Changes

Sometimes I wonder how civilization ever developed, but I know the answer to that easily enough. To move forward, you must abandon the past. Aahhh but I don't want to abandon what I have here. I like what I have here. But living this life here in this wilderness, needs careful planning, and sudden changes are difficult to manage.

Over the last few years, our sons have wanted us to spend winters at least in town. Their generous hearts are just looking out for our best interest, but neither Don nor I are very big on change, and spending the winter in town is a very big change. You might not think it is so hard - just go to town when summer work is over, but it's not that easy. I've spent years shutting down the lodge and getting it ready for the winter months, and shutting down a house is no different.

Here's a list of the things we did last fall to get ready to go to town.

outside:

• Make sure the boats are secure and the motors safe - we hauled 3 motors to the house
• Make sure the gas was safe and as hidden as we could manage - we didn't want someone to stop by and help themselves
• Make sure there was some firewood cut and ready for when we came back
• Make sure the generators were safe and ready to be used when we got back
• Make sure nothing was just laying around to be buried by the snow and therefore lost for the winter
• Make sure all my water buckets were upright and safe - it would make my first collection of snow easier

inside:

• There were a few frozen meats and such left in the freezer, so we moved them to the outside freezer - the hope was that winter would be cold enough to keep them good - that ended up not being the case
• Make sure all jared and bottled liquids were in the sink or in the shower so if they broke from freezing, I'd have less to clean up.
• Make sure there was no standing water, bits of coffee, or any other liquids sitting around
• Would have needed to make sure the propane was shut off but that bottle ran out that morning, so no worries there
• Hide all our handguns and our most valuable rifles - for the same reason we hid our fuel. We didn't want someone to break in and help themselves
• Make a list of supplies to bring out with us
• Try our best to make sure the battery bank was charged up as much as possible to protect them from freezing
• Pack: clothes, computers, power cords, internet cords, (forgot my camera)

shoulda:

• Put all dry goods not in a bucket into the now empty inside freezer
• Ordered propane before going to town - we're almost out now
• Made sure snowshoes were at the house - so glad we bought a pair in town

Well, that's most everything, and there's always the constant looking around to make sure we didn't miss anything.

So all that is just for getting ready to go to town. Being in town wasn't so bad but what with Carrs just a stroll away, it was way too easy to go buy a pack or two of cigarets, some candy, or muffins. Sometimes there was the Salisbury steak TV dinners or for me just red meat to fry up. Sometimes there was a few cans of chili, or tuna - whatever we were hungry for at the time. I got pretty good at keeping coffee available and bought our share, that and honey to put in it. Donnie is looking out for healthy foods and honey is healthier than sugar. At any rate, we ended up spending about $50+ every other day or so. So, our trip to town, counting the flight to and from, ultimately cost us a lot more money than we would have spent just staying out here.

I wanted to do it once though, at least. There were some good things that came from this trip. Don allowed me to buy a couple filleting knives from Amazon, which in turn allowed me to publish one of my books through CreateSpace, a free Amazon self publishing company, and THAT ended up being a good thing because it has paid for my internet for 2 months in a row so far. Also during my trip to town, I was able to hold a book signing. Now that was rather anticlimactic, but kinda fun. One of my books never made it to me, so I was a book short, but the bookstore bought 2 each of my other two books, and I sold 3 to customers (one was the book store owner's sister, but that's okay, she wasn't buying them as a favor to her sister or me. Another thing I wanted to do is look into some place where I could join some kind of exercise class. I was hoping to find a Kung Fu class, but would look into Yoga if I saw something. I did see a yoga place in my walking around but it was never open when I went by. And then there was the Alaska Club - probably why I didn't see anything else around. So I stopped in and just couldn't see myself spending $80 bucks for no less than six months. What I would have preferred is pay as I go in, maybe $10 per trip at the most. I wasn't going to be in town for six months, nor was I going to be able to go there every day. They tried their best though. I got the grand tour, and was impressed with all the things they offered, and with how clean the place was. Ha, maybe I should have applied for a cleaning job there. I might have got something that way.

Another thing I wanted to do is find a winter job. That way I could work out here for the summer and then have a job to go to in town for the winter, thus giving us a year-round income, but really this winter was more of an experiment so I didn't look very hard.

Then the floor gets pulled out from under me.

