nicely from my illness and back to eating regularly.

I have made many trips to the VA and have a few more.

There are going to be a lot of changes coming for me and I hope all of you stick around and hopefully some new people check out my blog.

I really appreciate those who have stuck by me from the beginning. I hope to not have any more boring posts. Take care, John