It’s still cold. But Blue lives. My son got it warmed up enough to start and we have had it running since. I’ll turn it off when I can plug it in to reliable power or for brief times in the store. Of course it might work out better if the truck could build up some heat. I nearly freeze on the drive home from work. Putting cardboard over the radiator didn’t help one bit. I’ve been thinking the thermostat is not working right but now someone told me that Cummins engines have a thing where they don’t heat up in extreme cold. I’ll have to do some research and talk to the right people. I’m no mechanic, but I know things could be better.

The real star of the week has been the Scone. It’s really a Scion A-somethingorother that I bought for cheap off of marketplace. It has a manual transmission and it runs good. Best of all the heater works great! And it starts well even at -20. As much as I love Blue this one isn’t bad.

I knew that the DOT puts in a good effort to keep the roads clear and safely driveable for those of us with common sense. Sometimes it takes a few days to get to all of the roads and the snow gets hard packed into ice. The other morning Chris and I drove past a convoy of four graders that were stairstepped to scrape the ice from the truck lane at a RR crossing. The blades on each grader had teeth to bite into the ice and break it up. It looks pretty effective.

Snow clearing for DOT may have found a place on my list of possible future jobs. Nobody would expect me to drive fast and everyone smart would be appreciative. Plus I would get to work with heavy equipment. That’s been on my list for a while now.

One thing I say a dozen times a day is how much I love all the colors up here. Sunrise is ever closer to 10am and sunset is before 3:30pm now. At the solstice the sun will be up for just about 3 hours total, but that doesn’t mean we are without light. Two hours before sunrise it starts to get lighter and the skies are painted with pastels. Then two hours before sunset I start seeing those sunset colors showing up among the clouds. The light and color lingers even after the sun is down and the camera in my brain is filled with amazing views and compositions that I could never capture on my phone camera. I think the only way to really see it is to be here and to soak it in.

Yesterday we went to a tourist spot that is also a favorite of the locals. Chena Hot Springs has been a resort destination for over 100 years. I’ve been there twice now and can definitely say that the colder the weather the better it is in the pool. The hot springs themselves run at over 150° and are used to heat the buildings, greenhouses, generate power, and the pool. The outdoor pool has plenty of cold water mixed in, but it still runs hot and sulfurous. My friend’s stainless steel ring turned an odd bronze/black color after spending a couple of hours in the water.

After soaking in all that heat it was extra hard to get into Blue and drive nearly 80 miles home without heat. I’m going to have to get that fixed. I’ll also have to remember to bring blankets for the next time we go on an outing.

This whole adventure has a steep learning curve. I kinda jumped in the deep end by starting out off grid. But I’ve come to see the lack of cabin as a blessing in disguise. I’m able to be minutes from knowledgeable help if something goes wrong. By next winter we’ll know what we’re doing and it will be easier in a cabin. In the meantime there’s so much to enjoy along the way.