Category Archives: Alaska

Keeping the lights on.

July 11, 2021 Miz B.

In case you didn’t know, I have been living off grid for just over a year now. Off grid means different things to different people. I have seen some more extreme definitions include hiding your very existence from the government, but that is a topic for a very different person. My definition of off grid is simply not being connected to public utilities.

I am living on my friend’s land in an RV until I get my cabin built. There are no hookups. My friend and her family have used a generator for electric power for the six years they have lived here, though they are on the verge of getting a connection to the power company this summer.(It’s paid for and the work order is sent!) We still bring our water home in 5 gallon jugs. We still use an outhouse and have alternative arrangements for laundry and showers. This lifestyle is not uncommon up here for various reasons that I can go into at another time.

I think the reason I am writing this today is because I just changed the oil in my generator. It’s the second time I’ve ever done it since I have been up here. That doesn’t mean that my generator has been neglected, it just means that I have great support people who currently aren’t here to do it for me. I might be spoiled!

My resident experts make it so I can neglect my own expertise. Here they are last summer tearing a generator apart to figure out what went wrong.

Expert No1 is my friend’s daughter. She’s so good at making them run that she wants to become a mechanic, but she doesn’t want to do it at home anymore. She trained No2, who is pretty good himself after keeping the lights and heat on all winter. Between the two of them I don’t have much to worry about. And that’s enough bragging on them for now.

When you think about energy, what comes to mind? Often it will be words like green, renewable, fossil fuel, solar, etc. When you dig down it often comes down to electricity. Windmills, solar panels, hybrid vehicles all generate electric power that is used to do the work. We think of massive freight trains and ships running on diesel, but that fuel really powers a generator that runs an electric motor to move the vehicle.

How much of your life depends on electricity? If you went to the main breaker in your house and shut off the power how much would that affect your ability to do basic things? Could you cook food? Take a warm shower? Heat your home? Do you have a well pump that you rely on to provide your clean water? How would you charge your devices? How would it limit your communication and entertainment? How long do you think you could leave the power off before you start itching to turn it back on? I am not telling you to actually shut off the power, but I highly recommend it as a thought experiment. Spend a day where you deliberately take note of every time and every way you use electricity. You might be surprised by how ubiquitous it is.

The first time I really wanted to dig into this topic was last fall when Oregon was dealing with wildfire. PGE made the decision to shut off some high voltage lines that pass through the Mt Hood National Forest due to high fire danger and high winds. As a result my family in Oregon was out of power for a couple of days. We discussed the possibility of them getting a generator, but were distracted when almost the entire county was put under evacuation orders due to wildfire.

The topic came up again in winter. Remember that week that half the country got hit hard with winter weather? My family again was without power for three days and the house got kinda cold. I spent time on a phone call discussing how to use a generator without powering the whole house and how to decide what is most necessary. I’m sure that they’ll get a generator at some point, but only after a few more annoying outages.

So now you have thought about how much you use electricity. Maybe you want a generator. How much do you need? I will argue for minimalism. I will state my case based on my own experience. I will not claim expertise because my experience pool is shallow. But what I know is good enough to keep you alive and comfortable.

11 months in and it still runs like a champ.

I use a Honda 2200 generator. I am not getting paid to say this. I chose it because my friends told me that they are the most reliable, long lasting, and efficient generator they have tried. Remember, this family has exclusively relied on generators for power for the last 6 years, so I figure they know what they’re talking about. So far I’m pretty happy with the units I own. They run up to eight hours on a single gallon of fuel. I have been told that they will last up to 18 months running almost nonstop if they are properly maintained. That includes changing the oil about every 300 hours of runtime. I set a reminder on my phone for every 2 weeks. The process only takes 5 minutes.

Old oil out, fresh oil in. Time to close it up.

So how do you hook up your generator to what you need to power? I remember my mom asking where the cable was to hook up the generator to the house. If you scroll up a bit you will see that we use a standard extension cord. That’s all!

Let me be perfectly clear. Unless you buy a big whole house generator and pay an electrician to install a special switch to connect it to your home you should never, NEVER connect a generator to your home’s electrical system. There are good reasons, like not sending power back into a grid that should be dead and harming people who are trying to get the power back up. But also, a small generator like this won’t run your whole house.