I heard a rumor. The lodge where I work went bankrupt - well, more correctly, the owners went bankrupt. I wouldn't have my normal job this summer. I kept hoping and hoping something would change, that surely someone would run the place to keep the money flowing and pay whatever the bill was. The previous owner even came down to look the place over, but what with the flood last fall, and with ongoing problems that needed to be fixed. He wasn't willing to make the investment. So, there it sits, soon to be abandoned in the care of the bank until someone decides to buy it. I need to get there and get my things before everything is inventoried and claimed as their property, and I have yet to be able to make it down the trail with the 4-wheeler. I can walk there, but there's no way I can carry a motor down there, and boats don't go very far without a motor.

Not to worry much, I do have work, but only part time. A friend at a neighboring lodge has been after me for years to work in his yard. Now I have the time. And the list of things I want to do here has grown over the years. Looks like I'll have time for some of that too, however, working here at home isn't going to earn us much, and such things like food, gas, and propane, cost money. Thanks to our now frivolous-seeming trip to town, and a bunch of other rather frivolous-seeming spending over the last few years, we are ill prepared for a sudden summer without work. I'm pretty sure we'll make it just fine, but there won't be any left over - back to scraping by from summer paycheck to summer paycheck, and if we lose our internet, book sales and publishing will also plummet. I so wanted my writing to support us someday, but though it is improving, that hasn't happened yet.

I'm kinda pissed about the lodge. It seems the owners had declared bankruptcy very early last summer, and they didn't trust me with this information. Had I known last summer the potential developments of this summer, I could have arranged for work then, and been all set, and no worries. But no, John, the caretaker, and I, were left scrambling for work, and him, for a place to live. He has lived at the lodge for 3 years now, I think, year round, though the flood drove him out of the cabin where he lived. I think that now qualifies as condemned. If they were worried that I'd quit early, they didn't know me very well. I have invested over 10 years into that place; it is my second home. Even now, I won't completely abandon it. I fully plan to stop by frequently and tend my gardens there, and mostly just keep an eye on the place. I'll be working almost next door anyway.

Last summer I looked into buying a small place upriver, but the owner wasn't willing to work with me. Who knows, that was last summer. I asked my family for financial help in that direction, maybe they will come through for me this year. I know I can pay them back; there's just no way I can get my own loan. Banks don't loan for buying businesses out here, not with a part time work record. They want their monthly payment every month, and no business out here will have a monthly income year round, not when half the year is spent with un-travelable conditions and winter business being thin at best, especially at first.

Living out here takes planning, and somethings I plan an entire year ahead. I came to work at Riversong because I couldn't get a firm yes from the lodge where I had worked before. My first stint at Riversong was the very last 3 weeks of the season with a for sure promise of a job next summer, and I stayed there ever since for the same reason. When hope for any kind of work at Riversong finally played out, I sent an email to a couple other of the lodges here on the river, but I was too late, they were already filled up. They too plan ahead, and rightly so. I'll still go around and offer my services on call. Maybe someone will quit or get fired. I've seen it at Riversong a few times. Some people just don't know what they're getting into coming out here, and end up not being able to take it. Some people think it's a working vacation and end up playing far more than working, and get themselves fired. Not that I wish anything bad for those hopeful workers, I'm just needing to work. Most of them are just filling a summer.

So - planning is vital - change can be painful - and hindsight can really torture sometimes

My Adventure in Town

Early last January, we made the trip to Eagle River for the bulk of the winter. There were a long list of pros and cons to the idea. One thing I intended to accomplish was to have my very first book signing with real books. To that end I ordered a box of books (Prince in Hiding) as soon as I hit town. Sadly those books were sent to the wrong address and subsequently went completely missing. Another thing I accomplished was to buy something from Amazon.com which allowed me to publish my blog novel, which I was able to order within a week. Looking forward to my book signing, I now had three books to show, or at least I would have if that box had reached me. Early in February, I started the finishing process with one of my publishers to get yet another book out there. Now this one I hadn't really planned on showing at my book signing, but I sent them an email asking if maybe it might be done on time. Well, it was, but then I had trouble ordering the books. First my husband's card didn't work and then mine didn't work, so I asked my bank what the issue was. No problem on their end so I don't know what the issue was, I ended up having to mail a check, so sadly that book never made it to Eagle River so I had them send them to me. It is probably up at the post office now. Well, the book signing went swimmingly just the same. Not a big turnout as I'd hoped but it was just a little book store way out in Eagle River. I managed to sell three of my books to customers and four to the store itself. I was happy with that paycheck.

