Chapter 16

Friday: We woke to Bob leaving to go get the hunters. There was about a half inch of new snow on the ground, so we were in no big hurry to start laying pipe. About a half hour later, Rob knocked on the door and said, "Sul and I are going to build the footings for the well houses. Will you have the pipe run from your cabin to the well by this afternoon?"

"Yes, no problem. We brought two spools up here last night and will start from here after I make the connections. Then it should take us no more than two hours."

Jenn and I dressed to work outside. We decided we would use the tunnel door for the rest of the winter, so we would not keep letting the warm air escape from the cabin. During that short conversation with Rob the temperature in the cabin had dropped more than I would have thought. Part of the problem was the cabin was heated by convention, and I really needed to get a fan to move the air to the far side of the cabin.

Yesterday Jenn and I had discovered, by partially filling in the trench part way every 20 to 25 feet, to hold the pipe down, made it easier to deal with, and took us less time over all. That is the method we used and we had the pipe down to the well in just over an hour.

Terry and Tom had just finished installing the pressure tank, so I was able to make the connections to it. Jenn found two handheld radios and gave me one before walking up to my cabin. When she reached there, she said, "I'm here now. You can turn on the water."

Jenn had opened the faucets at the sinks in the bathroom and kitchen. I opened the shut off valve at the pressure tank. I then told Jenn and waited to hear from her. A short time later Jenn said that she had water from both faucets and was turning off the faucets now.

"I will start following the waterline back toward the well, looking for leaks."

I met her about halfway and we were happy to report to each other that we had found no leaks.

Rob was using the back-hoe to dig the footing for the well house. Jenn and I took a tee and connected Rob's line into the main line. We then had Mary and Nukka stand by in their cabins with a radio, while I made the last connection and turned on the water. We followed the same procedure. Once both Mary and Nukka said they had water, they closed the faucets and followed the pipes back, checking for leaks. Again, we all met about halfway up the line from the well and shared the good news of no leaks.

When I returned with the radios, Terry and Tom were ready to check the line from the well to the hanger. Once they had water in the hanger and the line had been checked. I used the front-end loader to start backfilling the trenches.

About mid-afternoon, we were interrupted by the arrival of Tommy and Art. A few minutes later, by Bob and his chopper carrying Pete and Gary. They also had two black bears slung underneath it. When Mary and Nukka saw this, they were excited and happy. They headed to get their tools to butcher the bears.

Apparently they had waited until they returned to camp, to have Rob skin the bears. I must admit, he made it look very easy. Especially with a couple of men there to help him roll the bear over onto a tarp, so he could finish skinning it. Rob did not start on the second bear until the women had the first bear pretty much butchered. Art and Sul worked at wrapping the meat and dividing it into four piles. When I asked about the fourth pile, they said it was for Tommy and Art Sr.

After dinner, Terry and Tom arrived and stated that the second well was finished and it actually provided more gallons per minute than the first well. Art was very pleased to hear this and said he would work with Rob and Sul tomorrow if I would go ahead and lay the pipe to the small Quonset huts. I think everybody who lived on the south side of the river was looking forward to a warm shower tonight.

Saturday — two weeks later: The past two weeks went by extremely fast. The well houses were finished and insulated. Heater wrap was around all exposed pipes and then insulation was placed over the wrap. The water system was ready for winter.

Additionally, a good deal of time was spent getting wood. Tommy located a stand of trees about two miles upriver, that had been blown down during a previous storm. All six of us stripped the limbs and worked the logs down to the edge of the river. When we had 22 logs stacked, we decided we would then float them down river. Art and I had the pleasure of pushing the logs off the bank into the river. This took us about three hours. Then we used a river boat to free five logs that had gotten tangled up with the bank while floating down river to the camp. Six hours after we left camp, we returned cold and hungry.

Rob and Tommy had made a log dam out of the first few logs that reached the camp by tying the ends together until they stretched across the river. Then they used the winch on the bulldozer to pull four or five logs at a time out of the river and up on the south bank. The State Troopers and the guys from the Air Force helped too. Needless to say, they had spent more time waiting for the logs than anything else, but I sure didn't want to get in the water and attach the cable. Hip boots or not you could not help but get wet and once wet you would be cold. The women did their part by providing hot drinks and soup to anybody that wanted it.

Sunday & Monday: The next couple of days were spent with ear protection on, while we had four chain saws going, cutting up wood. We delivering and stacked firewood to the three huts and the three cabins. By the time we were done, both Art and Rob had assured me, we had more than enough wood for the winter.

The day we finished, Tommy said a big storm was on the way. Nancy and Ann both said that was not what the forecast predicted. Tommy gave them a sour look and said that he would not be flying for a week at least, and could we please pull his plane into the hanger. While we were pulling Tommy's plane and my plane into the hanger, David (Dave) Mears asked us if we could also fit the state plane inside also. Tommy said, "Oh, the weather forecast has changed?"

"No, but the old bones of old Alaskans seem to be a better forecaster than modern science some times."

I think Tommy wanted to say something but was actually at a loss for words to do so. At any rate, we got the planes inside, then brought the jet motors off the riverboats in and called it a night. Tommy's last act was to ensure that every cabin had a handheld radio and charger saying, "I know you will not want to come outside tomorrow, so I would suggest you take a radio and charger so we may stay in touch."

