Fall House Photos-Update Aug/Sept 2006

Since the blog wouldn't post them to my last entry, let's try this.

Cabin Building 201-Fall has hit.

We have now entered cabin building 201 (electical and insulation) 101 was (framing and how not to hit your fingers with a hammer each swing). "smile"

Fall has hit and so has an unsettling knot in my stomach. Things become a bit more high stakes when you are watching snow capped mountains become quickly half snow mountains, but thankfully it warmed up quite a bit this weekend and I think I did see a bit of meltage going on.. whoo, more time. I thank God for each day over 32 degrees but honestly, I think that I'm to the point now that if a blizzard hit tomorrow-I could throw some insulation and boards on the windows, grab my rusty wood stove, and be semi toasty--still in the dark--but semi toasty.

So it's been over 3 weeks now since "handy man extrodinare" Steve left back to Akiak and I became the sole care taker of the build it yourself house project, which I am now calling "descovering what I didn't know about self" project. Basically after Steve left the cabin building came to a screatching halt...there was so much to do and so much of it was things that I've never done before and now I was realizing that I had to do it "alone". Although I had an idea of what needed to be done and the process, I spent the first week just staring at the unfinished cabin waiting for someone to come walking down the driveway to help me finish...it was too much work for just me...so I waited, and waited, but no one came.

The second week was spent with me giving a half hearted effort to my work (I can't even remember what I did but I'm sure something got done-oh, that's right I went shopping at Home Depot for all the materials that I would need to get closed in for the winter.. That's when this philosophy came into being "when in doubt, shop"). I did have my good friends Karen and Mark (my roofing specialists) come out and help me with waterproofing my roof "thanks a million" guys.. It was also during this week that I whinned and pouted a lot when no one was looking-yea, that didn't help either.

The third week..this was the week that I realized after two weeks of me waiting for others to help me with things that I was pretty sure I could do by myself but just didn't want to, I was on my own and "had" to do it by myself or it wasn't going to get done. My good hearted neighbors (Pierre, Rocky, Nikki) were in no position to help. Pierre broke his shoulder and Rocky and Nikki had their baby boy "Pete" AND they both had a ton of fish to catch to feed their dog teams for the winter. So, it was this week that I rolled up my sleaves (so to speak, not really, the mosquitoes and knats would have eaten me alive), said a prayer to ask God to keep me from cutting off my fingers or falling off a ladder, and got to work...hard work. I took measurments, cut plywood with an electric saw, hauled back major amounts of materials with the 4-wheeler, loaded and unloaded big heavy and sometimes sharp (roofing) materials myself both in Fairbanks and at the property, spent hours setting screws, wiring the house, spent hours thinking about electricity, more hours staring at the Home Depot electrical wiring book for dummies, and even more hours running lines (12/2, 12/3 lines), electrical box, what's that?, sledge hammering my copper gound pipe into permafrost (3 days and still going) as required by the electric company--stupid requirment--the thing is 12 feet tall and I have all but 12 inches in the ground--it's been at 12 inches over the past 2 days of ponding and now the copper is starting to bend...I say "good enough power company--hook me up--but they say "keep pounding" grrr. insulation, insulation, more insulation. Almost dropped a heavy piece of Plywood that I was putting over my cealing insulation on my head (had to jump for my life)--this is something that I've now decided is something I can't (or shouldn't) do by myself..but I'm ok with the fact that I did try it...I'm proud that I did cut it to the right length my first try..good for me. Good for me on week 3!! Peter, his dad, and his son "Nathen" and another member from church came out to help me one day--they insulated the cealing and drilled some wholes for wiring. Also my friend Kevin (who used to live in Akiak with me) and is now living in Fairbanks AND is an electrican came out memorial day weekend to help me put my power boxes on the outside and inside of my house---bring on the electricity!! I'm thankful for all of my friends who gave me a hand for sure but I'm more thankful that God has allowed me to "live" and "learn" from cabin building 101 and 201....I'm so proud of my new skills. Cabin building 301-501 still to come, (301-sheetrock, woodstove installation, stair case, flooring). (401-trim,cabinate building,sink and holding tank installation) (501-appliances, windows, winterizing vehicles). Good news, within the next 2-3 weeks I should be hooked up to power and phone and internet...yea! Here are some great photos of fall in/around Denali and my house. (sorry mom, the spell checker won't work for me and it's midnight...I'm too tired to try to figure it out...just incase you haven't noticed my cabin building (as challenged as it is) isn't as bad as my spelling...don't blame my mom, she tried her best, I chose to ski instead of study my spelling lists each night..."smile". No regrets--but I'll work on it folks.)