The icy death grip of winter has loosened its hold on our little corner of Kodiak, at least temporarily. Today light snow showers are broken by rays of sun, and calm waters and a balmy 35 degree reading on the thermometer have us planning a nice afternoon hike. It seems like it’s been an extra chilly few months, colder than normal, which has brought some additional challenges to our homesteading life this season, but which also makes us appreciate the ease of days like today.

The Fires of Winter

Our little corner of the world, looking towards the Shelikof

Our little Jotul wood stove, passed down from Tollef's grandparents who had it in their home north of the Cities for nearly 50 years, has been burning strong this winter. But, after Adelia cleaned out ashes for the umpteenth time we discovered that a large crack had formed in the bottom plate. Perhaps the salt-impregnated driftwood we burn contributed to the damage, and while this could pose a lethal fire hazard, homesteading forces us to use what we have until we get a replacement part. Grateful that Tollef designed the house around the hearth, building a huge concrete slab under the entirety of the wood stove, we have stove-cemented the plate, covered it with more metal, and are casting our eyes across the world wide web for a newer, more efficient stove which will produce more heat for less wood. It’ll be sad to see the family heirloom go, but it will go to Tollef’s setnet site for a 3rd life.

In other winter updates of the “fire” category, we’ve been keeping our minds firing on all cylinders through our involvement in fisheries advocacy with the Board of Fish Kodiak Finfish meeting, in early January. This triennial public event consumed our energies for more than a year in preparation, we both learned multitudes, and were both ready for a major mental reset when the stressful week of meetings concluded. Thankfully we were able to skiff home the 60 miles in a brief winter weather lull without icing conditions and enjoy the quiet of the season and start to recalibrate our bodies and minds by firing up our sauna, hiking with microspikes on, enjoying the Ski Babes workouts (if you’re Adelia), getting into hand-pouring beeswax candles with Minnesota wax, and endless boat work in the shop (if you’re Tollef).

…And the Ice…

Things grow even in the cold - our kelp farm here is busy growing underwater blades, even in the depths of winter

Kodiak’s winter weather is usually a mix warmer/colder cycles throughout the season, but this year we have been stuck in a cold rut! So much for El Nino and a mild winter. It’s been a long icy stretch that was not too challenging except in one important dimension. We just got our running water back in the house after losing it for a few days, another homestead-y type of challenge. Our water comes from a creek into our small dam, flowing from there to the house in a buried water line which we dug by hand. The whole dam froze over and at least 6 inches down - very unusual for us. After hauling water and taking little bucket baths, we are glad to be finally getting warm equatorial air pushed up by the jet stream so we can get back to normal water-consuming activities like growing sprouts - vital for our wintertime health - doing laundry, and washing dishes.

Fire & (Mostly) Ice