Nice freak warm spell. Ice broke up, ice jammed 100 yds down my channel. Overflow flooded my parking spot. My dumbasz left the drain plug out. Well, at least it ain't built of junk polyester resin or cedar strip:

Saw, cut, saw, cut, saw, cut, saw, cut die:

Can tell a lot about a person how they take care of their stuff.

Dam,,,,, I understand why you left the plug out, I do the same thing, but mine is sitting on some rail-road tie timbers, with a slope to the back, so all the rain, melting snow can run-out, by your photo, looks like you've got the slope, just forgot the dunnage...... Dam again.....
And by the way, I've still got that little-Husky saw I bought from you.... Runs like a champ.....
Lj

Don’t look like fun, Mainer. Hope ya get it take care of.

Condolences.
The only bright side to that is practice for
the ice carving competition in Fairbanks.
At least you will be able to do the repairs
if needed, since you built it.
Now, about that ice sculpture:
Freighter canoe underway loaded with 70" moose and hunter, life-size, with river to show freeboard, and efficiency, hardly a rooster tail.

Reminds me of how I felt when a storm took the roof off of Wife's sunroom and it had to be rebuilt.

Lj, geeze that was almost a decade ago I sold that saw to u. Glad she's running strong. Time passes way too fast man. Not many husqs or stihls round here anymore. Mostly brick sht-house echos. I do have one heated carb j-red 2172 (rebadged husq 372) left.

Iron,
Lesson learned I suppose. At least the weather has been amazing. Warm for weeks.

Crank,
Hope the roof repair went OK.

Anyone who doesn't know something similar firsthand either hasn't lived up here long, or they only live close to Alaska, ie. trailer their stuff to a drop point.

Looks like a lot of work man. Hope you get her out and cleared off.

Well, at least you aren't using a heat gun or hair dryer to clear that ice.....

Progress Report?

I'd of let it self heal if the ice wouldn't take it with it when it decides to leave...

Jack it up and build a fire under it! 😳

Got the entire perimeter of boat cut out and center of boat cleared of ice. But the adhesion of the bottom of boat to the ice is unbreakable.

I yanked on center seat with snowmachine, till it popped the seat hanger off. No biggie, just a mechanical bond.

I kicked the hull and leveraged with alder pole, won't break free.

Yanked the boat left and right from the bow eye with snowmachine. Just about pulled out the bow eye!

Gonna have to tarp it, and fire up a woodstove inside of it. That should soften the adhesion when I turn that boat into a sauna.

I admire your taste in snow machine....bomb-proof! I just dug mine out from the 2 feet of snow we had a month or so ago - been using ACs instead...

Brother I so wish I could be there with an compressor and a sinking hammer and needle scaler. I'd have that out in a snap.

Klik,

Hope u weren't spoiled with nice teacher housing:

$500 a month airbnb. Come spring break up, it will transform into an Uber ride.

Looks perfect,, we have to cook and thaw machines and boats here on occasion too !!

Its no fun. Goes with the life though. As Klik and others have noted. If you haven't had some of these things happen, you haven't done it very long.

Kind of like not ever loosing a deer or not ever missing your mark. You haven't done it much if you haven't.

Good thing... 3 weeks or so of summer is on the way.

I got a cheap river boat that had been frozen into the Yuki R. back in the 90s. Waited till april to get it out. Wasn't as bad as what you are going thru!!

Was thinking ice melt or salt between ice and bottom of hull might work? But better have a separate salt lick for the moose.


It aint easy dealing with winter ice issues even in suburbia let alone the bush, Michael will win!

I might be able to send a few fat girls to heat things up!

Vern, you gracious old man you! Coupla questions:
Will they come with forgivable farm loans?
Farmers only .com?

You’ll have to feed them.

It's why I hang out here. Always good advice!

Not mine.... I specialize.

Mainer,

Sorry but big girls are all we have to offer. After that wind last week, it may be spring before the smaller girls get back to town.

How about if I offer to haul em to the top of Tenderfoot Hill?

Looks like that boat is sitting bow up. Perhaps you could heat sand up on a wood stove or in metal buckets by a fire. Assuming the inside of the boat is dry, dump the hot sand toward the back, reheat, and keep moving forward. If you can get a thin void melted between the hull and the ice, you may
be able to pop it loose. Tenting and heating should also work if you have enough time and fuel.

