This bear spies down on you as you walk along the path.
This is a totem pole that was raised by the school. The students helped carve it, you can read more about it at www.kasaan.org
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Totems in Kasaan
That's a happy whale
This bear spies down on you as you walk along the path.
This is a totem pole that was raised by the school. The students helped carve it, you can read more about it at www.kasaan.org
This bear spies down on you as you walk along the path.This is a totem pole that was raised by the school. The students helped carve it, you can read more about it at www.kasaan.org
Kasaan-Original local architects
I have had these pictures since the fall. I went down to another town on the island called Kasaan for some school stuff. Before I had to do the lessons, I took a walk down to their Long House and got some nice photos. Everything is alive here, the bridge is almost back to nature again.
If you want to know more about this place and these people (Haida) they have a great website: http://www.kasaan.org/ 
If you want to know more about this place and these people (Haida) they have a great website: http://www.kasaan.org/ These are shots of the long house interior. While Jonathan and I have been building the cabin I often think of these houses because they represent the local architecture that has been used in Southeast Alaska for so long. Although back then lots of people lived together and could pitch in to build such enormous structures. Now we just have a few people in a house at a time. They had lots of space and storage for the endless projects they had to do in their subsistence life and for entertaining themselves and visitors and of course a fire pit centrally located with plenty of ventilation. Also I bet they could put some honking pieces of firewood on the fire, no woodstove door to fit it through.
This is the view you get of the long house as you aproach it from the beach. There is a fine beach in front for beaching canoes. It is made from some serious planks set vertically unlike horizontal clapboard. You can see the adze marks on the wood still. Good pitch on the roof.
The Wheel is not Spinning
Our hydro wheel is covered with ice, but the water is still running. The day we had the painting party, even the creek was covered with snow. At least we could still find the bridge going across so we could get rinse water for the painting.I was hoping the weight of the snow would take down the trees that are all crisscrossed over the "trail" and creek because they seem a bit dangerous. But if the snow didn't take them down maybe they are pretty stable?
The batteries were charged enough to run the lights and stereo. We are running the generator for all the power tools. Jonathan made this dashboard for the car stereo we are using for our home stereo, it runs great off the batteries, it even has one of those old cigarette lighters we plug the iPod into.
I am keeping my eye out for different gauges like an ampmeter, barometer a voltmeter, etc. I would alos liketo hide the wires when we move in.Some interior shots, and Harley the Dog
This is going to be the entry way. As Steve says there are only two kinds of clothes in Alaska: wet and dry. So this will have lots of hooks and room for boots. The floor will be more stone work like around the woodstove.The bright pink(?) wall will have the fridge against it and some shelves and a counter (that I started planing this weekend, I think it is spruce, it is the piece on the saw horse below).
Misty mixed up her own color for the bathroom I think it looks great. We can't put grout on the tile for awhile because it can't freeze for like 30 days or something. Whan we went on vacation we bought a vanity light for the bathroom, but one of the shades broke. It is never easy to get stuff here.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Winter Storm Painting Party
Last Friday the talk around town was the weather. NOAA had issued a severe winter storm warning for our area. There were printouts on the doors at the market in Thorne Bay. Here in Camp they had to strategize grating the road because the town was out of diesel until next week (they don't use snow plows on the roads in camp, they use the gravel grater). Normally the weather just sucks here, but this weekend it was extreme. Sounded like the perfect time to get the cabin painted. 
When we went out that morning and couldn't get down the road because of the snow, we figured we wouldn't see anyone that day. Good ole' Misty and Dusty came down on the four wheeler and got right on it. Becky was right behind them, she left her truck up on the main road and said it was stuck so she just left it there in the middle of the road. Nobody is going past where we live especially with the grater not running. We borrowed a cool paint sprayer we powered up with the generator. Becky sprayed I followed with a roller to smooth it out. Misty and Dusty were downstairs with rollers. We needed more rollers and primer, Misty thought it would be a good idea to do accent walls. So we headed up the hill to the cars. 
Becky and I snowshoed because it was just too deep to walk. Jonathan and Misty had to push the fourwheeler most of the way up. When we got to the top there were some friends on a snowmachine, they helped get the trucks moving. Brian and Sheila walked out there through the snow. We weren't sure if we went out, if we would get back in. But we did and got Becky's kids and made it back out. It was still dumping snow. The kids just disappeared in the snow, their hats were all we could see. We worked into the night and got the whole thing painted. 
Including accent colored walls from some leftover paint Misty had. We finally took down the scaffolding inside. I think it has been up there for a year or more. It was awesome of everyone to come out on such a snowy day and paint until it was done. Wahoo! The floors will go in next week. All that wood we salvaged off the float house for the floor, and that Steve planed last summer, is going to be trim now. This is on the recommendation from Bill and Chuck, who have built a bunch of cabins in this country. They have used cedar on their floors and no matter what you do, you get big spaces between planks as the wood dries and it dents and scratches. I don't mind cedar floors but they recommended ordering flooring so we did. Hopefully it will get on the barge next week and we can pick it up in Thorne Bay. Sounds heavy.
