Back to the pile

So on my days off from being on the road and ukuleleing in general this winter I have been working on my forested lot, the future site of Fairbanks, Alaska's most awesome amphitheater / ukulele retreat. If you build it they will come. I learned that from Kevin Costner.

So I have been over there cutting trees and stacking them up in preparation for next winter.  That is right, I am all ready thinking about next winter and it isn't even March yet.  That is how we do things up here.  Get your work done in time, be prepared, and you won't be up shit creek without a paddle.  You will get minimal sympathy from locals, but they will help you if you are down and out.  That is how it goes around these parts.

I can take about four hours of running my saw before my ukulele hands tell me it is time to quit.  Then I get to stack logs for an hour or two.  Who needs a gym?  Real world exercises.  Every time I put another cut up log on the stack I just think dollar signs.  Around December dried firewood in Fairbanks basically turns into gold.  There are too many jackasses around here that just put off getting ready for the winter until it is all ready in full swing.  That is when I come in on my off days with my big truck and a cord of wood in the back.  Ya buddy.  Who needs a boss when you are your own?

Tons of moose sign and a few hares running around the property.  I am thinking about setting up my game camera in the hopes of snapping a shot of them.  Hope it is a bull moose.  That would be convenient if he hung around until hunting season.  It has always been my dream to down a moose in my own yard.  I have cleared an area larger than a football field in the middle of the wilderness.  It is glorious.  Hopefully the wife and I can get a cabin up there this summer so we can finally be in our own place.  Renting a cabin on the opposite side of the valley where my outhouse actually faces the clearing I am cutting it just a tease.  Even though ever morning when I go out for my morning constitutional I sit there with my bare cheeks pressed up against my foam toilet seat, with my pants pulled up as high as I can to avoid leaving skin exposed to the elements,

The Yukon

It is good to finally be back to the Yukon Territory.  It is the only place in the world that the people understand Alaskans.  Other than our different stance on firearms we are the same in my book.   Stupid borders. Sometimes I think that the Yukon and Alaska should break off from our federal governments and form our own country.  The name of that new country is still up for debate.  I am accepting ideas currently for the new name.  Yukona? Alaskon?  I am open to suggestions.

Friday after my long 10 hour drive of vast expanses of wilderness, one wolf sighting, several moose, and a coyote I made it to the mountain wonderland of Haines junction.  I got to perform an awesome house concert for the home roots concert series.  What an awesome time. Packed room of people intently listening.  Awesome sauce.  There is a recording of the show that I will be posting sections of it once I paw through the tracks.  Good times.

Saturday I did another home roots concert in the wilderness city,  Whitehorse.   It was cool to have an understanding adult crowd that wanted to hear a selection of songs I call, "songs that have lost me work".  It went swimmingly. 

Today I gave a private clinic for some ukulele students here in the horse.  It is such a pleasure to see the light bulb turn on above someone's head once they finally grasp a new concept.  Priceless. 

Will there be a special unannounced performance tonight?  Who knows? Regardless I make the 12 hour trip back to Squarebanks in the morning. Just another day in the frontier. 

Back to Alaska

What a great trip back east.  All of my gigs went swimmingly and now with ukulele strings worn out I return to Alaska.  Time to tie up all the loose ends and start making my way to Boston into the oncoming snow storm.  I got my fingers crossed that my wife and I don't get delayed too long.  It all ready looks like we are in a hotel for one night at least.  This is part of the cost of living in Alaska.

Here is a little photo of what it is like to be in an Alaskan man's dreams... guns... lots of guns... yeah buddy!