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 cabin from the hike in with around a foot of decent snow.
I put in some more insulation and vapor barrier during my first trip, but most of this trip was about putting on the second coat of polyurethane. A 2nd coat doesn’t look much different than a first coat, so I didn’t take any pictures. However, by hand, the 2nd coat is much more smooth than the first coat and the logs should be easy to clean. About half of the logs now have their 2nd coat.
The left photo shows my old truck parked for the 2nd trip this February. I’m showing a photo of the truck because I’m getting a new truck in early March — the end of an era. There was quite a lot more snow and snowmobiles had laid a good track up the big hill so we didn’t have to break trail. Wylie found it prudent to lay down and do some complaining (right photo) during our hike in.
Wylie decided to take a shortcut, which only cost us a half hour or so. (Mine usually are worse.)
There was deep snow for the 2nd trip, probably 3 feet or so. You can see much more snow on the roof than in the same view above, and the tractor (left side of left photo) is well buried. The hydrant, located between the three fence posts in the right image, was completely buried and I had to dig it out so we could get water. These snow conditions are what I have been looking forward to!
The hot water solar panels were nearly covered with drifted snow, so I used a 2 by 4 to clear much of it off. When I started only the top foot or so wasn’t covered. The right photo shows the view from the outhouse after I dug open the door.
The above video provides a brief tour of Skookum.
I finished up some outlets (left photo) so I could move the tongue and groove (T&G) lumber up against a wall. Wylie installed more T&G, including most of the east wall behind the stove (middle photo) and much of the west wall (right photo).
Moving most of the T&G lumber to the north wall opened up the center of the cabin. With just a little more organization I’ll be able to construct scaffolding so I can paint the ceiling with polyurethane. We also made progress with the framing for the bathroom, cutting openings for the plumbing to the hot-water solar panels and for the wiring to the photovoltaic (electrical) solar panels.
With the deep snow the hiking was beautiful!
My new backcountry skis made for a fun ski out.
pretty deep!