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.