If you have been reading this blog over the last year there has been one major theme, aside from snow. When can I get on my land so I can build?
All last summer the unusual amount of rain made my new driveway treacherous. All winter there was enough snow that we weren’t going to try. This spring we were waiting for it to melt. And now we wait for the mud to dry out some more.
My driveway a month ago. My driveway yesterday.
One of the things that kept coming up when I was looking at land a considering the purchase of the property I now own was that you always look at access and water. I know how to handle water for consumption on the property and I know where most of the water flows across or collects on the property. I’m mostly okay with that at this point. What I’m struggling with is access.
Putting in the driveway was a great starting point. Now I really need to put in some time, effort, and gravel. That means money. I think I’m going to get off my butt and call up a local gravel company to see what it’s going to cost me to get started. If I can get something done on that then I will have an easier time getting started on all the other things that need doing.
I’m so glad I bought some supplies last fall. Prices on those two stacks have gone up considerably.
Part of the reason we went to check on the property was to see if our plywood was still there. I bought a stack of 5/8 and 20 sheets of tongue and groove subfloor last fall. I’m glad I did. Bulk price on the 5/8 was under $25/sheet last year. I just checked and it’s going for $67/sheet now for the same stuff. The subfloor is over $90/sheet now where I think I paid $60. I have a slightly irrational fear that it will grow legs. Maybe that comes from where I grew up, but at this point it might be worth the bother to someone.
Clay is getting the lay of the land.
I also succumbed to temptation and tromped across more of the land. I know we’ll extend the driveway in the future. I want to put in a guest cabin or two and maybe a second residence. This place is big enough to do some interesting things. I didn’t get very far, but I love what I saw. I can’t wait.
The coffee is extra strong this morning. I might have allowed it to burble on the stove a little bit longer than I should have, but it has a nice kick. I’m sitting here, almost ready to head in to work and I’m trying to make plans. I knew that hibernation would wear off eventually.
First off, I want my cabin. I really, really want a proper cabin. It would be so much easier to heat than this RV. We would have more room to work in the kitchen. We could have better spaces to relax or hang out and not be in each other’s way. That has to wait. My loose plan is to wait for March when things melt to get the sawmill working and get the lumber cut so that when the season ends my shuttle job I can put in the time to build.
Then there is the garden. I want a garden. I’m pretty sure I can grow potatoes and cabbage, carrots and beets. I just don’t know how much protection I will need to install so that critters won’t trample or eat my garden. I put a question in to a group about that. We’ll see if I get anything useful.
I still don’t know what I’ll do for work in summer. Or if Chris will work and I can live off of his paycheck for a few months. I haven’t decided if I’ll drive for Basecamp for a second season or not. Some of this resists planning. It’s too far away and has too many variables.
I used to make lists and plans all the time. I find it really helps when your brain is too busy. Having things written down helps me focus. I’ve been getting better at letting go and winging it, but I would like an outline.
I know what I want to do out in the real world. I’m pondering a couple of ideas for content on the blog. I want your feedback.
What do you want to know about life in Alaska? Do you want to know about living off-grid? How do we keep warm? Cost of living? What it’s like driving? Ask me questions!
I have just finished reading through my posts for the last year. More recently I have been telling stories, but last January I posted a series detailing my camping list. I want to revisit that and compare camping to my current lifestyle. That could be an interesting ten articles.
Please, tell me what you think. I love sharing what it’s like up here and I would love to share the adventure with you the way you want to hear about it.
My dear friend Missi doesn’t celebrate Christmas with things. The reasons are complicated and incomprehensible to some, but simply put she and her family prefer to focus on the reasons behind Christmas instead of the commercialized holiday. She knows that my family does like Christmas. More specifically, I like the lights and the music that put me in a cozy mood. My boys are a little bit cynical about it and put up with me.
With our surroundings and circumstances being so very different this year I was fully prepared to let the season slide by. I left my special ornaments in Oregon. I don’t need to make the generator work extra just for colored lights. There’s no room for a tree in the RV. It’s okay, expected, and perfectly alright for me to do nothing this year.
I was surprised when my dear friend showed up at my door on Friday night with this baby Norfolk Island Pine. They are my favorite plant to pet and I haven’t had one in years. She said she wanted to make sure I had something for the season. Even though she doesn’t celebrate she wanted to make sure I can. (And she says she doesn’t understand why she has been told that Hospitality is one of her spiritual gifts.)