What should you do? Set your generator up outdoors where the exhaust won’t build up or fill your living area with carbon monoxide. Plug in a heavy duty extension cord and run it to the house. Connect a power strip and plug in your basics. Lights, phone chargers, TV, fan, all the simple things. You might even be able to run a small AC unit to cool a single room in hot weather. The generator will let you know its limits. This is where you figure out the basics of what you truly need. I discovered I couldn’t use a hair dryer. Most heaters are not likely to work either, so you might have to put some thought into another way to keep warm. It’s probably a good idea to try it out before you really need it, too.

If you are going to use a generator you must have fuel for it. The simplest way to store it is in 5 gallon gas cans. If you are worried about it getting stale then set up a system to rotate it. Number your cans. Fill them up. Set a monthly reminder on your phone. Pour gas can number 1 into your car’s tank, then take it with you to the gas station to fill it up again. Next month do the same with gas can number 2, and continue down the line until you get back to 1. Five cans will usually last for a week with this generator. Will the power be back on by then? Most of the time the answer is yes, but it never hurts to have some extra on hand.

My power bill fluctuates with the price of gas. These cans represent one week of electricity.

Let me talk about gas cans now. The design has been messed with a lot over the last 20 years or so and most of what they tried sucked. For a while I missed the vent on the can that allowed gas to pour freely into the tank you were trying to fill. I guess the EPA didn’t like something about it so if you look at my picture above you will notice only one can with a vent. Today that is my least favorite. I call it the spitter. Every time I set it down it will spew gas at me. I hate it. The one that works best is the childproof one. It’s the one with the black and green nozzle. It took a while to figure out how to work it, but it gives you great control and has a vent integrated into the nozzle that lets air go in as fuel goes out without chugging. I fully plan to replace the spitter with another one like it before winter.

You may notice that there is a second generator in the picture of the gas cans. That is the 2200 companion generator. We bought it as a backup. There were several times that it saved us from the cold last winter. There is nothing worse than waking up at 3am, -°20 outside, and you hear the generator choking itself to death hours before the fuel should run out. It is far better to pick up the spare, top off the tank, swap it out and go back to sleep instead of trying to fix the main unit as the heat slowly disappears. Our oil heater requires power to run so if there isn’t any we get cold fast. If we can just swap them out, the struggling unit can come inside to warm up, which often solves the problem.

Of course the other benefit of the companion generator is that you can use a special cable to connect it to the other generator and run them together to double the energy output. Flexibility is a good thing to have. I’m pretty sure that the spare will put in time at the cabin site once we start building. We need power to run tools and charge batteries for the cordless.

To sum it up, our modern lives call for power. Lately it seems more and more questionable whether we can rely on the power to stay on. Having an alternative source is a simple way to keep yourself and your family comfortable. You don’t have to default to solar or wind systems with battery banks that you have to maintain. If you know how to run a lawnmower you can use a generator. The battery backup can come later.

I think I’ve covered enough ground for today. Again, I’m not an expert, but I feel that living this way for the last year gives me a good enough foundation to speak from. I encourage you to at least run the thought experiment to become aware of what you use and need. If you do buy a generator, I highly recommend trying it out for a day, even if it’s just a backyard campout. It makes a great confidence boost to know that you can take care of at least one major need.

Alaska

Summer days

June 15, 2021 Miz B.

It has been a busy couple of days. It’s over 80° and it feels so good. Things are starting to get moving up at work. And this morning I got to experience my first real traffic jam since coming up here. It was caused by a moose. Of course!

Early on I learned that you never doubt braking on the highway. The guy three cars up might be a jerk trying to mess with traffic, or he might be trying not to mow down a moose. The moose doesn’t care what’s coming at him, he’s just going to do his own thing. It’s in everyone’s best interest to avoid hitting the moose. This morning someone hit the moose. Traffic was at a standstill, backed up for a mile. It took us an extra fifteen minutes to get in to town. Tragedy, I tell you!

The cool thing is that the meat won’t go to waste. The troopers have a list of people to call to pick up the carcass. Any meat that isn’t ruined will be shared out by whoever can pick it up first.

It looks rough and it’s old,but inside looks cozy.

