I looked out the kitchen window and saw frost on the roof of my cabin. I then looked at the lawn and saw frost. This was it. I cleaned up after the horses then retrieved the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse and the hoop house. I was surprised to see that the remaining produce was not damaged. The hoop house and the greenhouse, they do have a higher temperature than the great outdoors.

I went to retrieve the round five gallon buckets and saw that they were frozen together so I had to fill them in increments of two buckets. I used the dolly to haul the manure from the enclosure to the compost station. Bill is still taking the manure, but I suspect that this will be his last week of doing this.

Ryder cooling off

As soon as it snows, we will resume hauling the manure up behind the hoop house, using the sled. It is easy to do this if it has snowed. It doesn’t take any longer to haul it up there than it does to the compost station area.

We had a wonderful harvest. This morning, Pete canned the last of the ripe tomatoes – eight jars – and he picked the last of the squash. We got the potatoes in some time ago.

Pete figures we are good, produce-wise, for a month if the Alaska food infrastructure breaks down. I figure that we are good for 2-3 months. Just so long as we don’t start considering eating the animals. He would. I will not.

Today, Speckles laid her first egg. She was in the roost, all fluffed out this morning and this evening there was a very small egg. I hope soon that Black Tail follows suit. These are the youngest chickens we have ever gotten, so we should get at least two years’ worth of eggs from them.

Stubby, who was an Aracuna, laid eggs until she was 13. Her eggs kept getting smaller and smaller, and one day there were no more. Some would say that what I have just said is apocryphal, but I think not.

Apocryphal, I first heard my friend Christopher Benson use it. I really like the sound of it. It’s too much of a mouthful to consider when naming an animal. Max, Clyde, Frances, Apocryphal. Maybe this animal or person could be called Hal.

A somewhat busy day. I met with Mike Brown, the Mat Su Borough Manager, today. My first question for him was, what do you know about the Bright Lights Book Project? He obviously did not do his homework, for he said that he thought that we were connected with VCRS. Uh uh. I only had a half hour, so I was not able to fill him in on our relations – I just told him about how we began at VCRS.

He passed the buck and suggested that we talk with our district assembly person. I fear that this would be a trip down yet another rabbit hole.

My refrain is that something good has to happen. There must be funding for operations out there, somewhere.

Next: 274. 10/11/25: Sainthood