09/02/2026
I know it has been forever since I wrote anything, and I apologize. Our warm time & long sunshine hours are very quickly coming to an end, and we have been trying to make the most of it!
Today I got up late, about 10... since i went to bed around 3. I am horrible and revert back to a night owl all the time. 😬 I got up and made my way downstairs, escorted as always by 3 happy dogs. I let them out and made sure Beau had his heart medicine. I started 2 cups of rice in the rice cooker while I set about gathering trash and water jugs.
After my rice was done I fixed it up with some soy & eel sauce, furikake and more sesame seeds. Having had a full bowl of rice I saved the rest for tomorrow night when I'll get home late from work.
I took my "honey bucket" out and dumped it and out bleach and water in it to soak. (5 gallon bucket with toilet seat & lid for nighttime potty breaks) Then i gathered the trash from the outhouse and threw it in the blue plastic 55 gallon barrel with the top cut off. It serves as our unofficial outside trashcan to keep critters from tearing the trash open.
I jumped in the truck and pulled it in front of the house. I loaded up my 2 big storage bags full of 1 gallon water bottles, saved from using the distilled water from the store for our c-paps. I had 2 empty 5 gallon jugs too. I recently got a nice stand that holds 4 jugs, one was full and I was one short to fill the stand. I loaded the trash barrel in the back of the truck and grabbed my Costco wagon from the greenhouse shed and threw an empty five gallon bucket in too. The dogs were all kinds of upset I wasn't taking them, but the truck was full and they would be a handful at the spring.
I started the drive across Goldstream to the Fox Spring & dump. It was a crisp 46° and I had the windows down enjoying some Chris Stapleton on Spotify. Meandering my way down the washboarded and pothole filled gravel, enjoying not being murdered by dust due to all the recent rains. I saw a strange car pulled over to the side of the gravel, a man looking at his phone behind the wheel. I stopped and gave the customary thumbs up and mouthed "everything ok?" The man gave a thumbs up in return and I carried on. I chuckled when I got to Goldstream and saw the road damage for the next 10 miles sign. That's all of Alaska i thought. We forgot what a smooth road is. 😅 Just before Fox I crossed over the Alaska Pipeline. The black spruce trees in the valley looked like dark patches, where the changing birch trees intermingled with them across the landscape.
With the trash dumped i continued on to the spring. I loaded my empty bottles into my Costco wagon, just as a lady approached me. She said she has been eyeing my very wagon at Costco and wondered if it was worth it. I gave her my honest opinion, showed her how it folded up and she inspected it, wheeling it around and checking it over. She too was thoroughly impressed with its water toting, wood hauling & fishing gear possibilities. I'm sold she said, thanked me and went on her way. I finished loading my first haul of water jugs and grabbed my five gallon bucket and headed to the spring taps.
My intention was to set the jugs on the bucket so I didn't have to stoop to fill them, hurting my already strained back further. I hurt it pulling the big generator up the ramp into the house. 🤦♀️ Instead I sat on the five gallon bucket and pulled my wagon alongside... methodically filling my jugs like I was sitting on a milking stool. After I got my first wagonload full I took them back to the truck and grabbed the rest. Another lady had jumped in and was filling her jugs on my return. She had put a jug, just like the 5 gallon one I needed there with a note that it was free, no handle. She saw me eyeing it and said she just couldn't carry it without a handle, I said perfect.. I have a wagon! She got her 2 five gallon jugs filled and was struggling back to her truck with one. I quickly grabbed her other full one and started off behind her with it. I loaded it into her truck and she said she had some glass jars to donate too. She seemed upset that the dump wouldn't take glass, so she figured she would leave them at the spring for someone to use. I offered to carry the box of jars to the spring, and then she said she had 4 glass gallon jugs too. I decided I'd keep the 4 glass jugs too. All and all I filled 23 one gallon jugs and 3 five gallon jugs. I loaded it all in the truck, along with my wagon to head home.
I will try to remember to continue this tomorrow!!!
