It's Snowing Again...

Well, it's New Years Eve. It's hard to tell the difference between holidays and regular days out here. Yesterday, we got lots and lots of painting done in the lake level rooms. We should be done down there in another couple of days. It was another gray, windy day. I got some house work done, then Jeff and I went out to drill a hole in the ice before it got dark. We had purchased an ice auger before we came out, so we could fish while out here. It took a lot more turning on that ice auger than we would have ever thought. We were worried about falling through the ice, but it turns out the ice is eighteen inches thick! It was a lot of work getting through the ice! Jeff and I made a bet at the beginning of the season pertaining to the ice auger (and I really thought I had it in the bag). We bet that whichever team (the 493er's or the Steeler's) had the worse record going into playoffs would have to drill the hole in the ice. Now the 49er's are one game behind, so the worse that could happen would be to tie. Plus, there can be no playoff sudden death in this game because both teams SUCKED this year (ok, the Steeler's did anyway). After we drilled the hole Jeff went inside, and I went ice skating for a while. Such fun!

Today, it's snowing, snowing, snowing. And, it's a sweltering five degrees.

Oh, I'm Painting my Life Away...

Lookin for a better way...or something like that.

Well the blue skies have moved out. I must say they lasted about a week longer than I thought they would. Yesterday, the wind picked back up, and I knew it would be no time before we were looking at gray skies again. Jeff and I are now working down in the dark, cold basement of the annex. They call it the Lake Level Floor, but they're not fooling me. I think GPI should make the basement into a hostel. They could cram a bunch of bunk beds in the rooms, charge thirty bucks a person, and no one would complain. Plus it would bring in a younger crowd that would spend more cash money in the bar, and many would come back someday with their families. Not to mention, more people in the hotel to waste money in the gift shop. This is my big idea. Now all I have to do is pitch it to the big man in charge or lady I suppose. Anywho, there is A LOT of painting to be done down there, so we will be there for a while.

Today, I was back at the whole painting thing. Jeff was fixing cracks all day, but the joke's on him. There aren't many repairs down in the lake level rooms, so Jeff himself will be painting. Hehe. After lunch I was feeling brave and talked Jeff into walking across the lake to get to the hotel. We have cut the corner on the lake before, but we haven't been brave enough to walk right out on the lake...until today. Since I am so thoughtful, I let Jeff lead the way. Luckily, we made it to the hotel relatively warm and in one piece to continue with the painting.

We are back at home now. Jeff is watching some loud violent movie, and I am hiding in my room. Perhaps an early night tonight...

Ice, Ice Baby (do-do-do-do-do do)

Another amazing day! The sun was shining, the wind decided not to blow, and the temperature was a warm 34 degrees. Jeff and I watched the Steelers game. I would like to say good job Steelers, but it was the Ravens who lost the game for themselves. After the game, we headed outside. Jeff went out to ski and I went to explore a little. Jeff skied the big hill up behind one of the dorms. I strapped on my snowshoes and went up above the hotel with the sled in tow. There were coyote and bighorn sheep tracks everywhere. And, there were tall blades of grass sticking up all over the place that were covered with ice crystals. They looked just like the rock candy that you can buy in the stores. I sledded down the hill and walked around the lakeside of the hotel. There was an awesome sledding hill on the other side of the hotel, so I took a few runs down it. After I had my fun (and had crashed enough times), I headed back to the cabin to grab my ice skates. There is a frozen puddle next to the Jammer dorm that is just big enough to ice skate on. I was nervous at first, but it turns out ice skating is just like riding a bike. I was doing turns and spins, and skating backwards. Winter Olympics 2014 here I come!

Jeff and I are back in the cabin, watching the Eagles (hopefully) win the football game. Why Colts, Why?

Happy Holidays!

Well, Jeff and I have recovered from our brutal trip to the Post Office. Jeff put in some hours over at the hotel on Christmas Eve. I happily stayed here in the cabin. I was busy though. I baked some homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. (We always have cinnamon rolls at my parents house on Christmas, so it was a must.) Then I baked some delicious sundried tomato rolls. Mom sent Christmas cookies to paint (another Sauerand tradition), so I merily painted away while my bread was rising and baking and such.

The weather here has been awesome since Wednesday. It has been a bit chilly (single digits and teens), but the sky is blue, and the mountains are out in all of their glory. It's amazing how little we see the mountains some weeks when we are literally right in the middle of them. But, luckily they are out now.

