Spent Saturday staring at this. Couldn't ask for better company or weather really. Left with 1 Silver Salmon for all the effort. Good time.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Saturday afternoon around in ice shack
Spent Saturday staring at this. Couldn't ask for better company or weather really. Left with 1 Silver Salmon for all the effort. Good time.
Final fading daylight
Walking the dogs along Moose Mountain at the last twinkle of dusk. Cellphone photo unfortunately.
Update on life in Alaska
Long absence on here, but I wanted to keep moving along.
The house has come to the point of livability, moved in early November with just the sheetrock's 3rd coat of mud to do, along with priming and then painting. The best laid plans have come and gone and one wall is painted with 3 walls mudded. Priming has been a big plan but has yet to happen. Its tough once you move in and get situated. I think the break has been long enough though and will commence the project this week. Our little woodstove has been working steadily through the winter and has kept the place nice and toasty for the most part. The drawback is that in order to wake up to a warm house when the temp drops down to the -10's or below means waking up at 3 am to add some wood to the fire. A larger stove will be one of the plans for next summer along with a number 1 fueled Toyotomi stove to moderate and allow for some long weekends out without a freezeup. So far the coldest temps seen at the new place have been in the -30's and that was Saturday night. Most of the cold snaps in town have been down to the -40's and the Tanana Valley inversion has kept it up around -20. Saturday seems to be a fluke with a weather system blowing through and knocking out the inversion, but Sunday brought a warmup from -20 in the morning to +3 by the afternoon.
The supremely steep driveway has proved to be little trouble for the most part. Once snow falls, I plow and we drive on it without any problems. There was a horrific 3 day rainstorm back around Thanksgiving that froze upon hitting the ground and coated the driveway with almost 1 inch of solid ice. I tried chipping it, I tried sanding it, graveling, ice melt. Nothing made it budge at all. So, for a few days we parked at the top of the hill and walked through the woods. Then a nice snowstorm moved through, gave it a good coat of snow and it became drivable again. Who would ever have through that more snow would be the answer to a slick driveway.
This winter has passed pretty quickly so far. Lots of firewood cutting, splitting and stacking as well as skiing, snowshoeing and ice fishing to report. The past weekend was spent out ice fishing in a rented hut with friends on Quartz Lake all day Saturday and then hauling firewood up the hill about 60 feet all day Sunday. I moved about 1 cord worth of split birch logs in three stages up the hill. It was back breaking work and my arms and abdominal muscles are reminding me why its always best to pull the 8 foot logs up the hill then cut and split them where they can be pulled from instead of cutting them where they fell to wrangle together at a later time. Lesson learned. Now for the other 4 or 5 cords that still remain down the hill. I'll slowly chip away at them as time allows.
Started seeing seed catalogs in the mail this past week which is heartwarming. Its nice to think about a garden about this time of year, start planning and deciding what sounds good to grow. Haven't really figured out exactly where the garden area is going to be yet, but its becoming a priority sooner than later. Just need to figure out who I know has a box tiller attachment for an ATV that I can use in the spring to break up the ground and get it all ready. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, spinach, broccoli and whatever other random seeds sound good will be in the bunch. I'd love to find some sort of super hardy northern variety of hops that tolerates the Fairbanks season if anyone has any recommendations. Meat rabbits are in the agenda for the 2011 summertime so I have to get a plan together to build a hutch for them, along with a revamped chick coop for meat birds this time around. Having laying hens was a good experience, but heating them through the winter was real bear. If I ever dig a cave out of the hillside, I may consider them again where I can keep it climate controlled a little better and use the surrounding ground for insulating, but for now, its one season birds only.
Until something else happens worth writing about…
Thanks for reading,
-Justin
The house has come to the point of livability, moved in early November with just the sheetrock's 3rd coat of mud to do, along with priming and then painting. The best laid plans have come and gone and one wall is painted with 3 walls mudded. Priming has been a big plan but has yet to happen. Its tough once you move in and get situated. I think the break has been long enough though and will commence the project this week. Our little woodstove has been working steadily through the winter and has kept the place nice and toasty for the most part. The drawback is that in order to wake up to a warm house when the temp drops down to the -10's or below means waking up at 3 am to add some wood to the fire. A larger stove will be one of the plans for next summer along with a number 1 fueled Toyotomi stove to moderate and allow for some long weekends out without a freezeup. So far the coldest temps seen at the new place have been in the -30's and that was Saturday night. Most of the cold snaps in town have been down to the -40's and the Tanana Valley inversion has kept it up around -20. Saturday seems to be a fluke with a weather system blowing through and knocking out the inversion, but Sunday brought a warmup from -20 in the morning to +3 by the afternoon.
