swanson

Normally, winter is my favorite season at Skookum but winter didn’t happen this year. I made 3 trips to Skookum since my previous post and the only noteworthy news was the lack of snow.  After the debacle of nearly tipping my truck off the road, I have been parking at the bottom of the hill […]

Ridiculously Stupid… and Phenomenally Lucky! The snow has largely melted out, so I was able to drive to the top of the hill, hitting only a few icy patches. On the way down, however, the ice was particularly slippery and the truck got away from me. As shown below, I was inches from going down

Last Post of 2025 I made it up to Skookum twice since the last posting. The snow cover remains abysmal, as shown by the two “first view” photos above. In Bozeman, the snow was all but gone on Xmas day and it was warm enough that I hiked up above the “M” in shorts. Slow

How to win friends and … The switch flipped to winter! In late November I drove all the way to the cabin, but by December 7 I got stuck in snow only about 100 yards from the highway (photo above). Did I have chains? Well, no. A shovel? Well, no. I did discover, however, that

Extended Shoulder Season My favorite Skookum season, winter, is slow coming on. There has been just enough rain and snow to make driving in impractical. Since hiking in is more of a commitment, I prefer to spend the night. One of the benefits of nights at Skookum is the beautiful sunrise. The view of Bridger

Buttoning up for winter It snowed a couple of times at Skookum and this month has been a rush to get set for winter. There was still snow on the road even after nearly a week of sunny weather. Another storm is coming tomorrow, so I figure I won’t be driving in again until next

As the days shorten and the weather cools, it’s time to get ready for winter. Progress has not been as fast as during August when so many people came to help, but there has been progress none the less. Hopefully there will be water available inside the cabin this winter… but that is not for

It has been busy with Mark and Logan working on Skookum for two weeks, and with later visits from Sabrina, Scott, Tom, Don, & Pauline. Wylie and Mattias also threw in. Much was done! Logan and Mark drove from Alabama in a dump truck so we could bring up many yards of pre-mix gravel for

Progress during the last month has been a mish-mash of small details. Soon Logan and Mark will arrive for a big push.  Much of the work in the past month has been devoted to plumbing, something I have very little experience in. Of course, I won’t know how well I’ve done until the water is

I’m easing into the summer season, hoping that by this winter Skookum will be not just habitable, but comfortable. We are off to a slow start. The old Toyota just barely made it to Skookum today, and I had to wait about 15 minutes at the base of the last climb to let it cool

The snow has largely disappeared, although it will be another couple weeks before I can drive all the way to the cabin. Progress has been slow, but there are no serious deadlines to worry about. The tarped tractor has no snow around it (left photo), but there was still a big pile of snow on

Rats! I headed up to Skookum today to start on some chinking with Wylie and the pickup overheated and we didn’t make it. So I figured I’d put in updates from two previous trips that were the last of the “real winter” trips this year. Spring is in full swing and melting the snow rapidly!

I’ve made two trips up to Skookum and on each trip I put on a coat of Polyurethane on the ceiling, so the ceiling should be all but done. The first trip was in February when we had great snow, and then a big melt came that really knocked down the snow.  The left photo

I didn’t get up to Skookum in January, but snow and reasonable temperatures have made February good so far. Below are updates from two February trips. We finally got a some snow and I could use my backcountry skis (right photo) to ski into the cabin. The left photo shows the first view of the

Last Post of 2024 This is the last post of the year, but unlike previous years, I expect (hope?) for more activity during the winter than in past years. Skookum is still very much a messy construction project, but it’s also enclosed, warm, and functional. This post includes updates from a couple trips to Skookum.

The posts will be fewer with winter coming on, and progress is incremental as a rule. One HUGE development, however, is that Todd came up and got the solar hot water system running. This is important because it keeps the cellar warm where there are pipes that could freeze and batteries that need to be

Tom came over for a few days and we made great progress on the ceiling. Among other things, Tom can still work like crazy and he wore me out. Niko came up and had a frustrating time, but we do have electricity from the solar system and there was at least some advancement with the

There has been some progress since my last post, but it’s just short of success in a couple of key areas as discussed below. Niko (left image) has been working on the solar electrical system and the solar hot water system. The electrical system has charged up the batteries to full capacity, a significant success.

Bits and Pieces Work is in a relaxed mode, and thus progress is modest. Rather than continue with short posts, I will make infrequent posts unless something significant arises. One thing not documented in this post is that Niko made had his first visit to Skookum and we made some progress with the solar systems,

Buttoning up With it possible for snow to fly any time, recent work has been devoted to buttoning up. But unlike previous years, rather than figuring on leaving Skookum alone over the winter months, I have been preparing for visits to work and play during the cold and snowy months. Not a lot was done

The Roof! This was another pretty good week, even if it doesn’t look like much. The cabin has had a “temporary” ridge cap made from 2 by 6’s and flashing tape since last fall. This week, with help from Tim, we finally put up the remaining fascia and rake flashing plus the ridge cap, something

A Good Week! Much got done this week — all the solar panels are on the roof; most of the wainscoting is up; and the ugly, terrible, rotten job of sanding the logs is done! Photos of the work are shown below as usual. Meg and Wylie came up to help one day that was

After an enjoyable break with a kayak and backpacking trip, progress continues at Skookum. The usual summary follows. Mark, Nash, Logan, and Randi spent a day at Skookum and made some positive additions. A new broom, a new ax, and best of all, a new table with a chess board and cribbage board built in.

I will be taking a break from work on Skookum to spend some time kayaking and backpacking. Below is an update of the progress and getting the place buttoned up for my break. Meg helped me put up another 10 ft of wainscoting and I do like the way it looks! The left photo shows

Another week and more progress. Some time ago I made loose arrangements to put up the solar systems and install the wood stove in July… and now it looks like neither of those will happen. I can still get the cabin ready for winter, but it’s going to take work later on, probably September or

This is another summary of several days of effort. There’s nothing dramatic here, just slow and steady progress. The above photos show the South, East, and North windows (from left to right) before (top) and after (bottom) sawing them open to their actual size. With the logs cut out it really changes the character. The

This post includes a mish-mash of progress from several trips to Skookum. Progress has been good, with the completion of the underlayer of the floor the biggest milestone. Tim and I had a great day when we nearly finished the underfloor. Tim is working on the frame (left photo) and we had all but two

This post is from several trips to Skookum, all with the goal of getting the cabin winterized. Tim Fry has been helping with the wood floor, and Wylie did a great job helping pour concrete (but we didn’t get any pictures because he ran the batteries out on my phone), and I even spent a

As the weather has improved progress has begun on the cabin again. Work will be a bit haphazard and not nearly as intense as last year. As a result the posts will be random. This post covers three trips up to Skookum. Wylie and I took down the frames for the wall-tent floors and I

The season is starting MUCH earlier than last year. I drove all the way in with no problems, except a large tree has fallen across the road. Someone had cut enough of it out that I could sneak by. Wylie and I got a fair amount done and still got back in time for a

Winter is waning, so I thought I would share some pictures of Skookum as spring begins. I have hiked in 3 times this winter on snowshoes, each trip taking about an hour. The photo above shows the cabin on Feb 17, 2024. The left photo shows my snowshoe track on a beautiful day in February,