We started out Christmas with the cinnamon rolls of course. Jeff had a big day of games planned, so we got to work on those (while drinking mimosas of course). We played a ton of card games, darts, and DDR all day long. I cooked a ham, scalloped potatoes, and green bean casserole. Allie had brought us a pie to bake back on Thanksgiving, and it turned out so delicious. Thanks Allie! And, Jeff got me an Aerogarden. It this planter thing with a light that automatically comes on for 17 hrs a day, and it tells me when to put more nutrients in. Now, for all you people out there who are wondering, we are growing legal herbs (chives, thyme, and basil). Get your minds out of the gutter!

Post-Christmas the weather is still beautiful. Jeff is going to teach me to ski on the bunny slopes today (our great, big snow drifts). Wish me luck.

You Don't Know What Hell is Until...

Alright, so yesterday Jeff and I made our first official full trip to the Post Office. By that, I mean we were unble to use a vehicle. We are definitely snowed in now. The car has been permanently parked for about a week and a half. We knew we had some mail and also had to pick up more filters for our water system, so we picked yesterday for the challenge. The temperature was just above twenty degrees and there was virtually no wind. In the morning we had a few flakes of snow float down from the sky, but by the afternoon the sun was shining again.

We left the cabin at 8:45 am. We have not had much wind this last week, so we new we would be able to ski the whole way. (When the wind blows, there are spots of bare road amongst the many snow drifts.) Let me remind you that Jeff and I are not exactly skilled cross-country skiers. It's a sad sight to see actually. So we left the cabin, passed a couple of rams on the way, then turned onto the road for the big adventure. Things started out ok. Jeff is a faster skier than I am, and everytime I rush to catch up I crash, hard. So, I prefer to take my time and stay on my two feet as much as possible. The thing that sucks about skiing (if you are no good at it) is that you (or atleast Jeff and I) have to stare at the skis to avoid falling. It sucks because we are outside and should be enjoying the beautiful sights of the Many Glacier valley. Instead we are thinking about our sore necks as we stare at the ground.

We made it to the ranger station by 10:00 am and stopped for a water break. (I think it's about four miles.) The other problem with skiing in below freezing weather is that the water freezes. I like to use a water reservoir so that I don't get dehydrated, but the tube freezes. So, the water must be kept inside the pack where its hard to access. After the quick break we reluctantly headed out for another three miles to the dam. It's a bummer because you can see the dam from so far away, so you think you are closer than you actualy are. I just couldn't wait to get to the dam so I could walk for a change. Well, we did make it to the dam, and skied down the hill past it to where the plow truck stops (or starts for us). We stuck our skis in the snow, grabbed some aqua and continued on, this time on foot. YAY! If there is one thing I can do well, it is walking. We each had a secret hope that some poor fool would come up the road and drive us the rest of the way to the Post Office, but no dice. We knew it was a long shot, but come on.

So, we hiked the four boring miles to the end of the road (in our ski boots), then headed to the Post Office. Our other secret hope was that the Firehorse Cafe would be open. We talked to the owner in the fall and she said that they would be open all winter long. The sign reads 7 am -7 pm daily. What a load of you know what. That place has never been open when we go to the Post Office. It is the only business in Babb in the wintertime, so it's our only shot at a hot meal. Firehorse Cafe, why do you hate us?

Well, our mail box called, so we headed in to the Post Office. We had FIVE packages! I guess we have been slacking on getting our mail. (And, now you know why.) We also had tons of cards, and Jeff's boss met us there with the filters. Here's where I will take a TIMEOUT from the story.

Thank you everyone for sending us mail. You are what keeps us going out here. By far, our favorite days are when we can get our mail and some relief from our solitude. The cards are all very beautiful. Thank you so much! Also, thanks for the pakages. Uncle Scott and Aunt Becky sent some AWESOME grub! And, mom sent cookies and candy and SOCKS! And, thanks Pattie for sending the game. We really appreciate everything. Just knowing a few people read this blog makes me happy, so thank you so much everyone. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Ok, TIME IN. Babb is a very, very small town. Population: tiny. So, it amazes me that when we go to the Post Office in all of our gear, Jeff's beard frozen, and start loading all of our mail into our packs, people can't figure out what is going on. It is always a conversation piece. I would think that since it is such a small town that people would know there are winter keepers up at the Many Glacier Hotel. We always have a hard time getting out of there because people ask all kinds of questions. The funny thing is, no one ever offers to give us a ride back to the gate. Go figure. Luckily, this time around, Jeff's boss gave us a ride back to the gate. Our packs were so heavy from our slacking on going to the Post Office. Plus we had to pack in seven filters (we couldn't fit the last one). Paul, the boss, gave us a ride to the gate, shaving off four miles. We parted ways, Paul in his truck, Jeff and I on skis. It was 1:40 pm.

