~Preparing the Land for our Cabin~

Our big purchase...a five acre slice of Alaska with a million dollar view.

April 18th-19th, 2004

Lots of snow still, up to the knees, but after cutting some trees down we found some dry land to walk on.  The future cabin site. 

April 28-29th

After moving the logs we cut, we made sure they were off the ground and started peeling.  The bark was still tight to the trunk, so the first weekend of peeling only produced 5 peeled logs. 

May 4 - 5th

A bunch of new logs for me to peel. Luckily these ones started peeling without much use of the drawknife.

May 9-10th

Snowing and 32 degrees...what a way to start working. Burnt lots of limbs from nearby slash pile. Warmed up to 55 that day.  Peeled 16 logs this weekend. 

May 15th

Hiked into our moose lake to get the 60+ moose rack out we found the year earlier.  I ended up hiking 7 miles in socks due to open blisters on both heels.  The rack is a special addition for our cabin. 

May 16-17th

Aaron come-alongs log that is too heavy for us to carry. We did eventually carry it the last little bit.

After moving 7 logs the first morning I had my work cut out for me to peel. Peeled 7 the first day.

Nice pile accumulating of peeled logs.  For the whole weekend we moved 13 logs out of the woods and I peeled 15 logs.

Kodi taking a snooze out of the sun, behind our big log

May 23 - 24th

Moved 10 more logs out of woods and peeled all ten on the first day. Worked until 10:00- sunset now around 1130. 

My peeling site. 

After two days of A LOT of wind this is what I look like. The second day I peeled 5 large logs and 3  gable logs.  This weekend marked us at 60 logs cut, 58 peeled. 

May 30-31st

Not a very successful weekend Only peeled 6 and cut 8 logs. Hauled 8 - 80# bags of concrete

June 6 - 7th

Bug season in Alaska, and it is only the start. Mosquitoes are out 24 hours a day in full force.

Digging our post holes. Finished cutting 7 logs and peeling 9 logs= 75 total cut and peeled.

Digging second post hole on first day. Kodi escaped mosquitoes by being buried in the dirt, it also kept in cool on a fairly hot and humid day.

Finished weekend with all 8 post holes dug about 4 feet deep. Plan for 14X18 cabin.  Hauled in 6 more 80# bags of concrete.

June 13 - 14th

Hammering in log posts to set up string to square and level site.  Hiked in 10, 80# bags of concrete.

Yes, even I know how to level.

Set up string level, and squared work site. Pounded steel rods into post holes in place of rebar. 

First three concrete posts done .  

Visiting moose in morning.

Finished 7 out of 8 posts, only 1 more six inch post to poor = only two more bags of concrete.

June 20-21

Our first log, half logs on both short ends of the cabin.

Aaron's homemade scribe, learning to scribe on our first whole log. 

Sawing the round notch after scribing.

Hauling our center log to the cabin site.  This is our homemade system to move logs.

Chiseling just one of many to come round notches.

Aaron's large round notch.

Getting the floor joists started.

June 27-28th 

The outhouse hole finally dug, about five feet deep. The rocks are part of our foundation around the base to make it level and stronger.

July 18-19th

Aaron and Adam hauled 70- 2X6s and 9 sheets of plywood the 500yards to our cabin site, it took 9 trips in all.

Adam and Aaron scrubbing some mold off the logs that were close to the ground.

Adam and Aaron sawing notches.  We got four logs up this first weekend back from our vacation. We still have a lot to learn about scribing and notching.

More chiseling. 

Started the floor boards.  Adam wasn't very happy with the way the screw driver  was working.  Somehow the drill kept spinning off the screw making lots of little holes in our floor boards!!!