Spring Fun!

Spring is here and we've busted out to enjoy the warm weather and sunny spring days! :-)
Tom is back flying again.  A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip up to Bettles.

Late afternoon sun on the Yukon River.

This could be the farthest north phone booth in the USA ...Yes, there is a phone in the booth - but it doesn't work!

The next day we headed out to the Chena State Rec area for an afternoon ski.

We skied to the remains of the Lower Chena cabin, which saw its demise just a few weeks earlier.  A group of fire fighters from one of the military bases were responsible. Yes! That's right, fire fighters.  They had stoked the wood stove and hopped on their snow machines to visit their buddies in the cabin a few miles up the trail.  When they came back there was nothing left but the roof and the picnic table...  Poor fellows will never live this one down...

Over spring break we headed up to Healy to get out of town for a few days.  Still gorgeous weather, we skied out the Stampede Road for a few miles.  Our friend, Ben Huff, had just been out on this trail a few days earlier with Ned Rozell, Ed Plumb and the family of Chris McCandless.  Keep your eye out for the story in Outside Magazine!

A spectacular view of Denali from here - but not sure if you can make it out in the photos!

The trail/road was a bit drifted in spots - mini moguls!

Wolf tracks in the wind blown crusted snow.

I'm fairly sure these are lynx tracks - looking for dinner...

The Alaska Range in the distance.

And then the next day to ski in Denali Park.  We had stopped here for a snack and hot tea.  As we enjoyed our lunch, the young bull moose in the distance came closer and closer, eventually deciding to head straight toward us on the trail....We shooed him away and he skirted around us, wading through the deeper snow.  Its no wonder the moose like to follow the trail.

Hope you all are doing well.  Happy Spring!

House Move - A synopsis

From here....

to there...

The back-side view... 

From here... 

to there...

The whole project took just about 2 weeks - ~ June 8 to June 21...

Reindeer Hills Memorial Day

We had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend with Matt & Nina and Joe on the Nenana River through Reindeer Hills.  Maiden voyage for their new raft!

Yes, its a moose - no reindeer in sight at this time of year ...

Chillin' at the take-out waiting for the car shuttle...

Moose Mt Rendition of "Up"

After much waiting for the road restrictions to lift, we're finally on our way to moving house v1 to its new location in order to make way for excavation and construction of house v2...  I'm waaaay behind on the photos and updates so I'll start with today and work backwards...

6/9/10
We're finally off the ground!  The engineers have spent the day jacking the house up little by little with bladders (like the one shown here) and support blocks.  This picture is the back of the house (north side).

And here's the south side, 7 courses off the ground...

All in all, we're elevated about 2ft.  This original support post was left in place for now.

Here's the east side view...

With close-up... We have steel I-beams holding everything up and keeping it all together.

The house hasn't been this level since we've moved in! (notice the gap at the bottom of the door...)

6/8/10
And here's the front view yesterday evening - original posts still in place, just starting to place the I-beams and support towers.

6/7/10
Porch is off and I-beams delivered...

Spring Update

We're long over-due for an update of house plans and puppy pictures that don't involve late-night angst or moose wrangling...

Here are our current 1st floor plans - hot off the press today.  2nd floor should be coming soon.  All of this to go to the engineer this week...Then we'll order the foundation blocks and lumber, etc.  Its a bit small, but hopefully you can enlarge it somehow in your browser.  Currently most excited about the laundry shoot in the pantry...which will also come from the closet above...

Today is the first day that leaves are starting to emerge on the birch trees!!  This April was, on average, 8degrees F warmer than normal, so even though we had flurries last week and cooler temps, looks like green is on its way!!

Wilson make it home from his moose adventure last week unscathed, although very sore from running and chasing wildlife for 5+ hours straight...

These pics of Max are a couple weeks old.  Max is now officially taller than Wilson - and he keeps growing!  He met rain for the first time this week and was hilarious snapping at it and trying to bite it. We got him in Dec. and he took his house training so seriously that he would only pee on the snow for quite a while.  Things were touch and go for a couple weeks, but fortunately the snow melted gradually, so he figured it out..

A couple weeks ago we taped out the first floor dimensions to see what it would be like... Here's a pic of Tom and the dogs in the kitchen, between the stove and the island.  Joe is standing on the dining room table..

Hope you all are enjoying spring-time!