You mean the kind of housing the District maintains....so, when they let it run out of fuel and you come home at 6 o'clock on a Friday night, they tell you, "get some from the day tank (which is on a stand 8 feet in the air). Use a pipe wrench to remove the water trap (but don't spill any of the 265 gallons.)" ....and women complain about inequity in the workplace. Lol

Or when the town loses power while the school is hosting a tournament so the maintenance people don't have time to deal with their outlying housing so you you make a 35 mile RT to camp for a generator in 30 mph winds screaming off the ocean in -20-something temps....on your most trusted machine...which has no skegs.

But we did dispense with honeybuckets after 13 years or so....

Vern, I don't think u lost your skinnies to the winds. I suspect meth, check big delta......

Klik, sounded like an amazing employee retention initiative. Really makes the 10g extra salary fer teaching in the Bush, soooo worth it!

Overflow happened again, filled in all my axe work, 8 inches higher. The Tanana river sang to me:

Go on take the Honda and run ooh ooh ooh!

Job security CAN suck!

Ugh! Ma Natty, is never stingy about her reminders about who's boss. Sometimes you're not going to win, but just go with the hope that things will sort themselves out in the end. (Perhaps she thinks you deserve to buy yourself a new boat?)

I'm not inclined to give in however, the proof in the fact that my bones aren't lying in some desolate if beautiful creek somewhere. Would it be possible to drill long holes side to side through the ice and thread heat tape, or rebar and a welder to melt it out enough to pop it out?

Water utilities in Anchorage have to use a steam set to dig a water break depth of bury is around 10ft, often takes 12 plus hours to prep a dig, Steam would work if he could get one and get it in there. Commercial rentals may have one but tough to rent may require boiler license.

Only thing I can think of lo tech would be trench around and under with a saw and ice auger and salt or snow melt the trench to break the bond. But if overflow continues?

Current shifted, and there is now 3-4 ft of water underneath the boat. Walked out there, ice is too thin to walk on, about 1 inch of ice. Current is strong enough to sweep a guy under the ice.

Not safe to work on the boat, woodstove locked in too, kinda needed that stove for winter caribou hunt with the dog team.

Dang, what a saga !

How many segments for LBZ episodes could be made about this ?
I bet you could get a whole season out of this, maybe an Emmy.
Go caribou hunting with dog sled ... come back to check on the boat ...
go ice fishing ... come back to check on the boat ...
build a new work shop ... come back to check on the boat ... etc.

Maybe consider another spot to winter your boat if there's a next time.

Mainer,

If you need a stove for spring caribou, you can borrow mine.

CCP just ran a big balloon over this area. They must've needed pics of your canoe problems.

Update:

Few days ago, swung axes for 8 hours. A neighbor helped and brought a water pump. We hacked at least 3000 lbs of ice outta the boat.

Kept pumping river water to soften sides and bottom of ice. With drain plug clear, and a trench cut behind boat, the water sure did help.

The expansion of all that ice cracked the welds on the transom metal. If the boat was wholly made of aluminum, it would been destroyed. The flexible epoxy and biaxial cloth is unscathed. Boat will repair up just fine.

Did not like working/walking on soft ice while high water was raging uderneath, but when that shelf ice breaks, that boat is gone. So was a real short window of opportunity. Especially with the flood warnings.

Drug boat up to higher ground, into the trees and tied it off. Should just paint the fkn thing yellow and rename it the "Tanana Banana". Just leave it wherever and look for it in the spring.

Whatta chore...
yellow eh, could end up in Emmonak. !

When I saw you at the Post Office, I thought sure as hell you were looking for those fat girls to thaw out that canoe.
The Post Office is Delta's better place for trolling.

Woah, then I better put a condom on the big tanana banana.

Just happy the canoe was saved and no one got hurt, was looking grim!

You know, there are readers here for whom that rhymes!

Yellow canoe? Sounds like a lost Beatles tune.

Dang Mainer. You sure know how to have fun.

Thanks for the tip, planning my next vacation.

Next year turn it over or put it on its side on high ground. If you turned it over around here you’d have to worry about snakes when it came time to use it again 🐍