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.