If there would have been any way to avoid skiing back in, I would have taken it. We were already pretty beat up before we started the seven mile ski home. I won't give you the details of the trip home. All it was was skiing in pure misery. We made it home about 4:45 pm, just as it was getting dark. Jeff and I collapsed immediately. There was just so much pain. Let me recount everything that hurt: my toes, bottoms of my feet, the tendons on the top of my feet, my knees, my back, my shoulders, my neck, and my hands. We weighed our packs when we got home. They each weighed a miserable 30 pounds! At the end of the day, we had skied 14 miles and hiked four. That's a total of eighteen miles. So, now you know what hell is. On the bright side, we were heavily rewarded with lots of great stuff. (Except those darn filters!)

Now, an exerpt from Jeff's mind. Scary, I know.

Hello everyone, this is Jeff. I just thought I would say something for once. Thank you for your Christmas wishes and gifts, also for making sure they were lightweight. Now, cross country skiing is either a terrible sport or we are doing something terribly wrong (I would like to think it is a combination of both). Today is beautiful and cold, about 5 degrees, so a little work at the lodge is in order but probably to cold to paint. I wish you all the best of the holiday season and please keep in touch, it warms our hearts. By the way, what a bummer of a performance by the OSU Beavers in their bowl game but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Take care, stay healthy and be happy. (This paragraph is all I got, I hunt and peck)

Oh, and one more thing. The thing about this trip is it is just like that old phrase your parents used to tell you. Here's my version: We had to ski uphill seven miles then hike four miles (barefoot of course), both ways, in the snow just to get our mail. By the way, it is uphill both ways. I swear.

Unmask, Unmask!

I've finished The Shining. It took me less than a week. Man, good book, though not nearly a scary as I thought it would be. I've seen the movie a million times, but of course the book was better. I plan to watch the movie again soon so that I can compare them. What next?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. (That's for you Pattie!) Well, you guessed it, it's snowing again. We didn't get much snow yesterday, but it was snowing like the dickens today. Yesterday, I spent many hours painting. Painting, painting, painting. Gotta love it. I moved down to the first floor where it is nice and chilly and the radio reception sucks (due to the boarded up windows). To make time pass by a little bit faster while painting, I day dream. I have recently realized that the harded part about writing the blog is coming up with a title. It seems like it would be a simple thing, but things out here tend to be repetitive. So, here's what I am going to do. I am going to take title suggestions. If you sumit a title suggestion, I WILL use it (keep it clean please). So, start thinking. I will be very disappointed if I don't get any responses to this. Well, after work I cooked a fabulous dinner of chicken and artichokes with white wine sauce and rice pilaf. Yum. Then, I settled into The Shining. It is officially getting scary. I got to the part where Danny sees the dead woman in the tub, and she strangles him. Plus, there's the part where the animal-shaped hedges chase him. Pretty soon, Jack is going to start acting on his wants to kill his wife and child. Then, we will be in business.

Today, I worked a half-day at the hotel. My mind and body rejected the idea of spending an entire Saturday working. Jeff did, however, like the good worker he is. I suppose it is his job. I have been desperately searching for a job. A real job, but so far, no dice. I'll keep you posted.

Whitewashing

Not much new today. Lots and lots of painting. I am almost finished painting the second floor of the annex and will move on to the first floor at some point tomorrow. It has been very warm (35 degrees), so Jeff and I are trying to get as much painting done as we can. I started the day off by shoveling out our wood supply. We haven't gotten much snow lately, so I thought it would take five minutes, max. Well, like I've mentioned millions of times before, the wind is always blowing the snow around. Translation: a foot of very heavy, very wet snow to shovel. Twenty minutes later I was sweating, and I hadn't even headed to work yet. So, I painted, and Jeff did man stuff. For the record, we are no longer brave enough to cut the corner on the lake for a short cut.

