Now, It's Slushy...

Kind of a pillar to post weekend. On Friday morning, the temperature was in the -30 range. By Saturday afternoon, it was nearly +35. Big swing in a short period of time...the weather has stayeed in the 30s for the most part since then. The only problem with this is that the river has started to have a fair amount of overflow on it in various spots. The tides rise and fall, and the seams of the ice on top of the river allow it to seep through. It can be messy, and some of the puddles are deep enough to swamp a snowmachine. Not a pleasant prospect. We are supposed to go to Bethel this afternoon to pick up veggie boxes, so the river's condition will be an issue. On a positive note, we attempted to start the machine yesterday after about 40 days of sitting in subzero cold. First time, with the starter. No pulls needed at all. Pretty amazing. The bigger challenge proved to be getting the lock on the tracks unfrozen. That took a lighter and a little patience. I took the machine out for a little spin and parked it to make access easier. Not a bad half-hour's work...