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.
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.
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!).
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!
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 -------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment