24 June 2011

Busy, busy day.  My phone died, so I woke up when I felt like it and headed into town to check my internet.  I figured it was probably around 10am, but it was only 8:30am so I had LOTS of time to get things done in town.
At 2pm, Randy (the hauling guy I hired) brought up my culvert piece and ceremoniously dumped it off the trailer in the direction I pointed to.  It tumbled down the hill, took out one sapling, and stopped.  I paid him and he left.
Next, I pushed, pulled, tugged, and rolled the culvert until it was positioned just next to the hole.
And then I hesitated.  Do I roll it in and hope it tilts the right way?  Do I tilt it up and try to slide/pull it in?  Should I wait for someone else?  Right.  I went for the roll and tilt method and it almost worked, until I fidgeted with it and it slid the wrong way and wedged itself in horizontally instead of vertically.  Damn.
It took me another hour of hauling on it with a rope, pushing on it with my feet, and finally crawling in the hole with it and pushing it up, to finally get it vertically.  It was finally vertical, although not quite in the right spot yet.  And I was definitely not in the right spot.  I was stuck between the culvert and the hole, and tried for about ten minutes to scrabble and/or climb my way out.  Both the culvert and the dirt were too slippery to get a good foothold.  It was too high and my arm strength isn't good enough to haul myself out like a seal - the jump and land on my belly and haul method.  I was stuck.
First, I laughed.  I had imagined something like this could happen but didn''t think it really would.  And I laughed because I was sure I could think of something.  I had my cell phone on me, but I wasn't about to call or text anyone.  Can you imagine: "Help.  I'm stuck in a deep hole and can't get out."  No.
So finally, I dragged into the hole one of the larger 40-50 pound boulders and used it to step on and then it was an easy maneuver and I was out.  I had hesitated to do that, because, although I was out, the 40 pound boulder was now completely in my way.
The next task was to shift the culvert into place, which included lifting it over the 10 inch high boulder.  I pushed and shoved and dug out around it and heaved up on the culvert with all my strength, and bit by bit, got it over the boulder and into place.  Whew.

That was a lot of work.  But now it's in place and I'm a bit proud of myself that I was able to do it all by myself.  (I really didn't think I was going to be able to!)
I don't have any pictures of my awkward climbing and lunging attempts, but I will eventually get pictures posted of the finished product, and you can imaging the rest.

June 2011 - Camp Set-up

So, I moved out of the Beaver Cabin June 1st and my Mom and Butchie helped me move all of my stuff from the cabin to my home.  It consisted of 2 plastic bins, 2 duffels full of clothes/shoes, and 3 medium boxes full of food.
The next week, Julie and Kim helped me move the Rigid Box from Ama's car and onto my property.  It's 150 pounds of big steel and was awkward to say the least.
I needed a special U-ring to lock it, so the following day, my Mom and I spent an hour driving to 3 different hardware stores trying to find it.  Finally, at AIH, not only did they have it, but it was sent to them specifically by Rigid, and was FREE.  Things always seem like a pain in the ass at first, and then once you actually find the solution, it's more than easy.
Now, my camp is all set up... Raintarp set up over the Rigid box, small blue tent upstairs for my closet, and my bins and tools under the firewood tarp.  My sleeping quarters are away from the kitchen (bear precautions) and is a roomy 3-person tent set up down by the pond.   By doing that, I also was inspired to clear a preliminary path from the kitchen area to my tent, which will make tours of my home a lot more pleasant for visitors!
I love it!  Right now I'm using an upturned block of wood for a cook table and my sturdier bin for a chair.  Future improvements may include a real table and chair/s and maybe even a mosquito tent set up under the rain tarp so I can relax and cook and still see the birds fly by WITHOUT getting eating alive by mosquitos.  I don't mind mosquitos too much, since I don't react to them, but when it's a black swarm around my face, and I keep getting dead mosquitos into my food, it's just plain annoying.

Pictures to follow...

June 2011

Well, the Root Cellar has changed a bit....
I was digging and digging and things were going well until about 5 1/2 feet down when I hit the boulders. 40-50 pound boulders that took me a half hour to dig out and suddenly made the zen-like and pleasurable monotony of digging become a frustrating pain in the behind (actually, more of a pain in the wrist, as my maddock hit the rock and reverberated up into my arms and wrists).
So, I looked into getting a mini-excavator in to finish it off, but that would have set me back around $800 and that price inspired me to re-think the project and see what I could do with a 5 1/2 foot hole instead of an 8 foot hole.
I simplified the whole thing into a 5 foot diameter, 5 foot deep hole into which I will put a culvert vertically and then just top it with an insulated roof/trap door.  By itself, it will definitely freeze in the winter, but if I put an insulated skirting all around my foundation, I might be able to acheive a functional root cellar afterall.  And if not for vegetables, it'll be great as an extra storage area for off-season gear.
That's it for construction so far... Here are some pictures:

