On the Road

We had a great summer–nearly three months of sunny days with up to 80F temps. We’re long overdue for some R&R–here is Martina and her niece Alex (visiting from Munich) canoeing in our slough at high tide. Doug’s got that work ethic so he’s off building projects:

First, after delivering and schlepping 5000 board feet of lumber up the beach, I cut it up and finish the boardwalk–now totaling over 300′ in length and crowned by our gazebo in the saltchuck, where the canoe photo (above) was taken.

The diesel shed, begun two years ago is finally cleaned out, sealed and painted, then the upper structure framed in and skip-sheeted to match the woodshed. And a roof–what a concept. Now I can contain any oil spilled and recycle it.

Our greenhouse worked fantastic. Here we’re about mid-way through the summer. We must have harvested 500 tomatoes and they are still ripening. We also grew dozens of cucumbers and more lettuce than we could eat. Outside, we did fairly well except for beans. We’ll keep you posted on the harvest in the next blog

The guest house was the biggie. We began with new floor beams which allowed me to lengthen the porch to a full six feet. Next was a new roof, then we gutted, insulated and paneled the interior in yellow cedar with red cedar bunk beds. Add a nice bamboo floor and a spiffy (and expensive) Norwegian Jotul stove. Finally, we clad the exterior with waterproofing and shingles. We’re open for visitors….

Here’s the woodshed–finally full of dry wood and skip-sheeted to keep out the snow drifts. We extended the floor, raised the log splitter (it’s on the left), wired for electricity and tied it all together with the boardwalk. Whew! I’m getting tired just writing about it.

It’s time to climb Petersburg Mountain–shown here clouded with smoke from BC fires. It tops out about 3000′ above our house. We’ve been looking at this mountain for four years and it’s time to ‘knock the bastard off’ in the words of Sir Ed.

Our USFS crews have built a marvelous staircase up this thing–it’s about half done and you rarely touch ground.

The only problem I have with this trail is it destroyed the forest you walk through–here’s the clearcut. These trees are over 250 years old! That’s the Alaska mentality. If they’d cut the rest down, the view would be terrific…..

But we prefer to hike for our view–here’s Martina on the summit ridge–nice relief with the Baird and Patterson Glaciers across Frederick Sound looking north.

And here’s a 180 degree view (south) to Petersburg, airport and all. The Wrangell Narrows runs south to Sumner Strait about 30 miles distant separating Mitkof Island on the left and Kupreanof Island on the right. Here’s a close up showing our property:

You can faintly see three buoys #58, #56 and #54 (with a little boat southbound) just to the left of the tree-top. Our little point is to the right on Kupreanof Island–our dock is almost white in this telephoto.

Descending, we find lots of Chicken of the Woods (Sulfur Shelf) mushrooms–we carefully cut off about 1″ off the border allowing it to continue producing mushroom. We fry it up like you would chicken tenders and add it to pasta and season with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese! Stay tuned….

Had to post this. This morning at 7:30am my neighbor rings and tells me a wolf is heading my way. I grab the camera, binoculars and rubber boots and run out to the point. This is the first wolf we’ve had since mid-winter.

And here’s the Lone Toad. It hopped through our garden yesterday northbound like the wolf. It’s a western toad and no one has seen one of these for years. Our nearest neighbor, Russ, saw one also–maybe the same one…..?

Ever want to take a time machine back 100 years? We got that privilege when our neighbors gave us three large photo albums full of the history of our homestead. Above is a photo that came with the house taken sometime during the 1920s showing only the net shed, boathouse and small cabin where our guest house is today. Fish and pelts are drying on racks to the left. All that remains today is the engine of the boat beached below the cabin.

Here is a photo of Frank Wyatt and the date 1960 written on the back. I’ve no clue who this person is–perhaps the former owner? This photo is taken standing where the current log house is. Early newspaper accounts state this is the ‘old Garner property’ and later the Franz Gaff Hook Factory. It was first cleared in 1927.

This is what the old house, woodshed and net shed looked like from a float 100 yards off our beach. This float is officially on the nautical charts and we use this feature to find our house in the winter in the fog using our GPS.

Remember our aerial fly-by (see prior post)? Here’s one taken perhaps in the 1960s. Note the extensive gardens and the dead yellow cedar trees interspersed in the forest. There are none 50 years later; perhaps logged off for fuel. We do have some cedar groves up near the borders of the muskeg but they are dying back fast–thought to be the result of less snow which normally preserves the root system in winter. Global warming??

Here’s Harry, the former owner, laying the first course of the cabin we currently live in. He built the sauna first–July 1967 is inscribed in the cement floor. Harry had the foresight to lay the first course of logs in yellow cedar to prevent rot. The logs today are still in perfect condition.

This photo is taken May 1969 showing both houses.

Here is the original woodshed. Harry put in new pilings on the dock/net shed from where this photo is taken. Our boardwalk follows this original path, instead of under the eave of the netshed which is a huge avalanche problem in the winter.

Getting close to finishing the logwork

The upper structure is nearly finished. This project took Harry and Emily 5 to 6 years to complete. Harry also built a 30′ water tower which stored water on the third level so it would gravity feed to the house. It still works although we’ve replumbed and pressurized the system for better flow

The house today.