The Beauty of it All . . .

A lot of you probably shake your heads and wonder why we go to the trouble to have a place so remote.  Well, it's hard to explain, but being in this place, the remoteness, the quite, the peacefulness is calming and in today's world calm is hard to find.  It also feels good to actually accomplish something with your own hands and your own sweat and determination.  Easy is not usually rewarding, but working for something is.  Below is part of the reason we love it here.

Chocolate Lily

Geraniums

Moose in the front yard

View from our front window

Wild Ferns

Lupine

Bog Iris

Enjoying the journey

Hauling in supplies

Not only is it a challenge to complete a project of this size, when you have only weekends to do the work, but also when you're just getting supplies and equipment out or dealing with weather.

Sometimes the conditions are good for the jeep

Sometimes they require a snow machine

Sometimes you can carry the load with a 4-wheeler

but, even in the best conditions . . .

accidents happen

Even under the worse conditions . . .

you can dig yourself . . .

OUT!

The walls were next . . .

We bought some leftover spruce 1X8 siding from an older gentlemen here in town.  It is enough to cover all of the main interior walls and our bedroom walls.  We have used a whitewash effect when painting them, so they look weathered and worn like an old barn.

Our Bedroom

The interior walls look unfinished, but that's on purpose and we will add some shelving later.

Wendel built two light fixtures like the one above for our bedroom

 

The Den and Dining Room

The partial loft floor you see on the right will be removed and be replaced by the stairs

Wendel created this light out of black pipe and 1930's street lamps

The extension above is called a "pick" and allows us to work over the open area.  It will come down later.

The Kitchen

This is our temporary kitchen, we will bring antique furniture up from storage to furnish the kitchen and Wendel wants to get a commercial style stove.

Walls in upstairs loft

Putting in the ceiling

We found some really interesting corrugated ceiling panels that came off of an old cannery in Kodiak, Alaska.  The tin has different colors of paint and rust on it.  We have covered the entire ceiling of the main house with these panels.  We love it!

Setting the Ridge Beam . . .

Our cabin is 24X24 square with a 14X24 loft.  It is 17 feet at it's tallest inside and has several large windows on the front; therefore, we felt we needed a ridge beam to span the length from front to back for support.  We have very strong winds that come up the canyon at times and batter the cabin, so we felt that with a ridge beam the structure would be stronger.  Below is Wendel and I putting the ridge beam up and setting the king post.  The beam is 8X8 and came out in two 16 feet long pieces.  They traveled on a trailer behind the jeep out to the site (bog was frozen).  Wendel lap jointed the two pieces together to form a 23 feet long beam and then we got the 5 foot long king post out of what was left.

Wendel and I brought the ridge beam up from the first floor with a chain lift and come-a-long and set it in place

Wendel's finishing the bottom of the king post

The ridge beam and king post put together by mortise and tenon construction

Setting the king post

The ridge beam and king post are in place

Getting There  . . . 
To put this in perspective, the trip to our new place is about 20 miles from where we live and it's 3 miles off the road system.  You travel thru 2 bogs(wet areas) and 3 sets of woods on trails to get there.  It takes about a hour to get there in ideal conditions.   The first two pictures were of us taking in our first supplies.    What follows are pictures taken the first winter we had the property.  We got lucky and the winter was mild, but cold enough to freeze the bogs with only a little snow.  Why is that lucky?  It allowed us to drive out in our jeep instead of 4-wheeling or snowmobiling --   which at this time we didn't own a snow mobile.  These are pictures of the trail route that we take and how we get supplies in.  Enjoy!

Loading at the parking lot

Entering trail

Entering the 1st Bog

Midway

Entering 2nd Bog

Entering Sub

Coming in the driveway

Unloading at property