Cabin progress as of Aug. 14th

Yesterday morning I took a short walk through Doug's cabin and shot a video showing the progress so far on the cabin build/retrofit. First a look at the entry to the atrium, or soon to be entry. Then through the main door of the cabin into the kitchen with the new vinyl floor. Right as you step in the door there will be a rubber mat trimmed with some flat steel so you don't slip on the vinyl floor when there is snow on the ground. Walking through the kitchen you can see the new refrigerator/freezer, much more efficient than the previous one. Then into the living room where large rugs cover the recently finished wood floor. And off the living room I take a left into the bathroom showing the shower/tub stall, toilet and where the vanity will be. Passing through the bathroom I end up in the atrium where I am in the middle of constructing the elevated floor. This is just a sliver of the work we are continuing to do, up on the hill side at Doug's cabin.

Log hauler

One of the things I've been doing before I head up to Dougs in the morning is cutting and hauling logs and firewood. A lot of the trees between the cabin and the lake are either dead or leaning very badly. So some clean up is a must. A great thing about that is we're getting some great logs for the saw mill. I took some pictures of how we move large logs around without putting to much strain on our bodies. Usually when a log is in an inaccessible spot we use a steel cable, sometimes a pulley and the 4 wheeler to drag it to a better location. Then using a come-along and a tool called "the log lifter," lift one end of the log off the ground. The log lifter is just a couple 2X6's with a bolt through one end and a short chain attached to that. By spreading the legs of the lifter over one end of the log, wrapping the cable from the come-along around the log then cranking up on the come-along, the log and the lifter act like a tripod and it stands on it's own. After the log is hanging in the air we are able to position the log hauler, a trailer designed by Doug and built by one of his friends, under the log, attach the trailer to the 4 wheeler and drop the log on the trailer. With one end of the the log off the ground the logs haul fairly easy with the 4 wheeler. Also by keeping most of the log off the ground we are able to avoid doing a major damage to the log, leaving more usable log to cut at the mill. I took a couple pictures while moving a log the other day. The first is of a log hanging from the log lifter, the second is the log chained to the log hauler. And the third pic is of my prefered firewood hauling method.

Concrete/Atrium

Been so busy this week I haven't been able to get an update on the blog, sorry about that. Any extra time I've had, when not working for Doug, I've been working a lot at the lake cabin. I think I've been putting in about 12 hour days, taking breaks to eat of course. I have some pictures of some of the concrete work for the living room addition and the foundation for the walls to close in under the bathroom and the atrium. And also some pics of some of the work I'm doing in the atrium, building up the floor. In the atrium Doug had originally installed windows floor to ceiling but discovered that the bottom row of windows didn't really help out the plants and during the below zero temps of winter the floor level was very cold. So on the lower row of windows we have sandwiched the glass of the with foam insulation on the outside and inside. On the outside of the house I have covered over that insulation with siding from the mill. And in the atrium I am working on building up the floor to make it a more comfortable, usable space during the winter. These are just a couple things we're working on right now. The construction of the bathroom continues, rippled fiberglass has been installed on the green house roof, over that really expensive plastic for better snow support. And I've worked on about a dozen other smaller projects just wrapping up some loose ends. As I said before I have been putting a lot of work into the lake cabin as well. Most of the work is to get it ready for cold weather. Getting the cabin itself sealed up, a lot of chinking needs to be done. Installing more shelving for storage, installing a cooler in the floor and roughing in the wiring to move my battery bank under the floor. That's just a few things I'm working on at the lake cabin right now, lots more to do.

Porcupine hound

Funny how yesterday I was saying how happy I was to come across a porcupine up at Dougs cabin, then last night Sammie decided to tangle with one on the way home. We were almost back the lake cabin when I heard Sammie run off the trail and into the woods. She does that quite often so i didn't think anything of it. She sometimes goes for a little romp for an hour or two when we are on our way back the lake cabin. But when she showed up at the cabin an hour after I got there she had a face full of porcupine quills. I have helped Doug hold down Buster while he removed quills from his face. That was after we duct taped his legs together and taped his mouth shut. Even then it was still a lot of work, so I knew removing quills from Sammie's face by myself was going to be tough. I had to tape her legs together, tape her mouth closed, lay on top of her and put her in a head lock to pull out the quills with a pair of pliers. Everything worked out, I got the quills out very quickly without putting Sammie through to much pain and suffering. And yes, she was very happy after we were done. I hope she learned her lesson and won't do that again.

