Ah yes- The promised entry about the joys of cutting firewood at -20. Well, here is what happened. Since I spent all summer working I didn't have a chance to put up as much wood as I wanted for the winter. That and a couple of long and annoying cold snaps (-20 to -30 for a week or so at a time.) have combined to make me burn through my winter supply faster than I intended. I THOUGHT I was going to be in good shape, I have 8 large dried logs in my front yard that I was planning on cutting and splitting as needed but unfortunately the first couple of snow falls were larger than I expected and the ensuing avalanche off of my metal roof has pretty successfully buried them until breakup under about 5' of mostly ice. So...it's out into the ravine behind my house with Nick and Corbin to cut wood. It's not difficult, really, there is plenty of dead wood back there. The complications lay, as they say in the execution. Now, I don't know how many of you have ever been in -20 temperatures  so let me say this..it's REALLY damn cold! exposed skin begins freezing in a few minutes. You can always tell because those areas that are starting to freeze stop hurting. That is a good sign that it's time to go inside and warm up for a while.  So, preparations to go outside and cut wood in these temperatures are as follows: 1. LOTS of warm clothes. Typically I have on a patagonia base layer, 2 pairs of socks, one thin cotton pair close to the skin and then a thick wool pair over it. a set of wool extreme outdoor pants, a t-shirt, (under the base layer, it wicks the sweat away. Sweat is a killer.) a wool military sweater, a thick wool coat, a couple of pairs of really warm gloves (One pair is kept next to you inside your coat so you can switch them out when your hands start getting wet and cold), an insulated face mask and fur lined bomber hat or a thick insulated balaclava and goggles. (The goggles prevent wood ships in the eyes plus they keep my contacts from freezing to my eyes. It happened to me once, I definitely don't recommend it for a good time!) Oh, and of course the insulated snow boots, rated to -30. Now, dressed and ready to face the brutal outdoors I grab my snowshoes and get ready to go outside. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? We have almost 5' of snow on the ground at the moment. Essentially you don't go anywhere that isn't plowed without snowshoes. Well, unless you enjoy swimming through the powdery white stuff. So, we put on the snowshoes. Now, if you've never walked with snow shoes on it's an experience. Imagine having size 95 feet with half of them sticking out the back. It takes a bit of getting used to. Ok, now we're ready to go outside and cut wood, right? Nope, not quite yet. NOW we have to load and strap on the .44 magnum, my woods gun, because when we're in the woods we are sharing the area with all kinds of critters bigger than us. Bears aren't a problem, they are all happily snoozing, but there's always the chance that you're going to trip over a panicky moose or, even less likely but still possible, a pack of wolves that haven't eaten in a few days. Now, to be honest, I have never had to unholster my gun, but as some very wise friends once told me, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. So, we're finally ready to go cut wood now. Oh wait, I forgot- The emergency bag with water, Arctic canteens are awesome, regular ones are frozen solid in about 5 minutes), fire starting utensils and the first aid kit..NOW we're ready to go out. The boys have been mimicking this process, by the way. Oh..that's right, it's ALASKA in the winter, it gets dark by about 4:30 in the afternoon right now. So we put on the headlamps and head out the door to find our wood, dragging the sled behind us, Axes in hand. We come to the edge of the ravine and hook the sled up to a really cool rope and pulley system we came up with. We're using a square headed shovel as a snow anchor and have a rope tied off to it so we can pull the full sled (Around 150 lbs) up the hill when we get back. We run the sled down the hill  and head down behind it (Oh, all right, sometimes when we're feeling daring we ride the sled down, but that's always crazy and usually involves bailing out in terror at high speeds before hitting a tree.) Now, we're in the woods. We take off, plowing through the snow looking for suitable deadfall.Why don't I have a chainsaw with me you may be wondering? Well, because the chain freezes solid after the first cut or so. As soon as it gets any snow on the chain it's pretty much a 10 lb rock that we're carrying with us, so we use it to cut the wood into sections small enough to burn when we get home. So, we find a suitable tree and start cutting. It's absolutely amazing how fast you can start sweating when you're swinging an axe, even in that cold a temperature. Soon the goggles are fogging over, my hair is totally soaked with sweat, I'm gasping for air, (If you've never worn a heavy balaclava just wrap a thick sweat sock around your face and breathe through it, you'll get the picture.) The tree comes down and it's break time. The head gear comes off, sweat immediately freezing my hair into some kind of strange bristly ice sculpture, and I grab the canteen and swill about half of it, maybe relax for a few minutes, drink a cup of coffee if I've been smart enough to pack the thermos, wait for my pulse to get to a more normal level and start again. Now the wood needs to be sectioned into small enough pieces to load and drag. Huge overhead swings, like Conan killing a garter snake. Wood chips fly everywhere, the axe digs deep into the frozen wood. Ah, what a manly feeling, watching the tree break under the mighty axe! The tree gets sectioned, we load it up, drag it back to the cool rope and pulley system and pull the loaded sled up the hill. We repeat this process for two or three times before we're done for the day. At -20 2 fully loaded sleds = about a day and a half of heat in the house. Wow, I'll be glad when the cold snap is over!