Island Life...

  Happy Living!

Sorry long time no write, but lots of exciting things are keeping us busy!  We are building!  That may sound simple, but try doing it on an island when you have to carry all the materials out yourselves, dig all the holes yourselves, and make do without big machinery...  It all adds up to hard, but interesting, work!

Summer 2008!

How to build on an Alaskan Island, Part 1...

First, build yourself a raft that floats, and push it by skiff (a skiff is a small boat) 8 miles into town. 

This may take anywhere from 1 hour to 3 depending on weather, and it is hard to steer, the damn thing just wants to spin around on you!  No you cant drag it or pull it straight or pull it from the side, it just does not work.  The only way to push is to ram the bow into the back or one of the back corners and then to drive as though you were balancing the raft on the nose of the boat.  It is quite tricky and requires lots of concentration.

 We were short of time the day that we were to collect the building materials from town so Ron asked me to get started pushing the float and he would meet me on the way.  However I spent most of my time chasing the raft around in circles trying not to get beached!

And who are those hillbillies?...  About two hours into the trip Ron is trying to have a rest from driving, it is a long tiring journey.  He can't quite relax with my driving though...

We had the building materials delivered to the Craig city winch.

We used this, to put our materials down on the raft... -

There!  Alaska makes you feel like a man!

Pushing all the stuff home...  You can see the bow of the boat is pushed in the corner of the raft.

It took two trips and the weather isn't always so friendly...

Ah, at last we are home...

One side of our property.

and the other side... complete with building materials sitting on dock.

what we do with relatives around here...

just tell them you will take them fishing...

but don't worry, there are kickbacks... (that is a hot tub by the way...:)

Yep, fish tote with snorkel stove, the fire is in the stove under the water. Cool idea!

Before!  House finally on a good foundation.  This stage alone felt like year of labor.  Very important to get the foundation perfect! 

Did I mention that the worst job was digging the damn hole for the septic tank?  Those tanks are huge and it was day after day down there in the mud and rocks chipping out a hole big enough.  It started to feel like I was digging my own grave.  The hole had to be 6 feet deep, but with every shovel full of dirt piling up outside it soon felt like we were 12 feet under!   It kept raining, and we didn't have gutters yet so it just dripped on us all day, and we had to keep bailing the stupid hole, a job that took two people as it was so deep....  ughh.  It really was a hell of a job.  But I sure have an appreciation for that septic tank now...

The contractor and Ron put down the floor and we lifted this wall into place.  That was a hell of a job too, as you can see the wall is longer than the floor platform.  It was a terrifying and very heavy thing to lift, performed only by two men and two small women.

In just a few more days the guys had the windows framed up and the interior walls.

Cleaning up the roof shingles from the old roof.

The goats like to watch...

Ah ha! Here is my chance to talk about the animals! Yes, goats will eat anything and go anywhere to get it.  Meet Bonnie the Oblerhasli and Nelly the Alpine.

Minu the fluffy cat is just not sure about bouncy little goats.  And yes, goats do eat everything that you don't want them to and they will do just about anything to get it...

Our most beautiful and productive chickens having a dust bath (Golden Laced Wyandottes)

Girlie and Gato.

Garden only exists with fences.

Back to the house...

The whole thing is going to be remodeled, it will look very different!

Yes, that is the roof that they are on.  Don't you love the view?...

Getting a 3,000 gallon water tank out here was an interesting job too.  Just try moving that thing!

The exterior nearly finished, all newly cedar sided with snap lock metal roofing and thermal windows.  It looks big as it is sided from the ground up, but really it is still a small home.  Unfortunately, you would not recognize it from the house it was to start with.  Somehow the project just took a life of its own...

And hey, our new boat was ready too!  Welder extraordinaire Don (in the orange) took an old beat up Alumaweld open skiff with 18 bullet holes in it, and turned it into this handsome beast with a cabin!  We have a covered boat now after years of running around in an open skiff every day!