Surrounded by wild life

I seems everywhere I turn out in the bush I am surrounded by wildlife. Down at the lake cabin I still have the moose that visits regularly, foraging on algae from the lake bed. And I have watched through the spring and summer the pair of trumpeter swans raise six, what were little babies, now they are as big as Dougs geese. As I mention the geese, right now Doug is on a special trip to town to drop off 9 of the geese. His original plan was to have 4 geese but every year they seem to multiply them selves. Back my original story, the other morning Doug was walking through the garden on his way to check on the geese and out of the corner of his eye he caught something moving up on the hill side. He stopped and starred up the hill for a moment and spotted a lynx creeping through the brush! What a treat, out of all the years he's spent in the bush he has never seen a lynx! I'd like to think mother nature is giving us a gift for appreciating that black bear someone else killed. And a couple nights ago while we were watching TV Aggie and Buster started barking at something in the chicken pen. Doug went to investigate and discovered a porcupine hanging out in a tree. So i grabbed my camera and got a couple pictures and a short video of it eating some birch leaves while laying on it's belly, feet dangling free.

7 mile part 2

The second half of the video I have today continues right where i left off yesterday. I make a couple stops heading down the hill to try to get a view of Dougs cabin on the opposite hill side. I wish my camera had a better resolution when I zoom in with it because I could clearly make out at least the solar panel array on his property with my naked eye. But with my camera it just turns into a blurry blob. Oh well, hopefully you'll get the idea. As i mentioned yesterday after i got the load to the river I dropped the trailers and Doug and I took the rest of the day off. The next day we both made our way across the river with the 4 wheelers, taking some what weaving route following the shallowest depths of the river. We were able to hook up the trailers where I had dropped them the day before and drive the loads across the river, no canoe needed! As far as additional freight need from town, were sitting pretty good. We have most of the supplies needed to finish a lot of projects. I'm sure Doug will continue to take advantage of the low river water and great trail conditions while he can.

7 mile

Off the top of Murphy Dome there are many trails heading off in all directions but there are two main "roads" that lead into the bush. One road is called 15 mile and goes to the Minto flats which is to the west of us at Dougs property. That road is actually a drivable road and a lot of people are able to haul their boats to the river. The trail that we take from the top of the Dome out to Dougs is called 7 mile. A good portion of the trail off the top is fairly even and not to bumpy but about 3/4 of the way down things get pretty rough. With the great weather we've had this summer the upper part of the trail we call the road has been in very good condition. This has allowed Doug to drive his truck down 7 mile, 3/4 of the way and drop off loads. Then we drive back and forth from the river with the 4 wheelers, drop the loads at the river, or drive across the river, which we can do right now with the low water. I took some video driving the 4 wheeler from the river up the hill to the drop spot to give you an idea of what it takes to get freight down the hill. Some of the trail i didn't take video of, in between the river and the "rock slide," but when it rains that area is a super swamp and you have to weave all around to avoid the deep mud bogs. I of course had to slit it into a couple videos so I'll get part 2 up a quick as i can.

More freight/BBQ on the river

A couple days ago Doug made an over night trip to town for more building supplies and dropped a load part way down the trail with his pick-up truck. This morning I made my way across the river with the 4 wheeler to haul it down. It took a couple trips, one with 2 trailers, to get it all to the river. I shot video of the trip up and down the "hill" and after i stitch it all together I'll get it up-loaded to the blog. After getting all the freight to the river Doug met me at he crossing and said he was ready for a picnic on the river. We knew it was going to be really nice and very warm today so we had made plans to BBQ on the river and go for a swim. I'd have to say it was a perfect day to grill some steaks, veggie kabobs and enjoy some fresh pasta salad. Sammie spent the whole day with me as well and after a couple trips of the hill to the stash spot she was pretty pooped out. While we waited for the fire coals to get to the right temp., Doug, Sammie and I spent a fair amount of time in the water trying to keep cool. The last few days it has been getting up to around 90 degrees during the peak of the afternoon! I snapped a photo of our little picnic area with Doug chillin out. This was the same spot Sammie and I went to before when it was really hot out. It with take me a couple days to put my freight videos together so look for that soon.