August 22, 2010, Sunday

Woke up to the squirrels chirping away in the trees above us.  Leisurely morning, teaching Suzy the fine manouevers of cowboy coffee and chatting about our trip.
Drove into town and ate a scrumptious breakfast at the Roadhouse, then did a walking tour of the town.  Met Holli in the park, doing her hula hoop thing and of course, we had to join the hula hoopers for a wee bit.  A boy came running over to Holli to tell her that her son, Vega, just called him a hippy.  Yeah.

In the evening, we went for a hike around the X-Y Lakes (and I found out, there is a Z Lake as well).  Beautiful plants and lichen and mushrooms and the evening light through the trees was great.  We just made it around before dark, we kept lingering so much to take photos.   Then we went back "home" and realized we didn't have a can opener, so instead of burritos, we had delicious quesadillas with zucchini.

Aug 21, 2010, Saturday

Suzy and I arrived in the evening... I was so excited to show off my new home to her!

Look at that grin!!  I was happy to see everything looking a lot greener than when I left it in May.  My tarp was still up and functional, and so many high-bush cranberries everywhere.
So beautiful.

We set up camp and then went into town for reindeer chili and a wild and crazy night at the Fairview.  Notable events were a not-so-pretty threesome getting it on on the dance floor, meeting a very cute but way too yound girl, and stories of geese and grizzlies.

Fillin' Up the Holes...Day 2

May 26, 2010
Crawled out of the tent at 7am, made coffee, and set to work.  Four more holes to fill.  These four were a lot easier and went fairly quickly.  I only had to make sure the tubes were level on all sides and the string ran more or less through the middle.

I finished at 11:30 and Tim came by for the next step.  We used his laser level to mark each tube at an equal level (about 10 inches about ground on the lowest) and then he chainsawed off each tube and we were set to go.  The concrete guys were late, and between 12:30 and 2:30 I napped/read in my tent.
More later....

Fillin' Up the Holes...Day 1

May 25, 2010  Tuesday

Drove up to Talkeetna in the morning - found a rideshare buddy at the hostel - Joshua.  Very nice guy, gave his life to Jesus, but didn't preach about it and we had a nice 2.5 hours of chatting.
Got to my home around noon and Tim came by a bit later to help me get started with the back-fill process.  So, first, I had to work on the 4 corners, because they were the most important ones to line up right.  The cabin plus porch is going to be 16 x 20, so the foundation is laid out at 14 x 18 feet.  a² + b² = c² so the distance between opposite corners was the square root of 14² + 18² and that came to 22.8 feet.  And it had to be pretty much exact.

Lining up the footing and the sonotube was the hardest part.  22.8 apart, plus level all the way around, plus in line with the orange cord outlining the edge.  The first one took me forever!  Once everything is in perfect alignment, I started dumping the sand and gravel back into the hole, adjusting the tube anytime it shifted.  Certainly, dumping the fill back in the hole took less time than digging it out!
Gradually, I got the hang of all the measuring, but it took me til 11pm, with a break for dinner, to finish just the four corners.  I passed out exhausted in my tent and set my alarm for 7am, because the concrete truck was showing up at 2pm the next day and I had to be ready.

No More Digging!!!

May 15, 2010, Saturday

Leisurely morning, packing up my camp.  I was going to dig out one of my holes that needs to be a bit wider, but it started raining and I decided not to bother.  Tidied up my tools, broke down my tent, packed up my stove and headed out.  I stopped in town to pick up a pizza for lunch at Mountain High Pizza and then drove back to Anchorage.
There it is.... just about ready to put the sonotubes in and pour the concrete.

Digging Day 6

May 14, 2010, Friday

How exciting to be working on the eighth and final hole!  And it was one of the easiest!  After removing the top layer of roots and humus, I was able to go straight to the shovel - no frozen clay or dirt!  Everything was soft and pliable... we are now well into spring, practically summer.

There were rocks in the sandy layer, but not as many as the last two and by 5 pm my work was done.  I had treated myself to a full growler of Single Engine Red from the Denali Brewing Company - the new local brewery in town, and sat down for a glass or two of a well-deserved drink (at least, I think it was well deserved!).

My other treat, was that my neighbors invited me to dinner and a shower!  I changed into my fleece skirt and loafers and brushed the dried mud out of my hair, and went up to their place around 6pm.  What a treat to get all the caked mud and dirt off of my arms and hands and face.

