Day of Chores ...

Greetings Everyone!!

The temperatures have finally dropped below zero!  This morning our thermometer read -6 degrees. The lake continues to silently freeze and make sounds - must be growing pains.  When I went down to my waterhole, I had to break through the ice - then, the lake began to moan, groan and crack.  I had to laugh, because the lake seemed to object to my chopping into it's ice so that I could get water.  I did notice when I got water today that the lake water level is dropping - which means my waterhole will need to be moved further out onto the lake.

Today, we also notice the lake was covered with interesting ice crystals that stretched across the lake.

The frozen lake with ice crystals - looking southeast towards the Kenai River

A close-up of the unique ice crystals on the lake - we named them "Ice Feathers"

"Ice Feathers"

 Because this was a day of chores, Ernie captured me hauling wood to be used in the sauna.  Also, since the temperatures are cold now - I'm washing 'necessary' clothes by hand - using a scrub board - and no longer using the washing machine ( I don't want to deal with frozen pipes).  I actually enjoyed doing the washing - albeit a small amount.  I had to draw upon my childhood memories as to how to do the wash - which made me think of my mother and how she did wash by hand.  It's actually an interesting process - heating the water in a large pail, adding laundry soap (bio degradable), boiling the clothes to the desired temperature then, using a wooden dowel to stir the items around, then, scrubbing each one on a scrub board etc. etc.

Hauling wood from our 'scrap pile'  so that Ernie could chop up the large pieces.  

Ernie chopping wood for the stove and .....

Ernie enjoying the fruits of his labor.  Since the temperatures have dropped, we started to use our wood stove to also heat the cabin.  Some of you may recall that we store our food supply up in our attic - and its cool up there - but I don't want our food supply to freeze - so now, we lower the attic stairs to allow heat to go up into the attic to maintain a temperature of at least 50 degrees.

 We've had a couple of questions from blog followers:

How are your sprouts doing? Answer:  So far they are doing well.  I have a new batch coming in now - and they are very green.  We are looking forward to eating them!!

Do you eat a lot of canned foods?  Answer:  Not really.  Before undertaking this adventure, I did a lot of research on the length of time foods can be stored and how to store them safely.  Then, I put together recipes - and created a food inventory/shopping list.  Most of the foods I have planned for require making recipes from scratch.  Some foods are 'canned' - like dehydrated/powdered eggs.  Planning for meals has taken quite a bit of pre-planning.  Before we moved to the cabin, I took an informal survey on what we liked to eat, how often we ate that item and what the ingredients are required - then, I asked myself - "Could those ingredients be stored at the cabin?"  

I also kept track of how long it took for us to consume something.  For example, how long does it take us to consume a 5 lb bag of coffee beans?  Then, I needed to figure out if we could even use coffee beans or should we use a 5 lb can of coffee instead?  I also researched substitutes - for example, Ernie likes liquid coffee creamer - how could he continue to have coffee creamer at the cabin?  I found a substitute recipe for coffee creamer - online - and began to use it before we came to the cabin so that Ernie would be used to the coffee creamer from scratch.  I had to create back-up plans for items that we could run out of  - for example, if we ran out of brown sugar, what could I use?  In planning meals - in advance - we purchased foods with meats in mind - we have chicken, beef, pork and fish  - some is frozen and some are foods that I pressured canned in advance.  I have stocked a lot of frozen veggies - and yes, even canned veggies and plus canned fruits. I estimated that we would need a seven month food supply - this maybe gracious - but, I figure its safe in case we are not able to leave the island until May.  So far we are doing well with our meals. I tried to be varied so that we don't become bored with the same old, same old foods. Each meal includes a desert of some sort - cookies, jello, cake etc.

How old are two as you undertake this adventure?  Answer:  Ernie is 64 and I'm 60

Take Care Everyone!!