Another happy thing that happened to me was that Donnie and Marylou were able to get me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. I now have fifty brand new books on it, some old favorites I haven't read in MANY years but mostly new ones published by writer friends of mine or simply very interesting books available at $2 or less most of them. No longer will I be languishing for something to read. hahaha And you know the best thing about my new Kindle, the screen lights up so I don't need a night light to read. I'm thrilled.

I also tried to take a stab at a non-fiction writing job but that was an abysmal failure.

So that was pretty much the extent of my excitement in town. The rest of the time was rather boring, A few movies. A few shopping trips. Walking to the store a couple blocks away about every other day. The occasional walk to the bank to deposit a royalty check (those were a pleasant surprise). Most of the time being spent on line accomplishing not much productive.

No TV was kind of annoying for Don, but we could have watched movies if the ceiling to the apartment above had been a little more soundproof. One very annoying thing about that apartment building was the design. Who would put a bedroom over a living room? All the doors are in the same place. Most of the windows are in the same place. It makes no sense to me. So since out living room was directly under their bedroom us watching anything on TV was almost impossible without keeping them awake. So about the only time we could watch movies was on the kids' days off when we could watch something in the middle of the day.

The biggest con about our trip to town was the return. When our planned date came around weather wouldn't let us fly. That was probably a good thing though. Let me explain.

Since we couldn't fly to land on the river, a fete that would have been fine despite the two or three feet of snow since we went to town. It wasn't the landing or taking off we were worried about it was the getting around after we were on the ground. The pilot was willing to wait and my son was planning to come out. He was intending to help us dig out the snowmachine and get us mobile again, and then he would fly back with the pilot.

When that plan fell through Don called the people who fly choppers out here from time to time and they gave us a great deal on a flight, so we decided to go that route and they could land us right here at the house, something I made sure could be done summer before last. So we had bought a pair of new snowshoes for Don, thank goodness because once I broke through the crust I was up to my waist in snow.

Here in the house, we discovered we'd had a little house guest for a time. He pigged out on an entire case of Wheat Thins cereal, some of the ramen noodles and whatever saltine crackers we had left here. We haven't been able to figure out if it was a martin or a squirrel, I'm leaning toward martin because I think a squirrel would have moved in permanent; the visitor was only here enough to eat and potty somewhere (I'll find it) and then go.

We got out here Thursday afternoon, and the rest of the day was sweep up the cereal crumbs and throw out the empty boxes, split some firewood and start a fire (wash off the stove first). Hook up the propane to melt some water for drinking, coffee and washing off said stove so it can be lit. Dig out and get the generator started. Oh, and bring in our new TV and other things we didn't want to freeze outside. The bad thing about doing all that was the need to put snowshoes on in order to go anywhere in the yard.

Yesterday was a big dig-out day. Don headed down to the docks to dig out the snowmachine, a two hour project (see why it wasn't a good idea to fly out?) Donnie might have been able to dig the machine out in quicker than two hours but then again maybe not, and that's not counting getting things to the snowmachine cause there's no guarantee we'd be able to get the machine up and down the hill, let alone with any kind of a load. If we'd taken a plane out, we'd have been fighting to get everything to the house until dark, and then we'd have still had to do all the other things. Having to snowshoe around everywhere was a bit of a pain but still tons easier than the alternative.

I first dug out the freezer to check the supplies we'd left here (They survived the warm winter just fine, by the way, something we were worried about). Then I started in shoveling the snow off the bedroom. Poo I was SO out of shape from my leisurely stay in town. I would stop every so often, mostly to listen for Don to come back. He didn't ... and he didn't ... and he didn't. So I got worried and headed down there to see what there was to see. Dang that wasn't easy either. I had to stop and rest along the way more than once, and the walking wasn't all that hard, there was something of a crust, just not hard enough to just walk. As it was I only sunk a couple inches at the worst. Anyway, Don met me before I got all the way there so I got to ride back. Yeah, that was pretty much it for the day for us old people.

