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.

CHANGES

Good morning, it's 8:50 a.m. and 30 degrees. It was chilly enough to start a small fire to take the chill off. Closing the windows before going to sleep would have helped, lol. After about 2 weeks of steady rain, the sun finally showed itself  and am now getting things done.

While sitting around in the cabin during the rainy days, I got to thinking about things and have decided to put all projects on hold. Even for me, there were way to many to complete and I wasn't taking time out for myself. That's going to change. I started rounding up all the junk laying around and haul off to the dump.

I want to spend the rest of the time for myself and doing things I enjoy. I want to go fishing and take a trip out to the Denali Highway and take photos and get away from crowds for a bit. My friend Randy is quite busy now, flying hunters and fishermen out to remote areas. When he returns, I will fly out to my remote cabin and get some things done and have some real quiet time.

I did finish a project that needed to be done and that is a walkway. I figured it would cut down on the dirt and fine gravel coming into the cabin so, I'm not always sweeping. Made from the free pallets I got.

I have been in a funk for quite awhile and I am slowly coming out of it. I am putting off doing the addition on the remote cabin until next year. I plan on just having fun joying life this Winter. That's the reason I retired. Anyway, I will start my blog on my early days of caretaking this weekend. Hope everyone stops by to check it out. Take care

C'mon Winter

I guess you can tell, I am done with Summer and just want to skip through Fall. This has been a terrible year, at least for me. It's been exceptionally hot and now for the past two weeks, RAIN. This is why I like Winters best, it's always cool or cold and you can dress accordingly. Working outside is more pleasant and you get to see the moon, stars, Northern Lights and anything else happening in the sky.

I enjoy cooking and baking more and eating seems more pleasurable, at least for me. I am more at ease during the Winter at night with the oil lamps  and candles giving off a nice peaceful glow. There is something about Winter that brings me peace.

I've cut down on the tv watching now and moving to watching movies now. I'm a big fan of outdoor and Civil War movies, not so much for the action but, how they lived in that time period.

Not much going on, the reason for my lack of blogging although, I have put some work into the cabin. I got some free metal roofing last year and decided it has sat long enough. So, I went to work.

I believe it will lessen the heat loss during the Winter. I also started clearing a spot for my little add on.

I bought a battery operated weed eater and I really like it. It works well for the area I need it for and it's QUIET.

While using it, I came across a lot of mushrooms, I've never had, I assume resulting from all the wet weather and overgrowth.

By the way, the Fireweed is starting to turn.

Lately, because of the rain, I have been going through photographs of my early years of lodge caretaking. They bring back fond memories of happiness. During those years, I wrote poetry.  I've decided to share those memories with all of you. They were taken before digital cameras so, I will photograth them with my digital and display them. I will also share a poem with each blog.

Looking at those old photos bring back a memory I wish I could experience again. So, hope you all stay tuned. Take care