Yesterday was my birthday. Hooray for completing another trip around the sun! I spent my day getting groceries and refilling our gas and water jugs. I did make a couple of other stops. Clay got a shiny new ID tag for if he goes exploring. And he also got a new toy that he won’t share with the other dogs. It’s a lot like when Clay came to live with us and Bruno wouldn’t share. What goes around comes around I guess. I also treated myself to a coffee drink, commenting that it was my birthday treat. The barista was disappointed that grocery shopping was the extent of my plans for the day. But honestly, that’s enough for now. I’m happy to be up here. It’s enough that I’m doing things for me. New job, new cabin (eventually), new way of life. That’s plenty of excitement for me.

Another stop I made was at the local sawmill to ask for a quote on plywood and roofing. When the sawmill is up and running I will have plenty of lumber of whatever size we choose, but plywood for the walls, roof, and floor is not something we can make. It’s in line with what I expected. I just don’t want a pile of materials to be delivered only to wait in the rain for the sawmill to be up. Believe me, when this all starts moving for real I will be so excited.

Until the cabin is up this is where I’m staying. When it was just me it worked for me to stay in my friends cabin. But there wasn’t really room for my son. My friend had opportunity and reason to buy this trailer from a coworker and we get to benefit. It’s over 30′ and has a shower stall. There’s no hookup so water for cooking and drinking has to be brought in from town. Water for washing either dishes or people comes from the creek by 5 gallon bucket. Electricity comes from the generator.

Every morning starts the same. I wake up and get up because I need to. On my way back from the outhouse I fill and restart the generator so we can have coffee. Then breakfast and figure out what is happening for the day. Sometimes I also fill the bucket from the creek to wash dishes. As long as we’re beside the running water I might as well take advantage.

Like I said, it was raining again this morning. I woke up with the thought that I understand reluctant dogs a little better. That sounds odd and perhaps a little crude. But listening to fat, heavy raindrops on the roof really makes you ponder how bad you need to go out to the outhouse. Can I hold out until the rain stops? It would help if the outhouse had a roof. It’s really unpleasant to get soaked while you’re trying to do your business. I don’t blame dogs for not wanting to go out in the rain.

So what’s next? There’s a few more parts that need to be swapped out on the sawmill. A few more places where rust needs to be persuaded to let go. It had a full maintenance checkup a couple of years ago and was in great condition, but sitting in the weather for two or three winters did it no favors. Still, I think this is the week. At some point the rain will quit holding us back. We’ll have to get to it because we can already see the shift in the weather towards winter. I’d rather work in rain than snow.

I guess it’s been 3 weeks since I last posted. A few things have happened and others have not. Last post was about using a chainsaw mill to carve 12″ x 12″ x 30′ beams for my cabin to sit on. We finished those and got them set up on pier blocks.

The plan was to finish and set up the beams, then bring the sawmill on site to make my pile of logs into lumber. All the sawmill needed was a new battery and some greasing of the moving parts and maybe a bit of attention to a bit of wiring… And then he found that the alternator wasn’t producing power. And a motor that is supposed to raise and lower the blade to adjust thickness didn’t work. Even though he had the factory go through the entire thing before bringing it up here, 2 years of weather had taken its toll. So he talked to the local service guy (he’s just a couple hundred miles away in Anchorage) and got a replacement motor ordered. It came. It was the wrong motor and wouldn’t work. Another week went by and the right part came in and now I hear that the sawmill is up and running. We might be making lumber today. Yay!

The other thing that has happened is that I officially started my new job. 20-some miles north of Fairbanks is Borealis Basecamp. They are an off-grid eco-lodge that features individual domes as guest houses. These domes have acrylic panels as part of the roof and provide an unparalleled view of the sky, which is often filled with the aurora borealis. I’m their shuttle driver. So if you fly in to stay there I’m the one who would pick you up from the airport and drive you up to the site. The hour long drive gives me a chance to geek out over all the best stuff in the area and it gives me a chance to go on some deep dives into history and atmosphere science.

As the shuttle driver I also haul supplies up and occasionally I’ll do a Walmart run. Occasionally? Yesterday I had to go in three times. But I’m sure that won’t be the norm. I’ll be operating out of their shop in town so I only have to drive half the distance in my own vehicle. My place is 25 miles south of Fairbanks. Can’t get away from the commute, but at least the traffic is better!

I’m sure I’ll get better pics of the domes at some point. I haven’t had much leisure time up there yet, but I fully intend to go up for some aurora viewing soon.

So, cabin came to a halt for a bit, but we should start to see progress this week. The RV we are using is functional, but not quite what we want to spend winter in. My truck has an appointment to get set up for winter. I hear that -30° is hard on vehicles and don’t want to lose my Blue. A couple of friends are looking at the trees and predicting an early winter. I just want to get walls, a roof, and insulation in before the snow flies. Oh, and a Toyo. Gotta have reliable heat for that insulation to keep in.

I think that’s it for now. There are some smaller things, like how we bought a new generator earlier than expected because of the lightning strike. Or how the dog hates getting out of bed more every day. There have been hikes, picnics at the lake, visits to the gold dredge, and a dozen other little things. It’s easy to slip into daily life and let the details fly past. If I get in enough of a habit of recording the big things then maybe those small details will get recorded as well.

Oh, before I forget. I don’t yet know how to add links, but if you go search YouTube for Borealis Basecamp there are a couple of really cool videos. One is a Timberland ad, but it really captures the beauty of the place and the harshness of winter. The other is by a guy named Joel and shows the guest side of the experience. They’re worth a few minutes of your time.