Now for work. The staff housing unit has arrived and been set up. My assignment this week has been to clean it. This is a man camp unit that spent years up on the north slope. From the outside it looks like trailer houses set side by side. Inside there’s a really nice commercial kitchen, washrooms, a common room, and nine bedrooms. Yesterday I scrubbed down the kitchen. Today I cleaned the pantry and four bedrooms. This is a job I can do. It really isn’t too dirty, except for the road dirt that got in everywhere when it made the trip down the Dalton.

And now for the concerning bit. Heading home there was smoke on the horizon. We saw a helicopter with a bucket headed towards a nearby water source. Later there was a string of three airplanes that flew past the smoke column and back towards town. Farther north of Fairbanks there is a wildfire. I don’t know anything more than that, but after Oregon’s fire season last year I can’t help but want to pay attention.

I am not too worried. Basecamp is set next to a firebreak and it looks like they’re trying to get a handle on this fire early. I’d hate to see anyone’s property go up in flames, but I will be okay no matter how this goes.

So there’s a brief update on my eventful day. I hope yours is even better.

Alaska

Mosquitoes are vampires. Prove me wrong.

June 10, 2021 Miz B. 2 Comments

When I stepped outside this morning I was struck by a wave of mosquitoes that crashed against me. Literally. I did what I had to do and hurried back inside, trying to leave as many as possible on the other side of the door. It doesn’t always work. I probably have a dozen or more perched on the ceiling, wall, or some inconspicuous place near me, just waiting to buzz past my head.

Vampires? Yes. But whoever wrote that rule in literary vampire lore that they need permission to enter a home must have never seen a mosquito. Ugh. They are bad enough during the day, but try to sleep with that buzz at the edge of your consciousness is less fun. A fan helps, but I can’t stand air blowing on me at night so instead I either hide completely under the blanket or I rig a sheet over me like a mosquito net.

I love dragonflies. This might seem like a change of subject, but dragonflies are the good guys. They are predators. They eat mosquitoes or mosquito larvae. Yesterday morning I found a dragonfly on the steps. Last week the kids found what I believe is a dragonfly larva in the creek. I’ll encourage them. Give me more dragonflies! I’d like fewer mosquitoes.

Alaska, Off-grid living, Squashing Bugs

Start fresh every day.

June 9, 2021 Miz B. 2 Comments

I’ve been stuck in a rut. I’ve started and deleted a couple of posts. I have a bunch of things I’d like to write about but the words just won’t take shape. It feels a little frustrating and I haven’t been able to force my way through the block. I’ll need to find a way around.

It has been a year since I left Oregon behind. Right now I feel like I am in the same position as I was when I arrived in Alaska. I don’t have reliable transportation. (Chris is working and uses my truck. The Scone is still not working.) The cabin is still on hold. (We should be able to pull the sawmill off the property today so we can get it repaired.) I’m not working regularly. (Okay, I’m scheduled for two days a week, but they’re having their own roadblocks so it feels like no progress there.) On top of all that, when I do work my feet and body end up hurting so bad that it takes all week to recover so I can do it again.

I came across someone’s quote yesterday, “Don’t be afraid of failure, be afraid of being in exactly the same place year after year.” And that’s where my mind is. I’m seeing all the ways that I am not making progress. I feel like I’m going backwards, especially with my physical condition. It doesn’t help that I had a cold knock me down for a couple of days this week.

Forgive my whining. I don’t like to do it, but sometimes it’s like sweeping up the dust from the floor and starting fresh. My brain generates all these negative thoughts and they collect like dust bunnies in the works. You can sweep them under the rug, but that doesn’t make them go away. Saying them out loud and acknowledging them seems to work better. Bring them out into the open and cancel them with reality, then they can be collected for the trash. There will be another batch soon enough. It’s best to not let them build up.

So how am I in a different place than I was last year?

I have done a lot of healing. I don’t have nearly as much bitterness in my soul as I did last June. I know myself a bit better. I know some more of what brings me joy and I have been learning how to allow myself to settle into that. It seems simple, but it’s harder than you might think.

The cabin is actually started. The beams are in place and it looks like they didn’t settle much during mud season. That’s good. All we need is a working sawmill and a couple of days and we can have our stack of lumber. Then it’s a matter of getting the framing done and the roof on. If we put the RV on site I can even do some of the work while Chris is in town. I really should see about getting some gravel down in the parking area…

I do have a job that I like, even though what’s available over the summer is kicking my butt. I know they want me to be available for when the season starts again in August. It’s good to know that I’m wanted.

