Wood/Water/Food/Batteries

The latest from Willie:
He has been working on getting his "systems" down for everyday living out at Toklat. His daily chores revolve around WOOD, WATER, FOOD, and BATTERIES.

WOOD- He has to haul the wood that was dropped the end of September from the Toklat bridge area to the Pearson cabin. He now has enough wood hauled & split to get him through a few weeks. He has been sleeping a little bit longer than usual because he has to get up about every 2 hours to stoke the fire to keep it going. He has got into a rhythm with the fire and says he can now hear it when it is getting low & needs more wood added to it. He is tuned into the wood stove now. He gets it going really hot at night then just keeps adding to it. The cabin stays at about 48 to 50 degrees F.

WATER- Everyday he goes down to the Toklat River which is mostly frozen, but does have open leads. He gets his drinking water from these open leads. He has 3 Nalgene bottles for drinking water everyday. (He can get more water if needed) Willie washed his clothes & body for the first time since his travels began. On Wednesday he got the wood stove as hot as it would go. He melted snow for washing. The water is in a 3 gallon bucket and he has a metal tub to get into. He hung over the tub & washed his hair & face 1st. Then he sat in the tub & washed his body "sort of" bathtub style. He was set up right next to the wood stove. He used another bucket for rinsing off with. Then he washed all his dirty clothes in the same process. Willie said, "Everyone should not shower & get massively dirty, just to feel how wonderful something as basic as a shower is". To dry his clothes overnight he had to keep the cabin as warm as possible. That night he had to stoke the fire every 1 & 1/2 hours. By morning his clothes were dry.

FOOD- His mornings start with the same thing everyday. Instant coffee, oatmeal with powered milk. Lunch is trail mix, power bars, nuts & cheese. Dinner SAUSAGES!!!! He does recommend "easy is best".

BATTERIES- He is getting the systems down for recharging the batteries needed for the satellite phone. The SOLAR PANELS are working!He has been able to use the solar panels to charge the satellite phone battery.

Now that he has the systems down- he has enough wood hauled & chopped- water & food are in place. He will start to do some exploring now. While he is away he will have the solar panels charging batteries inside the cabin.