March 20, 2011

I love showing off my home!  

Janiene and I drove up to Talkeetna today and we spent a few hours post-holing around my home.  It's as pretty as usual, with fresh moose tracks and droppings, crunchy deep snow, chickadees and woodpeckers, and the occasional solitary little high bush cranberry dangling from a twig. 

No new snow and with the outrageously warm weather we've been having (over 32°F) I'm getting excited about this summer's plans.  First and foremost, hopefully starting in May, I'll be digging.  Lots.  Starting with the root cellar and then hopefully working on digging the outhouse.  That means two very very deep holes... so if anyone enjoys the pure satisfaction of manual labor and being outside, feel free to come join me!   After the root cellar is in, it's getting the deck/floor done and then logs, logs, logs.  

But today I just strolled around in thigh-deep snow taking in the fresh air and sharing my dreams with a friend - envisioning the cozy little cabin, the outhouse, the woodpile, and maybe even a flat-stone path to the netted gazebo by the lake, and maybe even a sauna in which I can sweat myself clean, and maybe even sharing it with someone else.
After all the dreaming, I went to see my new rental.  Since the last post, I actually met another Talkeetnan, Julie, and she was moving to Cordova and wanted to rent out the cabin she was in for the next couple of months.  So now, I'm living in the Beaver House, a cute rustic-looking cabin built by a miner, Jim Beaver.  It's the perfect cozy place to finish out the winter in, until I can move out to my land in the summer.

View of Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter, and Denali from the Talkeetna Spur Road.

February 10 - 13th, 2011

I was riding my bike in Anchorage a week ago and boom! that was it.  I was done with Anchorage.  Done with a capital D.  That day, I posted on Craigslist looking for a rental in Talkeetna and starting talking with Kenny Pigeon who was considering renting out his summer cabin to me while he was in North Carolina.  Yay!
So the next chance I could, I rented a car and drove up to Talkeetna to check it out.

Well, that rental didn't work out... it was unheated and uninsulated... but I met his neighbor, Claudia, and was off on a series of word-of-mouth leads to look at other rentals.  One was an apartment above a garage, too big.  One was another apartment above a hangar, too pricey.  The third was a rickety cabin that looked like dogs had lived there, too shabby for the price.  The fourth was perfect.  Rental cabins with bed, electric heat and a mini-fridge with the Guest House 30 feet away, fully set up with kitchen, bathroom, tv/dvd, wireless, and washer/dryer.  Sweet!

Meanwhile, I set up camp on my land - the platform that had been stomped out on my last visit was still there and nicely hardened so my tent was quickly up and anchored and set up with two thermal pads, two sleeping bags just for me.  It was supposed to get to -20°F on Saturday night.   I also had to dig out my tarp.  It caved in and one of the grommets blew due to the weight of the snow on it.  I shouldv'e had a steaper angle on it to shed the snow better.

On Saturday night, Suzy's friend Ama came up and we finally got to meet eachother.  It was a fun-filled night for sure!  First we looked at the art exhibit of mosaics, then we watched an acoustic performance at the Roadhouse, then a quick pizza dinner at Mountain Mike's, then the Complexities of Love variety show (which was, um, interesting...), and then dancing our butts off at the Fairview.  What a night! 

 

And I slept toasty warm in my double bag/double pad set-up (although it only dropped to around -17°F that night).  The hard part isn't sleeping warm, it's the brutal transition from my warm cozy bed to getting outside in the morning.  Brrr.  I didn't have enough fuel in my stove for tent-side decaf, so I crawled into the car and spent a leisurely morning reading at the Flying Squirrel Cafe. 

It was a perfect trip!  Found a rental, met a ton of local people and a new Anchorage friend, Ama.  Yay!