Hi There,
I am trying to keep you up to date and not fall further behind in writing new post so I am not taking a bunch of time to do this. That means I don't have pictures to insert as of yet. SORRY. Mra has been snapping pictures though, and You will see them!
Since my last post Myra and I have spent 4 long days in town. We purchased supplies for about 4 months of Freeze Up and we bought a bunch of stuff to remodel the cabin. We bought so much that we brought out over a thousand pounds on our boat and hired a barge to bring out the rest, another thirty one hundred pounds. We got to the cabin last Monday (a week ago today) and have stayed here all but one night. We still have the vast majority of our stuff at the Post Office house for now.
We have been sleeping on an air mattress. We have no TV. The radio only comes in some of the time and I just got the Internet working last night.
After not living here for twenty months or so there have been a few things that are in need of repair. The water heater still had water in it when the cabin went cold when we moved out (by accident). That has caused a rupture in a copper line inside the unit. I still have to repair that. The snow that laid on the satellite dish for the internet apparently bent something. It took a long time to re-aim the dish to find the satellite. In the process of finding out what was wrong I was checking the cable connections and one of the connectors broke on the dish transmitter unit. That required taking the very sensitive electronic unit off of the dish, take it apart and re-solder some connections onto the printed circuit board inside it and then re-assemble everything and re-point the dish a little. The guy from Alaska Satellite in Fairbanks was a great help but I did some repairs even he has not done. You are not supposed to work on the inside of the transmitter thing on the dish but I did it, and it is obviously working.
On our trip to town we bought about $2000 in groceries & supplies and about $5000 in cabin remodel and fix up supplies. An example of supplies is we have 300 lbs of dog food. One of things we bought was a 24' x 40' tarp to make another temporary work work area. I stretched a rope from the peak of the back porch out to the peak of the wood shed and draped the tarp over it and added some side supports. That has given us a large dry area outside to set up saws and tools for doing the work and storing items. We bought new wire shelving for the Cold Storage unit and the Back Porch (installed). We bought paint for the Up Stairs of the cabin and various other places (up stairs is already primed and ready for final coat). We bought new trim wood for Upstairs (already installed). We bought all new chimney parts to relocate the wood stove (relocation work is done, waiting to re-install until other work gets done). We bought new Linoleum for the Bathroom area (waiting on the final coat of paint before installation). We bought new carpet for the upstairs (waiting for paint) We bought new Laminate Flooring and Tile for the Down Stairs. We bought supplies to build new kitchen counters, and supplies for a few smaller projects. We also bought supplies to build (finish) the new Out House. All of the groceries and supplies have been stocked and organized. The back porch and cold storage look great for now. We will see how they look after we get all of the other stuff from the house.
To go along with the work you see listed above that we have done and still have to do, we have made two trips to the house up river this week, to get some of or personal items and tools as well as other supplies that we had there. To say the least, it has been busy out! We still have a lot to do on the cabin to get it the way we want it before we move all of our stuff in BUT; The water level has been dropping in the river and we need to get the rest of our stuff hauled down here from the house very soon or we are not going to have it until after Freeze Up some time in December. With that being said, we have a small Jet Barge scheduled for Wednesday to go to the house and get at least 2 of our snowmachines and what ever else we can fit on the barge, then bring it to the cabin / river landing.
We have been working 12 to 14 hours a day, then dropping like a rock onto the air mattress for a wonderful night of air mattress sleep. At his point we have no hot water or running water for that matter. We are eating with all plastic and paper dishes for the time being. Cooking is minimal to save time and mess (We are loosing weight).We only have the Toyo heater for heat in the cabin. It has rained at some point every day and the temps are in the 50's at best for the high. It is Fall and winter is coming fast. At least we have a good supply of Fire Wood already here and we are ignoring the outside work that needs done. The grass is about 3 feet tall or more (no exaggeration). I may have to shovel snow to build the Out House and I want to get pilings in the ground for a new work shop before the ground freezes. I am sure I will have to shovel snow to work on that project. We will make several more trips to the house with our boat (hopefully) before the water drops too low, and will get most of our stuff here. (With all the rain this week the river will probably raise for a little while.)
To go along with all of the work there is a little more time required. It is Moose Season! I am going on a 2 to 3 day Moose Hunt with a friend from Texas and a neighbor from up here. I have to take time to do the little things you know. Also, a little more meat in the freezer never hurts. Hopefully one or more of us is successful.
OK, now you know what I know. It's time to get to work, again!
Talk Ya Soon,
Thanks for being here.
Roger
