So, now we had a path to our Little House in the Woods. For those of you who read Laura Ingalls as a child...welcome to my life. It was time to put in the road. We lived about a mile in from another gravel road that was 7 miles off the semi main road. It wasn't to bad in the summer, you could hike in, but in the winter...it could be deadly. Cars had to be parked on the gravel road, and it was a mile hike in, not an easy feat when you had to cross two creeks. In the spring, when they began to thaw, the small road we did have would overflow. I wish I had pictures of what it looked like. Huge mounds of blue ice that you could see into. I hated walking across it, sometimes I can't believe I still remember it. But there was nothing else you could do, we had to get across it for supplies and such. We eventually got a dog team, but that's a later story. To get water, we had buckets, we (or rather my parents, I was still to small), would carry them out the mile long hike to the car. If it was really cold, we would have to wait while my Dad would make a 'smudge pot', to heat up the car engine so it would start. I loved watching him do this. For those of you who don't know what a smudge pot is, it is an old metal coffee can, with oil enough for a small burn, which you then put under your car to heat it up enough to start. While Dad did this, I would watch until it was under the car, and then go with Mom to watch for fox, and mink. There were mink that lived just off the road, by what would be a bus stop in the next few years, and they would peek their heads up and look at us. I remember thinking how beautiful they were. After the car was started, we would drive the 3 miles down the road to the part of the creek that never froze. Dad would fill up the buckets, and put them in the back of our car, we would drive back, and then they would haul the water in to the house. This was a task that was repeated a few times a week. My dad must have been a strong man to carry all that water so often in 5 gallon buckets. To bathe, we would just put snow in a big galvanized tub on the stove, and melt it. It was definitely a chore to take a bath.

What a strange world for my parents, who were raised with electricity and such. For me, it was just life, one that I loved. Mountains in every direction, forests, wild animals. There was a whole family of squirrels that lived behind out house, they were like a little colony. You could follow their paths to the holes in the ground where they lived, and they would screech and you and throw pine cones if you got to close. Bald Eagles soared through the sky around their nesting area which wasn't far from my house. And air so clean, you can't imagine. I remember thinking at the time that I would live there forever, in the beautiful Wrangell St. Elias National Park. I try to go back once a year now, do a little work around the house, and hike through the mountains. One day, when my kids are old enough, I will take them there, and share the stories of a forgotten type of life.

After the first winter, Dad decided we needed a road to our house, and so, armed with shovels, chainsaws, and wheelbarrows for gravel, they blazed this road into our property. The original trail was on our property and went through very boggy tundra, so Dad moved it to the edge of our property, and put it in properly. Our house is up this road and to the right, in a driveway that you can't see in the picture. I used to love watching the moose and caribou run down this road over the years. Almost every week there were fresh tracks. It was only a problem when two cars met on it, there wasn't really enough room to get around each other. Not such a big deal in the summer, but in the winter, it usually meant two cars getting stuck side by side in the snow. I always wanted to help dig them out...my Dad would pat me on the head and smile, and tell me to go build a snow man. I understand now why he wouldn't want a 4-5 year old helping with that. But, as people in small towns do, when someone got stuck, all the neighbors would come to help dig them out. I truly loved life in a small town, where everyone knew each other, and helped each other out.

My next chapter will be about surviving the winter in -60 degree weather, with a wood stove. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!!