Then, my evening walk with Otter, and off to bed.

Digging Day 5

May 13th Thursday

Morning coffee, walk, then back to digging.  Sure enough, the seventh hole had lots of rocks too and it was slow, tedious work.
Not much else to report... how quickly the novelty of digging holes wears thin.
Tired, dirty, sore back, sore wrists, blistered hands.  Happy to be almost done.

PS.  I had only brought my one pair of Carhartts to work in and they were so dirty that I had to put a towel down on my car seat and I had totally dirtied up the chair in the library... disgraceful!  So today, when I went into town, I stopped at the Free Box, the local thrift store (although, not really a store since everything is free!).  I just wanted a pair of pants but none were the right size, and instead, I came away with a full-length fleece skirt.  It's so comfy I slept in it!  I also ended up with a pair of black slip-on loafers since my tennis shoes were just as dirty as my pants.

Digging Day 4

May 12th Wednesday

Tim came by again in the afternoon.  He has another project nearby, so he just stops here to see how I'm doing.  I told him how I remember when I was 19 years old, I got a book out of the library, called "How to Build Your Own Thoreau Cabin in the Woods." And how far away from a reality it seemed at the time... like an impossible dream, that would never work in today's world.  Ha!  And here I am, 20 years later, making it real.  Wow.  It still just blows my mind sometimes.  I really am living my dream.

Otter stayed off leash the whole time, but mostly laid around, watching me dig.  He began insisting that I take him for a walk every morning and evening, like his routine in the city.  And so, each morning, he'd want out of the tent by 6:30 am, I'd finally crawl out around 9 am, and find him sleeping in the sunshine.  I'd make some coffee, feed him breakfast, and then we'd walk around the neighborhood - dirt roads, ATV trails, lots of smells of sled dogs, horses, and moose.  It was a nice way to loosen up my back and legs before getting ready to wield the maddock and bend over a shovel all day.  And then, by the end of the day, around 10 pm, my back would be so sore it was hard to stand up straight, and the evening walk was great to stretch everything out a bit before hitting the sack.

Digging had been going very well, and I was hoping to finish all but one hole today, possibly allowing me to return to Anchorage for Thursday and Friday and pick up some substitute teaching work.  However, my 6th hole ended up being full of large rocks and gravel and it slowed my pace down considerably.  Instead of just digging out the sand with a shovel, I now had to break loose the rocks with the maddock, then place the shovel down and scrape the gravel, sand, and rocks onto it, then chuck it out.  ARRGGHH.  What a pain in the bee-hind!   End of the day and 1 1/2 more holes to go... which if they are anything like the sixth one, they'll be full of rocks and take almost twice as long as usual.

Digging Day 3

May 11th Tuesday.
Started the day the same, waking up and getting the coffee on.... but noticed that poor Otter was bored.  Even though he's been completely off-leash, he won't leave my sight and I had to start taking him on morning and evening walks, just like his routine in the city.  So, I'd wait til I had a mug full of coffee and then we'd set off along the dirt paths, Otter sniffing for other dogs, moose, and who  knows what else, and me just sipping my brew and strolling along.  It actually felt really nice to stretch my legs a bit and walk with a nice straight back before slaving away all day hunched over in a ditch.
Tim came by and used his chainsaw to get rid of the birch stump.  One of these days I'll probably have to own one of those things!  It's nice to have him check on me once a day to see how things are going... otherwise it's kind of lonely.  I haven't been going to see the neighbors much, mostly because of time-pressure to get the holes done.
In the afternoon, working on my 4th hole, I started photographing more... as a means of resting a bit!

I discoved 4 distinct layers in the earth:
1.  The organic mat of roots, debris, leaves, soil - best removed with the mattock, chopping through the bigger roots and dragging the thing off the surface, just like clipping a big mat off of a cat.

2.  The partially frozen layer of dirt and clay - horrible.  Removed bit by chipped-off bit with the maddock... at times it felt like I was chipping rock and this 4-5 inch layer often took me hours, with splattering bits of frozen mud flying into my eyes and mouth.

3.  The dirt layer - wonderful.  Soft, yielding reddish dirt that is easily shoveled out and tossed aside.

4.  The inorganic layer - variable.  If it was fine grey sand, it was quite easily shoveled out.  However, if it was gravel or mixed sand with gravel and larger stones, it was a nightmare, gradually picked, scraped, scooped, pried, tossed out.  Three of the holes were horribly full of rocks, one was a bit full, and, luckily, the four holes on the east side were all sand.

