It's an Osprey

How About That View!

Replacing some windows.  This was in April.

HEAT YAY!!!!!

Hear in Alaska, heat is so important to a comfortable retirement. I installed a wood stove right off the bat and we will use that as much as we can but I really wanted a toyo heater for the house so I could keep the place warmer at night when the temps drop to -30 to -50  The toyo runs on heating oil and here in north pole, it is actually cheaper to buy fuel [about 2.30 a gallon right now] then to buy firewood and I have not had the time to go cut the wood myself.
So a brand new toyo runs about 2200.00 for the big model that we have. There is a unit called Monitor stoves but the company went out of business. However, there are plenty of parts still on the market and all of the service companies around here work on them. we were able to find a brand new Monitor still in the box for 800.00  we are Happy. so we took it up to the cabin and installed it. Wow, it works fantastic when the house is cold the wood takes so long to warm up but the heater works really fast
I was able to talk a guy down on a used tank. Most tanks around here are about 300.00 for 300 gallon used.. The razman got one for 125.00

The Ravenous Roof

I wasn't the only one on Mr. Toads Wild Ride.  Raz had a run in with the roof.  It tried to eat him for lunch.  He bruised his ribs up pretty good and his back was all scraped up.  He couldn't move much without a lot of pain.  This is after he sprained his ankle a couple weeks before.

Then a couple weeks later he got real sick with a kidney stone and massive kidney infection.  He ended up needing emergency surgery and we had to go to Anchorage for that because the only Urologist in Fairbanks was off fishing somewhere.  (That's just how it is up here).  The docs told us he was nearly septic by the time we arrived and they rushed him into surgery at midnight.  At the ER in Fairbanks they had pumped him full of several rounds of high powered antibiotics. In Anchorage they removed the stone, put a stent in him that went from his kidney to his bladder and pushed more aggressive antibiotics.  When they biopsied the stone they discovered the infection was not due to the stone but that the stone was due to the infected kidney which had been sick for some time.  They also found that the stone was the rarest kind and required a whole different regimen of meds.  

Now, anyone who knows Raz knows he is a big grump when it comes to him being the patient.    He has a notorious history of being crabby and verbally .... Let's say 'colorful' with the medical staff.  So, on the 7 hour drive down there I had to get up to him and give him the what for.  I am very proud to say what a total gentleman he was the whole time in the hospital.  He didn't cuss anyone, he didn't throw his food tray, he took his meds, he didn't rip out his IV.  He was a good patient  and that is saying a lot considering he had a long tube and a string up his Willie, annnnnd in spite of the fact that every nurse on the floor came in to look at it during the shift.  He finally told the nurses they couldn't look at it anymore.  He told them they had their fun, they got to whitess his magnificence and now they would all have to go home and cry because he wasn't going to show it off anymore.  Lololol.  It was great!  He was great.  For being in so much pain and being poked and prodded so much he did really great.  He healed up super fast without any complications and was actually better than ever afterward.

 We are getting older for sure but as our friend Fred said, "you've still got one more homestead in you".  Dispite our mishaps and bruises we are still young in our spirits and are loving life and this awesome adventure we have chosen for ourselves.  Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes you sent our way.

More on the build. phase two

So this phase is the master bedroom and the QUEENS work room that I am not allowed in after the build is done. LOL  but as you can see. we lined the floor with black plastic stapled in each row by lorie. then the insulation get put in and the deck put down  we are still using the osb because I bought a ton of it at a great price. Shaine and Katy lent us some scaffolding which really was a big help because Chad and Lorie were out of the picture at the time

the master bedroom walls went up first

and then the QUEENS work roomSo despite all the problems we had over the summer, we managed to get in build enclosed and wrapped and tar paper on the roof and nailed down. Check out the end pics

The Great Gray

So you just have to know how majestic the Great Gray Owl is. We have one on our property. The very first time we went to the cabin to check it out we noticed huge piles of bird poop on the deck. After taking to the guy that read the meter or the power, we learned that we had an owl that would hang out in the open rafters of the porch. I decided to close the rafters because when he would launch, it was weakening the rafter joints. But that wasn't the end of  HOOT!!!!! That Is what we named him.

So Lorie was sitting on the couch the last trip that we made for the year and just before it got to dark, there was HOOT . We watched him for a minute and then he launched and oh my gosh' BEAUTIFUL Now one of the reasons we are a little concerned is that Chena is about the size of a rabbit and would not be to much of a match for HOOT . She has been scared by him before and knows when he is around. but they are beautiful to see and watch.  Sorry. I have not been able to get a pic yet but google one when you have time. I think I read that they are the biggest owl in the family.

The Wheeler and the Blue Rope

In Alaska we refer to our 4wheelers and quad runners as 'wheelers'.  So, one day I was dragging out deadfall with the wheeler when all of a sudden the rope slipped down around my leg while I was riding forward.  All at the same time, as the rope slipped down around my leg both ends got caught under the back wheel as I was moving forward and totally strangled my leg.  It's a good thing I was only going about 2 miles an hour or I would have been in far worse trouble.  Here' a pic.

At first I didn' think I was hurt very badly.  I walked around my wheeler picking up the rope but soon decided to have Raz look at it.  The pictures following may be too graphic for some people.  Sorry for that, but here are some.

Now, I don't have skinny chicken legs to begin with but you can see how much swelling happened just within the first hour.

Over the next 24 hours this is what evolved.

The next day.....

One might ask why I didn't

 go straight to the doctor.  Well, Chad and Casey had been up helping us build (and laugh, and eat, and laugh some more) but when they went to go home their car broke down and so we lent them our rig to get back home in.  They were to return in a few days.  In the meantime I went over to visit the EMT's in town and decided it could wait a few days.  So I took a bunch of pictures for the Doc to see later.

And talk about color!

Now it's about a week later.  Still at the cabin but headed home today.  Think I'll stop by the emergency room on my way home.

When I saw the doctor she told me I did all the right things and that it was going to run it's healing cycle and that it would look a whole lot worse before it got better.  Boy, was she not kidding.

Pain, you ask?  Not really.  My surface nerves were temporarily damaged and also squished off from the swelling.  I didn't feel much.

After about a month out from the accident the constantly seeping blister finally turned into a big scab.

The scab began to shrink away from the edges and revealed small holes and fishers in my flesh called tunneling.

Six weeks out from the injury the scab fell off leaving a big messy, yucky hole in my leg.  They called it an ulcer.

At that point I knew it wouldn't be long until the microscopic buggies moved in.  I was right.

Back to the Doc.

She said, "Yep, you're right on schedule".  She put me on the highest power antibiotics they have.  The stuff they use for Malaria and some other nasty illness I can't remember.  Then she sent me to the Wound Care Center where the experts could teach me how to care for it.

God bless The Wound Care Center.  They were amazing.  They taught me all the things I needed to do to heal.  Keep my leg elevated above the level of my heart for 23 hours a day.  For weeks.  Uuuuugh.  I could shower and pee.  Lol.  They had me on protein shakes 3 times a day and a high protein diet.   But I was faithful.  So my leg began to slowly heal.

And here it is today.  It has taken 6 months to get here.  All that being laid up made it so I couldn't help build.  But my man, Raz,  he's the bomb!  He got it all done.

I still have discoloring and an odd shape to my leg now but I learned so much about wound care and the vital importance of  how following the doctors orders can make all the difference.  In the meantime we got better phone service hooked up at the cabin and the Doc gave me antibiotics to keep there just in case I get stuck there sometime with an injury that calls for antibiotics.  Fortunately we have helicopter medivac service up there if it is ever needed as well.