I have also learned a lot over the winter. I learned about my abilities and limits. (I can do more than I thought I could.) I learned that I can live well with less. I know I want to share some of that. I just have to get around that imposter syndrome crap! Why does it feel fake if I’m doing it?

Tamarack, or Eastern Larch,is a deciduous conifer. The needles turn gold and shed in the fall,then grow back for summer.

Life runs in cycles. Every year follows a similar pattern to the year before. I guess the question is whether you are on a track going in circles or if you are in a spiral. If you’re just making your run deeper then I hope you like where you are. I’d rather be working my way up the spiral.

I think that’s enough for now. I’ll try to make more posts and fewer excuses. And I hope you will talk back to me. Ask questions. Tell me what you’re curious about. Some things about living here are slightly surreal, like having daylight all the time. That’s a post for later. For now I’ll leave you with some flower pics.

Lingnon berry flowers. They grow like a ground cover all through the forest, and are especially thick at the edges where they get the sun.

Wild current. I know someone who calls them high bush cranberries. Both these and lingnon berries taste very much like cranberries.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Off-grid living, Stories

Welcome to the meltdown.

April 29, 2021 Miz B.

The above picture was taken 2 weeks ago. We drove out to check on our driveway and see how accessible it might be. It wasn’t. Chris hiked the whole way in nearly thigh high snow that had begun melting away underneath. He came back exhausted.

Last week we went back to see how it’s going. The snow was only shin deep. Still too much to risk trying to drive on. If we tried to plow it off we could end up stirring up the dirt below. So we wait. The sawmill waits. The new blades and replacement parts wait. The logs wait. Mother Nature has her own ideas.

Ice floated free of the bottom of the creek.

Today we had to get outside for a while. The season ended for my work and while I have been going in two days per week to help with their summer projects this is a quiet time with not much to do. I have spent too much time indoors. So we went for a walk. The creek has been thawed enough to not walk across for a while now. But though the surface flows there was still thick ice on the bottom. Well, at least until today there was.

The kids had to play on the creek. Just like when it first started to freeze, the other kids had to share the fun with Chris. Being the person he is, there was no way he wouldn’t join in. He even had to request his axe so he could try to make iceberg islands. They goofed off for nearly an hour before other things called them away.

The thing that surprises me (though it shouldn’t) is how early the mosquitoes are out. A friend calls them “snow mosquitoes” and says that even though they are huge most of them don’t even bite. I wear my heavy sweatshirt to make it harder for the ones that do. Yes they are big. They are also less bothersome than the tiny ones that come later in the season. This year I’m getting a bug net to put on my hat. Last year I breathed too many of them.

So we’re still in a holding pattern. Winter is done. Spring is here, but not yet building season. We have a lot of the pieces, we just need to get them put together. Here’s hoping that we can start moving forward soon.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Inspiration, Off-grid living, Stories

I lived off grid for 9 months. This is what I have learned.

March 5, 2021 Miz B.

Okay, so this isn’t actually where I live. It’s the cabin across the creek. My post title is ridiculously clickbaity, but my sense of humor is hiding in the back giggling like mad. The best part is that the title is my reality.

This is the RV I have lived in since July. We are totally off grid. Our wash water was brought in from the creek until the creek froze. Our drinking water is brought in using 5-gallon jugs like you would use on your water cooler at work. Our electricity comes from a generator. Our heat comes from an oil heater. Our cooking is done on the propane stove that comes with the RV. I have access to laundry and shower facilities at the shop where I park the van I drive for work. We use an outhouse as necessary. It has been an adventure and I love it. I have learned a lot from this experience.

