Now a promise made is a debt unpaid.. Robert W. Service
"So Captain?"
This past Monday, I promised myself, and therefore all of you, that Patti and I would wrap-up this series of Posts about our September 2020 visit to our cabin up in Manley Hot Springs before January 1st.
"So?" Here it is, our final Post of our long ago trip some 3-1/2 months ago.
Life in the rural areas of Alaska, while often pleasant, is not always fun and games. I could write many chapters about the almost daily challenges one can face from summer mosquitoes and mud on the roads to losing one's heat for a month in the winter with temperatures at minus 40°F and colder.
When we appeared at our cabin September 10th, lo and behold, bad and good news awaited us.
The bad news : A tall tree had fallen.
The good news : It did not damage anything at all. It could've fallen on the cabin and all-but-destroyed it. It could've fallen and blocked our driveway or all-but-destroyed one of our other two buildings.
More really good news : Connie, a friend and neighbor, came and removed the tree. Her charge : Connie got-to-keep the tree and its cord or two or three of firewood.
Sucha-deal-you-wouldn't believe.
Some odd news : Connie was so quick (it was September, winter was coming!) to get the tree cut and removed that I didn't get a chance to photograph the fallen tree in its entirety. She came and got-with-it while Patti and I were relaxing in our cabin. I did get one photo before I even knew the tree was down.
The victory is this : When you (or a woodsman neighbor) notice that a tree is in ill health (please don't ask me for the symptoms of a tree in ill health) you cut it down before it falls. My real woodsman neighbor Ernie (who has passed away) could 'listen' to tree sounds and tell me a certain tree had to come down.
Looking at the below photos, when you are living in the forest, amongst the trees, you ARE going to have a tree or two or even three or more fall!
Below, in a forest, is the road into our cabin.
Our local Church IS in the forest
Our Driveway is IN the forest.
Trees, trees, and more trees.
The tree fell beside the small Storage Shed directly behind our truck (center right) in the below photo.
Just this side of the small Storage Shed, is where the tree fell.
There it is! The fallen tree! Do you all see it in the lower left corner of the below photo.
Almost before we could say 'Jack Robinson' Connie was at work. To repeat : It was September! Winter was in-the-wings! No time to lose!
Below you have it! The poor tree rotted away at its bottom.
In the below four photos, our Outhouse is the small, tan-colored, structure. You can see that there is a lot of tree slash to be cleared away.
Below you can see Connie has been at-work cutting the fallen tree into firewood sized sections.
If you haven't had dealings with trees and firewood, you have no idea of how heavy the cut sections are.
A mess of tree slash.
And the basic work has been completed.
Now comes the work of removing and hauling away the cut sections and tree slash.
Do any of you remember the two photos below?
The ' photographic feature' of the above and below photos is the 10-gallon, stainless steel stockpot I use to produce snowmelt water in the winter. Sometimes I take it to the Well House with me to get water.
When I said that hauling away the tree slash from the fallen tree is a job, I meant it!
As is the case with many of my 'team members', Mister 10-gallon, stainless steel stockpot has 'other duties as assigned'.
"Hey Dad I can help!"
Now we are at the Manley Dump.
The Manley Dump is a very large site with the below facilities for household garbage disposal.
So there you have it, the work involved in removing a fallen tree from one's property.
Now we will show you where local residents can take showers and wash clothes and, for some minor medical issues, get health care.
THE MANLEY HEALTH CLINIC AND WASHETERIA
Oh yes! Winter was lurking last September.
A last look at our cabin in Manley Hot Springs during our September 2020 visit.
The below photo looks out at our backyard from inside the cabin.
The next two photos were snapped outside our cabin looking at our backyard.
We will end this series of 12 Posts with a photo of Patti looking in awe and in wonder at Autumn 2020 in the backyard of our Manley Cabin.
Perhaps you enjoyed this visit to Manley as much as we did.
Patti and Cap