Root Cellar Design

 

1.  Dig a really big hole.  (7' long by 8' deep by 5' wide)

2.  Order the culvert and have them cut a 3' diameter hole in the 4' culvert to be able to nest the two together.

3.  Place the 4' culvert in the hole, positioning it with a slight downward tilt for drainage.

4.  Place the ventilation tubes - 3" diam pcv tubing with a screened curved top to keep rain and bugs out.

5.  Place the 3' culvert into the hole - this needs to be a tight fit.

6.  Backfill

7.  Place the ladder into the 3' culvert

8.  Build the insulated trap door into the porch.

March 20, 2011

I love showing off my home!  

Janiene and I drove up to Talkeetna today and we spent a few hours post-holing around my home.  It's as pretty as usual, with fresh moose tracks and droppings, crunchy deep snow, chickadees and woodpeckers, and the occasional solitary little high bush cranberry dangling from a twig. 

No new snow and with the outrageously warm weather we've been having (over 32°F) I'm getting excited about this summer's plans.  First and foremost, hopefully starting in May, I'll be digging.  Lots.  Starting with the root cellar and then hopefully working on digging the outhouse.  That means two very very deep holes... so if anyone enjoys the pure satisfaction of manual labor and being outside, feel free to come join me!   After the root cellar is in, it's getting the deck/floor done and then logs, logs, logs.  

But today I just strolled around in thigh-deep snow taking in the fresh air and sharing my dreams with a friend - envisioning the cozy little cabin, the outhouse, the woodpile, and maybe even a flat-stone path to the netted gazebo by the lake, and maybe even a sauna in which I can sweat myself clean, and maybe even sharing it with someone else.
After all the dreaming, I went to see my new rental.  Since the last post, I actually met another Talkeetnan, Julie, and she was moving to Cordova and wanted to rent out the cabin she was in for the next couple of months.  So now, I'm living in the Beaver House, a cute rustic-looking cabin built by a miner, Jim Beaver.  It's the perfect cozy place to finish out the winter in, until I can move out to my land in the summer.

View of Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter, and Denali from the Talkeetna Spur Road.

February 10 - 13th, 2011

I was riding my bike in Anchorage a week ago and boom! that was it.  I was done with Anchorage.  Done with a capital D.  That day, I posted on Craigslist looking for a rental in Talkeetna and starting talking with Kenny Pigeon who was considering renting out his summer cabin to me while he was in North Carolina.  Yay!
So the next chance I could, I rented a car and drove up to Talkeetna to check it out.

Well, that rental didn't work out... it was unheated and uninsulated... but I met his neighbor, Claudia, and was off on a series of word-of-mouth leads to look at other rentals.  One was an apartment above a garage, too big.  One was another apartment above a hangar, too pricey.  The third was a rickety cabin that looked like dogs had lived there, too shabby for the price.  The fourth was perfect.  Rental cabins with bed, electric heat and a mini-fridge with the Guest House 30 feet away, fully set up with kitchen, bathroom, tv/dvd, wireless, and washer/dryer.  Sweet!

Meanwhile, I set up camp on my land - the platform that had been stomped out on my last visit was still there and nicely hardened so my tent was quickly up and anchored and set up with two thermal pads, two sleeping bags just for me.  It was supposed to get to -20°F on Saturday night.   I also had to dig out my tarp.  It caved in and one of the grommets blew due to the weight of the snow on it.  I shouldv'e had a steaper angle on it to shed the snow better.

On Saturday night, Suzy's friend Ama came up and we finally got to meet eachother.  It was a fun-filled night for sure!  First we looked at the art exhibit of mosaics, then we watched an acoustic performance at the Roadhouse, then a quick pizza dinner at Mountain Mike's, then the Complexities of Love variety show (which was, um, interesting...), and then dancing our butts off at the Fairview.  What a night! 

 

And I slept toasty warm in my double bag/double pad set-up (although it only dropped to around -17°F that night).  The hard part isn't sleeping warm, it's the brutal transition from my warm cozy bed to getting outside in the morning.  Brrr.  I didn't have enough fuel in my stove for tent-side decaf, so I crawled into the car and spent a leisurely morning reading at the Flying Squirrel Cafe. 

It was a perfect trip!  Found a rental, met a ton of local people and a new Anchorage friend, Ama.  Yay!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Carla and I came up to Talkeetna for the annual Wilderness Woman Contest and Bachelor Ball (http://www.bachelorsoftalkeetna.org/wilderness-woman-contest.html).  We decided to camp out on my foundation.  It was cold but so beautiful to see everything covered in sparkly white.