4.24.2010

Saturday Work Day




Today was spent cutting out trees to make a place for our driveway. Wait, lets back up, we woke up to Community Coffee. This type of coffee is roasted in Louisiana, a teaching friend we had in Koyuk introduced us to it and so I just had to order a few pounds. We do drink coffee by the pound during the teaching week. Romay had a friend over, giggles! Random bursts of laughter filled the house all friday night, it was cool. Sourdough isn't just for saturdays, I make it during the work week as well. I often ask Jason what he would like for breakfast and well, sourdough is usually on the menu for most mornings. So, after a right start, we were off to the lot. 7 hours later, we have trees cut and a space for gravel and our driveway. Jason did all of the grunt work, I do all the little jobs that save time, like moving brush out of the way and gassing up his machine when it dies. We are so grateful to be doing work toward a home that we will begin to see take place in about a month! Jay will be putting in the foundation in less than two weeks. We will post pictures for sure! More to come!

4.20.2010

Kemper's Photo Shoot on Stairs




Romay and I took some action shots of Kemper bounding and climbing the stairs. We thought that some of these might make the sporty family dog advertisements. Heerrrrreeeees Kemper.

4.13.2010

Enjoying Life a Day at a Time

Fires. Movies. Biking. Fellowshipping. Laughing. Polaris 120's. Dorm students.



4.11.2010

The Finished Product

Had to take a picture and share with everyone. Each little step is exciting. These logs will sit on top of the pilings. The house will sit on top of these sill logs. Simple, except when I see Jason try to lift these things.

Sawyers





Amidst April showers, Jason K. and Jay managed to lift, mill, shimmy, budge, and maneuver 9 logs for the house! Rain or shine, these guys had some cuttin' to accomplish. A couple of the logs were 16 feet and GREEN. So I could just imagine the weight of the wood and the water in the wood that they were lifting. Jason K. had a 7 HP Stihl chainsaw he used to power through the cut in the log. Way to go guys, who needs I-Beams anyways. These babies were the cost of gas and labor. The house foundational pieces are coming right along.

4.04.2010

Quick Update

We have friends... okay, so that may come as a surprise to some of you.. who have blogs that they rarely update. This blog is starting to be one of those stagnant blogs. We can't have that, and so, here is a quick update. I apologize for the lack of photos.

Romay is currently getting things ready for this year's garden. She has a bunch of tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, romaine, and onions started in flats and sitting in front of the windows. The cabbage are beginning to show through the soil and are searching for the sun.

Our house materials have been ordered and paid for. How many people in the U.S. order their houses like they do their Girl Scout Cookies? Well, we did, and have it paid for in advance. So far, everything is being done out of pocket with no mortgage. The only financing we are thinking we may need will come in the form of a Home Depot card when we buy our appliances, plumbing, and light fixtures.

You would think that dreaming and getting the house going would be enough, but Myra and I are also beginning to think about our first sawmill and looking at maybe ordering a small band saw mill to have here by the end of the summer. The goal would be to start harvesting logs from the river and surrounding countryside to mill into boards to be used to build our garage the next summer. We are also dreaming about building a small kiln to dry lumber for our own personal use as well as for sale. With that being said, we also dream of a small planer/molder to make finished lumber. Always a lot going on around here.

God willing, Romay's domestic blueberry plant will come in the mail soon and we will babysit that until the soil is warm enough to transplant it to our lot. It will be an interesting experiment as we are on the borderline of where this particular berry can survive. We have such a nice, warm, growing season in Galena, but we also have such a cold, long winter as well. This Old House has given me a few ideas to apply to our berry though and we'll see what happens. If all goes well, we'll get this blueberry some brothers, sisters, and cousins (raspberries or black caps).

Duck season is right around the corner with rumors of ducks and geese in Anchorage already. With those rumors, we start talking of blind building and getting out the decoys. It really is a little bit more like an addiction for Romay, Kemper and I. Myra also loves to hunt them and is an amazing shot... but I guess she must have gone on the patch or something because she has so much more self control than the daughter, dad, and dog.

In the future, I'll get some pictures on here... the wood pile is becoming epic and deserves some photos. The pilings will soon go in as well and will need some photos taken. Oh, and ducks.