Fire has slowed down and the Fire Service says to stay put for the night, so we're not evacuating yet. Everything is all packed up and ready to go if things should change though.
Talk about a mad scramble!!
Got to the truck and freakin' battery was dead from all the winching we had to do to get the truck out of the sucking morass of non-newtonian fluid they euphemistically call "mud" up here. One of our neighbors had a few spares, so we're charging them up and will go back out and see if the stupid truck starts... otherwise, it's the starter or alternator, which is way more of a problem.
At least the Fire Service now know we're back here, and our neighbors will be keeping in touch with us via mail. Someone will be able to give us a ride into Manley if the truck won't start... just don't think Charlie kitty will be really happy going 20 miles down the hwy in her little cat carrier on the 4-wheeler and there ain't no way I can walk that with my pack/BOB and towing animals!
It never rains but it pours, eh?
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Evacuating
Fire is now 2 miles west, on both sides of the highway, and approaching.
We're evacuating valuables and animals into Manley and will be heading back out to man the front lines.
Will try to post status sometime tomorrow if we can.
We're evacuating valuables and animals into Manley and will be heading back out to man the front lines.
Will try to post status sometime tomorrow if we can.
Forest Fire
We've been monitoring a forest fire that started on Thursday, via lightning strike, about 8 miles NE of us. Since Thursday, the fire has spread rapidly to the north and west, and has just jumped south over the Elliott Hwy about 5 miles east of our location. AK Fire Service is monitoring, but not really doing much about it except saving structures in the path. Locals are out with all available equipment cutting fire breaks to try and keep it from spreading any further west into the Eureka residential area. We currently have ash fall and moderate laying smoke, but no flames visible as of yet.
We, and our surrounding neighbors, are preparing for rendezvous and evacuation west into Manley if necessary. We are securing our tent site as best as possible, moving everything of value into the center of the clearing and hoping that will provide a sufficient firebreak should the fire come through this area. Unfortunately, half of our new cabin lumber is at the tent site, a quarter is about 1/4 mile up the trail (where the trail finally gave out to mud and tried to swallow the truck), and the rest is still on the side of the highway. If the fire does come through, we will likely lose most/all of our building materials :(
The Elliott Hwy east of us (towards Fairbanks) is closed with this (Applegate Creek) fire and the Cascaden fire (Livengood) at the junction of Elliott and Parks Hwys, so evacuation can only be made west into Manley. If Manley (20 miles away) must also be evacuated, it will likely be by air and river; although that is not likely since they have a full volunteer fire department on call with pumper trucks and high pressure hoses. Most of us Eurekans will likely be staying at the roadhouse or the campground across the street should evacuation be necessary.
We'll try to keep updating the blog as the evening progresses, etc. Wish us luck!
We, and our surrounding neighbors, are preparing for rendezvous and evacuation west into Manley if necessary. We are securing our tent site as best as possible, moving everything of value into the center of the clearing and hoping that will provide a sufficient firebreak should the fire come through this area. Unfortunately, half of our new cabin lumber is at the tent site, a quarter is about 1/4 mile up the trail (where the trail finally gave out to mud and tried to swallow the truck), and the rest is still on the side of the highway. If the fire does come through, we will likely lose most/all of our building materials :(
The Elliott Hwy east of us (towards Fairbanks) is closed with this (Applegate Creek) fire and the Cascaden fire (Livengood) at the junction of Elliott and Parks Hwys, so evacuation can only be made west into Manley. If Manley (20 miles away) must also be evacuated, it will likely be by air and river; although that is not likely since they have a full volunteer fire department on call with pumper trucks and high pressure hoses. Most of us Eurekans will likely be staying at the roadhouse or the campground across the street should evacuation be necessary.
