On the Road

There is nothing like spring here in Petersburg–especially when the locals are complaining about the lingering winter weather.  I removed the tarp today on the Katahdin and…..what a beautiful boat!!!….and beautiful blue sky, white mountains, soaring eagles, etc….

Here’s a look northward from my moorage into Frederick Sound–the north wind has just cleaned the mountains off and the summer fishing boats are arriving daily.

Petersburg is strictly a Norwegian town–and this week is the celebration of ‘Constitution Day’ celebrated on the 17th of May.   In 1814, Norway, after 300 years of Danish rule gained her independence when Sweden took over the Danish territories.   Sweden, an ally of England inherited Norway from Denmark, an ally of France, when Napoleon was defeted at Waterloo in 1814–although final independence didn’t occur until 1906.   This date, the proud Norwegians will not forget!

Here we are out of the water–all 140 tons!  What perfect weather!!  And here’s a close-up of the stern sections where we will install the last of 61 planks on my 12 year restoration plan: 

and…

Here is the plank being installed–it’s about 30 feet long, three inches thick and is held in with about 60 galvanized screws, caulked with cotton and oakum and cemented over.  After new zincs are installed, the hull is painted and launched–total time two days and about $10,000!  After all this it’s off to the parade where rain makes no difference to these hearty Norwegians–they just move into the bars!

and….

Finally, it’s a fashion show–here are some of the traditional Norwgian formal dress.  These outfits reflect the region where the people hail from, take years and thousands of dollars to make–about as much as a tugboat plank.  Next week, it’s back to work on the farm….stay tuned…..

(The Press Release originally posted here will be reposted on Tuesday as a separate link.  There were conflicts with the Word and WordPress programs)

Dear Terry:

I just got a nice email from your former partner, Sam Ware, who wants to buy me a beer in Dallas.  I thought I would offer to buy you a beer in Jackson and we can settle this road thing in about an hour.

In spite of what you have heard about me, I am a reasonable person.  In fact, I’m the only reasonable person on Saddle Butte at this time.  As you know, I was the only one of 20 landowners to give you a piece of my property, absolutely free.  I did this because Matt Ostdiek told me I would get a better road.  Well, the road is a disaster and Matt Ostdiek is a goddam liar. 

In fact, you and I are on the same side of this issue.  We both got a bad road.  This is because Seaton Construction couldn’t follow plans, and Matt Ostdiek of Rendezvous Engineering designed a one lane road past my house to appease my pit-bull neighbors, the Fergusons, who have sued you for the past two years, and whose utility service boxes still sit 5 feet into your road easement.  Finally, your attorneys forgot to record my easement to you, which has now expired, limiting you to a one lane road to a multi-million dollar development.   If any of these people worked for me, I would fire them instantly. 

In short, you have to deal with me and you are lucky because I’m going to give you that easement back if we can agree on a few simple points: returning the road back into it’s original easement.  As I told Sam Ware, I have no problem with development, per se.,  only bad neighbors.   Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Doug Leen, 907.209.1691 or mail@dougleen.com

How would you like this right in front of your view?  Phase III kicked in today, Monday, with more signs, a visit to the local sheriff, newspapers, a land-use attorney and best of all–an 11 foot helium blimp.  It’s tethered on the top of my house and I’ve set it so it’s right in front of the Ferguson’s view.  The development in the distance is another example of ridgelining done by the Amangani corporation of Singapore.  Jackson Hole is being raped by developers–this view used to be Senator Hansen’s land; he gave it to his son who immediately sold it to the highest bidder–what do you expect?  I look at this every day–but then again, they look at us and my red blimp!!! 

The Fergusons spent two years and about $25,000 of our Association money sueing Amangani to limit the size of their outdoor lightbulbs; yes, lightbulbs!  Amangani’s attorney, Mike Hammer is no fan of my next door neighbor, and neither am I.  After all of Jean’s lawsuits, I managed to get these developers and several other owners of large properties (Mike Halpern, Mike Hammer to name a few) on the butte together to open their road to us so we could take our ugly road out. (the ugly road NW of the town of Jackson); only to have the Fergusons kill it.  You can google Saddle Butte or my name and find the public hearings.  On top of this, Jean Ferguson wanted to know what color of roof I was going to put on my house–well, now she’s got a red blimp! 

Here’s a close-up of it with the banner still attached.  It was too heavy making my precious blimp flounder, so I’ve pasted it up between two trees in front of their driveway.  I’m making lighter weight banners–perhaps a Ronald McDonald face and a couple of golden arches??  Any ideas, send me a suggestion below.  Here’s the banner:

“BAD FENCES MAKE BAD NEIGHBORS”  Kind of has a nice ring to it, huh?  See those boulders to the left?  Guess where they came from? 

From here.  These idiots from Seaton Construction dumped these four huge 3 foot diameter boulders right against my trees–and this was after I confronted them last season in the presence of the county sheriff.  I again called the sheriff and he’s going to try to get criminal charges filed.  So far we’ve lost about 39 trees although I’m losing count.  We found three more complete buried on Saturday.  Be sure to read the press release and initial excavation report below.;   Stay tuned….