Today was almost a day of rest. Rather than finish shoveling the snow off the roof, I decided to find the kitchen I'd put all freezable things in the sink in case they broke from freezing. That stuff all survived the winter well too, the only thing that didn't was a soda I forgot sitting on the counter. It froze and got sticky all over. So some Simple Green and water I had heating on the wood stove and everything got washed off and put away again. My next task, also in the kitchen was to finish finding all the cereal crumbs. I'll probably be finding cereal crumbs for a long time, but I got the bulk of it, and I have a kitchen again, until I need to wash dishes.

We got some new things while we were in town and we're slowly getting them all hooked up and figured out. Got a new TV but can't figure out how to get it to recognize the DVD player, so all those new movies we bought, we still can't watch. We also bought a solar panel and currently we have it leaning up in the front window. It's a disadvantaged location but it's mostly just to see how well it works. It works really well but doesn't quite keep up with our standard usage so we might need another one or maybe two. Got a new inverter too; I'm hoping that will make a difference but I'm no electrician so I have no idea.

So, though my trip to town was kinda fun in some respects, I don't think we'll be doing it again for a while. Not unless I can find some kind of job while I'm there. Here, I might not do much, but I do more than I did in town. Shoveling snow once in a while. Splitting wood every day. Going out to get a tree once in a while. It all serves to help keep me healthy.

Bummed

As some of my long-term readers may recall, I tried to get into town last winter too. Mostly poor planning was the reason for the delay last year. This year, Mother Nature is purely against the idea of us getting out of here.

For the last many years, getting out onto the river before December has been one of the 'gee-I-wish' things, so I was thrilled when the river froze in November hard enough to walk on and soon to be hard enough to drive a machine on, all that remained was for there to be enough snow to shovel in a ramp down off the bank.  That happened soon enough and we were planning to be in town by Thanksgiving. I was excited, not that I like town, but I had plans to talk to people and get my book on some shelves, maybe have a book signing or two. Don wanted to get some firewood laid by for when we came back out and needed to thaw things out again. No sooner had we a couple standing dead trees in and were looking for something more dense than the temperature plunged and Don ran out of tobacco. He gets so dizzy and even ill when he's trying to quit.

The cold hung on and on, and it didn't look like we were going to make it to town anytime soon, so we ordered an airdrop of tobacco and continued our struggle with the cold temperatures. Those of you who are my friends on Facebook know from a couple comments I've made, that old folks and machinery tend to break when it's so cold, so we don't move around much.

It's been in the -20s for the last couple weeks, or at least it sure seems so; I'm not kidding about the temps though. And now that it finally warms up some (+8 this morning; +11 earlier), it's dumping snow by the foot. I bet we've accumulated two feet since this morning. By the time it stops snowing I'll be snowshoeing the trails again - back to square one, and we haven't even been able to pack a runway yet. We did make it down to the river, finally and Don has driven out, made a turn-around and made it back up the hill. The worst part is, Don's out of tobacco again.

We went down there day before yesterday to get gas and he spun on the switch-back coming back up. When it snows at these temperatures, the snow doesn't have enough moisture to pack well. It's like packing sugar. It'll pound down solid enough, but the moment you disturb it, it shifts around and becomes sugar again.

The thing about going to town is, what do we want to leave here for the frozen months? What can we leave and what will be ruined? I ordered supplies to last until December even though Don said November would be enough. Past experience said November would never work. Now, here it is January and we are running out of everything, and I do mean everything. The contents of my freezer now fits in a cooler sitting outside on the picknick table. I have like a quart of cooking oil left. Vegetables have been gone for a while now, as have anything that resembles fresh food like potatoes. We're down to assorted Romin, various kinds of noodles, an assortment of gravies, canned fish and chicken, dehydrated hash-browns, and bread baked on top of the wood stove so I can stretch the propane as far as possible.

At this point, I'm so bummed. It's snowing my favorite kind of snow - all pretty and fluffy - and yet it's another set-back to us getting to town. For two winters now I've been looking forward to getting together with a few of my readers. I even started an event on Facebook offering my book on sale for $10 giving an address for a check or money order to be mailed to and I'd mail back a signed book. It looked so good for us to get in by the first of the year.

