I’ve got a lot of requests for blog posts about our day to day lives out here. I’d love to do these, but right now things are pretty boring. Because we spent 2018 in the lower 48 we don’t have animals, or a green house going like we’d hoped to this year. And since we returned home in winter, we have to wait until things thaw out to start any big projects.

What we’ve been doing with ourselves while we wait for spring has mostly been a lot of little projects, and a bunch of planning.

We’ve been discussing green houses, high tunnels, the new cabin, animals, and expanding our income streams. The direction we want to take the blog in has been a big topic as well. We’ve also been spending time visiting with friends we missed last year, and taking our daughter on play dates and to the community center. Throw in a bunch of doctor appointments for me, and maybe we’ve been busier than I thought! Most of it just hasn’t been specifically homestead/off grid related. That doesn’t leave much to write about, and I don’t want to clog up things with little anecdotes and snippets of our lives that aren’t relevant to the blog. After all, that’s what Facebook is for 😉

One thing I realized I had to blog about is winter traveling for our trips to town.

It’s both easier and harder to get to town in winter than in summer. For one, winter has a lot more prep time before we can even leave. And then we get to ride an hour in freezing (or below) temperatures just to reach a cold car/cabin! In summer we live by the tides, but in winter we live by the weather. I’m not too keen on riding in -15 temps with the toddler, no matter how well dressed she is. That leaves Kyle taking town trips by himself when it’s the worst driving conditions.

Snow and rain aren’t that great to ride in either.

And if things heat up too much, the trail gets soft and the 4 wheeler or snow machine will bog down. Wet, deep snow is our winter nemesis. A nice powder is great for snow machining, while hard pack snow or bare frozen ground are best for riding the 4 wheeler. The snow machine we bought this year has been great for traveling and hauling things. And way better for riding pregnant than riding triple on the wheeler or on the sled.

The main reason winter traveling is a chore is that everything freezes.

From jars of canned goods, to our water systems, to the camp potty (Amazon link) we got for the toddler. We heat the cabin with a single wood stove with about a 5 hour burn time, so the house is always cold when we return. And if we end up staying in town, things will definitely freeze! If we wait until morning to close things up, it takes us about an hour to get everything done and hit the trail. Our list for winter traveling is almost always the same, so we split tasks to make it easier.

Kyle:

• Feed and water the dogs
• Collect any garbage that needs taken to the dump
• Pack town clothes
• Pack shower bag
• Double check for keys and wallet
• Warm up snow machine/4 wheeler
• Collect gas and water containers
• Gather everything and tie down on sled or machine

Katie:

• Make breakfast (sometimes)
• Pack town clothes
• Pack toddler backpack
• Collect any laundry to be done in town
• Get toddler dressed for the trail
• Tidy house from packing destruction
• Turn off power (solar)

Both:

• Drain well tank
• Bleed all connection hoses/lines
• Drain shower hoses and instant hot water heater (Amazon link)
• Dump the camp potty in the outhouse and wash it down
• Load the wood stove and damper it down
• One last sweep to make sure nothing is forgotten
• Tie up Kolache and tell Ronan to stay, then head out!

All that has to be done before we can leave the cabin!

Then we have our hour trail ride in prime conditions. If we get stuck or loose gear and have to backtrack for it (like losing the sled on a hill yesterday 🙄 ) then it ends up taking way longer. When we get to the car, we have to unload the sled, reload the car, lock up our machines and then we actually start our drive into town. It can be exhausting to make a day trip like this. Luckily we have friends in town we often stay overnight with, just to space our trips out a bit. And because we don’t have to get up the bluff in winter, it’s easier to haul things in, so that makes winter traveling so worth it.

Spring comes with different traveling challenges, but there is a lot more going on around here to share. I did see mud today, so we’ll be starting some bigger projects to post about soon!