Needs are important. So are comforts. You have to make sure that all the basic necessities are in place. Once that is taken care of, the little things are what make life more enjoyable. Sometimes a comfort is something as simple as a fluffy blanket or a new pillow. Keep it simple, but enjoy it.
Energy is vital for life. When it is so readily available you can easily take it for granted. We have to pay attention to our energy use in order to continue to have it available. If we want heat we need to have oil and electricity. If we want electricity we have to have gasoline. If we forget to pay attention we will run into trouble.
Simple is best. You can complicate the heck out of everything, but why? It’s good to let all the extra stuff fall by the wayside. If it drains your time and energy, let it go. Live simply for a while and see what you miss enough to bring it back into your life.
Cast Iron is good for everything…almost. We have a couple of cast iron skillets that we use daily now. We also acquired a pair of enameled cast iron dutch ovens that get plenty of use. We fry things, simmer things, stew things, and bake things. Pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, steaks, soups, stew, pot roast, grilled cheese, pizza, and even layer cakes have come out of the cast iron that we use.
You can use less water than you think. You probably use more water than you realize. Check your water bill. Divide that by days of the month. How much do you use daily? We use 10-15 gallons of water per week for cooking, cleaning, and drinking. Laundry and shower are extra, but I’m not hauling that so I can’t count it. I laughed at a dishwasher commercial that bragged about using just 4 gallons per load. I use 1-2 gallons to wash dishes and I do it about two times a week.
There is a visceral excitement in finding success against nature. This isn’t quite Australia, but make no mistake. The Arctic is constantly looking for ways to kill you if you are stupid. The weather is no joke. There are animals that will eat you. The moose can be more dangerous than the bears. (Don’t try to pet them or take selfies beside them.) I am by no means as self sufficient as some of the people who live in the far middle of nowhere, but with my beginner skills I am still proud that I have done as well as I have this winter.

I asked my son what he thought he learned from the last 9 months of living off grid, and I think what he said sums it up perfectly. “You have to learn to do shit for yourself.”

Today everyone has been encouraged to become specialists. You go to college to learn your selected career and let a lot of other skills fall by the wayside. You end up paying others to apply their specialties when things go wrong. There are memes about how nobody knows how to change a tire, change their oil, fix a leaky faucet, even change out a light bulb. People don’t know how to use basic tools anymore unless it’s part of their job. Well let me tell you, a lot of these things aren’t so difficult. Knowing some of them will save you a lot of money.

We learned (my son mostly) how to troubleshoot a generator. If we had to take it into the shop for service it would take 6 weeks and cost $200 for repair. We know this because we had trouble with one that we couldn’t figure out. That was a big incentive to learn all the things to check. Professor Google and YouTube University can teach you almost everything you need to learn. Any trouble you have, someone else has run into before and someone has made a video about. Even if it isn’t exactly for the item you are working on you should be able to learn something that applies. Learn. There is no better teacher than necessity. Now he will wake up because he hears that the generator is about to quit. He’ll have his pants on and be reaching for boots before it shuts off, then be out with the backup generator to swap it out. The dead one ends up inside to warm up and be worked over. The generator tool kit comes out to take it apart and clear the ice wherever it may be. Knowing how to do this takes the worry out of the situation and certainly builds confidence.

You don’t have to live off grid in an RV through an Alaskan winter to learn things from life. You can learn things from everyday life. All you have to do is pause every now and then and ask yourself what you’ve been through and what you did right or what you could have done different to have a better outcome. Life is a journey of constant discovery. As long as you remember that you will never be bored with it. The day you stop learning things is the day you start dying.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Off-grid living, Stories

It’s been snowing some more.

February 27, 2021 Miz B. 5 Comments

How much snow do we have? More than we did last week.

I think we have gotten 8″ of snow in the last few days. This is by not any scientific measurement, it’s based on how much snow I sweep off a certain seat every time I go out. It has become habit to grab the broom as well as TP every time I go out the door. Yes, I confess. I do regret not putting a roof out there. Even a tarp would help, but… whatever. I do have a wonderful view if it is warm enough to take time to look around. Sunrise is especially pretty.

I haven’t written in a few days because I have things I want to say about current events and how I think it might affect my plans for the future. I’ve been thinking about energy a lot. Also about being prepared for challenging times. The winter weather that hit nearly the entire country in February took many people by surprise while I’m gaining experience in how to handle that type of weather. I’m thinking about redundancy and alternatives and how I can set them up so I won’t be taken by surprise if the current systems are disrupted.

I’ve been thinking, but I don’t know how best to share my thoughts. I want it to be a discussion with other interested people. I want people with experience to be able to advise those without. I probably want more than I will ever achieve on my little blog, so I guess I’ll just have to figure out where to start small. So instead of the deep thoughts I will share a couple of stories.

Yesterday was warm by February in Alaska standards. The temp was about 20° so we took advantage of that by shoveling some of the snow away from the truck and off our paths. Not that it did a lot of good, but there’s less than there would have been.