My son immediately dubbed it Plant. Plant will keep Mr Coffee company now that Mr Coffee has been abandoned for the stovetop version. It will be hard to keep Plant alive in the variable environment of the RV, but we’re up for the challenge. We still don’t know how or if we will dress Plant up for the holiday, but this could be fun.
As a side note, we spent all the daylight on Saturday (11am to 3:30pm) rebuilding the stand for the heating oil barrel. The quick and dirty stand that was put together to get us warm was starting to fail. We dismantled it and made a much better one.
The original lasted a month before it started to lean. A crack as fuel was added made replacing this an easy choice. Almost finished. Much stronger, but the light was fading fast. We finished it by headlamp.
Really, it only took about 2 hours of work, but we had to come inside multiple times to warm up our hands and the driver drill. Our tools didn’t like the -13 weather any more than we did. It’s done now and should last us a good long while. I keep saying we, but I have to give all credit to my son. I was just the gofer on this project, as much as that goes against my nature. He can be proud of his work and I’m proud of the man he has become.
I’m having a problem with social media lately. I’m sure a lot of you feel similar. With the election coming up and the death of an iconic figure the posts have gotten ever more shrill. When you add that to the protests that enable violence, memes and arguments for this side or that, and the general feeling that I’m being told that I should hate myself, I feel like the dumpster fire is burning from a toxic waste dump.
Last week someone posted about how if you disagree with her on this, that, and the other point then you can pretty much F— off and die because you must be a horrible person. Just for holding a different opinion. And her last several posts were all about the masks she was making that proclaim “Love Wins.” I don’t think she noticed the irony. It makes me very sad to see that reflected in so many other people’s posts. How can love win if you hate yourself or those who THINK differently than you? And these are the people that the major platforms keep suggesting that I follow. I can’t do that. I cannot pour that much toxicity into my mind and emotions.
I’m just starting to feel like I’ve shed some of the mindset that was so harmful when I lived in Oregon. I’m just starting to feel relaxed and happy. I’m enjoying my job, not showing up for the paycheck… although money is helpful. Perusing social media brings that feeling back and I don’t think it is good for me. I need to cut it out for a while. But I still want to share.
Here’s my plan. I’m going to allow myself to open those apps once a day for the next week. The only reason will be to share a new blog post. I don’t know how well this will work, but that’s why I said week, not month. Give it a try. And this way I will own my posts, not a big company that might decide it doesn’t like the way I think.
And now for a cabin update!
As of today we have five 2″x 12″x 20′ floor joists cut! And a few 2″x 6″ x 20′ boards as well.
Have I mentioned that we’ve had problems with the sawmill? My friend’s husband Lance has a 1989 WoodMizer portable sawmill. He has brought it with him from Washington to Alabama, back to Washington and now up to Alaska. I know he’s milled wood for another friend to build a house with. He has big ideas for what he can do with his sawmill, but it sat outside through the last two winters and that took a toll. It needed a battery, a servo motor, new wiring, a new chain and a new bolt to mount it. The rollers for the head needed replacing. It seemed like every time one thing was fixed another broke.
Friday the sawmill was fixed. We got out to my property and pushed it into place by hand. Lance leveled it out and gave us all the safety lecture. Then he, Chris, and his 13 year old son loaded up the first log while I got the three younger ones occupied with building a fire in the firepit to warm up. They got to practice using the hatchet to chop up twigs and small branches to feed the fire. I also chopped some of the slabs that came from squaring up the log.
We got two joists cut Friday before dark. There would have been a third, but the belts running the blade were worn enough that they started to let the blade slip out of place. We had to shut it down and try to find replacement belts. We found one and that let them cut some more this morning, but I guess that other one is necessary. So there is progress, but we can’t put anything together yet.
The other thing worth sharing is how many moose I’ve been seeing lately close to home. Almost every evening there will be one or more in the fields along the road. Of course they show up south of town, but never up north of town where I’m driving the shuttle. I’ve only seen moose racks on trucks coming in from hunting up there. It might change as hunting season ends. I just want to be able to show my guests a moose.
I guess that’s enough for now. I have to leave some new stuff for tomorrow. I’ll probably share links all next week as I write posts, but if you want to hide from the social media toxic dumpster fire too then go ahead and subscribe so you get an email whenever I post. I wish I could tell you how to do it, but I don’t know how to see my site the way visitors do. Most of what I’m doing is faking it as far as I can and one day I might actually know what I’m doing.
