Monday, July 11, 2011

Whole lot of nothing

Not much happening here on the building front. Motivation is a bit flagging.The weather has been horrible. Alternating between heavy rains and hot humidity. We've got the majority of the drywall hung, but the damp is keeping the mud/plaster from drying. Neither of us feel comfortable running power tools off the generator in an ungrounded system during thunderstorms, so that makes progress a little problematic as well.

Hanging the drywall downstairs is going much faster and easier than the drywall in the loft. I starting patching and mudding the loft already and helping G-man with the downstairs because the 12' panels are too heavy and unruly to hang alone. Hopefully the tongue-n-groove flooring will go even faster, at least the 6" x 12' planks will be easier for one person to handle than the drywall panels. Still hoping to have the walls and floors done by the end of July so we can move in on our 2 year Alaskan Anniversary (also my birthday). A lot depends on whether the mud, paint and polyurethane dries though. **fingers crossed**

All the recent thunderstorms are also sparking lightning-strike wildfires throughout the region. Luckily, none are in our immediate area yet; but we've been keeping a close eye on the fire maps and watching for smoke after each storm. Doing a bit of clearing and trail maintenance here and there just to be on the safe side.

8 comments:

SouthCoast Guy said...

sounds like rough conditions out there...hope the weather changes for you soon!

Dan Lynch said...

Thank you for the update, PC.

I haven't got much done this year on my homestead, either, for about the same reasons as you.

Sam.... said...

"Alternating between heavy rains and hot humidity."
'Tis said that, "Every cloud has a silver lining". Thus, all the rain should help minimize the fire danger, no?

Plickety Cat said...

You'd think the rain would control the fires... but, no, for the most part it's the storms that are causing them! The fires spread through the spruce trees once started, so aren't as affected by wet ground, and it doesn't rain hard long enough to damper the flames spreading tree to tree :(

Spruce trees literally explode and spray flaming sap like napalm when they burn so **whoomp** 20 trees in its radius go up! Temps on the edges can reach 500 degs 50 yards out, which is enough to dry out the front ahead of it unless it's raining really hard.

For the most part, the rain only slows a fire down enough for jumpers to get a handle on it... but most of the fires are allowed to burn and might just have a few spotters assigned with no jumpers at all until a populated area is at risk.

CottonLady said...

Wish I could send you some of the "dry" that we have here in Texas!
Hope things improve soon for you.
Blessings!
CottonLady

Unknown said...

I just found your blog from someone on City Data and having read it all I must say you two are amazing! I wish you the best of luck getting your cabin finished without to much trouble from Mother Nature and look forward to reading more of your life in Alaska!

TC and GB!
Judy

Quinton said...

I'm just wondering why you are trying to mud and paint while conditions are not right. I had my dry wall up for months before I had an opportunity to finish it. The conditions where you are in Alaska make everything tough to do. I'm not sure that I could endure it.

Plickety Cat said...

"wondering why you are trying to mud and paint while conditions are not right"

Because we want to move in :(

I don't want to have to move everything in and out and all around later so I can finish up the walls, and then have to deal with drywall dust, splatters and drop clothes working around everything. I certainly don't want to remove my cabinets and built-ins to finish up the walls behind them.

I suppose I could just suck it up and make do... it would just be such a great positive psychological impact to have finished walls and floors before we moved in. After years of making do with so many things in the tent, it would be soooo pleasant to have one thing done all nice.