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 with work and play for the winter. Not a lot was done in the past week, but a variety of details have been taken care of.
Jason Heath fashioned a simple heat shield for the lower part of the chimney. This wasn’t necessary, but it’s a little extra safety and it wasn’t too hard to put in place — just a section of stove pipe attached with standoffs. One of several details in preparation for winter. The left photo shows the chimney without the heat shield and the right photo shows the chimney with the heat shield.
I cut out two circular pieces of foam to better insulate the cistern (left photo). Also, I dug under the sewer pipe and cut it so it’s bend will be next to the wall. I was expecting this to be a hard job, as I had to dig down through the rocks so I could cut it, but it went quite easily. These are both small things, but bits that ease the mind and make next steps easier.
At the beginning of the season I had a big stack of tongue and groove pine delivered for finishing work. It has been sitting under water-proof white wrapping all season and I figured I had better get it inside. I was also hoping that the rains had not weathered the pine much — and it looked pretty good with only a few boards significantly weathered and just a few inches on the ends of a few more.
I got the inside of the cabin fairly well cleaned out and opened up (left photo). But after I put all the tongue and groove pine (plus some 2 by 4s), the cabin is suddenly full. Getting materials up to Skookum has always been a problem, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty for the winter because I won’t be able to bring up much then (as I will be hiking in). However, I may have overdone it!
Work has gotten busy and it hasn’t left me the time I need to sort out the electrical system (parts of it are shown in the photo above). So I decided I will just do without electricity this winter. Fortunately, Todd introduced me to Niko who is going to try to put the system together. Niko is on a learning curve, but he has some experience with solar, mostly hot water systems. If all goes well, he will get the electrical and hot water systems installed before snow shuts us down!
Just in case the electrical system does get ready, I mounted a Starlink Dish at the top of the west gable — it has a great view of the sky, so I should get reasonable performance… if we get electricity. Also, I put in some mounting supports in the cellar for the electrical system. This consists of two 2 by 6s (treated) secured vertically so the electrical system can be screwed in (right photo). I also beefed up the stairs a bit more, as some the electrical system components are heavy, especially the batteries.
The last major items I would like to do in preparation for winter are: (1) Gather up, cut, and stack a bunch of firewood; (2) Build a fence around the solar panels for the water pump; and (3) Winterize the tractor. I lost ambition for all this, but I did gather up some firewood and I greased the tractor. Also, I organized the porch (some anyway) and tarped the cement (photo above). The cement has already sat through one winter, so I don’t know how well it will do, but at least it’s well tarped. Even if I don’t get all my preparations done, I figure I can get through the winter without too many regrets now.