Winter is waning, so I thought I would share some pictures of Skookum as spring begins. I have hiked in 3 times this winter...

Last visit for the year? I made what might be the last visit to Skookum for the year, hiking in the mile and a half from the base of the jeep road with...

Buttoning up My posts have slowed down, and will slow down more as the winter months settle in. Since Logan left, I’ve been up to Skookum 3 times...

The roof! Putting the roof up consisted of first, putting up the SIP panels, which are 4 ft by 16 ft panels that are 1 ft thick (OSB sheeting on each side...

A pretty good week The Alaskan mill is put away. The scribe is put away. The chainsaw work is almost done. All the logs are up. This week was all about...

Roof and Rain A major rain storm came in and cut this week short at Thursday. Mark and Logan worked on Tuesday, and then I went up on Wednesday, so we...

Near Disasters and Progress This was a full week with Mark here, and following a tradition set last year, much progress was made and a (near) disaster...

9/11 Anniversary — almost fitting I am posting this on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This past week wasn’t that disastrous, although...

Short Week We had a very short week, as Logan needed a break and headed to Alabama for a long weekend. For the 2+ days we worked, we made good progress....

Walls going up This week was all about putting up walls and we made good progress without major mishaps. We’re a bit over halfway done with the fourth...

Ramping up… I hope As usual, we didn’t get as far as I had hoped, but progress was made and nobody was hurt. A couple of Logan’s friends...

HUGE Sill Logs! This was our first work with logs, and of course you start with the bottom (sill) logs that are the most difficult, and also the biggest....

Not much progress, but not zero progress Everything seemed to conspire against making progress this week. The weather was unusually wet, we swapped out...

Too fast! Mistakes! And good luck? This week was ambitious and so we had to move fast. This led to mistakes, and of course problems happen even without...

The original plan for this week was to backfill the cellar, set up and pour footings for the walls, and then work on the stem walls. We changed this by...

This week saw some progress, but it was also frustrating. The images below show the progress. The frustration was largely due to my ignorance of concrete...

Logan arrived, and we have had a busy week, not without hiccups and dumb-ass attacks.  We finally finished...

Over the past week or so I have been trying to get going so we can hit the ground running when Logan arrives. Most of the supplies are ordered and the...

There was plenty of melting since my last visit a month ago. Side by side photos shown below are dramatic.  May 6 April 9 The...

I hiked up to Skookum today and found — no surprise — LOTS of snow. The top of the cistern air vent is just under the tripod and...

Preparing for 2023. The garage is full of Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs), a pallet of cement, concrete dye, sealant, and more. We won’t be completely...

I am a little out of sync with the posts. Lately nearly all the work has been devoted to the cistern, and we will soon be shutting down for the winter. Building...

Finally, we are on to the cistern. With help from Hunter and Steve, we got the base poured. Logan hauled the mixer/pump up to the cistern site with the...

Logan returned from Alabama, but there was a delay in getting an excavator. And of course there is the never ending saga of getting gravel. During this...

Nash and Logan both departed, so only Wylie and I have been working for the last two weeks, which means progress has slowed considerably. Still, progress...

The crew of Logan, Sabrina, and Nash have left and thus there is a lull in the project. My knee finally said “ENOUGH” and I could barely get...

With Mark staying to help, we’ve made good progress and have poured the walls of the spring box. This involved operating the mixer/pump for the first...

Disaster! Much has happened, but the biggest event was we had a serious accident. Logan was badly cut and broke a bone in his finger, resulting in...

We are largely held up because we do not have gravel nor have we gotten the cement mixer/pump hauled up the mountain and positioned. This probably isn’t...

The waterline is essentially done. The road for the concrete mixer/pump is mostly in shape. Now we’re just waiting on the gravel and getting the...