Halloween!
It’s shoulder season and the weather is unpredictable. Events since my last post include a nasty snow storm in Bozeman, progress on the sauna, and a trip to see Wylie.
On October 12, when I opened the front door to my house I was treated to 6 to 8 inches of snow and a front yard full of downed trees as shown above. It took much of the following week to clear out the mess.
The snow storm that downed all the trees and my house was inverted in that snowfall at high elevations was less than in Bozeman. By the following weekend there was only a little snow at Skookum, as shown above.
Work at Skookum has been devoted to building the sauna. The left photo above shows two walls with insullation. I used up old fiberglass insullation for the lower part of the walls and then finished the upper portion with rock wool insullation. Rock wool is much nicer to work with and probably better than fiberglass. After the insullation, I installed a vapor barrier with a shiny coating. The right photo above shows the start of the vapor barrier installation.
I wanted the 2nd level of vapor barrier to extend slightly onto the ceiling, so I had to insullate the ceiling first, as shown in the left photo above. To make sure the insullation would not fall down, I put in several screws to “hook” the insullation in. After this, I put on the upper level of vapor barrier, taped the seams with aluminum tape, and then nailed on several furring strips, as shown in the upper right photo.
Nailing the tongue and groove panels to the furring strips leaves an air space between the panels and the vapor barrier, as shown in the left photo above. This will allow the sauna to dry out with minimal rot and mold (at least theoretically). I finished the tongue and groove on the south wall and much of the east wall, right photo above.
Next, I will move on to the other walls and ceiling. The north wall is not even framed in yet, but once that is done the sauna will be enclosed and I can use the stove to keep the room warm while finishing up.
And for a total change of pace, above is a picture of Wylie at a Boston Bruins hockey game. Meg and I flew out to visit Wylie at his school in Conneticut. It is a big change for Wylie, and it is taking a while for him to adjust, but there are positive signs. I miss him hugely. On the bright side, while deep sea fishing with about 20 other people, Wylie won $100 for catching the largest cod fish. He was pleased.
Looks like downed Aspen and Linden?
Aspen, Elm, Linden, Boxelder, and Birch all had major damage. Sheesh!