On our way back to the cabin for lunch, we found three male bighorn sheep grazing near Jeff's car. Not only do they like to lick his car, Jeff also parked the car on one of their favorite feeding grounds. Today I realized how happy I was not to have my car out here (my nice, shiny, new, still owe too much money on it, car). One of the males rammed Jeff's car right above the front passenger side wheel well. Luckily, Jeff's car (the exterior anyway) is not in the best shape. If it was my car sitting there, we would be having bighorn sheep for Christmas dinner.

Back to work after lunch. More painting. After work I played some serious DDR. I don't want to brag or anything, but I am getting kind of good. I will take challengers in the spring. We feasted on some bourbon chops (thanks Stace) and are happily watching football. Here's to next year Steelers.

Living in the Dark

Alright I'm back. Monday was your typical day out here. More snow, cold weather, and wind. If it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm actually not. I found myself wishing for more snow. Go figure. It was too cold in the hotel to paint, so Jeff and I got some work done in the shop. I had the lovely job of sanding down barstools, which turns out to be worse than painting, actually. I never would have thought that. Anyway, I sanded and Jeff cut some boards up and stained them, and then he cleaned the shop. We headed home to eat some grub and watch some football. I studied for the GRE, and the 49er's won the game. Way to go! Maybe one of our teams will actually make it to playoffs.

Tuesday, it warmed up quite a bit. It was the first day over freezing (one degree over freezing to be exact) in a couple of weeks. The power was out in the morning for a few hours, so Jeff and I got out our books. Did I mention I'm reading The Shining? I am almost to where it starts to get scary. Once the electric came back on, we ate lunch and headed over to work. We had to climb various snow drifts to get to the hotel. By the way, walking in deep snow really makes me feel out of shape. We are now brave enough to cut the corner on the lake, so that is a bit of a shortcut. I spent the afternoon painting while Jeff fixed cracks and did man stuff. We got home from work, feasted on some pesto pasta, and watched some TV.

Today, Jeff is over at the hotel working. He only has to put in four hours, so that's not too bad. It is a sweltering 35 degrees today! However, the usual gray skies are here. I'm staying in today to make some turkey soup out of our Thanksgiving turkey carcass. UMM! And then, four bean enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce for dinner.

Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful!

So, its been a snowy couple of days. Saturday, the snow began. Jeff went over to the hotel to work in the shop for a while. I hung around the cabin and shoveled the snow along the side of the house to make our wood accessible. I also worked on my DDR skills. It was a quiet night. I started reading The Shining. I guess its time for the nightmares to start.

Today it snowed all day. It was also negative 5 degrees during the warmest part of the day. We watched some football, and I shoveled the snow from along side the house again. Later, Jeff and I skied out to Swiftcurrent, the other property that we must keep an eye on. The snow is pretty deep and very powdery, so it was tough going. Everything is in order at Swiftcurrent. We didn't see any wildlife on the trip. Everything was very quiet. Luckily, the trip back was much easier since we were able to follow our tracks. We watched some more foot ball and the season finale of Dexter.

Here's an enigma that needs solving (I'm am studying vocabulary for the GRE's). We always have a couple of flies in the house. Like I said earlier, it is not even zero degrees outside. Where are they coming from??? My mom's theory is that the larvae are in our firewood that we are bringing in. This is possible, and I can't come up with any other theory. Any other theories out there?

Good Samaritans

Well the temperature is slowly going up. We have officially hit double digits again. The bad news is the wind. It is outrageously strong and cold. Thursday, Jeff spent the day at the hotel readying the second floor of the annex for painting. I am not qualified to actually repair things over there which made an easy day for me. I got to stay home. Unfortunately, now there is painting to do, so no more sitting around for me. I did get the Christmas cookies made, and Jeff and I spent a while painting the cookies with colored icing. I had my pile of cookies painted in probably twenty minutes, but Jeff, being the artist that he is, took over an hour. To each his own.

Yeah, the Steelers suck. No, I don't want to talk about it.

