A couple of items from the East Pole Journal

Major problem with a 48-year-old solution

48 years old and still cooking

In many ways this year has been the easiest for moving to the East Pole and re-establishing my residence. That was mostly due to my plan to come out for a few days with a light load, put in trails, then go out for the major part of my stuff and perishable foods that I didn't want to freeze. In that way I made it up to the cabin first try with the heavier loads of the second trip and didn't have to bring stuff up one small sled load at a time pulled up by hand,

As a result I've only had one major problem and still haven't solved it. Last year on the day I was leaving I bumped a section of the pipe that feeds propane to my lights and stove and it broke at a soldered joint. This stuff was put in years ago by a professional plumber who happened to have a cabin across the way and offered to do it for nothing. It has held up for more than 30 years so I have no complaint. But now I am faced with a plumbing problem I haven't been able to solve. I've come out four times with pieces and parts and only finally connected at least the stove and one light to the propane tank. But, I only got to use it one night and overnight a leak somewhere in the line (fortunately outdoors) leaked and emptied the tank. I had tested them all with hot soapy water. You coat the joint with that and any leak should create a bubble. I figured out later that the solution froze before a tiny leak could show up. I went through them all again and loosened, then tightened (with brass fittings you can turn them too tight and it will stretch the threads) all the fittings in the line. I turned on the propane and used hotter water but it still froze quickly and I do not trust it. As this is attached to my second tank I am afraid to turn it on and lose that whole tankful also.

Meanwhile I have been cooking on a two-burner Coleman stove which is fine until you need an oven and therein lies the problem. I brought a prime rib roast for Christmas eve dinner and a rack of lamb for New Year's Day and have been fretting about how to cook them without an oven. I have a cast iron dutch oven and cleaned it up today to look it over as a possibility on the wood stove. A pot roast recipe I found on the internet looked like it would work,  but a prime rib deserves better treatment.

So, anyway I am out on the porch watching the hypnotizing chickadees flitting back and forth around the feeder and I leaned back and banged my head on something metal that rattled. Bingo! I do believe I said that out loud. Holy crap. I have a top-of-the-line Weber grill that has all the fittings to handle a roast. I have roasted turkeys in it; and prime rib roasts. I bought it for $72 which was a half price deal my neighbor in Chicago arranged in 1972. It is 26 inches in diameter and has racks you use to separate the fire into two and place a drip pan between them to catch the juices. It has traveled with me from Chicago to Anchorage and finally to the East Pole, though I seldom use it. That's probably why it didn't come to mind right away. The last time I think was four years ago when a friend brought a couple of steaks out. So, woo hoo. Even with a working oven I might have done that roast in the grill if I had thought of it. Christmas Eve dinner is saved.

Things that go "creeaacckk" in the night

Yesterday at twilight I was standing on the deck and heard some thrashing and crashing in the woods at the bottom of the hill. At first it sounded like something heavy walking through breaking underbrush. There's a lot of it sticking up out of the snow. But, it didn't seem to move. I was moving in and out of the house and every time I went out I listened and it was still going on. My imagination started running out of control. A bear out in winter tearing into a fallen tree? A wolverine? This went on for two or three hours and I swear I even heard some movement as I was shutting things down to go to bed around 10 p.m.

Different year, different moose.

I heard a crack down there when I went out around 2 a.m. as well. Here's how spooked I was. I keep a cooler full of frozen meat outdoors buried in the snow. That usually works at least until mid March. I started to think if some unusual critter made those noises, what if it found my cooler. Once again discretion the better part of valor I brought the cooler indoors for the night and put it in the coolest part of the cabin.

In the morning nothing felt the least like any thawing had taken place

     Once daylight made it possible, I took the snowmachine down the hill to look around. Moose. It looked like the critter had chewed its way through several thickets of twigs and then laid down to sleep. The moose-sized sleep hole had melted all the way down to the grass so it must have spent an undisturbed night there. I'm glad that's all it was.

I did feel a little sheepish taking my cooler outdoors to bury it again, but that's life in the big woods.
UPDATE: I drove the snowmachine down there the next day to look around and for sure it was a moose. By the tracks I could tell it moved from thicket to thicket through several of them and chewed them down. Then the big hole in the snow indicated where it slept the night, stayed so long the snow melted down to the grass underneath. Mystery solved.
East Pole Journal