Kenai trip for new stove & H2O for hot tub

(pk)

We started the day with camp showers for Jon and I. While Jon was making breakfast I emptied the remaining rain water in the barrels into the tub. The leaking had really slowed down. We ate a quick breakfast of soft-boiled eggs over toast and headed for our freezer. Here is a photo of Isabel heading up our hill to the Suburban. She is carrying our lunch. Our freezer is located at a friends shed at the end of our two mile road. He has electricity there and for $100.00 per year we can keep our freezer there. We needed to send some Salmon and Halibut to some very dear folks who have been waiting for it for WAY too long. The FedEx deadline for Homer is 10:30 am - it has been troublesome for us to make it out of our place early enough to make the FedEx timeline. Today, with careful planning ...and rushing... (I drove our two mile road in 8 minutes - a record!! This drive is typically 25 - 30 min.) we made FedEx at 10:15 am. Fish under way, we headed to the Post Office, library, and dump. The kids each picked some books to look at on the 1.5 hour trip to Kenai. Jon had wonderfully packed us a lunch which we ate in the car. We picked up our stove (ordered 6 weeks ago), stopped at Home Depot for 4 more garbage pails (30 gallon), went to Cad-Re Feed for chicken & rabbit feed, and finally stopped by Sweeney's (the local outdoor clothing store) for new rain boots for the kids (the X-traTuffs that I bought for the kids less than three months ago were NOT 'extra tough', and both had holes on the seams at the heels - I will not be purchasing those again!!), and new hiking boots for me. An uneventful trip home ended in a great Hot Cocoa and Coffee stop at Black Water Bend Espresso. We parked the Suburban loaded the Green Beast with 9 garbage pails, the Honda water pump, and a garden hose. We made a quick trip to Red Hill Canyon and started the process of filling all the pails from the creek. The Honda pump worked great. We managed to complete two loads of water; pumping it from the creek to the pails then from the pails to the hot tub in 2.5 hours. The water I had poured in this morning held extremely well, and as we started to fill it up we noticed some additional dripping as the side seams swelled... NOT MUCH THOUGH!! I am very pleased with our work. Jon started a fire in the hot tub stove then went in to make dinner for the kids (8:30 pm) and get them ready for bed. I cleaned up outside, put away the pump and hoses, and switched the Beast for the Suburban so we are ready to bring in the new stove in the AM. We are using the William Sonoma Remote Thermometer to monitor the temperature in the hot tub. I really love this idea!!! The water stratifies quickly in the tub - the temperature started at 44 degrees, then dropped to 43 degrees. The hot water rises and the cold seems to gets colder... crazy! And, it has happened twice so far from 55 degrees to 54 degrees, circulating the water is important in a Snorkel Stove Hot Tub. We hope that we will be in before midnight tonight. The kids finally made it to bed at 9:30 pm; too late!! And, no doubt, we will pay for that in the morning though not as much, however, as we will pay for staying up to go into the hot tub!!! We are so thrilled. Jon is making King Crab Puffs and a salad for dinner!!! I am about to get started on the Rum and Cokes. Time allowing, we might take in an episode of Grey's Anatomy (1st Season on DVD) while the tub comes up to temperature. Tub temperature is currently 82 deg!!! It has gone up 39 degrees in an hour and 10 minutes - 101 here we come!! Here is the hot tub interior this morning with the towels . There are three benches. The lowest one is not visible in this photo. The picture below shows the fence that keeps us safe from the stove which is located behind it.

Here is the hot tub on it's first firing!! It was a bit smoky initially and then Jon read more of the instructions and it smoothed out nicely. We are heading in right after dinner. The tub has warmed up quicker than expected by either of us!!!!