Extreme Winds

The wind has been howling for several days now, and bringing the temperatures to well below zero when you factor in the wind chill, single digits without. I could not run fast enough from the sauna to my cabin, less than two minutes and the strands of my hair were frozen into chunks, making me stand bent over the wood stove to melt the ice. I watched the clouds of snow blow off the mountain tops all headed West leaving some sides nearly bare rock. Trees were swaying heavily, noises of cracking and breaking from either the trees or the ice on the lake, possibly both but were heard briefly before being drowned out by another fierce gust. The breeze was felt indoors, no matter how much I packed door jams with towels and blankets, I could not get warm enough yesterday until I was in bed under a few extra sets of covers. The wind turbines powered through, bending their metal foundations like a popsicle stick. I might need to check if they still work after blowing the circuit breakers and hearing a very unpleasant buzz coming from their power box. Which brings me to these amber colored ice cubes that I could hear bouncing off my tin roof in the early hours of the morning. It was so cold, the heat rising from my chimney pipe was cooled off so quickly that by the time it came out the top, it was just condensation of smoke, turned into liquid and thus frozen liquid smoke. Amazing! It smells good but I won't eat it. Inside my cabin, with just a mere crack in the window, it froze everything in my refrigerator, from my canned tuna to pineapple and my iced tea. Interesting enough, the tea was extracted from the water itself when frozen and I thought that to be very odd, even picture worthy.

A few other pictures of how cold it was, the waves that pounded the banks, grew to be in some spots about eight inches thick and upwards of over three feet wide. My boat was covered broadside, gas lines, oars, the motor, everything. Nothing a few whacks with a sledge hammer wouldn't fix.

As the pictures show, sunshine and blue skies have been very welcomed, although its not that nice to be out in for long periods which is anything longer than twenty minutes or so. I have gone through my first ten pounds plus of steak and had to thaw out another for butchering. When that was ready for cutting, I saved about five pounds for making jerky in the smoker and the oven. 2/3 of it was teriyaki and the rest was a dry rub and smoked. I preferred the oven, due to how thin it was cut, smoking was too strong by the time it was done. The oven made it near better than any store bought and its something I'll take away from here to hopefully make in years to come. I don't think making jerky out of rib eye will be cost effective in the real world but up here its all I've got and it sure is great.

These are the before cooking/smoking pictures. Smoking lasted about nine hours by time it was dried out and in the oven with the teriyaki on the sticks took about four to six hours. This was the first batch and after all was done, two pounds of jerky was all I had. Its gone!

So the ice continues to grow and form a life of its own, and looking quite pretty while doing it. I've never really looked at ice beyond the cubes in a tray for a cold drink but in large chunks, sheets and layers, it really is mesmerizing, or I am easily entertained. I think its a little of both, and anything new in my world up here is given a little extra time, extra thought and of course is photographed.

Salsa supply is gone, next time I will have to reserve at least seven gallons. I've got chips though!

I'll make do with some makeshift salsa.... we'll see.