11 April 2020 Saturday

Started the morning off by making coffee and building a fire. It really isn’t that cold, around 40F, but it’s nice to knock the chill off. Made Depression gravy and canned biscuits for breakfast. I needed to get something in my stomach before I take my BP meds and my various vitamins and minerals. I’ve never taken so many pills in my life. The majority of them are vitamins and minerals. Some of them like the D3 and those related to not getting enough sunlight will be discontinued until next fall. We’ll start getting 18-20 hours of daylight for a while.

I got all suited up and in the proper attitude to crawl up under the house. Had put the jacks within reach and was properly motivated to finish leveling the rear portion of the house. After I belly crawled and then on hands and knees the 30 feet to where I needed to be, I found that the various freezes and thaws had formed a sheet of ice so thick that the jacks wouldn’t go under the floor beam. BTW, my left knee, while still tender, was up to the task. This is just another set back. I’m going to have to wait until the ice is gone before I can lower the back of the house to match the front. This means that we are stopped from installing all of the new cabinets and countertops in the kitchen. In other words, all of the interior remodeling has come top a screeching halt. I was able to lower part of the house where the ice had not become a glacier but that wasn’t enough to get the kitchen level. The majority of the back of the house remains as it was. Fortunately, the weather prediction for the next 10 days is rain. The rain will melt the ice but then I’ll be crawling in the mud. There is no happy medium in Alaska.

Summer was given six chickens and two ducks today. We sold all of our chickens last fall and then Summer slaughtered, with the help of a neighbor, and processed nine ducks last October. Now we’re back in the chicken business and we have two ducks that don’t fit into our breeding program. She started out to get Fabio, the rooster, another mate as his previous mate was eaten by a neighbors dog a week or so back. The only reason we still have Fabio is that he managed to escape the Great Chicken Roundup last fall. The search for Fabio’s new girl friend led to a guy who just wanted to be rid of his six chickens. “And oh, by the way, if you want the chickens, I have two ducks you have to take as well“. So as I said earlier, we’re back in the chicken business and we now have two ducks that need to be rehomed or slaughtered. Rehomed is preferable as we still have 3-4 ducks in the freezer. Duck is decent eating but for me a little duck goes a long way.

Chickens led to building a couple of nesting boxes a putting some fresh hay inside the old chicken house. Summer managed to catch Fabio ( had jumped up into her Subaru Forester looking for the hens) and throw him into the house with the other chickens and the two ducks. They’ll all stay cooped up together for the next several days. There will be no ‘social distancing’ for these critters. This will allow the chickens and ducks to understand that this is their new home. When they are, finally, released they’ll stay close to their new home. Home is where the food is.

Today has been a bust as far as getting any progress on the house. but I got a few things accomplished. I was able to pick up things that had disappeared into the snow. Most of them I did not need. But, at least, now they are in a place where I can find them. if I do need them. Stuff disappears into the snow and no matter how badly you need it, you can’t find it until ‘break up’.

Well, that’s it for me. Good news is that I am still ‘Corroded Virus’ free. Nite. Nite. Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.