Work continues in town, but.....

As the title suggests I'm still plugging away at Pam's house trying to get the basement all wrapped up before the cold temps hit. Currently the weather has been very mild, not typical end of October weather. Usually the temperature should be dropping well below zero at night but it has been a very comfortable 10 to 20 degrees. As the pic shows I am still staying at Billie's in my mountaineering tent. I myself am glad it hasn't got really cold yet because I don't have my really cold weather clothing or gear here in town. All of that stuff is out at the Chatanika valley in the lake cabin. Which leads to my next segment.

While staying at Billie's I ran into Travis who asked how long I will be working in town. I told him I wasn't sure and asked him what his plan was for the winter. So he presented a couple of ideas one of them being a trip to the arctic to hunt caribou and the other going bear hunting in the Boreal Forest, where wolves are very frequently seen as well. Then he asked if I wanted to go! I of course jumped at the idea and said I'd see what I can work out with Pam. Pam was very open to me taking off for a little while and I said I would get to a point where someone could come in and install the heating system in the basement before I left. So the plan now is to get some things wrapped up at Pam's this week then on the weekend go out to the Chatanika, pick up my arctic gear and on Monday Travis and I will head up the Dalton highway to the arctic. It will be about a one week trip and upon my return I might continue at Pam's or possibly go on the bear hunt.

Around every corner there is an adventure to be had, all you have to do is reach out and grab it. That is why I love Alaska so much and I know I belong here.

Working in town.

I figured it was about time I put up a post from town. Work has been going about as good as a remodel/retrofit can go. A lot of work had already been done to Pam's basement this summer so I am there to do the finishing touches and get it sealed up for winter. Some of the work I have been doing includes repairing and replacing parts of walls, rotten from water damage, also repairing some walls that were not built properly in the first place. All of this work will eventually lead to hanging drywall, which will be the tail end of my involvement in the remodel.

Most of the work I have been doing is all located in the basement of a log cabin house, which was constructed of cinder block into a hill side. I took a picture from the driveway to give you an idea what it looks like. Originally the basement walls were just the concrete block but now on the inside it has two separate 2X4 walls filled with foam and fiberglass insulation. Once I have the electrical work done and the vapor barrier applied, the walls will be covered with Sheetrock to finish it off.

Pam's house is located out of Fairbanks several miles up on a hill side. From the kitchen on the main level and the laundry in the basement (on a good day) you can clearly see Denali and the Alaska range! I took a picture from the deck, on the mail level, of the Tanana Valley and way off in the distance the Alaska range.

I have taken some photos of the work that I have been doing but I don't think they will translate very well. I am having a hard time myself determining up and down in some of the pics.

Perma-chink done!

Yesterday thanks to the warmer weather I was able to finish up the chinking! And today I did some work on the front door to make it seal up nice and tight. I took a couple pics of the finished product, may not be the prettiest chinking job but it should to the trick.

Now that I feel comfortable that cabin is sealed up as tight as it can get, I'm going to head into town and see if I can make a little more money before care-taking for Doug this winter. I'm not quite sure how long I will be in town but I'm hoping not more that one to two weeks. One concern I have is that if I hang out in town for too long I won't be able to get back to the Chatanika valley. I believe I mentioned some time ago that there is certain time in the spring and fall when the seasons are in transition and a neither a snowmachine or 4 wheeler can get you up and down the hill. Also if the river freezes over again a canoe won't be much help and the ice will be to thin to take a machine across. I guess I'll just have to see what happens.

I'll try to get some posts up when I'm in town to show you what kind of work I'll be doing. I'm also looking forward to meeting up with some of my friends at Billie's, I haven't seen them for a while and I'd like to re-connect with them, especially Ralf. I haven't had the chance to meet up with him the last couple times I've gone to town. I have heard from Doug that he plans on making it out to the Chatanika, maybe in October, and I'd like to meet up with him before that.

Wood, wood and more wood

So far this week my work schedule hasn't changed much. Cut, collect, transport, split and stack wood for a few hours in the morning and when the temperature gets above freezing get some chinking done. As of this afternoon I have 95% of the chinking done, thanks to a little warm up in the weather. The only thing left is to fill in around the outside of the window casing with fiberglass insulation and cover it with perma-chink, about a half hour of work. I pretty happy that job is almost done, it was not much fun. But the cabin looks much more complete and I'm sure sealing it up will make a HUGE difference when it dips to 20 bellow and colder. As far as wood collection goes that will be a full time job now that the chinking is done. I want to be more than prepared when winter hits full bore.

We were have some pretty cool nights, around zero degrees, but the last few days have warmed up to about 45 to 50 degrees. The river, at our crossing point, was nearly frozen over all the way across a few days ago but the last couple days has caused a mini break-up. And now the river is open all the way across. I have a couple pics at the river crossing from yesterday showing some of the river frozen over and about a 1/3 of it open in the middle. The other pic is the raft strung up by a cable attached to a winch to keep it from getting swept downstream if the river floods in the spring.

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.