Shingles & Windows

We left Fairbanks about 9am on Saturday, then after a not-so-quick stop at the bakery/ coffee shop we were on our way to Delta. This weekend's expedition was quite ambitious: getting the shingles on and installing the windows. We had no idea how long the shingles would take since we had never done that before (we put a metal roof on the Tek cabin). After getting the boat unloaded we got the tar paper installed quite quickly & then began the rows of shingles. We found that they are relatively easy to install, but definitely take some time.

At about 8pm we decided to have some dinner and call it quits for the evening. It was such a beautiful night that after dinner we went and did a little fishing. there was a HUGE midge hatch going on, we had better luck with the fly rods rather than jigs.

Fishing under the midnight sun!

Sunday morning we got up and surprised Mike with donuts & a Fathers Day card; then got straight to work on the shingles. The morning started out hot and sunny, but then it clouded up and sprinkled a bit in the afternoon. Luckily we were able to finish up the roof, and it turned out great!

Travis also finished up the new outhouse hole he has been working on the last few weeks. Once he hit groundwater we told him it was deep enough.

Travis dug the whole hole himself!

After finishing up the shingles we managed to get two of the four windows installed. We held off on the other two because they are the ones a friend gave us and they need a little scraping & cleaning before we put them in (they have some old silicone & spray insulation still stuck to them)....we just ran out of time....but once we get them cleaned up it'll be a quick install.

June 19

...we also wanted to make sure we made it to the Delta Buffalo Drive In before they closed at 9:30pm! We made it! Burgers & shakes.....YUUUMMMMMY!

So we were late getting home last night, but well worth it to have the roof totally done.

Rafters & Roof

Once again we had a productive weekend on the river - we managed to get a ridge beam manufactured onsite -- basically made a homebrew "glu-lam beam" with multiple full length 2x8's, a caulking gun tube full of Liquid Nails, and about 3 dozen regular nails courtesy of the Paslode nail gun.  Built up a model of the gable end rafter supports and calc'd that we were going to do a 3/12 pitch roof, the minimum needed for good drainage of asphalt shingle, but yet easy enough to run around on w/o worry about slipping.

Once the beam glue dried we pre-hung the rafter hangers (metal brackets) and hoisted the beam up, them commenced with cutting rafters to pitch and hanging each one individually.  We had to use an old fashioned hammer as the Paslode doesn't have a way to drive nails into the brackets. 

After rafters went up we broke for lunch then went back to it and sheathed the roof as well.  This is different than our last cabin as we used purlins rather than sheathing as the nailing surface for the final covering - on this one we're planning on simple shingles so needed to change plans.

We ended up being a bit short on tar paper so decided to just re-tarp (what is an Alaskan building without at least a little blue tarp showing?) the whole shebang and actually sneak in a little fishing at the end of the day.  A final stop at the Buffalo Diner for a burger and malt on the way back to Fairbanks was in order and we got back to the house around 9 PM or so.

Walls!

Great weekend progress on our new fishin' shack.

When we got to the DCR lot on Saturday morning we found that the wind had totally destroyed our big tent that we had left up on the platform...it broke the eyebolts we had the tent tied down to, bent & broke a bunch of the poles, and ripped a couple huge holes in the nylon. Bummer! Luckily we were able to scab together a makeshift bug free shelter for Mike and I out of the salvageable parts and the kids used our emergency tent that we keep stashed in the boat. So not a huge deal. 



Broken Tent



MacGyver Tent

After we unloaded all the 2x4s (65 @ 2x4x8 + 6 @ 2x4x12 + 6 @ 2x4x16), we boated back up to the launch and met some friends of ours from Fairbanks, they had come down for the day to see our lot and do some fishing. They helped us load all the siding (14 sheets of T-1-11) & our camping gear into the boat and then we put EVERYONE in the boat. We were testing to see if we could get on step with that much of a load...and YES, we could!! 4 adults, 5 kids, 2 dogs, all the siding & camping gear!! WOW!!

We headed to the lot, unloaded all the gear than our buddy Tim SUPed down the river to the lot (Stand up Paddling...on a SURFboard!), I don't think I have ever seen a surfboard on the DCR.

