The big bad wolf.

We are up at the cabin.  There were all kinds of tracks in the snow since we were here last.  Mostly caribou but this giant wolf must have come tracking them.

On the bottom picture the paw print on the left belongs to our dog Chip, he's a lab.  Sooooo... that was one big wolf.

More Treasure!!!!

Hey everyone!!! I have a day off and so I think I will take a minute and give you all an update.  One of the great things about living here is that one mans junk is another mans treasure  and that is the case here. As we have discussed before, there are collection sites where people take their trash and in these sites there is an area where people put items that they don't want but can still be used by others. We have a lot of stuff from there including our washer and dryer, fridge, stove, couch, beds, and much more.
Yesterday, I found a 20 gallon hot water heater.  What would I need with a 20 gallon hot water heater you might ask. lol  well, here is the reason I was so happy!!!
As part of the wind turbine set up that we will have in our new place, is an item called a dump load resistor. Basically, when the wind turbine is spinning and the batteries are full, the charge controller needs to have a place to send the power being created or you need to set the brake on the turbine or put in in free spin. You can buy the dump load resistor and mount it to the wall and that becomes the place where the current flows.
OR
You can take a water heater, change out the two elements from (in this case120 amps) to 24 volt elements (39.00) dollars apiece and now I have created a dump that also serves as a way to heat water for the house. Usually the only thing that ever goes wrong in a water heater is the elements so I think I now have a dump resistor for a lot less then buying one and it heats water for us as well. There you go.  Having some problems at this time getting the pics uploaded but will do as I am able to.

this is another treasure that we got from the dump and Lorie did her thing and made it cool

It's a dog's life.

POWER, POWER, POWER

This particular posts some or most may find really boring but it is knowledge that anybody wanting to some day live a different lifestyle may want to read. Living in Central will not be easy and some even say CRAZY but we are so excited. But to live there will have some lifestyle adjustments.
Lets talk about it.
Have you ever considered the amount of kilowatt hours you consume or the cost. Probably not. Like me you just turn on the switch and the light comes. But what if some day the power is off and the lights don't come on. Or what if the cost to turn that switch on is so expensive that we can't afford it.
Last month Lorie and I used about 1700 kilowatt hours. That is quite a bit but we have freeze tapes and cars plugged in and heaters going that help in the cold Alaska winter. And I will be honest, we just have not been trying.
The cost of the power here in North Pole is about .20 per kilowatt hour.  Really not to bad for Alaska where everything seems to cost a little bit more. But what about Central???
As I have mentioned before, the power comes from a generator owned and operated in town. The cost of the power is .28 cents up to 500 kilowatts. Subsidized by the state. After 500 kilowatts, the cost jumps to .65 cents  Due the math, the kilowatts that I used last month would have cost me over 900.00      WELL THAT DOESN'T WORK  
So as you can see, we definitely have to do a lifestyle change. We do have a second meter on her pole and that helps a bit. All the building saws and outside work will be off that meter so now we have two 500 Kilowatt but still at .28 cents.  But the real goal for us is to keep our usage at 500 kilowatts or less.  Now you can see how the solar and wind will play such a big part of the lifestyle.. Also, we now have a propane cook stove and a propane fridge and a plan to have an on demand propane water heater.
On this last trip to the cabin we installed a wall electric heater to back up the wood stove. it kept us warm. The heater is 2000 on low 4000 on high.   Lol,  we live and learn.  in a 24 hour period we used 60 kilowatt hours of the 500 for the whole month.  That obviously is not going to work.

Okay, the reason I have put all this out there is because we want to tell a story in this blog of our adventure and the thoughts along the way for everyone who wants to follow and for a record for us to look back on.
At the cabin we monitored the sun hours this trip and also we now have a wind meter to start keeping track of wind speeds. We also bought a kilowatt meter that we can plug a unit in to it and then into the wall and it will measure the amount of power usage. All of this is important as we start to build on the house and get ready for retirement.
Enough for now but I would be interested in ready comments good or bad.

The Pool!!!!

Yes it was -16 and yes we went swimming. It was so great!!! One of  the locals took it upon himself to fix a dressing room that we could use and it is working out. The water comes out of the creek and they take to the pool a distance of about 30 feet by way of a 6 inch pipe. The pipe lays on the concrete floor that is now the dressing room. In an effort to keep the water warmer for the winter, three addition lines have been added. All that heat flowing through the room makes it awesome.
So we change into our "SUITS" and then about 4 ft and we are in the pool and it is great.
One problem that was created by adding the additional lines is that the old pool drains were not capable of handling that much water so they mad some 2 inch abs lines that syphon the water back to the creek. Again, running the pipes through the dressing room. So awesome and we really enjoy the pool!!!

I must add that in all the years of swimming in hot springs and pools, I don't think that I have ever seen a creek of hot water this big.

My New Friends "The Gray Jays"

It really didn't take long for the Jays'  (camp robbers as they are called) to find a new family to spoil them. Lorie and I put some food out when we first arrived and before the day was done, they were there. I put a piece of scrap osb on top of a tree that was topped by the deck. So fun to watch!!!!
The Gray Jays are about the same size as the Mountain Blue Jays that we would see in Idaho

Honey.....I'm Stinky. (Says Raz)

Well, ok then.  Let's go swimming.

Negative 16°.

Anybody game?!!

Look at that interesting ice formation on the fence.

It may be run down but it's clean and hot.  They have a warm changing room too.  But note:  it's best in your birthday suit.  No one else is ever here.