The Last Frontier

Saturday, December 18, 2010

More Winter Pictures

I ran across more pictures that brought back lots of fun memories. Some are a few years old. Most are family pictures that give more of an introduction to our life in the Alaskan bush. Some are just pretty pictures.
We cook and heat with wood and go through lots of firewood -- about 9 to 10 cords a year. This pile will last close to a year.


Almost enough firewood
This is a marten (sable) that got into our cache.


Marten in the Cache
We have one year-round neighbor. Bud is an 85 year old widower. He lives like we do, cutting his own wood and hauling his own water. He won't accept much help from us (although he never passes up chocolate treats and homemade bread). He says that if he's too old to do his own chores, then he's too old to be here. He's still going strong.


Bud with sled
We bought goats and had them flown out to us a few years ago.


Goats arrive on plane
This one liked Jed's hat.


I Like That Hat!
Jed loved the new kids. All animals seem to be crazy about him. He's incredibly instinctive with both animals and people.


Jed with the Kids
We haul our water from a spring. Chuck dug it out a little, built a filter box and inserted a pipe. I suppose you could say we have running water. :-)


Our Spring
We had to fly someone out here to install our satellite internet system. Our phone system isn't very reliable, and it's been great to have internet.


Finally, satellite Internet
These are Highbush Cranberries (not real cranberries). They're not good to eat off the bush, but they cook up into delicious jelly and cranberry butter (a lot like apple butter). Our favorite cranberry treat is homemade catsup. It's sort of a cross between regular catsup and barbecue sauce, only better than either one. It's nice to pick after the leaves are gone when there are no mosquitoes.


Highbush Cranberries
Picking Cranberries in November
Zeke picking cranberries
Jed picking cranberries
Jed - age 3
This is a picture of our caches. They're the first view of home we have coming down the trail.


First Glimpse of Home
Last November we had enough cold weather to start freezing the lake pretty good before we got much snow. Although none of us have ice skates, we still had fun sliding around the lake.


Ice Skating without skates in November
That's probably enough pictures of winter. Spring is on the way! The weather forecast (for what it's worth) says we're headed for a heat wave. Might even hit 50 later in the week!

3 comments:

  1. My kids have been fascinated as we've been reading through your blog this morning. :-) The little ones show goats at our county fair so they've been particularly interested in the fact that your goats had to fly in order to get to your house. We also have our food storage in our shop- which is cooler than the house. We live very close to town so going shopping isn't a problem- we just like to be prepared. Thank you for sharing some of your life with us!

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  2. I just found your blog from Rural Revolution. I love the pic of the ice feathers. I remember as a kid my uncle cecil used to leave a hose to mist over a bush during the winter. It made the most fantastic ice sculpture. Thanks for sharing your adventure with the rest of us in the lower 48.

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  3. Thank you for visiting and commenting. That reminds me of growing up in Georgia. Sometimes we'd have an ice storm during the very early spring while some of the bushes had begun to bloom. All that ice covering them with those flowers frozen in ice was just beautiful! Thanks for the reminder.
    Take care,
    Jenny

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