I will be darned if it was not starting to snow as we stepped out of the hanger. There was no wind but the flakes had to be the size of quarters. By the time Jenn and I reach our cabin, we were covered in snow. The shower felt good and the bed better.

Tuesday: I woke late mainly because it was still dark outside. It had snowed all night and the wind had picked up. We could see come pretty big drifts from the loft windows. The snow in the sheltered area next to the tunnel door was a foot deep when I checked in the afternoon to make sure the door was not blocked. In this storm, you would be risking your life just trying to go from the cabin to the hanger and I sure wasn't interested in leaving my snug cabin. Jenn took the covers off the bed and replaced them with the down comforter saying when the snow stopped the temperature would drop fast.

During the afternoon, Tommy came on the radio to crow about the weather. After a while Nancy was tired of being ragged on and said, "Ann and I will give you a kiss if you come and collect it now."

Tommy said, "You have to be crazy, if you think I'm going over there to kiss you."

"What's the matter Tommy, scared of a little snow?" asked Ann.

"A little snow? The drifts are over my head in places." replied Tommy.

"Well, if you didn't walk around with it hanging down all the time, you could keep it out of the snow." a male voice replied.

Nancy or Ann must have pushed the transmit button, because you could hear male and female laughter. Then things got real quiet and I had decided that the afternoon's entertainment was over, when Sergeant Matt Ortiz said, "I have some bad news for you. I have been monitoring the news broadcasts and China used tactical nukes against the Russians in the west this morning, and started a major counter offensive under cover of the heavy snow storm on all fronts. The Russian's knocked down three of the four missiles the Chinese fired but missed one which exploded in western Russia. The Russian's retaliated by firing one ICBM at Beijing and three war heads got through exploding about 25 to 50 miles northwest of the city."

Then Matt continued with "Our president has just held a news conference and stated if we detect any more launches of nuclear weapons, we (U.S.) will destroy the country that is firing them. We will not set idly by while China and Russia cause a nuclear winter that would destroy the world as we know it."

I think Tommy summarized it best when he muttered the single word, "SHIT!"

Nothing much else was added and Matt said he would keep us informed. Latter, about 8 PM, Matt returned to say, "The good news is, the nuclear fallout is heading away from us. The UN went into special session and has condemned both China and Russia. The UN has also called for a ban on nuclear weapons worldwide and called for a cease-fire between China and Russia. Both China and Russia have agreed not to use any more nuclear weapons but neither country has agreed to the cease-fire. Fighting has slowed due to the weather. The Chinese seemed to have regained all the land they had lost during the summer."

A few comments were made about the news but in general, we thanked Matt for keeping us posted. For the most part, we did not have the equipment to receive radio broadcast because of the mountains and weather conditions. Matt was receiving his information over military satellites and the radios from the Air Force which received the Armed Forces Radio Network also.

Jenn and I talked late into the night and decided that we need to get the rest of our supplies here as soon as possible. We decided that when Tommy could fly out, we would and return with the snow tractor or snow tractors if possible. We did little more than cuddle during the night.

Wednesday — Friday: The next three days went by slowly but on the fourth, the cold spell broke and we started a warming trend, for us anyway. One of the things we determined, was the water in the basin froze before the river because there was no current. We placed the jet motors on two riverboats and then used a long pole to break up the ice in the basin. We detached the float dock for the riverboats and pulled it up above the flood line. We planned to do the same with the float dock for the planes after we used them this last time.

Friday night we discovered that just about everybody wanted to go to town. Two of the Air Force Technician needed to go for training. One State trooper was also leaving for the winter and Nancy's mother was in the hospital, so she wanted to fly out also. Dave was going to fly the State plane out in the morning for the winter and would not be returning. Dave would be able to carry three people and luggage so they had an extra person who needed transportation. Art and Nukka, Rob and Mary, Jenn and I all wanted to go and Tommy's plane could handle five people in a pinch so we did not have enough room unless extra trips were made. The problem solved itself when Matt told us that the Air Force was sending a Chinook in the morning to bring in supplies and a weather station to be installed at the radar site. Apparently Tommy's prediction of the weather had been missed by the weather people so they wanted to collect data from here to see if that would allow for better weather predictions in the future. Anyway, they would fly out all the State and Air Force personnel when they left so Dave volunteered to fly the rest of us out when Tommy left in the morning.

Art Sr. and Sul would stay in camp. Rob told me later that Sul had a slight accident with a car before he left Fairbanks and didn't know if the police were looking for him or not, but had no intentions of finding out. I asked if it involve alcohol and Rob said it was a good idea that we did not allow drinking at the mine site.

When we landed at Tommy's pond, Roy and Bob were waiting for us. Not only were they going to offer us a ride but had a slight problem with gas reserves and parts we still had stored at Widow Walkers. Bob said, "Because the widow lives at the other end of the property, people think the place is abandoned and are trying to sneak in and steal anything not tied down."

"Bob has been staying out there and I have been staying at our site but with the winter setting in, that is going to be hard to do."