East Pole Journal April 11, 2020: I split the chopping block today

The focus of this picture is on what's not in it.

That's the symbolic end of the firewood gathering for the season. All told, two cords of birch, half a cord of spruce and that should do it to keep me warm next winter while I cut wood for the following year. (I keep repeating that as if there should be some lesson to be learned from it.) Anyway, to be honest there are two more chopping blocks out there but they have been driven so deeply into the snow I can't find one and the other is at least three feet down and frozen in. I will find them in the summer or early next winter.

Unfortunately this celebration also has to mark the end of the season at the East Pole for me this winter. The forecast has rain and snow in it; the extended forecast, only rain. Time to bug out.

It's been an odd winter. After several relatively warm ones, this one had a long cold spell. In a way it was easier and in a way more difficult. My plan to come in early for a short period and put in trails, then go out and make my major supplies purchase and be able to get them up to the cabin in one shot worked for the most part, no frozen eggs or milk. Plus less wear and tear on me having to haul stuff up by hand. But then I had to go out for a couple of weeks to do some business and it snowed more than three feet while I was gone. I had one of the worst days ever coming up my trail. See The terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad day for an account of it.

After that the weather grew progressively more pleasant. Days and days in a row of bright sun and temperatures in the 30s and 40s going at night down into the teens or single digits, just about perfect. If that weather would only last I could stay here until Covid-19 is just a memory. I may come back anyway and try to make it in summer, we shall see. My housing situation has changed and I have to find a place to live as soon as I get out so the next few weeks should be interesting.

Here it is.

I had been thinking of a travel trailer and going vagabond for a while, but they won't let anyone into Canada so travel Outside is out. It might even be tough in Alaska. All the music festivals I had thought of going to have been cancelled. I thought this might be the year I make it to Burning Man or Coachella, but I guess not now. There are usually a couple in Alaska too, Salmonfest for one and one in Chicken, the town that was supposed to be named Ptarmigan but no one knew how to spell that. We shall see.

Anyway that's a wrap on this winter and seriously not looking forward to spring. I don't mind isolation at all living here but out there where there are things to do that involve lots of people, well, it isn't going to be a good year for any of that. Isolation in a crowd is no fun at all.

The East Pole Journal