House Cat

Twelve mice, shrews as they are known here have met the bitter end in nearly two months. Although traps continue to be active, an additional pair of night eyes with an appetite are the so called big guns that I have in reserve. My little buddy came in for a quick visit today, coerced by salami at first and then by curiosity and probably the odd sensation of warmth. Luxurious as it seemed to walk upon ground not frozen, to smell the wonders of food and in abundance that doesn't run and needs not catching, I couldn't allow him to stay too long and  become domestic. He has learned the time of day when I start cooking. He comes running and with those eyes, who could not resist sharing an easy meal. Salami is a good tasting, fattening protein that he seems to enjoy immensely, and I even spruced it up by heating it for some extra flavor on Thanksgiving. Luckiest fox in all of Alaska.

A thankful day I had. Thankful for beautiful weeks of endless blue sky and sunshine, for health and wellness in this frozen land and for my little furry friend who is more trusting than ever. This is the second Thanksgiving I've had up here, and another decent meal for the annual tradition. I didn't have Turkey, but chicken curry soup was more delicious on the cold day. Stuffing was baked, but obviously it wasn't ever stuffed, so it was just a bread casserole. To top off the evening was the classic pumpkin pie. Now I've often had many mouth watering cravings for Costco pumpkin pie, and although mine wasn't that, it was a very respectable comparison and a worthy rival.

    

Baking has also been a little reward for the survival of cold, quiet and often uneventful days. I started out with banana bread and used the recipe that I had two years ago. Somehow, I recall it being so much better and more moist. It would hardly last four days and a whole loaf was gone. I have healthy portions of the good things and over indulge on the really great things. Well, this bread wasn't as spectacular but it was edible and I managed just fine. Not feeling satisfied with just okay bread, I made a recipe of decent chocolate chip cookies and added walnuts, under baked them and made them thicker. I truly enjoy making each one of them just how I would love all cookies to be. No one would say, leave out the nuts, flatten them, make them smaller, they're not done..... instead, my mind was saying go bigger, more walnuts, go ahead and let them be what you want.
So on this pursuit to quench a thirst of sweetness, I melted down a large portion of dark chocolate and spread hazelnuts over a cookie sheet and bound them together with the most delicious smelling, pleasing to the eye, pure chocolate that ever saw this side of Bristol Bay. It tastes good.

Lately, cold and clear days give way to even colder nights with crisp moon light and negative temperatures. When the moon sets, and yes I am often up at all hours of the night, it gives way to the amazing star filled skies. I sit for some time watching through binoculars and see every twinkling. I have been partial to the sword in Orion's belt for it's galaxy like existence that makes the sword so bright. I do love these sleepless nights.
 River Bay is freezing across nicely and growing thicker by the minute. Large sheets of ice are coming down river, sometimes crashing into the shore and sometimes floating by as stealth and silent as they were formed. Wind gusts change the tune some days. Wind so violent that they blur the Internet and phone signals, shaking trees and tossing water many feet up the river bank. Below zero wind chill allows for remarkably quick building of ice formations, ice shelves and barriers. My boat is encompassed daily with ice up to twelve inches thick and in some parts of the shore over thirty feet in width. Water is one of the most powerful, natural commodities there is. Whether it's waves in the ocean or icebergs at the far ends of the earth, water in a liquid or solid state is quite impressive. Over time it washes away stone and forms caverns, and quickly it transforms to deadly, sharp ice that can tear through the metal hull of a ship. I dig and pry, hammer and heat to try freeing the craft from a death hold of some hydrogen and oxygen bonded together.
After a week of relentless freezing and attempts to dislodge the boat, I decided to move her off the ice and now she sits afloat a few yards from the bank. Sheets of newly formed frozen slush that couldn't cling to any one side of the river, discarded and rejected by the source, they are drifting on down, broken and battered by the rapids below never amounting to anything.

One of the worst things happened the other evening. It's four degrees, breezy and the sun is setting. I had been in all day and staying quite busy, had a fire going and was quickly roasting out. I slimmed down to shorts and my shoes, no shirt or hat. I had to go fetch water, which was just fine and even intended for a cool off but when I came back to the cabin, the latch on the door had somehow twisted out of place and locked permanently. No knife or lighter, no tools of any kind were in my shorts and at first, I thought I would just knock on the door as if someone would answer. There isn't anything to read into that notion of a companion, but I never had thought someone was with me before this moment, no matter how over stacked the wood I was carrying in, or the trouble I find myself in when getting the snow machine stuck. I don't know what I was thinking, but I guess I wasn't thinking. I grabbed a file and punctured a hole in the plexiglass to unlatch the handle and enter. I often think of scenarios when and if I fall in the water or through the ice. Never does that end well and I don't know how long you can function before the elements really take over, hypothermia and all. Not long. Standing outside perfectly dry and feeling the the piercing breeze through tender skin is how the thought came about.
Duct tape is the new addition to my front door, a small hole and a comical moment will forever mark this little cabin. And I am most definitely alone.

There are Christmas songs playing on the radio, having started just after the last forks from Thanksgiving dinners were washed and the promotion of shopping was overwhelming in my inbox. Emails for saving hundreds, by spending hundreds on things I don't need or have a want for. Up here I really don't want for much. I really don't need anything I don't have and most things I think of people buying are non essential for sustaining life. They may be fun, but that hardly impresses upon me the need to spend what I don't have.
I must conclude that " Black Friday" is indeed very dark.

     December is nearly here. A time when people expect and desire winter white to blanket the ground. It softens the calm life I live, dampens what little noise there is and purifies the land by hiding all deformities, traces of mankind and wipes the slate clean for a time. Not a shrew nor moose goes undetected in the meadows, not a falling cranberry or pine needle is without guilt in disturbing the pureness of white. I really enjoy new snow. I would hope for some soon, as I've done quite the job in ruining what is around. I could use a clean slate and a fresh start.