Winter Has Arrived!!

I returned to Alaska on Thursday, January 12th.  Irene was going to come with me, but thank goodness she didn't!!

We had a "lady" Captain from Seattle to Anchorage ... and it was probably the smoothest landing I have experienced in a very long time.  Wind was blowing when we landed and I felt sorry for the poor chaps on the runway.  They work all day in temperatures between -5 and 10 degrees!  My hat goes off to them.

From Anchorage, I hopped a "puddle jumper" on over to Kenai.  The sun was just setting as we took off.  Again ... to my surprise, the flight was very smooth.

Kenai was covered with snow ... and our place was no different.  We had approximately 8-10 inches of snow on the ground when I arrived at the cabins, but over the next 3 days it laid down an addition 5 inches of snow.  Getting out of our long driveway was a feat!!  We have three vehicles in Alaska ... a 1996 Suburban, with 170K miles on it ... a 1997 Suburban with 234K miles on it ... and a 2001 Ford F150 with 114K miles on it.  Of the 3 vehicles, which one fired up in the extreme temperatures?  Yep ... the one with the most miles on it!! Thank goodness all three of our vehicles have 4 wheel drive ... without it, I would not have gotten that suburban out of there!

Here's my work-project ... looks just like the way I left it!!! Unfortunately, because I turned the water off and left no water running, my Well Pipe froze up and one of the water lines underneath our cabin froze as well.  I spent a couple of days, but I finally lifted the well pump pipe up and thawed it out. Water is working like a champ in the Well House ... but I still didn't have water at the cabin. Shedding my nice warm coat, I crawled underneath the cabin to see if one of the "heat tapes", that are supposed to keep your pipes from freezing up, had somehow stopped working.  What I found was that one of the heat tapes was not plugged in!!  Duh ....!!!  It's plugged in now and I'm waiting to see if it will work a little "magic" for me.  I'll know soon!!

I felt sorry for these guys!  So bitterly cold outside and so little to eat.  I had a young yearling stop at Irene's flower beds around the cabins ... in search of ANYTHING edible!  Poor guy ... made me want to run down to the feed store and buy a bale of hay to help him out!  It's truly incredible that they can survive such harsh conditions.

The cabins look pretty in their velvety blanket of snow ....

To help me "brave" the "biting" wind chill ... I purchased a nice warm hat that has flaps to cover my   ears.  Reminds me of the hat I used to wear on my mission in Korea.

To show you how cold it is here in Alaska ... I want you to look at these really "cool" (in more than one way!!) ice-crystal formations ... I found them on the INSIDE of my truck's windshield!!  Not only did I have ice on the outside of the windshield ... I had ice on the inside as well.

This is a photo of the Kenai river, taken from a location known as "Access Bridge".  Please note the enormous size of these ice-chunks.  Many are larger than my truck!!  The river is littered with these ice chunks, which will not melt or disappear until sometime in April or May.

I love the "White Top-Hats" that my cabins and shed wear!  The hats just keep getting taller!   With temperatures ranging from 5 to -25 degrees fahrenheit ... they'll be wearing some pretty dang tall hats by end of March, because none of this snow will be melting anytime soon!!  It's definitely a "winter-wonderland"!

Alaska Summer 2016 - Cabin #4 On The Rise!!!

Wow, it has been quite some time since we updated our blog!!  Time to do a better job and keep all of our family, friends and clients up to date on what's new and exciting with Burly Bear Bunkhouse and Alaska Fishing, Recreation and Fun!

On September 7th, having no additional clients booked, I began construction of our 4th Alaska cabin ... if you can call these cabins.  I think they are more like miniature homes!  This 4th Alaska cabin is quite a bit bigger than the other 3 cabins we constructed in 2008/2009.  Those cabins have square footage that range from 730 to 924.  This new 4th cabin comes in at 1330 square feet, has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, indoor laundry and hot water heater room and a small walk-in closet in the master bedroom.  It's the same design as one of the other 3 cabins ... just "expanded".

I am a one-man team in this building project, so that slows things down a bit ... but I didn't do too bad in the first 7 weeks of construction, and I even had time for a little Silver Salmon fishing and quick trip back to Arizona!  At the end of 7 weeks (October 30th), I had the cabin to the "dried-in" stage ... meaning it had all walls, roof, doors and windows in place ... completely protected from the elements and the critters.

