Outpost Week 24 ~ Winter Blues?

I've been feeling a bit under the weather for the last couple of days. Free of any germs or cooties that find their way into your everyday life among populated areas is something we don't have a problem with. I can't remember the last time either of us even had a cold so where did this 'achy' feeling come from? Am I feeling under the weather because of the weather? Those few days of sun and a warmer wind blowing from the south took the chill off our bones and had me thinking that soon we would be able to venture out in the tinney again to explore foreign beaches and do some fishing. Hikes through the woods for exercise rather than the elliptical machine and the stairs will give the legs and body a much needed workout outside. Mike and I have always been “fair weather” sailors and this carries through to our mind set of it having to be nice ( no rain) for our excursions, so we are waiting for spring.

 

Last Monday marked our 6^th month anniversary, yep only 3 months to go and it's around this time I'm beginning to dream of 'eating out'. At this point anywhere where someone is going to hand me a menu or just standing in front of a menu board is going to be a treat, not that we don't eat well (although anything fresh is just a memory except for potatoes) but I am looking forward to sitting down to enjoy a meal that I haven't done anything with but ordered it. Earlier this week I had a hankering for deli food.

Browsing through one of my many cookbook I came across some pages which I had cut out of a magazine eons ago and shoved into a favourite volume with the plan of trying it out later. Well it's about 3 years later and I finally decided to give it a whirl. The recipe that had caught my eye or stomach was ' No Knead Dark Rye Caraway Bread'. I make bread all the time but this is definitely one that will be written in my personal cookbook of best and favourite recipes. Wonderful flavour from the molasses and caraway seeds, simple and fast to make. Great toasted, grilled or just the way it is to make a corned beef with swiss and djion mustard sandwich. You've got to have potato salad and this one is another favourite recipe of mine.....BLT Potato Salad. Not having any L or T, I could only add the B and if you only have one of the 3, than bacon really is the best one to have. Who doesn't love bacon? A dill pickle on the side completes the plate and the deli craving is satisfied.

Barge Update: It's departure date from Vancouver was the 21^st and if all goes well it should be in Masset by the weekend. From what we read on the marine weather forecast it looks like a 50/50 chance of them heading down the coast. For the last couple of days the seas have kicked up but we'll be keeping our hopes high and fingers crossed.

Is Princess just ignoring me (likely) or praying for the barge to arrive?

Till next week,
Heather & Mike

outpost Week 23 ~ A Good Day

“What would you like for Valentine's day hon?”

“Heat, maybe some sun.....that would be nice.”

This might be a tall order but February 14^th dawned without a cloud in the sky, nor a hint of wind with the promise of seeing the sun. Good job, Mike.

First things first....a breakfast of hot out of the oven walnut sticky buns was the request on this special day.

I don't have to head over to the end of the beach today to find the sun. I grab a chair, call the cat than head down to the heli pad. I still may have to wear an additional layer, now 4 in total to feel comfortable enough to sit out but ohhh that sun did feel nice. I was able to get a good half hour before a cold wind won out and I headed back inside.

Sammy has become much bolder these day. I don't know what enticed him to start appearing on the back deck but it makes us laugh every time we see him. Maybe he was looking for a Valentine's treat, which he got for looking so cute.

Please Mikey, could I have some more?

I couldn't go out and buy chocolates for my sweet heart but I could make a favourite dinner and dessert. Spaghetti, french bread, a nice bottle of red wine, warm apple crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream...just in case you were wondering. A couple of sailing magazines bought on line and sent along with a special email made a good surprise. Being up here you have to think outside the box for gift giving.

My request for a gift of heat came in the guise of a wonderful fire. Having to be very frugal with the fuel these days, the furnace/boiler has been turned off. Kind of ironic since we waited so long for the part to arrive to fix it and now we can't afford to use it.

A small stack of wood was all that was left from everything we cut earlier in the season and having sat inside all this time made for one rip roaring fire. In no time at all the temperature of the lodge went from a normal 60 degrees to 70. Absolute heaven!

Why don't we have a fire all the time? Everything that we felt comfortable ( referring to feeling of safety ) chopping down, we did. Any previously fallen tree that we could get to and use the chainsaw on have all been cleaned up. Mike recently did cut down several smaller trees but the wood is so green that it smolders more than it burns. So for now we'll continue just with our heaters and each day is a day closer to spring and warmer weather. Oh......can't forget about the barge, maybe their 4^th attempt will be the charm.

It was a very good day.

Till next week,
Heather & Mike

Outpost Week 22 ~ What To Say?

I'm going to have to dig deep this week to find something entertaining to talk about.

It has been a time where the days come and go without much change, each just a repetition of the other.

The weather has gotten a bit warmer and the mornings while still chilly (inside) aren't the frigid temperatures that required streaming mugs of coffee to warm my hands and a blanket across my legs. I'm down to my normal 3 layers of clothing and for several days this week you could almost feel that spring was in the the air.

On one of these days I did get the chance to do something I haven't done since maybe October and that was to sit in the sun. Now I had to go to the far end of the beach over by our satellite dish to bask in it and it really didn't have any heat and it only lasted for 20 minutes but that was enough time to take in some natural vitamin D.

