Snow, Wind, and Furry Monsters

 For the past several months I have been living with a furry monster - and I'm not referring to a very cranky kitty.  Mike decided when we arrived that he was not going to shave his beard or cut his hair until we came home for Christmas in January.  As time progressed he looked less and less like the military man I married and more and more like a "mountain man".  Who knows, a few of the local bigfoot sightings may have been my husband on the back trails scoping out bears.  This weekend, however, he decided he could no longer stand all the scruff.  We did take some pictures before any trimming occurred so that our friends and family back home can sneak a peek at what I've been waking up to daily.



The wind has been on the assault for several days now.  I had mentioned previously that I was nervous about getting my groceries and am happy to say that they arrived safely on the only flight that came into the village on Thursday.  Friday also saw only one flight into the village as the wind speeds did nothing but increase.  Friday's winds brought more snow to the village so we've probably had a total of a foot in the last two weeks, something I'm enjoying very much.  The power outage that began Saturday morning, however, I am enjoying a bit less.  And since the winds are so strong no planes are coming into the village so no one can get here to fix the downed lines to get the electricity back on.  We do have a back-up generator, so things could be worse.  It powers most of the lights, the fridge, heater, microwave, freezer, and a couple plug-ins so we're not freezing or hanging out by candle light.  We are, however, trying to figure out what exactly we can cook with a microwave, crock pot, and waffle iron.  Considering all I've ever used the microwave for is reheating left-overs or heating water for hot chocolate that has been quite challenging.



On another note, I'm beginning to wonder if our shelter "garage" isn't happy to be a part of our family.  After getting it out of the creek a few weeks ago, we attached 4 pecker poles to the bottom frame, staked the frame to the ground, and lined the pecker poles with more stakes to keep it in place.  Last night it attempted to run away from home yet again.  So at 1:00 in the morning we're in the dark on snow and ice trying to fight the wind to get it back in place and tie it to the Ranger to keep it from going anywhere.  I'm not sure if it feels unloved or if it's just going through a rebellious stage, but it had better get over it quickly.



Furry Monster



The beginning of a very large snowman