We'll try to keep updating the blog as the evening progresses, etc. Wish us luck!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Epic Fail
Shortly after posting the "We Have Touchdown" entry, our tent platform completely collapsed! Yes, folks, we had our own little private earthquake out here in the Bush. Everyone was fine, and nothing serious was broken, although we did spend quite a few hours picking up shelving units and cans of food, etc. After careful inspection, and putting things back to right, it appears that only a jar of olives and a few candle holders were sacrificed to Murphy that day!
So here's what happened... When the Spring thaw started, one of the posts on the back of the deck started to jack and twist. We really didn't think that was particularly concerning since there were several other posts that still seemed to be reasonably plumb. In fact, we were planning to jack up the deck and fix the twisty post the day following, now that we'd finally finished clearing the darned trail. But Murphy was afoot again, and beat us to the punch line. It just HAD to be a really hot couple of days before we could get to the releveling, and that melting completely destabilized a few of the other piers & posts, soooooo.....
Anyway, we're just standing around, making dinner after a grueling 3-day push to finish the trail when everything sort of slid to the southeast and then *thump* *crash* *boom*!!!
We spent the rest of the night surveying the damage and cleaning up the mess inside. The entire following day was spent rescuing a few items that I'd crammed under the deck the day before (figures!), cutting out the kicked out posts and releveling the deck directly onto the concrete piers with the hand jack for our pickup in about 6 inches of squishy, spongy, meltwater-laden tundra moss goop . Then the following day was consumed trying to get the satellite dish realigned, and enough trees cleared, to get a strong enough signal now that we're 3 feet lower than before!
One day of rest and then back out to clearing the building site since our first load of lumber is coming tomorrow! Never a dull moment!
Here's some pics of the damage so you can appreciate the fun. The platform itself held up reasonably well, although there is a decided slant to the floor to the center since we couldn't get far enough under the deck *safely* to jack up and fix the center beam.
You can see that the force of the collapse actually sheared off some of the metal connectors, bent others and also blew out some of the wooden posts. Hurray for the metal trash can, that surprisingly suffered only minimal damage, as it took the brunt of the drop load and the lateral load as the deck was in motion.
So, what have we learned from this little fiasco?
1. Never alter your design based on the salesperson's word if they don't have the parts you're looking for in stock!
2. Always prepare the proper foundation, even if you know the building is only going to be temporary!
3. It doesn't matter if winter is setting in and you need to get your shelter up quickly, DO NOT build anything on top of an ice lens if you aren't going to move it before Breakup in the Spring!
4. Two exhausted people can accomplish a lot of work as long as they don't say *anything* to each other except the barest minimum to get the job done... anything else will result in arguments and mud flinging (both literally and figuratively).
5. Rubbermaid totes might stand up to getting hit by a car, but they don't stand up too well to an entire platform dropping on them!
6. And last, but certainly not least, if you're going to have a floating surface foundation then your building can't be 3 feet off the ground. If you want the height, you have to sink the piers. And that means finding a site not on ice or permafrost. Which, luckily, the cabin site has neither of; so we're sinking the concrete piers this time! Yes, I said CONCRETE piers, nice 10" diameter concrete pillars sunk 4' deep. I'm not trusting my shelter to wimpy wooden posts again unless they are so fat that I couldn't afford them, or they're from whole trees I cut personally from our lot -- there's just too much crap lumber coming out of home improvement warehouses these days!
But HEY - we survived intact and relatively unscathed, so we can laugh about it now :D
So here's what happened... When the Spring thaw started, one of the posts on the back of the deck started to jack and twist. We really didn't think that was particularly concerning since there were several other posts that still seemed to be reasonably plumb. In fact, we were planning to jack up the deck and fix the twisty post the day following, now that we'd finally finished clearing the darned trail. But Murphy was afoot again, and beat us to the punch line. It just HAD to be a really hot couple of days before we could get to the releveling, and that melting completely destabilized a few of the other piers & posts, soooooo.....
Anyway, we're just standing around, making dinner after a grueling 3-day push to finish the trail when everything sort of slid to the southeast and then *thump* *crash* *boom*!!!