Ah well. So much for spending any quality time in town. It'll all be a rush once again. I've books to order, and maybe even NEW books to order. Here in a couple months, I'll have a new book coming out, and if I can, I'd like to have a box full out here to sell. Who knows, I might even have a third book published, or close to it. Just click on the sword tab to the right and you can read it. It'll be finished in April, but I'm not sure how long the publishing part will take. I'm looking into getting a cover made for it now. That's not all I need to do. Since I lost 50 pounds last summer, I need clothes for work this summer. Last spring, I bought three pair of pants - I so needed something. They now fit only because of the elastic in the waist. I also want to set up a PayPal account, but I don't trust my computing skill, not to mention my understanding all the paperwork wrapped around doing that.

My trip to town will happen even if I have to go by myself. I simply have to go. The worry now is, what with all the really cold temperatures, breakup could be really bad, meaning our boats might be in danger if left to their own devises. A few years ago I had to spend breakup down there in the boats watching the ice grind past (wishing I had a camera with me), keeping the boats from turning sideways and drifting half off the bank. The water was well over our bank. I paddled a tiny boat out to the other boats. Don came down at dark to check on me and he couldn't even wade half way to where I was in the boats and he was wearing chest waders. So that concern means we'll have to be back out here sometime in late March or early April.

I love my life out here, but planning a winter in town is such a pain.

Winter

Like last winter, we are planning to spend time in town. Things are much better set up for it this time around. We have gas, and thanks to an incredibly bitter cold November, we have ice on the river. Also, thanks to those -20sF (which is -30sC), it was nearly impossible for us to move around and get some outside things wrapped up and battened down. Then, to top off our troubles (nothing is ever trouble free) Don ran out of tobacco, and he gets nearly sick and rather disoriented whenever he tries to quit. Because of that, and though we really wanted to, we missed a delightful Thanksgiving dinner cooked by my daughter-in-law.

In an effort to celebrate the meal without all the fixings, I heated up some canned chicken, made some turkey gravy and a box of instant rice pudding. I also opened a can of cranberry sauce. It was a pretty thin dinner but it was fun in a funny sort of way.

Now that the weather has let up, we've gotten a couple feet of new snow (fortunately not all at once). It even rained one night, but though it was warm the next day the snow packed really nice rather than turning completely to mush.

Though we have the ramp shoveled in so we can get down on the river with the machine, we haven't actually driven it yet. It's rather steep and it's important that it settles and hardens before we try to abuse it with the machine. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to dig a fairly heavy machine out when its been nosed directly into a vertical bank.

What I like to do is walk up and down the ramp as we are shoveling; it serves to push the snow down where it is needed most and pack it into place as well. I deem it good enough if I can walk up and down without slipping much, and certainly without landing on my duff. This year I did the initial walking up and down without snowshoes, but recently doing so with snowshoes to keep new snowfall packed down.

Today was my second trip out to the river with snowshoes. Since the trail to the river was already packed, I didn't put them on until I got to the top of our hill. It's awkward walking in a snowmachine trail with snowshoes; the track is too narrow and the skis are too wide.

As I walked down the trail, it was very quiet. No little birdies twittered in the trees; no bigger creatures trudged through the deeper snow off among the brush. My own noise was muffled by soft snow as I shuffled along. I never did walk like my mother thought I should, and big, heavy boots are just plain big and heavy. My method of walking is most noticeable when I'm in town, say at the mall. I've always worn my boots essentially unlaced and they do flop. This makes walking with snowshoes easier, but it's a really sloppy stride on a hard floor. It's not so noticeable with shoes, but I've finally succeeded in wearing them all out - I bet you can't guess what one thing on my shopping list is.

A few days ago, when we were out and about packing trails, I was snowshoeing the hill and carrying a can of gas up too. Don was waiting for me at the top with the machine. After several trips up the ramp, and then trudging up the hill, it being the first time this year for me being on snowshoes too, I was coming up the last stretch quite slow. Also, I do much better pulling my kiddy sled behind me than I do carrying a can full of gas, so I was setting it down frequently - it seemed like about every ten steps, but it really wasn't that bad. Don commented that it must be nice being fifty pounds lighter. Oh, man, you have no idea how much nicer it is. Yeah, I was pooped, but always, walking up that hill, summer or winter, I used to take old lady steps. Now the only time I take old lady steps is when I'm purposely shuffling in order to pack the snow.