12-15.03. - Haines Junction

By now we have settled quite well in our new temporary home. Life is different up here, different from what we are used to. We have a lot to do, but also some free time. Our tasks here are varied, but not particularly difficult. There are tasks that need to be done every day and others that we probably only need to do once during our time here. The daily tasks here include: feeding the horses and then shoveling their digested food onto a big pile. We also feed 5 dogs and a cat. The 5 dogs consist of a guard dog who doesn't do his job, a family dog who is relatively small but acts like a big one, another dog with hip problems, and 2 (former) sled dogs who are now so old that they can hardly pull themselves anymore. The cat is a real beast. She always wants to be petted, but if she suddenly doesn't feel like it anymore, she bites and scratches. Caro occasionally helps with cooking, and otherwise we were allowed to do the following things, for example:
On our first day, we were given the task of cleaning the family's refrigerators and freezers. Not so easy when you consider that the refrigerators here are so big that in Germany you could easily feed a family of 8 for a year. The cleaning task also included a 'rearrangement' (or rather any kind of order) of the food in the refrigerator. That was also a little challenge, as the food here is either packaged in giant sizes (milk in a 4-liter container) or simply unknown to us Europeans. On the second day, we were allowed to vacuum and mop the 'basement-heating-living room-dressing room-gym-laundry room' (yes, all in one). It had probably not been done for a very long time before we arrived. Furthermore, on this second day, I changed the first brake on a car. I hope I didn't make a complete fool of myself, because we are allowed to drive around here with this car in the next few days (no MOT). The windshield also looks like the car has rolled over three times. Stay Tuned! We also worked on a 'small' Ford 350 Super Duty (6-liter V8), which can tow almost 10 tons, but can still be driven with a regular German driver's license (at least here).

On our third day, woodcutting was on the agenda. Yes, that's possible even with knee-high deep snow and -23 °C outside temperature. And yes, it works here with similar large equipment as I am used to at home. Just without a winch, but that's generally not necessary. The host father here owns 8 chainsaws, but somehow one is bigger than the other and there is no small, useful, handy one. I'm used to better equipment at home. Well, I wasn't allowed to operate a chainsaw here anyway. Either because the host father didn't believe that I already have some experience in it or because he didn't trust me to do it. But it probably wouldn't have been fun anyway. The thickest tree maybe had a diameter of 35 cm, and cutting or rather reducing it with a chainsaw (Husqvarna 395 XP) with a 75 cm bar is really no fun. By the way, Caro and I were allowed to limb the trees with an axe. But well, I wouldn't want to do that with a 10 kg (?) chainsaw either. By the way, here all the trees grow more or less straight up, so cutting them down is not a big challenge. Wedge, felling cut, done. And because the trees are so easy to fell, none of them fall into another one. Also less tension than at home. Conclusion: I prefer cutting wood in my Thuringian Forest at home after all! The wood was also cut to length by eye. About 50% didn't fit under the splitter afterwards (yes, we were also allowed to split it right away). So, there will be a lot of waste wood. Our host parents will probably spend the coming weekend away including the children. That means: we have the house to ourselves! And we also have a car (if the brake works). Let's see what we can visit then!