Hi Scott. Great to hear from you and thank-you for what you said. It has and continues to be a great adventure. I like the term unique. There has always been something about me that drives me to be different and shun "going with the flow". I've been pondering where this blog is going since winter is over now (and I survived) and your comment about readers being "with me" here kind of struck home. With the number of views I have received on my blog it is evident people are interested and,I think, for a number of different reasons. I like to think that many (most?) have thought about what it would be like to try something like this but for various reasons can't or wouldn't. Of course there is interest as to how a coach like mine would fare in extreme conditions as well.
I will continue to post about my life here and I really appreciate you letting me chronicle this adventure on your site.
OK, here is the latest. It's been above zero during the day constantly now so I have been shutting down the coach completely when leaving for work. Sun heating through the south-facing windows keeps the coach at a nice temperature all day. I am going to be saving $$$ now right through until fall. My last electrical bill was down to 227.00. I filled all 5 jerry cans (25 gals) with diesel a couple of days ago and the coach tank swallowed every drop. I think it would take another two jerry cans to top it completely. The last time I had put diesel in (3 cans) was about late February I think. I have not been heating with wood at all in the last 10 days or so as there has really not been a need--even at night. I am also more conscious now about my wood supply as I have no easy way to haul the wood home from the bush. I badly need a quad here but just can't afford one for now.
I have been running one electric heater at night which seems to be all that is needed. The AquaHot is on as well but it will seldom fire up. I ended up figuring letting that one cheap little electric heater do most of the work was probably better than letting that expensive and complicated AquaHot system run more often.
I am to the point where I really want to get my coach water system repaired. I'm sure there are readers who are waiting for the answer to what actually broke as well. SOON.
Here are some very recent pictures. Nothing exciting---just classic Alberta spring.











The driveway in was getting very soft so I started parking out by the gate and walking in and out several days ago. I don't want to rut up the driveway.









Readers of my blog here know that I leave for work very early in the morning--5 o'clock. It is, let's say,-invigorating- to walk a couple of hundred yards in the dark through the forest at that time of day! I fire up my big dual-mantel Coleman lantern for that walk to be sure. There are numerous owls here and they hoot all around me for that walk every morning. I heard a sudden rustling off to one side this morning and saw a few white-tailed deer scamper away. Yes, I carry my big knife with me in case of a nastier surprise but although I am aware of the possibility I don't let myself worry about it.
One last pic.



Goodnight, and thanks again. I'm still having fun. It's so peaceful and beautiful here I don't think I will ever do city life again.

I had the day off today and made good use of it. First of all I decided to take some pics of my cinder block mod I did to the wood stove.





Yeah, it's not pretty but it does what it's supposed to do--retain heat.
I discovered a couple of big trees my brother felled last fall and I had forgotten about. I bucked them up and put them and the rest of my firewood supply into the old shed. I also stored the snowblower out of the way and moved the gas genny in as well.



Then I got my roll of poly out and sheeted over the rotted roof.





Look at he following familiar shot. Notice anything different besides the lack of snow?



No barrel! Much better.
I moved my big thermometer. Check out the temperature.





I reworked my Genturi stack brace several days ago. I found this metal bracket on the rear deck of the mobile home. I don't know what it's from but it worked well for this purpose.





Here is a picture of where the water well is. Under that sheet of plywood. I hope to get that operational this year. That would be really sweet if the water is ok.



After all that work I kicked back by the fire, drank some beer, and played some tunes. A good day.

Hello people. It's Saturday morning May 3rd and here is what I woke up to.















A classic spring snow storm for this area. I measured the snow on the picnic table to be 9 1/4". I'm debating whether to bother getting the snow blower back out from it's storage spot. The ground is soft and rutted with mud under the snow and I don't want to suck mud and dirt into the blade so I think I'll just wait for it to melt. That will only be a few days. The driveway will be really soggy again. Too bad as it was starting to dry up nicely.

I was on a later shift last week and was driving into the rising sun. The white mountains behind me looked so nice I stopped and took a picture for you. My place is probably 5 miles west of this point.



My brother Scott stayed out here with me last weekend. He is recuperating from surgery so we were pretty laid back. Drank too much, lol. At one point we were out in the yard by the fire pit and I suddenly saw two deer run by just to the northwest--about 50 yards away. Then we saw this huge coyote running after them. The coyote stopped right in front of us and was staring intently at his disappearing prey. It was several seconds before he suddenly looked left and noticed us standing there. He turned tail and ran out of view in a hurry. He was big but I don't think it was a wolf. Not sure though. I wish I had got a picture but it all happened too fast.
I have a few interesting animal video clips from my game camera but I am having trouble posting them with links that work. They are short HD video clips in the AVI format. I'll keep experimenting so stay tuned.

Ok let's try again to post some videos from the game camera. Here is one of a fox. Click on the picture and then wait for the video to load.

That's working. They take a little while to upload into Photobucket but stay tuned as I'll post a few.

Next up is Mr. Coyote. These videos were taken on the other side of a clearing directly in front of my coach. Probably a hundred yards or so away. Remember you have to click on the picture for this to work. After it loads and plays you can replay it. I am using the QuickTime player.



Last one for tonight is this one of a young moose in a hurry. I would guess it is only a year or so old.



I will work on getting a few others posted here now that I have figured out how to do it. Tomorrow night maybe.

Here are a couple of night infra-red shots of a young moose (maybe same one) on opposite side of property. You can tell he picked up on the small infra-red lights that come on when the camera fires up.

This last one I'll post for tonight is a mystery and kind of funny. Right at the bottom of the screen you will see this very bushy tail pop up into view. What the heck animal has a tail like that?! A marten maybe? You need a decent size screen to get a good look. Whomever comes up with the right answer gets a free weekend right here at Possum Lodge. Beer included. LOL!

Tonight's post is different. I hope you enjoy it.

It's Monday evening, May 19th, and I just got home from spending the Victoria Day long weekend down in Montana at my brother Scott's place. My other brother Gord and his family were also down at their Montana property as well. The properties are about a 1/2 hour drive apart and both are generally wilderness. The area they are in is south of Eureka, Montana by about 15 miles or so. Eureka is in the northwest corner of Montana which has beautiful mountains, trees, and valleys. Gord has two quads, Scott has one plus the Suzuki, and his friend Shale has a quad as well. Shale and his family were camping at Scott's place as well. They have a big holiday trailer but I was just sleeping in the back of my truck. I made a slide-in bed platform for it. Anyways we all got together and went for a quad adventure on Saturday. Scott drove his Suzuki as he is still taking it easy since a recent operation. I rode his quad. That Suzuki went everywhere the quads did. Ran great. Enough yakking---here's some pics. I'll do several posts with pictures.

Scott's property is near Trego, Montana. This in front of Molly Brown's bar but it shut down a couple of years ago. Too bad.





First stop is at Rattlebone Lake. Notice the wheelchair accessible fishing dock.





We think this was an osprey. The nest way on top of the tree was right next to the lake.