The supremely steep driveway has proved to be little trouble for the most part. Once snow falls, I plow and we drive on it without any problems. There was a horrific 3 day rainstorm back around Thanksgiving that froze upon hitting the ground and coated the driveway with almost 1 inch of solid ice. I tried chipping it, I tried sanding it, graveling, ice melt. Nothing made it budge at all. So, for a few days we parked at the top of the hill and walked through the woods. Then a nice snowstorm moved through, gave it a good coat of snow and it became drivable again. Who would ever have through that more snow would be the answer to a slick driveway.
This winter has passed pretty quickly so far. Lots of firewood cutting, splitting and stacking as well as skiing, snowshoeing and ice fishing to report. The past weekend was spent out ice fishing in a rented hut with friends on Quartz Lake all day Saturday and then hauling firewood up the hill about 60 feet all day Sunday. I moved about 1 cord worth of split birch logs in three stages up the hill. It was back breaking work and my arms and abdominal muscles are reminding me why its always best to pull the 8 foot logs up the hill then cut and split them where they can be pulled from instead of cutting them where they fell to wrangle together at a later time. Lesson learned. Now for the other 4 or 5 cords that still remain down the hill. I'll slowly chip away at them as time allows.
Started seeing seed catalogs in the mail this past week which is heartwarming. Its nice to think about a garden about this time of year, start planning and deciding what sounds good to grow. Haven't really figured out exactly where the garden area is going to be yet, but its becoming a priority sooner than later. Just need to figure out who I know has a box tiller attachment for an ATV that I can use in the spring to break up the ground and get it all ready. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, spinach, broccoli and whatever other random seeds sound good will be in the bunch. I'd love to find some sort of super hardy northern variety of hops that tolerates the Fairbanks season if anyone has any recommendations. Meat rabbits are in the agenda for the 2011 summertime so I have to get a plan together to build a hutch for them, along with a revamped chick coop for meat birds this time around. Having laying hens was a good experience, but heating them through the winter was real bear. If I ever dig a cave out of the hillside, I may consider them again where I can keep it climate controlled a little better and use the surrounding ground for insulating, but for now, its one season birds only.
Until something else happens worth writing about…
Thanks for reading,
-Justin
Monday, August 16, 2010
Mushrooms
2010 has been a really good year for mushrooms in the Interior of Alaska. Enough rain mixed with enough warm days to produce quite a selection.
These are just a few of the ones I've seen lately.
These are just a few of the ones I've seen lately.
chimney!
chimney!
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
It was really hard to cut a hole in the roof, but it had to be done.
Our house
Our house
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
View from the road of our hidden house down through the woods
Sunday, July 25, 2010
All the doors and windows are in!
Finally got a delayed special order in town. The windows and doors are done.
Tyvek wrapped, 2 windows and 2 doors installed
Tyvek wrapped, 2 windows and 2 doors installed
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
The hole up near the top of the gable end matches another one on the opposite side. We'll have big vents in there to let the roof stay cool, but this one stays open for now so I can crawl through to do the blow in cellulose insulation in a few weeks.
South door!
South door!
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
Doors mean that we can lock up our stuff finally. Finally...
4x5 picture windows (where the garage doors will be later on)
4x5 picture windows (where the garage doors will be later on)
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
4x5's IN! One day in the future, these will come out along with the 7x9ish wall panels we built them into and leave a garage door opening while the panels go on to be two walls of a treehouse. Good trees already picked out for treehouse with view.
Housewrapping
Housewrapping
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
Since we end up being an advertisement for Lowes with their housewrap, the least we can do is put the logo upside down.
Chrissy on the pneumatic stapler
Chrissy on the pneumatic stapler
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
Chrissy stapling while I held the roll of tyvek. We wrapped and wrapped and wrapped.
Metal roof
Metal roof
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
One side down, still to come: gable trim, North side roofing and ridge cap.
pool
pool
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
The dogs took advantage of a pallet and blue tarp pool we set up for them.
Metal roof
Metal roof
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
Metal roofing going down. Lots and lots of expensive rubber washer screws. Something like .15c apiece. After this part is done, I'll be using the metal detector to find all the dropped screws to use on the roofing for our shed this fall.
Chrissy painting the soffits
Chrissy painting the soffits
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
Chrissy painted all of the soffits. My attention to detail (or an occasional lack thereof) led her to be the only paintbrush holder in the deal.
First panel
First panel
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
The metal starts going down. It was amazing how much this really tied the roof together too. Home becomes a solid piece now.
3 sides down
3 sides down
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
Now to finish the East side and get moving on to metal trim.
Gable end fascia on west end
Gable end fascia on west end
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
the gable end fascia board went up without any major problems, but was pretty awkward to hold in place for those first few screws. Most of this trim will be covered with metal trim when its all done.
Fascia up on North Wall
Fascia up on North Wall
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
North side fascia board in place, ready to move to the southside and do the same thing with a little more understanding.
soffit view
IMG_2276
Originally uploaded by justinmaple
soffits up, ready to put the eave on. Should have done this in reverse, but thats how it goes sometimes.
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