I have placed these 11 photos in order, showing my progress over the 7 weeks.

Week #1 involved digging nine 5 foot deep "Sono-tube" holes (28 inches in diameter), placing the tubes in them, back-filling with dirt and then pouring them full of concrete.  Thank heavens for a Concrete Boom Truck!!!  It saved me!  I had to wait 3 days for the concrete to cure before moving on to the next step.  I "snuck-in" a little Salmon Fishing during this time period!!  Fun, fun!!

Week #2 began with the arrival of 3 very long, very wide and very heavy glue-lam beams.  Each was 40 feet in length and each was swung into place with the help of a massive crane.  All I had to do was guide them into the 3 brackets that held each of them in place.

With the 3 beams in place, I could then lift, by hand, thirty 33 foot long, pre-fabricated BCI Floor Joists.  I think each one weighed around 125-150 lbs. ... not too bad.

During the last half of Week #2 and part of week #3, I was able to put into place all floor insulation and tongue and groove flooring.  Because of the frequent rain showers in September and October, I stapled Tyvek paper to the floor.  I also used Liquid Nail glue and glued the seams of the paper together to lock out any moisture.  Using this paper saved the floor!  It required frequent "broom-off's", sometimes twice daily, but it truly saved the wood flooring from becoming saturated with moisture.

With the floor down, it was time to start building walls .... one of my favorite parts of building.  I love walls because it really makes it look like you're "moving along" and progressing.  At this stage, there was no more time for Salmon Fishing in the Kenai, Kasiloff or any other river.  All work and no play! Boo-Hoo!! Building the walls on top of the floor (walls laying down) is easy for one man.  Raising them into position, however, is all but impossible for one man. 

Raising a 40 foot long wall would usually require at least 4 men ... I didn't have that many guys ... just me.  So I built the walls in 10-14 foot sections, then flew Craig Winquist (Irene's niece's husband, who also happens to work with me in the tax business) out, for a little more than one week, to help me lift and put those walls into place.  He was a great helper ... and he saved me!  By the time he left, we had all exterior and interior walls up and completely covered in OSB siding and Tyvek paper.  Sweet!!

At the end of week #4, I flew home with Craig and stayed for almost a week.  Two of our newborn grand-daughters were being blessed and I didn't want to miss that.  On the morning of our departure to Arizona, our local lumber company, Spenard Builders, delivered roof trusses for the cabin.  They were laid on top of the walls and supported with lumber from underneath. And there they stayed until my return.

Back from Arizona, I began working on the trusses. Again, I did not have a crane to set them in place, so this is very difficult for one man to do.  Not impossible, but difficult and time consuming, especially when each truss stood approximately 9 feet tall, from base to peak! 

We have wonderful friends in Alaska, and Sonny Cook, who we salmon fish with and attend church with, is one of our best friends.  When he heard I was about to begin lifting those trusses into place, he called and said, "Heap ... you wait for me!  I'll be there in 30 minutes!" 

Good to his word, he was soon there to help me. It took the 2 of us 2 days to get all 32 trusses into position, and that included putting OSB siding & Tyvek paper on each of the gable ends!   Not bad, for two "old guys"!!

This is a photo from the backside of the cabin.  All trusses in place and you can see that the gable end has OSB siding and Tyvek paper on it.  This saves me a huge headache later.  The backside of this cabin stands 6 feet off the ground, so by the time you put ladders up, to place that gable-end OSB siding and paper on ... you'd be pretty high off the ground.  Much easier to put that on while it's laying down and then just lift it into place!

Weeks #6 and #7 of construction were consumed in doing the roof, electrical wiring, and indoor plumbing.  By Ocotober 30th, this is how I left the cabin.  Not too bad for someone that doesn't build homes for a living!

Irene and I return to Alaska on January 12th, at which time I will resume construction.  Lots more to do ... but I'm actually looking forward to it! 

We love Alaska, the Burly Bear Bunkhouse operation, and the many clients and friends/family that come to visit, fish and enjoy the great Alaska Outdoors with us.  We are truly blessed!!