Friendly skies

Last night at dark-thirty I bucked the four wheel drive down the Mine Road and wandered down to the post office, just to inspect the driving conditions, and make sure we weren't snowed in.  Much to my surprise, when I got out to the highway, I could see a mountain!  And a planet too!

It turns out there was no mail, because a semi-truck had jack-knifed on the Moose Creek curve and the highway was closed.  But that's okay, it's good I made the trip out anyway... because getting the truck to the end of the road was no small feat.

Of course, all this is after attempting to start the snowmachine and finding the throttle frozen wide open.  Now that's a good reminder to be paying attention, especially when there's a two year old cleaning snow off the cowl.  Yikes.  That could have been bad, but we pulled through.

I dug a spot out where the Mine Road meets the community road, left the truck there, and walked the 1/2 mile to our parking place- with the small child on my shoulders half of the time.  By the time we got back to the snowmachine, T's hands were pretty cold, and we still had to get home.  And so goes our life.  At least she can tell me when she's starting to freeze, instead of just howling.

The temperature dropped as the skies cleared off, but it continues to snow lightly.  I could still see a few stars this morning, and even though its dark under a new moon, I can see the silhouette of King Mountain.  So if the wind stays light, and the visibility lasts into Camp, then today is the day that Ben should make it home.

If he can't make it today, then its not likely we'll see him until next week.  There's more weather systems backed up from the southwest, and they'll continue to trickle in one after another, with only a day or two break in between.  We'll see what happens.

I've got a big pot of deboned moose ribs slow cooking on the woodstove, and I might just light the wood cookstove and make some butterhorns to celebrate.  Throw in some candied carrots and we'll call it a party.  I can hardly wait...