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Greeting Friends & Family,

Ernie and I took a break from blogging because we had completed our winter adventure at the cabin.  However, many of you requested that we continue to blog because of your interest in our other seasonal adventures at the cabin.  Thank you for encouraging us to continue!

Today it is February 5, 2012 - Superbowl Sunday - and a lot has transpired since we last blogged.  Rather than go to far backwards in time - we will continue with our return to the cabin.

In November we left the island to go visit our family - grown children, grand-children, aunts, cousins, in-laws and Ernie's mom.  We returned to the island in February after spending some time in Anchorage. 

Returning to our cabin was an adventure in and of itself.  To begin - our friend Mike volunteered to join us on our crossing of the lake. We all had left Anchorage the day before a predicted blizzard and spent the night in Soldtna.  The next morning we left Soldotna to be greeted by blizzard conditions beginning to develop at the 'lower landing'.  So we unloaded Mike's snowmachines and made the decision to cross the lake with only necessary supplies. 

Before we managed to reach Frying Pan Island - whiteout conditions reduced our visibility to 50 feet.  We continued on - following the quickly disappearing snow machine tracks made previously by our friend, Kenny - he has a cabin at the island.

                                           The snow storm and whiteout conditions have continued for the past four days. 



                                              The above photo is from the deck of our cabin.  Not much to see.

We were also greeting by 3 - 4 feet of snow around our cabin.  Some depths are more due to the drifting of snow. Nothing like shoveling out the front entryway to open our cabin door.  It's even more fun to be greeted by 8 degree interior cabin temperatures.  No matter - Ernie got - the oil and wood stoves up and going. 

Besides the blizzard conditions and falling snow - the temperatures warmed up above freezing.  So when Ernie and Mike hooked up the snowmachine sleds to retrieve our supplies from the lower landing - all they managed to do was gob on lots of wet snow onto the bottom of the skids.  So - it wasn't until the following day that they were able to cross the lake and retrieve all of our supplies before another whiteout set in.


 After retrieving supplies, Ernie got to work and augured a waterhole.  He went down 18 inches before getting water.  As we were filling up water containers - our friend Mike came by -- he had been zooming around and across the island making snowmachine trails to pack down the snow.

With the days being filled with snow falling, intermittent whiteouts and warm temperatures - we've been enjoying ourselves.  Ernie and Mike seem to love sharing stories and discussing the weather.

                           After Ernie got his snowmachine up and running - he took it for a spin around the lake. 

 Finally a break in the weather!  We were finally able to see the mountains across from our cabin - what a beautiful sight!  

Later in the day - we were alerted by our friend Kenny - that he spotted a fire burning near our neighbors' cabin as he was snowmachining.  All of us - who were here at the island - quickly went to our neighbors' - and discovered their sauna building was burning down!  Our neighbor's were out-of-state and not at the island. There was not much we could do other than ensure the fire did not spread - the winds were blowing about 20 mph!   

 
The Park Rangers showed up and accessed the situation - and another crew flew over.  Later a crew showed up and shoveled snow onto the embers and ensured the fire was out.  On Sunday the Rangers' showed up to double check on the burn site.

Today is Superbowl day - and we are expecting a few friends to show up for the game.  Ernie will be making 'Jessie's Sloppy Joe's'.

Take care everyone - and we'll keep you posted.