This is not my driveway. Mine is worse. I’m looking out the driveway of my friends place where I’m staying while they help me get my place started. And it’s a mudhole. When driving out with a pickup you have to have enough speed to not bog down. When going out in their Prius you have to know where to put the wheels to miss the deepest ruts. If the water wasn’t there it wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s been raining. And raining. And raining some more.

It has been raining every day since Friday. Saturday was lovely until the later evening when it poured down and it hasn’t stopped since. I’ve been told that this is a bit unusual. Not that they don’t get rain in June, but they don’t usually see so much for so many days in a row. Fairbanks is in the interior and most of the rain will drop going over the mountains by the coast. Comparing Anchorage to Fairbanks weather-wise is like comparing Portland to Bend. Marine air makes the weather warmer and wetter and Fairbanks doesn’t get any marine air.

Usually I don’t mind the rain, but at the moment there is an excavator sitting on my property that cannot be used because of how wet it is. It would cause more damage to my driveway than benefit. We rented it for a week and got 8 of our 40 hours of run time in before the rain shut us down. It’s due to go back today, but we had to go in and ask if we could hang on to it for a bit longer in the hopes that the rain will stop and the mud will dry out enough to get some of those hours used up. We now have until Friday morning. The rain might let up on Wednesday afternoon. Fingers crossed, right?

In the time we did put in on the machine this is what got done. The pad at the end of the driveway got smoothed and leveled. The place we want to build is leveled and the second site is also leveled and compacted with an access road down that a 2WD truck managed to navigate down and back up.

Then the pile of trees that came down from the area of my property that was cleared for driveway and build site got trimmed, measured, and stacked. By the start of next month my friend should be able to bring his sawmill over and we can get some lumber from that pile. I was pricing lumber that we need to build and while this might be more complicated than just going to Home Depot it’s also going to save me a lot of money. Lumber is expensive! Especially when you need to plan for enough insulation to get through winter at -°30 or colder. I want to be cozy when it’s ugly outside.

While Lance was using the excavator I had a project of my own. Being off grid means no running water or flush toilets. I plan to put in septic at some point, but until then I need an outhouse. This is a design he’s wanted to make for a while now for his family, but I’m lucky enough to get the trial run on it. It’s a little cabin of its own with a 300 gallon tank in it. The idea is to insulate it well with the scraps of closed-cell foam he’s collected, then run a small heater under the floor to keep the waste from completely freezing and building up stalagmites in winter. Trust me when I say I don’t want to deal with those stalagmites.

I made more progress on the outhouse than is shown in the photo above. There are stairs and a floor. I also got roof beams in, but by the time I was done with them it was late on Thursday evening and I was tripping over air. I didn’t think combining tools and ladders with physical exhaustion was a good idea so we called it. And the rain began as we drove home. All that is left on the outhouse project is a roof, install the door, and add a seat and vent. It shouldn’t take long once I can get back up there.

So that’s where we stand for now. Waiting for the rain to stop. Waiting for other things to come together so we can move forward. Finding other productive things to do while we wait. I still believe I’ll have a roof up by August. At least I hope I will. But I also need to start looking for work. I have savings but I need an income too, sooner than later. My 14 days is almost up. I’m obviously not sick with the virus. I can get out there. I’ll keep you posted.

I was raised to believe in Sabbath rest. Six days to labor and the seventh day to rest. I haven’t followed that teaching for a long time. Life got too full and everything demanded attention all the time. There was never enough time to do what needed to be done. Thinking back to Trimet days, I remember advice given to drivers that were new to the Extra Board. “You can work the board or the board will work you.” The same goes for life but we never think about it that way.

In the last three months since I left Trimet I have started to get back to a calmer mode of life. I hope to continue the trend. I want to make Sabbath part of that calmness. Whether I attend church or not, I would like to have a day set aside for nothing but a spiritual recharge. I know I’m in good company to make that happen. I had a very energetic invitation to church this morning that I think I’ll decline, with a promise to join next week. I need a few hours of quiet.

Yesterday was kinda full. My friend Missi stayed home from work to finish recovering from a migraine and the meds made her loopy so I got to drive and help her focus on her list. We dropped trash at the transfer station, filled the water jugs, got gas for the generator, and a dozen other errands. It took all day, but I’m starting to get the lay of the land. It helps to be the driver.

I haven’t started work on my property yet. We did go out there after I arrived on Thursday, just so I could see what there was to work with. We have some plans and ideas. There are some really great logs that came down with the making of the driveway and my friend’s husband has a sawmill to make lumber. We just have to get out there to get started. That will be another post. Today I’m going to rest.

I’m not in Oregon anymore. I’m sitting in a dry cabin a bit south of Fairbanks, Alaska. I slept through the not-dark of night to the hum of a generator that kept the fan going. When it stopped at one point the whine of mosquitoes replaced it. I don’t mind the generator sounds.

So why am I in Fairbanks? I can blame a friend and a former job. A couple of years ago a flare up of lower back pain made me rethink my life. I knew that my days as a bus driver needed to come to an end. My friend Missi started talking to me about how much she loves life up here and how I should visit. In January of last year I did just that. I had a week of vacation and bought a plane ticket to see just how bad it could be living in a cabin that relies on a generator for electricity to run the oil heater. Could I handle using an outhouse when it’s -25°? It turns out that I can.

On that visit I found that I loved it. This place is beautiful. I went ahead and looked to see what land went for and I found a piece of raw land that I could afford and that I can do something with. One of my boys got more excited by the idea than I was and committed to working with me so I bought it. Last June he came up with me to see the property and walk the easement where a quarter mile driveway needed to go. He loved it too.

I have a plan. Last year I bought the property and my friend’s husband made me a driveway. This year on the list is to make at least one cabin and settle in and find work. I’m up here now and getting ready get started. I hope to post my progress regularly.

I had a whole bunch more I wanted to write, but everyone has been wanting to talk to me. The day is getting planned and it’s time to get moving. By Sunday I hope to have more to share. Building a new life includes more than just making a cabin. I need to find a place in the community too.

I’m tired but not sleeping right. I’m a bit cranky. I’m in a holding pattern with a bunch of stuff that needs to be done and no energy or focus to get it done. My brain is stuck in the nebulous future and the present is slipping by.

Last year I bought a property in Alaska. It’s 23 acres on a hill about 25 miles south of Fairbanks. I have some friends up there who are excited to have me as an almost-neighbor. My place is about 15 miles away from theirs so I guess that counts as being neighbors.

When I was considering the purchase I put together a 5 year plan for it. I want this property to be an active asset. I would like it to bring income for me. So year 1 was buy the land and build a driveway to access it. That was accomplished by September 2019. Yay! Year 2 is build a cabin to live in and a cabin to rent. This is where I am. The season for building up there is now so I have a plane ticket to be up there in a week. I’m excited and freaked out!

I have a project here that I’m stalled out on. I have a load of old concrete to dump and two loads of trash to haul out. I don’t know how much I can leave for my boys to be responsible for. And I kinda want to pack my bedroom up before I leave so someone can use it…Or not? There’s so much up in the air still. Plus I’m still the transportation for my mom and her doctors appointments. It’s a lot.

It’s time to make a list. And a schedule. Organizing helps. I’ve been through this kind of mental overload before. Usually it’s because I’m doing new things and the uncertainty gets to me. I’m sure that in a couple of weeks I’ll be fine.

As part of a stress reduction plan I’m slowly abandoning major social media. I might be babbling into the void here with no one listening, but I hope that as I move forward with this adventure I can tell a story interesting enough to be worth following. I just don’t want to have to pay for the attention. If you resonate with anything I write, please respond or share it.