~The Spiral Log Stairs~

Well the cabin made it through the winter, though we didn't visit much because of the cold temperatures, and blizzard conditions.  Time to start getting ready for company this summer.  This page is dedicated to the building process of our stairs.  It took two tries to get them the way we wanted!

April 24-25, 2005

This camp robber flew in the cabin and tried to exit through one of the windows...whoops.  He recovered shortly after.

Drilling the holes for the stairs in loft support log.

Lagging the stairs in place.

Some more views of the stairs as they develop.  There are a few tight places when climbing them between the loft and the stair. Railings to come.

Pounding the stairs tapered ends into the support log. Notice how flat and level our stairs are...(grin).

Kodi knows right where the best view is.

Framing the outhouse roof.

Still a fair amount of snow, thought the temps reached into the low 60s.

The life of our dog......He's exhausted after a day of chasing bunnies and squirrels.

May 15-17th, 2005

Our bunny population is going crazy! They are everywhere...great fun for Kodi, who will never stop chasing, and will never ever have a chance of catching them.

Mountains outside the window. Little bit of alpine glow.

Our new screen door.

Our new outhouse window. Much better than looking at a wall, but still a bit breezy when the wind starts blowing.  Aaron is going to place a piece of glass here.

Still no door.

Window covers for bear protection, and for any rock throwing persons who may be roaming our woods. Nice to leave the cabin knowing it is sealed tight and more difficult to break into.

After making covers we lifted up and down and bolted in, we decided to take advantage of them, and made them into small little decks. Ropes run inside so it is as easy as pulling the rope up to close, or loosing the knots on the inside and lower the covers down.

Our windows breath a sigh of relief....nice to be protected from the wind gusts we get here. Sometimes you can here the window moving on the really nasty gusts.  We will probably leave the side window covers on during the winter for insulation purposes.

May 23-24, 2005

Kodi's first venture up the stairs. It took about half a loaf of bread, one slice up each stair, and a bunch of behind pushing and coaxing to get him up the stairs. Some more modifications are needed yet to make it doggy safe.

Burl logs for the stairs...still need to make it more Kodi proof.

Finally a screen door.....in time for the Mosquitoes.

Making BURNT grilled cheese sandwiches. Still learning how to cook on a Coleman stove .

With bears coming out of their dens, we decided we best put the grill out of reach, we just can't part with our burgers!

Kodi watching for bunnies on the porch.

June 19th-20th

Aaron measuring for upright rails in loft. 

Upright rails in, our burl collection is being put to good use with small touches like these in the cabin.  The railing makes it much safer for Kodi in the loft.

Kodi being the spoiled dog that he is.

We had a visitor that was getting into Kodi's dog food when we were gone. Aaron originally tried just setting dog food on the trap, but the little bugger stole the food twice. Even after drilling a hole through the dog food and tying it to the trap, it sprung the trap twice without getting caught. The third time was a charm though. Since then we've had no more visitors.

Sanding the upright rails for the stairs. Aaron & I didn't like the way the first rail looked - too little.  So we started over and used stouter logs.  Nothing like doing the job twice.

June 26-27th

Aaron cutting the loft door, just big enough to crawl through.

Kodi loves the door. Now he can sit on the loft deck and watch all the snowshoe hares down below

I guess I'd call the door a "doggie door" rather than a practical one for Aaron & I, but at least it gets us on the deck.

Railing finished on the stairs, except the one on the top stair. The stairs are very sturdy now. Kodi can run up and down them without me having to worry about him falling through as he could with the previous railing we had.