12-1-15 Tuesday

Today I will run into town on the snowmachine and pay a few bills......return some dvd's and a bowl, visit a bit too.

Not much on the schedule today. Need to finish Lisa's second cloth as her birthday is Dec 2 then I wlll take a photo.......

Tomorrow we might be heading to Fairbainks. Have a list of supplies for building etc to get and I will pick up a few additional groceries. Nothing we need yet but will need and if for some reason we can't get to Fairbanks in the next several weeks we will be all set.

Last night we had left over moose back strap with mashed potatoes, left over stuffing and I made some brown gravy to put over all of it. Was fabulous

One thing that is really awesome about having a wood stove going all the time is you always have warm water, and a super easy way to warm dinners..........as we have no microwave here. No Keurig and no toaster either. Coffee is a slow process with the perk pot.....but before bed I use Jon's grandpa's coffee grinder and fill the basket and get the water ready so the first one up just has to turn on the stove to get it going. By the time breakfast is ready, coffee is too!

I did however ask 'santa' for a toaster for christmas. As we have a really great generator now and it can totally handle a toaster.

I can say one thing, my biggest fear of being here in the winter was to be cooped up in the cabin with him.......and ya know what? It isn't bad at all. I do my crafts and he has his own. We listen to audio books or watch silly old tv series shows and next thing you know the day is over!

A weird thing to get used to is waking up in the dark at 8:30 with the moon full out and illuminating the sky just like it was sunrise or something. And by about 10:30 or so you can watch the sunrise. Now it getting dark at 4-ish not my favorite for sure, and the moon doesn't peek over the trees until about 10pm. So there is a time of real darkness early on in the evening. Sorta makes you find the time to see if you should be hungry for dinner yet! LOL

Phot below of Jon digging out our truck!

11-30-15 Monday

Today is Monday and the temps over night and all during the day hovered around -14 degrees.

brrrrr chilly for sure, but snug as a bug in a rug in our house!

Jon spent most of the day again sewing, ran to town to get water and just staying warm.

I did laundry with me new panda washer! Socks and undies, t-shirts and hoodies. Will resume laundry in a day or so. We only have enough room in the house for a small clothes line and drying rack. Works out great! You only do as much laundry in a day as you can hang to dry. I did it early in the day so by the time it was dry we where ready to hit the sack!

I made one and a half face cloths today along with a bit of knitting on my stocking. Lisa's birthday is on the second so I will give her a few face cloths and a bar of soap that I made.

11-29-15 Sunday craft day

So we spent the day crafting and stayed home all day. It was a good day......a lot accomplished.

Jon got all the fur and leather bits all cut out. He had to hand sew most of it as my little machine just wouldn't sew it well.

I worked on my stocking kit from Annies Woolens. I figure that I can take a photo when I have the his and hers hanging by the fire!

For dinner we had Moose backstrap broiled along with baked potato wrapped in foil that stuck in the front corners of the woodstove......free oven right? And some canned corn.

Oh the meat was spectacular! I encrusted it in all kinds of seasonings and black pepper before broiling. I cooked the hunk whole and got it about medium rare. So as you cut into it.....was looking a lot like prime rib. 

I should try to take more photos......Everyone likes food photos right?

So in a nut shell we pretty much stayed up till midnight as he was on a mission to get the outer portion of his hat finished so he can spend tomorrow Monday finishing and attaching the liner.

11-28 and let the sewing begin!

So Jon dug out his beaver hides that he trapped a year or so ago and we sent off for tanning. We also brought up a deer hide that his grandpa Dyer shot and killed then sent off to be tanned.

We got out the scrap fabrics and pattern for a trappers hat. Jon traced off all of the pieces and cut out a sample hat from polar fleece and a discarded pair of carhardt pants.

TaDa! 

Yes he even sews on a machine and by hand...........

We made it safely to Manley Hot Springs.......our home

It was quite a drive in from Fairbanks for sure! Jon drove the first 80 or so miles of the paved roads....some slipping and sliding included.

I drove the last 70 some miles to town. In the dark, pulling the trailer.....with snow drifts and blowing winds.

Got into town about 8:30 pm and came right to our place. We hadn't been home long when one of the townspeople pulled in on their snowmachine. Snowmobiles are called either snow machines or snogoes here in Alaska.

Once we got all the shutters off the windows and door we got a fire started promptly! The thermometer in the house registered about 20 degrees.

After that we carved a path with the snow shovel to the house from the truck to unpack clothing and groceries. Snow was about a foot or so deep.

After getting the house all warm I whipped up something to eat and pretty much just passed out.

And that is the beginning of our time here.......first Alaskan winter.

Black Friday

Nothing special planned for today. Jon fixed breakfast and I did the clean up. He spent some time re-loading ammo for Heath.

