Still Alive

The weather's been clear this week so we've been busy.  No additional building yet, but we have managed to get the majority of our building materials back to the cabin site with the help of one of our neighbors, Ken, and the use of his 18' trailer. You'd think we'd be farther ahead with all the good fortune, but I managed to get my hand crushed between two stacks of siding and lumber when the load on the trailer shift so I've been of limited assistance. Coupled with it being moose season and the few families up here having to go on patrol for some non-local (city) hunters doing some stuff they shouldn't have been like trespassing, shooting in a residential area and shooting from the road.

Anyway, we're headed up to Fairbanks to get stuff like doors, windows and our new stove (if it's in yet), and order some stuff for the big winter stock-up. Also want to get the truck looked at by the guys at Gene's Dodge because the ABS/Check Brakes light keeps coming on after we fixed the brake line and hauled all that lumber through the woods on the trailer (definitely got close to exceding tongue-weight on the tow hitch a few times!).  We think the sensor has just gone bye-bye because there's fluid, the brakes work fine, and none of the other things attached to that sensor are working either (woohoo - no speedo and no odometer!).

And, of course, it's time to do laundry again and wash up all the summer clothes and bedding to be stored for winter. It's been rather chilly at night lately, down below freezing with hard frost every morning. Winter is around the corner.  The Weather Liars say we'll get snow next week, and we already have Termination Dust on the higher hills. It's pretty though with all the Apsens turning gold and the Birches turning blood-red... of course, Ripley must bark at the falling leaves because they are totally a huge threat LOL!  But we have at least 3 cords of our firewood delivered, probably more by the time we get back... and we'll have to start hauling that down to the cabin site as well.  Mike was willing to come out from Manley to deliver it, but he sure wasn't coming down our trail to get it to the house... it's sitting up closer to the highway pretty much right where we had our lumber stored.  Bunch of big babies, I tell ya... the trail isn't that bad (especially not after we "widened" it with Ken's trailer LOL)

When we get back from Fairbanks we'll be able to get cracking on the cabin, so it should go pretty quickly. Especially if we hire Ken to come ply his carpentry skills and backhoe from time to time when we're stuck. At least we solved the problem of how to get the 24-foot 500 lb header beams 10 feet in the air on top of their posts. And, super bonus, Ken can also load all the heavy-ass drywall and rafters into the upstairs from the endwall with his tractor since there's no structural framing on that wall and we can leave it open until the very end if necessary.  I knew there was more than one reason why I electe to post frame this cabin rather than stick framing it :)  No way was I going to be able to haul 12' drywall up a ladder... heck I couldn't even carry more than a few feet on level ground!  I have no idea what I was thinking getting 12' drywall... idiot! I should know better.