Clay has a new squeaky toy. We bought it so he won’t get so bored when we’re gone and won’t look for trouble. There have been too many incidents of getting into things that should not be touched! He made the mistake of bringing it outside to play. He lost track of it and the other dogs got to it and brought it into the cabin across the creek. Hopefully it will come home soon now that the kids know where it came from.

The funniest story is when Chris came in completely covered in snow. I guess he was by the generator, near the trees that are heavy with excess snow. He says an odd noise got him to look up just as a branch let go of a load. A raven happened to fly away from the branch right about then. Apparently they have a twisted sense of humor and find ways to tease.

As for me, I got to join friends on a trip to the hot springs. It’s a really nice day trip. We left home at almost 5, picked up some snacks in town, filled the tank in the car, then headed out of town. Due to all the snow the road was more of an adventure than usual, but we had the ice road trucker driving the Prius. So yeah, it was an adventure. He’s got no worries tackling an actual paved road in a bit of snow when he drives the haul road on a regular basis.

The hot springs were almost too hot with the weather so warm. They are best enjoyed when it’s -30°. Some of us were ready to get out much sooner than others. But the soak did me good. The minerals in the water really do something to your joints. One of these days I’ll manage to schedule a massage to go with the hot springs trip.

Now another week is coming, and with it another month. There’s only a few more weeks to the season at my job. By April I need to be ready to see what I can get started on for my cabin. I’ll have the free time and hopefully Chris will have a job to cover living expenses. I’m excited as I look forward to the next couple of months. This RV has worked well enough to keep out the weather this winter. I just don’t want to still be here in August.

So I guess that covers where we are for now. I hope everyone got through the bad weather well enough. I hope you are all making plans for how to make the next time go easier. And I hope you go into spring with plans to improve your life.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Off-grid living

Not sure if I trust my weather app anymore.

February 8, 2021 Miz B.

I’m staying home sick this week. I’m 99.999% sure it’s a normal cold, the likes of which I have worked through hundreds of times before, but we are in strange times. That normal head cold might actually be the plague that wants to kill people!

Pardon the sarcasm. Yeah. We’re in strange times. I’m not driving a 40-footer full of random people these days. I drive people who are tired of being locked down in fear. They have braved the pandemic and the airport screening line in order to have an experience. They don’t need to see me going through Kleenex like crazy and worry about sharing an enclosed space with me. I went to get tested and will probably hear the results today. I’m not worried.

Looking up the frozen creek. The sun is somewhere that direction.

So about that title. I woke up this morning a bit colder than usual. The dog can’t decide whether or not to stay under the blankets and ends up dragging them off of me. So I pulled them up again and reached for my weather app. It says -41. I say what? Pull to refresh and it updates to -31. Okay. I went outside as one does when necessary, even though it might be that cold. As soon as I’m vertical gravity says hello. And yes, it’s extra cold. Cold enough that when I cleared my sinuses I think the wad was half frozen before I could spit. (Sorry, I guess it’s TMI day, but the experience was strange.)

I installed a new weather app with NOAA in the name and that one says it’s -13. That doesn’t seem right either. I know it’s colder than that. Or at least I think I do. I’m not sure what to trust anymore.

I guess I need to get a thermometer to put up outside. Maybe I’ll tack it to a tree and have real time temps that I can trust.

At least it won’t throw ads at me.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Off-grid living

Here’s a few things you’ll never see back in Portland!

February 5, 2021 Miz B.

This is what I woke up to. I made sure to not crop out the time. Don’t worry. We’re comfortable this time around. Both the Toyo and the propane heater are working to keep the indoor temps cozy. The thermometer in my end of the RV reads 45, but it’s mounted on an exterior wall so that might skew it colder. My blankets are enough to make it comfortable. Clay dog agrees.

This is what I woke up to yesterday morning. I had to sweep it off so I could head in to work. No ice to scrape. Nothing melted because it was -15 when I went to bed and -8 when I woke up. All the snow is dust and blows off easily.

Driving into town I was able to safely cruise at highway speed. Normal, dry pavement speed limit speed is safe in these conditions. It’s almost surprising because at night my headlights reflect off the shiny layer of ice on the road surface, but if you aren’t stupid it isn’t really slick. Don’t let your wheels touch the deeper snow on the shoulder though, it’ll suck you in.