I finished the peace fleece hat and of course he had to have it. I will get a pic of it tomorrow if I remember.

Got out my stocking kit/pattern and wound a ball to get it cast on.

More cleaning and organizing.......in such a small place it is hard to one keep clean and two to find places for everyday stuff.

We had smoked salmon for dinner with mashed potatoes and brocolli.......shhhh don't tell but Jon cooked the dinner! Woot!

Tomorrow is Diane's retirement from the Road House party at noon so I am making a batch of brownies and also whipped up to dish/face cloths on the pin loom to gift with a bar of my handmade soap tied with pretty yarns.

Amy popped in to say the guys where again playing poker tonight......so he took off to play.

I am watching some dvd's and baking the brownies.......should do dishes......I have the water on to heat up......it's hotter than heck in here when you fire up the oven! Whew maybe open up the front door for a bit.

Thanksgiving

Got up this morning and Jon cooked breakfast of pancakes and bacon. I made the coffee. After breakfast clean up I got started with the stuffing for Amy's turkey. I have to assemle and then take over to her house by snowmachine........it's kinda fun. Wish we had two machines. Our truck is movable but it all depends on the temperature. If it's too cold you have to start the generator and plug the heater for the truck in before starting it. So it is just much easier to ride the snowmachine.

I think that we will start looking for a second one......he says this one isn't the best for breaking trail etc in this deep of snow.

In the last day or so we got an additional 12 or more inches on top of the about foot we already had.

Had to have our drive plowed twice and Jon borrowed a snowblower and sorta blowed the yard. Made it easier to shovel a path to woodshed, outhouse and shed.

Dinner was great! Amy did a great job. Lisa brought pies, she is like the best baker! We hung out for a few hours and watched tv in our turkey comas! 

Great new family of friends! Heath and Amy, Lisa and Shane, Jack, Jon and I. 

After a great visit we came home watched a show and fell fast asleep! What a great holiday!

Wednesday, before Thanksgiving

We woke up about 8:30 seems to be "our" time to wake here.

Breakfast, coffee and dishes......More unpacking.

Guys had another poker night and Jon left up $60! yay

I sauteed sage sausage, onion and mushrooms to throw together the stuffing for Amy's first Turkey. 

I have been working on a Peace Fleece kit hat and almost done!

Finished Jon's Christmas stocking from Annies Woolens kit. And will soon be starting mine so we will have at least 2 new and only Christmas decorations in our new Alaska home.

Maybe we will cut down a charlie brown tree and string some pop corn and figure out a few other decorations for it.....

Tomorrow is our first Alaska Thanksgiving! 

Tuesday.........

Got up and into work today........spent most of the day doing online courses and training. Boring! Long and slow.

Snow started around 3pm and we expect that it will go thru until tomorrow at 3pm.

Nothing much else, dishes, sorting and organizing.....cooking etc.

Monday first day back at post office

Well I got up at 7:30 ish and made coffee had a bowl of cereal and fired up the snogo. Had to be at work at the post office by 9. 

It was a good day of remembering what to do! Oh and we did not have mail delivery last week. We only get mail in by plane monday, wednesday and friday. I guess before we got in town there was no mail on Wednesday or Friday due to snow conditions. The plane couldn't fly. 

So Monday, my first day back......there was over 800 lbs of mail and packages! Yikes welcome back Lorrie! 

All went well and I was able to get all mail and packages scanned in by 1pm. That is the requirement.

After mail sort and all it was time for lunch. We just stayed at the post office for lunch and checked all of my logins etc.

Finished off the day on a good note to ride the snogo home and make dinner, do dishes etc.

Then it was movie time and good night! So tired and still not adjusted to the time difference. And just when you think that daylight savings of 1 hour time change is a lot to handle........4 hours takes time.

Also you have to figure into that it doesn't get daylight until like 10 or so am and starts getting dark at 4;30 pm!

Day one after a really good rest at "home"

Today is sunday and we worked more on unloading and taking a good ride into town on the snogo.

We were very lucky to find one used but in excellent condition in Fairbanks before we headed home.

Went into town and visited, checked in and got our plans.......my plans for Monday and Tuesday from the post master Amy. My boss. I am to work 9-5 both days for some re-fresher training.

Then the guys all got together and spent the day out on the snogoes checking out trails for the winter moose hunt that I believe starts December 1. That was a long day for Jon out there he played with the guys for about 10 hours!

I stayed home and unpacked and organized some.......lots to do.

Made it to Alaska

Well we made it to Fairbanks. It snowed some last night. The plans for today are to get groceries and supplies. Look at a snowmobile or snow machine they call them here. And start the 150 last miles to Manley. 

Very nervous about pulling a trailer all the way on those roads. 

I am going to try to blog this experience of our first winter here. 

Stay tuned.