Exploring & Fish

Sometimes we work so hard that we can't even stay awake until super, even though we're hungry.

We have been told by many people that our property is actually considered to be in the community of Eureka. Map from "The Mile Post" Eureka from what we have been told was once a thriving mining community with a landing strip, store, post office and gas station. Now the only thing left is the airstrip that is unmaintained. All the other buildings have been torn down and there is no sign of them. We drove down Eureka road about as far as you can go in a car. After that you would need a 4-wheeler or something to get all the way to Rampart near the Yukon river. I think that would be a fun trip to do some day. It was 16 miles to the end of the "road" it is also 16 miles to Manley Hot Springs. Though we are closer to Eureka, Manley Hot Springs is the closest currently established community. That is why our address is Manley and we get our mail there. A good site to check out for town info in the Manley Roadhouse site. It has some great pictures, a calander of events and links to other local businesses. Manley Road House. Here are a few pictures from our drive. One is of an area we came across with two cars down off the road upsidedown. Then there is a picture from the return of the sun switchback and one of a moose who was jogging down the road in front of our car at about 25 MPH for about half a mile.

Yesterday we did our weekly trip into Manley Hot Springs to take the kids to the school for story time. We also stoped by to see Mr. Joe Redington Jr, who gave us a whole Salmon. Joe and his wife have been very welcoming to us since we arrived here and we are very thankful for their Salmon donation. Here is a link to Joe's website: Joe Redington Joe's family has an interesting history, his father started the Iditarod and Joe Jr is a man of many talents.

Prior to this wonderful donation I had never cleaned, gutted, or cut up a whole fish. It was an interesting experiance. The fish had so much more blood than I was expecting and alot more inards than the chickens I'm used to butchering. We cut it into steaks and cooked about half. They turned out wonderful. Lisa was funny the entire time I'm cleaning it. She was going "EWWWWW thats gross, look at all the blood, that stinks I think I'm going to throw up". Then 2 seconds later she would start asking when I would cut her off a piece so she could eat it. She is such a funny kid (she had 3 helpings).

Thanks again to Joe for the wonderful Salmon.

I also want to give a shout out to Ms. Connie at the school who conducts the toddler story time. Connie is such an amazing woman, she works at the school and the roadhouse and is building her own cabin by herself. She is great with the kids and really makes the storiess come alive. A big thanks to Connie just for being you ;)

A short update on the house: All upstairs walls are framed and stood minus one that they are leaving down for the moment so that they can use the backhoe to lift the siding and rooffing materials up and put them on the upper floor. If we could have some clear days they could have the roof on in no time. Today between rain showers they are putting up siding on the second floor.