Winter closing in!

Winter is closing in fast! The temperature is dropping and the water is freezing quick. The lake and the slough already have about 3 inches of ice built up and parts of the river, where the current isn't flowing fast, are starting to ice over.

I shot a short video this morning, after cutting some wood, showing the current state of the lake and the cabin property.

I have been using the 4 wheeler to haul wood from various parts of the property, everything from spruce to birch and poplar. By cutting a tree into 3 to 5 foot lengths it is easy to manipulate the pieces on to the 4 wheeler and/or the trailer. Then I have been hauling those chunks to the cabin, cutting them into stove length pieces and splitting them with a splitting maul. Like an axe, the maul has a blade but the rest of the head is the size of a sledge hammer, making the task of splitting wood much easier. In the video I also show the wood I have accumulated so far, some of it I have already burned up, and a pile of wood yet to be cut and split.

The pic today shows a pile of wood, cut to about 4 foot lengths, that I am preparing to cut up.

After I shot the video this morning I had a little lunch then prepped my supplies and got to perma-chinking the window side wall of the cabin. The plastic tarp worked great, the temp stayed about 65 degrees, while the outside temp hovered around 30. I was able to finish almost the whole side of the cabin before my hands got too tired. Applying perma-chink is a very messy and physical task. The perma-chink is a mortar like substance applied with a large pastry bag then brushed over with a soapy paint brush, to spread it into the cracks and give it a finished look. It is a water based product so at least clean up is easy. But being that it is water based that also means it needs to be above freezing to apply it, hence the effort to keep it as warm as possible where it's being put on.

Looks like tomorrow will be more of the same, cutting wood and chinking, but at the end of the week I might be heading to town to do some work for one of Doug's friends. Since Doug doesn't need my help for a while he took it upon himself to find me a job in town to keep me working into the fall/beginning of winter.

I'm sorry but I've tried to upload the video a half a dozen times and it's not working. I may try to get it on a future post.

Frosty morning/Cabin chinking

I woke up this morning to a nice and cool 4 degrees at the lake! I snapped a picture of the island just as the sun was coming up. Frost covered the trees and the lake is now frozen over. I punched through the ice this afternoon and found that there is already over an inch and a half of ice on the lake and the slough ice is over two inches thick.

I have 2 sides of the cabin chinked now but the cooler temps are putting a damper on my progress. The product I'm using is water based so I need most of the day to be above freezing for the perma-chink to take. Today I have a couple pics of the the chinking progress at the lake cabin.

Finishing the chinking on the cabin before it really gets cold is a must. So I have taken a huge sheet of plastic and enclosed one complete side of the cabin to retain some heat in the sun of the afternoon. That should allow me to finish the job while the air temp. is still below freezing. Today at 2 pm it was 30 degrees outside and under my plastic tent it was a steamy 70 degrees! My final pic today is of my chinking shelter, which will permit me to finish the chinking.

New atrium entry

The photos I have today are of the finished entry to the atrium. While I was in Minnesota Doug was able to put all the siding on the walls that cover the openings under the cabin. When I framed in under the cabin I left a few access holes, one for a dog house, one for storage and one for access under the main entry to the cabin. Those holes allowed Doug to crawl under the cabin and spray foam the back side of the walls and the under side of the floors. With the cooler temperatures we have already been able to feel the difference of the added insulation.

While I was gone Doug also filled the tanks above the kitchen with about 1000 gallons of water. And also finished plumbing all of the water lines to the bathroom and kitchen sink. With the water lines plumbed to the bathroom we now have a flush toilet! For many years the sink in the kitchen has drained into a grey water tank Doug had built into the hillside of the front yard. For the time being the toilet and shower drains are plumed into that grey water system until a separate septic tank is constructed.

Temperature is dropping in the Chatanika valley

Since I've been back to the Chatanika valley the over night temps. have been dipping down into the 20's. With the cold weather closing in, after a few cups of coffee when I wake up, I've been cutting and spitting wood for a few hours every day. The other half of the day I've been doing work on the cabin. Yesterday I started repairing the perma-chink on the inside of the cabin and today I began applying perma-chink in between the logs on the outside of the cabin. That with the spray foam I have applied in the wide cracks betwwen the logs should seal it up tight and prevent some of the cold from seaping in.

I took a picture of the slough at about 9:30 this morning, as you can see it's starting to ice over. Won't be too long before the lake and the slough freeze completly.

Other work from August

Here is a few more pics from Dougs cabin before I went to Minnesota August 30th. Other than a coat of finish on the tongue and grove floor the atrium is now finished. The floor in front of the entry door is painted, the wood stove is installed and now plants populate the new elevated floor.

The battery bank has also been filled out. For most of the summer we were working off of 15 large deep cycle batteries. Along with running a fridge/freezer all of the time we are also powering satellite T.V., satellite Internet, our computers, battery chargers and lights. With that

load the batteries were getting worked really hard. Now the battery bank is filled out, totaling 20 batteries. We have also wired in a generator line from the shed to the bathroom for the on-demand water heater.

I'd like to follow up on my electrical system at the lake cabin. With the sun we are getting right now and running my gas generator an hour a day to power a 10amp charger, I am able to watch a 2 hour movie with a 19 inch LCD and a DVD player and also run my lights, fan and radio every day. When the sun gets a little lower in the sky I will have to run my generator more to charge the 3 deep cycle batteries but it's fairly fuel efficient so hopefully I won't go through too much fuel.

Hiatus over, back in Alaska

It was not intention to put off putting up a post for so long but shortly after my last post we lost our internet connection in the bush and it took Doug a few weeks to get it fired back up again. As most of you know on August 30th I hopped on a plane back to Minnesota to reconnect with friends, family and most important to attend my sisters' wedding. I stayed in Minnesota for a little over two weeks then flew back to Fairbanks, met up with Doug at the airport and next day we made our way back out to the bush. I'll do my best to get everyone caught up on what's been happening in the Chatanika valley.

First I'd like to start off by saying up until I went back to Minnesota both Doug and I were continuing to go full speed ahead on his cabin retro-fit and while I was gone the pace continued in my absence. As of now the bathroom is almost complete, the toilet flushes and the shower works, but the shower stall still needs a coat of mortar to finish it off. The two, 500 gallon water tanks are filled and are plumbed to the bathroom. On the exterior of the cabin I had all of the openings under the outside walls framed in and ready for spray-foam and siding. While I was gone Doug got everything foamed, sided and a stair case made to get in and out of the atrium.

The first couple pics show the framing under the cabin before the siding was installed. I'll shoot some pics in the next few days to show you the current state of the exterior.

Before I left for Minnesota I was doing a lot of work down at the lake cabin as well. The next couple pics show the new location of my batteries, stored in an insulated box under the cabin floor and my power inverter mounted to the cabin wall. All of the wiring is either under the floor or attached to the cabin logs out of the way. I have also run wiring outside to connect to my gas powered electric generator. I also have foamed all the large gaps in the cabin logs in preparation to touch up the chinking on the interior and to perma-chink the exterior. Right now the cabin looks like a giant marshmallow has exploded inside and is forcing its way out all of the gaps.

Fall is in full swing here in the interior and the final picture I have today is from 7 mile heading down to the Chatanika. The hills are covered with bright yellow where all the birch are claiming ground from the spruce. I'll try to the posts coming and get everyone up to date.