We spent the rest of the night surveying the damage and cleaning up the mess inside. The entire following day was spent rescuing a few items that I'd crammed under the deck the day before (figures!), cutting out the kicked out posts and releveling the deck directly onto the concrete piers with the hand jack for our pickup in about 6 inches of squishy, spongy, meltwater-laden tundra moss goop . Then the following day was consumed trying to get the satellite dish realigned, and enough trees cleared, to get a strong enough signal now that we're 3 feet lower than before!
One day of rest and then back out to clearing the building site since our first load of lumber is coming tomorrow! Never a dull moment!
Here's some pics of the damage so you can appreciate the fun. The platform itself held up reasonably well, although there is a decided slant to the floor to the center since we couldn't get far enough under the deck *safely* to jack up and fix the center beam.
You can see that the force of the collapse actually sheared off some of the metal connectors, bent others and also blew out some of the wooden posts. Hurray for the metal trash can, that surprisingly suffered only minimal damage, as it took the brunt of the drop load and the lateral load as the deck was in motion.
So, what have we learned from this little fiasco?
1. Never alter your design based on the salesperson's word if they don't have the parts you're looking for in stock!
2. Always prepare the proper foundation, even if you know the building is only going to be temporary!
3. It doesn't matter if winter is setting in and you need to get your shelter up quickly, DO NOT build anything on top of an ice lens if you aren't going to move it before Breakup in the Spring!
4. Two exhausted people can accomplish a lot of work as long as they don't say *anything* to each other except the barest minimum to get the job done... anything else will result in arguments and mud flinging (both literally and figuratively).
5. Rubbermaid totes might stand up to getting hit by a car, but they don't stand up too well to an entire platform dropping on them!
6. And last, but certainly not least, if you're going to have a floating surface foundation then your building can't be 3 feet off the ground. If you want the height, you have to sink the piers. And that means finding a site not on ice or permafrost. Which, luckily, the cabin site has neither of; so we're sinking the concrete piers this time! Yes, I said CONCRETE piers, nice 10" diameter concrete pillars sunk 4' deep. I'm not trusting my shelter to wimpy wooden posts again unless they are so fat that I couldn't afford them, or they're from whole trees I cut personally from our lot -- there's just too much crap lumber coming out of home improvement warehouses these days!
But HEY - we survived intact and relatively unscathed, so we can laugh about it now :D
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Houston, We Have Touch Down
Whew! I'm still can't believe that we're finally done with this project. It was really beginning to feel like it would last forever. HaHa- the "trail with no end" has now met its end!
Monday, May 17, 2010
So Close....
Man, the may pole is, like, right there! Literally within a few yards. But after clearing 2.5 cans worth of trail, about 5 hours of truly cranking it, my stupid back started to spasm and I just couldn't do another can's worth. And Gungnir attempted to amputate his leg with the chainsaw... ok, not really that serious... but he'll have a little permanent reminder of our adventures in bush whacking. Not that I wish anyone ill fortune, but it was nice that someone else got injured this time, since it's usually me. Of course, I got bit by the chainsaw a couple weeks ago, so maybe the Husqvarna has developed a taste for human flesh.... mwuahahahahaha.
It was sooooo HARD to pack up shop and leave the trail so close to the end, but I just couldn't convince my back to tough it out another two hours. It's all the bending low to do the cutting, standing funny on uneven ground, and throwing whole trees around that does you in. I'm more of a javelin technique, while G does more of shot-put method; but there's still some ungainly balance, twisting and weight issue involved in both.
To-morrow...
To-morrow...
I'll get there... To-morrow...
It's only a day away :-D
It was sooooo HARD to pack up shop and leave the trail so close to the end, but I just couldn't convince my back to tough it out another two hours. It's all the bending low to do the cutting, standing funny on uneven ground, and throwing whole trees around that does you in. I'm more of a javelin technique, while G does more of shot-put method; but there's still some ungainly balance, twisting and weight issue involved in both.