Honestly, the only problem with fresh snow is the visibility. Traffic in the right lane clears it out, but if someone passes on the left it stirs up a cloud that takes a while to settle. That cloud will drift across the median too and you can’t see what other vehicles are doing until it clears.

Traffic delay!

As much as Portland loves their dogs, I doubt this will ever show up in Portland. Actually, I would love to see this. Let me have a team and one of the carts they use for summer training. Let me go flying down the bike path. I wouldn’t need to fear the homeless campers because I’d have 8 dogs with me and all they want is to run. Nah, on the other hand I’d have to watch out for paw injuries from broken glass and needles. No need to put my imaginary dogs through that. Better to stay here where it’s cold enough that running doesn’t make them overheat, and you never have to dig ice splinters out of a paw.

So it is cold and snowy up here. That’s a given. I’m enjoying every bit of it. We’ve had a few rough patches. This morning we’re listening to the generator with suspicion because it doesn’t sound quite right. The backup generator is staged and ready to go if we need to swap it out and let the other one warm up. It’s possible that moisture is in the fuel again which means ice in the carburetor. This is why we have two of them. We have learned a lot in the last few months.

February means we’re in the second half of winter. Things start thawing out in March. We could almost start a countdown. As cold as it is right now I know this winter wasn’t as cold as it could have been and I’m thankful for that. Last year had lows in the -40s to -50s during January. I would hate to have dealt with that in an RV. I’m looking forward to building my cabin so I can have good insulation again.

I hope you are all enjoying the last of winter wherever you are. Go do something fun. Find a reason to appreciate your warm house. Your backyard might not be below zero, but winter weather has a way of making indoors feel extra cozy. Revel in it and recharge to be ready for when the world comes back to life.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life

Happy February

February 1, 2021 Miz B. 2 Comments

I’m glad January is over. I was so distracted by the mess in the news that I didn’t know what to write. I want to keep that stuff mostly out of the story of me, but I can’t promise it won’t creep in sometimes. I just want to understand it enough to form a position and I don’t think I’m there yet. I’m going to leave it alone.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Not so bad by normal standards up here, but a bit more than we’re used to. At least we have heat this time! The Toyo is working hard and keeping the temperature above freezing. With the help of the propane heater it might get above 40. I’ll take it.

Fortunately it was far warmer at -7° on Saturday. I was given a slot for Chris and I to join the 6 hour Snowmachine tour at work. Now I can tell my guests on the shuttle exactly how much fun they’re going to have. It sprinkled snow all day, even when the sky cleared a little. We were all bundled up to the point Chris said he felt like a burnt stay-puff marshmallow man. It kept us warm enough. At the halfway point we got to sit around a fire drinking hot coffee and tomato soup and eating grilled cheese sandwiches warmed in the coals. Then it was another couple of hours back to Basecamp.

That is the Trans Alaska Pipeline. See the bridge to the left of it? We rode down the steep hill to there and then along the pipeline. Coming back we had to go up the hill.

If you already haven’t figured it out, I am a huge proponent of taking on new, challenging experiences. This was exactly that. I don’t know if our guides fully understand how satisfying it was to conquer the hill by the pipeline. They hear it all the time, but being young men I don’t think they understand it. Coming up to that point I had been nervous going above 15 mph on the snowmachine. To go up the hill you had to hit at least 18 to have the necessary momentum. I did it and after that it was easy to cruise at the faster speed. I even enjoyed popping over the bumps.

But here’s the craziest thing of all. As much as I enjoyed the ride and the new experiences, I loved seeing traces of my work everywhere.

I drive the shuttle. At most I spend a half hour at Basecamp each trip unloading and loading luggage and stuff. I bring down dirty laundry and bring back the clean. I joke that half of my job is professional scavenger hunter. I get texted a list and try to acquire everything before I have to pick up the next passengers. Saturday I saw my acquisitions everywhere.

There was the bread, yogurt, and bagels on the breakfast buffet. The hangars for the snow suits. The chimney in the Arctic Oven tent with the propane stove. The snow suits themselves were boxes that came to the shop and I brought up in my van. I have spent most of the season feeling disconnected, but being there I see that I have a hand in almost everything. Even when I drop off luggage now I notice the lemon scent Pinesol that I bought because the store was out of regular. It is so satisfying.

Caosville