Wednesday, May 25

Using a forklift to back the 5er on the barge in Juneau.


A few days ago I had six paragraphs written for the blog. When I went to the wi-fi site to make the post my PC crashed. Despite the auto save feature I can’t find anything I had written. Instead of doing a reconstruction I’m saying forget it, and starting mostly new thoughts.

As you can see from the picture the rig is in Gustavus as of the 18th. We have been living in it almost a week. We are pleased to be on the property and have our own space again.
Most of the cabin is rough wired. I say most because I ran out of wire. I need to buy about 100 more feet of 14-2 to complete the lighting circuits. I ran basic a black pipe manifold for propane for drier and stove under the floor a few mornings ago. Work goes slow under the foundation where it is damp and dark. I was happy to get out of the hole, but need to go back soon to run water and waste lines.

Our original bathroom plan for downstairs looked ok on paper but proved dysfunctional after we set in the shower pan and toilet. The shower I bought is too big, making other features congested. So we are moving the slightly smaller upstairs shower pan downstairs, and will have to get a new shower pan for the small upstairs bathroom.... perhaps next year.

No major animal sightings yet, nor have I encountered anyone who has seen any moose or bears. Only one set of bear tracks seen on the property, and those over a week old. We have to go down to the dock if we want to see eagles. We have had an abundance of cold and rain. Spring is said to be three weeks late this year. Trees are only now budding out. Perhaps with warmer weather the moose and bears will show up. Update: Fresh moose tracks in the driveway yesterday. They were imprinted over the truck tracks so were made between noon and three PM. Each track is approximately a yard apart, a large adult moose.

We awoke to rain again last night. That isn’t unusual in southeast AK. After all we live in a temperate rain forest. It’s what makes the place so lush. About 11 AM today the sky cleared and the sun came out big time. The temps warmed to just under 70 degrees. This is the Gustavus we both love. Sun shining through the spruce onto mossy glades, or reflecting off the river.

I am running out of things to do on the cabin unless I ferry to Juneau for more supplies (which I intend to do June 6). Therefore I am reaching ahead to things that need eventual doing. Today I prematurely began installing insulation in bedroom and bath walls. It’s a job I dislike. Several hours after getting itchy I decided to shower and do something else. With the weather fabulous we went next door and planted our veggie seeds (which we brought from Calif.) in the neighbors garden patch. Believe it or not most world record vegetables are grown in AK. With approximately 18 hours of sun for the next two months things grow like crazy. You can just about sit and watch them grow. (Seriously.) A Mennonite neighbor told me one year he planted a big patch of potatoes. In the fall he harvested 2500 pounds of spuds.