It was as dark today as it was two months ago, on November 21. Then we were going into darkness, now we are coming out of it. And once again, I’m able to get the book distributing done before coming home.

This morning, I looked out the window at 8 a.m. It was getting light – there was about an inch of fresh snow on the ground. Not a good thing because the snow covers the ice on the driveway. I did two slides and recoveries on the way to tend to the horses.

The temperatures were (as they were this time two months ago) in the high twenties. I fear that the snow will turn to rain, this is not good for the horses.

Tonight the Talkeenta Range was, at the top, enshrouded in clouds, and below the clouds, the mountains were yellow, then pink in color.

James and Pete

A busy day in between morning and night. Bill, Pete, and I salvaged books at the recycling center – dang, we are good, a model of literary efficiency. Pete noted that James, who brings the Gaylord in from outside, had already done this before we got there – he saw the loader tire tracks.

For some time Pete and Bill were salvaging alone – this was after I’d been banned from VCRS. When finally, I was again allowed to join them, I had to adapt to their ways of doing things. Bill worked at the table he built and Pete put the pallets in place, with a pallet jack. When done, they swept and made sure the entire area was tidy. They continued to adhere to this routine after I began giving them an assist.

Me, I now root through the Gaylord that James brings in, putting the books to be shredded into a shopping cart and the books to be pulped into another Gaylord. Today Pete sorted through a partial pallet, and passed the saved books on to me.

We are all on very good terms with the VCRS staff and the shredders.

There were a lot of textbooks on hand today. I am hoping that someday, I’ll be able to tap into an overseas market and get them heading in this direction. Ideally, I’d like to have the distribution such that all the books will be heading out, boom, boom, boom, locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally. I’m being told that soon, I should start to work on the literacy-based ends of things, but I want to get the distribution network squared away before I do this.

Pete and I took the salvaged books to the Meeting House and there unloaded the truckload of books. I directed him to put the children’s books, the Alaskana books, and the fiction, paperback and hardback, upstairs, and the nonfiction books downstairs.

This is good – I did sort through most of the nonfiction books. Now I don’t have to worry about having to move them again because this is our space. The upstairs books are mostly kid’s books – they will be cleaned and stamped on Tuesday.

Got home, cleaned the horse pen, and took Hrimfara for a walk.

It was a very long work week. I am taking tomorrow off and spending the day with all my animals.

Next: 22. 1/22/23: Fishing