Piper and Nora had a great time playing on it too...although they were careful not to fall off....the spring fed water in the DCR is literally ICE cold!

They boys went down river and did a little fishin' it was pretty hot so there weren't a lot of bites, but Mike caught a nice golden colored grayling...

After everyone left in the afternoon we got a start on the walls & had 2.5 of them framed up by 10pm (with a dinner break for bison chili & cornbread)....gotta LOVE our LONG summer days!

Sunday we worked all day to get the wall framing complete. The kids are big enough now so they were able to help lift & brace the walls, they also took camp all apart while Mike and I were finishing the framing & sheathing. Big helpers!!


Tekla the Supervisor

View from River

Our Delta friends Brandy and Ross were nice enough to invite us over for a BBQ after we were done....musk ox steaks! Sooo tasty! We got home about 11pm....

Memorial Day on the DCR

It was in the 80's in Delta this weekend! It is hard to believe that just two weeks ago we were still seeing ice float past the Teklanika cabin!

Friday night we spent a couple hours at Lowes getting our materials purchased & loaded in the boat and truck; then Saturday morning we took off for Delta. It took us two boat trips to get all the materials & camping gear down to the site. The boat parking area was PACKED at the campground; so Mike made friends with Les, the campground host, and he let us park in a nice private spot where we could get the truck & boat out of the way.

It was soooo hot in the afternoon that we took quite a few breaks as we were hand carrying all the materials from the boat up to the cabin site. That evening we relaxed by the fire (a SMALL one since wildfire danger is so high) then hit the sack early since we were all pretty wiped out from the hauling and heat.

 

Spring-fed Fridge



Sunday morning we got right to work finalizing the cabin location, squaring & leveling the rim joists, and nailing everything together. In-between the building work we picked away at the clearing/ thinning that needed to be done to improve the "viewshed". We must have cut at least a couple hundred alders, those things are like weeds! There were a couple dead spruce we had to cut as well....but mostly it was little scrubby stuff. After we got the floor done, Mike and the kids went fishing for a little bit, then just as they got back to camp our Delta friends Brandy & Ross stopped by with their daughter Izzy. We had a good visit & an excellent dinner of bison burgers & corn on the cob.

Monday we hauled most of the cut brush to the edges of the lot (out of sight!) and started digging the new outhouse hole....we hit frozen ground at about 12 inches so we'll be picking away at that throughout the summer...

View from Cabin Site - before trimming brush

View from Cabin Site - after trimming brush

We did a little fishing before heading to the boat launch and you can see who caught the first grayling of the season.

Ice Ice Baby

These pictures will show you how darn cold this spring has been! We’ve never seen this much ice up at the cabin this late in May….granted we’ve only been going up there since 2004, but we talked to other folks who have a much longer history and they agree with us.

When we went up on Friday night (May 13) it was pretty cloudy and chilly, we had to thread the boat through a couple narrow spots of ice but they were fine.

The biggest obstacle was when we made it to within sight of the property corner and a big sweeper was down in the river. It had trapped a bunch of ice behind it and there was no way we could get around (or through) it. We sat and thought about it for a while then figured our only option was to cut through the tree.

So Mike stood up in the bow with the chainsaw and I kept the boat steady against the tree while he cut.

CRACK! The tree snapped and as the crown sunk to the river bottom the ice jam started to shift and flow downstream, right around us. We got over to the side of the river and tried to keep from getting swept up in the ice.

As soon as it was clear we continued on up to the cabin, got everything offloaded and enjoyed moose chili & cornbread for dinner…..we were all tired after the excitement of the ride up so we fell asleep relatively early, thankful for the toasty wood stove & full stomachs.

Saturday was a much nicer day weather-wise, super sunny & breezy. We did some chores & spent a couple hours playing on a sunny gravel bar with Tekla and throwing rocks at all the ice chunks that were still flowing downriver.  

Mike and the kids did some shooting at the range and then we enjoyed a dutch oven dinner out by the fire ring. We even squeezed in a Dungeons and Dragons game before Piper fell asleep at the table. 

Yesterday (Sunday) was a gorgeous boat ride out, the ice had mostly melted and the river had came up….much easier driving conditions!