June 22

24 boxes.  Our possessions require 24 boxes.  That is seven less than we moved up with, but the trailer is holding our clothes and some of our kitchen stuff.  We have eliminated a stereo system and two desktop computers that required quite a bit of box space.  Still, we have more boxes than I hoped.  We also have 3 more bicycles and 2 kayaks that we didn’t have before, but we have eliminated all the furniture.  I think the result is that we have less stuff, but it looks like it is going to be a close fit in our current transportation.  I haven’t tried putting things in the van to see how they fit yet so I don’t know if the van can handle 18 boxes or 27.  The good news is that my calculations indicate that we should be fine on weight, even though the specs on the van are a little vague.

The last week was horrible.  Every day was the same.  Pick something up, move it closer to the door.  Rearrange the garage.  Get rid of some stuff.  And repeat.  Like any monumental effort, it takes as much time as you have.  I had hopes of finishing early, but even as the carpet cleaner was on his way, I was still moving things out to the garage.  We went to bed each night exhausted.  We didn’t get out for any activities until Sunday evening when we took what might be our last walk down to Taku Lake.  I saw people fishing in Campbell Creek’s clear water and had the urge to fish it again, but then calmed myself with the recognition that I had fished it so many times before and that I was ready to be done with it, ready to go fish a new location.

And now we are back to life as we designed it.  We don’t feel rushed.  We are getting outdoors.  We are living in our trailer.  It was an odd realization that when Kris turned on the refrigerator yesterday morning that it may not be turned off again for quite some time.  I hope the equipment is up for the challenge. 

Monday was a challenging day.  We got off to a slow start, but then loaded the van for a loop around town.  We started at Best Buy where we dropped off a bunch of old electronics for recycling.  I had expected to pay quite a bit to recycle this old equipment, but Best Buy has brought practically free electronics recycling to Alaska.  They did charge me $10 for each of the computer monitors, but then gave me two $10 gift cards, a net of nothing.  The next stop was the steel recycler to dump a few small items into their bin.  Then we stopped at the trailer to deliver another load of clothes and kitchen items that we will need with us in our new life.  Then we went to the battery store to drop off old rechargeable batteries for recycling.  The last stop was Habitat for Humanity to drop off a three drawer base cabinet that was lying around the condo from the previous owner.  Then we went back home to finish up packing.  After a long day of recycling, packing, organizing, and listening to the drone of the carpet cleaner, we grabbed a quick taco plate at Mexico in Alaska and headed down the road.  The stress of the past week slowly melted in the hour drive to Palmer where we found a nice campsite that we had scoped out in a previous trip.

In our last week at home, of course I had to repair things.  It was quite frustrating to replace a roller on the garage door, even if it was just a five minute job.  It was frustrating to tweak the door springs one last time.  Yet designing and implementing a fix for our bed storage area in the trailer at our campsite was actually a joy, even though it was horribly awkward work.  The bed has springs that are designed to hold it up when you lift the bed to access the storage area underneath.  Unfortunately, the previous owner installed a memory foam cover over the cheap RV mattress which makes it quite comfortable, but makes the bed too heavy for the springs.  As a result, we had to hold it open with our heads while reaching into the storage compartment.  I pulled my old tripod off the junk pile at home and removed two of the legs.  I mounted the legs on pivots so that when the compartment is lifted open, we just have to flip the leg locks to hold the compartment open.  It really seems like an elegant solution.

Today, we tried for king salmon at Eklutna Tailrace.  We didn’t see any fish.  One group had a king that was caught quite a bit earlier in the day, but the action was nonexistent in the couple of hours that we were there.  It was certainly a better day than packing, and unquestionably a better day than working.  We finished the day off with a quick evening hike along the river, through the woods, along a swampy lake, and back through the campground.  And then we had root beer floats.