With this almost balmy feeling in the air we took some much needed time outside.

Windows got washed, the boardwalk got swept, fallen branches from previous wind storms collected and dragged away, walks along the beach. This reprieve from the rains lasted for 4 days.

Life back inside the lodge returned to surfing the internet (still planning that perfect trip) working on my puzzle, watching a movie in the afternoon ( really should stay away from ones with a theme of a couple in a remote house where there are terrorized by brutal killers ) and reading. “Lost in Shangri-La” by Mitchell Zuckoff is what I am reading at the moment. A true life story of survival, adventure, a rescue mission and lots of history on the island of New Guinea in 1945. It's kept me up till the wee hours of the morning.

One small part of our (my) life that is different is I am now having to wash our clothes by hand. Last week the washer decided to stop washing. It's not all bad, the spin cycle still works and if you have ever had to wash sheets and towels by hand you know that twisting the water out is the hardest part. So the commercial size kitchen sinks now do double duty while the washer takes care of the hardest part. Ken is going to try to get a new one on the next barge trip...another reason to look forward to that elusive vessel.

With a full moon this week the tides have been higher than usual and brought in more driftwood. I've mentioned before how we've had more logs in the bay this year than last but they have never been a problem or caused damaged until the other day.

How this log managed to jam itself under the float is a mystery. Mike's addressed it with a sledge hammer but it just isn't going to budge so it looks like we'll have to cut the carpet and than with a couple of crow bars pry the planks up. With any luck we should than be able to push it away.

A brief bit of sun breaks through the thick layer of clouds highlighting a swath of forest.

I have no idea what Norman was thinking when he decided to come up on the back deck but once Princess came into the picture he ventured no further.

I wonder how close he would have come?

Till next week,
Heather & Mike

Outpost Week 21 ~ Cabin Fever

Cabin fever: noun

Definition: anxiety caused by living in isolation or indoors for long periods of time

Symptoms: climbing the walls, going squirrely, feeling antsy, restlessness, winter blues,

temporary insanity, talking to animals

It must be in the makeup of our DNA, one's ability to walk away from society and exist in the middle of a wilderness stretching for miles whichever way we turn for months on end. Even during our years of cruising we often sought the solitude of an empty anchorage. The dinghy ride to happy hour might be longer but was a small price to pay in our way of thinking.

This is our forth season as caretakers, the first two spent in River's Inlet, and I can honestly say I have not experienced temporary insanity ( although Mike's opinion on this may differ) suffered from restlessness or climbed any walls. As to talking to animals, well, yes I do but that has nothing to do with cabin fever. Even the long periods of grey skies and endless rain don't bog me down with winter blues but I do yearn for hot sunny days and endless white sand beaches. I find myself surfing the internet, planning month long journeys to exotic destinations. I can't wait till April when the sun will once again reach our back deck and I can enjoy my morning coffee sitting outside with the cats, soaking up some much needed Vitamin D. Out of everything we leave behind it's the sun that I miss the most.

I often wonder how caretakers years ago dealt with the isolation. They didn't have the luxury of Sirius radio, internet, 100's of dvd movies, streaming TV or Skype. Books I imagine, lots and lots of books. More often than not it was 'caretaker' and not 'caretakers', can't fathom 9 months with no one to talk with, now that might make me go squirrely, maybe they had a dog at the lodge with them...a dog would be nice....Mike and I would like a dog. I don't know how much the local wildlife would appreciate it though.

You may have guessed since it was not the first thing I mentioned this week but the barge did not make it down to the Outpost. With the weather forecasts predicting storms and gale force winds continually, we knew the chances of seeing the vessel were slim at best. So now we wait for the next scheduled trip in February.

How's are fuel supply doing? Well we're not running on fumes...yet. The genny gets shut down each night before we go to bed as a norm for our entire 9 month stay but now we have to consider other measures. Weather permitting (not too cold) we'll shut down the generator for 4 hours or so each afternoon. The absolute quiet is actually welcomed as we sit and read, write or work on my puzzle. There is enough light in the kitchen to cook or do dishes so really not much has changed. The furnace/boiler which we were without for 87 days turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Not having to fill this beast every 2 weeks saved us a tremendous amount of diesel and is in fact the reason why we're able to wait till the next barge. The obvious thing to do now is turn it off, which we have done. The electric heaters we have follow us from table to couch depending on the time of day and we're warm enough. Water (yes we have water again hooray!!!) is heated on the stove. Sound familiar?

Buckets showers...this is where I draw the line and twice a week Mike fires up the furnace so we have hot water and I can take my near scalding shower. Small pleasures. Propane is another concern but here again simple steps taken has extended the length of the tanks. These days if I'm going to turn the oven on it's not just going to be for one dish and a small dish of rice is now double the size, while I might as well make a double batch of bread instead of just one.

I think for the first time ever I had only taken 15 pictures all week. Normally when it comes time to download them it's well over 50 and sometimes as high as 100. This week there just wasn't much going on and the weather except for one day has been overcast with everything from a drizzle to downpour adding to the gloominess.

If it's one thing we can count on, it's always getting a good picture of our 3 amigos.

Till next week,
Heather & Mike