Amystery

so long amystery

Well, it's time. I am leaving this blog, I will leave it up for a bit longer even though it's been a long time since I wrote anything here. If you are interested in reading what i'm currently up to you can visit my new blog-in-progress at http://woodsmokeandlingonberries.wordpress.com. Maybe I will see you there, thanks to everyone who helped me create a little community here.

slow

Our little cabin awakens with the shifting and whining of the old dog. A fire needs to be started in the woodstove, this morning he stirs the coals and sparks it while I burrow deeper under the covers. Eventually I climb down the ladder and greet the ruby sunrise kissed hills. The generator is started to give our cold batteries a nice charge, after weeks of reasonable temperatures it has cruelly dropped to -20 during the night. There is hot tea to drink and some toast warmed in the broiler (the toaster was given away with all our other electricity hogging implements), a slow morning to listen the redpolls gorging at the feeder; the pop of the woodstove and find my way to some words.

Welcome to Casa Cabra

Last September we took a big, adult sized leap....we bought ten acres of hillside complete with off the grid cabin. We moved in during the darkest part of winter (late October and November) and are now beginning to see the lovely and challenging parts of a different season and a new home. So...here is an introduction to Casa Cabra....

First of course is my little Mochi, guardian of the house.
This is how we get our electricity, we are finally seeing a substantial increase in how much electricity our battery bank is gaining just from the panel. In the dark months we have to run our generator a bit more often, regardless it gives me a warm feeling deep inside to know that my electricity comes from the sun.

This was back in the fall, but a common sight around here...splitting wood. Our only source of heat is our woodstove and we split and burned a lot of wood over the winter, it's amusing to see the area under the deck so empty of stacked wood.
We've also done a lot of this over the winter. This was just last week when we got a foot of snow in 24 hours.
This is the view down to the "shop" I have dreams someday of using this as a writing/creating/yoga studio, right now it is storing a lot of our books.
Ah, the sauna, doesn't look like much, but the inside is impressive, now eventually I will actually get to sauna in here. We just recently finished replacing the chimney, we need one more piece and we will be ready for me to fire it up. I can't wait!

There are so many joys and frustrations with owning a place, but for the most part we are so happy to be exploring this new piece of Alaska. I have much more to share, including the out of control overflow on the driveway which has us walking in to the house, the inside of our little cabin, the creek, the shower made of old skis...much more, but here is a little introduction to the new place.

finding my way back

photo by dave of our goat hill dwelling

I thought I was done here, that I had nothing left to say....either time to start a new blog, or just move on entirely, but now I'm not so sure. There are a lot of things percolating in me; new thoughts, new directions and living in a new place I will have a lot to document as I enter into my first spring on the goat hill. stay tuned...i think a return may happen soon.

from my heart to yours

I hope you find time to give your love ones a little more cuddling tonight. My sweetie is many thousands of miles away from me, far away from any cuddling I can give, but it is good to remember that other people love you....everyday of the year. Thanks to my friends for reminding me that I am never truly alone.