There seems to be no length that the ‘Deep State’ will not go to destroy former President Trump. It very well may be that they have a point that some of the materials that then President Trump DID NOT PACK UP and move to Mar A Lago might be important to national security. The point is that he had no part of selecting or packing of the documents. Also, I have serious doubts that he or anyone else spent hours going through those documents. He allowed the FBI access previously and told them come back any time. Add to that the question: To what end would rifling through tens of thousands of pages of boring ass crap be? With 24/7 camera surveillance and Secret Service personnel on site. who would risk trying to pilfer anything? Whether you are a Democrat, a Rastafarian, Episcopalian, Republican or Conservative this has to reek of political harassment. What do you think the reaction would have been, if President Trump had authorized a similar raid on former President Obama’s home? This has constitutional implications, not the least of which is ‘Can a sitting President revoke the privileges of a former President’. If that is constitutional we are likely to see President Biden’s, conversations with staff, his documents confiscated and his entire life investigated and exposed. Whatever your true political religion might be we cannot allow this to become a trend. Regardless of their politics, former Presidents must not be politically harassed by anyone.

Life in Alaska has been and is continuing to be difficult for me. Some days I am very tired. I’ll be 78 in November. In the past week or so, I have bucked up 2 cords of firewood and then have split most of it. Summer has been working 6 days a week so she has been very little help in getting the firewood stored away in the tents. It is not her fault that she has little time to help out here on the ‘homestead’. Dan and his brother have been working on the new foundation of the house every weekend. Dan works full time and then works his weekends here. It’s been way more Dan than Dave on this project. However, I am appreciative for the effort Dave puts into the project. I have been helping wherever I can but I seem mostly to be in the way and firewood processing has been my life for days and days. It has rained incessantly and I that I may be growing webbing between my toes. I’ve split wood in the rain but drew the line when it started to thunder. Thunder is a rarity here in Alaska. It is so rare that people will go outside to look for lightning. As of today, I’ve had to stop splitting the birch as the tent floor is covered in split birch. Tomorrow after a 10:00 AM clothes dryer repair, I am going to be stacking all of that loose birch. If I get that done quickly, I’ll be back on the splitter doing more birch. I finished all of the spruce rounds today and they are piled up awaiting a new tent. I’m doing, at least, 10 cords of wood for this winter. If I have the money and the time, I’ll do 12-14 cords. I’ve heard that you aren’t a Real Alaskan until you’ve had to burn the furniture to stay warm. If that is the measure, I think I’ll pass.

My appliance repair has not been a great financial success. The problem is that there just aren’t enough people to make it a real business. There are only about 8,000 permanent residents in the area that includes Homer and Anchor Point. Frankly, I don’t think I’m game for another business with even 2 employees much less 28. Mostly, I work here on the ‘homestead’ and get an occasional repair call. It isn’t monetarily very rewarding but it gets me off this hill and into society from time to time. Long before we moved to Alaska I was bad to talk to myself. My late wife, Connie, would chide me about this habit. Just to aggravate her I would tell her that when I wanted to speak to someone intelligent, I’d talk to myself. The problem with spending so much time alone is that you start to answer yourself. You have long, serious conversations about trivial things. I can see how when a person is left alone for a long time that they withdraw from society and become hermits. You don’t have to move into a cave to become a hermit. You can easily become a hermit in any neighborhood in any city. Where do you think that the “GET OFF MY GRASS” people come from? They are people that have lived alone so long that they have become un-socialized. They are urban/suburban hermits.

Enough “Deep Thoughts”. Old time SNL watchers will recognize the joke. SNL was once funny. Nobody was above the ridicule that they dished out. The made fun of Republicans, Democrats, Hollywood stars, all manner of politicians and they made us laugh Now they become so WOKE and politically leftist that they are no longer funny. They are, in fact, a mere shadow of the real SNL I really miss the days when comedians were allowed to be funny, we laughed at each other and no one was offended. I am now offended by the fact that so many people are offended about everything that amounts to nothing. I’m afraid that humor is dead and soon to be buried by the Marxist WOKETARDS.,

On to other things. Dan seems to think that we’ll (meaning himself) will get the house level and stabilized before winter. I am hoping that he is correct. If he gets the house leveled, I will be able to get the skirting around the house. This will make the house warmer and protect the plumbing that we’ve been burning a crap load of electricity with heat tapes to protect them from freezing. One of our electricity bills from last winter was near $350 and that has nothing to do with heating the house aside from the fan in the fuel oil heater. The entire house, except the kitchen, is lighted by 9 watt LEDs. The security lighting is on motion sensors and is, also, LED. We, necessarily, have to heat the water tanks and water lines in the water house. They are on thermostats that are set for 35F and both of the tanks and the houses are heavily insulated. If I have time before the snow flies I am going to put 2” furring strips on the outside walls of the tank sheds and then add 2” of foam board insulation and top that with plywood sheathing. Winters seem to be getting colder and electricity is getting more expensive. I think we are already paying 30+ cents per KWh. In Florida we were paying about 10 cents per KWH. The difference is significant to say the very least.

A project that has lain idle for nearly a year is now on my radar. That project is the repair of the Land Rover. It had a terrible scraping noise in the rear. I took it to a mechanic and he said that the brake calipers were rubbing on the brake discs. I had visions of someone else repairing this until he gave me a price of $800. New calipers and new brake pads are about $150. This meant that I was going to be the one that repaired the Rover. I dutifully removed the tires and unbolted the calipers. To my surprise when I had unbolted the calipers and started to remove them the entire rear axle came out. It seems, as I have stated before, no one thought to check the oil in the rear end. All of the bearings were not just worn but completely gone. We bought another Rover of the same model and year for a few hundred dollars about a year ago. I will be removing the entire rear axle assembly from the black Rover and installing it in the Red Rover. It reminds me of a kid’s game that kids can no longer play because it is exclusionary and racist. Never mind. Anyway the project requires removing 54 rusty bolts and reinstalling 27 newly cleaned bolts. With the normal interruptions and aggravations it will probably take me two days to complete this relatively simple task. I’ll be buying two cans of WD40 tomorrow. I suspect that I might need it all before I get the 22 year old bolts out of these vehicles. It seems that a third operating vehicle would be a luxury and superfluous, but Summer needs a vehicle to get to work and I need a vehicle to get around for whatever I need to do on the ‘homestead’ or my pitiful appliance repair endeavor. If one vehicle breaks, I’d be stranded on this damned hill or driving Summer to and from work. Neither option appeals to me or Summer.

This expected, anticipated “adventure” into Alaska has been a drudge. For five years now it has been very low on the adventure scale. I have not been fishing. I have not been hunting. I have not done any touristy sightseeing. I have not joined the local yacht club so that I can go do the sailing I love. What I have done is work too much and drink way too much vodka. I did join the American Legion. I’ve been to the club twice. Once to fill out the application to join and once to give them a copy of my DD214 to prove that I was, indeed, a war veteran. I’ve never even had a beer in the place. I was put off by the fact that on both visits the people at the bar were older than me and that’s really old. They don’t seem to be trying to attract younger veterans or any auxiliary people. The fact is I don’t see how they are keeping the doors open.

Alright, It’s 11:00 at night and I vowed to go to bed earlier than midnight. Two reasons for the earlier to bed. One: I drink less vodka. Two: I get an extra hour or so of sleep. Both are good reasons for early assumption of a horizontal position. One great benefit of this new bedtime is that it is very difficult to drink vodka lying on your side unless your are drinking Russian style. That’s out of the bottle, if you didn’t know. GOOD NIGHT!!!