GerTee holds up to 20 below!

It was probably 24-25 below last night. The above photo was taken at noon. It's a gorgeous, sunny day. In these temps, everything sparkles.

What an exciting time it's been lately. Lots of things happening that are kind of like rewards for our years of efforts and sacrifices. It's a bit unsettling since I'm more used to being dissapointed, and I'm almost grateful the temps dropped down to where my biggest priorities are sewing gear, feeding the fire, keeping my home at 60 above, and hauling wood and water. We sleep in shifts now, the fire has to be stoked every four hours. (Last winter I noted how much feeding the fire every four hours felt like having a newborn baby in the house... this winter I have one!)

I'm SO happy in my new hammock (donated by two great guys), and learning to sleep in a down sleeping bag inside a slippery rayon hammock is pretty funny. I'm making a down sleeping bag for Freddie out of a HUGE pair of snowpants I bought at a garage sale this summer. He easily fits in one leg. Some people are too awesome. Our most humble thanks to our generous supporters in Montana, California, and Washington! It's great to know our work is working for some people, and it's really great to know we've got so many new friends all over the country, and beyond. We've actually got the money to either move back to the city and dive in the fray or stay here and buy ten ISBNs, write more books and become a "real" publisher. Now we can send 2020 to a "real" NY printer and it will become available in stores. We're staying.

So, for all the curious readers, what does 20 below look like?

GerTee in 20 below F, noon, December 3, 2007.

A black gas grill in 20 below.

Our "signature" Alaskan windsock in 20 below.

Here's what wood looks like in 20 below.

GerTee gets a homemade hammock

From the second he was born, Nord and Freddie moved into my GerTee with me. They slept in their little cabin during the flood, but, it's below freezing now and makes a lot more sense to keep only one fire burning. The past 2 months have been a very special time for me, because I get to be with my grandson, and we've had a place to finish the tedious detail work for Aknweb. The only bummer was I haven't had a bed since they began sleeping in her too. Everytime I said, "I'm bringing that other bed in here," she insisted there wasn't room.

After spending the last week sleeping over in "her" freezing cabin, I flipped out and insisted she let me bring the bed in! She refused to budge, and I know her well, so I said, okay, I'm gonna figure out how to build a bunkbed out of the 2x4s I was using to build the arctic entry.

While studying bulky bed designs, I told Nord about how I slept in a hammock for 3 months the first time I lived in Hawaii. Told her that's what we needed in here. Suddenly I remembered the cloth sack beds the sailors slept in in the Russell Crowe movie, Master & Commander. Thinking it might work, I took 2 twin bed sheets, tied them together with all this scrap rope Tim got from from City Electric, cut 2 burnt spruce posts to fit under the roof beams, and tied the ends to the roof above the posts. What do you know. I had a "bed" last night!

Freddie loves it!

The leftrightunite site is blowing my mind. People are joining the ACL group, they respond to my blog posts, and I have a bunch of new friends... from both "sides" of the dialectic.

I'm off to call the printer and find out what's holding up the books we ordered. Shipping on 2020 orders are behind again. Thanks to everyone who ordered lately for their patience, so far we've been really lucky our customers understand we're still newbie publishers.