COLDER

Minus 29.4. Its always that last point four that makes it feel cold.

Coping ..or not

Coldest temps of the year so far. Since taking the picture its dropped another 9/10ths of a degree so minus 22.9. The paper was full of hints about tricks to cope with the cold temperatures. Naturally the one that caught my eye said that eating spicy food would help ward off the chills. Good enough for me so I ditched the oatmeal and dined on huevos rancheros, refried frijoles and flour tortillas. Aye caramba.

HIGHLANDS PEARL OF THE SAN JACINTO

Just thought I'd share this picture. Thanks Doc and Terry, we now have a flag worthy of our adventures. Guess the bullshit flag is officially retired.

Its beginning to look alot like winter

Two nights in a row we have seen minus 17. The weather service says more cold weather is on the way. May dip into the minus 20's tonight. Plus the 20 - 30 mph winds are dropping the wind chill factor dangerously low. Wish you all were here!

Blizzard

Today I experienced my first snow blizzard, sort of. After snowing all day Christmas and part of yesterday, today broke sunny and clear. I spent the morning shovelling snow, again, and splitting spruce for kindling. About 2 pm I decided a trip to the gym on my off day was in order. Some cardio and a college football sounds like a nice Saturday afternoon right? I left the cabin and had no idea the winds were blowing 30, 40 and even 50 mph back toward Wasilla. While it was not snowing, the wind was driving all the new powder straight across the road. It was like driving through a wall of smoke ten feet high. Plus the snow was piling up in weird places making the drive an Alaskan version of Russian roulette. Several cars were in ditches or snowbanks. Bummer.

Heres a picture of our Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas

Wow. We went overboard on the white Christmas this year. Its been snowing hard since last night. Good thing we have lots of wood and yummy things to eat cause we are staying put today!

Champ had his good buddy Bear in for an overnight visit. Sorry Lester, deal with it. Our Christmas tree is practically white.

Barber Cabin

Saturday saw me and Champ headed south to the Kenai Peninsula for a weekend trip to the Barber Cabin. We picked up Ted and Linda in Anchorage (the big city only minutes from Alaska) and then headed to the trailhead at Russian River Campground. Temperatures were a balmy 27 degrees when we loaded up the sleds for the 4 miule hike to the cabin.

Hiking in we made excellent progress until we hit the winter trail. The going got slower as we were breaking trail most of the way. My new sled was quite an improvement over the old one and the rigging job proved to be perfect. No turnovers or lost loads.

By 3:30 we had the cabin in view. The married couple had not yet started physically assaulting each other so a successful trip. The cabin had recently been completely remodeled and was very comfy. Best of all, a wood shed full of spruce.

Later on we were joined by Jennifer and Josetta and Tippy. After a nighttime hike to pick up some gear the girls couldn't get all the way in, a dinner of Spaghetti and green salad, Champ and I hit the sack.

Still Cold

Minus 15 this morning when I rolled out of bed. Since the toyotomi oil stove is working again the downstairs temp was a bearable 53. The stove is set to come on when it drops to 51. A fire in the wood heater quickly warmed up the place. Outside it stayed cold all day. Warmest we saw today was minus 5. Used handwarmers on our stroll and they work ok. Filled up the inside wood bin and then cleaned house all day. Had been putting off doing the floors for awhile.

Weather musings

December has been a month of varied weather. Started off with cold below zero temps. It was January last year before I saw consistent below zero weather so maybe this is a portent of a severely cold winter. Then, the temps climbed back up to the 30's and we even had a little bit of rain. Didn't last very long and last week we again dropped below zero and stayed that way till today. Sandwiched in all these weather patterns were two heavy snowfalls. So far, we have had in excess of 50 inches. Last year was a dry year, with most of the snow coming late. So maybe this is a sign of things to come. Who knows!

Hook em

Thanksgiving was nice. Ate just the right amount. Whatever that means. It snowed most of Friday and all of Saturday and Sunday. Probably a foot or more of new snow. Temps had been pleasantly warm but last night the skies cleared and the mercury plummeted. Minus 12 this morning. Dropped another degree after I took this photo. We're down to less than 6 hours of daylight. Sunrise at 9:50, sunset at 3:48. Gotta get my vitamin d somewhere else for a few months.