CHRISTMAS DAY

Hi everyone, Merry Christmas. Today is a good day, I was glad for the two most important things I look forward to. Waking up alive and coffee, lol. The temps. have been slightly above 0 to -24 degrees. I started my day off with a good breakfast.

Eggs, toast and ham with coffee of course.

Then I kinda sat around enjoying my coffee and the quiet. After awhile, I went out to split firewood to replenish my inside stack.

With installing the ceiling and my great wood stove, this stack will last 3 days in -24 degrees.

There is nothing more invigorating than splitting wood in cold temperatures at 69 years old.

 We finally got plenty of snow and that makes me very very happy. Seems Winter is the only season that gets my juices flowing.

This is my Christmas tree, the very first one I have ever bought and artificial at that, oh well.

This is how it's looking here since the snow we got, my deck

I am so glad I bought that $40 snowblower, it took about 20 min. to clear the snow.

Now! I've been holding off posting for something special. Last Friday, my friend Randy and I flew out to the cabin and yes, there was a glitch. It was cold and I mean cold, around -5. The skiis were stuck to the ice on the lake so, I had to rock the wing until he moved it to the snow.  Then, the engine was taking longer to warm up which took about 40 min.

Finally, it warmed enough to fly. We took off and Randy noticed that the gas was reading below 8 gal. he said he put 15 gal. in. Then the plane stalled for about 5 seconds and a lump hit my throat. it immediately corrected and the fuel indicator showed 15 gal. Everything was cool then and I do mean cool, more like cold. He had a gap in his slider window that came back on me, glad I was dressed for it, lol.

We got to the cabin without a hitch. We carried stuff to the cabin then, Randy went back out and tamped down a  runway to take off. I went to work taking some re bar ( 6 foot pieces of 1/4" round metal bars) and tied bright orange surveyors tape to them and distribute them as a guide to my cabin.

Why you ask? I have made arrangements to start having  things freighted out to my cabin so, I can spend much more time out there and do some work. My friend Chris who runs a lodge 16 miles North of me will be grooming the trail and freight my stuff out in a week to 2 weeks..

I apologize for not providing pictures, it was so cold, my camera would not work. Next weekend is suppose to be in the 30's and if it is, I plan to spend 2-3 days. So, keep your fingers crossed. Take care.

"Tis the season"

        MERRY CHRISTMAS

              and

          HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wishing Everyone a very Merry Christmas. This is the most special time of the year for me. There is something about Christmas that affects me Spiritually, Emotionally and Happy. The only present I can hope for is, our world can come together and the hate would become a thing of the past.

Where is Winter?

Hi folks, that is the big question. So far, we had 2 snowfalls amounting to about 1/2 inch. Everything you see in the following pictures is frost.. That's right, we received more frost than snow.

This past month, the temperatures have been below 0 degrees the coldest was -11 and the highest is 15 degrees which is today. We are still waiting for the snow. In the meantime, I really haven't been doing much because of the cold except, splitting wood.

I have been making a few trips to town just to get out. A couple of days ago, I bought a Lazy Boy rocker recliner for $50.

Well, that's pretty much it for now.  I am working on a post describing my first remote caretaking days. I'm hoping to have it done by next weekend. Thanks for visiting.

THANKSGIVING

          HAPPY THANKSGIVING
                       

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. Please, think of those who are going without and if you can help, please do.

VETERANS DAY

                                                 IN MEMORY OF

                                                 RAYMOND CORK
                                                     

                                                      &
                                              EDWARD O'BRIAN
                                                     

KILLED IN ACTION DEC. 4th 1967 while conducting gunfire support off the coast of Vietnam. Ray and Ed were my closest friends. We did just about everything together. I remember many nights we sat on the fantail (rear deck) of the ship on clear nights, the sky filled with stars talking about our sweethearts, our goals, our wishes. It would be peaceful until tracer fire would rip upwards from the enemy shooting at our aircraft as they drop bombs. There was always a reminder we were at war.

I thank all of my fellow Veterans who made sacrifices for there family, friends and strangers.

                                           ALL GAVE SOME, SOME GAVE ALL

                                               ANCHORS AWAY MY FRIENDS

Checking in

Hi all, yep, I'm still around

A couple of you were concerned and had Wash check on me. I just had my 69th birthday and it's nice to know some out there care. Not much has been going on and laziness is why I haven't blogged in awhile. The cold weather has set in and the morning temps have been -1°. Lakes are freezing up. My friend got his plane repaired and will be putting his skiis on. We talked this morning and his lake has 4" of ice. He would like to  see about 2" more by the end of next week and we will fly out to check on both of our places.

I am hoping for more snow this year and I will freight most everything for setting up the cabin. I will be hauling pallets out as well to build a dock for my lake. I will do everything the right way this time and get the cabin set up.

I did some more improvements in my town cabin. I put new carpet in half the cabin and vinyl in the other. I also starting putting a ceiling in after 7 years, lol.

I got me a companion, his name is "Cooper". He's great, doesn't bark, house broken, doesn't need to be fed. LOL

Here is my partially finished ceiling

When I bought this wood stove, I put grey slate under it. Bad idea. They broke and chipped real easy. This year, I replaced them with marble tile which I got for $3 a piece and they are strong.

I have my $40 snowblower ready to go. To tell the truth, I'm not sure I will use it. I do enjoy shoveling. Snowblowers are annoying because of the noise.

This is our first snow

Well, that's all can come up with for now so, I will stop for now and try to come up with something more to blog about. Hope you enjoy what I have shared. Take care

Talk about bad luck

I know a few of you was wondering why I haven't posted in awhile. I was holding off to post tonight from my remote cabin. Well, I didn't make it. About 11am this morning I drove down to my friends house to load up and head out.

We loaded the plane up and I got more excited  as I boarded. We taxied out and got into takeoff position and away we go, smile on my face.  As we took off, I noticed something wrong, it was to slow. As we straightened out, Randy banked left and headed back to the lake, when he started descending, I knew something was wrong. We landed and taxied back to the house. Randy said it was a slow takeoff and when we were up, he couldn't get over 2500 rpms. So, we abandoned the trip so he can get a mechanic to fix it.

So, I came back home, unloaded the car and wait for the call. We had a beautiful day to fly and got sacked. Hopefully, we will be able to go in a day or two. That's it. I will see if I can come up with something in the meantime.

Take care

Trip to top of Hatchers Pass

Saturday, I decided to take a ride to top of Hatchers Pass from Willow. Round trip was 37 miles but, it took 3hrs. 20min. because of the road condition. There were a few holes that almost ate my car. LOL Took these on the way up.

This is an old mine shaft halfway up the mountain, from the 1800's

These two slash shots is the road going up the mountain

The whole road got a bit scary,  No guard rails and plenty of pot holes.

Finally made it to Summit Lake on top

People hiking a very narrow trail to the mountain top

At the top.

this is the road below 

Parking area at Summit Lake

A small Falls on the way back.

Well, that was pretty much the trip and on the way back, I saw quite a few people berry picking which reminds me, I need to get out and do some berry picking myself. Our really nice sunny weather has gone as of this morning, RAIN. So, I will work on retrieving my past lodge photos. Enjoy and take care.