Final Move?

Hi All. Wow has it been a busy week!
On the 21st Roger called Eric, the fella that owns the Mammoth barge, to find out about having him bring up the rest of our stuff from the landing. Eric has been hauling contaminated dirt for the EPA from Skwentna down to Deshka Landing where it is then loaded into containers. Any how on most of those trips the barge comes back empty and Eric had said a while back that if he got the contract for the dirt that he would give us a deal on bringing the rest of our stuff up.
The original plan was that on Monday the 23rd we would meet the barge at the landing and the crane would just lift the trailer with the rest of the stuff into the barge and we would go over to Eric's place on the ATV's and between our 2 atv's and his we would just pull the trailer off the barge and he would let us haul from there and tear the trailer down and bring it back here to our place in pieces. So we went to town on Sunday morning, did a bunch of stock up shopping for freeze up, went back to the landing loaded it all in the trailer to come up on the barge and finally got some supper around 10 p.m. and some sleep so that we could be at the landing by 9:30 a.m.
OK so do we all know how the best laid plans go?

The crane wasn't big enough to pick up the trailer! Therefore we had to unload the trailer and hand load everything onto the barge. There is a rather steep hill (not real long though thankfully) that we had to get everything down to put it on the barge. Luckily we had brought Vinnie (16 y/o foster son of Dan & Jean) and Eric had a young man Chris with him so we were able to make a chain and pass things along rather than go up and down that hill. We had the crane move the snowmachines over from the trailer to the barge though.

Flying Snowmachine!

Our Landing

Our boat was loaded with fuel and propane and we were overloaded as usual. We did get to see the seals though at the junction of the Susitna and Yentna Rivers.

We stopped at Yentna Station aka Dan & Jean's and picked up Anthony  and the dogs and left some of the fuel there until we took the boys back. The boys helped unload the barge at our landing and haul stuff to the cabin from the landing. Monday was another loooooooong day!

Tuesday Roger and the boys went fishing and then Roger took them home and picked up the rest of our fuel. I worked on finding a path through the maze that is here at the moment!

One of the things we had bought in town was a "garage" that we were going to use as a back porch for now so that we would have some storage space for stuff that it wouldn't matter if it froze. Long story short, what started as a 2 hour project has already been 2 days and we still have a few more to go as we are building the actual porch. Roger decided that we might as well put the floor in the "Temporary porch" rather than backfilling holes etc from the work on the pilings and some other digging that had been done in that area. We now have the cabin jacked up to where he wanted (sitting on cribs, not pilings), the porch floor and since we went this far well we might as well just do the porch!~

Oh yeah the bears were here again while we were in town and tore the heck out of one of the window screens and there are also scratches on the side of the cabin. Kind of wonder if they were trying to get the cats.

Anyway now you know what this week has been and why no posts. TOO TIRED!

Thanks for sharing our adventure.

Blessings, Myra

Bears & Work Everywhere.

When you read Myra's post you will hear of our last bear visit to the cabin. We were on the way home from town and came across this bear in the river. Of course it is swimming across in the direction of OUR CABIN, so we may get to see it again also.
I know I told you that I would try to get pictures of the seals. They were not there at the island. In fact the water level was so high the island was not there. It is covered by water at this time. We did see two seals in the water but they dove before we could get the camera up. We will keep trying to catch them.




The bears did visit while we were in town. They literally took the tote out of the ground as you can see by the pictures. There is the burning barrel in the back ground, knocked over again.

She left a big pile of scat as a marker and the were cub piles scattered around again. I am sure it is the same family.
We found a total of 4 eggs left on the ground that they did not eat, but of course the eggs were out of refrigeration for ? Anyone know how quick they will spoil, We thru them away.













Now for the Work: We keep talking about all of the stuff we haul up river on the boat. Here are some Pic's of the load this trip.

The list: New 18" Husqvarna chainsaw w/gal oil, extra chain, gas mix, Groceries in 4 totes and a cooler, chest freezer, camper refrigerator, 6 4x4s, 3 4x6s, 100# & 20# propane tanks, laundry, 34 gallons of gas, fishing gear, 7 new water jugs, misc supplies from lowes,Myra, Me, the dogs and we picked up 12 year old Anthony at Yentna Station.

















We Must quit going to town. Here is my list (that I can think of) of things to get done:
* = before winter
*Cut more Fire wood,
*Install Fuel Oil Furnace,
*Finish Jacking up Cabin,
*Install New Pilings,
*Replace all Insulation under floor (squirrels)
*Caulk and seal windows (not done when installed by previous owner)
*Get snowmachines up here before Freeze up
*Get boat out of water
Get Winter work shop area, blue tarp won't hold up to snow! *hopefully*
Install Fixed Wireless telephone,
Dig root Cellar,
Build Back Porch,
Install water heater and more plumbing
Install permenant electrical outlets,
Build real restroom
Install New Battery inverter and Big Batteries,
Install Refrigerator, it goes thru the outside wall (RV style)
None of this includes, Haul water, stock more Gas and Fuel Oil, Daily chores, sleep, eat, sex - (yea right), get the mail occasionally,
When we get time, then we will finish the wood trim in the cabin, paint and carpet the upstairs, build a real bed frame, build more shelving all over inside, plant a garden, Fish, Hunt, Do Canning of fish meat berries etc, build a permenat workshop, build a gas/fuel shed, build a wood shed, continue living etc!
Is anybody else tired?
Life is good today.
Thanks for being here to share this, I can use the help!
Talk to you soon,
Roger