Winter came in with a bang a couple of weeks ago. AKA the Pacific cyclone bomb. Always a sucker for overhyped inclement weather, I got a cheap motel room in town, loaded up with TV dinners, and waited for weather armageddon. Just me, some Salisbury steak and all the “Law and Order” reruns I could stand. As usual, the storm didn’t live up to the hype. The snow turned to rain in town and was a slushy dirty mess by noon. No wind damage either and we are windy on a calm day. My property got a foot of snow so I was glad that I was on plowable end of the road when I drove back up.
A new neighbor with hopes of living year round up there started some major road upgrades last year. The rest of us helped once all the hard work was done and added some gravel to fill in the thin spots. The road wasn’t having it though. With the help of last year’s wet winter, the gravel sunk into the wet clay with only enough left on top as a reminder of who is really in charge of the road. The new neighbors did make it through the winter with a bobcat and a snow plow. They have swapped out the snow plow for road sized snowblower and have enjoying the results since. At least up to the last quarter mile to my place. Way better than lugging my stuff in a mile each time.
The road was so good and I am so lazy that I decided to try driving all the way in yesterday. A successful effort. I did get all the way in. Getting out, not so much. My All Wheel Drive just spun and spun. The road under my tires getting more slippery with each rotation. And there were a lot of rotations. I got a shovel and dug and chipped my way out over a couple of hours. Lesson learned for this year.
I have enough supplies to last the rest of the year so not much to lug in anymore. Mostly I am just working through what needs to be locked up, thrown out or packed out. It is slow going because I don’t want to lock anything up in case I still need it . I can’t throw anything out since anything that needs to be thrown out is now buried under the snow. I don’t know what I am doing this winter so don’t know what to pack. Mostly just in a chilly holding pattern.
In general, it is the struggle time of the year here. The batteries aren’t getting enough sun to recharge by just daylight. They can’t charge when it is below freezing anyway. It is a delicate dance of waiting for the battery cabinet to get above freezing, running the generator until the temperature starts heading back towards freezing. I was dreading hauling in gas cans for the generator though. Luckily, there is something wrong with the batteries or my charger and they no longer charge. My only light is from a headlamp and I keep a little battery pack plugged into the car to get my phone through the night. I emptied the water tanks for the winter so fresh water is a very valuable commodity that comes in 16oz plastic bottles. I am clearing out the emergency food supply since the fridge runs off the now dead batteries. There is a good side to this challenge. It forces me to eat through the canned goods that have been collecting dust the past couple of years.
The nights do get cold and the cabin doesn’t have insulation so a heater is a wasted effort. It hasn’t been too bad at night yet. Nothing a Zero degree sleeping bag, 2 comforters and a winter coat can’t handle. It is dark at 5 now so no reason to put it off. I am usually in bed by 5:30 with the hopes of falling into an interesting rabbit hole of YouTube videos to stave off sleep. But horizontal wins pretty quickly and I don’t make it through many videos. Not to worry, I wake up around 2:30 to continue my Youtube education until my brain is full of brake job and gasline piping knowledge. Then I crawl out from under the covers to make a travel cup’s worth of coffee and wait for the sunrise.
Once the coffee is gone, I head into town for another cup of coffee. Then I roam around the grocery store (When did magazines start to suck so badly?) for a bit. Our little library is small but pretty good. Not much selection but internet is good. Then back up in time for some organizing and sweeping up the dried mud that I have been tracking everywhere since the wet season started.
Not everyone’s (anyone’s?) cup of tea but as hard as it sounds it’s pretty easy once you get in the groove. Now that the Holiday closure is over, I’ll be able to spend more time at the library and focus on what to do about the winter. In the meantime, it is time to get to storing packing and locking. Time to hit the publish button…..
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