August 5, 2009 ~ Wednesday North Pole last weekend…celebrated Jack’s brother’s birthday on Saturday and Sunday we drove to Salcha to visit our nephew and his family. While there we cut and peeled three diamond willow walking sticks and went to the back 40 to take photos of the old homestead…fallen in cabin and a moose smoker. George Parks highway…Monday we left for our land by Talkeetna, stopping first for Bun on the Run sandwiches (yummy) and NO cinnamon rolls, stopping at Nenana and buying ice classic 2010 tickets (over $300,000 for the person/person[s]…split… who guess the closest time when the ice starts going out in April or May), going thru smoke until just 25 miles north of Denali Park, then seeing ‘the mountain’ in all it’s God-given grandeur…not one cloud!!! 20 out of 100 people see Denali while here…we’ve been in the 20% everytime… We have cell phone service…most of the time…at 39066 S. Malispina Loop! Monday night…Jack’s C-PAP quit…can you say SNORE???!!! Called Norco in Kalispell and they’ll send a loaner this week~YEA!! For a month~HUH??? Might have to go home early because of said situation. Tuesday we sat around the fire (hardly any bugs)…read...had a good relaxing time…visited with Kim (neighbor across the road who built our road) and Mark (the resident-do-whatever-work-there-is-to-do-person). Wednesday it rained…so started the generator and sorted pictures to post…also went thru all the brochures from the trip, weeding out things not needed…and…visited with Kim… The trail toward the back of our land that we cut 2 years ago is no more…over-grown with Devil’s Club, fireweed, grasses, little saplings, ferns…and mosquitoes, which I’ll find when I start looking for blueberries. The fireweed is probably 3/4ths done, the ferns starting to turn a lighter green, both starting into fall-mode…