Today was a half decent day, so we decided to make a much overdue trip to the post office. We got lucky and were able to drive within a half mile from the gate. That's where we hit the snowdrift. You would think we would have this figured out by now, but I guess we don't. Yep, we got the car stuck. And, being the intelligent people that we are, we did not replace the broken shovel in the car from the last time. So, we spent a while (less than 30 minutes, so not too bad) using ice scrapers to clear the hard-ass snow from under the tires. We got the car out and bundled up for the long walk to the post office. We figured we would be walking, so we were prepared. We hiked less than a mile when a wonderful man named Jerry picked us up and drove us to the post office. Jerry was out chopping down a Chirstmas tree. YAY! We had to sit in the post office for an hour until the lunch break was over, but that was much better than walking for that hour. Let me tell you about the conditions of the road. The road is mostly clear, but there are these ridiculous snow drifts all over the place from the non-stop wind. So anyway, we got our mail at the Post office, packed it into our packs, and headed out. This time, we had the icy wind blowing straight in our faces. We made it about a mile when two more wonderful men, out picking up their trees, stopped to pick us up. Charlie and Carl actually turned around and drove a few miles out of their way to help us out. Talk about holiday spirit! Needless to say, Jeff and I got off very easy!

We are now back in the safety of our cozy cabin and are watching Dirty Jobs. Life is good.

P.S. Thanks to Pattie for the great Steelers and 49er's santa hats. Too bad the Steelers forgot how to play football. Oh, right, I'm not talking about that.

Yep

Alright, so it's been a while. Not a whole lot has been happening around here except cold, cold weather. Our low yesterday was negative 21 degrees. Jeff spent most of the day ripping out the wall behind the kitchen sink. The pipes in our kitchen were frozen. We already have two space heaters in the crawl space. Now, we have to leave all the drawers open and another space heater in the kitchen. It was a beautiful day yesterday from what I could see, but I boycotted going outside. I am simply not ready for negative double digits. I better get ready soon. So, Jeff and I built and decorated our gingerbread house that Pattie got for us. Later, I made a Christmas tree out of cardboard and construction paper. (Don't judge me. I have a lot of time on my hands.)

Luckily, so far it is positive 1 degree. Jeff is over at the hotel getting the second floor ready for painting. I am going to bake some bread and some Christmas cookies. Oh, I forgot. We saw a huge bull moose on Monday. It was right in the road, and there was a female down the hill by the river. I guess life is good after all.

Here are the pics!

And, pictures of us brewing our beer:

So Wednesday was another awesome day. Jeff worked a half day to make up for the half day he worked on Tuesday. After work we were able to try out our snowshoes for the first time. It was an incredibly beautiful day. The temperature was very low (in the teens in mid-afternoon) so all of the fresh snow was sparkling with ice crystals, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We headed up above the hotel to the Craker Lake trail. I was skeptical about snowshoes, but they really do make a difference. We were able to make pretty good time when we were moving. The trail is a hot spot for animals! We saw so many tracks. We saw moose tracks, deer tracks, snowshoe hare tracks, mountain lion, and wolf and coyote tracks. It was outrageous. That will definitely be our night hiking spot. We didn't hike the whole way to the lake. We just wanted to try out the snow shoes, but we hiked about 5 miles. On our way back to the cabin we saw the tracks of the first brave animal to cross Swiftcurrent Lake, a coyote. We could see his tracks the whole way across the lake.

Thursday, we spent a long day painting in the hotel. It was so cold in there! After work, Sumio, a Japanese photographer that we've befriended, came over to thaw out. We have seen him quite a bit out here, and this time he is camping out here for four nights. His passion is wildlife photography, and he has some amazing photos. Check out his site. www.photorocky.com
We watched the civil war game (Oregon State vs Oregon), and Sumio headed back home to his tent.

I'll put pics on here later. Jeff has the camera. Boo!

BRRR!

So, yesterday was an awesome, awesome day. It was so nice that I convinced Jeff, not that it took much work, to take a half day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky (extremely rare) and there was no wind (super duper rare). We ate some lunch then broke out our brand new cross-country skis. We skied up the road and hung out at Lake Sherburn. We saw some bighorn sheep, a deer, a clark's nutcracker, and a bald eagle. We skied about 5 1/2 miles round trip which was pretty good considering Jeff has never cross-country skied, and I haven't done it for 15 years. I will say, there is room for improvement. The wind started to pick up a little bit on the way back, but it wasn't too bad. We came back to the cabin and relaxed for a while. Then, it was time to bottle our beer. It took about an hour to sanitize the bottles and fill and cap them. We should be able to drink our beer around Christmas time or the week before. Hopefully, it's drinkable!

Today it is 5 degrees. It is also a nice day despite the cold. Jeff is working a half day today since he only worked a half day yesterday. Then, we are going to brave the cold and do something cool.