Becky and I snowshoed because it was just too deep to walk. Jonathan and Misty had to push the fourwheeler most of the way up. When we got to the top there were some friends on a snowmachine, they helped get the trucks moving. Brian and Sheila walked out there through the snow. We weren't sure if we went out, if we would get back in. But we did and got Becky's kids and made it back out. It was still dumping snow. The kids just disappeared in the snow, their hats were all we could see. We worked into the night and got the whole thing painted. 
Including accent colored walls from some leftover paint Misty had. We finally took down the scaffolding inside. I think it has been up there for a year or more. It was awesome of everyone to come out on such a snowy day and paint until it was done. Wahoo! The floors will go in next week. All that wood we salvaged off the float house for the floor, and that Steve planed last summer, is going to be trim now. This is on the recommendation from Bill and Chuck, who have built a bunch of cabins in this country. They have used cedar on their floors and no matter what you do, you get big spaces between planks as the wood dries and it dents and scratches. I don't mind cedar floors but they recommended ordering flooring so we did. Hopefully it will get on the barge next week and we can pick it up in Thorne Bay. Sounds heavy.Sheetrock Sucks but the walls are done.
We have been working on the walls since October, and it hasn't been pretty. We bought sheetrock for two reasons, 1) it is more fireproof than cedar walls (there have been a few fires lately around here and it is clear that sheet rock slows down the loss) and 2) we could get it here by ferry without too much risk of it getting wet...Until you back it down our (unfinished) driveway, after dark, and into a muddy ditch 100 yards from the cabin. When the tie downs broke, the whole unit of rock went onto the ground. Every sheet had to be hand carried to the cabin through ankle deep autumn mud. Thanks Dusty and Misty for helping, glad we stopped at the liquor store. 
Jonathan and Dave really busted out and got the stuff cut and hung up. Thanks Dave. Mudding and taping didn't get finished until after our Christmas vacation. Chuck and Becky finished it up in about 3 days. To hide some of the imperfections, Chuck let us use his texture blower, the whole cabin was texturized in a day. The next day we primed, 5 gallons wasn't quite enough so we scrapped some more around town.
I have to admit this was not my favorite part of construction, and it was hard to get motivated to get down there. Sometimes Jonathan and I would go down and just sit by the wood stove in all the sheet rock dust. I am soooooo glad that that phase is over. Many Random Jobs-Its tax time
In order to survive in a place that doesn't have any industry, I have to work many different jobs at a time. The last time I did my taxes I had 7 w-2s to turn in and a couple of 1099s. This past year I was working on the new ferry here in town. It looked really big at its christening in Washington state. Here it is pulling into Wrangell with the cargo doors open and ready to offload. 
I work on the forward deck doing the bow lines and spring line during dockings. It is 198 ft long and we go between here, Wrangell and Petersberg four days a week. See the northern route for more info. http://www.interislandferry.com/ They are 12 hour days and the work is very much appreciated as it is hard to find work locally. My commute to the dock is about 1/2 mile. 
I think Jonathan took this picture while I was working. The ferry makes it much easier to get materials as we don't have any stores. We sprung for sheetrock for the cabin because we could actually get it here by ferry.
I work on the forward deck doing the bow lines and spring line during dockings. It is 198 ft long and we go between here, Wrangell and Petersberg four days a week. See the northern route for more info. http://www.interislandferry.com/ They are 12 hour days and the work is very much appreciated as it is hard to find work locally. My commute to the dock is about 1/2 mile. 
I think Jonathan took this picture while I was working. The ferry makes it much easier to get materials as we don't have any stores. We sprung for sheetrock for the cabin because we could actually get it here by ferry. Another job I have is working for the school district with a program called ECOVan, which is a partnership with the Forest Service. It focuses on outdoor education and watersheds. We are developing a website for it: www.sisd.org go to PROGRAMS on the left and select ECOVan. We have done some outdoor survival exercises like firebuilding and shelter building. 
Right now we are doing a K-12 program on alternative energy. The kids will be building their own hydro power wheels and windmills. They also had to inventory their school appliances for energy use in watts and kWh. Power is a big issue here because our local diesel generator produces power for town at $.48/kWh, the national average is around $.07/kWh. Thank god for squirrel power!
Right now we are doing a K-12 program on alternative energy. The kids will be building their own hydro power wheels and windmills. They also had to inventory their school appliances for energy use in watts and kWh. Power is a big issue here because our local diesel generator produces power for town at $.48/kWh, the national average is around $.07/kWh. Thank god for squirrel power!Yet another job I have is the harbormaster job. With something like 68 slips available it is not that time consuming especially in the middle of winter. Our little town has outgrown this harbor. It was originally built by the logging camp and was designed really for skiffs. Today people are upgrading to really nice sport fishing boats and more commercial boats are using this end of the island for seasonal moorage so they really don't fit into the slips that we have. The good news is that we got a $1 million grant to upgrade the harbor
. We just need another $.5 million to get power down there. I would love to do some experimental tidal energy production so if there are any orgs out there reading this andd you need a guinea pig location, please send your proposals. We have 17 foot tides in the harbor.
. We just need another $.5 million to get power down there. I would love to do some experimental tidal energy production so if there are any orgs out there reading this andd you need a guinea pig location, please send your proposals. We have 17 foot tides in the harbor. Ok that is it for the picture perfect jobs, I am not going to go into the other ones. At least until my taxes are done.
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