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.