Once a hole is completed, there's a reddish pile of organic soils on one side and a grey pile of inorganic sand/gravel on the other, and then the plastic footing goes in the bottom.

I paused on the 4th hole and started the 5th in the later evening and worked til 9ish.  And then, same thing in the evening, walk with Otter, dinner, and bed.

Digging Day 2

May 10th Monday

Woke up, made coffee, and back to work.  Finished the second hole by midday; took a break for some lunch, then back to work.  That horrible first hole was still frozen solid and I ignored it.  But I did decide to attempt the other 2 holes that were in shadier areas to see if they were just as frozen.  My next hole was the one that had the birch stump nearby.  I hacked away at the stump just enough to get around it and then set to chopping and digging away.  I finished that hole by the end of the day, despite the big tree root sticking out over it and bomping me on the head every once and awhile.

By the end of the day, I was ridiculously sore.  I could barely lift the mattock and my triceps were screaming, my hands were blistered, and I was trying to imagine how my body was going to hold out for 5 more days, 6 more holes.  Yikes.

Spring Thaw!


























And then I remembered what my friend Sonia told me about long-distance cycling.... Day 1 is ok, Day 2 is the worst, Day 3 is hard, and after that, they're all easy.  Whew.  I hope the same goes for digging!
That evening, Otter and I strolled down to the pond, and checked out the ducks there.  One pair of Mallards and another pair, either Common or Barrow Goldeneye.  As we came back up, Otter heard the chirping of a tree squirrel and went crazy chasing after it!  After that, he was constantly watching a certain tree and would go tearing off into the woods every time he heard the chirps.  Never did catch anything!

It's blurry, but it's a yellow-rumped warbler!  (thanks to my better-birder-than-me friend, Regan)

Digging Day 1

May 9th, Sunday

I am borrowing a friend's car and dog-sitting, so I packed up Otter's things and drove up to Talkeetna today to get started on my foundation.  I had gone to the hardware store and purchased a shovel, a maddock, and a rake and was ready to get to work.

 

---------------Otter!  Such a great dog.-------------------------------------------------- 

I met up with Tim and we lined out where the foundation was going to go.  So, the cabin is going to be 16' x 16' with a 4 foot porch. We decided on 8 concrete pilings with footings - 6 for the house and 2 for the porch.  Each hole has to be 4 feet deep and 4 feet diameter in order to ensure a solid foundation.  Tim spray painted an orange dot at the center of where each hole has to be and then left me to my work.  As he left, he said to me, "Don't be embarassed to change your mind and have me bring in the backhoe; you won't have been the first." 

 

   ------------------------------this is what the site looks like before any digging----------------------------

And work it was.  After Tim left, it was just Otter and me, and Otter fell asleep in the sun while I picked up the maddock and started digging through the top soil.  I started my first hole and thought to myself.... this is impossible.  It was so frozen it was like chipping at an iceblock or worse, solid bedrock.  The maddock would ricochet off the frozen clay and jar my arms and elbows.  After over an hour, I had made zero progress and thought I was never going to be able to do this.  I definitely thought about that backhoe!

But before completely giving up, I decided to try another one, and see if they all were frozen and needed that top layer removed so they'd be exposed to the sun more.  Well, the second one was difficult but not impossible.  I was definitely glad I had bought the maddock.  Some of the ground was frozen and I wouldn't have gotten anywhere with just a shovel.  But at least this time, the frozen clay chipped off bit by bit.  I'd get so excited when I'd hit a sweet spot and knocked off a piece the size of a brick.... most of the chips were more the size of a snickers.  

By the evening, I was sweaty and muddy, with chunks of thawed out mud covering my arms and face.  It's like getting a mud facial and going to the gym at the same time.  But I had finished my first hole and was half way through the second one!  

I stopped around 9 or 10pm, ate a salad, some cheese and tortilla, and then fed Otter and crawled into my tent.  I wasn't sure how Otter was going to be in the tent, but he settled onto his bed and passed out, somehow as tired as I was even though he hadn't lifted a paw to help.

-------end of the day; the far left hole is done (see the big pile of grey sand - that's the bottom layer)--------

Spring clearing!