To-morrow...
To-morrow...
I'll get there... To-morrow...
It's only a day away :-D
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Light at the End of the Tunnel
... or in this case, survey monument at the end of the forest :-D
I've given up trying to use conventional measurements, like feet and yards, to determine how far we have left to cut trail until we hit our center marker. I'm now using an exceptionally accurate and scientific standard of measure -- spray cans of contractor marking paint.
Yup, that's right. Every day I paint a thick solid line down the right-hand side of the trail from one trail tape flag to another, attempting to ensure a somewhat straighter line than I've managed to create up to this point. Working 4-6 hours, we normally cut and clear out about 2 paint can's worth of forest a day. On a really ambitious day, we might make 3 paint cans.
For those more interested in budgeting your time and resources, I'd say that a tank of gas in the chainsaw lasts about 60-90 minutes running fairly continuously on small and medium trees and scrub. We refill the chain oil every other filling of the gas tank. We can normally cut a one-can paint line per tank of gas, maybe a little more if we're lucky and hit a sparse part with only a few bigger trees. Then it takes about 30-60 minutes to haul out all the brush and chuck it off the trail (including limbing and stacking anything that is a "firewood friendly" >3-inch diameter).
After today's clearing, I decided to go ahead and paint tomorrow's line to get a little bit of a head start. After two cans, I looked up and clearly saw our "may pole" just a little off in the distance. The "may pole" is the tallest tree in the area where the 25' easements off our center marker intersect. We did some creative tossing of the trail tape (kinda like toilet-papering a tree) so that we could see it from a greater distance and be absolutely sure that it was the *right tree* to aim for.
That's right faithful readers!! We are now only a mere 3.5 cans from our center marker. It's possible that we might make it by the end of the day tomorrow (Mon) if we really push; but at the latest it'll be Tuesday afternoon! Stop a moment and celebrate with a happy hamster dance:
I've given up trying to use conventional measurements, like feet and yards, to determine how far we have left to cut trail until we hit our center marker. I'm now using an exceptionally accurate and scientific standard of measure -- spray cans of contractor marking paint.
Yup, that's right. Every day I paint a thick solid line down the right-hand side of the trail from one trail tape flag to another, attempting to ensure a somewhat straighter line than I've managed to create up to this point. Working 4-6 hours, we normally cut and clear out about 2 paint can's worth of forest a day. On a really ambitious day, we might make 3 paint cans.
For those more interested in budgeting your time and resources, I'd say that a tank of gas in the chainsaw lasts about 60-90 minutes running fairly continuously on small and medium trees and scrub. We refill the chain oil every other filling of the gas tank. We can normally cut a one-can paint line per tank of gas, maybe a little more if we're lucky and hit a sparse part with only a few bigger trees. Then it takes about 30-60 minutes to haul out all the brush and chuck it off the trail (including limbing and stacking anything that is a "firewood friendly" >3-inch diameter).
After today's clearing, I decided to go ahead and paint tomorrow's line to get a little bit of a head start. After two cans, I looked up and clearly saw our "may pole" just a little off in the distance. The "may pole" is the tallest tree in the area where the 25' easements off our center marker intersect. We did some creative tossing of the trail tape (kinda like toilet-papering a tree) so that we could see it from a greater distance and be absolutely sure that it was the *right tree* to aim for.
That's right faithful readers!! We are now only a mere 3.5 cans from our center marker. It's possible that we might make it by the end of the day tomorrow (Mon) if we really push; but at the latest it'll be Tuesday afternoon! Stop a moment and celebrate with a happy hamster dance:
Then it's just clearing the 1000 sq ft building site wherever along the trail that we decide to put the little cabin. That bit of clearing is really nothing in comparison to cutting a 1500 ft x 12 ft trail.
Looks like we might actually get the driveway straightened, widened enough for the truck, and get that gravel foundation base down and spread before the lumber gets delivered next week.
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