Spring work this week

Last Saturday was such a beautiful day, I decided to take a drive to one of my favorite places to hang out, Upper Willow Creek. I took a PB&J, some carmel corn and a beer and sat there listening to the rushing creek. Seemed to be a lot of bird singing going on as well. I really enjoy sitting there and thinking about things to come. Here are pictures of that trip.

The old wooden bridge

"HOWDY"

Nice ice cold beer "Blue Lagoon"

Beautiful isn't it?

You just can't get enough of this

Friday nights dinner, rice and cajun chicken

Thursday, N.Y. strip, Asian salad

Wednesday, N.Y. w/buttered carrots

Tuesday, Rice, chicken, chopped carrots, celery and onion

Monday, Salmon patty containing onions and peppers 

Sunday, Fresh Halibut on a bed of sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms. 

That takes care of the meals this week. Breakfast weren't all that special, mostly donuts, apple fritters and such.

I was a little busy this week, I moved all that big firewood I got from "OLD JOHN" from behind the cabin and moved it over by the road.

I started splitting the small rounds with my new log splitter and the rest of the logs I will have cut them in halves or thirds to split them. I really like my log splitter, makes splitting much easier in the warm weather.

I have decided to build another woodshed like my original one so, I started clearing the area of trees and brush.

Clearing the dead stuff out

Done, next erect the new firewood shed.

I'm cleaning up the area by the outhouse, as I plan to put a trail in going to the back of the property. Just not sure what I'm going to do back there yet, LOL

Sad News....My little greenhouse didn't make it through the Winter, my bad. I will try to fix it.

Oh, by the way, tonight's dinner was, Salmon patty with, peppers, onion and garlic and collard greens

 It's raining today so I took a trip to town and bought some flowers to spruce up the place.

Well my friends, I hope I have entertained you today. I am starting to get back to my old self and getting out more and doing things. I wish you all a wonderful weekend and make sure you ..."Thank a VET and our "Active Duty members"

I tried

Yep, I said I would try to post every other day and I tried, lol. It's been raining this week and couldn't get much done. So, I will post when I can. Today, it's pouring rain and I have been watching tv and dozing off various times during the day. Breakfast this morning.

Dinner

Asian salad with chicken, cashews and wonton strips.

As you can see, the majority of snow has disappeared. Quite a difference, eh?

Actually, the snow you see is gone.

Beautiful day? Nah!

I bought this fuel container, it holds 30 gal. I got tired of taking a bunch of 5 gal. containers to get gas. It cost $98 to fill. It should last for quite a while.

I got very lazy this Winter and just putting stuff in my shop any place and it got crammed so much I couldn't walk in there. It was time to clean it up.

Before

Before

Before

After

After

A very long time ago, I posted about how I like to sleep on a hard surface. I've had people ask where is my bed in this small cabin, I decided to show you how I sleep. Mind you, this is not for everyone. This is a very comfortable chair and my bed. I know some are going HUH? and others are scratching their heads. Stand by for the rest of the story.

You add 3 plastic milk crates

Add Cushions

Then, a blanket

and the main blanket and you have a comfortable bed, for me at least, LOL.

There you go, my bed.

In Alaska, when you are living simply, offgrid or remote, one has to use their imagination when living in a small cabin. I have been doing it for so many years, it just comes to me naturally. I will close for now.

TAKE CARE 

Things are looking up

 Hi everyone, it's been a week since my last post and I didn't get a whole lot done. I had a few doctors appt. nothing  wrong, in order to keep my VA benefits I have to get an exam twice a year to keep my benefits. This morning, I had a nice breakfast, 2 eggs, sausage and english muffin.I haven't had English Muffins in a very long time. I forgot how good they taste.

 For dinner was a Chef's salad with cherry tomatoes, shredded cheese, olives, 1/2 boiled egg and chunks of chicken with a Korean BBQ sauce and an Avocado Dressing.

 Yesterday's breakfast. Scrambled eggs, sausage, sourdough toast and coffee.

 I decided to make life a little easier again so, Saturday I went to Lowes in Wasilla and bought a 25 ton log splitter. My reasoning is that I can split the wood faster giving me more time to myself. All the wood there, I split in 20 minutes. Would have taken me longer than that by hand.

 I know some people are thinking, is John going modern? I am a little bit. There is a good reason I am doing these things. I plan to buy a propane/electric refrigerator. My reason for the refrigerator is, to keep the refrigerator going so I can spend more time at the remote cabin working on it during the Winter. I plan to spend more time out there this Winter. I bought a drip oil stove so I can keep the town cabin warm and keep canned and jarred food from freezing.

 I've been collecting building materials to put a small addition on the remote cabin and add a shower and a couple of bunk beds for company. I want to get work done out there so I can spend most of my time out there or all of my time. I really miss living the remote lifestyle and need to get back to it.

 This Summer, I plan to spend more time fishing, camping and traveling the backroads. I should have enough experiences coming up to keep you entertained. I will close for now and get some sleep.

                                         Take care

Good Morning

It's 10:45 a.m. I got up this morning and made coffee and sat at the window looking out thinking of what to do today. My first thought was breakfast. My idea of Egg salad, Asian salad, mushrooms, chunks of chicken with an egg on top and avocado sauce mixed in the salad. It was actually good.

Still haven't figured what to do so, I will tell you what I have been doing. I added another solar panel and bought a new charge controller to manage the increase in watts. It works great. 

My new charge controller

The left number is volts and the right is amps. With just one panel, I didn't get anywhere near these numbers. Now, I can run everything all day long. Refrigerator, freezer, lights, tv and so on.

I found this mini washing machine on Ebay, it measures 2'Hx2'w, 1'.15"d, this washer is great. It has a washer part and a part that spin dries.

Washer on the left and spin dry on the right. It also has a hose on the side to drain the water.

$70+$24 expedited shipping

This machine will save me time and money. The nearest laundromat is 30 miles making it a 60 mile round trip, $12 to wash and $3 to dry and my day is wasted.

Because of the weather, rain and snow, I put up a temporary clothesline inside.

As you can see, the snow is starting to melt, at least in the front.

Sunset last night

Dinner last night, Rigatoni with Hot Italian sausage and bell peppers.

OK, that's it for now. When I had asked about doing videos {VLOGS}, I didn't quite get the response I thought I would from those who commented. So, here's what I decided to do. I will attempt to do a post every other day about the day before and throw in a short video now and then. There should be a lot to talk about.

Spring, Summer and Fall is a very important time for people who live off grid and/or remote. This is when all the work needs to be done including gardening and Fall is when we prepare for the Winter months.

I hope I can entertain everyone with my posts. I plan to go fishing more and taking some road travels. As usual

TAKE CARE

An apology

I have to apologize to all of you but, I had mistakenly deleted your comments. I feel really bad and tried to put them back but, I couldn't.  Again, I am very sorry.