the three ducks in a row

This would be a look at the" Lapenter block of Ashland" we are taking the block one house at a time.
Justin is still in Brazil and we are getting mentally prepared for a kick ass season in Aspen! Insulation is finally going in and nearing a major turning point with the upstairs almost done! then we can move back up there and move out of our living room. Well, it sounds good anyways, really there are still several patches to the plaster that are needed as I ripped many holes in the walls running the electrical wires........ and patching lathe and plaster is a pretty dusty proposition involving the cutting of the old plaster with a diamond blade on studs so that you have a square patch for wallboard, then there is the step of removing the last of the hard wood flooring, followed by slapping on a coat of paint onto the old dusty subflooring......... then finally, we can move up there. (it will be amazing if this is done by next week) and already the phone is ringing with people that want to go fishing or hunting or any number of events that dont involve making our house livable!!!!

Back home.

Hello ever'body!

We're back now in Wisconsin... but not for long... headed to Colorado for a few months this winter... to make hay.

Summer was great. We love trout. Had fun fishing with Roger since we've been back. Maybe we prefer bass. Ask Greg Brown why.

Here are some highlights from the Iliamna area from my perspective:
This is our cabin for the last four months:
Forth of July... during a period of unusually hot days and low water:Michigan Engineering, eat your heart out.
Never thought I'd post this:


This is when the river was 68deg F. July cliff jumping! The Copper is quite picturesque, with high cliffs and deep pools all along the river. Great structure for trout habitat. But the trout weren't too happy about the heat.

Here's a nice fish at the falls:

"Don't mind if I do!" as they say.

And, don't worry, Jake was present this summer:
Here is the spring box he re-vamped for the Lodge (ie where we keep the beer). And your suspicions are correct, I caught all the fish and Jake drank all the beer.

Here's Jake doing as he does:


Then some people caught some more fish:We flew in some planes:(Blake is the man.)

Saw a couple'a nice sunsets:
Sailed in an alien spaceship:

Built a time-machine:

Dumb and (an itchy) dumber at the lodge:
And that was that!
But I/we are really glad to be home, finally insulating our house... just in time to leave again.

Oh, but the most exciting news! Jake's cousin has moved into the house next door! No, literally, the house-next-door! We like our new neighbor. He plays soccer with us.

Anyway, feel free to email, we will email back. Or better yet, call! and we'll talk! or even best-of-all-choices... visit! We live in a frat house! Always room for you, your cousins, and your/their dogs and/or cats and/or parakeets.

See you. Until then, we'll be insulating. And drinking Two Hearted. And also chicken-sitting.

Peace.

We Have Not Posted in a While.

Because we are in Alaska.

And our internet is slow.

So we cannot upload pictures.

But things are good.

We'll be home in two weeks.

Will share pictures then...

Spring Cleaning. And another bathroom.

Well, we only have one bathroom, and it's frozen most of the year, so it's not like we're goin' gonzo here. And we've been busy, which is why we haven't been bloggin'. So here is a brief photo-filled explanation of what-the-hell has been going on up here in the North Country.First: This happened a little while ago, but Jake made this double-scarfed beam for the aft-end of our house. You may also observe from this photo the roughed-in skylights. Or maybe you can't.

Okay, so here is another view of the double-scarfed beam and where the skylights will go. That was a big step. Jake also paneled a 1" air-gap up there... so all we need to do is insulate, put on a new roof, and tounge-n-groove that shit and she'll be ready to go! sounds easy, right?
... Next:Sometime within the last month we went to a bonfire at the Dugger's place. For those of you who have the pleasure of knowing the Dugger family, we feel your pain. That's me about to fall in the fire pit.

Moving on:
Tim, Heidi and Justin arrived like locusts. So we explored the potential of owning a duck-suit and how it might fullfill something missing in our collective lives... we also started to work on the hand-made tiles which we will be using solely throughout the house.
It was fun.