April 26th
Sunday.  Got a ride up using rideshare -with Steve, the miner.  He was heading up there to see if one of his gold panning creeks was open yet.  He dropped me off around noon and I spent four hours post-holing around my property, measuring distances, estimating boundaries, marking potential cabin sites.  I marked my one indistinct boundary, estimating it the best I could.  I wasn't able to find a survey marker anywhere but there was about 2 feet of snow still on the ground.
Everytime I come out here, I am amazed at how beautiful it is.  Sometimes, when I'm in Anchorage or San Francisco, I think the whole plan is ludicrous and my site too swampy or too developed or too small or too whatever.  and then, I step one foot onto it and I get a big grin across my face and start dreaming of spending more and more time out here.  It makes me so happy.


––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

May 1st (Arrived late, met the neighbors and set up camp.)
I drove out to Talkeetna in Sarah and Alex's Camry, arriving in the evening with plans to meet Tim in the morning.  I met my neighbors!  Shirley and Gino, a friendly retired couple from Seattle.  Then, I set up camp and went to bed.  Mostly, the land is now free of snow... except down by the pond, which is still mostly frozen.  It was a chilly night!  Need to wear more layers tomorrow...

----- my pond - still frozen!---------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 2nd  (Met with Tim to decide on site selection and then cleared a ton of brush!)
8am wake up - took a bit of work to get the stove going, made tea, and met with Tim at 9am.

Final site selection - done!  The Road Site is nearest to Golden Pond Circle.  It's a flat, open area, with good sunlight coming in from the south.  The Middle Site is in the middle (duh.), on the highest ground to provide a view, but sloped and thus harder to build on.  Views may include the Mountain to the northwest, but also the telephone pole and the neighbor's house.  The Pond Site is farthest from the road, with a nice view of the pond.  It's a slightly inclined area with snow still on the ground (ie.  less sun).
So.... considering how much I like sun and, being the LNT master that I am, how much I prefer to not disturb the wildlife, I went with the Road Site!  Whew, done.

 

-------site, before any clearing -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Then, up to Shirley's for an omelet breakfast and she introduced me to my other neighbor, Steve.  Interesting guy.  He's moving back to the Lower 48 for a year.  He has a habit of going, "whoink" randomly in the middle of his conversations, usually to show disdain or contempt for something, such as what people may think if he is shooting deer from his roof.  Whoink.

 Next... off to work.  A lot of chopping down chest-high alder bushes and an occasional wild rose stem and devil's club.  And, a lot of apologizing.  I'm sorry, snip.  I'm so sorry, chop, chop.  All day long.  Then raking the debris and beautiful mossy ground cover.  Sorry, again.  Then, passed out, exhausted, with extra layers and a zipped up rainfly to keep the warmth in.

-----------------------------------------jenn in front of the cleared site-------------------------------------

May 3rd (Another day of clearing, mostly raking, getting rid of logs and a few trees.  Tim came by and chainsawed a few logs, one small spruce sapling, and one medium birch.)
Another beautiful day.  Tea and then back to work.  At this point, mostly raking out the debris and working on uprooting old rotten logs and buried alder roots.  Less apologizing, less noticeable results, but still piles and piles of organic debris to scatter.
Then, Tim came over just after noon and chainsawed a few dead trunks and one 8-inch diameter birch.  When he left, and I set to collecting the wood for firewood, more apologies, especially to the beautiful birch tree.  I kept telling myself, only one big tree, really it isn't too bad.  And my site gets so much natural sunlight.  It's a beautiful place and I can't wait to live there.
Then, a quick bike ride into town to check my email at the library, and back by 6:30pm for dinner with Shirley and Geno.  This is their second marriage and they just celebrated 25 years together.  And they spent about 20 of those years building their home!  I can't take that long!, I tell them, a bit jokingly, a bit panic-stricken.  
My plan is 3 years max.  
Year 1 (2010) - the foundation.  
Year 2 (2011) - walls and roof.  
Year 3 (2012) finishing the inside - walls, windows, cabinets, stairs, etc.
And then, 25 years of littles projects while I'm living in it, of course - the sauna, the gazebo, home-made furniture, a welcome sign (Sveicināti manā mājas mežā!).

 

---left over high-bush cranberries from last season----------------------------------------------------------

May 4th

(Got up super early and drove to Palmer to work.)
6am wake up, take down the tent, tidy up all my gear and drive to Palmer to work at the vet clinic by 9am.  I needed to stop and buy fingernail clippers to get all the dirt out form under my nails - and I was wearing work gloves almost the entire time!

------my camp site --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------sunset at 10:30pm in Palmer -------------------------------------