After being hauled out of the boghole, the truck had been sitting for a few days before I drove it.  I was going to take Wolf, the wwoofer, to Anahim Lake so he could hitch hike to Bella Coola.  I noticed nothing on the bush road, but as soon as I speeded up on the highway, there was an alarming vibration and soon the steering wheel was juddering dramatically.

Wolf and I got onto our hands and knees on the road and looked underneath.  There was a lot of dried mud caked around the join of the wheel and axle.  Maybe if we could shift it…..  But this proved to be an enormous job.  Firstly, it was jammed in behind various bits of truck, and secondly, we had no adequate tools.  The shovels were too big – a knife blade too small.  After 20 minutes of hacking, I heard a car and jumped up to flag it down.  The driver kindly gave Wolf his ride to Anahim Lake, and I continued with trying to loosen the mud.  I had to work at it one crumb at a time.  I was reminded of stories of prisoners who broke out of their jails using their finger nails to scrape away the mortar.  Who would have thought such soft sloppy silt would dry so hard?  Finally I loosened the last piece and it was with great relief that I found the truck was now performing normally.  When I had driven through the bog before, I always had a large puddle on the far side and that must have washed the mud off.  Because the truck was hauled out of the hole and driven no where, the mud had not been dislodged.

I did not want to risk trying to drive through the boghole again, so every time I wanted to go anywhere I had to walk the hour along the bush road to the truck, and walk the hour back again after my trip.  However, after about a week, the part of the boghole closest to my house was starting to dry out and I figured I could get through.

The other part, where I had got stuck, was still pretty bad, though.

Water was continuously seeping in from the bank on the left.  I dug a small trench to try and keep the worst of it out of the centre of the bog.  Next to Harry (the yellow dog) was a dead pine.  I figured if I cut it and a few other bushes out, I could squeeze by the soft spots. I had backpacked a small chainsaw out to the truck.

And so I was able to finally drive the truck home.

The other chore I have been occupying myself with this last week is enlarging a window.  I have long been frustrated that I could not see the mountains when I was working at the computer.

(The picture on the laptop is part of the backyard at Nuk Tessli)

So I cleared out the office and cut the hole.

And now I have 4 panes in the window facing the mountains instead of 3.

It has made the whole room seem larger.  (This is the advantage of living in a half-built house.  You can change your mind before you finish it!)

And this is what it looks like from the outside!