Then the real work began.
With Tim supervising, Justin and I ripped up the old flooring. Then the most unfortunate thing happened:Yes, that is Justin holding my skewered Croc. These safety shoes are bullshit! No photos of the gore, sorry folks.
Then:Master-Plumber-Tim guided us as we cut open the sewer pipe in the basement to add in a new drain and clean-out (cuz the other one is seized closed!)
It was cold in the basement. And noisy. (yikes)
Below: Jake is "making it happening"
And so after a half-day or so, we were able to move to the main floor.
After another day or so we did this:And the drains made their way to the top floor! So we did too:
Here are the drains & Air vents... sort of wonky but totally functional. Tim & I only screwed up a few times.Oh, oops! well, you can't really see the toilet, bidet, sink & Shower drains in this photo but you'll see them in a minute. Next we worked outside 'cuz our neighbor with a tractor-collecting "problem" offered to till up the yard for the start of our garden:
Jake collected a bunch of huge driftwood pieces (off-cuts from the lumber mills which surrounded the bay in days-of-yore) to surround our raised beds. We didn't really get too far on the project. But it was a nice day and we needed to get out of the basement. Justin & I spent most of the day excavating materials from our yard. Notice the piles and piles of pavers and bricks we have stacked in the background. All from our yard! It's like playing real-life Catan! We will use these bricks and what-nots between the beds. Oh! And here are our seedlings:
Kind of feebs for April 27th, but not bad considering our house averages about 54 deg.
...To continue the rambling story... we went back inside and did some more plumbing, got all the drains in and started to frame out the room:The sink will be mounted on the chimney. Bidet to the right of the chimney, then the Toilet, Shower on the other plywood square. The sub floor of this dump is trashed (did she just call their home a "dump?" ...Yes.) The roof burned at some time so the sub-floor is mostly charred and ripply, etc. So we needed a few solid spots - no one wants to get sea-sick on the throne! We're keeping the window in the shower, and add a few more windows in the bathroom, pocket door, shelves, hand-blown glass sink...
Here is where Jake lost the wrench in the wall:
But the new beam sure does look nice.
Here are Jake and Tim in the stairwell:
(Giggling!)
And that's about it! so... more to come as the bathroom is completed... Hope everybody who reads this is having a good spring and doing well.

And the dumpster drives away!!!!

This is one full load, lots of plaster, and the first truck got stuck in the mud. Good thing that is where we are putting the garden. This is dumpster #3 and there will be more, filled from just this little house! In this picture the truck almost looks larger than the green house!??Notice the heap of shit to the left? Thats the compost and it will be moved. Also those are plum trees and the horrible white pole for hanging clean clothing on (if you customarely hang clothing on rusty old poles) is going to be 86 The good news, like the joy of dicovering old maple floors under age-old linoleum, we discovered that we have a well, yep, thats free water right here in town. That means that we will never have a high water bill!

first new beam

This is, sadly, almost two weeks of work for one fricken beam. old growth white pine scarfed together to make 16' up next to the old ceiling joist. Note the hole cut into the wall above the window to be able to fasten the beam with through bolts( This would otherwise have been done before a roof was put on top so adjustments are made to work from the inside) Two weeks seems like a lot, but this also puts into place a lot of necesarry know hows for the remaining three that are going in upstairs. With my good fortune they dont need to be scarfed as two run the full 18 ft, and one came scarfed. The wood shop is growing with the recent addition of Roger's disc sander, and a loaner miter saw from our neighbor. Two of the skylights were framed in(so I thought)but they did not pass inspection and so now they have to be re-done and this will entail a fair amount of additional structure to the roof rafters. Spring is upon us and the talk of the town is smelting season as everyone is certain it will be a good one! The lake is still frozen over and a late ice out is predicted, but people are ready as soon as the ice parts. The garden is shaping up to be good and we have roughly 20 different plants started in the starter trays. The master Gardner course is really paying off already. We went to a local seed exchange in bayfield hosted by a local organic farmer and it was all the hopes of finding some good local seed stock that I wanted and much more! We donated our seed stock that we brought from Washington and people made off with some killer seeds! We scored a grape cutting, lots of beans (mostly pole) and some wild and crazy corn from all over, all heirloom and non-GmO plants, some from as far as Mexico.

Two Views of Jake's New Scarf.

The pattern is hard to see here, based on the Sierpinski triangle fractal.

Bringing New Meaning to the Word "Ghetto"

It has been cold here. We're hoping the -30 degree nights end so we don't have to wake up to this in the morning:

The propane heater in the kitchen is only slightly more civilized than a burning barrel of trash.

Yes, that is ice in the toilet tank (above)

... and ice where the dishes were "drying" overnight. (Above)

Yesterday evening it was ice in the bath tub and the toilet. We thawed out the bathroom with the propane heater, then thought we needed to snake the bath tub drain. Which is right about the time we realized that the drain was frozen. And so we've been wet-vacuuming the water out of the tub after we shower and dumping it in the toilet... the Projects have heat, right?